Maybe I should go look for them coming back.
Ironman Canada - DONE! What next?
Monday, December 19, 2016
They knew
Here is a bunch of sensible geese. I shot that in late November, just before it got really cold. And yes, they're flying south. The other, permanent, geese are probably taunting them, calling them softies or something. They've figured out how to live here year round. That morning I got the nice reflection shot of the downtown buildings? I had to be careful of the geese. Some of the reflection shots were modified by the geese photo-bombing me.
Maybe I should go look for them coming back.
Maybe I should go look for them coming back.
Sunday, December 18, 2016
A GB and other reflections
The end of the year is generally considered a time to reflect on the year past, and the coming year. Bloggers, columnists, and writers often use it as grist for mill, and I've done my share that.
This year is a little different. It's almost 4 months since I've walked in the front door of Penn West, and waved my access card at the elevator. At first the time off was just vacation, but even then I was doing a bit of long term planning. This retirement thing could potentially last the rest of my life, which (hopefully) is a very long time indeed. Perhaps blogging nearly every day, aren't you excited? Umm, guys, excited?
We don't have any particular big plans over the Christmas season. Linda's work has been particularly busy over the last several months, and next year doesn't look any slower as her retirement clock ticks down. She badly needs some down time.
I think it's a natural time to be thoughtful about life, the universe, and everything. Plus kick back and relax. Drink some wine, read some books, watch some movies. Wouldn't want to overdo the thoughtfulness, or the vegging out.
Today I realized that I'm well past 10K photos taken since early June, and I've liked more than 600 enough to go through the trouble of tweaking them in Lightroom. Some are for experiments or learning, but some are wanted by people other than me. They all go into a folder, and that just passed 1 GB in size. Some of them are for print and are quite large. The biggest is a 27 MB panorama, and several are a little over 10 MB. Most are less than 1 MB since they are most likely going to the web.
The photography has been a lot of fun! There is the intellectual challenge, of course. Where can I go to get this desired shot, using what settings? Which lens? Why isn't something working? Modern DSLR cameras have a lot of controls and can be very intimidating. (Hint, if that's you, take the Neil Zeller course, you'll love it.)
There are a bunch of cool people involved in photography, and I've got to know some of them along the way. Neil's courses and photowalks have been excellent for that. Plus I've chatted to a few people out and about, where carrying a good camera was the only introduction needed.
Then there is the artistic side. This has been deeply satisfying for me in many ways. Consider a flower garden. The ones just outside our house, for example. At any particular time there are any number of wonderful photographs that can be taken, from close in macro shots of a perfect bloom, to more distant shots that are almost a landscape, to the strange beauty of dead or dying plants. Then there are all the weather conditions from rain, hail, snow, and frost. There's the time of day the shot was taken. All the different lenses and camera settings.
Take all those variables into account and you've got a photograph in your camera. Then it goes through Lightroom, and that's a whole other process. Then if you really want to get carried away there's Photoshop. These and other programs will help you bring your artistic vision to life. Take it from me, it's harder than it seems, as easy as some people make it look. If you put 100 photographers through our garden throughout the day, and they each displayed just one of their photos, you'd probably get 100 very different photos.
Usually there are no ironclad right or wrong answers about what makes a good photo. It depends on your intentions for the shot, or if you should be so lucky, the intentions of the person paying you for the shot. A series of corporate head and shoulders professional shots are considerably different than a series of flowers. You can get something that matches your memory, or is dressed up a bit to enhance some aspect of the subject, or you can go over the top for garish effect, or under the bottom to black and white.
My camera makes a click when I press the shutter button. It's a very nice, solid click, not the sort of whiney click the iPhone makes. Mechanical things are happening in the camera. A mirror moves, a shutter opens and closes. Light photons are captured by a sensor and complicated computer stuff happens. I love that click. It might be distracting at a wedding, but I don't anticipate shooting any of those. I can see an image on the back of the camera, but I don't pay a lot of attention to it. The only way to really tell what you've got is look at it on screen. I've had a bunch of surprises. Shots I thought were blah were anything but, and shots I thought were in focus were not. All a learning experience.
There are many things to take photos of, and just like they say there's someone for everyone, there's a photographer for every subject. It doesn't matter if it's the Peace Bridge, the Calgary Tower, or lettuce. What's interesting for me in this photo is not the big red bridge. It's the reflection of it in the water and ice. The water isn't completely still, so it's not a perfect mirror. Neither are our eyes or brains completely still, so our reflection on past events isn't perfect either.
