Get high, get low.

No, this blog has nothing to do with the many cannabis stores springing up like dandelions in the spring. I don't get it, but that's me. I'm pretty sure there's going to be a market shakeout, probably sooner rather than later.

One piece of advice amidst many for new photographers, is that to take more interesting photos, get your camera away from eye level. Get high, or get low. So you get both today, from the photo tours earlier this week.

This isn't particularly scenic, but I took it because a dear friend used to work in that building, and seeing this view will be amusing.

I love watching the clouds develop and roll in this time of year.

I'll bet not many of you have seen the underside of a steam locomotive.

Some micro-landscapes for you. The camera is typically resting on the ground for these. Can't get lower than that.

Rock of the Day

Driftwood of the Day
Same driftwood, different view.

Edges

We all understand the concept of edges. Something ends, and something else begins. Or so it appears.

Typically they don't end evenly. There are variations in the edge, imperfections, flaws; and they show up more there because it's the edge. That's what makes them interesting. Our eyes follow edges.

Things are different on the edge. The same rules don't seem to apply. There is often a transition, but not always. That's why software developers talk about edge cases. They are often exceptions to the other rules, which is why it's not good to base public policy on them.

For example, seat belts. Everybody but a few lunatics realizes now that wearing a seatbelt while in a moving vehicle is a good idea. It's a part of driver education, just like we learn how to make a safe left turn in traffic. Much of the debate happened about the time I was learning to drive, and the possible reasons advanced for not wearing one would boggle your mind. Being unable to free yourself in the event of a vehicle fire or it being underwater were seriously brought up. That nobody had ever died that way was irrelevant to them. Having the mechanism jam when you were in a rush. Farm vehicles. Construction, taxis, delivery vans, it went on and on. Those were all edge cases, and needed only a bit of wording to deal with, or make the decision for people to suck it up and deal with it. According to the  nay-sayers it was the end of the world, and yet it turned out to be no big deal.

I suspect the same is going to be true for self driving vehicles. In most situations they are currently safer than a human driver. They are working on the exceptions. What I want to see is that the vehicle can deal with road construction issues which might or might not involve lane changes, flag people, large vehicles doing unexpected things, and any number of other cases that happen on a daily basis. (Hourly if you live in SW Calgary, he said snarkily.) We need not waste any time dealing with the imaginary constructs of the lunatic fringe.

Even if there are a few edge cases where we know the self driving vehicle will likely kill someone because we don't know how to program it to behave, or all the choices are bad, this could be considered the cost of saving many more lives. After all, the vehicle doesn't fall asleep, doesn't drive impaired, doesn't get distracted, and will have access to information human that drivers don't. It seems that if it is a safer driver the rest of the time, it won't get into those edge cases.

The edges of flower petals are pretty, so you get some of them today.

Rock of the Day

Driftwood of the day

You have to console yourself w wet flowers

I did not spend all day Thursday buried in images from the secret tour. Believe it or not, I was actually out and being social at a pre-Stampede warm up lunch with former work colleagues. As far as I'm concerned, that fulfills all my Stampede obligations this year. Done!

The secret tour images were finished up last night, and a few of them posted in yesterday's blog, just to give you a taster. More later.

Curtis was cranky with me leaving, again, because it denied him the all important lap time. He hasn't figured out it's happening again today.

The exact route, as always, is made up as we go along, depending on various factors that are important at the time. These are too numerous to list here, but readers can amuse themselves by speculating what they are. The theory of the route at the moment, as I understand it, is the Sheep Creek valley, which covers a lot of ground. If you don't live here, you probably don't know it's been raining for days. This could be good.

In the meantime, here's some of our flowers from earlier this week.

Rock of the Day

Driftwood of the Day

The secret tour was so much fun!

It looks like a tunnel, doesn't it, with a floor surface still under construction? This is not a tunnel, I assure you.

Then I was enchanted with this view.

