Squishy, R.I.P.

Yesterday the world lost a gentle cat named Squishy. Squishy had been with my family for 16 years, greatly exceeding all expectations since my parents live near a busy street; his predecessors - Buddy and Squeak - only survived a few years between them. But, despite the moniker given by my sister, Squishy defied the odds and saw me through the end of elementary school, through high school, university, and beyond.

Squishy wasn't an extremely social cat. He didn't particularly like new people and would often just hide in the basement whenever the doorbell rang. And even after co-habitating with my father for 16 years, there was little ground gained in that relationship. But he was fiercely loyal to me and my mother. He often slept on my bed, and would sit underneath the desk lamp whenever I was on the computer. Even years after I had moved away from home, he would still greet me as though no time had passed, waiting to be pet.

Sadly, but perhaps not unexpectedly, his health declined as he grew older. His once regal, muscular physique deteriorated, despite a healthy appetite. He had survived a near-death situation a few years ago, but this time was different. It was time.

Thanks Squishy, for everything. We will always remember you.

Alternate Reality

George would never forgive himself for leaving the 12kg bag of cat food on the floor overnight.

Baby, it's cold outside

I suppose it's not so cold anymore, but it was when these photos were taken.

Flash Forward

I consider myself to be an available light photographer. I typically take landscape (natural or urban) and wildlife (flora or fauna) photos, which implies that I make use of natural light to illuminate my subject. For the most part, it's a very WYSIWYG experience.

As such, I don't often find myself creating light for the scene. I rarely use my on-camera flash (it really sucks any sense of dimension out of a photo), but I have used an old Canon flash for off-camera macro photography. I bought an optical flash trigger so I can activate the remote flash using my on-camera flash. Unfortunately, the setup is awkward enough - and the results not satisfying enough - that I haven't gained any competency using a flash. And I have been OK with that deficiency.

Until now.

Carolyn got me a very nice flash for Christmas so I have become forced to become competent. I have tried playing with it on a few occasions in order to familiarize myself with the gamut of functions that I never realized a flash could have. It's quite frustrating to step out of one's comfort zone. I feel completely at ease with my camera in my hands, but with the addition of this inarguably helpful tool I have become a novice again.

Now, I have accepted (begrudgingly) the fact that I won't understand all the fancy features of the flash overnight; I don't even know what they are all for, let alone how to active them. What is most frustrating for me is not being able to create the lighting effect I desire. I am not able to correctly visualize how the scene will appear when I place the flash in a certain way using a certain setting. I mean, I understand the fundamental concepts of lighting, but I can't seem to consistently apply them.

On top of that, flash photography requires a much different mindset than available-light photography. Consider that when taking a photograph using available light, you take what you can get, and then you move on. If the sun has set then you can't get those cozy, warm colours any more. For me, this is great because I am under the pressure of the clock to get the shot; if I don't get it within that window then there's nothing more I can do.

That concept doesn't apply when you use flash. If you aren't getting the result you want then it's because you're not doing something right, and it's up to you to fix it. And there's no clock. No clock means there is no end. No end to getting the shot that's just a little bit better than the last one. For a perfectionist, this isn't healthy.

I suppose half the problem is that I don't know when I've nailed the shot; when I'm using natural light I have a sense of this, but not as much when using the flash. I expect this will come with time and practice, but knowing this fact doesn't make it easier.

So, practicing is what I have started to do. After a trip to the dollar store I acquired some coloured bristol board for backdrops, a foam board to keep them straight, and some clips to keep them attached. I managed to keep the foam board upright using some tape and a bookend, but I may invest in some better equipment after squishing my subject a few times. Below is a selection of my recent attempts. Note that they are all against a black backdrop; I was unable to illuminate the white backdrop enough, and the blue background just wasn't cutting it.

I have signed up for a day seminar for flash photography with Richard and Ryan in April, so I have high hopes for what I will learn. In the mean time I'll keep flashing.

