Another retirement, not me this time

The important news of the day is that the hot tub at Repsol is working again. That and the training pool were out of action for maintenance. It has to happen, and this is a good time of the year to do it, but me and my creaky muscles missed the hot tub.

The surprise news of the day was to wander in well past the usual time to see one of my early morning buddies in there. We worked at Talisman at the same time, but not together. Both of us were contractors at SI and met at one of their functions. Then I'd run into him about weekly in the hot tub. Both of us in the same industry, we chatted.

Anyways, his company was bought and he took a package and he is now retired. Summer was essentially vacation. Now they've got some travel booked over the fall, and are planning more over the winter. We chatted a bit about the retired life and exchanged contact info so we could meet up again if we wanted. Us retired folks have to stick together.

So after the hot tub I was in for a swim, 500 m in 9:20, feeling pretty good. Unlike last week where the same distance was 10 minutes and badly out of breath. I added in some water yoga and water running and all was good.

Next was new shoes! Check them out. My buddy Richelle at Try-It was happy to sell me a pair and I can't wait to try them out.

Back to the retired thing. My buddy isn't sure he's going to stay in Calgary. There's a few places he doesn't want to go, he knows that and I agree with him. But there's a few others he's not so sure about.   Our plan has been to stay here till we're forced out, mainly because we can't face moving all our stuff.

But here's a view of Calgary that someone driving here might see, if they were taking a scenic route. Both of these are a moderate zoom of the behemoth lens. I get a kick out of how many places one can see the skyline from, and from how far away. This is light haze, by recent standards.

Another behemoth shot. Full on 600 mm, no cropping. It's a boring shot though, because our eyes can see it just about this well, and there's nothing around it to indicate scale or add interest. More learning.

The blahs

No rainbows and unicorn poop today. Isn't that one of the complaints about social media, that all you see is the good stuff, other people putting on the dog, and leaving you feeling all empty and lonely in your pathetic life?

It's been a blah month for me. Lots of cold weather, a cranky hip keeping me from good sleep and good workouts, and not succeeding as much as hoped in my Facebook/Instagram vacation. Which is still happening, aside from one brief visit to accept a friend request. I'm sort of looking forward to getting back into the groove, but I'll certainly be spending less time there. I'm thinking a session in the morning and maybe another later in the day.

It hasn't been a complete failure. I've spent more time reading both fiction and non-fiction, which was one of the goals. The fiction was The Expanse. There were several non-fiction books, most lately a Paul Zizka book called The Rocky Mountains Rediscovered. It's full of lovely photos. I was drooling a little bit at some of them. Most of them. Almost all of them. But I know in my heart of hearts that I'm not gonna take up mountain climbing to get some of those kinds of shots. Sorry guys.

Working on the book has happened. I figured out a new opening that works better for all concerned. I've also been noodling through a particular scene at a funeral. Not a downer, since one of the versions I was mentally writing ended up with two characters having long overdue sex. No, not at the funeral, they're horny, not perverted. Not sure that will make into the actual writing, but it gave me some clues where they are mentally.

Workouts have sucked, though. Even the idea of daily stretching and core has withered and died, to say nothing of the actual activity. There's been a few swims, and the mojo is there about as well as can be expected for the number of times I've been to the pool. I've regretted the little bit of water running I did after some of the swims. Let's not even talk about actual running, or getting on the bike for a spin session.

Some house stuff has happened, in a semi-erratic sort of way. Two wine kits have been started and are burbling away.

The photography, you ask? I've a number of nice rambles this month, but my head hasn't really been there. I'm not sure why. Last night I was looking over photos from this month, thinking about the Image of the Month. Let me tell you, it's slim pickings. Not sure why. Something about it being cold out, with lots of blah light because I've been a slackerpants not willing to get up for dawn, or go out for night shots.

Here's a couple more from my ramble south of Calgary earlier this week.

 This hill is why I didn't drive the car here. It's much steeper than it looks, and those aren't just snow machine tracks by the fence on the right. Such a lovely blue sky though!

I liked the meandering line of the bottom of the gully.

Another distant skyline shot with some inversion haze.

If you look carefully at the trees, you'll remember seeing another version of this a few days ago.

So yeah, I'm ready for warmer weather. I can't wait to see some leaf green show up in my camera. 

