Can't Dispute The Wife's Logic

We finish supper, and talk a bit about what needs to be done for tomorrow. A small snippet of that conversation excerpted below.

      Anita: You can give me $2200.
      George: Did you mean to say, 'CAN you give me $2200'.
      Anita: No, first rule of Verbal Judo - don't ask, TELL.
      George: ...

And in unrelated news, I bought the Sony RX100 yesterday... I'd been hunting for something small that I could lug around everywhere, and after endless debate over going mirrorless or not, I settled on this overpriced advanced compact instead. Initial thoughts? Worth every penny. I'll post some test shots for you to see soon. Jpegs straight out of the camera, shot at ISO 1600 in low light, are clean clean clean. I haven't tested it shooting RAW yet (need to update Camera Raw first), but will give a full review later.



Pixel peeping a shot from last night's Going Away Hurrah for Vania. I'm gonna miss these adventures with you, Poonie!

French Street Art and Images

So it should be fairly obvious now that I'm probably never going to get around to posting actual photos from France (ie: ones taken with a real camera), so I figured I could at least dump a bunch shot with the iPhone and processed with Instagram (cheating, I know). These are just a bunch of interesting street art, photos, and images seen throughout Lyon, Marseille, and Paris.

Flight of the Conchords: Papercraft Style!

Friday morning fun: making Flight of the Conchords paper crafts! Time: about 40 minutes. Skills required: scissoring and glue-sticking. Optional: rocking out to FOTC albums while assembling.









Colour templates here. What are you waiting for?! Go make your own little Jemaine and Bret paper crafts now!

Fun With Bridges & Motion Sickness

While on an hour long cruise down the confluence of the Saone and Rhone Rivers in Lyon, we passed under a thousand and four bridges or so. I had the goofy idea that I would photograph these as a series of stills and stop motion animate them into a dizzying animated gif. Enjoy... or if you're anything like me, enjoy puking from the motion sickness this gives you.

Paris Anonymous

Street photography is a genre that I don't often shoot, nor am I any good at it. But while we were in Paris, passersby backdropped against the many interesting streetscapes just called out to me to be photographed. On this trip, I brought the D300 and Kiev 88, neither of which are subtle cameras. So to capture these candid 'street' photos, I just shot with the iPhone. Like a NINJA. Ninja's use iPhones, yes?

The black and whites were captured inside the Charles De Gaulle airport terminal, while the colour shots were taken throughout Paris and Lyon.

Calgary Film Photography meetup and photowalk

We've returned from our short trip to France (photos to come soon, I just haven't had time). I'd write more but I have to work today (blegh...)

Anyways, I just got my film back from the lab from a Calgary Film meet up and photowalk I went on a few weeks ago. Thought I'd post some of the results. All shot on a Kiev 88CM on Kodak Ektar 100. A couple recurring themes with the Kiev and Ektar - 1) The Arsat lens on the Kiev is brutal at handling flare and I should really make a mental note to always use the rubber lens hood; 2) Ektar produces oddly reddish skin tones (I've seen this on a few rolls now, has anyone else noticed this?)

A Sucker for All Things Camera

I'm a fiend for all things camera related. I don't think there's ever been a camera themed object I've encountered where I didn't think, 'OOOOOH!' So my brother-in-law bought me this retro styled rangefinder camera iPhone case, and yep, my reaction was a predictable, 'OOOOOOH!' This is in spite of the fact that using the case would turn an otherwise sleek phone into a bulky, unwieldy, clumsy brick that would require a fanny pack to carry it around. Calling all hipsters: I need you to make those cool again!

A Splash of Fall Colour

As we approach the 'official' end of summer, it's easy to get depressed knowing that the fall season is about to usher in months of stuff to complain about: colder weather, annoying teenagers listening to their iPods way too loud on the bus, daylight savings time, CBC running daily NHL lockout updates when there's actually nothing to update ("Gary Bettman seen at JC Penny", or "Donald Fehr takes a shit in KFC"), etc. Ugggh...

However, I do also find the next couple weeks of the year to be the most interesting, colour wise, in Calgary. The neighbourhoods are awash in a splendour of golds, ambers, reds, and even a bit of orange foliage. Coupled with the bright blue skies and beautiful late afternoon sunlight, it's hard not to be impressed by the beauty of nature soaking in the last rays before the snows come. If you're one of my little students in my DSLR class, Professor Mach commands you to go out and shoot some of these late summer/early fall scenes.