Ghostly Skaters

Earlier this evening stepped out of the car on my driveway and I could hear music in the distance.  I thought is was a car radio across the street but it was actually music from down at the lake drifting up toward the house.  It turns out that the Lake was having a family skate night.  I went there and the music was VERY loud, the air was bone-chillingly cold and the smell of burnt popcorn filled the air.  It was clear to me that for these kids, it is a wonderful time to be young and alive – and on skates!

The picture below shows their ghostly images moving across the lake ice.

Marli Makes a Point

This is Marli our cat.  She is not allowed on the kitchen table as seen here.  But I glanced over and saw her on the table.  I had a camera handy so I was able to capture the moment.  Marli is making a point here.  What is the point?  It’s that she and my daughter have been co-users of a water cup – probably for a very long time … :-)

Family Day

Happy Family Day to all you Albertan's!

I am making good use of the holiday by getting an early start.  First up, take that picture I wanted to yesterday only go out 25 minutes earlier.  Check!  Go work out at the gym. Check! Learn something useful. Check! Post to this blog. Check! Take the boys to a movie and then dinner, have a relaxing evening at home with the family, and then early to bed. Unchecked but about to change …

Below is the view I saw from my front door this morning.  I went to the top of a neighborhood hill (just around the corner) to get a cleaner shot. Same view but no street lamp in the way.

Capturing the Moment

This morning was clam, peaceful and cold. I was out driving at 7:30 am and I saw a beautiful scene.  The sun was hitting the tops of the mountains and the moon was still visible just above the mountains. I thought, “Wow! I wonder if I can photograph that?” Unfortunately, I couldn’t.  By the time I pulled over, got out of the car and climbed to the top of a neighborhood hill, the light had changed quickly and the scene changed dramatically.  The moon was barely visible and the light had moved to make all of the mountains lit up (not just the tops). It just wasn’t the same.  However, I turned around and saw the sun coming through the trees and so I took that picture.  Then as I was walking away, I saw the light flowing over the gazebo and trees. and I photographed that too. It turns out that beauty is everywhere!

About the calm, peaceful and cold. I didn’t mind the cold and I loved the peace and quiet.  Thinking back, I wish I could have preserved that moment a little longer.  Oh wait, I did.  The pictures are below. :-)

59411

I traveled today to one of my favorite zip code locations – 59411.  This zip code is located at Babb, Montana.  Yeah, I know.  What is in Babb?  Not much.  In fact, there are just a few buildings - hardly anything notable at all.  Except for the United States Post Office.  I run down there often enough to pick up the mail from a PO box. This is my contribution to the flailing US economy.  I buy stuff really cheap from Amazon.com or some other vendor, they ship it to the PO Box in Babb (usually for free), I run down there and get it. ‘Nuf said.

Cold Commute

I took this picture of a kid riding his bicycle home from school yesterday when I was on my way home from work.  Nature’s Flocking was still everywhere and I intended to record a few more examples of that (it’s really beautiful when you see a cluster of trees – click to enlarge the photo and you will see what I mean).  I pulled the car over, turned up the heated seats and heater, rolled down the window and set up for a shot.  As I am composing the frame, along comes this obviously rugged young kid on a bike who is laboriously peddling away.  I am thinking wow, good on you kid!

Taking 4 Minutes for Nature’s Flocking

I added 4 minutes to my commute this morning so that I could record two pictures of a phenomenon I’ve seen many times. The temperature dropped quickly last night allowing for frost to build up on anything that was outside – including the bare branches of deciduous trees.  This weather phenomenon produces “Nature’s Flocking” and is quite beautiful to look at. This is one upside of cold!

The trees I photographed are from two different locations in my neighborhood.  They both have a lamp directly above them which gives a nice effect against the darkness of the early morning.

The first photo shows a tree under a sodium vapor lamp and so there is a slight orange/yellow tint.

The second photo shows a tree under a halogen lamp (there are not many of those around anymore).  This gives a bluer tint which makes the frost look really white.

In the end, 4 minutes isn’t enough time to really appreciate the beauty of this phenomenon but I actually get to see it all day.  Right outside my cubicle window is a veritable forest of “white” trees. :-)

Furious Fuchsia

A Dodge Charger with a Hemi all tricked out in Fuchsia?  Really?  The color, which is very hard to reproduce from this cell phone picture, is a very bright Fuchsia. The official name of the color is FURIOUS FUCHSIA (great name IMO)

In daylight this car radiates PINK.  It is really a gorgeous car but my mind keeps saying “pink” regardless of what fancy name you give to the color.  White leather seats too.  Clearly this car is not for people like me :-).

I saw the car at lunch while visiting Crowfoot Dodge (I was getting another  vehicle problem taken care of).  I thought they really had some courage putting that color on such an iconic muscle car. I mean what would The General Lee think?  Furious with Fuchsia I’d bet…

Happy Valentines Day!

Happy Valentines Day to the three beautiful women in my life! That would be my wife and two daughters (so no funny ideas/rumors!).

  

But the Roses and Chocolates (direct from Germany) as pictured below are for my lovely Wife :-)

XOXOXO

On A Clear Day You Can See Greenland!

One interesting aspect about traveling back from Europe is that it’s broad daylight all the way.  You leave at 2 pm and you arrive at 4 pm the same day (after being in a metal tube for 10 hours or so).  When I have the chance to select my seat, I always go for a window seat on the right side of the place.  If the weather is clear you get some spectacular views of Greenland so I was looking forward to that yesterday.  That didn’t happen because although there were breaks in the cloud cover, the amount of snow in February gives you nothing but white for 100’s of miles.  In fact, distinguishing between the clouds and the ground isn’t that easy and taking a picture of it is even harder (especially through plane windows which really screw up photography).  However, I am undeterred because I’ve actually done this trip a number of times and so here are some pictures from last August taken 37 thousand feet above Greenland.  Enjoy!