This year is a little different. It's almost 4 months since I've walked in the front door of Penn West, and waved my access card at the elevator. At first the time off was just vacation, but even then I was doing a bit of long term planning. This retirement thing could potentially last the rest of my life, which (hopefully) is a very long time indeed. Perhaps blogging nearly every day, aren't you excited? Umm, guys, excited?
We don't have any particular big plans over the Christmas season. Linda's work has been particularly busy over the last several months, and next year doesn't look any slower as her retirement clock ticks down. She badly needs some down time.
I think it's a natural time to be thoughtful about life, the universe, and everything. Plus kick back and relax. Drink some wine, read some books, watch some movies. Wouldn't want to overdo the thoughtfulness, or the vegging out.
Today I realized that I'm well past 10K photos taken since early June, and I've liked more than 600 enough to go through the trouble of tweaking them in Lightroom. Some are for experiments or learning, but some are wanted by people other than me. They all go into a folder, and that just passed 1 GB in size. Some of them are for print and are quite large. The biggest is a 27 MB panorama, and several are a little over 10 MB. Most are less than 1 MB since they are most likely going to the web.
The photography has been a lot of fun! There is the intellectual challenge, of course. Where can I go to get this desired shot, using what settings? Which lens? Why isn't something working? Modern DSLR cameras have a lot of controls and can be very intimidating. (Hint, if that's you, take the Neil Zeller course, you'll love it.)
There are a bunch of cool people involved in photography, and I've got to know some of them along the way. Neil's courses and photowalks have been excellent for that. Plus I've chatted to a few people out and about, where carrying a good camera was the only introduction needed.
Then there is the artistic side. This has been deeply satisfying for me in many ways. Consider a flower garden. The ones just outside our house, for example. At any particular time there are any number of wonderful photographs that can be taken, from close in macro shots of a perfect bloom, to more distant shots that are almost a landscape, to the strange beauty of dead or dying plants. Then there are all the weather conditions from rain, hail, snow, and frost. There's the time of day the shot was taken. All the different lenses and camera settings.
Take all those variables into account and you've got a photograph in your camera. Then it goes through Lightroom, and that's a whole other process. Then if you really want to get carried away there's Photoshop. These and other programs will help you bring your artistic vision to life. Take it from me, it's harder than it seems, as easy as some people make it look. If you put 100 photographers through our garden throughout the day, and they each displayed just one of their photos, you'd probably get 100 very different photos.
Usually there are no ironclad right or wrong answers about what makes a good photo. It depends on your intentions for the shot, or if you should be so lucky, the intentions of the person paying you for the shot. A series of corporate head and shoulders professional shots are considerably different than a series of flowers. You can get something that matches your memory, or is dressed up a bit to enhance some aspect of the subject, or you can go over the top for garish effect, or under the bottom to black and white.
My camera makes a click when I press the shutter button. It's a very nice, solid click, not the sort of whiney click the iPhone makes. Mechanical things are happening in the camera. A mirror moves, a shutter opens and closes. Light photons are captured by a sensor and complicated computer stuff happens. I love that click. It might be distracting at a wedding, but I don't anticipate shooting any of those. I can see an image on the back of the camera, but I don't pay a lot of attention to it. The only way to really tell what you've got is look at it on screen. I've had a bunch of surprises. Shots I thought were blah were anything but, and shots I thought were in focus were not. All a learning experience.
There are many things to take photos of, and just like they say there's someone for everyone, there's a photographer for every subject. It doesn't matter if it's the Peace Bridge, the Calgary Tower, or lettuce. What's interesting for me in this photo is not the big red bridge. It's the reflection of it in the water and ice. The water isn't completely still, so it's not a perfect mirror. Neither are our eyes or brains completely still, so our reflection on past events isn't perfect either.
Saturday, December 17, 2016
Free rocks, imprisoned rocks, pampered rocks
The oddest things catch my attention some days, and yes my faithful blog readers, some days you don't want to know. Today is not that day.
Many of you may have seen pictures of the Peace Bridge done by Neil Zeller. In fact, if you've seen a nice picture of that bridge, it's quite likely one of his. He takes great pains to avoid getting the nearby rocks in the shot, even though he has to scramble over them on a regular basis. In fact, it's so regular he's probably on a first name basis with some of them.
