And with that, it's the long weekend folks! I'll leave you with these menu offerings...
Friday, June 28, 2013
Long Weekend Optimism
A bit of positive news heading into the long weekend. My uncle, who is currently recovering from an invasive surgery to remove a tumour, suffered a setback this week with a bout of septicemia (infection that goes into your bloodstream). He was moved into the ICU, but is showing great signs of recovery, and has had his intubation tube removed today. The first words he spoke since getting intubated involved a story of dreaming about eating ice cream and soda pop. How cute. Remember YYC, even in what appear to be the darkest and bleakest moments, hope springs eternal.
And with that, it's the long weekend folks! I'll leave you with these menu offerings...
And with that, it's the long weekend folks! I'll leave you with these menu offerings...
Monday, June 24, 2013
Strangers in the City
More results from my Strangers in the City project, in which I am approaching random strangers I encounter to take their portraits on medium format film. I've had a couple more polite rejections from some folks, and I also pooched a couple shots of some strangers that agreed to sit (sorry dudes). But overall, the project is going well, and I may start a whole new site dedicated to it. Enjoy, and meet some of your local Calgarians.
Maisy, yard sale hunter extraordinaire. She found a sweet red sequinned hat and ceramic dog from a yard sale just a couple blocks from where I took this portrait (Blonde's Diner).
Lauren, the other half of the yard sale hunter duo. Lauren's hat is what actually caught my attention about this duo, as the hat is exactly the same as one I bought in Ha Long Bay, but failed to bring home cause I didn't want to crush it in my luggage.
Krista, a gal who was minding her business at the bus stop, reading and listening to tunes through her earbuds when I interrrupted to request a portrait. She was more than patient with me, as I first screwed up the shot, and then had to change to a new roll of film before finally getting this shot off.
Kiri was enjoying a coffee outside The Roasterie, when I interrupted to ask for a portrait. When pressed for some personal details, she stated that she was just a girl trying to find herself.
Dionne, budgie owner. Seriously, we passed by her in the Kensington area, where she was sitting with her pet budgie, Icky. You don't see bird owners take them out for walks very often, so this was kind of cool. Other interesting connection, I was wearing a Muse shirt from the concert earlier this year, and she had also gone and bought that same shirt.
Icky the budgie, who probably prefers to think that she was out taking her pet human for a walk.
Scott, analog camera junkie, not a stranger. But I had to finish off my roll before I could develop it. Scott likes cameras. Like, REALLY likes them. Probably moreso than me. That's saying something.
Andrew, also not a stranger. Although we only met today. Appears to own significantly more cameras than me (and I have 35). Was shooting a frankencamera of a Polaroid Land 100, with modded lens and finder. My new hero.
Georgette, Andrew's other half. TLR and SX-70 shooter. What more can you ask for in a girl?
Anita, my better half. Without her, none of the happy stuff in my life exists.
6x6 shots taken with a Kiev 88 on Ilford HP5+. 6x7 shots taken with a Pentax 6x7 on Fuji Neopan 400. Both rolls developed in Ilfosol 3, diluted 1:9.
Maisy, yard sale hunter extraordinaire. She found a sweet red sequinned hat and ceramic dog from a yard sale just a couple blocks from where I took this portrait (Blonde's Diner).
Lauren, the other half of the yard sale hunter duo. Lauren's hat is what actually caught my attention about this duo, as the hat is exactly the same as one I bought in Ha Long Bay, but failed to bring home cause I didn't want to crush it in my luggage.
Krista, a gal who was minding her business at the bus stop, reading and listening to tunes through her earbuds when I interrrupted to request a portrait. She was more than patient with me, as I first screwed up the shot, and then had to change to a new roll of film before finally getting this shot off.
Kiri was enjoying a coffee outside The Roasterie, when I interrupted to ask for a portrait. When pressed for some personal details, she stated that she was just a girl trying to find herself.
Dionne, budgie owner. Seriously, we passed by her in the Kensington area, where she was sitting with her pet budgie, Icky. You don't see bird owners take them out for walks very often, so this was kind of cool. Other interesting connection, I was wearing a Muse shirt from the concert earlier this year, and she had also gone and bought that same shirt.
Icky the budgie, who probably prefers to think that she was out taking her pet human for a walk.
Scott, analog camera junkie, not a stranger. But I had to finish off my roll before I could develop it. Scott likes cameras. Like, REALLY likes them. Probably moreso than me. That's saying something.
Andrew, also not a stranger. Although we only met today. Appears to own significantly more cameras than me (and I have 35). Was shooting a frankencamera of a Polaroid Land 100, with modded lens and finder. My new hero.
Georgette, Andrew's other half. TLR and SX-70 shooter. What more can you ask for in a girl?
Anita, my better half. Without her, none of the happy stuff in my life exists.
6x6 shots taken with a Kiev 88 on Ilford HP5+. 6x7 shots taken with a Pentax 6x7 on Fuji Neopan 400. Both rolls developed in Ilfosol 3, diluted 1:9.
Friday, June 21, 2013
Hashtag Moron; Hashtag Photonerd
Post 2 of 2 for tonight. This one is less gloom and doom
Tell tale indicators you are a moron.
1) You go to your car, open the passenger door, drop off your stuff, close the door, go to passenger side only to find that you left the keys on the passenger seat and somehow triggered the lock mechanism. And there's a lightning storm all around you. And you have to urinate like there's no tomorrow.
