The Canadian Loon

Week 7 - Shadows - From the Shadows

2012-02-12T15:44:00.003-05:00

Greetings from deep winter ;-) Only 1 month and 2 days before I head off to Bermuda, can't some soon enough! Looking forward to seeing my island friends.

Deep into the winter blah's this year but we're keeping a smile on the face and carrying on. Lots of unknown things going on in my life right now. Waiting for C and her 3rd lawyer to get moving on the next stage of the divorce mess, still where we were 2 years ago when we separated. Seems to be the never heading headache. Changes coming at work. Looks like a long overdue (and much needed) re-org is on the horizon. I know I'm in good shape but curious to see what my position will look like when it's over and tomorrow my crew and I head into a labour grievance over market allowance pay. Spent the past week getting ready for the presentation and preparing our arguments. We're the first grievance to be heard tomorrow morning at 9am. Lets hope being the first out of the trench to storm the lines doesn't end with machine gun fire hahahaha

Nice and sunny this weekend but the teasing warm weather that we had earlier in the week ran away. It's around -20c with the windchill here today so walking the dog was not a pleasant experience. So deceptive with the sunshine streaming in the back windows, it feels so warm. Stick your nose out the door and you discover the truth ;-)

This weeks Project 52 theme was shadows. Naturally most people went for shows of things on sunny days or lights at night. Trying to continue to treat these themes as outside the box. What comes to me is, what lurks in the shadows. Not getting much reaction from the Project 52 people, but I like it anyhow;

As with every other photographer in the world, spend this week drooling over the new D800. What an amazing looking camera. But mentally trying to justify a 3k+ price tag. Not something I could afford easily. I'm actually not in to bad of shape lens wise. I have the 80-200mm that would fit it nicely in FX mode and I could look at a Tamron F2.8 to cover the low end. Another 500 or so. Sell off some of my DX stuff maybe? hahaha, the possibilities are there. But would like to see what they are going to come out with when replacing the D300s. But that FX D800 is a piece of work. Going to have to think this one through but for the foreseeable future my trust D200 will continue to keep me entertained.

Well that was the week in review, not much happening. Just over 1 month till Bermuda, 2 months till canoeing starts and 3 months good spring weather. Every year I find myself liking the idea of retiring "south" more and more attractive ;-)

Week 6 - Signs - It's all Ok!

2012-02-05T15:49:00.001-05:00

Still not sure if I like this new look and feel that blogger has when creating a new post. Why do websites feel the need to keep changing things for those of us who were content? Oh well, live with it I guess.

So first up, my shot for this weeks Project 52. The theme was signs. Naturally lots of people took great photos of various signs around them. I was kinda hoping to find a "no dog poop" sign and then have Jackson take a shit in front of it, but that would be the stars aligning ;-) Once again I tried to think about something besides what others were doing, thus the hand sign - ok.

In the process of shooting this I discovered;

1. My remote shutter cable is to short for me to take a picture of myself,
2. Guessing at the focus setting, hit the timer, press the shutter and get in front of the lens in time and in focus is a major pain, and
3. I look much better in black and white ;-)

I thought I was so smart, no one else had posted something like this. I worked on it for over an hour and once I posted, sure enough, someone beat me by 30 minute - doh!

Had another clear evening on Friday night so this time decided to do the startrail thing again, but this time to the north. Once again the batteries are just not up to the task when it's cold (-10c) and 30 sec exposures. The result is only 53 images blended into one. But now I know exactly where the north star is when I look out my front door. Just a pain that I have the glow of the city to the north and have to deal with that in my images.

Not a bad week overall. Still getting the winter blahs on and off a bit, so the occasional self pity party. Work has been steady but actually been finding some time to do some things that have been sitting on my to do list for the past few months. Friday I hit an ice snowbank and put a nice dent in the plastic bumper on the truck. It's down low and not really visible or noticeable to most people, but I can see it and it sucks!

Been working on a new tattoo design ;-) Jen and I are booked for the 16th. Not sure if we'll have time on the 16th to get it done but hoping so. I'm not going to post the image but it does involve an Inukshuk ;-)

That was my week. Winter continues but we're surviving! According to the rodents we're suppose to have an early spring. I'll believe it when I see it. Only 6 weeks till I head for Bermuda! ;-)

Project 52 - Week 5 - Eyes

2012-01-29T18:19:00.001-05:00

This weeks theme was eyes. I wanted to find a fish, put sunglasses on it and do a "Fisheye Lens" ;-) But no time to go out and buy a fish and we don't seem to have any stuffed ones around. So I used the eyes of my fishing rod instead. Actually got Jen to hold a fishing rod!

Rolling Sky Sunrise

2012-01-22T18:06:00.001-05:00

Yup, two posts in one day ;-) I was productive this morning. Got up and thought the sky was pretty interesting so dropped the gopro outside and let it record. Sped the video up and gave it a bit of a rolling sky. Still not the sunrise I'm looking for but good practice overall. Enjoy. Click the YouTube link to get the bigger version. Much better.

Startrails - Week 4 - Up

2012-01-22T10:18:00.001-05:00

My first attempt at doing Startrails, something I never seem to think of doing in the summer.

Basically, startails is done by doing either 1 really long exposure (not recommended) or doing a series of long exposures and then putting them into a single image. My result is below;

Now like I said, this was my first attempt so I didn't exactly do what I wanted. The horizontal red lines are actually airplanes that crossed while I was taking the picture. As I hope everyone here is aware, the stars move around the night sky (well actually it's the earth moving, but you figure it out hahaha). For the most part the north star doesn't move and can be used as a fixed point in the sky and if you do enough or a long enough exposure you can see the stars rotate around it.

Not my picture but here is an example:

Now my image above was looking into the southern sky and not long enough to see how circular it can become. To the north of my house is the city of Ottawa and it was showing quite a glow on the horizon so I decided to try first to the south just to see if it would work. AND IT DID!!!!

BUT......it wasn't a complete success. The temperature outside was -16c. That coldness combined with 30 sec exposures one right after the other ended up killing the battery in about 32 minutes, not the desired 60-90 minutes that I wanted.

So how did I do it? Simple! You need a tripod, a shutter release cable that has a lock feature (you can get them on e-bay from china for about 3 bucks) and a camera with manual mode. Set the camera to manual mode. These settings worked for me - Aperture f2.8, shutter 30 secs, ISO 100. Focus on something far away so that the lens goes into infinity mode (half press your shutter for the focus). Then turn off your Auto Focus. Switch your shooting mode to continuous. Frame your image with the camera on the tripod - normally you want to the north so you can get the circular pattern or you can do like I did. Press and lock the remote shutter. Go inside and have a coffee and watch some TV. Whenever you want, 20 minutes - 7 hours later, go out and stop the picture taking.

Now your left with a pile of photos, what to do with them? In my case I shoot RAW format so I had to convert them over to jpg. The reason I shot RAW is so that I can fix issues with the images before conversion if needed but to date I rarely have to do this, so shooting in jpg is fine. You could combine all the images (I had 50+) in photoshop, but that is one serious pain. So a bit of digging around the internet found a really nice piece of shareware called Startrails - http://www.startrails.de/html/software.html

Just load all the images into the program and it creates a single image. Way to easy and way cool!

Another thing you can do, if you have enough images, is you can make it into a time lapse movie.... a project I plan to try when it's warmer.

There are tons of tutorials around the internet on how to make these cool looking images. Just google startrails and you'll be all set.

If I get another clear evening this week, and it's a bit warmer, I'll attempt one to the north to get the circular effect.

Project 52 - Week 3 - Rule of Thirds

2012-01-16T20:57:00.004-05:00

Sort of ran out of time this week so quickly threw this one together. Bit of water and hair colouring haha. I can do better :-/ but it gets the point across, I think?

A couple of more video's

2012-01-15T20:12:00.000-05:00

Wow what a week with all the snow and cold temps. In the end it seems like my 2 day weekend was rather short, haven't even gotten around to shooting my weekly shot for the Project 52. Will have to get that done tomorrow evening. But I did find some time to shoot some more time lapse with the GoPro. One during the storm and one after. Mostly silly with some rather obvious flaws but they were fun to make. I plan to try some more serious stuff in the future ;-) It has also been fun learning how to do video editing. It has given me some good ideas for doing some stuff with my regular photography and then using video software to enhance it. A project for another day.

Enjoy the silliness.

Project 52 - Week 2 - Winter/Summer

2012-01-08T15:09:00.003-05:00

What a beautiful day outside! I had intended to go take a few winter shots of Watson's Mill but part of the reason of doing the Project 52 is to step outside of my boundaries and shoot things that I don't normally do. I know the Mill well enough, I'll save it for some night work ;-)

So grabbed Jackson and the camera and headed out around the neighbourhood on our daily walk but with photography on my mind. This is the one I published for the week, by far the best snowman in the neighbourhood;

and these ones I really liked;

Jackson, the Blind GoPro Dog

2012-01-07T14:34:00.001-05:00

Well it didn't take me long to figure out how to hook the gopro up to the dog ;-) Naturally it looks like something out of the Blair Witch project but as a result I was forced to learn the basics of video editing. When faced with a 3.2gb file you have to do something.

In the end it came down 40 some megs and on YouTube. Naturally the quality is not near as good as the full HD from the camera itself but I have no idea how to post better qualities unless I purchase an account? Or maybe put them on my own webpage? I'll have to experiment with that little problem.

The video is down to 6 minutes from 33. It had really cool music with it but for some reason YouTube thinks the song is copyrighted and removed my audio track. So when watching the video be sure to hum the theme song to the Andy Griffith show ;-) Click on the YouTube thingy on the bar to see the bigger version.

Time-lapse Playing with GoPro

2012-01-04T10:48:00.000-05:00

My wonderful girlfriend got me a GoPro Hero II for Christmas ;-) http://www.gopro.com Now I'm not much into extreme sports so mine will be time-lapse work, videos of the cats and dogs, snow-snowing, kayaking, canoeing and other boring stuff once I figure out video editing. The camera itself is really cool and easy to use. Picked up a few accessories for it (LCD back, spare battery, tripod mount etc..) and started downloading video software to play with.

If you want a really cool little HD video camera that can be used as a normal camera and has really cheap accessories, check this little puppy out. It's fun!

This was my first attempt at a time-lapse and using YouTube. Got up this morning to -20c and a wicked windchill of -30c. But the sky looked like it was going to be a good sunrise so put the camera on 2sec interval and let it snap away. Retrieved it 15 minutes later and pieced together a time-lapse video. Let YouTube add some music and there it was. Not the greatest quality but hey, I gotta figure this stuff out. The sunrise started out looking really good but then it fizzled out on me :-(

Week 1 of Project 52 (New Years Day)

2012-01-02T09:43:00.002-05:00

Our first assignment was New Years Eve/Day. My submission;

Happy New Year!

2012-01-01T09:30:00.000-05:00

Resolution number 1 - Try and post more..... :-/

I keep saying I will but then I don't. I think part of that is due to the social media webpages. Facebook and Google + seem to be my downfall. It's easier to post 1 lines I guess and there I can keep up to date with most of you.

The 2011 recap - it was an up and down year. The upside continues to be my life moving forward. Jen and I moved in together to a new house for both of us and continue to be happy. Jackson came into our lives and life is good. The downside has been the dragging out of my separation/divorce. The never ending story. Over a year and a half now and nothing has been resolved. More money in the lawyers pockets and I suspect it's going to get worse before it gets better. But I want this over in 2012 so I can completely put it behind me. We're planning a trip to Florida in April, I hope a trip to Bermuda shortly after that and maybe a run down east in the summer. All to be determined yet around any work travel that I might have upcoming.

Jen and I had a quiet Christmas. A few new toys, mainly a gopro for me - so maybe some video or time lapse in the future?? ;-) http://gopro.com/ I've been eyeing my old R/C stuff and wondering about mounting the camera on those. I wanted to mount it on the truck this past week but with all the snow, salt and slush on the roads I figure the case will just get gummed up to quick. Need a drier day.