A while ago on Facebook he posted a shot that included the rocks, and some comments. A crane got involved in the discussion as well, but that's neither here or there for the purposes of this discussion. A couple days later I was down there in the afternoon doing some shooting, and went to a bit of trouble to get this shot, featuring the free rocks. (Yes, I got several of the crane too, but today is about the rocks, not a crane. So quiet, you crane enthusiasts in the peanut gallery.)
A little later I found these caged rocks. Poor things, doomed to spend a significant part of the rest of their lives imprisoned in a wire cage. Normally I'd say they must have done something bad in a previous life, but that's a hard concept to apply to rocks. Even if they might be bad characters, I think they're beautiful.
The technical word for this cage is gabion. You see, a new word for you, just another reason to visit my blog regularly. They don't dump the rocks in higgledy piggledy, somebody had to place them just so, to show off their good sides. Having built some rock steps and a rock retaining wall from slate, I know how hard that is. For a while I didn't have any finger prints at all. I'd worn them off handling the rock so much.
We were watching a Miss Marple the other night, 4:50 from Paddington. In one scene a young woman pushes aside a rock slab about 6 or 7 feet long, by 3 or 4 feet wide, by several inches thick. You can guess what she finds under it. You see a similar thing happen in many other movies and TV shows.
We have a rock about 5 feet x 3 feet in our patio, and I know for a fact it weighs 500 pounds. Even sliding it around a little when it was the top step was all I could do. Upon delivery 4 men carried it into position. When it was moved quite a while later during the back yard reno, it was moved by forklift. It's a very nice rock, and they were careful not to damage it. Now it's the front step to the lodge.
There it gets swept and shoveled regularly, along with the other patio stones. I've even washed it. Yes, with a pressure washer and a scrub brush in one spot to remove the polymer from the sand in between the stones. Never let it be said our rocks aren't cared for.
Many of you may have seen pictures of the Peace Bridge done by Neil Zeller. In fact, if you've seen a nice picture of that bridge, it's quite likely one of his. He takes great pains to avoid getting the nearby rocks in the shot, even though he has to scramble over them on a regular basis. In fact, it's so regular he's probably on a first name basis with some of them.
A while ago on Facebook he posted a shot that included the rocks, and some comments. A crane got involved in the discussion as well, but that's neither here or there for the purposes of this discussion. A couple days later I was down there in the afternoon doing some shooting, and went to a bit of trouble to get this shot, featuring the free rocks. (Yes, I got several of the crane too, but today is about the rocks, not a crane. So quiet, you crane enthusiasts in the peanut gallery.)
A little later I found these caged rocks. Poor things, doomed to spend a significant part of the rest of their lives imprisoned in a wire cage. Normally I'd say they must have done something bad in a previous life, but that's a hard concept to apply to rocks. Even if they might be bad characters, I think they're beautiful.
The technical word for this cage is gabion. You see, a new word for you, just another reason to visit my blog regularly. They don't dump the rocks in higgledy piggledy, somebody had to place them just so, to show off their good sides. Having built some rock steps and a rock retaining wall from slate, I know how hard that is. For a while I didn't have any finger prints at all. I'd worn them off handling the rock so much.
We were watching a Miss Marple the other night, 4:50 from Paddington. In one scene a young woman pushes aside a rock slab about 6 or 7 feet long, by 3 or 4 feet wide, by several inches thick. You can guess what she finds under it. You see a similar thing happen in many other movies and TV shows.
We have a rock about 5 feet x 3 feet in our patio, and I know for a fact it weighs 500 pounds. Even sliding it around a little when it was the top step was all I could do. Upon delivery 4 men carried it into position. When it was moved quite a while later during the back yard reno, it was moved by forklift. It's a very nice rock, and they were careful not to damage it. Now it's the front step to the lodge.
There it gets swept and shoveled regularly, along with the other patio stones. I've even washed it. Yes, with a pressure washer and a scrub brush in one spot to remove the polymer from the sand in between the stones. Never let it be said our rocks aren't cared for.