3 skylines and a gotcha

Winter daytime isn't the best look for Calgary's skyline, but it's not entirely shabby either. I have shot it from most directions, but not much from the mid-NW. I'd been musing about a number of locations, and finally got around to checking out one of them. There's good parking, a nice view even if the foreground is a little dull. The downside is no river and no Tower. Can't have everything. Maybe it's better at night. It's good to check these things out in daylight, especially when there's a lot of ice around.

I like putting benches in my shots. Don't ask me why.

A bit of a panorama from a little further along the bluff. This is looking SE, so perhaps a sunset shot at the right time of year would light up the buildings nicely. Or maybe a moon rise, if the clouds ever cooperate.

This kind of snuck up on me. I was wandering along, mainly looking out towards the horizon, then turned to look where I was going, and there it was, reaching for me.

I was down in the basement with another paperweight just before writing this. I've done red and orange, this one has lovely amber swirls. Are you surprised there is a re-entry in amber? Stay tuned for macro Monday.

Today I'm off to the Exposure Photography Festival. I'll do the festival opening, and the gallery opening for the one guy I know, Chris Malloy at the Edge Gallery, (that link will probably go bad at the end of the month.) then over the month I want to check out the other galleries.

Part of the idea is to support local photo artists and galleries. Part of it is to look at the work and think about why that's a photo worthy of being printed and displayed to the public. If it was a bad photo, someone surely would have told them, "umm, buddy, are you sure you want to print THAT one?" So something about the photo grabbed at least several someones, and my reasoning is, if I can figure out what that is, maybe I'll recognize it when I'm the one holding the camera looking at some random scene. And who knows, the displays might give me some ideas.

Three distant skylines

The first of the view parcels. I am always amazed how far away you can see the Calgary skyline from. This first one is about 40 Km away, seen dimly through a bit of haze with a 200 mm lens and a bit of judicious cropping.

These next two are closer, at about 32 Km. What might interest you about these shots is they were taken a really short walk apart, a few dozen steps at most. The landscape changes quick out here.

I found more skylines today while out for a walk, but these are more scouting ones, confirmation I could see what I thought I could see, and what would the camera see with a particular lens. So that worked. None of the pictures are so artistic they are worth burning the midnight oil to include here. You'll see some of them eventually. Or not. The one of Curtis is a keeper though, that will show up.

Stay tuned.

A winter skyline

Like I say, fall is Calgary's best season. When I left to go to Yukon for a week in September it was summer. When I got back it was fall. It's been fall, more or less, till today. Today is winter. Snow.

I dropped Linda downtown, did some cameraing, then had a minor appointment. (Hint, I'm not deaf.) The roads were already greasy and I could see where a few people had given themselves or the drivers around them a thrill. It's only got worse since.

Two views from Enmax Park. Downtown in the snow.

The backside of my buddy Jeff's sculpture. I almost like the metal supporting rods more than the actual front of it.

Two views of the new zoo bridge. I snuck these in since the first blog about the zoo bridge didn't get that many readers.

Another snowy view of downtown. The geese were not interested in it, or in me. A few looked at me as I walked past them, but they didn't even waddle away. Safety in numbers or something. I like how the buildings were just fading in and out of visibility.

In the inevitable news department, I no longer have a living grandparent. My mom's mom passed away earlier today. I had begun to mentally compose a blog about being 60 and still having a grandparent alive, wondering how many other people could say that. A good blog idea down the drain.

Still, she outlived her life expectancy at birth by more than 30 years, and came THAT close to making 100. My mom is already well past her life expectancy at birth, (though she is only 29, somehow). According to stats Canada I'm going to kick off any time in the next decade or so. Bah! I say BAH! I'm going to be around and inflicting this blog on you for many decades yet to come.

The full moon. Oops.

Sunday night I was out trying to shoot the full moon rising over downtown. Again. It didn't go as well as I had hoped, mainly because I blew the settings. As you can see, the moon is so bright it was just a disc of white light. There is no detail to be recovered through Lightroom mad skillz. I thought I had dialled down the exposure to balance the lights of downtown and the moon, but not enough. It's a tricky balance, and maybe I was trying for too much, I was letting the camera take a bunch of shots in a row, with the idea of maybe assembling a movie. I should have realized with the clouds that wasn't going to work and changed course.