2) You get home, are hungry, and eat a hunk of garlicky Daikon Kimchi. And then, thirsty from this, you drink orange juice. (Fact: these two flavours are a TERRIBLE combination).
3) You buy a Rolleiflex Twin Lens Reflex camera a year ago, and complain that the film advance counter doesn't work. A year later, someone informs you that you need to feed the film under the rollers to trip the mechanism (something you could have learned by reading the included manual).
Yes folks, it's been that kind of week... But on the subject of Rolleiflexes, I just bought this radtastic piece of currency from the Phillipines that features said twin lens camera on the back. Photonerd much?
Tell tale indicators you are a moron.
1) You go to your car, open the passenger door, drop off your stuff, close the door, go to passenger side only to find that you left the keys on the passenger seat and somehow triggered the lock mechanism. And there's a lightning storm all around you. And you have to urinate like there's no tomorrow.
2) You get home, are hungry, and eat a hunk of garlicky Daikon Kimchi. And then, thirsty from this, you drink orange juice. (Fact: these two flavours are a TERRIBLE combination).
3) You buy a Rolleiflex Twin Lens Reflex camera a year ago, and complain that the film advance counter doesn't work. A year later, someone informs you that you need to feed the film under the rollers to trip the mechanism (something you could have learned by reading the included manual).
Yes folks, it's been that kind of week... But on the subject of Rolleiflexes, I just bought this radtastic piece of currency from the Phillipines that features said twin lens camera on the back. Photonerd much?
Thursday, June 20, 2013
Climate update - YYC
Thanks for all the thoughts and well-wishes folks. It's relatively calm up where we are, but rather apocalyptic in the lower lying areas around town. This is post 1 of 2 tonight - felt wrong to not at least acknowledge the grim flooding conditions. Back in a bit with more regular photogeekery.
Friday, June 14, 2013
Wanderlust
Someone please take me on a vacation. Like right now. I haven't been on a plane in 6 months, and I'm bored as frick with home. B.O.R.E.D. So bored, that I'm actually going through some photos from our trip to France last October. Speaking of the French, Phoenix' song, Entertainment is featured as the end theme to Now You See Me. Which is a pretty dumb film, by the way. It starts out with an interesting premise, but then it loses steam towards the end, and the last 15 minutes are just downright stupid. If you want a good film about magicians, watch The Prestige instead - Chris Nolan directs, stars Batman and Wolverine (Bale and Jackman), and David Bowie plays Nikola Tesla. Nuff said.
Okay, I got nothing interesting to say tonight. Look at some pictures, then go to bed.
Okay, I got nothing interesting to say tonight. Look at some pictures, then go to bed.
Tuesday, June 4, 2013
Have Camera, Will Travel
As I gear up to teach another 4 night run of Using Your DSLR, I'm ironically debating leaving my DSLR at home for my next trip. We've booked our flights to Chile for November, and I'm weighing the pros and cons of going completely film this time. I'm thinking of taking this kit 1) medium format rig (Pentax 6x7), 2) 35mm rangefinder (Leica M6), 3) toy cam (Holga), and 4) 50 rolls of film. In today's world of ubiquitous DSLRs and high capacity memory cards, I realize people may scoff and label me 'hipster douche', but that's generally the superficial response from digicam toting Fauxtographers.
Shooting film is so much more rewarding than burst firing on a DSLR, and the results are so much more nuanced than a sterile, perfectly sharp digital shot. Some of my favourites from our last trip were shot on film. See below for a smorgasborg of photos from Vietnam and Korea. I don't feel like doing write-ups for each photo cause I have zero inspiration tonight, but if you want to learn more about any of these, just click on them, and you can read the stories I wrote up about them on Flickr.
Shooting film is so much more rewarding than burst firing on a DSLR, and the results are so much more nuanced than a sterile, perfectly sharp digital shot. Some of my favourites from our last trip were shot on film. See below for a smorgasborg of photos from Vietnam and Korea. I don't feel like doing write-ups for each photo cause I have zero inspiration tonight, but if you want to learn more about any of these, just click on them, and you can read the stories I wrote up about them on Flickr.
Sunday, June 2, 2013
First Scramble of the Season - Nihahi Ridge
Most years, we've been out by April for an early season tune-up, but the extended cold wet spring pushed the start of scrambling season back far later than normal for us. June 1st should be summer-like temperatures already and mostly snow free in the front ranges, but scrambling up Nihahi Ridge yesterday felt like a spring hike with patches of snow still dotting the route up. The top of the ridge was chilly as we sat unsheltered from wind, but otherwise, the day was awesome.
The traverse goes on for 7km. We opted to call it a day and drink our beer.
Celebratory Summit Beer!
The only proof I was on this hike...
The descent.
The details: Nihahi Ridge starts at Little Elbow Recreation Area parking lot (not far from Bragg Creek). You walk through the campgrounds, and soon swing on the Nihahi Ridge trail to the right, quickly gaining elevation through forest, before emerging onto a bit of scree and then slabby rocks which you scramble up to attain the ridge. From there, you can traverse along the ridge for 7km.
The traverse goes on for 7km. We opted to call it a day and drink our beer.
Celebratory Summit Beer!
The only proof I was on this hike...
The descent.
The details: Nihahi Ridge starts at Little Elbow Recreation Area parking lot (not far from Bragg Creek). You walk through the campgrounds, and soon swing on the Nihahi Ridge trail to the right, quickly gaining elevation through forest, before emerging onto a bit of scree and then slabby rocks which you scramble up to attain the ridge. From there, you can traverse along the ridge for 7km.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)