Photography 365

Photo Favourites from June

2012-02-20T17:31:00.000-04:00

Step right up, folks, and cast your vote for your favourite photograph from June of 2011. We've got six lovely contenders and only you can decide which one is named Photo of the Month! Use the "Comments" button below to pick out your fave or send me an email. It doesn't matter how you vote, just as long as you vote!

#1 - Flowers that Dazzle (160)

#2 - Lighthouse Postcard (161)

#3 - Spectacular Rhodos (164)

#4 - Armada of Clouds (174)

#5 - Splashes and Sky (179)

#6 - Fountain Drops (167)

April's Photo of the Month is...

2012-02-17T22:47:00.000-04:00

The Startling Grackle.

Several other photos (like Daffodil Closeup and Snow in April) received strong support but I had to go with the Startling Grackle because, quite frankly, it's one of my own personal favourite photos from the entire year. And Elizabeth likes it too!

Photo Favourites from May 2011

2012-02-10T21:53:00.000-04:00

Here are my five favourite photographs from the month of May. May of last year included a trip to Quebec City but I deliberately excluded any pictures from outside Fredericton from this selection. I'm still quite pleased with the five finalists.

Please vote for your favourite using the "Comments" button below. You can also email me or, if you know me, tell me in person which photo you prefer. And thanks for taking part in my little poll!

#1: Morning Splendour (126)

#2: The Power of Water (127)

#3: Delicate Green (128)

#4: Leather in the Grass (146)

#5: Fredericton Fountain (150)

March's favourite photo is...

2012-02-05T10:50:00.000-04:00

The Colour of Morning.

Thanks to everyone who voted, either by using the Comments section of this blog, via email or in person. Don't forget to vote for April's Photo of the Month, with the candidates for that high honour displayed in my last post. Thanks!

Photo Favourites from April 2011

2012-01-29T16:20:00.000-04:00

Here are April's finalists for photo of the month. I'm offering six for you to choose from today because I just couldn't decide on five. Please send me your votes for your favourite of the six (of course, you are also welcome to go back through the month's photos and nominate one that I've left out as well). You can use the Comments button at the bottom of the entry, send me an email or, if you know me, tell me in person which picture you prefer.

#1: Daffodil Closeup (91)

#2: Shadows and Tall Trees (97)

#3: Tree-line Perspective (101)

#4: The Startling Grackle (104)

#5: In A Dog's Eye (115)

#6: Snow in April (91)

February's Picture of the Month is...

2012-01-27T07:42:00.000-04:00

"A Pastel Evening", with honourable mentions to "Sunshine and Lines" and "Moon over Fredericton". Thanks to everyone who voted, using the "Comments" button, by email or just by telling me which photo they preferred.

Please do me the favour of casting a vote for March's Picture of the Month, from the choices supplied in my last post. Simply click on "Comments" at the foot of the post, tell me which photo you prefer, add an idea of who you are, then follow the instructions to post your comment. And thanks!

Favourite Photos from March 2011

2012-01-23T15:34:00.000-04:00

March turned out to be a fairly rich month for photos on this blog. I had a hard time narrowing my selections down to just these five. I think some of the regular visitors to this blog might have others they would have included and they're free to suggest them. As for me, these five pictures are my finalists for the month of March. I'd appreciate it if you would all vote for your favourite, using the "Comment" button at the bottom of this post.

#1: The Shadow Knows

#2: Perigee Full Moon

#3: Street Musicians

#4: The Colours of Morning

#5: Reflections of Wilmot

January's picture of the month is...

2012-01-19T07:37:00.000-04:00

Reflections of Tuscany!!! Two web votes and a number more votes provided to me either by email or in person. Although the shot of the cold, cold grave stone received strong support, this photograph of Fredericton's Beaverbrook Hotel, reflected in the front windows of the new Convention Centre, appealed both artistically and as a reflection of the City of Fredericton.

Don't forget to vote, using the comments button, on February's photo in my last post! And thanks for voting on the January shots!

Photo Favourites from February 2011

2012-01-15T13:04:00.000-04:00

Once again, I offer my favourite photographs from a particular month of last year's photo blog, asking you to help me decide which is the picture of the month. February was an interesting month, with a number of interior shots and lots of snow.

Here are my five faves. Please use the "Comments" function to vote for the one you like best or, if you wish to review the entire month and choose a different photo as your favourite, you're welcome to do that as well.

#1: A Pastel Evening

#2: Sunshine and Lines

#3: A Bottle of Red

#4: At the Coffee Shop

#5: Moon over Fredericton

Photo favourites from January 2011

2012-01-07T13:12:00.000-04:00

With the year in pictures now complete, it's time to look back and choose our favourites from each month. I have this silly idea that, if I identify the 12 to 14 photos that people like best, I can make my own wall calendar for 2013, using those photos.

So I'm going to ask anyone who visits over the next 12 weeks to review the photographs that I've chosen for each month and then use the Comments button, at the bottom of each entry, to tell me which you like best. The photo with the most votes wins and is in the calendar, if I ever make one.

You are also welcome to look back over the photos on this blog for the month of January and choose one or two that you like that I haven't included here. Just tell me the Day Number it appeared. Thanks for taking part!

#1: Grave stone in snow

#2: Red lamp at Isaac's Way

#3: Reflections of Tuscany (Fredericton Convention Centre)

#4: Signs in soft light (Old Montreal)

#5: Rye and Ginger

#6: Ghost and the machine

Day 365 - The final photograph

2011-12-31T10:44:00.000-04:00

The final photograph of my 365-day journey. I wanted it to be a great one. And it is.

It's me. In front of the "Welcome to Fredericton" sign on Lincoln Road out toward the airport. I'm taking one of those ridiculous photos where you hold the camera out as far away from yourself as you can, pointing at you, and press the shutter release, hoping the framing captures what you want in the shot. Everybody does them.

And I think it's the perfect end for this adventure in photography. I think we've had a little of everything, from the stunningly beautiful to the trite and silly, in this year of photos, everything except a photo of me.

So here I am. A little out of focus. My nose strangely crooked (who would have known), my double chins completely hidden. The sign in behind but, importantly, not quite fully shown just as I didn't quite fully show you all of Fredericton over the past year. Still, I think I captured enough of it that you have a good idea what it's like.

I've really enjoyed bringing this blog to you, adding a photograph (and sometimes two or three) each day, with an explanation of where and how the shot was taken. I've pushed myself and also stretched the capabilities of my simple Olympus camera but, looking back on the year, I think we both did pretty well.

I admit, however, that I approach this final post with some small measure of relief as well. It's hard work finding a new and interesting photo every day and even more work to write the text portions of each entry. I have spent most of my lunch hours out and about with the camera and have enjoyed doing it. But I'm also looking forward to waking up tomorrow morning knowing there is no pressure on me to take a photograph.

I think I will simply leave this blog up as is. I don't think "Blogger" will remove it any time soon. And I may just create a new blog upon which to post photos in the future. But, if I do so, it will simply be a once-in-a-while proposition.

So thanks to everyone who has visited this blog over the past 365 days, for taking the time to click one of the reaction buttons at the bottom of each entry or even to post a comment. I've enjoyed all of the responses and interest. Take good care and, if you get the chance, come to Fredericton one day to see all this in person.

Day 364 - Lying in wait

2011-12-30T20:29:00.000-04:00

One last image of Marlee Marie, this one taken Christmas Eve as she surveyed the presents under the tree.

The Olympus sat on its tripod, with the aperture at f8 and the shutter at about 1 second, thanks to the light coming from the tree's lights and other lamps in the living room.

That's how still Marlee will lie when she smells food, such as the (human) treats hidden in the stocking with the reindeer on it that is just inches from her nose. It's like she's not even breathing. Don't worry: the stocking found a new home on a bookshelf moments later.

Day 363 - In search of Willie O'Ree

2011-12-29T22:47:00.000-04:00

An interesting, though not entirely successful, experiment in sports photography. I was at Willie O'Ree Place (see lower photo) in Fredericton's north side today for the public free skate and I took the opportunity to try to get some shots of skaters and hockey players.

The challenge I faced was that the lighting was too dim to take traditional photographs yet too light to make slow-shutter shots worthwhile. Even with the aperture as tight as it could go (f8), I still could only slow the shutter to about two seconds, which is nowhere near slow enough to create interesting movement images.

So I was surprised and pleased to find the top photograph: the unmoving elements (net, ice, boards and stands) in perfect focus; the goaltender fairly crisp as well; and the two other hockey players reduced to red and green ghosts in front of the goalie. It could be a lot better, I know, with less space between the goalie and the net, a little more definition on the two other skaters, a little more contrast overall. But still it's not bad. An interesting attempt with decent results.

Day 362 - Another happy photographic accident

2011-12-28T17:41:00.000-04:00

Add this one to the list of photographs that, at first glance, seem not to have turned out but then, when you look at them more closely, you find that they are better than you could ever have imagined (or planned).

This is Emily. She's skating at the Lady Beaverbrook Rink during one of its daily free skates. There's not much light. Emily is moving pretty quick. And the Olympus is having a mess of trouble adjusting for it all. I set it at the slowest shutter speed that wouldn't show the shake in my hand (1/60th of a second) and opened the aperture up as far as it would go.

It's a recipe for disaster and that's what, at first glance, I thought I had gotten, even after I worked on the picture in iPhoto. Emily is not in focus (the guy in the coat behind her is, however), the contrast is terrible, and there still isn't enough light. I was ready to discard it.

Then I looked at her face. The concentration on it. The peaceful concentration on the act of skating. And I realised that the fuzziness of the image, the low contrast and the darkness all add rather than detract from the effect of the shot. So I kept it. I showed it to Emily and asked her permission to post it here.

"As long as you don't mind me copying it onto my Facebook page," she said. No problem, Emily. Enjoy. And thanks for being a part of another happy photographic accident.

