Some city panoramas

For a while I was quite taken with Calgary's skyline. When you're a new photographer Calgary is a lovely city for skylines. For it's population, Calgary has a lot of tall buildings. That's what oil and gas money and egos will do. For a while it seemed there was a bit of a 'my building is taller than your building' sort of thing happening. 

There's good viewpoints in nearly every direction from downtown, and with all the lines it's easy to tell if you goofed on focus. Add in the east west avenues, the wide variety of angles for sunrise and sunsets, with all that glass for reflections, and it's photo heaven for those into it.

The photo culling continues, and between some that have not been blogged for whatever reason, I discovered a few new ones I hadn't edited at the time. No idea why. The first 3 are from 2016, then 2 from 2021, then 2 from 2022. for Calgary residents, think about the vantage point. All are public property, no special access required.

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7.

What's interesting is that the Calgary Tower is essentially invisible, except for being off to the edge of #3. Built in the late 60's, for nearly 20 years the tower was the undisputed king of the skyline. There are so many photos of the tower, a small skyline, with a Rocky Mountain backdrop. 

Then the crane-birds arrived and big buildings started to go up. In the early 80's what is now called the Suncor Energy Centre, and was then informally and derisively called Red Square, started to edge higher than the tower. The proper name for it was the Petro-Canada Centre, and according to some locals it was all a plot by Trudeau (the father, not the son). There were people that believed there was a law on the books in Calgary prohibiting buildings from being taller than the tower. There wasn't, of course, although there are about shadows on the Bow River. And the buildings kept going up. Now there's 7 buildings taller than the tower, and several more that are almost as high. 

I've had my share of views from the top of various buildings. I've never yet paid for a trip to the top of the Calgary Tower, but have been hosted several times. And yes, I like jumping on the part of the floor that gives you a view straight down. The photographer within wishes they kept the windows cleaner.  One of my buddies at the time (late 80's) worked on the top floor the Petro-Canada Centre, and we spent much of a weekend there working on a long and complicated document for our SCA group. There was a day long meeting (early 90's) at the top of what was then the Nova Gas Transmission building, but I don't know what it's called now. About 2013 I had a shared window office on the 42nd floor looking west from Banker's Hall. About 2019 I came back from New Zealand to start a job that had me visiting a client at the top of Brookfield Place. Sometime 2019 or so a photo tour took me to the top of The Bow, to get sideways photos of Telus Sky being topped out. I've had job interviews in the TransCanada Tower, and in Western Canadian Place, and while they were in meeting rooms high in the building, I was paying more attention to the interview than to the view.

This isn't the first time I've blogged about the skyline, here, for example. Or some of the views from The Bow, (the tower not the river) here, and here, to look down on the top of the tower.

Of the Day

Driftwood (NZ)

Driftwood (NB)

Film

Linda

Newfoundland

New Brunswick

Why ever didn't I publish this, and maybe I did

Another skyline view, if you aren't sick of them.

90 days, or so ago

A Waterton panorama from 2021. No idea how many days ago that was.

Flower

Landscape

Another sort of skyline view.

So many photos of flowers and clouds

There I am, deleting what are essentially duplicate photos of ones I edited. Thousands of them. Tens of thousands. You'd almost think I was an incompetent photographer, given how many photos it takes sometimes to zero in on the one flower photo I want to edit. And clouds, waiting for a sunrise or sunset. Bees and dragonflies, trying to get them in focus, and mostly along the way I deleted the ones where there isn't a bee or dragonfly in the photo, or it's out of focus. Mostly. Lots of times looking at a photo now I have no idea why I clicked the shutter. I'm up to mid 2021, in case you were wondering.

And cats. Lots of photos of cats, but I'm only deleting the ones actually out of focus or are really dark.

I'm not particularly looking for overlooked gems along the way, but occasionally find them. Like these two from mid 2020.

And yeah, another winter is coming later today. Or so they say. I try not to think about it. The plants don't care, they are happily sending up shoots.

The great book roundup happened yesterday according to plan. Even getting into the software wasn't bad. It just has to be done in the right order. I should have taken notes because it could be a while till I need to do it again. There were only a few where the software didn't recognize the ISBN number. I just realized this moment that a couple of my photo books have an ISBN, and I should see if the software recognizes them. Hmmm.

Which reminded me of the death document we're working on. The book database is a low priority item that probably won't make it onto the list, but I got reminded that it isn't just user names and passwords. It's that pesky two factor security. What happens if some app is looking to send something to my phone and it's not available for some reason. Maybe I'm out of town. Or it's been stolen, or fell into water and I haven't replaced it. Or maybe I can't replace it because it and me died at the same time. With traffic getting worse and worse here, it's become something to think about. 

The police had a road closed in our neighbourhood the other day, essentially at the same intersection where some pedestrian crossing lights were recently installed, and where a bit before that a pedestrian was killed by a speeding car. I wondered if it had happened again, but I haven't heard one way or another. Even though I'm currently president of the community association, that doesn't mean I get told anything.

The whole photo deleting thing has me thinking about books. Some will get read again. Some might be used as reference material for some reason, although probably not the Britannica. Some are old enough the pages are going yellow and brittle and might fall apart if I tried to read them. They're more than 100 years old, after all, printed on cheap paper. Some were done during the cheap printing era and the glue in the binding has died so it's essentially a stack of loose pages now. Some will never be read again. Some I can remember where and when I bought them. Others I have no memory of ever reading, and have no interest in reading now. Something to think about.

