Archive for the Category ◊ Linkage ◊

24 Aug 2010 Balancing Act
Author: Gail |  Category: Art, Canada, Linkage, The Great Outdoors  | Leave a Comment

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Just like the rock sculptures here, my daily life can resemble a precarious balancing act to keep the volunteer/work/freelance ratio intact. Some days it’s harder to maintain than others. Managing today was relatively simple: one patient drop-off, The Firm, pick up film, subway to meeting in Scarborough, home to emails, editing, writing and whatnot. This is a personal website, not a commercial venture, but for my own reasons I like to write something daily and post some photos. It’s like my daily vitamin and how I unwind from the day. (I don’t take vitamins, but you know what I mean…)

I was pleased to finally see the images from the last two rolls of film shot while I was in Ottawa earlier this month. Picking up film is exciting! It’s all a surprise, especially when the shooting/developing intervals are longer. For any film users out there who don’t know about Shoppers Drug Mart film developing, $2.99 is all they charge to develop a roll of film and put it on CD. It’s simply the best deal around. It was the only way I could afford shooting 18 rolls of film in Havana, Cuba, at the end of 2006. It makes shooting film less of a luxury.

Back to the photos, the artist behind the rock sculptures is a fellow named John Ceprano, who happened to be there while we were so I got him on film just before the sky opened and poured on everyone at Remic Rapids:

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More information about the sculptures can be found on Ceprano’s website here.

More from Remic Rapids (I like the reflection):

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An abandoned barn in Wakefield, Quebec:

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My favourite shots taken in Gatineau Park, Quebec:

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To see all the photos in the “Analogue in Ottawa” set, click through the Pictobrowser below or view them as a full-screen slideshow in Flickr.

22 Aug 2010 Mila’s Daydreams
Author: Gail |  Category: Art, Linkage, Videoclips  | Leave a Comment

This is amazingly creative: a woman on maternity leave takes photos of her baby sleeping, imagining her daydreams. She uses a simple point-and-shoot camera, creating the scene in a few minutes and working quickly before her baby wakes up.

http://milasdaydreams.blogspot.com/

Mila’s mama worked in advertising and her father is a composer (his music is the soundtrack). I’ll bet Mila has some pretty imaginative daydreams!

12 Aug 2010 Trainspotting
Author: Gail |  Category: Canada, Linkage, Local Colour, film photography  | Leave a Comment

Wakefield, Quebec

Wakefield, Quebec

Wakefield, Quebec

What is it about trains that make me stop and take photos? Is it the Old World charm? A nod to the power of the Industrial Revolution? The singularity of a journey on one track with no traffic or real intersections? The steadiness, the speed low enough to take in surroundings (excluding the TGV in France and bullet trains in Japan, of course)? All of the above?

Whatever it is, I sure do take a lot of train photos. These three were all shot on film in Wakefield, Quebec, last Saturday.

http://www.steamtrain.ca/

This is (one of) the last steam-powered train left in Canada and there are only 1-2 scenic rail departures a day, so we were very lucky to be near the tracks at all when it went by, but we were doubly lucky to have cameras at the ready. Thanks, H!

26 May 2010 Reverse-Lens Macro Photography
Author: Gail |  Category: Linkage, Other Photogs, Photography  | 2 Comments

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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.

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Jan’s got a set of these reverse-lens macro shots in Flickr, check them out here. He’s also written about it here.

30 Apr 2010 Featured On Fotomoto
Author: Gail |  Category: Linkage, Photography  | One Comment

Hey, remember the little contest I ran last week that Nigel won? The photo is featured on the front page of Fotomoto today! Check it out!

28 Apr 2010 Dawn Langstroth
Author: Gail |  Category: Linkage, Music, Videoclips  | Leave a Comment

Tonight was the first time I checked out Dawn Langstroth’s music, and I’m glad I did, finally. She’s got the chops and her songwriting compliments the qualities of her voice. If you’re Canadian you may already know her name — she’s Anne Murray‘s daughter. I’ve watched a few of her videos and at times I can see the resemblance in their faces and hear a little similarity in the timbre of their voices, but their vocal styles are quite different and Dawn’s music takes a darker tone, especially in the lyrics.

Check out Dawn’s website (the videos are better quality there than on YouTube). I especially like her acoustic version of “You Don’t Know Me”.

http://www.dawnlangstroth.com

22 Apr 2010 Relay For Life 2010 — please sponsor me!
Author: Gail |  Category: Linkage, Living with Cancer, Videoclips, Volunteering/Charity  | 2 Comments

I also like the French version (there are subtitles in English as well):

I’m in one of the two teams (thus far) from The Brides’ Project doing this year’s Relay For Life to benefit the Canadian Cancer Society. I just set up my personal page:

http://convio.cancer.ca/goto/gailedwinfielding

Just like the previous two years we’re doing the overnight relay wearing “basement” gowns from The Brides’ Project, so stay tuned for more photos of us wearing the UGLIEST wedding dresses you’ve ever seen. Here’s the photoset from last year of Neesa and Natalia and I looking for our ultimate fugly gowns: [thumbnails] [slideshow]

Our team pages for The Brides’ Project are here:
The Brides’ Project
The Brides’ Project Too

Here’s a video of The Brides’ Project Team from 2008.

Relay For Life takes place at Forest Hill Memorial Park on Friday, June 11, from 7pm to 7am.

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Relay For Life

If you’ve never heard of Relay For Life, here’s the scoop:

Relay For Life is a 12 hour, non-competitive, overnight event. Teams of 10 people – family, friends, neighbours, co-workers – take turns walking around a track to raise funds to make cancer history.

