Usually it rains for the Bluenose Marathon held every year on this weekend.

This year we were lucky: it only drizzled.

A couple of the typists ran the 5K. I was official photographer.

And let me tell you: L-series lenses talk.

Using my “I’m supposed to be here” ‘tude and making sure they saw the 70-200 L-series with it’s black and white stripes and it’s red ring on the outside, I managed to get inside the media-only zone to get my up close shots as the runners were finishing.

On this morning the temperature was -17C and I had to breathe into my gloves to keep my hands from freezing as I awaited the magical moments when the sun filtered though the cloud and fog to mix some fantastic colours.

These shots were taken of the harbour about 1 km from my house. Can’t you feel the cold?

I spotted these tulips in late spring. They were growing at the entrance of my city’s lovely Victorian Public Gardens.

A few shots from below and a bit whiz-bam-bang with Photoshop and the Victorian charm is transformed into the 21st-century funky.

On a cold foggy morning, I happened to be on a wharf as the lobster boats were arriving with their catch.

This prized shellfish is destined for fine fish markets the world over and it was exciting to witness it landing right before my eyes.

Later that night, after the sun burned through the fog, there was a feast of the sweet delicate meat. It was prepared as an Asian stir fry. You can see that the lobster wasn’t looking so keen. (It was not bought at the wharf as this is illegal.)

But when it was all said and done, heaven is the closest word I can summon up to describe meal.

Go here to view this set in Flickr.

Early one sunny August morning, I turned off the highway to take a picture of a beautiful still lake. The lake was pretty, but it was in the field next to the lake that I stumbled upon gold.

There were hundreds of spiders’ webs*, their gossamer fibers sparkling with the dew.

It was like entering a fun park with only ferris wheels or walking through a diamond farm. I had to pick my jaw up off the ground and for two or three short seconds, I was speechless. (And this speaks volumes.)

I only had my 17-40 wide angle so photographing these webs meant getting close. Many of these shots were zoom cropped for a close-up view of the dew.

Spiders are fantastic engineers, but I never realized they were such gifted artists too.

If I had to make a top-ten list of the best moments in my life, this would be right up there on that list.

* Keen GT followers will recall some of these pictures from previous incarnation of GT.

A week in this French/Dutch Caribbean island brought some fantastic seascapes, skyscapes and lightscapes for a typist on the roam with a camera.

Sadly, the UV filter on my favourite lens (Canon 17-40mm) was smashed in transit. When I uncovered the lens on the first morning I found broken glass all over the lens surface. I took it to a shop to have it cleaned. They removed the tiny fragments of glass that remained on the lens, and on a superficial glance they said there was no damage.

But my superficial glance saw things I didn’t like.

And now that I’ve downloaded the pictures, I can see that damage in the pictures. If you look closely, you can see consistent patterns of dots in certain pictures. I’ve “healed” some of these in Photoshop so they don’t appear in all pictures.

I guess it’s off to the lens hospital with the Canon 17-40.

I want to feel sick about this but know I shouldn’t worry too much about the health of inanimate objects.

Especially when I have a drugged up cat recovering from oral surgery.

Flippers was closed on this particular day, but some day I will walk into that oil storage tank, slap down a fiver on the bar and order a beer from Flippers.

Someday.

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