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.

Kitchener photoroam

I haven't been able to concentrate for too long on the computer, but I've managed to post some photos from a photoroam I took with Ryan a couple weeks ago. We walked around downtown Kitchener one evening after work.

Bad food + good company = photographic adventure!

After canceling numerous times due to pre-wedding activities (sounds much nicer than "freaking out before the wedding"), I finally fulfilled my promise to go on another photoroam with my good friend Richard. We decided to trek into the previously unexplored Monarch Woods Park near my house. No monarchs were spotted, but we did catch some of that evening sun, which always makes shots interesting.

I've been experimenting with some backlighting lately.




Afterwards I had Richard over to my house for dinner that I had prepared in the slow cooker. Unfortunately this was the first time trying this recipe, and I overcooked the chicken, and the sauce ended up congealing in the pan. Fortunately my awesome wife Carolyn fixed up a new sauce to mask the chicken (which at this point had a very leathery appearance). Serendipitously, the congealed sauce made for an excellent super-macro subject.

With Richard snapping away at some flowers, I conjoined my 70-210mm and 50mm lenses into an überlens. With this much magnification at your disposal, you can really see another world.



I took a little artistic license with this photo: I applied the "watercolour" effect in Photoshop Elements. I normally don't like resorting to such blatent manipulation... but I do like the effect.


Thanks to Richard for giving me some sagely advice about flash photography. I promise our next venture will include a more appetizing meal!

UW revisited

Having dwelled in the photographic doldrums for quite some time now, Ryan and I decided to recharge our batteries and take some early-morning snaps. The idea, in theory, was wonderful, but it turns out that overcast early-morning light is no better than overcast late-morning light... and more importantly, winter is cold. We drove to Waterloo Park and took a few shots there before walking over to our old haunt - the University of Waterloo. The Davis Centre (DC) - a spectacular mess of garishly coloured pipes and glass - seemed like a good place to stop and take some indoor photographs. Results are below, along with photos from the adjoining - and visually uninspiring - Mathematics and Computing building (MC).


One of a few crazy people we saw that morning. It was probably -20C, and the man is wearing little more than tights!


A plant in Waterloo Park. I desaturated this photograph to highlight the form of the plant against the stark snowscape. It looks a bit pixelated here, but I think it looks better in actual size.


Appropriate sticker, considering the temperature. At first glance I only saw "Freeze Now!"


A pair of benches in the Davis Centre. I used to study on these benches because there was nobody else around usually... the benches are quite uncomfortable :)


The ghost in the halls. Here is Ryan taking a photograph.


A fountain in the Davis Centre.


A locker in MC. CS 130 was my first computer science course. We learned about robots!


One of the classrooms in MC. Can you read what's written on the board? Maybe I should have sat closer...