The Canadian Cancer Society Relay For Life is more than just a fundraiser. It is an opportunity to get together with family and friends and celebrate cancer survivors, remember loved ones lost to cancer, and fight back in the hope of finding a cure for this terrible disease.

Relay is fun, fulfilling, and your participation gives strength to our mission to eradicate cancer. Walk with us in this inspirational 12-hour overnight event.

Last year Neesa and I were up all night long without a nap. At some point in the night, I think we lost our minds:

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Natalia also had a wardrobe malfunction.

yes, that would be Neesa doing cartwheels in a wedding dress in front of a bank of porta-johns

wedding march

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We’ll have a tent set up, plenty of snacks and drinks to keep us going, and it’ll be a lot of fun staying up all night together! If you can’t join us, we would love your sponsorship of any amount.

22 Mar 2010 The Cove
Author: Gail |  Category: Critters + Creatures, Culture + Society, Linkage, Videoclips  | One Comment


I’d like to see this, and with my pescetarian friends if I can swing it. I know it won an Oscar for Best Documentary 2009, but that wasn’t what persuaded me. It was listening to an interview on CBC Radio last night with the director, Louie Psihoyos, who was a National Geographic photographer for 18 years, talk about Richard O’Barry and why the crew took the risks to make the film. (Incidentally, two of the crew are Canadian, the expedition director and one of the free divers.)

I’ve stated my bias against dolphin shows on my site as long as I’ve been writing here (nearly eight years), but I’m fairly certain watching this film would encourage me to be more vocal about it than ever. The only way I can bring myself to watch the dolphins at the Vancouver Aquarium with my nieces and nephew is that the facility has a no-capture policy in place since the ’90s, but even then I can’t help but feel sadness about any animals in captivity. I’m aware of the wealth of research going on behind the scenes, it’s the “scenes” that don’t sit well with me. Rescuing creatures from harm is one thing, but capturing for the benefit of human entertainment? No thanks, I’m sure we can come up with a better way to fund the research than trap wild animals and force them to live in tiny, artificial environments and perform stunts for food.

16 Mar 2010 Remembering The Irish
Author: Gail |  Category: Linkage, Other Photogs  | Leave a Comment

Irish Famine Memorial

Another one of the shots from the lakeshore photowalk on Feb 21 that included the Irish Famine Memorial. St. Patty’s day is actually tomorrow, but there was a parade last Sunday, which I missed — again! Argh!

Here’s what Wikipedia has to say about St. Patrick’s Day in Canada:

The longest-running Saint Patrick’s Day parade in Canada occurs each year in Montreal, the flag of which has a shamrock in one of its corners. The parades have been held in continuity since 1824.

In the City of Toronto from 1919 to 1927, the Toronto Maple Leafs were known as the Toronto St. Patricks, wore green jerseys. In 1999 when the Leafs played on Hockey Night in Canada (national broadcast of the NHL) on Saint Patrick’s Day, the Leafs wore the green St. Pats retro jersey. There is a large parade in the city’s downtown core that attracts over 100,000 spectators.

Although the baseball season is still in the spring training phase when Saint Patrick’s Day rolls around, the Toronto Blue Jays wear green uniforms for the occasion.[citation needed] The Toronto Raptors professional basketball team also wears a green alternate uniform to celebrate the holiday.

Some groups, notably Guinness, have lobbied to make Saint Patrick’s Day a federal (national) holiday.

In March 2009, the Calgary Tower had changed its top exterior lights to new green-coloured CFL bulbs just in time for Saint Patrick’s Day. The lights were in fact part of the environmental non-profit organization, Project Porchlight, and were Green to represent environmental concerns. Approximately 210 lights were changed in time for Saint Patrick’s Day and almost resemble a Leprechaun’s hat during the evening light. After a week, regular white CFLs took their place, saving the Calgary Tower around $12,000 and reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 104 metric tonnes in the process.

Anyhow, you can check out everybody else‘s St. Patrick’s Day 2010 parade photos that made Flickr’s Explore page here as thumbnails, or a slideshow.

13 Mar 2010 Young Artists For Haiti – Wavin’ Flag
Author: Gail |  Category: Linkage, Music, Videoclips, Volunteering/Charity  | Leave a Comment

I have to say, even though I now fall in the ranks of the “older generation” and am not a fan of all these Canadian artists, I have nothing curmudgeonly or cynical to say about this remixed version of K’naan’s song. (Does it count if I say I’m glad Nickelback’s not in it?) I did find it mildly amusing that “Young Artists For Haiti” included a few older rockers and stuck them in the back — is that Tom Cochrane at 2:19/3:38 and Jim Cuddy of Blue Rodeo at 2:22?

In fact, as a song and as a video, I like it very much. I’ve watched it several times and grow to like it a little more each time. As well, there are images that really hit home, eg. the tiny child with the big eyes and wee smile at 3:56 tugged at my heartstrings at every video play. It is aimed to inspire a younger generation (and I believe it will), their voices sound great, and the message isn’t drowned out by “oversinging” like the kind you would find in a show like Idol. I also liked that they included at least a bit of French!

The version that’s on the CBC website is longer and includes part of an interview with K’naan and spokespeople for the three Canadian humanitarian charities which benefit from the sales of the song and video. Links are here:

Young Artists For Haiti (official site): http://www.youngartistsforhaiti.net/
(purchase the mp3 for C$1.29, video for C$2.29)
Young Artists For Haiti (Facebook site): http://www.facebook.com/youngartistsforhaiti

World Vision Canada: http://www.worldvision.ca/
Free the Children: http://www.freethechildren.com/
War Child: http://www.warchild.ca/

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