Friday, December 16, 2016
Getting soft in my old age
Once upon a time, back in the mid 80's or so I worked a job that took me outside regularly. It was shift work, which is it's own special hell, but there was one winter it was brutally cold, on the order of -40 for weeks on end. The guys going off shift would show up in the parking lot as the guys coming on shift arrived. The trick was to get all the cars running and at least slightly warmed up before shift end. Booster cables were a regular thing. We all parked so as to leave a space between the cars, or facing the centre so we could get at it from the other side. By the end of it we all knew which side the battery was on for every car, and just exactly how far away the other car could be so the cables would reach. It's only been -20 C here for a couple of weeks. We've become weenies.
In comparison today wasn't bad at all. (In the sun, out of the wind.) I was out for a 6 K run, 45 minutes. It took about the same amount of time overall to get dressed and undressed and generally ready for the run. I had to pump myself up to do it.
The sunrise today was beautiful in a subdued pastel way. There could have been some nice shots along the way, if you were willing to stand outside and wait. Nope. Not when the coffee is really good and it's warm inside and I'm not quite awake yet. Yeah I know, the real photographers would have been out there.
So the photos today are the last ones I've taken that haven't been in the blog, that is something warm. These are some bought flowers. Perhaps if we all think of the cheerful sunniness of this one, it will help bring back the warmer weather.
In comparison today wasn't bad at all. (In the sun, out of the wind.) I was out for a 6 K run, 45 minutes. It took about the same amount of time overall to get dressed and undressed and generally ready for the run. I had to pump myself up to do it.
The sunrise today was beautiful in a subdued pastel way. There could have been some nice shots along the way, if you were willing to stand outside and wait. Nope. Not when the coffee is really good and it's warm inside and I'm not quite awake yet. Yeah I know, the real photographers would have been out there.
So the photos today are the last ones I've taken that haven't been in the blog, that is something warm. These are some bought flowers. Perhaps if we all think of the cheerful sunniness of this one, it will help bring back the warmer weather.
Thursday, December 15, 2016
Modern Santa uses a Norseman
Today was fun. Complicated scheduling, but fun. Accidental non-beverage meeting with a buddy. (One of the things I like about working downtown was exactly these sorts of meetings.) Planned hot chocolate meeting with a buddy. Impromptu decaf coffee meeting with a buddy. Plus some wandering around exploring and taking photos. Missed by THAT much on some of them.
Two photos I like. Some downtown Calgary worker bees will know about this one already.
That's a Norseman V, built in the early 40's, and after a long career flying all over, it ends up hanging in the Suncor building.
Then peering up and out of a nearby +15 I was struck by how tall that new building was, and wondered if I was seeing the top. I liked how it faded into the the pre-dawn darkness, so I didn't artificially brighten it.
Some notes. The windows are filthy this time of year. It can be tricky to get nice interior photos of the +15 bridges, or even nice exterior shots through the filthy glass. A couple of them I was ever so slightly off centre. Maybe I was leaning to one side. I didn't notice in the camera, but I sure noticed on screen. No correcting that. Next time. I'll be doing this again, maybe with a buddy, and hopefully the light will be better.
The +15 is a lot more boring than I remember. There seems to be less public art. Some pieces I was looking forward to seeing were not there anymore. Lots of the little independent coffee shops have closed and Starbucks have taken their place. I think every building in downtown Calgary has a Starbucks in it, and some have two. Subway is the next most common franchise.
There are a lot fewer people walking through the system now. Lots fewer. Sigh. I saw several people that I wondered if they were someone I knew; they looked very alike, but I wasn't sure enough to call their name.
This one is a photo of an extremely interesting painting. There's more of it than will fit into one photo. I spent a while looking at it and I'm convinced the artist cleverly merged several different view points into one painting as it swept around the curve, kind of matching the curve of the Bow and Elbow. I'm pretty sure parts of it are along the bluff above Stampede park, and at several points along McHugh's bluff. Maybe Tom Campbell hill as well, though the perspective seems to be higher than the bluffs. There is quite a bit more on both the right and left of what you see in my photo. Even after looking carefully I couldn't find any information about the artist or when it was installed. Knowing this exists, I want to go back through my photos to find the similar shots and see exactly what was done. Anyone know the artist that I can give them the recognition they deserve?
Two photos I like. Some downtown Calgary worker bees will know about this one already.
That's a Norseman V, built in the early 40's, and after a long career flying all over, it ends up hanging in the Suncor building.