Day 361 - Imperfect but treasured

2011-12-28T08:38:00.000-04:00

His name, apparently, is "Snooker Santa". With his candy-cane cue and still-in-the-package mini-Christmas-bulbs for billiard balls, he inhabits our tree looking for a game.

I guess members of our tree-decorating team was getting a little tired of hanging the hundreds of decorations on the towering tree when they came across the mini-bulbs, still in their plastic pack. "Fifteen more?" they moaned.

And then came the idea of "Snooker Santa", which, of course, took a lot longer to put into effect than 15 tiny balls would have taken to place on the tree but, by that time, it was too much fun to turn back.

The photograph is a flash-aided snapshot, nothing more. Even though I quite like the look of it, I don't think it's an example of great art, great technical expertise, great anything. But sometimes a photo is simply meant to preserve a memory, to become a reminder of something fun, happy, exciting, or even sad that's happened in our lives. Its technical imperfections don't matter.

Yes, a lot of people have art-like photos on their walls but I'm willing to bet that most of us have photographs that are even more important to us hidden away somewhere (in an album, on a computer, in a small frame above our desk). They wouldn't win any awards for photography, these other pictures, but we treasure them for the people, places, and events from our lives that they capture can preserve for us in their grainy, slightly out of focus, badly composed faces.

Day 360 - The brilliant blue of the cloudless sky

2011-12-26T23:31:00.000-04:00

Morning sun adds warmth and a slightly yellowish-red tone to new-fallen snow in the branches of a tree in our front yard. With another 10 centimetres of snow accumulated since yesterday, we now have our first real, thick blanket of the season. Too bad it won't last through the next couple of days: with temperatures rising and rain on the way, I don't think the white stuff stands a chance.

I took this photograph at about 9 or so this morning, when the sun was well-established in the sky. It's interesting to see the different kinds of light the sun provides, depending on the time of day and its location in the heavens. Here, the early morning's reds are starting to be replaced by the full yellow and white hues of the midday sun. These colours reflect in the snow on the branches but also bring out the brilliant blue of the cloudless sky.

Day 359 - Minding my own witches

2011-12-25T21:09:00.000-04:00

A snapshot, today, taken by my friend Emily, of me modelling my brand new Gryffindor scarf, made famous in the Harry Potter films and knitted for me by my fabulous sister.

As soon as I tore open the package, I wrapped this long, luxurious scarf around my neck and began posing proudly and with courage and valour worthy of a true Gryffindor. The sweater is amazing: incredibly vivid in its colours, amazingly beautiful in its creation and surprisingly warm in the wearing.

And my sister assures me that the pattern she followed was created by an extremely careful examination of stop-action shots from the movies, so that the stitch count is right, the colours are perfect and the dimensions are accurate to the millimetre.

I opened this gift in front of the right crowd: both Emily and her sister Clare are big Harry Potter fans so we were all a little excited when this amazing sweater came tumbling out of the gift wrap. My only sadness is that the photo cuts off the amazing tassles that hang from each end of the scarf.

I plan to wear it proudly on long walks with the dog in the cold New Brunswick winter but also when Emily, Clare and I sit down to watch both parts of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows one afternoon this week on Blu Ray (courtesy of another exciting Christmas gift!).

Day 358 - The dancing tree

2011-12-24T23:16:00.000-04:00

Christmas is overwhelming us this year, with friends coming from east and west to join us for the special season. We got our tree this morning at the Fredericton Farmers' Market, decorated it this afternoon and, by this evening, it was dancing above a flood of beautifully wrapped parcels.

This is another tripod shot, with the Olympus set at f8 at 6 seconds. The lights on the tree provide helpful and dramatic lighting and the ornaments add subtle but neat reflections. It's hard to take a bad Christmas tree shot, if you ask me, so I'm glad I took the easy route here.

Day 357 - Life's subtle opportunities

2011-12-23T23:09:00.000-04:00

The composition of this photograph pleases me. I like the appearance of each of the individuals elements in the shot (the lamp, the number, the plant and planter) and I like the way they work together, with the lines of the window, door and siding serving as a backdrop.

I am also quite fond of the muted palette of the colours in this photograph, which allows the quiet greens in the plant to stand out and the little red berries to shine. The strong yellow from the lamp itself interests me: I didn't expect that and I wonder if it is a product of the work I had to do to make a rather dark photo brighter.

I think that, after a year of doing this, I'm finally starting to develop something of an "eye" for interesting photos. More and more often, I find myself able to spot these kinds of subtle photographic opportunities that my daily life brings me. And I'm getting better at capturing the scene with a single photo, framed and properly executed on-site.

Day 356 - A tie and cap? Oh deer

2011-12-23T00:40:00.000-04:00

A fun snapshot from a day's wanderings around the neighbourhoods of Fredericton, today's photograph features a very life-like stuffed deer peering out at the street from the front porch of a house.

Did I mention the deer is wearing a baseball cap and a tie?

Not much to the photo itself: basically, a point and shoot shot with iPhoto helping slightly with the exposure to make up for a dark, cloudy day. Kind of fun, though.

Day 355 - A bowling blast of colour

2011-12-21T16:41:00.000-04:00

Get out your sunglasses, folks. After several days of easy-on-the-eyes low-light photos, I bring you this neon monstrosity courtesy of a visit to Kingswood Bowling.

I believe they call it "Cosmic Bowling". They turn out the lights but illuminate various parts of facility with bright colours and strobing lights. It doesn't help your bowling score but it looks pretty cool.

Unfortunately, there was not enough available light to allow a shutter speed of 1/60th or faster (not even close, to be honest) so I had to place the Olympus on one of the tables and use a much slower shutter to get my photographs. That led to a problem I hadn't expected but probably should have: there is so much vibration running through the building from the rolling balls, their crashes with the pins and the violence of the pins being splattered all over the place that the table upon which the camera sat was shaking.

As a result, there is a slight blur to the picture. Oh well. The colours are bright and the patterns interesting. And we all needed a shot of something after the calm of the last couple of days' photos.

Day 354 - Needs no embellishment

2011-12-20T19:23:00.000-04:00

This is a very simple photograph of the Fredericton walking bridge at night. With the Olympus on its trusty tripod, I set the aperture at f8 to get the best depth of focus possible, the shutter speed at (I think) 10 seconds to let in just enough light, and then pressed the release.

I could have slowed the shutter even further (to 15 seconds) but that would have allowed so much light into the lens that the photo would have looked almost like a day-time shot. I wanted darkness. I wanted the lamps on the bridge, and their reflections in the river, to stand out. And I wanted to be able to show only so much of the bridge's structure as would be allowed by the available light.

In other words, I wanted the photograph to show what my eyes could see while I stood there looking. I had never really thought about it before but, as amazing as our eyes are, we can't slow down their shutter speed the same way we can with a camera. And sometimes it's fun to use the camera's abilities to make a brighter photo. But other times, what our eyes see needs no such embellishment.

Day 353 - Affected by the available light

2011-12-19T17:16:00.000-04:00

Still enjoying that moon! Here we are with a surprising photograph that provides a number of interesting layers, each affected differently by the available light.

With a tripod and a long exposure, I was able to get this image of the bare bushes at the bottom of the slope leading to the walking bridge, with the fullish moon shining down. I love the colours of the branches and the leaves in the foreground, made possible by the slower shutter speed. I am also pleased with the way the iron beams of the bridge lurk in the background, themselves somewhat red with rust. And I have to admit I am growing to like more and more the starburst pattern of the moon and the lights on the bridge, caused by the long exposure as well.

I trust you're not growing too tired of these night shots. I'm loving them. Now I'm just waiting for some snow to create an all-new late-day look.

Day 352 - A starry-eyed moon

2011-12-18T22:18:00.000-04:00

Moonlight illuminates the St. John River, the Fredericton walking bridge and some nearby trees. I'm quite fond of this shot and not just because its composition was Patti's idea.

I'm pleased that I managed to find the right exposure levels to give some detail to the scene while still maintaining that night-time look.

Doesn't the moon look amazing? Like the sun, really. That's what I get for slowing the shutter down far enough to save the detail: the light from the almost-full moon becomes too powerful and creates the starry effect. I'm sure there are filters or other techniques to avoid this effect but I'm not interested. I quite like seeing the moon like this.

I forgot to mention yesterday that I am now in the final two weeks of this year-long photographic odyssey. I find that fact amazing as well. It seems like only yesterday that I posted my first picture and yet, at the same time, I feel like I've been doing this for ever.

Day 351 - A river of lights

2011-12-17T17:11:00.000-04:00

It's funny. I think I like the way the lights look reflected in the St. John River better than in the original, on the house on the north side of Fredericton.

A cold night, tripod and long shutter speed make for a neat photograph, this one combining the Christmas lights with the river for a nice effect. I'm still amazed at how many houses are decked out in lights like this one, all over the city. Some with many colours and others just a single colour, a hundred times over. My mom would have loved it!

Day 350 - The arrangement of the balls

2011-12-16T21:12:00.000-04:00

A simple little photograph of billiard balls on the green felt in a local pool hall serves as the picture of the day. I was actually trying to get an interesting photo of balls moving after a shot, using the slow shutter speed show the ball in motion, but none of those shots worked.

Instead, we get this static image, with the balls a little bit overexposed and the background of the room a nice, dark, richly coloured place. I like this picture for the colours, the difference in the light between foreground and background and for the arrangement of the balls themselves.

Day 349 - Morning glorious

2011-12-15T18:09:00.000-04:00

This photograph has NOT been tampered with. It came directly from the Olympus, with no enhancements, cropping or touch-ups of any kind. This is what the eastern sky looked like at 7:45 this morning.

Absolutely stunning. I can't think of any other words to describe it. What an amazing sky. Right outside our door. I stepped out on my way to work, looked up and saw this.

