Winter around Alma

[FundyBrian]

A trail side monument commemorating the expulsion of the Acadians in 1755.

Back then Britain & France were always in competition for new colonies. Several long term battles were waged. The French Acadian settlers were quite well established in some areas before England finally gained the upper hand. Those were dark days for the Acadian settlers. In 1755 England decided to expel the settlers and take over the territory. This was devastating to the French culture in the area. Over time many Acadians returned and resettled under English rule. They have struggled to this day to maintain their culture. New Brunswick is Canada's only officially bilingual province. You can find several of these monuments throughout the area originally settled by the Acadians. That's my sweetie-pie in the picture. In fact, she is a genuine French speaking Acadian from the north part of the province. How we met is a story for another day.
iPhone 6, Moment wa lens. HDR.

 

[FundyBrian]

This is part of the boardwalk section of the trail where it passes in front of Chateau Moncton. In summer people would be sitting in the benches waiting for the tidal bore to pass. Still plenty of snow April 9th. I'm shooting almost directly backlit with a Moment wa lens. It is quite resistant to lens flare, thank goodness, because I often like to shoot directly backlit. I'm using the Hydra app in HDR mode in this case.

 

[FundyBrian]

April 12th. On our way home from Moncton we stopped in Hillsborough to give Woofie a walk and, you know. It was a lovely sunny early evening. We walked along an access road between the Railroad museum and a nature park. The air was full of bird sounds from returning migratory birds. We could hear flocks of Canada Geese squawking and honking settling down for the night. There was a lot of open marshland area between us and the river.
The snow was still a couple of feet deep in many areas. The temperature was just mild enough to soften the crust so walking on the snow meant very careful delicate steps trying to avoid plunging through almost up to your knee. The shady spots were safer.

A lot of melting has gone on on mild days but it is still cold enough to refreeze at night.
Moment wa lens and either Hydra or Fusion for HDR, can't tell anymore.

 

[FundyBrian]

You can see how the snow has been melting revealing water below. You would never bother shooting half in sun and half in shade without HDR.
Moment wa lens.

 

[FundyBrian]

You can see how the wind has eroded the snow around this jet. It's part of a historic display next to the railroad museum. I'm bracing the iPhone on top of the fence although without the snow I wouldn't normally be able to reach so high. Moment wa lens. Hydra.

 

[FundyBrian]

The snow never got this deep but I had to lie in a pile of snow to get this angle. PureShot brackets processed with Pro HDR X. No lens this time!

 

[RoseCat]

The enormous tidal variation in the Bay of Fundy has considerable erosive power, grinding up the soft red sandstone at the upper end of the bay. This results in conspicuous deposits of reddish mud along the river bank. Several feet of it, in fact. In more out of the way places, and in summer, the mud attracts mud sliders - people playing, skating in bare feet on the mud, belly sliding, etc. needless to say this makes a mess of ones swim suit so they are often shed before they get ruined. Once covered in mud you can't tell who it is anyhow. Then you just need to figure out how to wash off the mud before getting back into your car. I digress [emoji6].

That sounds like FUN!!!
(except for the washing off part.... I know that water is FREEZING)

 

[RoseCat]

Looking up river from about the same place as above. The shore is part mud part muddy ice.
View attachment 64225
A little upstream from here is a place called Bore Park. Sounds boring doesn't it. Actually, it is the best place to sit and observe the passing of the tidal bore in the river. It is fairly famous in fact. Prior the the arrival of the bore you observe the water flowing downstream. Gradually the water rises. As the bore approaches (from the left) you can clearly see an advancing wave, sometimes big enough to attract surfers. As it passes the river current direction reverses and the water gets higher. Eventually a temporary equilibrium is reached and the current stops. Then it starts flowing back out in the normal direction again. This current reversal affects the river over a distance of about 20 km.

Would love to see an image of that.....

 

[FundyBrian]

Would love to see an image of that.....

That needs to be video. [emoji41]

 

[FundyBrian]

That sounds like FUN!!!
(except for the washing off part.... I know that water is FREEZING)

Well... Yes it is fun. You're right that the Bay of Fundy water is hypothermia cold - all summer, too. This is because the enormous tides stir up the water so much that it doesn't form a warm surface layer the way most lakes do. It is cold from top to bottom. However, there is one trick that can make it workable. In the mudflat areas you might have hundreds of acres of mud exposed at low tide and quite a distance from high to low tide, up to a mile. If the low tide is in the middle of the day the sun warms the mud quite nicely. If it isn't windy, so the waves are small, the first water coming in over the mud flats will be nice and warm. But once the water gets a bit deeper you start to notice cold water down at your feet. So, if you play in the mud and meet a late afternoon incoming tide, you can float back to shore in pleasantly warm water. Following one of the water channels back ensures that the water will be deep enough to keep you from getting muddy again. With any luck by the time you reach the upper sandy part of the beach your mud will be gone and your beach towel will be waiting.

 

[FundyBrian]

April 14. Upper Salmon River walk. Alma, NB, Canada.
Each time we come here the conditions have changed a lot.

Compare this shot to the one at the same place just a couple of days before, further up this timeline.
River ice below this point has broken up. You can see how thick the ice us here, about 4 feet.

 

[FundyBrian]

Walking out on melting pack ice to get to this position was a bit tricky.

