Flowers, Frogs, and More

For many years we’ve been taking our summer vacation at my wife’s family cottage west of Ottawa. It’s one of those places that is absolutely magical for me and I feel completely at home there. The cottage is situated alongside a shallow river and the area is home to a massive variety of birds, animals, and insects, and the gardens at the cottage are full of beautiful flowers. It’s a little bit of paradise and I’ve created some of my favorite images while there over the years.

This year was another very productive trip for me. The weather seemed to work out perfectly and I had a great collection of subjects to work with. Here is a gallery of some of my current favorites.

I've created many images of these falls over the years.  I just can't keep away and I get the urge to go back there every time we go to the cottage.  There are so many different ways to make images at the falls that I really don't even have two similar images.  I reall love the soft light that wraps around the area at sunset and this is one of my favorite places to photograph...©2010, Sean Phillips.http://www.RiverwoodPhotography.com (Sean Phillips)

I don't know much about spiders other than to know that this one is a little different.  It creates micro webs in the leaves of plants and does a great job of catching flies and bugs in those webs...©2010, Sean Phillips.http://www.RiverwoodPhotography.com (Sean Phillips)

Cottage Vacation 2010..©2010, Sean Phillips.http://www.RiverwoodPhotography.com (Sean Phillips)

There are always tree frogs to be found near the cottage.  This one normally lives in the umbrella on the deck...©2010, Sean Phillips.http://www.RiverwoodPhotography.com (Sean Phillips)

Cottage Vacation 2010..©2010, Sean Phillips.http://www.RiverwoodPhotography.com (Sean Phillips)

Cottage Vacation 2010..©2010, Sean Phillips.http://www.RiverwoodPhotography.com (Sean Phillips)

Cottage Vacation 2010..©2010, Sean Phillips.http://www.RiverwoodPhotography.com (Sean Phillips)

Startled Pronghorn in Rural Montana

Startled Pronghorn (Antelope) in Rural Montana

I’ve never seen Pronghorns before so I was very excited to see lots of them during a recent trip through Montana towards Yellowstone National Park. Although this female was initially very surprised to find us watching her, she actually posed for a few pictures before sauntering across the road.

I’ve got lots of images from the Yellowstone trip to wade through, so this is just the first of many more to come!

Bull Moose in Velvet in Algonquin Park

Moose in Velvet

It’s been awhile since my last post, but I have an excellent excuse! My family and I were on vacation in Ontario. The main purpose of the trip was to visit family at a cottage near Eganville, which is west of Ottawa. While we were there my wife and I took advantage of the opportunity to leave the kids with their grandparents and took off for a 3 day, 2 night canoe camping trip into Algonquin Provincial Park. It was our first trek into the interior of the park in several years, so it was very exciting!

Our paddling route took us from the Shall Lake access point (North of Madawaska) through Farm Lake and Kitty Lake into Booth Lake. It was a reasonably short and easy trip with only two portages (90 meters and 550 meters). Of course we had way too much gear (including my tripod and a Pelican case with my camera and other photography equipment) so we had to hike each of the portages twice… We camped for two nights on an island at the south end of Booth, and then took the reverse route back to the access point on the third day. Although the weather was not great (rain and cloud mixed with occasional periods of sun), the park is always beautiful and we really enjoyed the trip.

On the second day we paddled from the south end of Booth Lake down into McCarthy creek. To call it a creek is a bit of a stretch. It’s more of a marshy lake than a creek, but there is a winding channel that goes from one end to the other. The channel is not particularly deep and there were some sections where we were pushing hard through the marsh grasses in the water and our progress was very slow. The scenery was incredible and there were literally millions of Water Lily’s and Lily Pads as far as the eye can see!

We found this young Moose on the marshy shore of the creek. His antlers are just starting to come in for the season and at this point he has only two relatively small nubs covered in velvet. He watched us for several minutes after we found him, before casually wandering back into the woods. He stopped several times along the way to have another snack. It’s always amazing to be so close to such a magnificent animal!

Moose in Velvet

Moose in Velvet

Sean and Louise at McCarthy Creek in Algonquin