The challenge, as always, was to find the right camera settings. More light or less light? I placed the camera on the post of our porch railing, and then started fiddling with the aperture and shutter speed settings. I think this one is mid-range for both: probably an f5.6 with a shutter speed at 1/8th of a second or so. I didn't want to slow the shutter too far down for fear that the branches in the foreground would blur out, causing a distraction.

I took about 10 shots at different settings (and almost missed my bus). I have a couple that are lighter but that tends to bleed some of the drama from the colours. So I chose this one. And it's glorious.

Day 348 - Understated Christmas elegance

2011-12-14T19:52:00.000-04:00

Hundreds if not thousands of Fredericton home owners love to decorate the houses for the holiday season. While many offer a profusion of lights in dozens of colours, some prefer the understated elegance of this lovely building. There's nothing technically special about this photograph. Other than a tripod and a 15-second exposure, it's basically a point and shoot image. Some scenes simply don't need any help to be truly beautiful.

Day 347 - The Cathedral at night

2011-12-13T18:18:00.000-04:00

Christ Church Cathedral stands at the eastern entrance to Fredericton's downtown core. With a view of the St. John River, this Anglican Church is the architectural show piece of the city and it is especially beautiful when seen at night.

Last night, as part of our usual walk with our dog, Marlee Marie, Patti agreed to my slowing our wanderings down a bit by bringing along the Olympus and the tripod. I hoped to get some nice evening shots not just of Christ Church but also of the many beautiful displays of Christmas lights in this, the oldest part of Fredericton.

I'm glad to report that I am absolutely delighted with the results; Marlee, of course, was delighted with the extended walk, which ended up lasting more than two hours.

Patti, meanwhile, was not only an excellent companion for this photo safari but also a creative partner: this second shot, of an interestingly shaped bare tree against the other side of the cathedral, was entirely her idea, as were many other shots that you are likely to see over the course of the coming week. Patti sees things in ways that I don't and her ideas are usually great (no matter how hard I at first resist them).

As I have said so often before, the challenge with photos of this kind is deciding what the appropriate amount of light is to let into the camera. For the darkest of night shots, you end up setting the shutter speed at its slowest setting (15 seconds) and then open the aperture up as far as it will go (f3.4). When there's a little more light, you can close the aperture down to improve the depth of focus but you have to make sure you don't allow the in-frame light sources to create white bombs in your picture.

In the top photo, that light top left is actually the moon. If I had stopped the aperture down even further, I could have gotten rid of that starring effect but that would have meant that the building was too dark. So, not having any lens filters to help me, I have to accept the distortion of the moon (which actually looks kind of cool) in order to make the Cathedral visible. It's a worthwhile tradeoff, I think.

Day 346 - Sunset and missed opportunities

2011-12-12T17:35:00.000-04:00

Sunset on downtown Fredericton. An average sunset, nothing more. In fact, because downtown Fredericton is located in a river valley, you don't get to see the sun actually setting, especially in the winter months. It just kind of disappears from sight, even though daylight lingers.

I missed a great photo last night. We went for a walk along the river under the full moon. With the brilliant lunar disc, a patchwork of clouds and the cathedral lit for evening, it would have made a wonderful photo. Unfortunately, both Olympus and tripod had been left at home. So I could only stand and admire.

Day 345 - Bookshelves and morning sun

2011-12-11T21:40:00.000-04:00

A beautiful morning, with the sun streaming into our dining room. I originally starting taking pictures to try to capture the way the bright sun was illuminating the glass beads and green sheer curtains on the window itself. It was this photo of the bookshelves, however, that caught my eye when I transferred the shots onto the computer.

Strong light like this always creates drama. I like the strong contrast it makes these shelves and their contents, with strong lines between shadow and light. I had to play with the exposure a bit to get this right: the light meter kept getting fooled by the differences across the composition of the frame.

Day 344 - Golden doodle or baby seal?

2011-12-10T16:24:00.000-04:00

I warned you early on that there might be a few photographs of our beloved dog Marlee, didn't I? Well, here's another one. Those of us who know her recognise this as the classic "I'm ready to play" pose, right down to splayed legs ready to jump, the eyes intent on her dad, and the orange rubber ball hiding beneath her ear to the left of her head. Those of you who don't know Marlee and don't have a dog of your own probably thought this was a photo of a large baby seal, caught on the ice floe.

Taken early in the morning, just after Marlee's first walk, this photo posed a real lighting challenge. In fact, it was only the technical wizardry of iPhoto's Edit functions that really saved it. I took the shot in very low light at f3.4 at 1/60th. Even then, the Olympus' light meter was blinking away at me. But the camera doesn't offer any larger aperture settings and I couldn't move the shutter speed any lower without having the natural shake in my hand affect the shot. So I just clicked anyway and left it to iPhoto to save the day.

What impresses me about the shot now is that iPhoto's exposure control allowed me to recapture Marlee's original colours and detail but, in doing so, it seems to have converted the snow and grass into a black-and-white background. Happily, I quite like the overall effect.

Day 343 - Steeple and soft morning light

2011-12-09T20:46:00.000-04:00

Early morning sun bathes the steeple of one of Fredericton's downtown churches in a soft, pink light.

I was walking to work this morning when I saw how beautifully that sun was illuminating this steeple, causing its copper skin to glow. I took the photograph from one of the fifth floor windows in my office building and am now worried that the delay in taking the shot might have allowed the light to fade a little bit. The photo certainly doesn't convey the glow that I saw in person, though I think it is still pretty nice.

I wonder as well if I should have closed the aperture down one more stop to try to deepen the colours by reducing the amount of light that entered the lens. Would it have worked? Could such a technique have brought out more of that velvety glow I saw?

I don't know. But, if I get the chance to try it again, I will.

Day 342 - The stories of poles

2011-12-08T21:18:00.000-04:00

Do not ask what prompted me to take this photograph. I had the Olympus out, I was on my lunch hour walk and I saw a wood telephone pole discoloured by the thousands of staples that were embedded in it and I thought: "Cool". So I pointed, zoomed in, and shot.

I debated trimming the photo to take away the strip of background on the right, including the dude in the hat, but then I realised it added something: a slice of the context in which the pole lives.

I can't imagine how many years and how many posters it has taken for this poor wooden pole to become so impregnated by staples that it is actually turning rust-coloured. And I find it amazing that the pole has lasted through all those rain storms and snow storms and hot sunny days to get into this condition.

No, it's not a great photo from a technical standpoint. But it is interesting. And it tells a story.

Day 341 - City Hall from the fifth floor

2011-12-07T18:47:00.000-04:00

I work in one of the taller office buildings in Fredericton (now, remember, this is Fredericton, after all, so the office buildings are no skyscrapers!) and I have finally gotten around to taking advantage of that fact to get some shots of downtown buildings from the upper floors. First up is this photograph of the City Hall clock tower, taken from the fifth floor on a rainy day. Considering the weather, I had thought of this first set of photos as tests of a sort, just trying out different windows and different angles to see what would work best once the weather is better.

Most of the other photos, not surprisingly, were pretty dreary but I was actually pleased with this one. The colours are deep and rich and there's that lovely cloud of steam/smoke rising up from the street to create a nice effect. I'm told the sunsets are lovely from this floor and this side of the building so watch out for a sunset shot before December is through.

Day 340 - Christmas and everyday life

2011-12-06T19:07:00.000-04:00

Christmas appears to be approaching. All of Fredericton seems to be wanting to get into the spirit, from the guy dressed as Santa emerging from a downtown store as I walked past, to the many (many many many) homeowners who have decided to spend their life-savings on electricity and cover their houses with lights to the Palette, with its tastefully decorated Christmas tree.

This is another photograph where I place the Olympus on the table in a restaurant, adjust the manual settings to account for the low light, then touch the shutter release. This one was especially challenging because the tree is set up in front of the restaurant's windows, meaning there was a great deal of light coming from behind the subject. I'm actually pleased with this shot, as much for the coat rack on the right as anything else. It's Christmas as part of everyday life.

Day 339 - The bright yellow tricycle

2011-12-05T18:13:00.000-04:00

The thing I like best about this photograph is that I was able to do the framing of the shot on the spot, rather than counting on iPhoto to help me.

I saw this interesting vehicle (which is actually an advertisement for The Happy Baker, a bakery/coffee shop in a downtown Fredericton office building) out on the sidewalk of King Street, with the mid-day sun creating an interesting pattern of light and shadow on and around it.

I felt that a picture that simply showed the entire vehicle would be boring and thought carefully about where to stand and how much zoom to use to create something that captured what I was seeing. I'm quite pleased with the result, which offers a nice composition of the many round shapes with the added treat of the bright yellow tricycle against the background of the deep maroon of the minivan.

Day 338 - Shadowy absences

2011-12-04T20:41:00.000-04:00

Sunshine and cold temperatures makes for exceptionally crisp days and, perhaps surprisingly, crisp photographs as well.

I know I've featured at least one other photo of Gibson Memorial United Church on this blog in the past but I quite like the shape and colour of the building. Here, the strong sunlight creates very sharp shadows on the brickwork, creating a visually interesting image by accentuating the rigid lines of the building itself.

I also like the fact that two horizontal shadows fall across the church's sign, reminders of the power lines that are ubiquitous in this city, marring just about every photo you take. Their presence in this photo is limited to this shadowy reminder, which I think adds to the impact of the shot rather than taking away from it.

Day 337 - Those little triangular shadows

2011-12-03T22:38:00.000-04:00

I find it hard to focus on this photograph. I think it's because of the many different lines, angles and planes in the shot and especially because of those little triangular shadows to the bottom right of each of the windows.

I don't know what prompted me to take this picture but I'm glad I did. I then took four more at different levels of zoom but it's this first one, with the slight tilt to the windows, that I like best. The early morning sunlight makes the concrete of the building glow and creates those little shadows, making the whole thing a little bit like abstract art.

Day 336 - Street lamp and decapitated sculpture

2011-12-02T17:16:00.000-04:00

This burst of morning sun on the windows of a building made photograph difficult but interesting.