Rocky Holidays

Last Thanksgiving weekend, Carolyn and I went to visit our friends Andrea and Jeremy in Alberta. They moved out there last summer when Andrea got a ministerial placement in the metropolis of Killam. I can confirm that there is at least one stop sign in the town.

They were gracious enough to drive many hours and many hundred kilometers to show us the amazing Rocky Mountains, so I thought I should finally share some photos. Furthermore, I upgraded my computer over Christmas so I can do certain post-processing techniques (such as panoramas) much quicker.

We flew into Edmonton in the evening where we met Andrea, Jeremy, and Hiro. From there we drove straight to Canmore. Jeremy has booked us a great chalet, and this is the view we found in our backyard the next morning.

We drove into Banff National Park - my first visit - and headed for the Banff Gondola. The view on the way up is amazing, and once you're at the top - spectacular. We hiked around for quite some time and I took a number of photos. I think Jeremy and Andrea learned how time can slow to a crawl when I have my camera.

We then headed to Lake Louise for another short hike. Right on the lake is the Château Lake Louise, which is amazingly large and without a doubt has the best-smelling bathroom soap I have ever used. Everything since has left me wanting more from my hand-washing experience.

Just south of Lake Louise is the pristine Moraine Lake. I have never witnessed water so turquoise. Apparently it is one of the most photographed locations in Canada, and I can understand why.

Me and Carolyn at Moraine Lake.

Jeremy and Andrea at Moraine Lake.










To our dismay (and relief) we didn't have any real bear sightings (ask Carolyn), but on our way out of the park we had the pleasure of coming across a family of deer.




After ingesting some overpriced raclette in Banff, we headed back to Canmore. The next day we started the trek back to Killam. We stopped in Drumheller at the Royal Tyrell Museum. Sadly we got there too late to see any exhibits, but not too late to purchase some gifts for our dinosaur-crazy nephew. There were some dinosaur replicas outside the museum that Hiro was not too impressed with.

Late in the evening I finally got to check another thing off my life-list: seeing a moose. The photo isn't great but it's proof.


We finished our our visit with another few days in Killam, enjoying some balmy weather and a fabulous Thanksgiving dinner.

To go, please

The Couch Sessions

"Of course I'm comfortable!"

The Deep South - Pt. 1

Carolyn and I have been back from our road trip to Florida for 1.5 weeks now, so I'm overdue to post something.

We managed to leave on Wednesday night and made it all the way to the disappointingly ordinary city of Erie, Pennsylvania. The following day we stopped in the Steel City - Pittsburgh.


A view of one of the rivers in Pittsburgh (not sure if it's the Allegheny or the Monongahela).


Statues of what I am calling engineers. They look busy.

The destination for Day 2 was New River Gorge, in West Virginia. Carolyn had found out that we could camp there for free. As seems to happen on camping nights, we got there fairly late and had difficulty finding a campsite. We drove through the first of several shanty towns we would encounter on the trip; I would consider them Class D ghost towns, but sorry, we didn't stop to take pictures. I'm sure I could hear a banjo playing in the distance. After driving for hours around unmarked, dirt roads in the middle of seemingly-nowhere, we finally found a spot by the river that had a picnic table and a grill, so we set up for the night. I took some night shots but they were pretty crappy. Here is a sample (not flickr-worthy) that shows we were in a valley.



The next morning, we figured out where we had been camping. Did I mention that we had some wine with dinner the previous night? From cartons!



Anyway, we got up early (around 6ish) to see the bridge in some good morning light. I'm not terribly pleased with my digital photos, but I am hopeful about my film ones that I have yet to process.



Supposedly you can stack two Statues of Liberty plus one Washington Monument beneath that bridge... or perhaps it is one of the former and two of the latter? Try it and let me know!