Just as a thing to mess with Facebook, here's the photo I like better, and then the one that is a technical failure.

There was a win, though. I did my research and picked the spot to shoot from to get a shot of the moon rising over downtown. I figured from my vantage point it would appear to the side of Banker's Hall, and go over the tower. I wasn't sure if I'd get the moon right above the tower. You can see the clouds that the moon is disappearing into, and it did. The show lasted maybe 5 minutes.

I didn't hang around to see if the clouds would clear up. There was a nasty cold wind and I was freezing. I guess there was another win, though. I was there to see it, and I'll remember the big yellowy moon right between the buildings and the tower. I was out trying to get the shot.

I had the 6D on a tripod with the 70-200 lens aimed at downtown. At the same time I had the 24-70 on the T6 and was shooting some sunset and cloudy colours shots that turned out ok, considering I wasn't in a good spot for seeing the sunset. As well, here's the 6D set up ready to go.

Plus, as a consolation prize for scrolling through photos that are at best documentary, here's Celina!

Night and contest results

I was out for two nights in a row in one of the older industrial areas that isn't far from one of the places I used to work. I drove past it and marvelled at the changes. I'd love to get in there with my camera, but suspect all the people I ever worked with are long gone. It's been 27 years since I left there, after all, so I don't think there's much chance of an informal tour. Still, maybe I'll drop in one day and ask nice.

Along the way I relearned a photography lesson. Take your time, explore the shot. This one, for example was taken the second night, just before packing it in.

Yes, yes, you say, a nice shot of the skyline. Ho hum.

Compared to this one, taken the first night.

The same shot, you say, what's your point?

They're not the same shot. The top one was taken a little bit further to the left, maybe 50 feet, so the foreground changes from that nice railway line to seeing more of the highway. Pity, I liked the railway. Pity I blew the shot because I rushed. On the plus side, I get rid of the distracting bright area in the lower right. You might not be able to tell from the web version, but the camera was moving ever so slightly. I suspect the tripod wasn't completely anchored, and was still settling as I took the shot.

It looked in focus on the back of the camera, but I didn't look that carefully, and I didn't take another shot. At least this time I could get back, and capture the Tower lined up with the new Brookfield Place building. Sometimes you can't go back and have another go at the shot.

The real winner in the skyline shot sweepstakes is this panorama taken the second night. It would print out 42" x 12" at 300 dpi or 5' x 1.5' at 200 dpi, which is still going to come out very nice.

 There I was, wandering around a deserted industrial area, looking for photo possibilities. No cars, no people. I'm all set up on a railway track and as soon as I press the button, I get this.

Here's the other railway shot I like from the night. Some of you may have seen it on Facebook or Instagram.

Plus an industrial selfie, just because.

And the contest results you're all waiting for! Not many entries, and thank you to those that played along, or commented. Here's a bigger view of the whole thing.

Two people said 'cat brush'. The judges have conferred, and decided that is a winner! Sophia and Michelle can contact me and arrange a time to decide which photo they want. Coffee, tea, or wine will be supplied as desired.

More night photos coming.

My equipment drooped

Last night I was itchy to be out shooting night scenes. Some of the people I follow on Instagram and Facebook have been posting these luscious photos of buildings at night. It's fun to go shooting at night. There's all sorts of interesting photos happening if you open yourself to the possibilities.

Firstly, you have to dress for it. I did.

Second, you need to make sure your camera batteries are charged, and you have all of them. I did.

Third, you need a tripod. I did. Emphasis on the past tense.

The tripod has to be sturdy and stable. I was having fun, even though the place I started at didn't see the curves of the road quite like I had hoped. So there I was shooting skyline, and some other cityscapes, when I noticed my lens was starting to drift down a bit. It's common for it to settle a little as the weight of the lens takes up the slack in the ball tightening mechanism. I usually aim slightly high, it settles to where I want it, and I don't think about it anymore.

So I reach around, loosen the lever while putting the lens where I want it, and tighten up the lever again. Whoopsie. Around and around, nothing getting tight enough to hold the lens. I didn't think I reefed on it that hard, but I know a stripped bolt when I run into it. Crap. Turns out the manufacturer's warranty is 1 year, and it's a year and a half old. Sigh. It's just a chance to get better equipment.

