Toronto Report: O.P.P on Patrol

Traffic was at an absolute standstill on Her Majesty's Highway 404 south this morning, so it was safe for me to snap a quick shot of our friend posing atop the barrier. (Click for a larger image) This is a severely cropped section from the 12.8 MP camera, as I obviously did not want to wait until I got close enough to shout 'Bonjour!'. 'Tis been a long time since I had police on the business end of my driver's door, and I didn't want to distract him any from his real task: looking for single drivers in the HOV lane just south of the 401 exits, where the Don Valley Parkway splits off. He pulled someone over not long after this, too, so let's be careful out there.

Back in America's Hat

Centre Block and the Peace Tower, Parliament Hill.

The changing of the guard ceremony doesn't start till later this month, so I was left to wander the grounds of Parliament on Monday morning. The same heat wave enveloping the east coast of the US is blanketing Ottawa, only with a bit less humidity than down in New York. You still sweat, just with eight percent less on the exchange. This is my new favorite shot of the Center Block of Ottawa's Parliament complex; it was made with a 17-40mm lens (at 17mm) on the full-frame 5D

There have been two items of great public controversy here, first 'The Apology', which will have PM Stephen Harper in the house of commons on Wednesday apologizing on behalf of Canada to the aboriginals for the appalling treatment and abuse they underwent at state-run residential schools. Peaceful today, the grounds here are sure to be a frenzy on Wednesday.

The other huge national controversy is the - it seems - now-resolved battle over the theme song to 'Hockey Night in Canada', a 40-year long staple of Saturday night television. CBC TV, which paid about $500 a week for the usage since 1968, lost the rights to rival CTV. If you're really interested, Google it. We're here to talk pictures, remember?


Ottawa is a city full of old stone and new glass buildings, which give plenty of opportunity for a combination of the two. Here the facade of 240 Sparks Street reflects the imposing stone of the government's Confederation Building on Rue Wellington, about a block from Parliament.

This is a bad name for a restaurant. A very bad name. I do not want to go somewhere and be made to eat yesterday's food. (But good for them on their punctuation.)

Two Cats, Two Cameras

I've used Canon digital SLR cameras since 2004, and my choice of film camera maker for the twenty-two years before that was Pentax. My only experience with Nikon was the Coolpix 990 and 995 I used for shooting real estate a few years ago. But since the studio I work for partners with Nikon for digital imaging, if I'm shooting something that corporate is going to print, it has to be shot with a Nikon.

Which is why I found myself taking home a 10 megapixel Nikon D200 and an SB-800 speedlight on Monday, with two days to play (er, familiarize myself) before the shoot on Wednesday. Quick review: Though overall quite comfortable to hold, the control dials are located in such a way that changing settings becomes awkward at times. Nikon also likes to put function buttons and switches all over the camera back and top deck, which I find distracting. So I'll be sticking with my Canons for a while longer. But Nikon has the coolest and most distinctive sounding shutter. I can always tell a Nikon shooter in a crowd. I just can't tell him much...

The 10.3 megapixel CCD sensor delivers very good color range and excellent detail as evinced by the shot of Molly, above. It's hard getting detail in such a black cat, but I was very happy with these results. (D200 - AF-S 18-70 @70mm - f8 - 1/30 second - 200 ISO - Flash bounced off ceiling)

We adopted Legs about a year and a half after we got the triplets. He started hanging around the back door in Long Beach around December of 2000, and we took him in and cleaned him up just before Christmas. He seemed, and the vet seemed to think, too, to be about the same age as our kids, which was around two.

But in the last year I've begun to have my doubts. The gray patches of his coat are flecked more and more with stray white hairs. He moves a lot slower than the others, he sleeps more, too. While he's always been an extremely lazy cat, I'm thinking he may be at least two years older than the others, if not more. The triplets were nine this spring, so I think he's closer to 11, maybe 12. It's been suggested I start giving him glucousimine supplements, which I'm going to look into.

Do you think portrait above makes him look like a wise old sage? Like Betsy's picture here, it was taken out the back door. Unlike Betsy's picture, the light was overcast, and so better suited to the short depth of field. Keeping the sharp focus isolated on the eye and surrounding fur and whiskers adds a sense of murk and mystery. Or you can think of it as 'Emo cat poses for his MySpace'. (Canon 5D - 70-200 2.8L @200mm f2.8 - 1/320 second - 320 ISO - existing light)

Rhode Picture

Sherry's rhododendron began blooming last week in their tiny patch of temporary sunshine along the front walk. I happened to catch them during their brief morning sunbath the other day. The light is a little harsh, but in this location it's the best I'm able to do.