To try and get the photography juices flowing again, I've joined a Google+ 52 week project for the coming year. I thought of doing the 365 project but with my work schedule there is no way I'd be able to post a picture every single day of the year. I tried in the past and that didn't work out well, but a picture a week I think I can do. The project has a different theme each week to try and get people thinking. The first one, new years day, is due tomorrow so I have some ideas that I will be trying to shoot today. So that should give me at least 1 blog post per week! ;-) But I hope it will kick start the imagination and get me moving again. But if you have Google+ check it out, there are going to be some great pictures over the coming year - https://plus.google.com/u/0/107553450680914912872/posts

Wishing everyone a great 2012!!! Stay in touch. Sometimes I can be found on skype but I can always be found on e-mail.

London Pictures (how to tour London in 5 hours)

2011-11-27T10:19:00.001-05:00

Warning - loads of photos, get your coffee/tea first.

Hope everyone is having a great weekend! I had promised this last week that it would be up in a few days, well as per normal I got sidetracked ;-) Crazy week going back to work after being away for 2 weeks and it made for a few rather long days in the office getting my feet back under me. Mid-week we were off to the Trans-Siberian Orchestra. Now that was a show I would have loved to have had a camera at. For anyone who has never seen their Christmas concert I highly recommend it. One of the most amazing stage and light shows I have ever seen and the audio is outstanding.

So anyhow, back to London. I had taken the red-eye flight into Heathrow from Ottawa so the goal is to stay up for the entire day so you can sleep good the next night and get yourself properly into the time zone. I had done this a few years ago with others and their solution, which worked really well for me, was to do a whirlwind tour of London. With the other 2 of my party in tow these pictures show the tour. I was fortunate as I had gotten 4-5 hours of sleep on the plane, my companions had not so they were hurting ;-)

Click the images for a larger size.

After getting off the plane we had taken the Heathrow Connect rail to Hyde Park and fortunately found our hotel rooms were available. Dropped our bags off and freshened up. We then grabbed the tube and popped up at Westminster where the tour begins. The first thing you see when coming out of the tube is the famous Big Ben and along the street you immediately find the famous red phone booths and all the tourists (me included) waiting our turn to get our photo taken inside. Although I would rather have found a blue police box, but never ran across one in my travels.

I didn't dwell on Big Ben as there were people everywhere and I knew it would be more impressive later in the day as the sun went down. Our next stop would then be Buckingham Palace but to get there you need to walk through St James Park. We didn't do much exploring as it in itself could take a day but we took the main path through and looked at many of the birds that live alongside this lake in the middle of London. Found ourselves a food stand and had a coffee (excuse me, an Cafe Americano) and a bite to eat. Someday when I have a few days in London I really want to explore St James and Hyde Park. Lots to see and lots of history.

Buckingham Palace! What more can be said? A pretty amazing place.

Peaking through the gates you can get a better view. See the foot guards left and right.

One of the things that struck me was the detailing on the fence around Buckingham. Here are a few photos of some of the numerous things that adorn the fence. I did a bit of research after the fact, not much out there but there are a couple of websites that explain some of the symbols. The gold is actually a gold coating not paint as it lasts for around 30 years.

and yes, the gate has a keylock. I found this really cool ;-)

I also took a few pictures of the Victoria Memorial but it's currently covered with scaffolding as it's being repaired or restored, so I won't bother posting them.

To the north is Canada Gate which is the entrance to Green Park. It really stands out with a very beautiful park behind it. The coat of arms of several of the provinces are on the pillars and I noted that Newfoundland had been added latter. I didn't prove if every province is represented on the fence but I believe they are ;-)

The only way to get a decent shot of the gate was a panorama. This was the only one with the least amount of people. On each of the pillars are provincial crests and the gold and black fence really does stand out. I did note a few other fences from commonwealth countries but none were as imposing as Canada Gate!

Green Park behind Canada Gate

The "tour" then continued with a walk down The Mall. With all the traffic, no leaves and no flags flying it didn't really look as regal as on TV ;-) but it was kinda cool. At the end you come to Admiralty Arch before entering Trafalgar Square.

Admiralty Arch

The craziness of Trafalgar Square! There were soooo many people running around and traffic everywhere, trying to take pictures was taking your life in your hands. On the Wikipedia link and Google earth there are some really good panoramic pictures of the square. Would love to get back here at night with little traffic and try shooting this great spot.

On the far side of the square is the National Gallery. The park in front was a ZOO! There was some kind of protest going on. Not the occupy stuff but it seemed to be the Communist party and they were screaming into bullhorns and making quite the racket. Above is a pool with the National Gallery in the background. The big clock is their Olympic countdown clock.

Standing on the steps of the National Gallery looking back at Trafalgar Square and the Olympic Clock.

At this point I had one of the negative experiences of London. We waded through the people into the Gallery which is open to the public. I didn't see any signs anywhere saying that photography was forbidden. I had absolutely no interest in the paintings, in fact I found them rather boring, but what did impress me was the architecture of the building. I raised my camera to take a non-flash picture of the doomed sky light and an art nazi jumped me. This old geezer physically grabbed me and freaked at me. There was no sense in arguing or pointing out that I had not interest in taking a pictures of the paintings. In my opinion anything that is a National Gallery belongs to the people, not a bunch of art snobs who take care of the gallery. It was followed up by yet another art snob suddenly freaking cause she couldn't find a particular painting. I decided at that point I was probably better suited outside with the protesting communists then the art snobs inside. Time to move on! hahaha

We continued our walk and completed our circle walk by arriving back at Westminster. The goal at this point was to get my weary traveling companions on a river boat up to Tower Bridge. When you stand on the corner at Westminster you have a great view of the London Eye and you turn around and there is Big Ben.

I got the boys on the boat and it was starting to drizzle so we moved down inside of the boat and grabbed seats right up front. Just as I took this picture I noted that one of the guys beside me was fast asleep, I went to nudge the other guy on the other side to point out that the guy only to discover he was asleep was well ;-) Here I was happily snapping away and the guys on either side of me were sawing logs. I was really disappointed at this point because the last time I took the tour there was a commentator who told wonderful stories the whole way up the river. This time they played a boring tape. I continually apologized to the guys for hyping up the ride. I was to be vindicated later.

Westminster Palace as seen from the Thames River.

Numerous sites to see as you move up the river but none is more fascinating as coming up on Tower Bridge.

We got off the tour boat at Tower Bridge and wondered along the walk ways beside the Tower of London but given the late time of the day going inside for a tour was out of the question.

One thing I noted right away is that London is much further north then Ottawa (51n vice 45n) thus it gets dark really early! Felt like I was back in Newfoundland. While walking along the side of the gates around the Tower of London the lights began to come on resulting in the series of shots above. Both times I have been to London I have to admit that my night shots have been more dramatic and interesting. With no tripod and a camera that doesn't like high ISO numbers makes for a challenge. But I think it was worth it. Again, would love to spend more time in London just to do night time photography with less people wondering around.

Tower Bridge is a sight to behold when the darkness kicks in

I'm guessing this is the architecture that Prince Charles is so freaked about. Can't say that I like seeing all the modern style buildings starting to dominate the London Skyline but it does look pretty cool at night.

We grabbed the last boat of the day returning to Westminster. This time I was rewarded with the same boat I'd had on my previous visit and the commentator was back! As before he gave a wonderfully funny account and history lesson as we headed back down (or is it up) the river. I know at the end he got a few pounds thrown into the bucket for the great tour. Above is one of the numerous bridges along the route, this one lite up red, the name escapes me ;-)

Interesting story behind this OXO in the sky. It is indeed the OXO company that makes the stock that we put in our gravy. The river is considered a royal route, therefore no advertising is allowed. When the OXO Tower was built in the late 1800's they put windows inside that had the OXO shape. At night when a light was lit inside, there was OXO for all to see - a nice slide around the advertising ban. Apparently is was a very contentious topic for many years, in the end the OXO stayed.

The London Eye lit up at night

Westminster Palace. I wish I would have had more time to get the exposure right but the boat was moving and had to grab the shot. Thus the washed out clock.

I thought this was cool, being able to see both Big Ben and the London Eye all in one shot. My 17-50mm Tamron was stretched to the limit but what a great job this lens did for me.

Big Ben with a proper exposure. I'm not sure if the green is normal or not. Someone was commenting that the green was only there because it was Guy Fawkes weekend/day? I stand to be corrected.

The London Eye

By this time my companions (and I) were exhausted. Back on the tube to the hotel, supper and a beer followed by 12 glorious hours of sleep to break the time zone change curse. That folks is how to tour London in around 5 hours by foot. I would say the entire trip cost around 20 pounds with tube and boat tickets. Naturally we couldn't see everything that we'd like to see but I can't think of a better way to stay awake for a day, get some great photos and have fun doing it on the cheap ;-)

I can't say enough for my Tamron 17-50mm F2.8 lens. All the pictures in this post, most of the Stonehenge post and all the pictures in the Bath post were taken with this lens. It has become my prime walk around lens. It deals with the low light conditions I experiences, amazing clarity and sharpness and the colours were accurate throughout. Almost no distortion, even at 17mm's. These can still be found on e-bay for around $400.00 cdn (stay away from Henry's on this one, there is a Canadian dealer on e-bay who is good and over 100 less in price) Considering the cost of a similar Nikon lens that is just a hair better, this is a great lens folks. My poor old D200 is getting a bit long in the tooth when compared to what's out there today but it continue to be a trouper during this trip.

That pretty much ends my photos from the trip to the UK. Thanks for all the comments and hope everyone enjoyed them!

Enjoy the rest of your weekend.

A Day at the Roman Baths

2011-11-19T11:54:00.000-05:00

Be warned, tons of pictures below, grab a coffee or tea before reading!

Continuing my story backwards..... The city of Bath - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bath,_Somerset

One week ago today, last Saturday (12 Nov), I spent the day in the city of Bath with Jason and Adam!

Once again, Jason's car and they came and picked me up at the hotel at 8am in the morning. For those who know these 2 characters having them show up on time and at 8am in the morning was a small miracle on itself. But I can't thank then enough for a great day.

In 2008 I managed to see Bath for a few hours but we arrived rather late in the day so was unable to visit the Roman Bath's and most of the other sites as it was getting dark. But I was able to tell that this was a city to revisit, the best picture I got that trip was this one;

(click the images for bigger versions)

Ever since then I've been wanting to get back. ;-)

For those who don't know about Bath and it's history, I recommend reading the link I put at the top. A very long story but basically, the area has hot springs, the Romans found the place and couldn't figure it out so they figured it was a magical place given to them by the gods. So they built themselves some luxurious bathtubs where they hung out all day because they were special and deserved it. This was all around 47AD. Over time the Romans left and it was abandoned for many years until the site was "rediscovered" and the kings and queens decided it was their turn to soak in the tubs. That's my version and I'm sticking to it! hahaha.

Actually the whole city just drips of history and is a must see if you visit England. Even with all the tourists all over the place it is an amazing place. Given that most of the buildings here are older then Canada it's quite the feeling to be around all this stuff.

We arrived around 9am before many of the tourists landed so we got an early start. The first big thing you see when you arrive at is the Abbey, you can't miss it.

Thinking back on it, I didn't see anything as to if the church is ever open to enter but to be honest I never looked. It must be amazing inside. Something to check out on my next visit.

Given the small number of tourists we immediately took to the Roman Baths. Inside your issued with a phone type device that you hold up to your ear for an audio tour (they also had these at Stonehenge and Avebury) and you type numbers into the keypad as you arrive at different spots along the way. I gave up on it around a quarter of the way through as I found it was getting rather irritating.

The baths are a bit deceptive as they have been rebuilt numerous times. Some of it is Roman and some of it is from the English. Although they seem to concentrate mostly on the Roman history surrounding the site.

The balcony above the bath below is from a later era but the piece below is actually just above the Roman Baths. It's very stunning to be standing on this spot and be able to see the baths below and the Abbey next door. The colour actually is green making it not very appealing to look at but the water is around 47C and the steam can be seen rising from it.

Looking in the other direction. If you look close you can see there are statues all along the top railing as you walk about the bath.

