About versicolor.ca

iris versicolor
Iris versicolor
versicolor.ca is the domain name for web space managed by David Graham Patriquin of Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada. It serves several community groups as well as personal interests, those relating mostly to natural history and environmental issues.

The web space is maintained on shared severs at funio.com in Montreal Canada. The domain name was registered on Nov 26, 2003.

About dgp

I retired from a position at Dalhousie University in 2008. I spend as much time as I can exploring my bioregion, always with at least one camera in hand.

The name versicolor is taken from the species epithet for a common native iris in Nova Scotia: Iris versicolor. The photo at right was taken on July 2nd, 1997 with a Panasonic Palmcam NV/PV-DC1000. It shot 640 x 480 px photos (0.3 MP). It was my first digital camera and I thought it would be the last camera I would ever want to purchase.

goldfinch
Little did I know about digital media! For about 12 years subsequently I was buying at least one new camera each year as the technology improved, alternating between a pocket point & shoot and a DSLR or Superzoom type. My
moss
Moss under the Optio Microscope
current 'land cameras' are a Sony Nex F3 (2012), a Sony HX400 50X zoom with GPS (2015), and an Olympus TG6 (2022).

In 2015, I decided to repeat some surveys of seagrass beds at Barbados (2015) and Carriacou, Grenada (2016 & 2019) that I had conducted as part of my PhD research in 1969 and invested in a SeaLife Micro underwater camera, and in an underwater housing for my Olympus TG3. My last proper underwater camera had been the Nikonos II which I used in the 1969 surveys. I was incredibly pleased with the modern options. I use the Sealife Micro HD v1 as much on land as
reef
I do underwater because of its wide-angle (140 degrees) fisheye views. It stopped functioning and I replaced it in 2022 with the Sealife Micro HD 3.0; I like it less because of the narrower view (100 degrees), but it has much larger storage and longer battery time (now circa 5 hr) than v1. Recently I managed to get the v1 working again, but I am using it only for land photography.

I'm an iMac person but not an iPhone (or any kind of cell phone) person. I love the internet as a learning and communication tool, but I'm happiest when I'm "miles away from anywhere" and disconnected from the internet (and phones) but I have a digital camera nearby. Going into 2024, I still don't have a Smart phone, which surely dates me.

For more trivia about me, click here.

      - David Patriquin       (JackPine)


panorama