Then lunch with some embargoed photos. Stay tuned.

Some old time high tech.

Lots of fun was had along the way.

So many photos from the day! Then off on another tour on Friday.


Rock of the Day
Same rocks, different view of them.

Driftwood of the Day

Shhhh! It's a secret.

Where I am, that is. Soon I'm to be bundled blindfolded into a van, driven around a random route, periodically let out for some fresh air, to a secret location for a secret purpose. I'll tell you about it later. So today's blog is short, but you may have missed yesterday's with some lovely landscapes.

In the mean time, you will have to content yourself with this. Even so, I fear the web version is nothing as nice as the subtle shades of red and hints of texture that I see in the full size version. Red is difficult, and I'm struggling with the red peony in other shots, but I'm pretty pleased here.

Rock of the Day
Yes, the same rock. When Sean and I were heading out we feared it had been raining and the soil would be slick and gummy to the extent it would be unsafe to walk around. The dryness creates it's own problems though, in that it crumbles really easily. I had to do a bit of scrabbling to get the vantage point I wanted for that first photo. I know you like the rock, but which of the three photos of it do you like?

The photos bring to mind a philosophical question. Is that one rock or two rocks? Why? Or is it a pair of rocks in the same sense that a pair of pants is one thing?

Another question. The event that split the rock so neatly, do you think it was a slow creeping event, or a sudden pop and anyone standing beside it would get squished? I looked but didn't see any bones poking out, just the plant.

Driftwood of the Day

1946 vs 1978

One thing about retirement is that there is time, if you choose to take it, to do other things. I'd mentioned I'd recently started to get more serious about reading again. The most recent completed book is Ice Ghosts, The epic hunt for the lost Franklin Expedition, by Paul Watson. I quite enjoyed it. When I was a kid I read about the various voyages of discovery, complete with harrowing tales of those who made it back by the skin of their teeth, or rather, by eating the leather of their boots. Many didn't get back.

I'd read of the Franklin Expedition, but it was one of many, no more compelling than the others. Back when Harper was Prime Minister, one of the few bits of news he allowed was his interest in finding the Erebus and Terror. So they did, but the book isn't only about those particular discoverers. Watson talks about many of the rescue voyages, and even more interesting, the social milieu they happened within. Well, except for the paranormal stuff, that had me rolling my eyes. Victorians, you know.

The book in progress is a collection of short stories by Neil Gaiman, called Trigger Warning. So far so good. I've been on a bit of a kick for his works lately. Can't wait for season 2 of American Gods, and might even rewatch season 1 to get up to speed. I recently read an expanded version of this book and loved it.

I forget when I first saw The Big Sleep, but I'm pretty sure it was at the Plaza Theatre in the early 80's. For a time I was a regular there, loving the old movies, the old movie theatre, their particular smell of popcorn, and the whole laid back experience. I even had my favourite seat.

Most of you have probably seen it. If you haven't, we can't be friends anymore. I saw it several times, getting no closer to figuring out the plot. Then I read the book and began to understand a bit more. The 1946 movie is a pretty bowdlerized version of the book, but they had the Hays code back then.

I only found out there was a 1978 version starring Robert Mitchum when I saw it at the library a few days ago. It was a "two-fer" disc that also included Farewell, My Lovely. I'd heard of the latter, but never seen it.

The 78 version of The Big Sleep is more faithful to the book, but it's a dud. Mitchum is sleepwalking through the whole thing. There is no chemistry, whereas the 46 version with Bogie and Bacall is practically the definition of movie chemistry. Even with the restrictions on the script the movie sizzles. Seriously, get it from the library and settle in. Bogie, Bacall, directed by Howard Hawks. It doesn't get any better.

Farewell, My Lovely is much better. First, it was new to us. Second, Mitchum absolutely nailed it. Third, the rest of the cast and movie itself nailed it, and Linda figuring out who Velma was didn't detract from the experience. I almost want to watch it again.