The only way to really capture how these look was via panormas. If you look you can see the flaws in the stitching but the images are way to cool not to publish. Can you image hanging out here in the bath ;-) Get your toga!

Once inside your assaulted with many of the artifacts and history displays of the site. All very intersting and took about 2 hours to run through.

This is what they believed was from the front entrance to the bath. As you can see, pieces are missing. The image below is what they believed the rest of it looked like. A nice use of a light show!

Must have been something to see.

Naturally they found bodies in the ruins, how would you like to be on show for all to see? Not the burial shroud on the bottom shelf.

Throughout there are many carvings, figureheads and monument markers like the ones above.

Some of the mosaic floors that were recovered. Some very interesting work.

The figurehead on the right is the gilt bronze head from the cult statue of Sulis Minerva from the temple. It was found in Stall street in 1727. Can you image finding something like this in your backyard?

Throughout the site they found coins from many eras and from all over Europe.

The picture on the left is of an overflow of the water rising from the spring. The spring gushes about 1.1 million litres per day upwards.

To the right are the pillars that were made to hold the floor up. I've heard 2 stories about these. One was that the hot air was allowed to circulate underneath to warm the floors and the other was that slaves would crawl underneath and light fires to keep the floors warm.

One of the many statues above the baths.

Jason hanging out in front of the bath.

and myself.

We then started walking around the city. Archways over the city roads and very interesting rounded buildings.

The Royal Cresent - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Royal_Crescent

We found a real estate listing for apartments in this building - oh my!

Figured I'd stop writing and let you take the photos of this beautiful city in for yourself.

The Henges (Stonehenge, Woodhenge and Avebury)

2011-11-18T10:21:00.001-05:00

Back from my trip to the UK and time to look at my photos! Most of you follow me on Google + or on Facebook so these are not very new but they are cleaned up and processed much better. I am not a fan of editing my photos on my older MacBook pro when I'm traveling. It's just painful to try and stitch images together or do any kind of editing. The processor is just way to slow, besides I'm traveling, who wants to spend their evenings editing photos?

All that being said, I have way to many images for 1 post. So I'll try and space them out over the next few days (or a week) with different posts. And I'm gong to post everything ass backwards, newest to oldest just to confuse things.

Fortunately for me, I currently have a few friends living in the UK who were adventurous enough that they wanted to take me out, and take their own car! Thank Jason!!!! I would have gone regardless as I had already planned for a few train and bus rides, but much better to visit with friends.

So this post is actually the last day that I managed to get out shooting. Jason picked me up on Sunday morning and we toured the henges - Stonehenge, Woodhenge and Avebury. I've been to Stonehenge in the past (I'll cover that in a minutes), neither of us had been to Woodhenge and Jason had been to Avebury. Each of us was to see something new!

Stonehenge - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stonehenge

Most people know about, have read about or have watched documentaries about Stonehenge. Definitely one of the most interesting places on this planet. I won't debate what it was used for cause the juror is still out and many religious groups all claim their piece of Stonehenge. All I know is that it is one eerie and strange place. During my first visit there in 2008, I was completely stunned. I'm pretty sensitive to ghosts and places where things have happened in the past. Those who visited the farm can contest to that! haha. I spent 2 hours there in 2008 and the feeling has never left me. I've been wanting to get back ever since. Some may remember the creepy photo I took during that visit;

Apologies for the bright colours, I was heavy into the HDR world back then. But those clouds centered around that place just blew me away. And having the strange creepy feelings didn't help.

This time round, we had great weather. Almost to good, there was no clouds in the sky so no dramatic images this time but the strange sensation was still there when I approached the site.

I shot mostly panoramic's from multiple angles this time to that people could see the scale of this place. If you click the images below, it will open a bigger view of the pano. But if you click the link underneath you will get a huge view. Warning the images are BIG and could take a minute or 2 to load. But then you can zoom in and see the detail surrounding this site. I would recommend downloading them so you can see them in your viewer. Normally I don't post full size images as I dislike people stealing my images but I want my FB, Blogger and Google + friends to see this place. Check them out now cause I will probably remove the links in a day or so when the search engines pick up on them.

(Click the image for the link underneath for the huge version)

http://www.northern-foto.com/stonehenge_pano/pano1.jpg

http://www.northern-foto.com/stonehenge_pano/pano3.jpg

http://www.northern-foto.com/stonehenge_pano/pano4.jpg

http://www.northern-foto.com/stonehenge_pano/pano6.jpg

http://www.northern-foto.com/stonehenge_pano/pano8.jpg

http://www.northern-foto.com/stonehenge_pano/pano9.jpg

The lighting was tough due to the bright sun, I had no tripod so everything is shot handheld and trying to minimize the number of people in the shot is a pain. Fortunately we go there before the crowds go to bad. There were a few light planes circling around, must be amazing to see this from the air.

A few others shots;

The bright sun made shooting a pain at the closest spot to the site, but made for a neat shot.

Woodhenge - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woodhenge

So just a few km's away from Stonehenge is Woodhenge. As you can see from the photos, no grounds, no ticket stands, no gift store. It's in the middle of a field on a dirt road. Barely even a sign marking the site. There has been some info about the site on various documentaries and there does seem to be some interesting ties to Stonehenge. It's not much to look at, but as soon as you set foot on the site that strange vibes start humming through your body. Something definitely took place here.

The site is still very much "still being discovered" with digs taking place around the area. They have found a road leading down to the Avon River, the same as at Stonehenge and it appears that groups traveled between the two sites for the ceremonies that took place.

It's not much to look at, given that the wood is all gone. But the concrete pillars in the image mark where the wood poles were. It must have been very strange looking given how close together some of them are;

An explanation of the ring configuration.

The entire circle

The pole marking the center of the henge. Here they found the body of a young child. Sacrifice? Unknown, but they did find other bodies buried at the site as well.

We followed this up but finding the Stonehenge Inn Pub where we had an excellent Sunday homemade roast beef meal and beer. Oh my!

Avebury - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avebury

After our wonderful meal, and catching the first few laps of the F1 race in the pub, we moved on to the village of Avebury. This site is not as well known as Stonehenge but is more known then Woodhenge. All I know is that it's a royal pain in the ass to photograph!

Unlike Stonehenge, the site is huge and is spread out into an area 16 times the size as Stonehenge. The stones are not as big but you can touch them and walk around. The village is set inside the site. Didn't get any strange feelings about this place at all but there were a few things that get you scratching your head. All around the site is a big barrow but the resulting gully is on the inside not the outside. If you were doing a defensive barrow the gully would be on the outside, but this one is on the inside. Very weird looking ;-)

It's a very nice walk around the site. A few photos of the rocks and the village.

The "causeway" through the barrow and the gully.

The stones are not as big as Stonehenge but I sure wouldn't want to move them.

A little black and white for effect. Walking along the top of the barrow.

Cobblestones in the village.

Have to admit I don't know as much history about this site as I do the other two. Something for me to read up on over the winter ;-)

What I find very strange about all 3 sites is that each had thousands of people visiting and performing "whatever". Then suddenly all 3 spots were abandoned. Why? How does something that was so big suddenly stop and the sites become forgotten, only to be found my Roman's and people in our modern times? I can envision how they were built, make some guesses as to why they were built but I just can't wrap my head around how something that was obviously such an effort to create would be abandoned and forgotten. It's not like England was suddenly unpopulated. The mysteries of the world!

Wiltshire Horses - http://www.wiltshirewhitehorses.org.uk/

We didn't set out to find any of these sites. In fact I didn't know anything about them! Jason's GPS led us down a series of strange roads that had us scratching our heads. Well it knew that we wanted to see strange things I guess. The first one we found was the the Aston Barnes white horse built in 1812. Could see it for miles!

Later in the day was we left Avebury, we ran across the Hackpen White Horse built in 1838.

A little research soon discovered there is quite a series of these white (chalk) horses all around Wiltshire. Could be fun to drive around and locate them all. Something to do the next time!

It was a rather busy day topped off by some rather nice sunset;

Next two posts will be Bath and London. Have a great day everyone and hope you enjoyed the show!

Latest Update

2011-10-23T07:28:00.000-04:00

Wow, it's been over a month since my last post, I really am getting slack. I guess it's part of the new routine, I need to start making time. To be fair, yesterday was the first day in awhile that I grabbed the camera with the intent of being an artist. It was fun and I got some good results so I hope this will keep me fired up.

The first big changes around here has been the addition of Jackson to our family. Jackson came to us from Hopeful Hearts Dog Rescue. Jen and I are both lovers of animals and we'd talked about getting a dog after we moved. All along we wanted to get ourselves a rescue if possible. There are so many animals out there that need homes going the puppy route just didn't seem right. Did we ever make the right decision. Jackson is a 5 year old mixed breed - Collie, Golden Retriever and German Shepard. He's mostly golden in his personality. Very loving, gentle and smiling. He's a very happy boy. The story as we know it is: he was originally rescued from being tied to a barn, adopted by a family who later divorced and gave him back to the rescue and then off to us. How anyone could give this boy up is beyond me. The foster guy who had him for a month was in tears when he handed him over to us. You'll notice his eyes look strange, well he's blind. But you'd never know it with how he acts and how happy he is.

He and the cats are getting along well for the most part. One likes to run past him and startle him so he will lunge at her. He'd never hurt her but it does freak her out a bit. The other two have figured out he's blind and walking past him slowly gets no reaction. Occasionally one will rub up against him as I do think they kinda like him. He just thinks they're small dogs.

The weather here the past few weeks has been terrible. We had an amazing Thanksgiving weekend and after that it started to rain and outside of a little break here and there it hasn't stopped. Temps are still unseasonal given the date but the overcast and rain sure does spoil ones mood.

Yesterday the rain stopped and the cloud formations were a bit cool so grabbed the camera and the tripod as we had to go over to Manotick for a few supplies. Many of you will remember my first image of Watson's Mill, it was probably the first popular picture I'd ever taken;

I sort of set out to reproduce it. That was shot back in 2007 with a 6mp Canon S3is, I figured my newer camera, D200, (that is also starting to get long in the tooth) might do a better job;

I think the results were worthy but I still feel I haven't gotten the result that I'm looking for. I keep going to that spot and I can "see" something that I'm just not getting with the camera. I do know I want to get back there and do some night shots. It's less then 15 minutes from the house so I need to get at it.

Many folks spend their time photographing the mill, but if they were to turn around they'd see this little scene;

Still some fall colours around but they are disappearing fast thanks to all the rain and wind that has blown or knocked them off the trees. We did get out for a walk a few weeks ago;

It's early morning here right now and waiting for daylight, if the skies are interesting I might run out and try for a picture I've been thinking about but haven't had the chance. But I need the right sky.

I'm off to the UK for 11 days in a few weeks. I'm looking at a side trip to Stonehenge and Bath during the free weekend I have. Been dieing to get back there since my last trip in 2008;

Looking at those old images from 2008 wants me to reprocess them ;-) Way too much colour but damn those skies were weird. I wonder if Dr Who's Pandora's box is actually under there??

Fingers crossed it's a good trip.

Hope everyone has a great week and I'll try and update more often. Gotta make a habit of it.

Mer Bleue and Harvest Moon

2011-09-11T16:29:00.000-04:00

A few shots from Mer Bleue from this weekend. You may recall a few previous visits;

http://canadianloon.blogspot.com/2010/09/rough-weekend-and-mer-bleue.html
http://canadianloon.blogspot.com/2011/03/mer-bleue.html

Wasn't the greatest day for photography. Very bright, no clouds (thus no contrast) and lots of very loud people around who scared off any sign of wildlife. We're going to get back this winter and try for the wildlife.

Click the image for a bigger version.

Holding the camera a few inches over the water ;-)

3 shot pano

A wide look thru the trees. Apparently there is a porcupine that hangs out in this tree.

A new walkway that they were installing during my spring visit.

Playing with the wide angle at 10mm

Jen's idea ;-) For months I've been telling her to look for new angles to make pictures different. She commented, "get on your belly."

