Hornby 2026: Feeling Hornby for Nature
I am lucky enough that each Spring I am able to spend some time away on Hornby Island, but this year was the first where I went in with an intention of taking photos of wildlife - in addition to my usual pictures of friends and I.
I took a total of 781 pictures on my camera (excluding the pictures I took on my phone). Going through each photo would have been gruelling, however, I discovered the rating system on my camera this trip. I was able to rate each picture from 1-5 stars (or unrated), which made it much easier.
Each time I would go out shooting, when I returned I'd go through the most recent batch and rate my favourites. At first I only rated things 3 and above, but by the end I was also sorting what I considered the 1 and 2 stars, and leaving fewer and fewer unrated. This allowed me to, when importing everything, to look at only 3 5-star pictures and 17 4-star pictures to choose which to share.
I also spent some time editing this time (using Affinity Photo 2 because I dislike Adobe's equivalent), so I present, in no particular order, my 5-stars:
There were a decent number of runner ups that I picked between, but these were the ones that stole my heart. However, here are a few of the ones that didn't quite make it into that 5-star rank:
Various birds, including a Song Sparrow, Bald Eagle, Glaucous-winged Gull, and a Great Blue Heron but it got no necky.
Shout out to the Merlin Bird App for helping me identify the birds!
A Sea Lion and Otter, the forming is bork borking and the latter started swimming towards me before turning.
I really loved getting pictures of this otter because the 5-star image is from when it leaving where it lives to go fishing. I was taking photos of the Heron when I looked over to my left and saw it just standing there before we made eye contact and it ran into the water. So, I decided to wait for it to come back, and even though the pictures of it returning aren't among my top favourites, I still adore them. Also, I thoroughly enjoyed the experience of correctly guessing how to set up a picture I wanted.
To finish off, I can't go without taking landscape pictures and pictures I would personally use as desktop wallpapers. Please enjoy:
The Helliwell Provincial Park (left), the sunset near Whaling Station Bay Beach (center), and frothing waves with so much texture! (right)