In order to reduce the amount of light coming in through the lens to a reasonable level, I had first to stop the aperture down to its smallest: in the case of my little Olympus, that's f8. But that was just the first, easiest step.

Even at f8, there was still too much light coming in if I set the shutter speed at anything slower than 1/100th of a second. At that setting, the sun on the building still looked like a burst of fire but at least the other elements in the photo were starting to show.

At a slightly faster shutter speed, you could actually see the faces of the pedestrians. But the sunburst was still really strong. So I kept pushing the shutter speed higher, interested to see when the sunburst building itself would start to be recognisable. That happened at 1/400th of a second but this shot, the only I liked best, had a shutter speed of 1/500th.

I like the shape of the light on the windows as well as the dark shapes of the pedestrians, vehicles and signs in the foreground. I'm pleased with the balanced composition, especially with the street lamp left and the decapitated sculpture of the saxophonist on the top right of the picture.

Day 335 - Sunlight on satellite dish

2011-12-01T21:01:00.000-04:00

So there I am, standing on King Street in downtown Fredericton, fumbling to get the Olympus out of my knapsack, then out of its case, before the last vestige of sunlight leaves the buildings and darkness falls.

It's amazing how quickly the lovely early evening light disappeared. When I began the 10-second process of extricating the camera from its packaging, the warm orangey-pink light was still caressing the spire on the Wilmot United Church. When I finally had the Olympus out and on, ready to take the picture, only that satellite dish on the bank building beyond was still in the light.

I'm amazed at how different the light from the sun is at different times of the day. My favourite is this light: the warm, reddish light from the setting sun. But it's also amazing how quickly that wonderful light comes and goes. I guess, if I want to be a real photographer, I'm going to have to go to the location and actually wait for the light to show itself, rather than leaving it to luck.

Day 334 - A jumpy collection of lights

2011-11-30T22:19:00.000-04:00

No photo blog is complete without the classic "driving down dark streets with the shutter open" shot. Here's mine. With the Olympus on the dashboard, set at f3.4 at 15 seconds, we drove along Brunswick Street in downtown Fredericton at 8:30 at night. The result is this jumpy collection of lights, captured as the car moves past them: greens and reds from the stoplights, yellows from street lights and whites from headlights. Neat.

Day 333 - The blurred brick wall

2011-11-29T21:10:00.000-04:00

One theme I seem to be exploring of late in my photographs is the idea of different levels in the image, especially the simplest two: the foreground and the background.

There are a lot of decisions to be made when taking a photograph like this. You have to decided how to frame the shot, how close to get to the objects in the foreground and how much space to leave around them (on the sides and top and bottom). You have to choose the angle from which you take the photo (again, both from side to side and up and down) which will have an impact on what forms the background to the shot.

Once you've made those decisions, you have to choose whether you wish to have all elements in sharp focus (by prioritising a narrow aperture setting on the camera) or different levels of focus at different levels of the shot (by opening the aperture up and then compensating by speeding up the shutter). I had the aperture setting at its smallest (f8) with the shutter at 1/60th for the first picture I took of these lamps and the shot was boring: everything was in focus.

So then changed the aperture to f3.4, increased the shutter speed to 1/125th of a second and suddenly you've got this much more interesting image, where the finely focused lamps stand out against the interestingly textured but blurred brick wall.

Day 332 - Beer taps in the sky

2011-11-28T17:59:00.000-04:00

Wow. Do I ever love this shot! Add this photograph to my list of favourite images from the year. It's so cool and surreal.

What is it?

It's the rooftop patio of one of the bars in downtown Fredericton, taken from the sidewalk below with a cloud-covered sky in the background. I underexposed the image slightly in order to make the beer taps (left) and the beer sign (right) stand out against the sky. Doesn't that Coors Light sign jump out at you?

Day 331 - Angle, reflection and distortion

2011-11-27T19:34:00.000-04:00

As anyone who reads this blog on a regular basis can tell you, I'm a sucker for a good reflection. But I think this photograph has even more going for it than simply a nice mirroring in the windows of the Barracks in downtown Fredericton: because of the sharp upward angle at which I was shooting, the lines in this photo also feature a neat distorting effect.

I've become much more aware of the existence and impact of lines (both straight and curved) on the way we see things and this shot is a good example of it. The window appears to be at an angle and, in fact, seems to be tilted slightly upward toward the sky. It isn't, of course: it's on the flat vertical plane of the wall. But it looks that way because I was standing so close to the building when I took the picture.

If that isn't enough, I also like the colours in the stone that come through in this picture. There's red, orange and yellow in there, bringing even more life to the shot.

Day 330 - Every dog has its day

2011-11-26T19:05:00.000-04:00

Today's photograph is in honour of the McMaster Marauders university football team, which last night won the Vanier Cup as national champions.

Like Marlee here, the Marauders have earned themselves some time in the sun, time to kick back, secure in the knowledge that their place in football history has been well established with their big win over heavily-favoured Laval. Marlee wasn't too sure about wearing the McMaster ball cap for this photo but eventually decided just to put up with her dad's strange whims and go to sleep, cap in place.

Not an easy photo to get, to be honest, and not just because the subject was a fidgety hat hater. Lighting was an issue. Marlee is lying in her bed on the landing outside our side door, under the car port, with the sunlight beaming between the slats of the railing. I had to make a number of adjustments to get the light right, including moving the Marauder eagle insignia around on her head to catch the beams of sunlight.

Day 329 - It's all about the brilliant red

2011-11-25T23:47:00.000-04:00

Today's photograph is all about colours. And shapes. And textures. But mostly about colours.

I just love the red of the wall in the background. And I love the contrast between that fantastic red and the black of the lamp in front of it. You've seen that red before. Some time ago, I posted a photo of a driveway with this red on either side of the laneway. This time, I've positioned the camera so that the black lamp from one building is highlighted against the red wall of the building next door.

I also made a conscious effort to open the aperture up a bit and push the shutter speed to create the slightest amount of blur to the background wall. I wanted the background to be all about the colour with the texture blurred away. Looking at the photo now, I wish I had opened the aperture up even further; there's still maybe too much detail in the wall.

Then again, maybe I'd lose those nice vertical lines if it were any less focused. And I like those lines.

Day 328 - Deep evening colours

2011-11-24T20:45:00.000-04:00

The days are short in Fredericton and the night comes early. This is what it's like now as I wait for my bus home from work outside King's Place downtown. By taking advantage of a post box that is under the cover of the mall's overhang, I am able to place the Olympus on a stable surface and slow the shutter right down, in this case to four full seconds. This allows me to keep the depth of focus strong with an aperture setting of f8, while still getting enough light to make a clear photo.

I really like this photo, especially the composition of the structures at the top and bottom of the frame, as well as the full, deep colour the long exposure gives me. The picture shows up, however, the limitations of my camera: I'd have preferred to shut the aperture even further, to f16 or smaller, which would allowed an even longer shutter and made the lights of passing cars interesting streaks across the frame. I like those types of photos but my little Olympus isn't really capable of them, at least not under normal evening conditions.

Day 327 - The city in snow

2011-11-23T19:12:00.000-04:00

We are having a snow storm out here in New Brunswick. The city of Fredericton is expecting up to 25 centimetres while other parts of the Maritimes might get as much as 40 cm of the white stuff. So on my lunch hour I went out with the intention of capturing the city in snow. I took quite a few photographs (of blowing snow, of streetscapes obscured by falling snow, or footprints in the snow) but came away feeling that this shot was the best by far.

For me, it captures so much of what Fredericton is: a winter place, a bilingual place, a place that hasn't quite gotten over its fixation with Christmas and then wonders why members of other races, cultures and religions don't quite feel at home here. I'm pleased with the photograph as well because I feel I did a pretty good job framing the elements, with the bare tree up the right side and across the top, the post just a little off-centre left, the black lamp overlapping into the tree and the wreath, with its delicate sprinkling of snow, adding colour to the scene.

Day 326 - Light falling on oak leaves

2011-11-22T20:05:00.000-04:00

I have been fascinated with oak leaves for some time now, ever since I noticed that they cling to their branches well into the winter. In fact, I'm not even sure that they ever drop off. Maybe they just renew themselves each spring.

Fredericton is home to some pretty amazing oak trees, including this one that stands in front of the public library downtown. There are several more in my neighbourhood and, although their leaves don't seem to colour as vividly as do the maples, they still provide some interesting shapes and shades every fall.

Of particular interest to me in these photographs, however, is not so much the colour and shapes of the oak leaves but the difference the amount of light allowed into the camera makes in how vividly those colours come across. Simply by speeding up the shutter by a small amount, you really bring the leaves to life.

The upper photo was taken with the aperture at f8 and the shutter speed at 1/60th of a second. It is a bright shot and, on first glance, seems like the better of the two. But there is, in fact, too much light and the colour and detail of the leaves gets bleached out. The lower shot, taken at f8 and 1/100th of a second, is much darker. You lose the brick in the background but you gain vivid colour in the leaves themselves, especially the oranges and reds that are all but lost in the first picture. I think they're both nice pictures but I prefer the lower one, with its brilliant colours and darkened down background, over the upper one, which seems over-bright and bland by comparison.

Day 325 - When the background detracts

2011-11-21T18:06:00.000-04:00

I'm not sure whether to be charmed or revolted by this photograph of an aging wooden embellishment on a downtown building. I like the shapes and tones of the support structure for an awning but the bird droppings in the background I can do without. You would think that someone who works for or owns the Sushi restaurant in the background would notice that disgusting mess and decide to clean it. I would think a good power washer would do the trick. But there it is.

The buildings of downtown Fredericton never cease to surprise me, in positive ways as well. Many of them have these interesting little features, remnants from bye-gone eras (or is it by-gone?), whether in stone, brick, or heavily painted wood. You just have to look around and find them. In this case, these embellishments get lost in the busy-ness of the downtown street. I'd like to see the building's owners rediscover them, strip the many coats of paint and bring them back to their original lustre.