Tonight is suppose to be a harvest moon and a chance of northern lights. I'll be watching for the moon but doubtful on the northern lights as the city of Ottawa is to my north, so unlikely it will cut through the light, but I'll be watching.

The almost full moon was pretty cool last night so shot this one;

Going to be a busy week. Learned on Friday that I have to meet with my lawyer on Monday to get ready for a "5 way" mediation on Friday. Instead of a judge we're trying a 3rd lawyer who will act as a mediator. Fingers crossed we can resolve the issues and get the paperwork finally on the go.

Good week to everyone!

The New House and an Early Morning Paddle

2011-09-09T11:55:00.001-04:00

Well hello everyone! I have surfaced again after a very long and busy 2 weeks. We survived the move and have finally started to settle down. It was quite the story. As I wrote to one of you in an e-mail;

"Well the move is finally over and we're starting to find the new routine.   Needless to say it has been a crazy week on this end.   Last Sunday I pretty much completed my packing and moved over to Jen's to give her a hand. Monday we finished off her hard stuff and Tuesday was sitting around waiting for the keys. We had hoped to get them on Monday but we were hearing nothing from the rental agency.   Tuesday I called them again wanting to know just what in the blazes was happening to discover that she was disappointed with the cleaning of the house and she had been trying to get ahold of the owner, who was on the road, about getting someone in to clean but was unsuccessful.   Given that we have the movers coming on Wednesday we needed to get in. What a friggin mess.   The bare minimum had been done.   Nothing had been sweep or moped, the bathrooms were a mess and the fridge was disgusting.    We got in about 2pm and almost immediately headed to my place to get cleaning supplies. Back out to the house and we cleaned until near 9pm.   Not a great job but enough that we could move in. I couldn't believe that someone could leave their house looking like that. I'd be so embarrassed.

Got home late but had a decent sleep but was up at 6am to get the stuff I was suppose to do on Tuesday done before the movers arrived. They showed about 8.15am and they were on a mission ;-) About 10am it had become apparent that there was no way they were going to get both Jen's and my place on the same truck. So they finished my place and we all came down to the new house. I was suppose to stay behind and clean while they were at Jen's but with the change in plans I sent a note to my old landlord saying I'd be back the next morning. Unloaded my stuff and then off to Jen's. Loaded her up and I came down with her load while she finished cleaning her place as she had to turn the keys in that day. By 4pm they had her stuff unloaded and she and Erin had finished at the old house. There we stood, in the new house with the furniture in place and everything we own in boxes sitting in the garage.    I put the bedrooms together and sorted out enough of the kitchen and we crashed!

Thursday I was up at 5am, muscles were killing me, and I was off to the old house by 7.30am.   A few hours of cleaning my place out and grabbing a few things from the shed and the yard.   Off to home depot to get keys cut and more cleaning supplies and back to the house by noon.   An afternoon of cleaning and unpacking.   Collapsed into bed again and was up yesterday morning again at 5am.   Again, sore muscles ;-)    Spend the morning cleaning and unpacking. The afternoon I got the lawn tractor out (she left it and most of the garage intact - not to mention all the drapes and old TV's) and mowed the lawn. The yard needs a lot of work next spring. Lots of dead spots and has never been weed whacked from what I can see.   In between all that we've had the cable guy in and internet folks have been in.   Friday night I crashed until 7.30am the next morning.   What a nice sleep!   We were off to town today for groceries, new phones and more stuff from Home Depot.   Needed a gas powered whipper snipper, the electric one left behind would just be to painful.

So on the flip side of that Jen has been busting her ass trying to get her stuff done as well and running Erin around to get her registered at the new school, school supplies, clothes etc etc....   I don't think either of us unpacked a single box on Saturday.   The rest of the weekend was spent unpacking and Tuesday Jen and I returned to work and Erin was off to her new school.   All went well!"

Several of you have written asking for pics of the new house, here are a few;

The front of the house, needs yard work!

The back, nice deck and big yard.

Looking down into the Kitchen, Dining Room and the Living Room

House is a side split, so up to the bedrooms and down to the rec room. Lots of natural light.

Rec Room


Rec Room

We both survived the first week back to work, but unfortunately for Jen she had to work today (Friday). We both usually have every 2nd Friday off as we work what's called a compressed work week. Work an extra hour a day and take a day off every 2nd week. She couldn't get this Friday off, so home alone ;-) The poor old kayak has had no love this summer at all so decided to get up at the same time as Jen and go for an early morning paddle on the Rideau.

It was a fairly peaceful morning, to much traffic on the nearby road making noise and planes taking off from the Ottawa airport but it was a nice short paddle to stretch the kayak muscles.

Sun coming up through the clouds

Not a bad view first thing in the morning

Cool clouds. Spot the plane.

Dead calm

Not sure what Jen and I are up to this weekend yet but it's calling for sunshine, so I expect the canoe or cameras will be in action. Keep checking back.

Moving Week

2011-08-25T21:26:00.000-04:00

5 more days and I leave my beloved farm to start another chapter in my life ;-) Going to miss the place but I'm really looking forward to the new place and starting over again with Jen. So this week I've started my packing, which fortunately for me isn't that bad considering I just packed 15 months ago to move here. Jen has been at it for a few weeks now but she's nearing completion as well. Took next week off work for the move so fingers crossed everything goes smooth.

Last weekend we took another paddle on the Jock River. This time Jen took the zoom lens and did a great job with the Osprey's and Heron's. I took the landscape lens and here are a few;

My paddling buddy, a fellow photographer, my best friend and my girlfriend all rolled into one!

The Jock River, Heron's, Osprey's, Turtles and Frogs

2011-08-14T08:57:00.001-04:00

Good day all, hope everyone is having a GREAT weekend!    Once again Ottawa has had another fine weather weekend, this year is going to go down in history as an amazing summer. I took Friday off work and Jen and I took a paddle in a new place for us both, the Jock River, which is not located very far from Ottawa. Saturday afternoon/evening we were out with friends and awoke this morning to a lovely morning on the farm.

On the recommendation of a friend, I dug out Google Earth and started poking around on the maps and the internet about the Jock River.    Being a huge Rideau fan myself, I was a bit skeptical as to just how good it would be. I figured a marshy mud pit at best.   But the talk of wildlife and birds won me over.

We loaded up the boat and I packed my D200 with the big 80-200mm lens. I figured no landscape stuff for me, birds, wildlife or nothing. Besides, Jen had the wide angle lens on her camera so our bases would be covered. She was cursing for having the wrong lens, something I normally do.

We arrived at a little park off Fallowfield and walked down to the launch point, I almost bailed right there. Muddy water, small dock (that someone had dumped a picnic table on) and just not very appealing looking.   I thought again about by beloved Rideau but stayed the course.

Everyone knows I'm my own worst critic, but I have to get the excuses out right now about the images, even though they are good;

1. I was shooting from a boat, don't think it's easy till you try. Having all your camera gear in a tippy canoe is nerve racking! Not to mention the weight of that big friggin lens. Hold that in the sky with your hands while spinning in a floating canoe trying not to tip the boat.

2. The sun was at it's worst part of the day. This was 11am-3pm.   The worst shooting time.

3. My 80-200mm f2.8 is a great lens, but bird work needs a 400mm prime!!!! ;-)

4. I have no experience with birds.

5. Cropping images to get the birds does degrade the images.

Ok, caveats over, lets move onwards with the trip. (click the images for bigger version)

We had heard that their was a weir just to the north of the launch so we headed off in that direction first, sure enough, just around the corner we hit the weir and were forced to turn around and head south having answered the long held question "what's around that corner". As we proceeded we immediately recognized frogs and turtles EVERYWHERE. And looking up, I spotted this Osprey sitting in the tree, he'd become my nemesis as the day grew on.

This guy refused to be intimidated by us and was the only turtle who refused to leave his log and swim away. He just pulled his legs and head into his shell and stayed put. Seems he liked the sun more then the water.

Trying to be artistic without my landscape lens. All along the paddle route we came across these old pilings from bridges that were used to cross the river to the farmers fields. Had a great chat about them from one of the locals who came down to the waters edge to chat with us.

Caught this Heron checking us out, I couldn't resist leaving his water reflection in the water.

Same shot, just zoomed in more on the Heron.

Caught him again taking off from another spot.

Meanwhile, back to the Osprey, he continued to dodge us off and on all day. It was soon apparent that there was more then one. How did we know this? One of them was carrying a fish in his claws all day. Later we discovered there was at least 3 different birds and I think there might have been 4. Every time we'd get close he'd take off further down the river. I suspect he was concerned that we were trying to take the fish away from him.

A fun bird to watch, but very frustrating to get a good picture off shooting into the a bright sky.

All along the river are thousands upon thousands of these little frogs sitting on the "seaweed". Look close, there are 2 of them in this image.

Note his lunch between his claws.

There is an Osprey stand at the park where we launched. This was from the waterside but we discovered later that you can view it from land. I plan to go back with a tripod on a day with better light. So there were 2 here and at least 1 other flying around.

In the about sequences, I put the original shot on the top and the cropped close in version on the bottom. Cropping does take away some of the detail but uncropped original shots give the full perspective.

This is one cool bird that was fun to watch. They are amazing!

So the Jock River is now on my list of places to revisit and a GREAT place for photographers. There are birds and marine animals everywhere. Not pictured but there were hundreds of pipers running around. I expect the place will have loads of ducks the right time of year as well. It's an easy paddle and very sheltered from the winds, it was blowing 10km's but it was dead calm on the water. Also very little current to contend with. There were no motorboats and I expect all you'd ever see in here is small fishing boats. I noted lots of minnows and we caught the odd splash of bigger fish. Given the large numbers of frogs, the river is obviously very healthy right now despite the muddy/sediment appearance.

Expect to see more pictures from this great area in the future, I want to get back and "hunt" those Ospreys with the camera! I'm going to try and snag a few of Jen's landscape shots to show the river itself. Very pretty and only minutes from Ottawa.

Hope you enjoyed the images. Have a great week everyone.

Some Older Pics

2011-08-07T21:03:00.001-04:00

Been playing around with Google Plus the past week or so and have started to put some of the older pics up there as I "frame" them and make them look a bit better for presentation. Thought I'd throw them on here as well. I'm enjoying google +, it seems much better the Facebook, give it a try and look me up if you feel so inclined.

Fairly quiet weekend for Jen and I. A short paddle at Black Rapids again on Saturday, although this time we went northward. Kinda interesting how hidden the city is on this route.

Came home a bit early today and did the domestic household chores, cut my hair and the beard and played a few computer games. Waiting for the house to cool down a bit before bed. Got a bit of a sore back (not sure what from) but hope that heals up quickly, last thing I need right now ;-)

A few pics from my last trip north in 2008; Click the image for bigger version.

Poonamalie and the Long Weekend

2011-08-01T18:09:00.001-04:00

What a wonderful long weekend! So far this summer has been absolutely amazing weather wise. Most weekends have been lovely sunshine with reasonable winds! I can honestly say the boat is getting some miles put on it this year!

Jen and I both took last Friday off resulting in a 4 day weekend for the 2 of us.    Friday was a relax day as we were picking up Erin (Jen's daughter) from camp, Saturday we paddled the Poonamalie area (below), Sunday we were back to Black Rapids in Ottawa for a paddle, Sunday night was wine and chatter with some friends and Monday was a relaxing morning followed me finally going home to do laundry, chores and to put the boat away ;-(    Back to work tomorrow but I know I can say that I'm going back relaxed.

Poonamalie Lock 32 as described by - Rideau-Info.com

"This odd name dates back to the time of canal construction. The cool cedars in this area reminded one of the British soldiers of a previous posting in Poonamallee, India, a garrison town used by the British army. It was also known as First Rapids, being the first set of rapids on the Rideau River. Have a look at the beautiful lockmaster’s house, still home to today’s Lockmaster, one of only three still in use by lockmasters on the Rideau. Take a hike to the dam and weir, a 1km trail leads to the upstream control dam - very scenic. The dense cedars provide cool shade and an enchanting scent. The location of the dam, at the bottom end of Lower Rideau Lake, is susceptible to spring ice damage. In April 1904, a 300 foot (91 m) wide sheet of ice opened up a 75 foot (23 m) hole in the weir. The dam and weir were then re-done in concrete. In 1971 the dam was again rebuilt, this time a large hydraulic gate replaced the wooden stop logs previously in use."