Then peering up and out of a nearby +15 I was struck by how tall that new building was, and wondered if I was seeing the top. I liked how it faded into the the pre-dawn darkness, so I didn't artificially brighten it.
Some notes. The windows are filthy this time of year. It can be tricky to get nice interior photos of the +15 bridges, or even nice exterior shots through the filthy glass. A couple of them I was ever so slightly off centre. Maybe I was leaning to one side. I didn't notice in the camera, but I sure noticed on screen. No correcting that. Next time. I'll be doing this again, maybe with a buddy, and hopefully the light will be better.
The +15 is a lot more boring than I remember. There seems to be less public art. Some pieces I was looking forward to seeing were not there anymore. Lots of the little independent coffee shops have closed and Starbucks have taken their place. I think every building in downtown Calgary has a Starbucks in it, and some have two. Subway is the next most common franchise.
There are a lot fewer people walking through the system now. Lots fewer. Sigh. I saw several people that I wondered if they were someone I knew; they looked very alike, but I wasn't sure enough to call their name.
This one is a photo of an extremely interesting painting. There's more of it than will fit into one photo. I spent a while looking at it and I'm convinced the artist cleverly merged several different view points into one painting as it swept around the curve, kind of matching the curve of the Bow and Elbow. I'm pretty sure parts of it are along the bluff above Stampede park, and at several points along McHugh's bluff. Maybe Tom Campbell hill as well, though the perspective seems to be higher than the bluffs. There is quite a bit more on both the right and left of what you see in my photo. Even after looking carefully I couldn't find any information about the artist or when it was installed. Knowing this exists, I want to go back through my photos to find the similar shots and see exactly what was done. Anyone know the artist that I can give them the recognition they deserve?
Wednesday, December 14, 2016
Building mashup commentary
So. These two buildings.
They really aren't one building, as Calgary people know. From left to right they are the second and third tallest buildings in Calgary right now. I just happened to be standing at the exact right spot for them to appear the same height.
Nor are they a science fiction movie screen shot, though the colours sort of make it look like that. In fact the one on the right is more red, and the one building face looks orange because of the light. For some people the building and it's shorter (hidden) companion are called Red Square.
But think about this. One can walk from one to the other without going outside. Does that make them the same building? In that case most of downtown is one building, because you can walk for many kilometres through the +15 network and never go outside. Which many Calgarians are happy about these days.
Yes, it's still really cold here.
They really aren't one building, as Calgary people know. From left to right they are the second and third tallest buildings in Calgary right now. I just happened to be standing at the exact right spot for them to appear the same height.
Nor are they a science fiction movie screen shot, though the colours sort of make it look like that. In fact the one on the right is more red, and the one building face looks orange because of the light. For some people the building and it's shorter (hidden) companion are called Red Square.
But think about this. One can walk from one to the other without going outside. Does that make them the same building? In that case most of downtown is one building, because you can walk for many kilometres through the +15 network and never go outside. Which many Calgarians are happy about these days.
Yes, it's still really cold here.
Tuesday, December 13, 2016
The moon is hard
I was out for an afternoon photoshoot yesterday. Didn't freeze as long as I kept moving, but the wait for the moon was a bit much. Ruined the milage graph on the app by idling trying to warm up after.
Yes, it's there. Look again. A bit later in the afternoon I tried as it crested one of the downtown buildings. It's still not quite like I envisioned it. Bummer about that steam plume. It wasn't there when I started shooting, and there was nowhere else to go at that point.
Overall the shoot was good. Out of 249 shots, I developed 13, and some of them were panorama shots merged into one. I took this one from a super-secret location while I was waiting for the moon. One of the panorama shots is more of this off to the left, and the other is the Peace Bridge. Anyone looking for some really wide photos for their wall?
Yes, it's there. Look again. A bit later in the afternoon I tried as it crested one of the downtown buildings. It's still not quite like I envisioned it. Bummer about that steam plume. It wasn't there when I started shooting, and there was nowhere else to go at that point.
Overall the shoot was good. Out of 249 shots, I developed 13, and some of them were panorama shots merged into one. I took this one from a super-secret location while I was waiting for the moon. One of the panorama shots is more of this off to the left, and the other is the Peace Bridge. Anyone looking for some really wide photos for their wall?
I'm still dithering about which super cute photos of Curtis and Celina to work on.
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