Anyone have a sturdy tripod ball head they want to sell? Rated for at least 10 kilos, and preferably with a quick release plate, not the Vanguard thumbscrew thingie.

So that was pretty well the end of the night's shooting. It's impossible to hold a camera steady for the longer exposures needed at night, and there is rarely a good surface to put the camera down on. So home again. It was kind of on the verge of snowing anyways, and the sky didn't really look that nice anyways.

Here's the only 4 shots I thought worth editing. This first one turned into an exercise in manual focus. The camera was absolutely fixated on those trees, and I wanted them slightly out of focus as a frame. The tower looks terrible if it's out of focus.

I was trying to find a long exposure that would capture the airplanes taking off as one long streak that didn't over expose everything else. This is where I noticed the drooping lens while I waited for planes.

In other news, still no entries in the contest, though I've had some commentary on private channels. It's maybe too obscure, and it was suggested that some hints would be appreciated. Fair enough, you are only seeing a few mm of the business end of an object in common use in our house. Any visitors have probably seen it, though probably not paid any attention to it, even if I was using it in front of them. So it's not a sex toy. I know for a fact that many of my readers will have a functionally identical object, even if it might be shaped slightly differently.

I get asked, every now and then

I'm not sure what it is. Every now and then I get asked stuff. Some of it is practical (How do I do Ironman?) some of it is process (How do we migrate this data?) some of it is curious (Why aren't you on Twitter anymore?), and some of it is weird (bribe me with a glass of wine in private.)

So the Twitter thing is recent, but it ties in with other things related to retirement and life in general. I was a late convert to Twitter, thinking that if I had anything to say, it was going to take more than 140 characters. For a while it was ok, and I learned some editing skills to hone what I was saying. But the artificial nature of it chafed me. Mostly I used it tell people I'd blogged, and respond to other people I know.

About the same time I stopped listening to the news, and radio in general. The news was full of people trying to push my buttons or reporters doing their job reporting without context the stupid things and lies that various people in power and wannabes were saying. I started getting really selective about where I got my news.

It annoys me when video starts on a website without my permission. If I wanted to watch it, I would have clicked it. If I haven't clicked it, by definition I don't want to watch it and it's a distraction. Many videos annoy me, what with the long intro of meaningless graphics and brand building, and the host taking forever to get to the point. This is why I like text. I'm extremely good at processing it.

The music on the radio baffles me. Little of it is music to my ears, but then I think the Beatles and the Rolling Stones are new music. No, I don't know anything about the Tragically Hip or why people are upset about one of their members dying. Sad for the fans I guess, but it's inevitable. The newest band where I can reliably recognize their music? Pink Martini. Don't get me started on commercials in any medium.

Back to Twitter, I noticed more and more snark and gotcha and outright bullying happening, and nothing being done about it. Then the Idiot in Chief down south essentially threatened nuclear war in a tweet.

Yes. The man with his finger on the nuclear button, threatening North Korea with nuclear destruction, via Twitter. Say what you like about North Korea, I don't care. But they are the legitimate government of the country, even if it is reprehensible in many ways. There has been lots of diplomatic to-ing and fro-ing between them and everybody else, with varying amounts of it public. The North Korean end is mostly a semi-rational screech at best, and pre-Trump, everybody else's responses have ranged between paternalistic, to serious discussion, to veiled threats, all with varying degrees of rationality.

Now Trump 'negotiates' via Twitter, threatens nuclear annihilation, and in the great scheme of things that is not productive. On a smaller scale, how can that not violate Twitter's terms of service? They let him babble the stupidest most hateful things, and do nothing to throttle the bully pulpit. One could easily argue they are enabling the most dangerous man in the world to be even worse.

The other thing that pisses me off with Twitter isn't properly their fault. Have you noticed that a lot of so called news articles are just reprinting tweets? Or rather, re-re-printing tweets. The report says what the tweet says, then there's a screen shot of the tweet. Come on people, I don't need both.

Real world events are complicated, much to the dismay of conservatives everywhere. There is no one true (TRUE!) answer, no solution that will fix everything. All they want is to do is use that promise to springboard into power where they can do what they like for themselves and their buddies, regardless of the reality around them. As near as I can tell, they want to roll the clock back about 50 years, or to what their parents/church/community told them in their first childhood.