My description?   A beautiful spot!!!

Once again I have no idea how to sort through my photos and just pick a few ;-) There are a crapload below, enjoy!    Click the image for bigger version. Have a great week everyone.

Look at that over there.

A dragonfly eating a dragonfly on Jen's finger ;-)

Not sure if this was an old building, raft, dock or just what?

Calm in the lily pads.

In the shallows

Top part of Lower Rideau Lake

Definition of "RELAXING"

Mouth of the canal at Lower Rideau Lake to get to Poonamalie

Well behaved boaters in the channel.

Neat seeing sailboats in the channel.

Relaxing. The launch spot just south of the lockstation to the right. Free parking and launching for canoes and kayaks. There is a fee for power boats.

One of the boaters who loved the camera hahaha

Arriving back at Poonamalie Lock, a peaceful place.

Poonamalie lockmasters house. One 1 of 3 houses on the system that has the lockmaster living in them.

Looking northwards from the lock. Plan to paddle this on the next trip.

The lock house.

The channel that we had just paddled.

The lock itself.

Black Rapids

2011-07-28T05:53:00.001-04:00

Finally, a few minutes to update things ;-) It's been a continuous and busy summer to date, which I guess is a good thing in the summer, means you've been doing things! This summer has been pretty awesome so far. Unlike most years the weekends have been sunny and great for canoeing. Jen and I have been out on numerous day trips, all the on the Rideau River so far. That has resulted in a lack of pictures. I've photographed the Ottawa end of the Rideau River/Canal to death so it's been tough to get the motivation going. I take the camera but it never leaves my dry bag. Bad me!!!

Took today off in the hopes of doing some paddling but the doppler radar is looking ugly so we're delayed until tomorrow.

(click the image for larger view)

Looking at Black Rapids Lock from the south side of the river

Last weekend I finally got to a new lock on the Rideau. Surprisingly it's one of the closest locks to the city of Ottawa yet I'd never visited there. Just 2 minutes from Hunt Club along Prince of Wales Drive is Black Rapids Lock. I figured being so close to the city it would be a little dump. Not so! You'd think I'd learn that each lock on the Rideau has it's own special charms. Unfortunately it's one of 3 locks that isn't hand cranked (and will never be switched back now that it's a heritage site) but it's still a very nice spot. Simple to get to and lots of lawns for a picnic, check it out even if you don't boat. For canoers and kayakers, there are 2 wonderful floating docks on the south side and I believe one good one on the north. You will need to bring your boats down from the parking lot but it's not to bad. There are meters in the parking lot, 4 bucks for the day.

Wonderful blue skies and calm water

Further to the south along the river we darted into some of the marshier areas

The launch area on the south side of the lock. Pretty little cove.

The north side of the lock

The lock station itself. Weird not seeing chains on the hand cranks.

The weir on the lock.


Me trying to do the moody thing through the crank - hahaha.

Not bad considering this is still within Ottawa city limits. On the south side it's about an 8km paddle down Long Island Lock in Manotick and the current isn't bad. So a round trip from Black Rapids to Long Island wouldn't be all that difficult.

On the "life" side of things it's been busy as well.   The newer job I'm in is very demanding but I have to admit it's rewarding and I'm enjoying it now that I've put my stamp on it and have created the relationships necessary to function in the position. What the longer term will be I don't know yet but I should be there until Nov or Jan and then back to my old job I guess. But I'll return with a new look on things.

Jen and I are starting to prepare for the big move next month. Not much packing done yet but it won't be long now. Just 1 more month until we get the keys to the house and we start merging 2 households.   The movers are booked but lots of logistics in front of us.

The divorce is slowly moving forward.   Finally got served the papers that I've been waiting for since Feb and have been in paperwork hell to get everything in order.   Yesterday I attended the new mandatory MIP session that the department of Justice puts on in the Ottawa court house.   It's a decent presentation but way to late in the process.   It gives good information about alternatives to court, such as mediation and arbitration.   All things that I have been trying to do over the past 14 months and have gotten nowhere with. Another date with the lawyer next week to finish up some paperwork and then probably to our first court date (case conference) in early Sept. I keep holding out hope that she will come to her senses and see that this is an easy case that can be settled quickly in mediation.   Court is going to cost both of us a fortune. I'm not kidding when I say the only one who wins in these things is the lawyers.   When this is all said and done I think I'm going to write a full article on the past 14 months so others can see the process and where it all goes wrong and what to expect. It's all very confusing and frustrating. If people would just put their emotions in check it can be a very easy, simple and straight forward process.   But more on that another day ;-)

Today is a no go for paddling but the next 3 are looking really good. Just need to check the winds. Time to put the boat on the truck (before the rain hits) and we'll be good to go. Jen and I have been at the farm most of the week while her daughter was off at camp but now we're moving to her place for the weekend.

Hope everyone has a great long weekend and I pledge to try and take more pictures ;-)

Happy Canada Day/Weekend!!!!

2011-07-03T16:02:00.002-04:00

Well happy Canada day everyone! Hope everyone has had a great weekend. Those of us here in Ottawa have been blessed with outstanding weather for all the festivities. On top of that we had the royal visit! For Jen and I the weekend is still going on as we both have Monday off as well.

Friday we started the weekend off a day paddle from Burritts Rapids Locks down to Upper Nicholsons Locks. I had expected the waterways to be a bit busy but there was almost no boats around at all. It seems they were in the city to catch the royal visit.

The calm waters of Burritts Rapids as we were leaving for our paddle.

Finished the paddle up with a well deserved ice cream from the store beside the lock and then back to the city to Jen's place. I dropped her off and left for my house and she packed up to head there as well for the next couple of nights. A light supper at my place followed by a short evening rest, we packed up the camera gear and headed to the town of Russell to catch the fireworks. Thoughts of going into Ottawa, where the press was reporting 300,000 people, was not appealing and Petrie Island near Orleans didn't sound like it would be overly quiet either. So we took a chance and headed south.

Absolutely no regrets! We arrived almost 2 hours early with barely a soul around. The firemen were setting up for the show and had buckets out for donations from people who wished to watch, but no pressure to donate. The firemen spotted my tripod and they quickly pointed out where a great spot would be to catch the show. 10pm we sang the national anthem and the fireworks show began. It lasted a full 20-25 minutes and it was WONDERFUL! Rumour has it that the Lions Club in Russell had spent $7500.00 on the show. I'm glad I gave a nice donation cause I'd love to see them do it again next year. Was only about 300-400 people and it was enjoyed by all. I'm telling you, get yourself out to the small town fireworks show, they can be a hoot!

Saturday was crazzzzzzy!   Jen and I headed into Orleans in the morning with the intention of picking up a patio set for a family party that afternoon and for the new house (that story in a sec).   What a zoo!   After hitting 5 different stores looking for a decent patio set we ended back where we started - Walmart. They had the best deals by far.   Now do you think that set would fit in my RAV4?   Almost, but not quite!   So here I was in the parking lot, 10000 people, hotter then hades, ripping the box apart and putting it into the truck piece by piece. Then off to Farm Boy (another zoo) and DQ for an ice cream cake.   This family party was a late birthday party for Erin who's birthday was a week prior.

So, should only take an hour or so to put the patio together....sigh.....now I know why Walmart has the cheapest prices.   Absolutely nothing lined up. After 3.5 hours of struggling and bending everything back into shape the patio set was completed as our guests arrived. Great timing, they showed up to see a sweating man dieing of heat and frustration hahaha.   A quick cold shower and a few beers later and the world was right again. For those who haven't tried the Bud Light with Lime (BLL) get out there and get some, it's damn good!

A wonderful evening with my new extended family - corn on the cob, BBQ'd port chops and shrimp, potatoes with carrots, salads, vegie trays etc etc... Lots of beer, wine and a few other liquids.   A great time was had by all.

Sunday morning Jen and Erin have now packed up and headed back to their place for the day. They're off to the Katie Perry concert in Ottawa tonight. One of Erin's birthday gifts. For me, peace and quiet with the left over BLL hahaha.   Although it's hot here today so the beer is going down easy!

For those who haven't heard, I'm on the move at the end of the summer.   Jen and I have found ourselves a lovely house just south of the city and we're going to be renting starting the 1st of Sept. A lovely sidesplit in the town of Greely.   Three bedrooms, 2 baths, rec room, natural gas, A/C, double garage, 6 appliances etc etc... About a half acre lot as well. I didn't take these photos so apologies for the small size.

I'm going to miss the farm but it was a great transition place for me.   I will always have happy memories of this place but now it's time to move on.

Tomorrow Jen and I are both off work. My boss has decided that I work to many hours and has mandated that I take a day off every 2nd week. Where I work it's called a compressed work week. Just means I work an extra 50 minutes each day and I get every 2nd Monday off. The reality is that I've been doing almost 2 extra hours per day without even trying. The canoe is loaded up, the weather forecast is for sunshine and light winds so we're off to paddle the Rideau from Hartwells Lock to downtown Ottawa tomorrow morning. More pictures coming later this week if all goes well.

Two weeks from now, a friend who I haven't seen in a loooooooong time (near 30 years), is coming to visit with Jen and I.   I'm looking forward to seeing Nat again and Jen is looking forward to meeting her. Last time I was face to face with Nat we were 13 I believe at (now get this) BIBLE camp! hahaha..   She and I reconnected on Facebook about 4 years ago and have been e-mailing ever since. She's up to the city for a conference and is going to hang around for a few extra days.

On the negative side of life.   Cathy has finally raised her head with her new lawyer and is trying to book a court date. Seems she doesn't want to negotiate in any way so we'll see what happens. I should be "served" with papers later this week and my lawyer and I will figure out the course of action from there.   The upside? Soon it will be over!!!! Can't wait.

So that was my/our weekend to date. Hope everyone else is having a great Canada Day weekend!!!

Hey Everybody

2011-06-19T19:57:00.000-04:00

Ya ya, I know, I post almost every day when I'm in Bermuda and when I return I go silent for 2 solid week.   I beg your forgiveness!!

It's been a very busy 2 weeks as you can well image. We returned from Bermuda on a Saturday night as we literally hit the ground running.   Between opening up two houses and work it pretty much slammed us.    Around mid last week I finally started to feel like I'd gotten a handle on things again.    In the meantime Jen and I have been searching the ads looking for a place to live. 2 weeks in Bermuda and we didn't kill each other so we figure it's worth a try hahahaha. Seriously though, we're both looking forward to it, as is her daughter, and it's time to move onwards. This 2 household foolishness and living out of a suitcase is just becoming a pain. We want to be together every day, not 3 or 4 nights a week.    Last week we found a house that looks very promising and we're in the final paperwork stages. Hope to know early this week if it's a done deal.   It is a rental and needless to say they'd be crazy not to take us for tenants. When the paperwork is done we expect to be moving around 1 Sept.   Going to be seriously busy packing up 2 households and putting them into one. We have both given notice to our landlords so the ball is rolling.

The house is nice. Located in Greely (south of Ottawa) on about a 1/2 acre lot it's a side split with 2 baths, 3 beds, rec room , deck, double car garage, natural gas, geo heat recovery, A/C, tons of storage etc etc. The commute is only about 15 minutes so that works nicely for us both.

We dug the canoe and kayak out this weekend and took a short trip out to Long Island Locks on the Rideau for a canoe run.   A bit windy but a nice little trip.   We had planned to go out on Monday to the Rideau in downtown Ottawa but not looking very good tonight.   While we were out yesterday I started to feel a tickle in my throat. Sure enough, within a few hours a cold slammed me.   It was a rough night without much sleep so I packed up and came back to the farm this morning to suffer on my own. I hope I didn't infect Jen and Erin, fingers crossed they escape it.   Today has been spent feeling like shit. Head, chest, throat, fever the whole 9 yards.   Feel like I got hit by a truck. So much for fathers day - pft! Spent the day watching episodes of True Blood to try and get caught up. Finished season 2 and starting 3 now.   I'll probably have vampire nightmares all night given that the meds have made me all loopy.