I used to think all rhododendron were poisonous, but apparently there are only two species to avoid, and those are found in northern Asia Minor and Istanbul, Turkey. I don't know if it applies to domestic breeds of the plant as well, but Wikipedia also tells us that honey made from rhododendron pollen is slightly hallucinogenic. With a bit of a laxative effect, too.

Betsy in the Evening Light

I've never been happy with the light in this place: it's a townhouse, with a one-car garage in the front, hence no front windows. The back has two large glass panels and a sliding door,but it faces a row of trees about ten feet away, tall ones that block what little of the western sun manages to get through.

The Long Beach house, as I have lamented before, had great natural light just about everywhere. Today I have to wait for late afternoon, hope that there's a cat staring out the back window, and hope I can get past her to open the door and position myself without spooking her up into a bedroom closet.

May, 2008

Betsy was crouched on the base of the scratching post tonight, she gave me a lazy look as I stepped over her and opened the slider all the way. It was a little before seven with an overcast quality to the light. Betsy lifted her nose to the breeze as it puffed into the room, but didn't rise. Fine by me, as I settled on the deck about six feet away. The light was steady, but low, so I set the ISO at 320. I shot this with my new camera and lens, the 5D with a 24-105 f4, at 105mm wide open.

There was a lot to smell, so her head was darting back and forth and she was looking this way and that, making it a little tough to frame a good composition with decent sharpness. This shot was the thirteenth of twenty-eight pictures, for those of you interested in my pass/fail ratio.

West River Bridges

Route 30 in Vermont, just northwest of Brattleboro, is called West River Road, after the waterway it follows. Here twin viaducts launch Interstate 91 over the river, sending it north to White River Junction, while SR 30 meanders northwest to Bondville.

Island Panoramas

(click on each picture for larger image)

Above we have three panoramas, two recent, and one from last year. Each one is made up of seven individual images, stitched together using Photomerge in Photoshop Elements 6. The final size of each print is approximately 58 inches long by 9 inches high. Matted and framed the overall size is about five and a half feet by 14 inches.

Whaddaya think as far as pricing for the framed pieces? $1100.00 each?

Fourth of July, Plymouth Notch

Nobody here today ever voted for him, and none of them served under him when he was Commander-in-Chief, but Calvin Coolidge is honored here every year; the only president born on the fourth of July, and the only one (so far) to be sworn into office in the parlor of his family home, by his own father, John Coolidge, Sr.

Along the quiet streets of Plymouth people begin to gather about an hour before the procession starts. Locals, tourists, veterans from the area's American Legion and VFW posts. A group of bikers. No bands, no politicians. A wreath, a couple of Reservists, a whistle.

Shuffling steps reclaim their stride, the once-lost cadence emerging like the motions of a lapsed Catholic at a funeral mass, and the only sounds along the mile-long march are these footfalls on the blacktop. To a hillside cemetery where the Coolidge family lies in a row overlooking the road.

July 4, 2007

My own notion as to Vermont's fondness for Silent Cal: He spent his entire political career in Massachusetts.

Baseball, Hot Dogs....

October 2007

There's a picture like this tucked inside of every parade, a real Norman Rockwell moment. You just have to be on the right side of the fire truck in order to capture it.

This scene was too perfect, and I only saw it about with about twenty seconds to act. The line of fire trucks was long, and each of them was wailing its own distinctive siren. I glanced to the left and saw this boy leaning out of the window of the upcoming truck. I knew I had a good shot when I saw the flag being held with the oversized gloves. I quickly framed and focused my camera on the side of the truck. As the window came into the frame, he leaned a bit towards me, I composed the shot and squeezed off one exposure.

Of Trees and Knees

I want it to be clear that I was in no way responsible for these children being up in the tree; regardless of the fact that the little girl is hardly dressed for tree-climbing in that knee-length skirt, it was entirely her idea. Yes, despite the scowl of the young man, I did not heartlessly pursue them merely for the sake of posterity. They were not running away from me, and were going to be climbing the tree anyway. That I was there with a camera was added benefit.

I'm very proud of this shot of Sophia, or, Evie, as she prefers to be known. Proud, simply because this is about as close as I'm ever going to get to having her smile for me. Ever.

Evie, or Evil, as this makes me think of her, has for the last two years been my holiday challenge, as I attempt to photograph her and her brother for their parent's Christmas card. Evie simply will not smile for me, and neither threat of punishment nor promise of treat can coerce her cooperation.

This time I think I won; she's smiling behind her knees in this one, that you can see in her eyes.