May 31, 2010 by Gail
I’ve seen the Blue Angels a bunch of times before, but never this close! I don’t have much zoom on the lens I brought with me, yet I could read the numbers on the sides of the planes. Amazing. Some of their high-speed passes were so low over the water and close to the beach they could take out swimmers.
I’m leaving for Toronto in a couple of hours. More pics to come after I get back.
Posted in Aviation, USA | 3 Comments
May 29, 2010 by Gail
Spent most of the day with friends on Long Island, and the air show was a bonus!
Posted in Aviation, Mobile Blogging, Videoclips | 4 Comments
May 28, 2010 by Gail
Commerce Court (Financial District)
Cole Porter has it right, but the G20 Summit next month is going to fence some of us in with nearly a billion* dollars of security — and an actual fence! We will need special cards to get in and out of the zone.
That’s not the part I’m dreading, however. My major concern is that I’m shooting a wedding with three locations all over downtown and the lakeshore, which is requiring a plan of military precision!
*including the security costs for the G8, which is taking place at the same time up in Huntsville
Posted in Mobile Blogging | 3 Comments
May 27, 2010 by Gail
Miss Maddy at Earls Cove (Sunshine Coast, BC). The top shot is mine, the bottom shot is Allan‘s.
Madeleine is now eight and a half years old, and is the middle child, like me. There are all sorts of theories about a supposed middle child syndrome, for being the middle of three (I couldn’t seem to find an example of being the middle of five), and also for when the middle children become adults. There are also those who don’t believe this syndrome exists. I think a few of the characteristics ring quite true (articles say the middle children turn out to be quite creative), but I don’t know if there is really a behaviour pattern between the middle children I know.
In any case, it is interesting to watch happy-go-lucky Maddy grow up and show her personality in front of a camera. She is such a character!
Posted in The Ms | 2 Comments
May 26, 2010 by Gail
In the spring of 1985 while moving to BC from Winnipeg, three of us in my family were in a single-vehicle accident along the Trans-Canada Highway, near the Alberta/Saskatchewan border.
It was the middle of the night. My dad was driving our beloved Volkswagen campervan when it blew a tire and rolled on the highway. I was fast asleep in the bed at the back and got tossed around like a sock in a dryer. Alvin was wearing a seat belt and asleep under a blanket in the passenger seat, but I’m pretty sure it wasn’t adjusted for him but for my mother, which is how he ended up in the ditch.
Our belongings were strewn all over the highway. A semi truck drove by without stopping to help us, crushing our things before continuing along its way. I was not yet 13 years old but I remember the scene quite clearly, how angry I was at that truck. Then another truck came but this one stopped, and the driver helped my dad bring Alvin from the ditch to the cab. Alvin’s thigh was swollen like a balloon and they had to cut his jeans to release the pressure. A Greyhound bus filled with sleepy passengers came next and took us to the nearest hospital, which was too small to handle our situation. An ambulance then took us all the way to Regina General Hospital, where my dad was bleeding profusely from his head but was in too much shock to notice.
No major injuries, but Dad needed stitches in his head/ear, and Alvin broke his femur and needed stitches in his chin. The most I got was bruising and my glasses broke. Alvin ended up spending a month in traction, and I was bored and blind (no glasses!). The good people at the hospital let me make crafts (see the clothespin wishing wells?) and paint cartoons on the walls. I remember painting Garfield and Transformers. Even back then I was very myopic, painting wasn’t easy! But I had time.
Everyone was super-friendly, and Alvin had a great nurse — a really funny guy whose name escapes me. He shared a room with a kid about the same age who was hit by a car while riding his bicycle and in much worse shape than Alvin — he was lucky to be alive! The two boys were both strung up by wires and cables; they entertained each other during their long stay.
Alvin spent his 10th birthday in the hospital, so I believe the accident was early April 1985. After a month in traction, he came home to Winnipeg and spent a month in a body cast!
Even after a rather traumatic episode, I remember Regina and the hospital and the staff with fond memories. They took an awful situation and made it more than bearable.
Thanks, Regina!
Posted in Ancient History, Family, film photography, Raconteurism | 1 Comment
May 26, 2010 by Gail
Last weekend we were chasing an enormous ant around so my friend Jan could take some reverse-lens macro shots. Also referred to as “the poor man’s macro”, this DIY method allows you to get very close to the subject by simply turning your existing lens(es) around. There are various tutorials written on the web for it, check one out here.
As you can see in this photo, Jan’s combined two telephoto lenses to get close. But as you can imagine, you need a LOT of light to get through these lens barrels, even outdoors in bright sunlight.
Jan’s got a set of these reverse-lens macro shots in Flickr, check them out here. He’s also written about it here.
Posted in Linkage, Other Photogs, Photography | 2 Comments
May 25, 2010 by Gail
Posted in Mobile Blogging | 3 Comments
May 24, 2010 by Gail
We saw a lot today: farms, Stratford, cows, Kitchener, rolling hills, Guelph, Mennonites in carriages pulled by horses, covered bridges, uncovered bridges, a racetrack, and the Cheltenham Badlands.
The only thing I wanted to do when I arrived home was download the memory cards and take a shower, even though I passed crowds of people walking down to the beach to catch the fireworks — the beach that’s just down the street from my house. Yup, Nerd Supreme over here.
Weekend photos thus far are best viewed as a [slideshow], or [thumbnails], or in the Pictobrowser below:
Posted in Canada, The Great Outdoors | 1 Comment
May 23, 2010 by Gail
(After nearly 3,600 post titles and eight years of writing in this blog you’d think I’d be quicker at coming up with titles and writing posts but this is not the case!)
I’m going to make this a placeholder because I may fall asleep before I click ‘Publish’…
Posted in Food + Drink, Friends | 1 Comment
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