Weekend with the Wightmans

Every so often (more often than not, it seems), Carolyn has plans for the weekend. Usually these plans involve me, but occasionally they do not. Last weekend was one such occasion, as she went scrapbooking for a weekend with her sister and my half-sister. I generally look forward to these times, as I tend to be very productive around the house; however, I also tend to be poor at Self-Nourishment Management (cereal anyone?). Thankfully the Wightmans like me well enough to keep me alive over such weekends, and this weekend was the same: scalloped potatoes on Friday, steak on Saturday, and Marble Slab ice cream on Sunday. I couldn't ask for better friends. :)

Not wanting to waste the glorious weather, me and the Wightman clan went to the dog park on Sunday. The shining sun plastered a smile on everyone's face. Thanks to Ryan, Joy, Navilyn and Niko for the great afternoon. Click here to view some pictures I posted on flickr.

Flashback: Monument Valley

Way back in May of 2005 I went to Chandler, AZ on a business trip. My good friend Ryan had already been working there for several months, but hadn't ventured out further than the local burger joint. Armed with our cameras, tripods, and a fierce determination we took a road trip to fabulous Utah - specifically the mythic Monument Valley.

Click below to view some of the photos from that trip, reprocessed (now that I sorta know what I'm doing).

Flashback: Ottawa

I suppose it's that time of year again where I feel motivated to hone my photographic skills. Take a look at the photos I've processed from our trip to Ottawa in 2005. We went to the Tulip Festival and then fed the rabbits at the Big Apple on the way home. Many of these photos had already been posted to flickr already; in fact, these were the first photos I ever posted to flickr. I have touched them up and replaced the existing photos. You can tell which ones have been re-processed by my watermark in the lower corner of the photo. Unfortunately most of these early photos are only in Jpeg format so they are difficult to touch up.


Ottawa Tulip Festival


Feeding the rabbits at the Big Apple in Colborne, Ontario

An end to the Intrigue

All good things must come to an end, and so it is with my beloved 1998 Oldsmobile Intrigue. The doctors..er.. mechanics say she needed some major operations just to make it through the winter, and her prospects in the spring didn't look to promising. So Carolyn and I took her for one final drive last night (but, not too far because we didn't want to have to walk home).

Somehow the car lasted 12 years, and almost 300,000km. We visited a lot of places together, including a 15,000km trip around the USA. In the blistering heat of New Mexico is where the temperature gauge stopped working. Here you can see the Check Engine light, faithfully assuring me that my engine was still located under the hood, ready to be checked.

Here is the Intrigue after the last drive. My father used to say "she looks a lot better than she drives". Very true.








The next morning she got strapped to the back of a trunk and taken to a better place. I can imagine her now... parked up there with the big guy himself (Henry Ford), looking down in jealousy at our awesome Toyota Matrix. So long Intrigue, it was fun.

Take Me Out

The concert last night was awesome!

Flashback: Elora

It's fitting that my next installment of images from the archives is from the Elora Gorge in 2005. Sadly, I was still shooting JPGs back then (instead of the digital-darkroom-friendly RAW files), and on top of that, I wasn't very good. Or rather, I was consistently poor. I have two shots of interest from the hike we took 4 years ago, and the remaining shots are from later in April of 2005. This post represents almost 5% of my photos from April 2005, so that's not a bad ratio. Hopefully we see that increase to 10% over time.


A simple cropped snapshot, near the entrance to the Conservation Area.


My wife (girlfriend at the time) creating curtains for our apartment. Look how keen we were back then! ;)

These next two photos have been posted before. Meet Orange and Orange II. Which versions do you prefer?

Elora Photoroam

Another photoroam, this one with Richard last weekend while Carolyn was at a scrapbooking retreat. We had originally intended to visit Elmira and partake in the annual Maple Syrup Festival but the chill in the air was not enough to drive the hoards away; thus, we gave up on a parking spot and headed towards the great beyond. Halfway to the great beyond we realized it was closed for renovations, so we turned around and headed to Elora. Click here for some shots from the trip:



For fun I took a series of shots to see how well they would stitch together into a panoramic image. Here is the result. The second image is simply a cropped version of the first.




The man with the plan...


Caught unaware


Ok, just try to tell me that - at first glance - this doesn't look like a Klingon Bird of Prey. Be honest.