I’m Published!

Recently, one of my photos was “short-listed” to be displayed on the “Schmap” web site.  It’s kind of like an online travel guide with some down-loadable components.

The photo that was eventually selected was taken at Marineland in Niagara Falls, Ontario.  The shot was of a Beluga whale surfacing.  You don’t get paid for this, but, I am happy anyway.  It’s kind of cool to have your photo published… hey, they put my name under the photo and that is good enough for me.

You can see the Niagara Falls “Schmap” at this link.  Keep an eye on the photos in the upper-right corner until you see the Beluga.

…and now a Fox too!

Just when you thought it was safe to go outside…

I live in a fair sized city; Guelph, Ontario.  My house backs on to a small forest so we’ve had a lot of small critters come to visit over the years.  This year has been exceptional though.  We get the usual creatures; rabbits, squirrels, chipmunks, cats, several dozen varieties of birds, and a possum (see photo on Flickr).  The bar has been raised yesterday, we now have a fox (sorry no picture, my son has video that I’ll try to get).  I’m no expert on foxes but it’s behavior seemed a little weird.  It was almost cat-like, walking all around the backyard, rolling in the grass, and generally having a good time.

Is it marking territory?  Just visiting?  Who knows…

Oh Deer…

The unthinkable happened to me this morning around 3:30am.  I was coming home from work, on a rural highway, in the fog.  The speed limit was 80k but I could only get to 60k in the pea soup.  I was concentrating so hard on the road, hadn’t seen a car in 30 minutes, when the deer crossed right in front of me.  I barely had time to hit the brakes…

I pulled over and looked behind to see the poor creature struggle into the forest.  Since it wasn’t safe to pull over I continued down the road until I found a better place.  When I had a look at the front of my truck I couldn’t believe the damage!  The only part untouched was the driver’s side headlight, everything else was gone!  I didn’t think I hit him/her that hard.

I wonder if those “deer whistles” really work?  Majority of people say NO.

I hope the deer didn’t suffer too much…

Halloween

Another Halloween has come and gone…too bad.  I really like Halloween; kids going door to door, tricks and treats all over the place, and all the spooky houses.

This year we had around 80 kids, some were older but hey, anyone comes to my door they get something, even if they are “plain clothes”.  The whole thing lasted two and a half hours, 6:00pm to 8:30pm.  AM I MISSING SOMETHING ?????

This was a Saturday night, it should have been an all-nighter!  I remember getting together with my friends over a street map deciding on the best route for maximum effect.  There were at least TWO pillow cases, one stored half-way.  Plastic bags were no good, couldn’t carry the weight.  A typical night would go from 6:00pm to 10:00pm, more for a weekend.  Once home the final step was “division of goods”; chocolate bars in one pile, licorice in the next, etc…

I know times have changed… is it for the better though?

Weekend in Niagara…

Went for a weekend getaway to Niagara Falls, Ontario this past weekend with my wife, son, and his girlfriend.

It doesn’t matter how many times I go to Niagara Falls, there is always something new to see or do.

We stayed at the Crowne Plaza.  The hotel staff were great and the view from our room was spectacular.  The room was a little small but we weren’t planning on spending much time there.  Turns out we didn’t use our car once… we walked everywhere.

The hotel is attached to the Fallsview Indoor Waterpark.  We spent several hours there, got really wet, took a breather then got wet again!  This is a great facility, lots of room for everyone, hardly any line-ups.  You have to go on the yellow slide, the one where you go airborne without warning.  Don’t be surprised if your bathing suit finds it’s way into your… never mind, you probably get the picture.

I have always wanted to go the Hard Rock Cafe and finally got a chance this weekend.  It was about a 1 minute walk, into the wind, from our hotel.  We met some friends for supper.  Price was decent, food was good, atmosphere was rockin’.

On our final day we took a tour of the Niagara Falls Aviary.  The self-tour takes a couple hours and is worth the money.  I found the open aviaries to be the most interesting.  There are a lot of reptiles here too, so it’s not just ‘for the birds’.

I like these short weekend getaways.  Gives us a chance to unwind and have some fun.  We are already planning another weekend away… you guessed it, back to Niagara Falls.  This time we’ll go in January, hopefully there will be ice!

