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Posts Tagged ‘Photography’

The first quarter of 2026 delivered an incredible start to my birding year. With 282 species already on the annual list, I sit well ahead of the pace needed to reach my goal of 375 birds for the year! This early success stems largely from a productive February spent navigating the varied landscapes of Argentina and the stark beauty of Antarctica.

Southern Hemisphere Highlights

The trip south added significant depth to my life list. Near Costanera Sur (in Buenos Aires), I checked off the Rufescent Tiger Heron and watched a flock of Nanday Parakeets flash through the trees.

Moving into the rugged terrain of Argentina, witnessing an Andean Condor on the face of a mountain is a core memory of the trip.

As cool as that was, seeing four different owls (Austral Pygmy Owl, Ferruginous Pygmy Owl, Burrowing Owl, and Great Horned Owl) was the highlight of the Argentina leg of the trip!

The Antarctic leg of the journey offered a different kind of intensity. Spotting the Antarctic Shag and the opportunistic Brown Skua against a backdrop of ice provided a stark contrast to the vibrant birdlife in the north. These sightings pushed my life list to its current total of 1,382. Of course, I can’t forget the Penguins either! Chinstrap, Gentoo, and Megallanic were all in attendance …

The Local Hunt: The Usual Suspects

Back in Kelowna, my focus shifts to specific local targets. The early spring birds (like the Say’s Phoebe) and my usual flock of White-crowned Sparrows will add to the list.

The Road to 375

With 93 species left to find to hit my 2026 target, my upcoming road trip through Washington, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Texas, Colorado, Utah and Oregon looks promising. These regions offer vastly different habitats and the potential to close that gap quickly. I am also dedicating time this month to auditing my photo archives from Belize—I suspect a few unlogged sightings are hiding in those files.

The chase continues.

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I’ve got a jumpstart for my Blog. I know that my one consistency has been inconsistency — I’m going to see if I can change this. While I enjoy the freedom of general reflection, focusing on specific pillars creates a more meaningful narrative for the year. Moving forward, I am organizing Stumblingpiper.org around four distinct categories that capture my current projects and experiences.

The 2026 Road Trip Series

This series follows my upcoming travels through Texas and Colorado. I plan to document the landscapes, the birds I spot along the way, and the unique moments that only happen when you’re on the move. The category tag will be “2026 Road Trip”

2026 Life Challenges

I have a set of Life Challenges I’ve written and then I write Annual Goals around these challenges. Accountability drives progress, so I will use this space to log my monthly updates on my annual goals. Here’s an example for now: Currently, my birding life list stands at 1,382 species, and I aim to cross the 1,400 mark by the end of the year. On the annual front, I’ve already spotted 282 species toward my goal of 375. Beyond the numbers, since I’ve procrastinated on sorting some of my bird photos from past years, I may find some of those “new birds” as I sort through my photo archives from Belize. Stay tuned on this one: tag is “2026 Life Challenges”

Mind-wandering

This remains the home for deeper reflections and personal philosophy. It is a place for the questions and ideas that surface during quiet moments and long walks … probably not, but it sounds good. I will use it for some “Old Man Shouts at Clouds” posts, too. tag is “Mind-Wandering”

The Creative Process

I want to pull back the curtain on my multimedia work. This pillar features behind-the-scenes looks at my music production for The Planets album and my monthly painting and sketching sessions. This one’s tag: “Creative Processes”

These pillars provide the structure I need to document this year effectively. I look forward to sharing the journey as these stories unfold.

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Last year, my brother and I started a photo contest with each other. It quickly expanded to include other family members. We picked a topic for each month and then submitted from one to three photos depending on that month’s rules. The only stipulation was that you had to use an actual camera, not a cell phone. Here’s a look back at the photo contest through the series of my images:

January: Water. This was any form of water: snow, ice, fog, lake, river, rain, kitchen faucet, etc. I decided to try and get creative and capture a water drop from a piece of ice. Oh, and also I saw a duck. haha.

February/50mm Challenge – This was 50mm lens only, if you use a full-frame camera. If you have DX (Nikon) or Crop (Canon) camera, you could use a 35mm–it produces a 50mm equivalent photo. Also, it was a NO-CROP challenge. You could change color, exposure, contrast, etc, but you had to use the whole image. Here are my shots.

March/Local Architecture – This month’s theme was three pictures within of local architecture and infrastructure. Local was where you were at the time. Each structure had to be man-made. My photos this month were ok … not the greatest. haha.

April/In-Motion – This was simply three images that showed motion — or it could be a 10-second video. Here two of mine — my third is a time-lapse photo: here

May / Black-and-White. Pretty simple–three images in Black and White. Interestingly, these images came from Washington (pond), Saskatchewan (silo), and Colorado (windmill). 

June / New Growth – This was a tough topic for June … but I was able to pull it off and find three images that reflected the idea of new growth. Can you see the baby quail peaking out from its mother’s wing?

July / Darkness — This one was very nebulous — just needed to reflect something about Darkness, so I went with Astrophotography. These images are the same ones from my last “Night Photography” post.

August / Reflected Images — This one was tough! You had to capture a reflection of some sort. It required opportunity and observation. You really had to look to see how the image would turn out! I’m happy with these three …

September / Man versus Nature. Another nebulous one — just needed to show the on-going challenges of man against nature … My three pictures were similar to each other, but I think captured the idea very well.

October / Elements & Moods. This month was a combination of a randomly selected mood (mine was lonely) with a basic element of art (mine was “Form”). My lucky combination made it easy to capture the three following photographs.

November / Numinous. This was tough, because the definition is pretty nebulous. Basically, the pictures should be something “supernatural,” “mysterious,” “holy,” or “appealing to the aesthetic sense.” It also means “nod of the head.” Hopefully you will get that effect from the following three images. haha.

December / Eye of the Beholder! This one was one photo, your best shot, in the eye of the beholder. lol. Here’s my picture:

I hope you enjoyed this trip through the year’s photo contest (from me). Really fun but quite challenging!

James

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