Of the Day

Driftwood (NZ)

Driftwood (NB)

Film and 60 days, or so ago

Linda

Newfoundland

New Brunswick

Why ever didn't I publish this, and maybe I did

Flower

Landscape

Recent reading

During the many winters we've had this year it's been fun to settle in with a nice cup of coffee or tea to read a book, while giving the demanding mammal the desired fuzzy blanket lap. As I pointed out here, I am merely a fuzzy blanket substrate.

These are all library books, mostly put on hold because I read about them somewhere. That's a great way of getting a specific book, but it isn't as much fun as browsing the stacks. And as should be obvious, these are all books on paper. I tried the e-book thing back when iPads were a thing, and didn't like it. I was thinking of getting a Kindle or a Paperwhite, but never did. In any case, reading a photo book on one of them just wouldn't be the same. In fact, I have an old iPad that's been sitting near the charging station, unused. I don't even know which version it is. In fact, plugging it in for a while doesn't seem to be charging up the battery enough to turn it on. Which means it goes to the e-recycling bin soon.

I just looked outside on the way for another cup of coffee and see another winter has started. It isn't cold. In fact our outside thermometer says it's plus 1. But it's snowing fairly hard. I confidently expect another "Carnage on the Deerfoot!" headline. We get the winter tires taken off on May 6. I did bison burgers on the barbecue yesterday. Wearing a T shirt.

Today might be the day I gather up all the recently purchased books that are in various piles upstairs, and scan the ISBN code to add them to the current list of books. There are old versions of the list, manually entered into a spreadsheet. We were told that if the worst happened, the insurance companies would need a list of books to value replacement costs. At one time I knew to within a dozen or so books how many were in the house. I've no idea now. None at all. In fact, while the normal process is to take them downstairs, we are out of shelf space. I don't even know where the current batch of new books is going to go. 

I'm thinking it might be easier to arrange the books so the spines are visible, and take photos of them. Hmmm. Although that means moving some furniture, though we have to do that sometime before September. It's a long story.

Six Decades by Christopher Pratt

At first I thought this was a photography book. His work sort of sits between photography and paintings. It's a little bit surreal. I quite enjoyed leafing through.

The Measure by Nikki Erlick

Suppose you got a box with a string inside that was proportional to your lifespan? Would you open it? Would knowing if you got a short string or a long string change your approach to life? Would you engage in more risky activities? Would it matter the string didn't care if you were in a wheelchair or a hospital bed? Talking much more about it turns into a spoiler pretty quickly.

Curious Cameras by Todd Gustavson

The title says it all. A fun read.

Black and White Photography by Michael Freeman

Lots of in depth information about manipulating digital black and white images originally shot in colour. People think of black and white as a more restrictive medium, and I admit I kind of thought so as well. But the difference is that we look at the world in colour, and short of having some form of colour blindness, we know what the world looks like. Pushing an image may achieve an artistic effect, but we instantly know it isn't real. Usually that detracts from the image. But in black and white there's much more freedom to play with the various elements that make up the photos. 

 

Bill Brandt Shadow and Light ed by MOMA

He is a mid 20th century British photographer with what might be called an eclectic body of work. Some of it is similar to what Michelle wanted to do. Some of it is gritty documentary work. Lots of information about him, done in a way that reads as scholarly but not pedantic which makes me nuts about so much literary work.

Of the Day

Driftwood (NZ)

Driftwood (NB)

Film and about 60 days or so ago

Linda

Newfoundland

New Brunswick

Why ever didn't I publish this, and maybe I did

Flower

Landscape

The green optimists are starting

The other day we discovered some plants coming up in the front garden bed. Linda says they're hyacinths. Not that I would know. But the little hens and chicks I like are showing up as well. The weather forecast says it might snow on Saturday night. You go little plants.

This is what the front yard looks like. The back yard still has snow in it.

The great duplicate photo purge continues. I'm down a couple thousand in 2020, and I'm only up to May. I've made some notes about blocks of photos to go back to because there's some I wonder why I didn't edit them at the time. Overall, it's a much more soothing activity than reading the world news. I completely fail to understand why anyone believes anything Trump has to say.

Somewhat closer to home, the bleats about MP's crossing the floor to join the other party amuse me. Parties only complain when they lose people. Floor crossing is completely legitimate in our political system. Are floor crossers traitors, or opportunistic hacks, or showing they have the courage of their convictions?  My thinking is that if you view someone leaving your group as a traitor, you group is a cult.

Political parties exist to get legislation passed. Presumably that legislation benefits the people that support that party, or have broad social value. That doesn't mean the individual member agrees with everything or is a doormat. Sometimes they might have to hold their nose as they vote for one issue, knowing their caucus is supporting another issue near and dear to their own heart, while also knowing some of their colleagues might be holding their own nose. Sometimes the you scratch my back and I'll scratch yours is odious, but that's the way it works. There are some people that think of people who agree with them only 90% of the time as an enemy, rather than an ally, which is strange to me.

Even if we went to a proportional representation system, which I'm in favour of, that sort of deal making would still happen. The parties involved would more accurately represent the wishes of the electorate, and presumably the wishes of the elected representatives. It is a bit more complicated that first past the post, and kind of assumes grownups are the ones being elected, which lately does not seem to be a good assumption.

For more reading on politics and electoral math, and why the Alberta separatists are idiots, see here, or here, or here, or here. Lots of reading for you, bring a cup of coffee. 

Of the Day

Driftwood (NZ)

Driftwood (NB)

Film and 60 days ago or so.

Linda

Newfoundland

New Brunswick

Why ever didn't I publish this, and maybe I did

As a side note, I discovered that I have about 80 panorama photos that haven't been blogged, or so the tags (don't) say. Some I'm pretty sure have been blogged. Maybe they'll show up here, or in landscape for the next little while. Or maybe I'll create a new place for them.

Flower

Landscape