I had taken tomorrow off as vacation but looks like I'll be switching it to a sick day instead.   Unfortunately I'm hosting a small BBQ tomorrow night as a good friend of ours is back in town after retiring last year.   I hope I feel well enough to get through the evening, will be good to see Kyle and the gang again.

That's the news from this end. I need to get out with the camera and now that the canoe is out we should have some soon.   Doubtful about tomorrow but would like to get out next weekend.

Hope everyone has a great week and we'll try and be around a bit more ;-)   later all.

Reef Explorer - Snorkling, Glass Bottom and CFS Bermuda

2011-06-03T08:25:00.000-04:00

Our last full day on the island before heading back to Canada :-( Today will be some final shopping, take the bike back and an evening out with friends.

Yesterday was yet another great day. A quiet morning hanging around the pool and then off for the afternoon on one of the local reef exploring boats called the Reef Explorer. The trip was recommended by a friend here on the island - Glen (who comments occasionally) and the trip did not disappoint. Captain Michael Gladwin is a very friendly guy, has wonderful knowledge of the island and a great love of the environment. I've lived and visited the island for over 20 years now and he definitely taught me a thing or 2 on the trip. 3 wonderful hours traveling from Hamilton Harbour, out through Paradise Lake, through the Great Sound, around Mangrove Bay, out to the Vixen and then to the islands in Mangrove Bay for snorkeling. A simple boat but very clean and effective. A WONDERFUL way to check out the island and worth every penny. His rum swizzle is pretty good as well ;-) If your visiting the island I highly recommend taking a trip on the Reef Explorer. His website and contact info can be found at - http://www.bermudareefexplorer.com/index.asp

The day was followed by supper at the Hog Penny again and then a lovely walk along Front St and up Pitts Bay Road and back. A wonderful day.

Enjoy the pictures (lots of them) and the stories underneath. Click for bigger versions.

Our boat, the Reef Explorer

A good size boat - 70' long, 20' wide

Captain Michael Gladwin entertaining everyone

Boaz Island where I used to live. Very very run down now and slummy.

Pink Bus going over Watford Bridge

Watford Bridge

Outside the islands of Mangrove Bay

One of the numerous sea turtles pointed out by our Captain. The population has been making a great comeback and most of the turtles are very near the old CFS Bermuda

One of the turtles surfaces for air

The old CFS Bermuda and 9 Beaches. Both which are now closed. The main structures are part of the old base and the huts are part of the eco friendly 9 Beaches which was just crazy construction for a place with dampness and hurricanes. Many of the old CFS buildings are gone now (Canex, JR mess, SR mess) but many still remain (Ops, HQ, Observation tower, Rec Center, Gym, Sail Boat storage, CO's house). It looks much better from the ocean then it does on land. Jen and I drove past last week and the place is in very rough shape. Squatters have taken up living in the huts, grounds have not been kept up and the buildings are crumbling. 9 Beaches claims they will reopen in 2012, I seriously have my doubts and the property will probably have to be re-examined. What a waste!

The huts/cottages of 9 Beaches on the old antenna pad

Over top of the wreck of the Vixen looking through the glass bottom of the boat.

The wreck of the Vixen blocking the channel off the west coast to keep U-Boat from transiting during WW1 and 2

Looking towards Daniel's Head Island, note all the fish in the water waiting for food. They know the boats and know what's coming.

Feeding Frenzy

The Vixen, a cast iron freighter that was later covered in Teak. She was a coastal defense vessel for the island and had a ramming spreed of 7mph.

Someone took a decent picture of me ;-)

She'll kill me for this picture, but it'll be worth it! ;-)

Anchored off Mangrove Bay for some snorkling

A strange fish?

We borrowed an underwater camera (thanks Heather!). The water was a bit murky but some interesting pictures. Underwater photography is HARD!

A MERMAID?

Definitely a MERMAID!!!!! ;-)


Time to load up and go home :-(

Horseshoe Bay and Gibbs Hill Lighthouse

2011-06-02T08:46:00.000-04:00

Good morning everyone!

What a fantastic day we had yesterday and today is looking great as well. We're finishing this trip off with a bang!   Yesterday we took off for Horseshoe Bay, which is one of the prettiest beaches on the island. The downside is that it's normally covered in tourists, which it was. But as you'll see in the photos we had wonderful cloud formations which tied in lovely with the light, surf and sand. We escaped the tourist covered beach just as a pile more tourists were heading in. Meanwhile over on Warwick Long Bay, just a km away, the beach was empty as people just don't know about the other great beaches.

Next stop was Gibbs Hill Lighthouse where we climbed to the top. Took some lovely panorama shots from up there as you can see well over half the island. A few of them are posted below, but you really need to see the full size versions to appreciate them. Blogger and FB just don't do them justice. One is so big that my poor old laptop can't handle the processing, so will have to wait until I'm home.

Next we were off to the Swizzle Inn (South Shore) for lunch where Jen had the famous Nacho's and her first taste of Rum Swizzle. Both she enjoyed! One a little more then the other hehehe. Back to the house where we lazed by the pool through the late afternoon and then into town for Harbour Nights. Harbour Nights is each Wednesday in Hamilton. They shut down the main street (Front Street) and local artists and vendors set up shop. There are also dancers and other entertainment to see. Jen finished up a bit of shopping and then we were off to a friends place where we sat out on the patio overlooking the ocean while having a glass of wine and enjoying great company.

A very long day indeed but one that was wonderful.   Today we're off on a snorkling trip this afternoon back out by the old Canadian Forces Station and then if we're not to tired off to a lovely supper at one of the excellent resturants.

Most of the pictures below have had NO or VERY LITTLE modification. This was how the day looked. Very bright, sunny and amazing.   I have been very happy with my Tamron 17-50mm, this little lens has been a workhorse this trip.

Remember to click the image for the fullsize version and hope everyone has a great day!

Horseshoe Bay

Horseshoe Bay - but trying to capture the crack in the rock face that appeared over the winter. I used to stand up there and take photos, glad it didn't fall during one of my trips!

Horseshoe Bay

This is a Bermuda Longtail. They are currently nesting in the rocks. Lots of them around, which is very nice to see!

Bermuda Longtail

The dramatic skies

My pretty girlfriend and bestest bud! ;-)

Looking down from Gibbs Hill Lighthouse

The weather vane that used to sit at the top of the Lighthouse before being replaced by radar.

Gibbs Hill Lighthouse with colours flying.

I love this shot!

One of the panorama's, looking east

Another panorama looking east

A panorama looking west, these are so much better in fullsize. But blogger doesn't do them justice.

Ooops, how did that get in here? ;-) My love!

Nacho's and Rum Swizzle at the Swizzle Inn (South Shore)

Bermuda's Botanical Gardens

2011-06-01T07:57:00.000-04:00

Sorry for the delay of a few days. Took it easy for a few and just chilled by the pool. Unfortunately our time is winding down and all to soon we'll be heading home. :-( But it's been a nice visit and great to see most everyone.

Still a few more days yet and more photos to come. Today we're off to Gibbs Hill and Horseshoe Bay and tomorrow we're off on a snorkling run. I have access to a waterproof camera so hoping to take a few pictures underwater, something I've never done before.

Yesterday we were off to the Botanical Gardens and took a huge pile of photos. So apologizes for the size of this post! I am not a horticulturalist so I'm afraid I don't know the names of most of these flowers. But they sure are pretty. Lots of stuff that wasn't in bloom given the very dry conditions down here right now, but still managed to find some ;-)

Remember to click the image for a bigger version;

Doing his job!

One seriously weird flower, looked like cloth

My favourite shot of the day!

It ain't easy being green.

We're being invaded!!!!

School kids here wear uniforms, caught these 2 cuties before they ran down the hill ;-)

The Rose Garden, although nothing really in bloom due to the dry weather

Camden House - Official Residence of the Premier

Hamilton Bermuda

2011-05-29T11:03:00.000-04:00

Yesterday we had a lovely afternoon of wandering around the capital city of Hamilton checking out the sights, the coffee and the stores.

Click image for fullsize

The ferry Bermudian bringing some tourists in.

Enjoying a coffee on the waterfront

Looking across to the city of Hamilton

The ferry dock

Looking down Front St at the old site of where Smiths and Trimingham's used to be

Fast ferry - Warbaby Fox

Queen St

Par la ville Park

Get that camera out of my face ;-)

Prettiest lady in Bermuda

The Irish Linen Shop

Goslings Rum and looking down Front St

Warwick Long Bay

2011-05-26T20:53:00.000-04:00

Weather was a bit shaky this morning so we decided to take a lovely walk on the beach in Warwick and to stick close to Hamilton. In the end the weather was lovely but a quiet day was welcome. As there was a threat of rain, I left the big SLR at home and only took the little Lumix. Considering I couldn't see anything on the LCD I got fairly lucky with the pictures. These are the type of results that sometimes has me questioning why I have an SLR ;-) The sand was nice and deep and the surf was coming in with the tide. Very romantic and relaxing. As you can see, the crowds were out of control hehehe.

Click the image for bigger version;

A Blue Blue Blue Day! East end Bermuda

2011-05-26T08:41:00.000-04:00

What a PERFECT day yesterday. The weather was amazing, the view was wonderful, the pictures turned out perfectly, lunch was great, the swim was refreshing, supper was out of this world, Harbour night was fun and my girlfriend is just the best!

We covered a lot of the east end of the island yesterday with stops at St David's lighthouse, St David's battery, St George, Gates Fort, Alexandra Battery, Fort St Catherine, Blackbeard's Hideout, Martello Tower at Ferry Reach and then back to the house. Had a lovely swim in the pool and then off to a wonderful supper at the Hog Penny (fish chowder, wahoo - YUM) and then down to Harbour Nights on Front Street. Needless to say we were pretty tired out.

As you can see from the pictures below the sky was an amazing blue. Trust me it was amazing as it looks! ;-)

Click the image for fullsize.

St David's Lighthouse

Looking at St George from the top of St David's Lighthouse

Looking at Clearwater Beach from St David's Lighthouse

One of the cannon's at St David's Battery

St David's as seen from St David's Battery

Monument to lost Mariners at St David's Battery

St David's

My wonderful girlfriend

The view from Blackbeard's Hideout

Alexandra Battery

The glass beach beside Alexandra Battery

Alexandra Battery

Gates Fort

Waves crash at Gates Fort

Duel cannons at Gates Fort

Gates Fort

Town of St George as seen from Fort St George

St George

Panorama view from Alexandra Battery

Panorama view of St George

Bermuda Day Parade

2011-05-25T08:02:00.000-04:00

Was a strange weather day. Windy most of the day, no humidity at all, cool at some points and hot at others. Some showers in the morning but fortunately it all died off. It was great weather for the marathon and parade, no one suffering from heat and humidity.

This was quite possibly the longest parade I have every attended hahaha. It was over 3.5 hours to see all 30 floats, majorettes, marching bands and Gombey dancers. But that's just the way things happen here, island time! People are allowed to start "camping" their sites along the parade route at 1.30am, and you can tell that some folks definitely did. Jen and I found a nice spot in front of the national cathedral and hunkered down for a few hours to watch and take some photos.

Bermuda is a small place and everyone knows everyone. So the atmosphere was more like a street party with people in the parade interacting with those along the route. Along the route there was food everywhere, tents set up, lawn chairs out, BBQ's running, alcohol being consumed and lots of partying and great fun. A bit different from any parade you'll ever attend. According to the local media several thousand folks were out.

Click the images for bigger views

The crowds setup to watch the parade in front of the national cathedral

Some of the classic bikes

"Camping"

The Bermuda Regiment

Drummers and Majorettes

Floats made of flowers

Steel Drums

Gombey Dancers

Autism Float made of flowers

African Dancers

We bailed on the parade around 3.40pm and headed down to Victoria Park to see a couple of friends of mine who play in one of the local bands - The Travelers. I've known Glen, Michael and Manual for over 20 years now but this was my first opportunity to see them play together. The Travelers have been known around the island for a very long time, well over 30+ years. They only got to play 3 songs but Jen and I enjoyed the show!