Real world events are certainly more complicated than a series of tweets, and I want to see them treated this way. I want to see world (country/province/civic) leaders speaking in coherent paragraphs about the issues of the day. I want to see the people that oppose them also speaking in coherent paragraphs about those issues. I want reporters to connect up those paragraphs and contrast them with what experts in that field say. I want to be able to tell if leaders have changed their thinking over time as the science has advanced, or if their own opinions evolve. I want to hear the reasons leaders hold the opinions they do, and be able to determine if they are starting from a reality based position and tweaking a position based on what they think they can sell to the electorate, or if it's magical thinking based on a work of fiction, or them living in fantasyland.

Twitter is conducive to none of those things, so I've decided to ease Twitter out of my life. So far I haven't missed it. I don't think there's anyone I actually know on Twitter that isn't on Facebook or Instagram. Maybe I'm missing out a few jokes, but oh well. I'm getting better at skipping past news stories at the first appearance of a tweet.

It's been a wonderful summer living on my own schedule. Sometimes I've chosen to get up early to do a photo thing, or get to the pool when it's quiet. Sometimes I've been so busy the day passes in a blur, and other days I've done nothing more energetic that cuddling a cat. It's been good to think about the things I want in my life. I like being able to step back from events a bit, comment where I think appropriate, and let other things sail on by.

This photo has nothing to do with today's blog. It's from a photo ramble a couple weeks ago, dressed up in Photomatix a bit. Pity about those straight lines in the clouds, I'm not sure what that was.

Cameraing on the Bow

I first heard that word from one of my photo buddies, and I've come to love it. Being out and taking photographs is far more than just the click of the shutter. There are many activities involved, and cameraing is a great word for the whole package. Walking around, looking at where you want to be, thinking of which lens to use for that shot, the various settings for the photo you want, enjoying the scenery, and chatting to whoever might happen to be around.

One of the interesting things about Calgary is that the downtown skyline is visible from almost all directions, and from surprisingly far away. Today I was strolling along the Bow river and found these shots.

It was a lovely afternoon, even if it snowed briefly.  The light came and went. I hung around for a while waiting for the trees to light up here, but they never did and I eventually moved on.

The formal name for this is Sapper's Bridge. That might tell some of you where I was.

I suspect the people living on the west side of those apartments pay extra rent for the view. I'd love to visit someone that lives there.

There was a big cloud building over downtown, which made for an interesting contrast. Trying to get it all in took a bit of work.

I've got a bit of a thing about these memorial benches. I like to photograph them, and the view they get. Sometimes it's not possible, and I'll settle for a photo of them, but I try to get interesting angles. I'm almost tempted to go back to this bench and tweak the shot a bit more. There is a hair more space between the top of the bench and the bottom of the skyline than I wanted.

Harvest moon meetup

Some of you know my buddy Neil Zeller, the famous Calgary photographer. I actually knew him from before his photography career, when he was the famous Calgary barefoot runner. Every year about this time he does a photowalk. The idea is to show up with your camera, stroll around cameraing, and chat with other people interested in photography. There are about 70 people in the group photo Neil took.

I've been to several of these now, and they're lots of fun. This year I ran into several people I already knew in person, a few that I knew on social media, and a few people new to me. I got several nice compliments on this blog, thank you very much.

Normally I'm out shooting by myself, waiting for the light to be the way I hope for it to be, or strolling along however seems good to me. I can set up where I want to be, subject to safety and consideration of other people that are using that area. Every now and then I've been out with other individuals or small groups, and that's fun too. It's interesting to see what other people shoot and how they go about it. It's quite the change to be around so many people holding cameras all at once.

If you're on Instagram you can see the other photos by using the hashtag #neilzeller. I wasn't in a moony mood, if you'll forgive the phrase. I was more interested in lights reflected on the river. Editing night shots is a little interesting because of the difference in what our eyes see, and what the camera sees. As you edit, the program often assumes you want it to look like daylight, which increases the noise and often looks terrible. But we know it's dark, and I like to edit the photos so they are somewhat dark as well. I try to replicate the colour of the sky, and bring up the reflections in the water.

Some people are playing with composite shots, where they take one photo exposed for the scene with the moon a blinding white ball, then another with the scene really dark so the moon is properly exposed. Then if you properly placate the Photoshop demons, you get an image with both the moon and the scene properly exposed. I haven't done that.