Melting ice cakes grounded at high tide. Out in the river most of the ice in the main waterway has gone.

 

[FundyBrian]

Bare spots are appearing in the marsh grass area at high tide. Beyond the headland is a bank of fog. Warmer air over the cold water makes for good fog. We noticed the bay side of the road was fogged in as we arrived but it was sunny along the river.

Hydra, iPhone 6.

 

[FundyBrian]

Lens comparison/viewing issues.
This first shot is made with my iPhone 6 sans additional lenses. I had trouble seeing to compose well. I could see the foreground shadow but couldn't see the left edge of the foreground ice cake. I would have placed it further left.

This second shot was made with the Moment wa lens. I'm standing pretty much in the same place. I stepped forward a couple of steps in the wa shot to arrange the foreground better. Still, I couldn't actually see the left side of the ice cake on the screen and relying on the shadow caused me to move the ice cake too far right. I couldn't see in the screen well enough to see if the iPhone was level but I eyeballed the top edge of my iPhone with the horizon.

 

[FundyBrian]

River Ice broken up.

I have walked out to the mouth of the river and crossed the bridge to the other side. If you look at the far left in the background, at the base of the treed hillside, that's where the old mill road is that we usually walk along with Woofie. I have walked into the edge of the fog zone and you can see the slightly hazy influence in this shot.
The main thing to notice is the open river channel and broken ice waiting to go out on the next tide.
Yesterday (April 15) we passed by and saw all the river ice was gone. No time to stop for pics. [emoji20]

 

[FundyBrian]

What a difference a couple of minutes can make!
I was attempting to make some comparison shots with Fusion, Hydra, TrueHDR, etc.

I had made a couple of shots and was getting ready with another app. I was squinting down at my screen trying to see the settings in my own shadow. When I looked up everything had changed!

Just a couple of minutes separates these 2 shots. It just takes a slight shift in the wind direction.
Both shots made with Moment tele lens.

 

[FundyBrian]

Wide angle shot showing bits of ice left along the river channel after the ice flow went out with the last tide.

Moment wa lens.

 

[RoseCat]

Bare spots are appearing in the marsh grass area at high tide. Beyond the headland is a bank of fog. Warmer air over the cold water makes for good fog. We noticed the bay side of the road was fogged in as we arrived but it was sunny along the river.
View attachment 64322
Hydra, iPhone 6.

Looks like cement or something... cool.

 

[RoseCat]

What a difference a couple of minutes can make!
I was attempting to make some comparison shots with Fusion, Hydra, TrueHDR, etc.
View attachment 64327
I had made a couple of shots and was getting ready with another app. I was squinting down at my screen trying to see the settings in my own shadow. When I looked up everything had changed!
View attachment 64328
Just a couple of minutes separates these 2 shots. It just takes a slight shift in the wind direction.
Both shots made with Moment tele lens.

Wow! I love the trees peeking through the fog cloud...

 

[FundyBrian]

Shhhhhh! Don't tell anyone, but...

Just today...
iPhone 6 with close-up lens. KitCamera - because of the easy manual focus slider. Kirakura Cam for a little added bling.
I also made a 5 shot sequence with StayFocused but after 2.5 hours the 5 shots were still "uploading". Obviously something went wrong so I had to quit the app.

 

[FundyBrian]

On the way to Moncton today I turned back to photograph this scene that caught my eye yesterday, and today. That must mean, STOP, and pay attention. We pass it every time we go to Moncton but today it was the curved band of remaining snow that added an important graphic element.

iPhone 6, Fusion - HDR Camera. I've been using Fusion a lot lately and find I'm liking it more and more.

 

[FundyBrian]

You have seen in this thread that Alma wharf remained free of ice all winter and that there have been boats in the water all winter and some going out to fish.
Saturday I was in Richibucto and Aldouane, on the east coast side of New Brunswick, facing the Northumberland Strait, next to Prince Edward Island.

This is Aldouane wharf. The entire harbour, and as far out the channel as you can see, are still completely iced in. The ice is looking close to breaking up but we saw 3 ice fishing shacks still out in the ice!

Here's Richibucto wharf (one of them). Completely iced in. No fishing boats in the water. No boats parked on shore. All the boats are trucked away and stored in the owners yards for the winter. This wharf has at least 75 boats in summer.
We share the same weather, pretty much. What's the difference? We have the giant tides of the Bay of Fundy and they have a small tide of the Atlantic Ocean.

 

[FundyBrian]

The snow is disappearing quickly in open areas. We went back to Waterside Beach a couple of days ago where previously hundreds of big ice cakes had washed up in the beach. Now all gone.

Lately we have been getting fog as the air is warmer but the water in the bay is still close to ice cold.

 

[RoseCat]

The snow is disappearing quickly in open areas. We went back to Waterside Beach a couple of days ago where previously hundreds of big ice cakes had washed up in the beach. Now all gone.
View attachment 64715
Lately we have been getting fog as the air is warmer but the water in the bay is still close to ice cold.

What a transformation!

 

[FundyBrian]

A sure sign of warmer weather - Fog! Localized fog seems to be a Fundy specialty.

Another view, both with Moment tele lens.

This is the view from my upstairs window looking east. The sun would be up to the right so the scene is largely backlit. Something you don't see in this view is any houses. There are a couple of houses that can be seen with binoculars, when there's no fog.