Glen, singer and keyboards.

The Travelers

Michael in the middle, Glen on the left and Manual in black. Not sure of the names of the other 2 fellows ;-)

Micheal

Back to the house afterwards all tired out! Burgers on the BBQ and beer. Sort of like Canada Day, just in Bermuda ;-)

We're heading off to the east end of the island later this morning to see St George and St Davids. Lovely blue skies, temps are suppose to be up to 25C today and again no humidity. Should be a lovely day walking around and running on the scooter.

Hope everyone has a great day!

Happy Bermuda Day

2011-05-24T07:24:00.000-04:00

National holiday here today. Suppose to be sunny with lovely oceans breezes all day. Island marathon this morning, parade this afternoon, off to see a friends band play this afternoon followed by beer and burgers tonight. Gonna be a fun day.

Yesterday afternoon, Jen and I took a short drive down South Rd. Shot a panorama of Warwick Long Bay. Editing on my laptop so tough to tell how well these are turning out, so ignore the flaws ;-)

Click for bigger view.

Have a great day everyone!

Grape Bay

2011-05-23T13:58:00.000-04:00

Another lovely day on the island. The humidity has broken and lovely cool breezes out of the north. Temps are around 24C. The ocean water is still a bit cool but not cold enough to stop a lovely walk along Grape Bay this morning.

Click image for full size.

Bermuda

2011-05-22T20:47:00.000-04:00

Back on the island at last!!! I can't believe it has been 2 full years since I was here last. A crime ;-)

Jen and I had a good flight down, no troubles with customs or immigration and were met by our great friends Sharon and Heather. The first day was very long ;-) We hadn't slept much in Toronto the night before and was up shortly after 5am to head for the airport. Got to the island, had a lovely lunch at North Rock Brewing and then up to the house. Met the new dog, Max, who is wonderful and a great addition to the family! I don't think the other dog, Megan, recognized me right off but today she seemed to know me ;-) Off to pick up the scooter and then back to the house. Out for supper with most of my friends on the island at Bristo J's. What a wonderful meal and great company and then back to the house for a few social drinks before crashing into bed just after midnight. We both slept like the dead until 8.30am. The tree frogs were soothing and the island breezes were just perfect for sleeping.

Got up this morning and had a lazy morning waiting for some light showers to pass by to the south of the island and then off to Spittal Pond for a nice walk. It was very warm and humid but again the breezes when we were by the shore were very refreshing. I have a pile of photos of Spittal from my many trips to the island so didn't take many. For those who follow Jen on facebook, expect to see more from her, she was clicking away. But here are a few shots from me anyhow:

Click the image for fullsize.

Pretty lady looking over the cliffs.

Have always loved Spittal pond on the first day. A great way to relax and listen to the waves. Almost no one down there at all.

Think we're heading for the beach tomorrow, Grape Bay, to check out the water temps. Still early in the season but should be good enough for a dip ;-) Long term forecast is calling for sun most of the week. Going to be a good one!

New Horses!

2011-05-15T17:47:00.000-04:00

Here I was this morning saying I wouldn't be posting until Bermuda and I give you 2 posts today ;-)

Arrived home today to find 3 new foals in the field beside the house. Sorry for the poor quality, they were a rather long way away from the road and I was shooting with the zoom.

One Week to Go!

2011-05-15T07:38:00.000-04:00

Less then 1 week still I'm back in Bermuda! Yippeeeeeeeee. Jen is very excited as well. It's going to be a new experience for her and I can't wait to show off "my" island. I love playing tour guide and it'll be neat to show her all the nooks and crannies that I'm discovered over the years.

Pouring rain here all weekend so didn't get back to the tulip festival. Spent most of yesterday running round buying up some summer clothes. I didn't realize how bad off I was clothing wise still I started putting a few things aside for the trip. I've put on a few pounds and need to do something about that! Considering I had lost last summer and put it all back on over the winter and then some. But needed new shorts and shirts anyhow, so a good opportunity I guess.

Doubt if I'll be posting much during the week as we get ready to go, but I would say in about a week you'll start seeing pictures from Bermuda just about every day here and on Facebook.

Since I have no pictures to share (bullshit cause I still have loads of Orchids and Tulips) this week, I'll put the 2 funniest videos I've come across this week. Hope everyone stays dry and has a great week!

Happy Mothers Day

2011-05-08T17:23:00.001-04:00

Happy Mothers Day to all the mom's out there.   I don't think my mom reads here but happy mothers day to her as well ;-)

Not much new this past week. More personal crap going on that isn't fit to publish for everyone to read, those who need to know, know where to find me ;-)   Let's just say "the foolishness continues". It rained most of the week but we hit one lovely weekend!   And the forecast for the next few days looks great as well, to bad I'm back to work.

Less then 2 weeks till Jen and I hit the island!!!!! Yippeeeeee, can't come soon enough. Looking forward to seeing all my friends and the furry animals ;-)

Jen and I took a walk back along the canal this weekend (same spot as I posted last week) in hopes that some of the tulips might be up.   It's the first week of the tulip festival here in Ottawa but due to the late spring the flowers are a bit slow but we didn't come away empty handed. Some tulips were up as well as some other flowers. You'll also note that they have filled the canal with water, unlike last week. Things are still a bit murky and there is debris in the water but it won't be long now and the boats will be up and down.

Enjoy!

Have a great week everyone.

Remember to click the image for a bigger version.

Ducks were happy to have water again.

Things are starting to green up in Ottawa

The flooded the canal this week so we have water again!

This will make just about anyone laugh!

2011-05-02T20:54:00.001-04:00

Spring is here!

2011-05-01T20:32:00.001-04:00

wow, what a wonderful weekend weather wise. Both Saturday and Sunday were lovely sunshine and warm temps. A nice teaser. I'm sure we have lots of crappy weekends ahead of us until spring but if they throw one of those in one in awhile I'd be happy.

The big wind storm here last week resulted in a pile of the shingles gone from the house.   Roofer should be here tomorrow to fix it all up. Fingers crossed it gets done before the rains come. Last thing I need is leaking water in my loft. A guess there a few trees down around the farm but overall damage is light. The city and other areas sure weren't as lucky. Lots of trees down in the city and power was out for long periods. Even on Saturday there were still a few places without power.

Only 3 more weeks till Bermuda!!! I think Jen is getting pretty excited as well. Still a rough time in my life with shit going on but need/want to go.   Going to be great to see my friends and my 2nd home again. It's been far to long.

The new/temporary job is going well. 3 weeks of learning and I'm starting to figure out what I'm suppose to be doing. Another 2 weeks and I'll be flying solo hahaha. Expect to be in the position until Jan 2012 so starting to settle in. But I am finding it harder to learn the older I get. Old dogs and new tricks.....might be something to the old saying.

Got myself into a new TV show - True Blood. ya ya I know, everyone else has been into it for 2 years and I'm a bit behind the curve. It can be pretty bloody and lots of sex but there actually is a decent little story behind it, not to mention a few great chuckles.

Dr Who, season 6, started a few weeks ago. Two episodes in and it's got everyone talking. Seems like they really stepped up the filming and the story writing. Even Jen seems to be getting into it and I never thought I'd see that! ;-)   Still trying to get her thru Battlestar Galactica.   But SG-U seems to be getting in the way lately hahaha.

Well that's pretty much the news of the week. Suppose to hear from the lawyers this week and not looking forward to having to face that reality again but it has got to get completed. We're just 2 weeks shy of 1 year.

Couple of pictures from the weekend. Didn't do much snapping, Jen and I took a lovely walk along the canal from Hartwells Lock down to Bank St and back up again around Dow's lake. Jen took way more pictures then I did ;-)

Next week the tulip festival starts in Ottawa so should be out shooting flower again next week ;-)

Remember to get out and vote tomorrow. Just remember to vote for the platform you like and not for the leader of a party just because you like the person. It's not a popularity election, become informed and vote for the party who supports your views.

Have a great week everyone!

Trees are all starting to bud and the leaves will be out any day. As you can see the water still has not been run into the canal. Should be soon.

This tree looked pretty cool with the blue sky and the green grass. But was to big to get in one shot, so took 3 and blended them together.

Happy Easter (aka Chocolate Bunny Day)

2011-04-24T08:56:00.001-04:00

Happy Easter everyone, hope the big chocolate bunny visited your house and deposited some chocolate for everyone! ;-) We're off to a lovely brunch buffet with Jen's family today.

Lovely sunny day here in Ottawa but yesterday wasn't so nice. To escape the weather and to play photographers we headed off to an Orchid Show at the Nepean Sportsplex. The Orchids were AMAZING! Over 260 shots later we dragged ourselves out of the place with sore arms from holding camera gear. Today (Sunday) they allow tripods which might have been a smarter time to visit but we had a good time even handholding the cameras.

Still sorting the images but thought I would post a few teasers for fun. Click the image to see the fullsize.

Have a great Easter everyone!!!!!

Signs of Spring and Random Stuff

2011-04-23T10:27:00.003-04:00

Well we finally had a decent day on a day off! The past few weekends have been cold or rainy, good Friday turned out to be sunny and reasonably warm. Although my photo partner thought the wind was still too cool ;-) But we took a run out to Manotick and the Long Island Locks. Familiar stomping grounds but things are still pretty wet and muddy so unexplored areas will just have to wait a bit longer.

Click the image for a larger version. Editing on my laptop so hopefully the colours and stuff are good, I prefer my big screen at home ;-

My 500th picture of Watson's Mill ;-) I still need to get down there and shoot this at night.

Signs of Spring

Beside Long Island Lock is an old farmhouse in it's final years of decay.

and my ever favourite hand cranks at the lock.

I think we're off to an Orchid thingy here in Ottawa today. It's back to pouring rain outside so we're going to move indoors and try shooting some flowers. Good practice before Bermuda ;-)

Ok, that's just weird

2011-04-18T21:04:00.001-04:00

I've been known as being witchy before but this one even had me raise an eyebrow. In yesterdays blog post "Bermuda Sunsets" the first picture was taken from a cliff beside Horseshoe Bay. I posted it just because I ran accross it while looking for another photo. This today at 12.38pm there was a small 4.6 earthquake 50km's off Bermuda. The cliff that I stood on to take that picture slide off the hill. This is a picture spreading around the internet.

Now, there have been a few reports that this image is a fake and that it actually happened over the weekend. So far none of my friends on the island have been able to confirm for me ;-) But for me it's still weird hahahaha.

Busy week here. Doing lots of studying in my new/temporary job and working way more hours then I should be but enjoying it so far. But makes for a very long day. Hope everyone is having a great week!

** Reports continue that this happened over the winter during a winter storm and wasn't caused by the earthquake. Still strange that no one heard about it. One month today and I'll go see for myself! ;-)

Bermuda Sunsets

2011-04-17T18:44:00.000-04:00

Was looking for a particular picture tonight and ran across some of my Bermuda sunset pictures from 2007. Never did find the picture I was looking for, will have to keep searching, so I pulled these instead. I don't think I ever published any of them. Given the crappy weather this weekend these are very appealing ;-) Just over a month and Jen and I will be on the island, hope she can see some of these awesome sunsets. Looking forward to the trip!

Click the image for bigger size

From the cliff overlooking Horseshoe Bay looking west.

Ely's Harbour, Sandys Parish

Ferry Reach

April Flooding

2011-04-11T19:22:00.000-04:00

We had a wild thunder and lightening show run through the area last night. Knocked me outta bed at 3am and then at 5am it got really wild. It rained all yesterday afternoon, poured through the night and continued into this morning.

Driving home this afternoon this is some of the flooding along the way and near my house, glad my place is on a hill!

The "stream" is normally on the other side of the trees. Note the picnic tables and garbage can.

This is normally a little park. See the top of the picnic table on the right ;-)

Just down the hill from my house. That line of trees is normally this side of the little river that flows through the field. The entire corn field is flooded and the waves are lapping on the shore.

