October 31st Muskoka Workshop

What a Day!! Wonderful group of people, and truly spirited with the passion for photography indeed!! The weather prediction was gloomy at best., Dale from Muskoka WC called me at 10 pm Friday night wondering if our photographers were prepared for the downpour of rain.

We all arrived to fin just a sprinkle of rain during our shoot, but we could almost reach up and touch the clouds today. The low ceiling, and heavy cover made the first part of our shoot very difficult.. I don't think I will edit more then one image of the wolves. But, progressively the light came through, and the shooting of the cougar and lynx cubs was the highlight of the day.

Dale was good enough to extend the program over our allotted time frame to include some shooting with a skunk, and a ground hog.. very cute! All in all, the experience was much better then expected. I hope everyone enjoyed themselves, my buddy Don from Hamilton who joined me for the ride up and back seem to think it was fun even if the conditions we not the best.

Another shoot tomorrow, the 1st of November, so I better get ready!

take care.

Nov 7th, 2009 Flight Shooting Workshop

Coming up soon... we need a few more shooters, so please let me know if your interested!

ray@raymondbarlow.com

Here is a gift, a widescreen image from one of the shoots last year (I think) one of my favourite shots... just open it, right click and save it., it will look fine on any 15" laptop, or widescreen monitor. Take good care, and have a good weekend.

Oct 24th 2009 Muskoka Wildlife Center Workshop

Well the light was down right dreary, miserable, and almost too dark! But we made the best of it, and we sure had some fun with these animals! Our guests were fantastic, we all made the best of a tough situation. This would have been a good time for a D3s in my bag!

Special thanks to all my guests, and to Dale and his crew for a good show., these animals are very safe to work with, so approachable! They are clean, well fed, the areas in which they live are immaculate. In one photo here, Becky is holding up the Lynx Cub for some portrait shots, so considering I had my wide angle on my D300, I decided to catch the whole story!

Many more images will be posted on my homepage soon, please view the slide show here<<<.

Also, we have 2 workshop back here at Muskoka Wildlife Center this weekend., October 31St is now fully booked, but we do have room for new guests on the November 1St date., all the workshop info is posted on this page here<<<.

If you have any questions, or maybe you would like a phone call to sort out details about my workshops, please email me here... ray@raymondbarlow.com

Have a good week!

October 23Rd 2009 Mountsberg TGIF!!

Wow, what a soaking wet blast of a shoot! We only had 4 guests here for this one, David Hemmings, Greg Burdzinsk, , George Nagy, and Jerry Peltier. The rain almost never stopped, and Sandra from the falconry center was a real trooper. She brought out a handful of beautiful birds, and the rain produced an interesting environment. Thanks to Greg for the help in digging out the perches.

I will post a few images here one I have them edited., but tomorrow is another early day for a run up to Muskoka Wildlife Center to visit the wolves, and the cougar!

I was lucky in the morning when Greg and I where out hunting for perches, to find an old log with the center hollowed out., so we worked with this prop and the screech Owl., also some shooting with the Barn Owl.

More images on my slide show here>>> Click Here<<

Guests of my recent Workshops

Here are a few links to the websites belonging to my recent guests. Thanks to all of you for everything!! The last 3 workshops have been great fun.

The first image I have here is of Lee-Ann Wylie, she is very busy trying to catch a good inflight shot of the Bald Eagle. Thanks to everyone for allowing me to post these images.

Lee-Ann's Wylie's Pics >>Click Here<<

Alex's Wylie's Pics >>Click Here<<

George Nagy's Pics >>Click Here<< >>2 >>3

Don Leslie's Pics >>Click Here<<

Terry Henry's Pic's >>Click Here<<

Claude Handley's Pics >>Click Here<<

Alex Thomson's Pics >>Click Here<<

Megan Lorenz's Pics >>Click Here<<

Joseph Ahmad Pic's >>Click Here<<

Joyce Benham >>Click Here<<

Greg Burdinski >>Click Here<< >>2

Jerry Peltier >>Ckick Here<< >>2

Malcolm Benn >>Click here<<

Brenden Weild >>Click here<<

Dan Bellyk >>Click Here<<

Jennifer Howard >>Click Here<<

Malcolm Benn >>Click Here<<

Norm Ullock >>Click Here<<


My buddy, Georgino Nagy keeping an eye on the Eagle in flight!









And on the right, my friend from London, Ontario.. Gary Irwin with the Bald Eagle in his sites!









And here we have a group of photographers gathered around the Adult Lynx, with Dale, the owner of Muskoka Wildlife center making sure our subject is behaving!

October 18Th Muskoka Wildlife Center Workshop

Too Sunny!! o well, not much we can do to change the weather, and wow, it sure was fun! Thanks to everyone who came along for the shoot, I really appreciate your support.

The weather was some chilly first thing in the morning, we all arrived around 8 am, and the shooting kicked off close to 10 am. The wolf pen was amazing. All of us inside the "their house", and they performed extremely well.

Next the cougar / bear enclosure, and finally the Lynx, Bobcat, and the cubs, then finishing off with the Saw-whet Owl. I will try to get some more images posted soon, with 2 workshops in one weekend, I am still pretty baked.

This Friday, we have a workshop at Mountsberg, then another trip to Muskoka on Saturday... both programs have a couple openings, so please let me know if your interested.

ray@raymondbarlow.com

take care.