Sailing ‘09… NOT

Another sailing season is over… unfortunately for me, it never began.  The season started out with great fanfare (always wanted to use that word!).  Unfortunately, with the weather being poor and a busy year at work, I didn’t get on the water once… that’s right, not ONCE.  In fact, I didn’t even get the mast raised.

When I went to pick the boat up, for winter storage, I could tell she wasn’t very happy!  To make amends we gave her a good cleaning before putting her away for the winter.  Let’s hope next year brings more opportunity to hit the open water.

The Sandpiper is a very interesting little sailboat; it’s one of the few with a fully retractable 300lb keel.  The Sandpiper is very stable under heavy winds, and very fun to sail.  The last Sandpiper was made in 1993.  There is a very active Sandpiper’s Owners Group, you can see their website here.

2,544 hours & counting…

Getting excited!

Thought I would share another countdown with you… there are 2,544 hours to go until I leave for my assignment at the 2010 Olympic Games.  The actual games start in 2,808 hours (February 12th, 2010).

Fact: did you know that it is improper to say; “Olympics”?  I didn’t… if you want to “plural” something is has to be “Games”.  Therefore the proper term would be “Olympic Games”.

So I’ve been told…

Ultrawide Zoom Lens…

I had the chance to play around with a fish-eye lens a couple weeks ago (thanks Devon) and really enjoyed it.  It opened up a whole new world… actually that’s not quite true, in fact it’s kind of cliche.  However, I really liked the effect.  The ability to ’see’ so much, in a photograph, was appealing to me.

As happens with so much in my life, when hooked, the research begins.  I decided that I really didn’t want a fish-eye lens but an ultra-wide zoom lens which gives the wide angle views I was looking for minus the fish-eye distortions (there is still some distortion, just easier to control).

I narrowed the search to three lenses and then bought something completely different.

My first choice was the Nikon 10-24mm, which had great reviews, but priced way out of my range…too bad.  Second choice was the Tokina 11-16mm which is close to half the price of the Nikon and also has great reviews, unfortunately this lens is hard, if not impossible to find in my area (Ontario).  My third and last choice was the Tamron 10-24mm, priced right, but reviews were not glowing.

The interesting thing about reviews, and it doesn’t matter what you are buying, is that if you search long enough (5 minutes on Google) you will probably find a review that says what you want to hear.  I decided to keep searching…

I was parked downtown Guelph the other day, working, and looked out my window only to have a camera shop begging me to come on in… so I did.  I spoke to the salesman, very friendly and knowledgeable, who suggested the Sigma 10-20mm.  I tried it in the store and was really impressed so I bought it… just like that, without even reading any reviews!  So much for my research.

Once back in my vehicle I checked the reviews on the lens and found them to be very good… we’ll see.  I will be playing with it over the next couple weeks and pass on my comments (from an extremely-non-professional point of view).

Book Review: The Deus Machine

Another of Dan’s Meaningless & Short Book Reviews

Written by Pierre Ouellette

This novel is based on genetics gone wild, and futuristic super computers.  This is one of those books that sat on my “might read some day” shelf.  Well the time finally came to read it and I was pleasantly surprised.  The pace was quick, and set in the United States during a period called the “Downturn”; a period of high unemployment and bad economic times… hmm, sounds familiar.  To make a long story short, the bad guys build a big computer that gets into genetics in a big way… the good guys; ex-computer expert, genetics expert, and little Jimi save the day… interesting ending.

Rating: Forget It - Not Bad - A Page Turner

Dream Theater Review

A long, long time ago my son got addicted to Dream Theater.  Quite some time later I decided to surprise him with tickets to a live show in Toronto.  The concert was last night…

First of all, I expected a much younger crowd, boy was I wrong.  There was one kid in his (or her) parent’s knapsack and an older fellow with a walker, long hair, and an earring!

The concert lasted 5 hours; opening bands included: Scale the Summit, Big Elf, and Zappa Plays Zappa.  Dream Theater played some of the epics off their new album; Black Clouds & Silver Linings, and some old favourites too.  The show was hands-down one of the best I have ever seen!

I highly recommend seeing one of their live performances.