Photographically, this shot was fairly simple: a point and shoot, with some attention to the framing. As the bird doo proves, however, I tend to get so involved in the subject of my photo that I often forget to check to make sure the background doesn't detract from the shot either.

Day 324 - The inscriptions of passing time

2011-11-20T20:47:00.000-04:00

A detail shot from the court house in downtown Fredericton. I liked the way the word was carved into the stone in sharp, deep letters and I liked the several colours that show up in the shot.

This photograph is all about the framing, with the pointed top of the arch drawing the eye upward to the word and the two windowsills at the top providing further punctuation to the shot. As I take more and more of these kinds of photos, I am growing interested in the very physical way these buildings age, the way the passage of time inscribes itself on the stone, concrete and brick.

323 - That little leaf...

2011-11-19T17:05:00.000-04:00

I love the little leaf that sits on the glove. I didn't put it there, honest. I just think it's a perfect adornment for this very bright red garment.

I also think the white tags issuing from the mouth of the glove are funny: they're almost as big as the glove itself. And they add an interesting swath of white to the shot.

The other thing that I notice about this photograph is the depth of focus. The fingertips of the glove are not quite crisp while the leaves in the background are quite fuzzy. I think the effect is nice but now I wish I had flipped the Olympus to manual and opened the aperture up even further. That would have shortened the focus more, making the leaves just a blur in the background. But, still, I'm happy with the colours, the composition and that little leaf.

Day 322 - Blue skies and hospitals

2011-11-18T23:09:00.001-04:00

The Dr. Everett Chalmers Hospital in Fredericton stands at the top of the south side of the St. John River Valley, overlooking the city.

Opened in 1976, the "Dec" as it is known serves all of Fredericton and surrounding area. It's a massive structure, modern in design and quite functional. I'd like to say it's attractive but I simply can't force myself to type those words. I think the blue sky in this photograph complements the portion of the building that I've framed off the whole and creates a nice balance to the shot. With the bright November sun, the place actually looks cheerful.

Day 321 - Bollards or vases or statues, oh my

2011-11-17T18:41:00.000-04:00

Don't you miss these kinds of odd little flourishes on the new construction? Are they bollards? Are they vases? Are they statues? Who knows! I certainly don't know who they are, even if I could figure out what they are. But I like the way they gaze down at you when you approach the front doors of the New Brunswick Legislative Assembly building. And I like the slow discolouration they undergo as time passes and the copper and iron above them bleeds from rain and melting snow.

No chance of taking this photograph straight on, since the figures are about 20 feet off the ground, so I was forced to step back, then use the zoom to try to get some level of detail in the shots. Tough to do on a dark day. As you might have noticed, I'm working on noticing and photographing detail rather than entire objects or buildings. Looks pretty good, I think.

Day 320 - A strangely pleasing planter

2011-11-16T18:49:00.001-04:00

One of two concrete planters on the front stoop of the old court house in downtown Fredericton. The big decision with regard to this photograph was how to crop it: I first tried to trim down to a square so that the planter was in the exact centre of the frame but that didn't look right; I decided I liked the taller, narrower image that included a great deal of the wall above the planter and some of the concrete pad beneath it, thus accentuating the broad bulkiness of the object itself.

This is a strange picture. The colours are mostly bland, the planter is unremarkable and that pipe on the right should seem entirely out of place. And yet I think this photograph works quite well. I like the shapes in it, particularly the contrast between the roundness of the planter and the tall, narrow lines of just about everything else. I am also pleased with that cluster of dry leaves to the right of the object, balanced by the patch of yellow paint to the left. And the variety of textures captured in this one photo are quite pleasing as well.

Day 319 - On the limitations of flashes

2011-11-15T18:43:00.000-04:00

An interior shot, not because it's a great example of photography but to show the limitations of the Olympus camera I'm using. Don't get me wrong, I think it's a great camera for the price and for the fact that it is a glorified point-and-shoot.

One limitation is the built-in flash. It is small and fairly powerful but it lacks a diffusing filter that softens the light. This means that it tends to overpower subjects that are close to the camera, creating areas that are washed out with too much light and areas that are blanketed in very sharp shadows. As for more distant subjects, the flash is not quite "big" enough to make for a useful photo.

In this case, the atrium of the Legislative Building in Fredericton shows up as grainy and flat due to the lack of light. You get a taste for the beauty of its staircase and the bronze statue-lamp in the centre but the photograph is not quite crisp enough to do the place justice.

Day 318 - Centennial seat of power

2011-11-15T07:27:00.000-04:00

The Centennial Building on King Street in downtown Fredericton is one of those hard-to-photograph buildings because of its breadth and the lack of space in front of it. You either have to take a picture of only part of the building (as I have done here) or use a very wide angle lens to capture the whole thing, which badly warps the image.

Since the beauty of this building is associated with, inter alia, its straight lines, you really don't want to distort them in order to try to get the entire edifice in the photo.

As the home of many of the Province's governmental departments, the Centennial Building attracts its share of political action, including this protest against the practice of hydro fracking. I attempted to minimise the presence of the protesters by taking the photo from the far end of the building, while still capturing the long, sixties-era lines of the office block. Still, having the protesters there does help both to complement those lines and remind one of the importance of the decisions that come out of the tenants of the building itself.

Day 317 - Recognising our own impermanence

2011-11-13T11:08:00.000-04:00

The classic footprint-in-the-sand image, taken on the slowly growing beach in Pickering, Ontario.

The governments here are trying to rebuild the shoreline of the north side of Lake Ontario, using a variety of techniques including adding clean fill and installing water breaks to create small, protected areas of beach. It seems to be working. The waterfront in this area is really becoming a lovely area and there are even real sand beaches forming.

Here, my sister's single footprint marks the sand. It's an image of surprising beauty that captures the significant impact each of us makes on the world while still conveying a recognition of our own impermanence. And also, it shows the weird treads on my sister's shoes!

Day 316 - The mistake that pays off

2011-11-12T12:30:00.000-04:00

An exercise in lighting. This photograph of my sister and brother-in-law opening their wedding gift is special to me not just for the occasion but also for the ridiculously stark contrast between light and dark. To be honest, this shot was a mistake. The flash on the Olympus failed to go off. I have other pictures that are just like this where the flash did, in fact, flash but they are just bland compared to this one. This photograph emphasizes the shapes in the image, the body positioning, the way the people's postures speak to us about how they are feeling.

In this case, my brother-in-law is relaxed and happy, the shrug of his shoulders and the jaunty bend to his knee showing his comfort. My sister, meanwhile, appears just as relaxed but the bend of her head suggests concentration, focus on the card she is reading. If the flash had gone off, your attention would be drawn perhaps to the clothes they are wearing, the details of their faces, over even the business of the background, instead of the mood and emotion of the moment. In this case, a mistake turned out to be the best shot of the event.

Day 315 - A bit of shameless promotion

2011-11-11T09:09:00.000-04:00

A bit of unabashed promotion in today's photographic blog. Not only are these quite nice pictures (as far as snapshot kinds of photos go) but they are also directly related to the novel I'm writing. In fact, I took these photographs of Hamilton's old court house building (now the continuing education centre for McMaster University, top) and it's new court house building (bottom) so that I could more accurately represent them in my book. But then I saw them on my little netbook computer and thought: "Hey, they're quite nice". So here they are for you to enjoy even as you wonder, "What novel?".

The two buildings face each other on opposite sides of Main Street in downtown Hamilton. I think they're both interesting buildings in their own right and worthy of a photograph or two. But their close proximity to each other (and to other large buildings nearby) makes it difficult to get a full image of either using even a wide-angle lens. In situations like that, the photographer's task is to decide what angle to use and what part would best represent the whole in a picture.And then, of course, there is the issue of light. On a sunny day like this one, with the sun actually behind the old court house, shining directly on the new court house, you have to be careful to compensate appropriately for it. I think I did okay in that department, though the windows on the bottom photo are a little bit overexposed and the top photo could use to be adjusted a bit. Oh, iPhoto, where are you when I need you?

Day 314 - The end of "The" era

2011-11-10T15:23:00.000-04:00

Today's photograph pays tribute to "The" Boutique, one of west Hamilton's real treasures that will be closing its doors for the last time on December 10 of this year.

The success of The Boutique is thanks mainly to the exquisite taste of its proprietor Anita, who filled the shop on a daily basis with items that appealed to her. If she didn't love it, she didn't offer it for sale in her shop. And if it was offered for sale in The Boutique, I could be confident it would be a perfect gift for the important people in my life.

I offer this photo today as my way of paying tribute to this wonderful fixture of taste and elegance in the Westdale area and to wish Anita, her family and her wonderful staff over the years all my best for their futures.

Day 313 - The face of the willow

2011-11-09T08:45:00.000-04:00

At Princess Point, at the edge of the water near where we said our last goodbye to our mother, stand two enormous willow trees. My sister tells me that these trees have such extensive root systems that they can only be grown in wilderness areas near great bodies of water like this. If you try to grow them in town, their roots infiltrate sewer systems and destroy the foundations of buildings.

But they are beautiful trees and their broad trunks teem with character. I had originally planned to post a photograph of the entire tree, with its wide, fantastic branch system sweeping the sky and its massive trunk anchoring it to earth. But then I saw this shot, just the trunk itself, with the face of the tree so clear in the detail of its bark. I would have liked to have been able to lighten the shot a bit (it was taken, not surprisingly, under shady conditions) but I don't have access to my usual iPhoto program right now.

So we do with dark but detailed. And we notice that someone has seen the face of the willow too and has added, quietly and without any fanfare, their own painted face at the very foot of the tree.

Day 312 - Afraid to ruin the magic

2011-11-08T09:56:00.000-04:00

I have no idea what this pod is. It's beautiful, though, with its finely intricate tufts and it's perfect whiteness. My sister and I went for a walk yesterday at Hamilton's Princess Point park and found these pods near the place where we said our last goodbye to our mother more than two years ago.