Here's some of my shots.

Courtesy of Brad from Canon Canada, I got a chance to shoot a Canon 6D Mark II. Wow! I am seriously tempted. It feels great in my hands, and once I brought Lightroom up to date, the photos look terrific.

It wasn't a late night at all, even by my standards. I was thinking about doing some more shooting afterward, but headed home. Then darned if I couldn't sleep. My mind was full of photography projects, potential macro shots, a shopping list, and all sorts of photo related stuff. It took a long time to get to sleep.

The speedy and the erratic

It was fun watching the race on Sunday. I have to admit, though, for most courses triathlon generally isn't what you'd call an exciting spectator sport. You see a bunch of people milling around getting ready. Then they're an anonymous herd, milling around in their wetsuits and swim caps. Then they're in the water in a splash. Depending on the course and who you're cheering for, you've got time for a coffee. Then they burst out of the water and head for transition. This can be exciting, but it doesn't last long.

Then they are out of transition and off on their bikes, and unless you hustle you aren't likely to see both of these. There are some courses where you can hop on a bike and short cut to see them zoom by. Zoom being the operative word. Even the slow riders are going about 30 Kph unless you catch them on a big uphill.

If you can't do that, you end up waiting at transition for them to come back. That might be several hours. Then they are in and gone again, transitioning from bike to run. If you're in the port-potty you will have missed it.

Then there is the run finish. All sorts of drama here. For most of my races I asked Linda to drop me at the swim, and if she wanted to stick around for the bike transition that was up to her. Then I didn't expect to see her again till the finish.

As a triathlete, it's a bit different. You can appreciate better what the racers are going through. Plus, and this is the dangerous part, you get infected with the desire to do it again. I got bit by that a little bit, but I'm safe this year. About the only one I'd be tempted to do is Chaparral Oly, and I've been asked to do the photography for it, so I'm safe.

But I did look up last weekend's finish times for my age group. The winner finished in 4:25, and the middle of the pack is 5:45 or so. I'd certainly have been well over 6 hours, if I'd been so foolish as to try. Just as a comparison, the overall winner finished in 3:35. I know lots of triathletes dream of winning their age group and going to Kona, but I have no such aspirations. I'd be thrilled with a mid pack finish, but that seems so far away right now.

But next year, who knows? I keep saying I want to get into better shape. Maybe this will be the year, without a day job to wear me down. But even "aging up" into the next age group isn't going to help me much. The winner in that age group went 4:35. Speedy.

In the mean time, I'm still getting caught up on photos.

This one is so soft and peaceful. I can see it done huge as a big print in a meditation space.

The hens and chicks blossoms are still hanging in there, though beginning to look a little worse for wear today.

The day lilies are incredible this year! I love the vibrant yellow, orange, and reds. The ordinary ones are nice, but when you get the light right, they look like they're on fire.

Another damp rose. The new bud pushing it's way in there adds even more interest.

Part of the view from the reservoir cruise. Pity about the smoke.

I was quite taken by this railroad snowplow at Heritage Park. This photo is not really doing justice to that orange. Plus I was just imagining certain politicians staked out on the tracks, getting prodded with this. My imagination gets away from me sometimes...

Oh, and the erratic. I didn't take a photo, but coming out of Coop today there was a car with a handicap sticker that didn't manage to make it fully into the handicap spot. It's like they thought they were angle parking. Then on the way home I turn onto the street where I live, and someone is driving down the wrong side of the road, then the middle, then the wrong side again. I was thinking seriously about where exactly was the safest place to bail out. Then they swerved violently into the side of the road where lots of people park, and I think they drove on someone's lawn for a second. It was a tiny old person peering over the wheel. I'm not sure who was more terrified, me or them.

This is why I want to see car simulators set up, and people run through a standardized test before getting their license renewed. Fail, and you get a chance to study, get your eyes checked and eyeglasses prescription updated if necessary, maybe do some practice with a certified instructor, then have another go at it.

There are lots of people that fear the self driving cars, but not me. I fear those other people on the road that are driving distracted for whatever reason, or no longer have the cognitive ability to drive, or suffer a medical adventure while driving. The problem is only going to get worse as the boomer generation (and I'm one of them) ages gracefully or otherwise.