Tag: Photography

I had a really nice few nights at my friends cottage. I finally got a chance to kayak but outside of the turtle and some spiders, I didn’t see too many animals. But lots of nice flowers with the Leica 42.5mm f1.2. Superb lens but an interesting focal length to work with, especially since it means that I am taking pictures of people. Flowers are much easier to work with. 

now that I have moved into my new place and started my new job I can get back to posting photos. I have been buying lots of plants for both the backyard and inside but aren’t too sure what will work. So I used my Olympus 60mm for some macro photos both here at home with the new plants (including a beautiful eyes white rose) and Norway Bay for more flowers. While on a day trip north I saw a nice small church near where Champlains astrolabe was dug up. I caught a few dragonflies sunning themselves but they wouldn’t cooperate and stay too long.

My father died late last week. 

I was in Vancouver but my father didn’t want me to come home. He wanted me not to worry about him. From my father I learned how to use humour when things got rough, I learned to love to travel, I learned to love to read, and I learned that the world was a big place. I was really happy to visit my dad a few weeks ago and I brought photos of Iceland. I loved looking at photos with my dad, and he always smiled when I told him the stories of the places I visited, much like I smiled as a young boy when he told me stories of his travels.

I drove up to Whistler the next day for lunch, I stopped many times to take in the beauty of the land and to think abut my dad. I will miss him. 

Here are just a few panoramas from my trip. Working on my photography has given me respite.

I want to thank all of you for the support and love in my period of grief. It is greatly appreciated and has helped me immensely.  

    
    
    
 

I’m working through some old photos and decided to upload a few.  Paris at night, including the model from inside the Pantheon and sculpture from the Louvre.

    
    
 

One of the most insightful and critical pieces about the state of the modern university that I have ever read here.

The article, Dear Parents: Everything You Need to Know About Your Son and Daughter’s University But Don’t, by Ron Srigley touches on issues with the university and how it has morphed into a structure that is antithetical to its origins. No longer is the university fulfilling its role within democracy and society, the author argues and persuasively so. I couldn’t help but extrapolate this argument to other decaying structures such as public service. 

I have never shot the stars before. It was one thing that I really wanted to attempt while I was in Iceland. Here are a few samples.

   
    
 

  
Jean Jullien’s symbol created in the aftermath of the Paris attacks.

I had to skip the gym today since I had way too much work to do. I left for the office right after sunrise this morning and took some samples with my new Voigtlander. The manual focus is a little tricky since I have been spoiled by auto-focus for far too long! Most at f0.95 although I did tend to focus at f5.6 and then stop down so perhaps one or two aren’t wide open. 

   
    
   

my 4×4 is rented and I am done with the planning portion of my trip! I need to get a few more things, such as my Thermarest sleeping bag mat and a new high lumen flashlight for some light painting but I will get to MEC/Sail over the next week! As you can see from the photos below, I finally got my new Fotodiox 145mm filter system for the ultra wide angle lens and my GoPro silver for diving in Silfra…. Although I did forget the micro SD card… I ordered two high speed cards but,alas, they won’t be here for another week! I also plan to do a time lapse while driving but the main purpose of the GoPro is night time lapse with the northern lights in the background. Fingers crossed for clear skies and a lot of aurora activity! And while I still haven’t gotten a new camera (GX8) I did break down and get the amazing Voigtlander 17.5mm f0.95 for some low light work. I’m still exploring the lens and getting used to full manual focusing, initial results are spectacular. 

//edit – here is a link to a googleMap that I made of my points of interest