Birds in Flight Workshop

What a great group of people! We had 14 shooters here at one point, and sure it was a little tight, but everyone was able to get good shots, and have some fun at the same time. We have the first edit hot off the laptop.. the October 17th BIF shooters... I hope everyone will send me links to their website so we can all see how well the other folks images came out. I am guessing a good 8,000 frames of these very popular birds today!



More images soon., I need some sleep so I can be up for 5 am tomorrow, for the trek to Muskoka Wildlife Center for another workshop.

Special thanks to Gary Prestash who drove here form Connecticut, to join us for this workshop!! Gary., I am really looking forward to November 21st, so we can work together to host our workshop in Massachusetts!! It will be a really great opportunity to work with Brian, and see this awesome property where we will be shooting. It was awesome spending the last two days with you.

Take care!

Another local Red-tailed Hawk

Once again, Maria and I cruised the area looking for a hawk, or maybe a kestrel, after a few hours without much luck, we found some deer, and a little later this beautiful mature hawk. naturally, it didn't give me a lot of time to shoot, so I was happy to capture the"look!"

I will get to the deer edits later, right now we are preparing for a guest, who will arrive soon., Gary Prestash from Connecticut will be here and spend a few days with the family, and also attend a workshop on Saturday, out near Simcoe, Ontario.

Gary is helping me put together the new USA workshop in Massachusetts, for Nov. 21st. More news from Saturdays workshop soon!

thanks for stopping by, take care.

Monday am shoot!!

I was up early with sweet Maria, and we treked out the door, leaving momma to sleep in, and rest.. she needed it!!

We headed straight for my favourite bird, and here it is...!! 430 frames later, I have time to edit one before I head out for Thanksgiving up in Guelph.
Happy Thanksgiving to All my friends in Canada.

Finally out for a few shots this weekend!

Well, yesterday I was invited out to shoot with a good friend, Gary Irwin, from London Ontario., we met at the famous Grassy Lake south of Cambridge, and had some fun trying to catch up with the Sandhill Cranes. We finally did find them in shooting range, thanks to another good friend, Latafat Correa, but the environment wasn't all that natural. Lat has a beautiful image on his website... please click here!!

Gary (see pic>>>) has joined me on several of my workshop programs, and we now share a lot of info through emails, and phone calls.. check out this image that Gary captured this summer... click here!

We were able to catch some nice scenery images early in the am, I have one here, and may post a couple more sometime this week.

Today, (Sunday) I was able to catch up with a young Red-tailed Hawk, I had a couple of good chances with this bird, before the sun went down. This bird will be my buddy I hope for this coming winter!

Muskoka Wildlife Center Workshops

Well, for those whom are registered for one of the 3 up-coming Muskoka WC workshops, here is a quick preview of what you will see... these cats are adorable.

I jumped in the pick-up this morning and had an appointment for noon with Dale, the owner of the center. Dale was good enough to bring these two young cats out onto the rocks so I could catch a few preview shots for my customers. We are sure going to have some fun!!

Both of these cats are here at the MWC for a short term., being prepared for breeding at another location. Along with getting inside the pen with the wolves, and a close up look at Kokannee, the adult cougar, we also will have a chance to see a baby Silver Fox. The fox was busy doing an out-reach program off-site for the MWC.

So everything starts next weekend, on the 18Th of October, then a second one on the 24Th, and third shoot on the 31St. We are taking waiting list registrations, and if we have enough people interested, I will set up a 4Th shoot before these baby cats are gone.

Cancellations are possible, so please let me know if your interested.

PS.. we will also have a visit from a Saw-whet owl., and this bird will be positioned in the woods in very natural settings. this bird is about the size of a pop can!! so please be ready for some intimate shooting of the cutest bird I have ever seen! This image below is one of Hutton, of the Mountsberg Raptor Center.


please email me if you have any questions! ray@raymondbarlow.com

Oct. 4Th Mountsberg and Flight (bif) Combo Report

Hi everyone... today was a truly cool workshop. We spent 4 hours or so at Mountsberg with a great variety of birds, Sandra and Matt were awesome hosts!! the birds were in excellent shape, and we had some really nice light. Our 8 guests seemed to be very happy, the shutter clicks we going off like crazy!

I have about 40 images to edit! Considering I spent most of my time working with the shooter, and trying to keep the birds looking the right direction, this is a lot of images. Goran and his son Mark put on a great flight show in Burlington after we made a pit stop at the coffee shop. Goran flew his Saker first, and then he followed that up with the Harris's hawk. We did some perched shots, and the flights were awesome! Here are my first edits, and I will keep adding new images to my slide show on my homepage here!

A big thanks to my guests! take care.

A Goose on the Fly!

Hanging around a local swamp this past week, I heard a lot of goose calls, something was going on!! I looked to my right, and here comes the Goose!! Lucky for me, there was only one bird... running across the duck weed and taking flight. I was ready for flight shoots, but the light was dim at best... since I had nothing so far, so the chance was there to at least give it a try.

After 9 frames, this is the only image worth looking at!! The rest were deleted. At 1/200 sec, we cannot expect too much! What I like about this image is the dark green background, and the fact that it is just blurry enough to help focus the viewers attention to the bird.

thanks for looking!