I'm impressed with the performance of the Olympus in this case. Although several of the photographs I took of these pods turned out blurry, several others did not. I'm happy because I didn't use the macro setting on the camera to take the shots so I was really trusting my luck with them. And the Olympus came through, finding some way to focus from in close using its normal settings.

I really should look into finding out what kind of plant this is but... that might ruin the magic.

Day 311 - Sparkles on Lake Ontario

2011-11-07T08:59:00.000-04:00

Sunlight on Lake Ontario. I'm visiting family and friends in the ol' country and, while walking along the northern shore of this beautiful lake, found this wonderful scene. I tried a little experiment, asking my sister to stand in the bottom left corner of the frame to see if there was any way I could get, in one photo, a balance between the light on the water and the light on her face. The results: no way. Either she was reduced to a silhouette (as here) and the sunlight reasonably visible or you could see her face but the background was just a sheet of white.

Day 310 - Some downtown perspective

2011-11-06T16:11:00.000-04:00

An exercise in perspective, this photograph depicts the front porch area of the barracks building on Officer's Square.

Located on Queen Street in downtown Fredericton, this building holds the local museum. I decided to take this picture because I liked the way the lamps line up and the look of the columns down the right side and the windows on the left. I had to play with the light a little bit, since it was a bright day outside but dim under this porch roof. If I recall correctly, I ended up having to slow the shutter right down in order to keep the aperture tight: f8 at 1/60th, if my memory serves.

As you're probably figuring out from this blog, the city of Fredericton has a lot of really lovely older buildings with some interesting architectural styles. And the community has done a fairly nice job of conserving the buildings and making them available to the public.

Day 309 - A misleading date and a coat of arms

2011-11-05T16:56:00.000-03:00

Today we go with a detail from the Legislative Assembly building. This photograph shows misleading "1880" sign above the front door, along with windows and the coat of arms. Don't ask me which coat of arms it is because I'm not sure. Probably New Brunswick's or Canada's or even the British royal family's or something like that.

There's something that I like very much about this photograph and I'm not sure what it is. Maybe its the gentle colour scheme. Or the balance of the image, with the two windows, the sign and the coat of arms. Or maybe it's just the fact that I'm trying to take more photos of smaller details of buildings and I'm realising I'm not very good at it, so when one turns out pretty well I feel inappropriately delighted.

I don't know what it is that gives one person an "artistic eye" but I know I don't have it. But I do my best and I think this shot is one of the best I've done.

Day 308 - Waiting for the wind

2011-11-04T19:57:00.000-03:00

A little NB patriotism for you. Here, the strange New Brunswick provincial flag flutters over the old post office building on Queen Street in downtown Fredericton.

Despite my antipathy toward the flag itself, I'm quite pleased with this photograph. I like the way the building frames the flag and I like the gust of wind that unfurled the flag just long enough for me to get this shot. For some reason, I'm ridiculously pleased with the fact that the corner of the flag does not intersect with the top of the building so that the flag is completely encompassed by the sky.

I've also figured out that I can't think of a single other word for "flag", hence its repeated use in that last paragraph. Oh well. This photograph was taken with the Olympus fully on automatic: my contribution was seeing the interesting composition and then waiting for the gust of wind before pressing the button.

Day 307 - Taking liberties with Her Majesty

2011-11-03T18:52:00.000-03:00

New Brunswick's Legislative Assembly building dates from 1882 (even though its front wall features a prominent "1880" carving) and, according to the descriptive plaque in the foyer, is made of sandstone with a mansard roof and matching towers (see bottom photo). It is currently in the process of being refurbished, with the exterior work being done first.

I trust that, as part of that refurbishment, the tradespeople won't display the same lack of respect that the workers who installed security cameras and pigeon-proofing showed when they defaced this poor carving of the Queen that keeps watch on the building's front doors (see upper photo). Yes, that is actually pigeon wire sticking out of Her Majesty's crown!

This photograph was not as easy to take as it might at first appear. The carving is located inside the arch of the doorway, meaning there wasn't much light to work with. Since the Olympus' flash washed out the details on the face and crown, I had to figure out a way to get a decent exposure while not losing too much depth of focus nor adding too much shake. I have to admit, I cheated a bit. I kept the shutter speed at 1/60th while allowing enough of an aperture to keep focus throughout the shot.

In other words, I underexposed the image on site and then fixed the exposure on my trusty old iMac.

I was also forced, because of the harsh angle at which I took the picture, to rotate the image slightly so that the carving appears straight in the photo. Neat what you can do, isn't it?

The lower photo is of the building itself. You can't get far enough back from the front wall to take a photograph of the entire building with a nomral lens so I had to zoom way out and accept the distortion caused by the use of the shorter lens (somewhere close to 28mm). Unfortunately, you can't fix that on the iMac.

Day 306 - The photographer's gain

2011-11-02T17:02:00.000-03:00

Some time ago, I posted a photograph of a man on a crane, working on the top of the Fredericton City Hall clock tower. What I thought was going to be a quick fix has turned into a major renovation of the outside of this historic building.

This new photo shows the tunnel they've constructed that leads into the city tourism information bureau on the first floor of the City Hall building. Looks inviting, doesn't it? "Come on in and find out what we're all about!" it shouts at the passing tourist.

The tourist's loss is the photographer's gain, as this scaffolding-and-mesh structure serves as an interesting subject, with its many lines and colours, the perspective it provides as it moves into the background and the contrast between the structure itself and the curved shape of the bricks on the ground. A challenge to get the lighting right but a neat photo nonetheless.

Day 305 - Jack says "Hi"

2011-11-01T17:47:00.000-03:00

Happy belated Hallowe'en everybody. Believe it or not, this is the FIRST Jack'o'Lantern I have ever carved. He adorned our brand new front porch last night for the Hallowe'en festivities and we even got a compliment about him.

In order to get some shots of Jack lit from within by a candle, I got out my mini tripod and started taking shots at various aperture and shutter speed settings to see what would work best. Needless to say, as I fiddled with the camera, the evening darkness also grew denser so it turned into quite a challenge.

The top photograph is the first one I took. It's got an aperture of about f4.5 with a shutter speed around four seconds. It's a good, crisp picture but I wanted to see if the flickering flame of the candle could be more visually interesting with a smaller aperture and a longer exposure.

The lower shot was taken under much darker conditions and with a 15 second exposure. This resulted in a dark photo (no matter how long you made the exposure, there just wasn't much light) so that Jack's face stands out better but the slower shutter didn't seem to do much with the flickering flame. My guess is that the light from the candle was already diffused as it passed through the carved features of Jack's face, so that, even if the flame itself moved while the shutter was open, it made no difference to what the camera saw and captured. The question of course is: which photo do you like better?

Day 304 - Reflections in sharp focus

2011-10-31T17:25:00.000-03:00

I don't know. Maybe I play too much with reflections. There do seem to be a lot of photographs on this blog that involve the reflection of one building in the windows of another.

But I'm delighted with this one. A bright, sunny fall day gave me this brilliant reflection of the roof of the barracks building in the windows of the second floor of the stores opposite. I love the colour and the sharpness of the reflected image and the way the windows frame the details from the barracks building.

And I'm pleased with the balance created by the reflected tree branches to the left of the image and the foreground branches to the right. Cool. Not a bad photo taken with the Olympus on full automatic mode.

Day 303 - Snow on the pumpkin

2011-10-30T21:44:00.000-03:00

SNOW! On October 30. Fredericton had snow on October 30. Not only that, we had a Snow Fall Warning from Environment Canada, with up to 15 centimetres expected. If the temperature had just be the slightest bit lower, we would have been knee deep in the stuff.

And, if you recall, on April 20 Fredericton had a late-spring snow fall and I just could not believe it. Now, just six months and ten days later, more snow. That officially abridges the seasons out here to just two: spring and winter. No summer, no real fall.

So we end up with this strange combination of fall and winter, together. Leaves littering the ground, caught up in a blanket of snow. Crazy. I went for a walk this morning to try to capture just how it feels to have snow before Hallowe'en and this is what I came up with. First, still ripe maple leaves in the snow.

Then, cedar buds, still brown and not yet burst, with a crown of the white stuff. This shot comes from our front yard, where my newly seeded grass pokes its heads through the new-fallen snow as well.

I don't know how nature responds to its own strangenesses. Will the buds die? Will they refuse to bloom? Or will they simply ignore the snow's brief appearance and continue with business as usual once the sunshine and (slightly) warmer temperatures return this week?

And finally, snow on the pumpkins on the front porch of a house up the street. Snow on the pumpkins! Imagine that. I had to play a little with the aperture and shutter speed to get these shots since the day was quite dim. And I did find that the autofocus tried to find the flying snow flakes rather than the leaf, bud or pumpkin at which I was aiming. But, other than that, easy peasey, from a photographic point of view.

Day 302 - Fallen leaves inhabit the grate

2011-10-30T11:02:00.000-03:00

Some days, I walk along through my life with camera in hand and just keep snapping photographs. I don't know what is different about those days but I find that the photos I take often surprise me.

Most days, I set out with an image in mind (I want to capture the wind, or I want to capture fall, or I want a photo of this building or that building or this bridge, etc.) or a beautiful picture just presents itself to me. Those are the normal days. I get home, load the photos onto the computer and choose the best shot of that particular subject.

Then there are days like today. With no real plan in mind, I wander around and take photos of anything that looks visually interesting. Like this grate littered with leaves, or yesterday's stop sign. And quite often, I am surprised and pleased with the result.

In this case, I'm pleased with the way the leaves inhabit the grate and with the fall colours that are present in the shot. I like the mixture of curves and straight lines and the tiny glimpse of the tree's trunk to the bottom right of the shot. This kind of picture is not so much about camera technique but about a way of seeing. That's not often my strong suit but sometimes I surprise myself.

