Sean, Author at Sean Phillips Photography

Eared Grebe at Frank Lake

I had a chance to make a quick trip to Frank Lake the other day. I didn’t have high expectations as the good light had already passed and I didn’t have time for the patience normally required to make good images at a place like Frank Lake. I was happily surprised to find the lake teeming with activity and I spent a much longer time at the main blind than I normally do. There were Yellow-headed Blackbirds, Common Terns, and Franklin’s Gulls flying all over the place. There were also a few Ruddy Ducks and White-Faced Ibis’ in the pools near the blind, and literally too many other birds to count (or identify) off in the distance. I found this very accommodating Grebe near the blind. It swam by several times and circled around while giving my some great photo opportunities. I really love going to Frank Lake and only wish I had more opportunities to make the trip…

Flowers in my Backyard

Although I don’t do it a lot, I really enjoy macro and close-up photography. Most of my subjects are flowers that I buy from the store, so it’s really nice when I have the real thing, live, right outside my door. Something about spring flowers in the garden just makes me feel good and I could spend hours out there making images. Of course if I spend too long then I start to feel guilty about how long the grass is, or how dirty the fence is, or that the garbage needs to go out, or…

Sing for me!

This is the first Kingbird I’ve seen this season. Although technically a songbird, their call is no substitute for a meadowlark! I’ve never heard one singing before though so this was a pretty cool encounter for me. And it’s always cool when a bird will continue to sing while it’s being watched rather than immediately flying away instead.

These are some of the later birds to show up in the Calgary area in the spring and their arrival is a pretty good sign that summer is just around corner. The main reason for their late arrival is that they overwinter in South America. That’s a long way to fly in the spring and the fall!

Baby Bunnies in the Flowerbed

I got home tonight and discovered some excitement in my neighborhood about some baby rabbits in the flowerbed at a house across the street. The kids on the street had discovered them earlier in the day and obviously were very excited. Baby bunnies are extremely cute. They are also essentially helpless without their parents around, and so they tried to stay motionless in the flowerbed all evening in order to avoid any attention.

The kids had a good time watching them (and feeding them some carrot sticks), and of course I dropped by to take a few pictures. Other than that they were left alone in the same place that they were found. There had been no sign of the parents all afternoon or evening, but hopefully they will return to collect the babies after it gets dark…

Beautiful Badlands

I absolutely love the rugged beauty of the badlands. These images were made during a recent family trip to the Royal Tyrell Museum near Drumheller, AB. It wasn’t a very nice day, and the kids were already tired and hungry, so I didn’t get to spend very much time roaming the badlands. I made sure to make a few images though because the arid landscape is extremely beautiful and it would be sad to come home with nothing at all.

Badlands are formed when different types of rock and soil erode away at different rates. The stratified layers of rock and dirt left behind are all different colors which can show up in vivid patterns when the light is right. As well the gradual erosion is constantly revealing new fossils, which adds a wee bit of excitement to visiting the area!

The erosion in the Drumheller area has revealed some of the highest concentrations of fossil remains that have been found anywhere. The area has been searched repeatedly by archaeologists and palaeontologists for decades. In fact the first dinosaur in the area was discovered over 100 years ago by Joseph Burr Tyrell (obviously the Royal Tyrell Museum was named in his honor).