Out with the old...

And in with the new, of course! It's a brand new year with fresh opportunities, and I'm excited to take full advantage. I didn't take too many photographs over the Christmas break, but here are two experimental ones.





Carolyn and I awoke on the First of January to find the Earth draped in a fluffy coat of fresh New Year snow, so we slipped into our snow gear (long johns and snow pants!), strapped on our cameras, and ventured out into the wilderness (after first shovelling the foot of snow from our driveway of course).

We headed first to Doon Valley, in search of Sheave Tower - which, we found out is not in Doon Valley. We found a community trail and traversed into the forest. The walk was lovely and peaceful; we had the path mostly to ourselves, mind a few friendly cross-country skiers and walkers getting a start on their resolutions.



It was only much later that we discovered we had headed straight for the sewage treatment plant. Not so romantic.



Here is a cropped image of a staghorn sumac or rhus typhina.



We then headed to the other side of the 401 to the other Old Mill Rd, which eventually led us to Sheave Tower. This is an old tower which harnessed the energy from the river to power the adjacent Blair Mill. It had been in operation from 1876 to the 1940s (I think), but has since been restored. It's tucked away in the woods and you might miss it while driving by if not for the flash of red. It provided some nice contrast for our photos.









Finally, we went to the Waterlot in New Hamburg, which is where Carolyn and I will be getting married in August. Here is the gazeebo where the ceremony will take place.



Here is a photo of the water wheel across the Nith River (desaturated).



We had a wonderful day and a great start to 2008. Lots of pictures and lots of fun. Here's to a prosperous year for everyone.

Merry Christmas!

As most of you likely know, I'm a Czech thoroughbred, so naturally when spending Christmas with my family, we do it the Czech way. I don't want to go into the details about the Christmas carp and the bathtub, but one significant thing we do differently is that we celebrate Christmas Eve as opposed to Christmas Day. We have a traditional meal, maybe have a drink or two, and open gifts in the evening. Since St. Nick had already delivered his gifts on Dec. 6th, the presents received on this day are from none other than baby Jesus. (If you don't believe me, read about it here!) Anyway, all this means is that little boys and girls get their goodies and play with them until they get tired, and when you crazy North Americans are getting up early, I'll be snoozing away :)

So to all of you, have a wonderful Christmas! Veselé vánoce!



Here's a demonstration of how easily the finest photographic equipment can be rendered useless.

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...

Sweep and be healed!

Well, doing spot-healing in post-processing is all well and good, but I'm the kind of guy that avoids post-processing as much as possible. I want my best picture to be the one created when I trip my shutter, not when I dress it up in Photoshop (not that there's anything wrong with that). So you can imagine that I hate having to use Photoshop just to make pictures viewable.

I need a solution.

I found it.

It is... the Arctic Butterfly!



This little baby has bristles that can be electrostaticlly charged so that when you sweep the sensor - technically, the low-pass filter in front of the sensor - it attracts dust. And, as the Golden Compass has shown us, Dust is evil!!! So yay for the Arctic Butterfly!

Here are some sample shots:


Before


After the Arctic Butterfly!


So, as you can see, it's quite effective! I will now be able to save myself my yearly trip to the Nikon repair centre in Mississauga, the $80 fee, and the heartache of having to wait until next year to get the darned dust off again! You'll notice there is still residue, but this is likely water or oil stain that requires a wet solution (in the chemical sense of the term "solution"). I'll be posting the results once I buy the required materials. But for now, I can kiss dust goodbye!

Click and be healed!

I found a magic feature in my photo editing program (Elements 5.0... I can't afford Photoshop). It's called "Spot Healing Tool Brush". You paint an area of your image that you want eliminated and it automagically removes all evidence of its existence. This is fantastic for me since I have lots of photos defaced by ugly sensor dust particles.

Here are two images from my trip with Carolyn to Saskatoon. I liked the images but the originals had horrendous black smudges on them. Now that I have this handy tool, I plan to upload more photos that have been collecting dust (pun intended).

Friday photoroam

After two weeks of solid crazy work (weekend included), I finally got a chance to get away from it all and 'decompress'. On Friday afternoon, I went on a photoroam with two friends from work: Richard and Andy. Just being outside was very cathartic, and having my camera and some friends just made it better. I definitely needed the break from work.

Click here to see photos from the walk.