Iain Leitch Photography

Recently I finally had the chance to go to Mud Lake in Ottawa and boy did it not disappoint. The number of birds I saw was quite impressive, but I think the most impressive thing to me was a section of trail through a wonderful section of maple trees that were all yellow and golden. Sadly I didn't get a good photo of that trail but here are some other photos I did get.  The first photo in this blog post is of a wonderful reflection of some fall colour on the lake.  The next three photos are of the beautiful Wood Duck. The first two photos are of a male Wood Duck while, the last photo is of a female Wood Duck. The male ducks do not disappoint as they are wonderfully colourful. I got these photos on this one section of trail that crosses a portion of the lake. The ducks were up on the railings eating some food that people had left them and sunning themselves. This all made for great photos in my opinion. This was also the first time I had seen a Wood Duck so I was quite excited ...

These two photos do not relate to each other in the slightest, in fact, I don't think I even took them on the same day, however, I still wanted to post them. The first photo is of a Via Rail trail that I took, with some beautiful fall colours in the background. While the second photo in this post is of a Perigon Falcon that I took down by the Rideau River one day.   

Last weekend I went camping in Sharbot Lake Provincial Park. Here are some photos from that trip. The first two photos are from a hike I went on in the park. These are mostly just tree appreciation photos as they show how magnificent the trees are and how grand and cathedral-like I personally think they are. This photo is of an Eastern Garter Snake that I spotted while returning from the previously mentioned hike. I am guessing this snake will soon be finding a place to hibernate as it has been getting rather cold at night. The last two photos in this blog are just scenic lookouts that were on two different trails in the park. The first is overlooking Black Lake, while the second is overlooking Sharbot Lake which is what the park is named after. You can see a touch of fall colour in the last photo as well.  

I went on my first camping trip this year to Bonnechere Provincial Park. I just stayed for one night but it was still quite enjoyable. The campsite that I was at backed onto an oxbow lake, and had plenty of mushrooms around the edge of the campsite as well. The first photo in this post is of one of those very mushrooms. I saw this beautiful yellow mushroom at the edge of the campsite and knew I needed to get a photo of it. Lucky for me the mushroom was framed quite nicely by two little saplings. The following two photos are of tree bark. Normally I don't post photos like this but because I got a tree ID book for my birthday, there is going to be a few more tree photos posted. The first of these two is a Eastern Hemlock, while the second photo is of a Yellow Birch. The fourth photo in this post is of a bale (group) of turtles. These particular turtles are Midland Painted Turtles which are fairly common in Eastern Ontario. These turtles were just resting on a fallen tree in an oxbow ...

Last week I went down to my great aunt's cottage for my annual trip. The cottage is located in the Kawartha region of Ontario. I took quite a few photos at the cottage but not a lot of them ended up post-worthy. The first photo in this post is my favourite one from the trip. I was walking along the access road when I saw this set of mushrooms growing out from the moss. This photo just screams West coast rainforest vibes to me even though its from Southern Ontario. The second photo in this post is of a juvenile sapsucker. This is a type of woodpecker that in full adult form looks kind of red. But because I am guessing this was his first year alive he hasn't reached full maturity yet.  The third photo is of my favourite bird, the Black-Capped Chickadee. There was a whole flock of them that kept on passing by, so I recently managed to get a good photo of one.  On the lake that the cottage is on there is a family of Common Loons that have been there for as long as I can remember. ...

Recently I took a day trip down to Murphy's Point Provincial Park. I ended up going on two hikes in the park and spending some time at the day-use beach. On my first hike, I saw a lot of different mushrooms scattered throughout the forest floor. The first two photos in this post are showcasing some of these mushrooms. These first two photos along with the dragonfly photo at the end of this post are all being added to my portfolio which can be found here . The first mushroom photo in this post is a set of small mushrooms growing out of a fallen tree. There are some ferns in the background which make for a nice touch of green in otherwise a brownish photo.  The second photo is of a single lonely mushroom growing in a sea of moss on another fallen tree. In this photo, you can see the underside of the mushroom a bit. This is a photo of a Willow Flycatcher. This is also my first time grabbing a photo of this species. I got this photo at the lookout point of the trail I was on. The bird ...

Since moving to Ottawa I have been down to the Rideau River a few times to go on walks or to try to grab some photos. These photos are all from one photography outing.  The first photo and what I think is personally the best one I have taken in a while is of a Grey Catbird perched on a branch. I had just left the river and was walking home when I saw a bird land on this branch. I quickly pulled my camera out of my bag and went to shooting. I ended up with a couple of photos of the bird, but I think this is my best one, with a nice side profile. The second photo in this post is of a song sparrow perched between two thistle branches. I was on the end of an uncut area of this field down by the river where I was trying to grab a photo of an American Goldfinch eating the plants seeds, but they always flew away before I could get the right shot. Instead, I ended up with this great photo of a Song Sparrow perfectly perched between the two branches.  This photo is of an Eastern Chipmu...

Recently I moved from Stratford to Ottawa, and with that came a lot of new photography opportunities. For this post, I will be talking about my first attempt at panning. For those that don't know panning is, it is a photography technique where you swivel your camera from a fixed position while being focused on an object. If done properly this will blur the background while keeping your subject in focus.  This was my first attempt at this technique so its not as good as it could be, but I thought I would share what I had so far. These five photos are the best ones that I took out of maybe 50ish, so there is a lot of trial and error especially when first trying this technique.  To get this effect my settings were an aperture of F/32, the shutter was at 1/20, and the ISO was 100. I was just practicing what was easily accessible and available to me, which in my case was buses and the train. 

The Thames River flows through a small village in Perth County called Motherwell. Near this village is a dirt road that runs perpendicular to the river that I always love driving down, as it has great views of the river and lots of birds to see. The day that I took theses photo was exactly one of those days.  The first photo of this rather short post is of a swallow. I am not sure what subspecies of swallow this is but I was excited and happy to grab a photo of one, as normally they fly away as soon as I step out of the car. This swallow was sitting on a telephone wire with two other birds. I tried to get a good photo of all three birds but it just wouldn't work out. The second and last photo of this post is a view I have posted before, however, I still love the view as it makes for great photos. There used to be an old steel bridge over the Thames River here. The bridge was removed due to lack of use and high maintenance costs. Now it is a great place to go to find some peace and ...

The Royal Botanical Gardens (RBG), located in Hamilton, Ontario, is designated a National Historic Site of Canada. I live only an hour and a half away from the RBG but yet I had never been until today. Today I took the trip down to the RBG and was wowed by the gardens. I went to three of the gardens today and each experience was a pleasant one. I started out exploring the Hendrie Park Gardens, which comprises a rose garden, statue garden (closed at the moment due to COVID-19) and a native plant garden among other themes gardens. The first two photos here are showing the rose garden in all its glory with full blooms and beautiful colours. The tall purple flowers seen in both photos are actually a type of onion that is planted among the roses to help them fight disease and pests. Moving on from the rose garden and into the native plant garden, I saw this beautiful yellow flower that I thought was perfect. Adding the overcast day, this made for an amazing photo in my opinion with the righ...