Day 301 - The power of snow storms

2011-10-29T09:32:00.000-03:00

Look at that blue lock. Isn't it amazing? It seems to be brand new. And shiny and deeply blue. And it's holding a stop sign closed.

This is one of those New Brunswick things we just can't figure out. All over Fredericton, you find stop signs that have been folded and locked closed. Someone somewhere has the keys and, if needed, can unlock the sign, open it and then lock it open (see the holes centre, on the sign itself, and left, on the brace to which the opened sign will be locked).

We think (and I stress the word "think" because we don't know) that these locking stop signs exist to deal with snow storms and power outages. If stop lights are knocked out, the City just sends workers around to open these signs and attempt to regulate traffic that way. Maybe it's a good idea. But it certainly does speak to the lack of faith we all seem to have in NB Power, doesn't it?

Or maybe it's a healthy respect for the power of snow storms out here in Atlantic Canada! Did I mention we're expecting between six and 12 centimetres of snow on Sunday?

Day 300 - Crowding the angles of the frame

2011-10-27T17:21:00.000-03:00

Did you see that number? Day 300!!! Wow. That means I've made three hundred entries to this blog and posted more than 300 photos. Amazing. With only 65 more days to go, I now feel like I might just make it.

Today's photographs present an interesting example of how you can make a picture more interesting with a few basic camera techniques. I saw these two scooters, adorned with bright orange vests, on the sidewalk outside of Park's Noodle in downtown Fredericton. I like their shapes and their colours and thought they would make a neat picture.

So I took one, just kind of straight on. Just to see what that would look like. Well, as you can see from the lower photo, even if the scooters themselves are visually interesting, the plain old photograph of them isn't.

So I moved in a little closer, turned the camera on a weird angle, and came up with the upper photo.

A much neater picture, isn't it? In the straight-on pic, the scooters look like they're parked, almost asleep. In the angled shot, they're alive and seem to be coming right at you. They fill the frame and have a sense of movement, created I think by the way they crowd the edges of the image and the way their angles intersect with the angles of the frame.

Day 299 - Composition, light and timing

2011-10-26T18:18:00.000-03:00

Queen Street in downtown Fredericton looking west from Regent Street. Autumn still offers some dazzling colours (especially when the sun is shining) but there are also an awful lot of bare trees out there.

I didn't have much time to take pictures on my lunch hour today so I only took a few. I was amazed at how brilliant this tree was in the sunlight, even though there was some waiting involved. I was looking for a period, however brief, when two things were true: the sun was, in fact, shining and the road was empty between the camera and the tree.

I'm pleased with the shapes, colours and textures in this photograph. I also like the way the tower on City Hall provides a backdrop for scene. There's nothing special from a camera point of view, however: I took the shot using the fully automatic setting. This photo is more about composition, light and timing. I think all three turned out pretty well.

Day 298 - Photographing the flame

2011-10-25T21:22:00.000-03:00

Abstract art in low light. This is a photograph of the flame in the fire place, taken with a shutter speed of 1/80th of a second, much too fast according to the light meter but necessary to freeze the flame and avoid flaring.

With the fall upon us and night-time temperatures dipping below zero, our fire-place is starting to come into play on quiet evenings with friends. We're fairly new to the idea of fire-places but very much enjoying the experience. Not to mention the photographic opportunities it offers.

Day 297 - Red sky at morning (No. 2)

2011-10-24T19:37:00.000-03:00

I learned the old saying when I was in the naval reserve: "Red sky at night, sailor's delight; red sky at morning, sailor take warning." I've decided to adjust it as follows: "Red sky at night, sailor's delight; red sky at morning, sailor take photos."

Gorgeous morning colours, taken as I walked to the bus, with the aperture as wide as possible and the shutter fast enough to take the shake out of my hand. Amazingly, despite what the Olympus' light meter told me, the pink sky gave me enough light to get this fabulous photo.

Day 296 - A riverview collage

2011-10-23T21:59:00.000-03:00

An interesting collage of elements in a single shot: the water of the St. John River, the walking bridge, the north-side condominium building and the fisherfolks in their boat.

I'm amazed that people still fish for food in the river so near to the city. Although I haven't read any scary reports on the health of the river water, I do know that our dog comes home with extremely itchy skin any time she swims in this area.

The photograph isn't bad however: a bright day allowed for a narrow aperture with a relatively fast shutter speed, giving us both depth of focus and a crispness to that focus.

Day 295 - Birthday by candlelight

2011-10-23T09:13:00.000-03:00

The camera is on the table. The aperture is as narrow as possible (f8) and the shutter speed is at four seconds. The only light comes from the candles on the cake.

Neat photograph, I think. The birthday girl is a little bit out of focus because, like any human, she can't remain absolutely still for even four seconds. It's not even that she moved intentionally during that time: the living human body is never completely still, what with the breathing and heart beating and blood flowing.

The flames on the candles are also moving, which gives them that rounded look. Everything else is still, sharp and in focus, making for a really interesting photo. I like the texture of the table cloth and the balance with the two foreground objects (top left and low right). I also love the dramatic lighting from the candles and the reflection of that light in the two wine glasses.

Day 294 - Playing with fire

2011-10-21T18:19:00.000-03:00

f8 at 4 seconds. That's what it took to get this photograph of the first fire of the fall season at our house. I tried the shot at 15 seconds, to see what the difference would be, but all the extended shutter speed did was make the flames more fluid, less crisp. And it lightened up the other details a little too much, in my opinion.

Low light photography interests me greatly but I'm not sure the Olympus has what it takes to explore the subject as far as I want. Its aperture range is too narrow (f3.4 to f8) to provide the flexibility I would want. Oh well. I'll push it to its limits and see how it does.

Day 293 - As the Fraser fades

2011-10-20T18:13:00.000-03:00

It's hard to take a picture of the Fraser Memorial Building on Woodstock Road in Fredericton without getting a lot of interference in the frame. That's because this lovely old stone building has had so many more modern additions pasted onto it that it's almost lost in the jumble. For example, you can see at the bottom of this photograph the concrete wall that leads to a loading bay underneath the old front entrance.

The Fraser Building started its march toward obscurity when it was incorporated into the old Victoria Hospital, which then became the Victoria Health Centre when Chalmers Hospital was built. I feel bad both for the building and for Fraser him- or herself. As the beautiful old stone building as been renovated into obscurity, so too has the person after whom it was originally named.

Day 292 - The branches' embrace

2011-10-19T19:23:00.000-03:00

The framing of this photograph was the challenge. I loved the colours in the leaves and the shape of the tree that bears them but I wanted to find a way to balance the brown and the brilliance.

I wanted to show the tree actually embracing its leaves because that's how it looked to me as I approached: like the branches were actually gathering the leaves in. I'm pleased with the result. I think it's a nicely balanced picture with an interesting texture to it. And, of course, the colours are spectacular.

Day 291 - Front entrance with a natural frame

2011-10-18T18:04:00.000-03:00

Another view of the front entrance to Government House, on Woodstock Road in Fredericton.

In this case, I tried to use the natural surroundings in front of the building as a frame for the very nice front steps and door. I would have liked a little more colour in the leaves of the foreground trees but, even with their muted presentation, I think it makes for a lovely photograph.

The challenge in a shot like this is both lighting and focus: you want to close your aperture right down to get as deep a field of focus as possible but you have then to slow the shutter down to ensure that the trees and bushes don't come out too dark. For this picture, I actually waited for a thin cloud to diminish the sun's brightness somewhat, so that the light balance (front to back) wasn't too bad.

I think it worked out quite well.

Day 290 - Home of the Queen's Representative

2011-10-17T17:44:00.000-03:00

How can a building get newer? This lovely photograph captures New Brunswick's "Government House" on a gorgeous autumn day. It's a lovely building, true, but what confuses me is how this edifice changed from "Old Government House", the name by which is was known for many years, to just "Government House", its new monicker.

The residence of the province's Lieutenant Governor (the Queen's representative in New Brunswick), Government House overlooks the river just west of the Westmoreland Bridge. I took a number of photos of it from several angles but chose to go with this shot, the postcard shot, because I think the colours are fabulous and the building speaks for itself. No need for fancy camera tricks with this one. Especially on a day like today.

In coming days, I do plan to share with you some of the other photos I took of this building. They're just too good to keep to myself.

Day 289 - Autumn underfoot

2011-10-16T21:45:00.000-03:00

Is it possible that the best of autumn has already come and gone in New Brunswick. We had a fantastic weekend a week ago with sunshine and warm temperatures, followed by a series of cold nights: the perfect weather to bring out the colours in the trees.

Then we enjoyed two days of amazing foliage, with some of the most beautiful fall colours I've ever seen. Too bad the rain came, with high winds to boot. That brought most of the leaves down. Now, we have a carpet of colour wherever we go, but rapidly fading colour at that.

This photograph comes from our walk today in the UNB woodlot, where the trees are half bare and the paths are covered with leaves. It's still quite nice, with the leaves crunching underfoot, but it's too bad the colour has come and gone so quickly.

Day 288 - The orange of the pumpkin

2011-10-15T18:30:00.000-03:00

I like the lines in this photograph. And the colours. I'm happy with the way the orange of the pumpkin jumps out at you and the way the sunlight and shadow play in the frame.

Every year for as long as we can remember, we've planned to get a pumpkin, carve a pumpkin and display a pumpkin for Hallowe'en. And every year we leave it too late and all the nice pumpkins are gone by the time we go to get one. Not this year. We've purchased our pumpkin early and like so many other households in Fredericton we've put it out on our new front steps to show it off. The evening sun catches it just right and makes it almost glow against the siding of our new front atrium.

I'll take another shot once we've carved it and put the candle in. A nice after-dark photo, with the tripod probably and a long shutter. It will be nice. Hopefully as nice as this photo.

Day 287 - An indistinct bridge

2011-10-14T22:10:00.000-03:00

The Princess Margaret Bridge at the east end of Fredericton, still undergoing repairs. This photograph was taken from the north bank of the St. John River, east of the walking bridge, on a sunny afternoon in October.