The river from the other side of the road.

Currently it's 7.20pm at night, the temperture is 21C, humidity around 77% and winds around 55km/per hour. In the next few hours it's going to drop 21 degrees to 0C. What a weird spring!

Dr Who Season 6 - Starts April 23rd

2011-04-10T20:00:00.000-04:00

I have been waiting months and months and months for this!!!!

Some trailers off of YouTube for the upcoming season of Dr Who. Looks like it's going to be another fun ride!

Speculation - not mine but interesting ;-)

The Sprawl II

2011-04-07T20:34:00.000-04:00

They heard me singing and they told me to stop,
Quit these pretentious things and just punch the clock,
These days, my life, I feel it has no purpose,
But late at night the feelings swim to the surface.
Cause on the surface the city lights shine,
They're calling at me, "come and find your kind."

Sometimes I wonder if the world's so small,
That we can never get away from the sprawl,
Living in the sprawl,
Dead shopping malls rise like mountains beyond mountains,
And there's no end in sight,
I need the darkness someone please cut the lights.

We rode our bikes to the nearest park,
Sat under the swings, we kissed in the dark,
We shield our eyes from the police lights,
We run away, but we don't know why,
And like a mirror these city lights shine,
They're screaming at us, "we don't need your kind."

Sometimes I wonder if the world's so small,
That we can never get away from the sprawl,
Living in the sprawl,
Dead shopping malls rise like mountains beyond mountains,
And there's no end in sight,
I need the darkness someone please cut the lights.

They heard me singing and they told me to stop,
Quit these pretentious things and just punch the clock.

Sometimes I wonder if the world's so small,
Can we ever get away from the sprawl?
Living in the sprawl,
Dead shopping malls rise like mountains beyond mountains,
And there's no end in sight,
I need the darkness someone please cut the lights.

25 Years

2011-04-03T19:57:00.000-04:00

Last fall I hit 25 years of government service. Surprisingly the government actually got me my award before I hit my 30th year like some of those who received awards with me. One of the nice things is that you get to select your award from several that are available. As I have such an interest in native and Inuit arts I just couldn't pass up this dancing polar bear. Beside it is the 25 year gold filled lapel pin. Being in the government sure has it's downsides but it's little things like this that make me realize how much I've enjoyed the past 25 years.

Victoria Island

2011-04-03T17:09:00.000-04:00

Nope, not an island in British Columbia, it's right here in Ottawa. Located just off Booth St. in the Ottawa River. It gives a another unique angle to see the parliament buildings from if you have a decent zoom and maybe a tripod. Jen and I went down for an hour or so just to check the place out and to see the graffiti wall located at the bottom (or is it the top?) of Bronson. In my opinion she got the better of the pictures at the graffiti wall but I might have out did her at Victoria Island ;-)

Sorry for the large number of photos but when you spend 15-20 minutes per panorama on a laptop it's tough not to post them. Trust me, there are many that I didn't!

Be sure to click the image for the fullsize versions.

During the summer months there is an outfit called Aboriginal Experiences who operates on the site. So there are several native sites to see. For some reason every time Jen sees the camera she gets a strange look on her face :-/

A panoramic of the view of Ottawa from the island. Click the image for the full size, you can see parliament on the left.

A zoomed in look of the Ottawa side.

A little different view of parliament. As seen from the west. The parliament library is visible on the back of the building.

A close-up of parliament.

The shores of Victoria Island.

A Canadian Goose taking off. Love the way his/her tongue is hanging out ;-)

My pretty photographer sidekick ;-) She's becoming pretty damn good!

I think she saw a UFO?

Meanwhile over at the graffiti wall, couldn't resist chuckling at this one. Name that movie?

Some of the more interesting artwork.

I don't get it? What's he smoking? ;-)

I found this to be the most interesting and the best art on the entire wall.

A pano of the entire area. Still pretty dirty from the winter and everything is still melting. Will be interesting to check back in a few months to see what artwork shows up.

A pano of just the wall itself.

Well that brings my vacation to an end. Managed to get some serious photography in, although I'm not 100% happy with all the results. It's a tough time of year, everything is brown, melting or dirty. I've also had to reteach myself a few things along the way, amazing how fast you can forget the basic skills of photography. But I feel ready for Bermuda. I have the 2 new lenses sorted out and have a good feel for how they work. Very happy with the Nikon 80-200mm and I'm so/so with the Tamron 17-55 which is very good when handled properly but can be unforgiving when not. Tomorrow I'm back to work but want to try and stay in the habit of getting out with the camera more, even with the stresses going on in my life. Jen's been great about it, she wants to get out and shoot more so we motivate each other. She's becoming a wonderful photographer in her own right but the only place you can see her work is on Facebook right now. So if your not a friend your shit out of luck ;-). But we're finding more and more places in and around Ottawa. Now that it's warming up we'll soon be hitting the Byward market and other places around the city.

I hope everyone has great week ahead!

Waterfalls and Hog's Back Park

2011-03-31T14:54:00.002-04:00

It's a pretty blah kinda day unlike the beautiful day yesterday. Had to come into the city to attempt to get some chores done. Got one done, one booked for tomorrow afternoon and half of another one done. As a result I ended up with some spare time so decided to take a quick run down to Hog's Back park to try to shoot some waterfalls. I've never had much luck but did a little better today.

It's a tough place to photograph due to the angles. To get the right angle you have to stand in the spray coming off the water. That area is still covered with ice and is unsafe. That combined with not wanting to soak my camera gear killed that idea. Shooting from above almost has to be done handheld because there is not place to put the 3 legs of the tripod. Somehow I managed to balance 2 legs of the tripod and that combined with the Image Stabilization of the new lens I managed to get some longer exposures, 1/3rd of a sec, and combine them into a panoramic. The light isn't exciting but it's better then I've done in the past.

Be sure to click the image to see the full size.

Panorama (10 images) of the rushing water at Hog's Back. This is what it looks like using normal camera settings.

9 images, this is what it looks like when you extend the shutter speed to 1/3rd of a sec. Smoothes the water nicely. A very steady hand or tripod is necessary.

Zoom in on the water itself.

So for those who have ever wondered how to shoot waterfalls that's all there is to it. Find an overcast and dark day, a tripod and 1/3rd of a second. A little tougher on a sunny day as you'll need a filter to use slow shutter speeds. If you can, combine it with a few shots and make a wide panorama.

I'm working off my laptop so hope I got the post processing done, can be tough being on a 14" screen versus my 27" at home ;-)

Weathers not looking the best for the next few days so not sure if we'll get out shooting or not. Fingers crossed that environment Canada is wrong.

Mer Bleue

2011-03-30T18:13:00.001-04:00

What a beautiful sunny and almost warm day!   Got up around 8c and the sky was a royal blue all day. Even the wind was light, one of the nicest days this spring. No way I was going to pass that up, had to get the camera and go somewhere!   Since I seem to have the bug to shoot panoramas I figured I needed someplace open and W I D E!     Did a search and discovered that Mer Bleue is open year round, so I figured what the heck.   Mer Bleue is a Peat Bog/Marsh located just east of Ottawa. It's about halfway between my place and the city. Here is a reminder from when Jen and I visited last Sept on a very sad weekend. The colours are quite different from the late summer to end of winter!

The place was pretty deserted, expect for a few workers and people in business outfits? WTF? Strange place to go in your work clothes. The mud wasn't to bad but was glad I had my boots on.   The trail isn't a loop right now as some of it is blocked for the workers to replace some of the boardwalk.

Shot some normal shots, as you'll see, and a pile of pano's.   Sorry for so many but I really couldn't decide which to post and which not, so said "the hell with it" and posted all the ones that I liked ;-)    I still need to work on my white balance on bright blue skies but I'm getting better. You can see the blues not blending as nice as they should/could. Think I might need to start using custom white balance.

Hope you enjoy. Remember to click the image for a bigger version, especially the pano's!

No software zooms, this was how close I could get to him. I didn't bug him at all.

One lonely stick.

Ice is rotting fast.

Spike? Almost looks like a lizard.

Was trying to climb the small tree to jump to a bird feeder.

10 images blended into one. As you can see the ice is still in but it's pretty rotted and melting fast. Not something I would walk on.

Only 7 images on this one! This is how it looks in the summer.

9 images. This bog has always reminded me of Newfoundland.

A whooping 15 images blended here. Yes I was trying to get the symmetry of the walkway.

8 images. Going back over the really wet part of the bog.

and finally 15 images. There were a couple of ducks hanging in the weeds but they wouldn't come out. So got bored and did this shot while I waited. Naturally they took off before I could switch the lens back.

Wonder where I'll go tomorrow? We'll see, I have to go into the city tomorrow for a few errands and then staying at Jen's for a few days. If I have time after the errands and the weather is good I might hit Hog's Back park or something. I still haven't perfected shooting waterfalls and that is the only one I can think of that's close by. My vacation is disappearing fast - doh!

Rural Decay?

2011-03-30T08:00:00.003-04:00

I went out in search of Coyotes and found rural decay instead. I hear the coyotes all the time around the farm and have seen them from a distance but never with a camera in hand. They've been howling a few times this week and sounded like they were out back and to the side so figured I'd take a walk and try and see if I can find them, or indications of where they hang out. But no tracks and no sign of them. Some old tracks but look more like deer, hard to tell with the melting snow.

Around the farm and back in the woods are farm machinery pieces laying around. Most are still usable but naturally they have rust on them this time of year. But there was one piece back in the woods, not sure what it was used for, couldn't figure it out. But rust and age lend themselves to using Lucisart. The pictures were pretty blah with the grey skies and flat light. Still no green, just brown ground and old snow.

Some people think things like HDR and Lucisart are just tricks and gimmicks. Maybe, and not something I use very often but was fun playing around with it. Makes blah pictures look a bit more interesting. Not something I'd be selling but I do it just for fun.

Click the image for the fullsize.

Panorama of the horses, they asked if I could do a group photo for them. I didn't think it would work as they were all moving around but the photomerge in Photoshop CS5 did it's magic! This one was a horizontal pano and the one below was a vertical. 5 images above and 7 below.

Vacation Continues

2011-03-29T09:06:00.000-04:00

So far it's been pretty quiet. Although it's been sunny for the most part the temperatures just have not cooperated. It's been below zero most days and wind chills from -7 to -18c. That has limited the outdoor exposures to walking between the truck and the stores ;-) Any thoughts of real shooting has been quickly shot down when you stick your nose out the door. Metal camera bodies and tripods just don't mix with the cold very well. But hope is on the horizon, the forecast says it's going to be warmer the rest of the week. Now I just gotta get out and find the shots.

But Jen and I did manage to get out for a few minutes to a legal Graffiti wall here in Ottawa. Just under the bridge across from Carlton University on Bronson. Some of these will look very familiar as Jen shot near the same thing with her camera and posted on FB a few days ago. She did a great job and this is proof to her that mine weren't "going to be better". She's a good photographer and just needs a bit of guidance as I did many years ago.

Be sure to click on the images to see them in fullsize, the pano's look best BIG!

It's been awhile since I've done any Panorama work, not sure why I keep forgetting considering how much I enjoy it, but this is a shot of the underside of the bridge. As I stated, this is a legal spot for Graffiti. There is another wall closer to downtown that I hope to get to before the end of the week.

Some of the artwork on the walls.

The water has receded from many of the plants but has left some ice behind. Put a little Lucisart on this to give it a bit more interesting of a look.

The pic on the above I stole from Jen's FB page ;-) And we all know who the pretty lady on the right is!

Was messing with the macro lens showing Jen how the DOF works. These 2 shots are of the same cat, Fluffy, she has two different coloured eyes - HONESTLY!

That now empty's my camera for the week to date. As I stated, wanted to get and shoot some more. There are a couple of coyotes hanging around the farm and I would love to find where they are hanging out but not holding my breath at this point. For now I sleep 9-10 hours per night recharging the batteries and my days are catching up on some computer work and waiting for the warm weather. But the camera batteries are all charged and good to go!