Lots of people don't like old B&W movies. They move too slowly, the effects suck, everybody dresses and talks funny, and it's black and white while the real world is in colour. One of the reasons some of the older movies are so good is because of those restrictions. I love watching them to see the clothes and how people wore them, the cars, the prices, and just general street scenes. They are a glimpse of a lost America (everybody smoking everywhere!), one that at least aspired to be the image it had created. Now we get colour, but everybody dresses the same and it's all sloppy, the cuts are fast and frantic I think mainly because most of the actors can't act for more than a few seconds. Most movies now, especially the superhero ones, are boring.

I am slowly coming to see the charms and potential of B&W in my own work. The other day I was out to run some errands and took the camera gear. The sky was lovely and the landscape is as green as this part of the world ever gets. The second runner up from yesterdays Image of the Month is from this ramble.

There's a few places to get some nice views of the mountains and since it was along the way I forced myself to stop. This first photo was such a disappointment when I saw it on screen, and didn't get any better as I played with it. I liked the composition and worked on it for a while, not getting anywhere. Only that night as I was drifting off to sleep, after watching the 78 version of Big Sleep, thinking it was better in B&W that it occurred to me to try that on the photo. Sure enough.

That worked so well I tried it on a couple other photos that didn't work in colour.

 You might need to look at this one a bit closer to see the polar bear. I mean the sailplane. The subject hints where I was.

There was some Facebook discussion about that second runner up, and a reference to a panorama version of that shot . Here it is.

I'm not completely pleased with it. There should be something more than tire tracks in the foreground. Without the sky I wouldn't have taken the shot, let alone publish it here. And yes, in my full size version of this I can see the referenced soccer goalposts. In case you are wondering, it would print out sized almost 4 x 1.5 feet.

Here's another landscape from the same trip. Imagine the blue of the clouds, and much more of it, all over the first photo above. Then add more blue, even to things that should be green.

Oddly enough, even though the photos suggest it was cloudy, all the action was off to the west. I was enjoying the sunshine after all the rain we've had lately. Here's another view of that sky. The huge sky and endless view is what I love about driving around southern Alberta

Rock of the Day

Driftwood of the Day

June Image of the Month

No instant stand out images this month that rate 5 stars, though I dithered a bit about a few of them. I had a great day down at Red Rock Coulee, and there's a ton more to photograph that I didn't get to. There are a few new wet wood ones I quite like, and lots of the flower images really rang my chimes. If you missed my blog yesterday, you'll know I had a great day with the camera, and I'm now reconsidering my choices. I had selected two wet rose shots as runners up.

I've spoken in the past of my star rating system, and the first three fifths of it is sound. (Apply 1 star to raw images that merit further review or comparison. 2 stars for obvious further editing. 3 stars for actual edits. Some of the 1 stars fall by the wayside.)

Now things get trickier. 5 stars make me go wow, and are my very best work. It's the 4 star ones that are tricky. Still working on the gradually evolving criteria for 4 or 5 stars. My general thought is to keep it grounded in skills, and not get sidetracked into unique shots where I got lucky, though I wouldn't exclude a shot for that. I am available for much further discussion about evaluating photos, but it has to be over beer, wine, or coffee.

Second Runner up.
This is one I dithered about for a while. Maybe it should be 5 stars, and perhaps if that green foreground had something more interesting in it, I'd have done that. (Wait, is that a lurking polar bear?!) Some of you may recall a similar photo as my first image of the month. There is a similar panorama of this that will show up soon.

First Runner up
Dithered here too. The second runner up was originally a curled up rose bud.

And the winner!
Red Rock Coulee, way off to the left from the parking area, over hill and dale and gully, past the many prickly pear cactus being careful not to step on them or the wild flowers, then up a knoll, and the view is wow! I waited for some more clouds to get some shadow action happening, but no deal. The experience was easily 5 stars, but somehow the photograph isn't quite there but I'm still really pleased.