I'm happy with the composition of the shot but I think the bridge itself is a little bit faded, due to the different light conditions from foreground to background. I probably should have upped the shutter speed to let less light into the camera (my aperture was already at its narrowest) and make the bridge sharper and more distinct. This would have rendered the tree darker, with less detail, but it probably would have made it a better picture.

Day 286 - Joe's Diner and the disappearing pole

2011-10-13T17:45:00.000-03:00

Joe's Diner: never been in it but always liked the look of it. Located at the corner of Gibson Street and Devon Avenue on Fredericton's North Side, this little eatery has all kinds of character and one of the neatest (70's era?) signs I've seen in a long time.

One of the things I like about this town is that it hasn't gotten so caught up in the chain-restaurant wave that's swept the rest of the world to have lost its many interesting places to eat. Like Joe's, or the Cabin, or the Hilltop, or many other such places. And we've seen an influx of pretty good East Asian restaurants as well (like Park's Noodles downtown and the Oriental Pearl in the east end), welcome additions to the city.

This photograph of Joe's Diner is no great work of art. I was trying for documentary rather than stylish and I think I got it. And one day I'll actually have to go there and try the food!

Meanwhile, the lower photo comes courtesy of my colleague, Greg, at work. He read my entry for Day 274 ("On cannons and condos"), in which I complained that I didn't know how to remove a bothersome wooden pole from this photograph. A graphic designer of prodigious skill, Greg took it upon himself to "Photoshop" the pole out. It looks great. Thanks, Greg.

Day 285 - Glimpses of Saint Anthony's

2011-10-12T17:24:00.000-03:00

Our tour of the North Side of Fredericton continues with this photograph of Saint Anthony's Catholic Church, located on Union Street (or is it Main Street?) near the river.

Once again, my efforts to get a nice picture of this pretty edifice were hampered by a clef of powerlines that run right in front of the church. I got a slightly better wide angle shot of this church than I did of Gibson Memorial a couple of days ago (by standing on the sidewalk directly in front and hoping for the best) but the building still came out looking warped and odd.

So I've decided to go with this shot. I think it captures the essence of the church but only by providing glimpses, isolated bits of the building itself, the sign, the flower bed, the driveway and the tree out front. I actually think it's quite a nice photo after all that. Nice colours, interesting composition, pleasing elements in the frame. Pretty good.

Day 284 - Another view of UNB

2011-10-11T17:05:00.000-03:00

A friend told me I could probably get better views of the UNB campus from further east along the north shore of the Saint John River. He was right. You can see the Old Arts Building (far right), as well as a number of other university buildings as they drift up the opposite hill. I can't say I love this shot: it's too wide and the buildings too small. But it does capture the campus, doesn't it?

Day 283 - Spectacular orange with hints of green

2011-10-10T17:23:00.000-03:00

Fall has arrived in New Brunswick. With this weekend's spectacular weather, filled with high temperatures, blue skies and miles and miles of sunshine, the leaves have officially gone crazy. The colours are spectacular.

My only worry is, with the strong winds that have now roared in and the rain that's expected by mid-week, they might not be around for long.

That's why I had to get out today to get some shots of some nearby trees in all of their brightness, including this maple tree that's just up the street from us. With the sun on it and the telephoto getting us close, this tree is a spectacular orange with just a few remaining hints of green scattered here and there. The tree also offers a section of dark red but the photos combining both the red and orange leaves, for some reason, came out quite faded in their colours.

Day 282 - If you can't beat'em

2011-10-10T09:38:00.000-03:00

Gibson Memorial United Church on, you guessed it, Gibson Street in Fredericton is one of several beautiful churches on the city's North Side.

It is also one of the hardest to photograph thanks to the many power and other lines that run in front of the building and the length of Gibson Street, all the way to Marysville. I tried very hard to find a way to get a picture of the church while eliminating (or at least minimising) the impact of these many thick wires. No chance. No matter where I stood, no matter what focal length I used, there were always wires.

The closest I got was one photo, taken at an extreme angle, that had no wires but still the heavy shadows of the wires running across the building. Of course, I could have waited until the sun moved or I could have gone back on a cloudy day but the angle was so severe that the building looked distorted. No longer beautiful. Just weird.

On the theory that "If you can't beat'em, join'em", I decided to try to find a way to make the wires contribute to the effect of the photo. Did I succeed? I think so. By focusing only on this single spire, with the wires dark and heavy from bottom to top, I think I've created an interesting composition that complements, rather than detracts from, the beauty of this detail of the building.

Day 281 - An urban farm

2011-10-09T00:17:00.001-03:00

The Neill farm that fronts on McLaren Avenue in Fredericton's North Side is one of those charming little oddities about this capital city. At some point in the past, this farm was just one of many in this area but today, with the slow growth of this town, the Neill Farm is an agricultural oasis in the middle of a great deal of development.

In this photograph, I tried to capture that fabulous tree and the beautiful farm house while framing out the city that's encroaching on all sides. I think I did a good job of it. This looks like a traditional farm with no real surprises. But what you don't see in this shot is the new subdivision that has been built just outside the frame to the left, the older neighbourhood that borders the farm just to the right of the house and the completely developed area that separates the front of the farm house from the Saint John River probably a kilometre away.

We were introduced to the Neill Farm when we first starting looking to buy a house here in Fredericton. Our agent talked about how much it added to the neighbourhood but warned that, as time goes by, more and more of its land might be developed. It's an amazingly beautiful relic of times gone by and I hope it remains for a long time to come.

On a photographic note, check out the difference in the colours between the top and bottom photos. I'm impressed with how much deeper the blue of the sky and the green of the lawn became in the lower shot simply because I upped the shutter speed a little, allowing in slightly less light so that today's bright sunshine wasn't able to bleed some of the colour away.

Day 280 - Finding fall in Fredericton

2011-10-07T19:26:00.000-03:00

This is the best I could do in trying to find fall in downtown Fredericton. For some reason, I thought the colours would be everywhere but, instead, I found only patches of brilliance in some trees.

With the wind blowing quite strongly and a blanket of clouds still in the sky, the trick with this photograph was keeping the shutter speed high enough to freeze the moving leaves (1/100th or faster) while still keeping at least a decent depth of focus, all the while making sure I was getting enough light into the camera.

No easy task, I tell you. Once I got that all puzzled out (to be honest, I just waited for one of the brief moments of sun), I had to decide again how close to get to the subject. In this case, I decided I should keep the angle fairly tight, to give some detail in the leaves and show clearly the contrast in colour between the green and the red. I actually think it turned out quite well.

Day 279 - Charlie Brown could tell you

2011-10-06T17:23:00.000-03:00

This photograph is a tribute to my favourite comic strip character, Charlie Brown, who seemed to have a knack for putting his own kites in just this precarious position.

We've had a cold, windy and wet time of it here in Fredericton these past four or five days and I wouldn't be surprised if this scene is the result of some daring but foolhardy scheme to fly a kite in the howling winds of our most recent storm. I had gone out on my lunch hour, intent on taking pictures of the beautiful colours of fall here in New Brunswick, but, finding none, I wound up with this fun little snapshot instead.

Snapshot, perhaps, but not so easy to get. First there was the positioning issue: where should I stand to get the best possible angle on the kite? Then there was the problem of light: the bright sky behind the kite demanded a much faster shutter speed and usually I prefer sky over just about anything else but, in this case, I wanted the colours of the kite to come through so I slowed down the shutter and allowed the sky to bleach out. And of course, finally, I had to decide on the zoom level: did I want a close-up of the poor kite among the branches or would a longer shot do better to establish the situation and the height at which the kite found itself perched?

I ended up going with the most distant shot I took because I liked the way this photograph demonstrates the power imbalance in the battle between tree and kite. The tree is tall, broad and strong while the kite is small and fragile. Guess who won? Charlie Brown could tell you.

Day 278 - The dog with the hairdo

2011-10-05T21:33:00.000-03:00

You know? I think I dated this girl in the 80s. Isn't that the craziest hairdo you've ever seen on a dog?

I caught this little animal tied up outside the Radical Edge in downtown Fredericton. I like the way she sat, framed by the sign and its pole, with the tree as a background. I think she's a poodle although she might be some kind of poodle cross. With what? I'm not sure.

This was a classic blink-and-you've-missed-it kind of photograph so the focus might now be perfect. The dog sat and looked up only for a moment, then went back to sniffing Travis Tritt on the poster above her. Is it a great photo? Probably not. But it's fun and funny and I just can't get over that dazzling hairdo. The dog's owner came bounding down the steps of the shop just after I snapped the picture but I don't think she was too bothered: I'm sure the dog wows lots of people.

Day 277 - The berries of the mountain ash

2011-10-04T17:57:00.000-03:00

There was a small mountain ash tree on the front lawn of one of our elderly neighbours when I was growing up. I remember be fascinated by the bright orange berries that popped out at the end of the summer, providing ample ammunition for attacks on friends and siblings alike.

We have four mountain ashes on our property here in Fredericton and I am still very fond of them, no matter how terrible a mess they make when the berries fall. Forester friends tell me that this breed is a "weed tree" in that it is not native to the area and grows fast and free whereever it seeds itself. That's fine. Mountain ashes are weed trees. But they're pretty and, for me at least, filled with both memories and, from time to time, cedar waxwings.

Day 276 - Angry Beavers

2011-10-03T16:58:00.000-03:00

I'm not sure anything more needs to be said about this sculpture (in concrete, no less) of two angry beavers that sits in Officers Square in downtown Fredericton.

They're beavers on a mission alright but I have no idea why anyone would want to sculpt them with such angry expressions nor who would want to buy the sculpture and place it in a public place. Is it a protest against the devastation we've caused to the natural world? Are these beavers mad because we've taken their habitat and poisoned their water? I don't know and they're not telling.