So how often does anyone see Greenland?  I mean really.  It just isn’t a popular place to go!

Airplane windows have polarizing and other films on them.  This really messes around with the light meters in the camera (meaning exposure calculation) and it shifts color.  I know this and so to fix that, I expose a little high and then in post processing, I bring the color temperature back up a little (warmer) and restore the black point.  It’s mostly the black point that makes the difference in contrast. Still, I am not happy with the above photo as there is simply not enough color (it wasn’t there in that light to be recorded) and there is very little contrast.  So I moved it to Black and White which made for an equally dull Black and White.  What to do? I went artistic and ramped up the contrast and smoothed the details. 

Now I’m happy. :-)

Autobahn 180K

Driving in Germany is always a different experience.  Their famous Autobahn’s are only partly deserving of their reputation because you can’t really go as fast as you want.  You can only go as fast as the car will let you :-).

Realistically, you can average between 130-150 kms/hr until you get within about 25 kms of a city.  By then, there is just too much traffic.  The countryside is a different situation and you can average 180 kms/hr as I did a few years ago driving from the Netherlands through southern Germany.

About the Drive:
I drove from Kaiserslautern to Frankfurt Airport, Terminal 1, Car Rental Return without a single hitch. That's what GPS will do for you! Of course, you have to pay attention and make decisions quickly - especially at the airport!. I had breakfast with business friend this morning who is from Canada.  When he heard I was driving around, especially at the Frankfurt terminal, he was surprised.  He has visited Germany often (last year about 8 times with one stay being 5 weeks) and he said he said he wouldn't drive it –just  too much trouble.  I think it's just the same as driving in Canada and the only difference is that there are very few local street signs and the signs that are there are in a language you can't understand.  So you really have no idea where you are or where you are going. But other than that, it’s just not that different – except for the Autobahn – that’s different. Things happen very fast on the Autobahn and there is always going to be a faster moving Mercedes, Porsche, BMW or Volvo coming from behind you – eventually.

About the car in the picture:
It’s a rental car of course but don’t let that Ford label fool you, it actually a Volvo branded as a Ford (Ford owns Volvo) and if you drove it, you would know (at least compared to a North American version).  The car was tight and very responsive (manual transmission).  Handling of the car was comfortable up to 160 kms/hr. Above that was OK too but not as nice as some other cars I’ve driven. My drive this morning of 125 kms distance did not take long.  Most of it was around the 130-140 kms/hr mark because I was in rush hour.

About the photo:
The photo is from the drive this morning. The car really can’t go as fast as shown for very long since it isn’t designed for that. Also, general traffic conditions were not accommodating.  This was taken on a brief stretch of straight road with little traffic. For those of you wondering about how I got the shot, I used a super-wide angle lens (10 mm) so the camera could see a lot of area close in. I hung the camera around my neck (so I wouldn’t need to actually hold the camera). When I wanted to take a picture, I reached over briefly and pushed the shutter release.  Later, I straightened and cropped the photo on my computer to just show the interesting part.  For safety, I was never looking through the viewfinder or at the back display - that would be insane at those speeds. Enjoying the drive and the opportunity to push some limits is one thing, being stupid about it is quite another.

Modern Architecture

Giving non-equal time to new buildings in Europe.  Examples of old and even ancient builds are found everywhere in Europe. Indeed, I was looking at the excavated ruins from a centuries old Castle just before dinner this evening (and my dinner meeting was in the oldest building in Kaiserslautern)  They are all amazing to see.  However, because of the bombing in WWII, significant parts of Europe were rebuilt and so there are fine examples of modern architecture too.  Of course, just growth in the modern era makes for many new buildings too.

Below are some examples from places I visited this last week. I really thought I should split these pictures into two posts but the risk would be that I wouldn’t revisit them so this is a longer post that normal (I guess this is what happens when I am in my hotel room between dinner and bedtime…).

Remember to click on the pictures for a better view.

The first photo below is a Black and White photo of the domed roof over the Sony Center on Potsdamer Platz in Berlin.  I shot this looking straight up into a gray rainy sky.  You don’t get a lot of color when doing that and hence, a B&W rendition that makes sense.

This next photo is of the lobby area (shot from the second floor) of a new research center at the Hasso Platner Institute in Postdam, Germany. I really love the lines in this photograph. I gave a lecture to the Human Computer Interface class there and met a lot of very creative researchers doing very creative things.

These next two shots are of the Ars Electronica building in Linz, Austria as seen at night from across the famous Danube river (as in The Blue Danube waltz).  What is really cool about this fantastic building for art and technology is that the façade can be programmed by the motivated public.  You can get a software application and then play around with the lighting to create different effects, messages and rudimentary scenes.  I asked about censorship and they have only three categories of material not allowed that were told to me in this order (which tells me something Austria’s painful past): No swastika's, no sexual material and no color changes between red and green.  This last requirement is due to the traffic intersections on the bridge. A final comment these pictures.  The juxtaposition of Old and New is once again displayed between the new building and the old world church on the right.  So European!

Foggy Drive

While driving today from Frankfurt to Saarbrucken, I ran into many foggy patches.  Just on the other side of one little town I passed through, I pulled over to take this picture. Sometimes it’s interesting to see things when they’re foggy.  Sort of like how everything looked at 4:45 am this morning - I hate early morning flights…

A Perfect Moment

But not for me.  The picture below shows a perfect moment for the couple in this picture.  For them, it was a serene morning, walking hand-in-hand down a quaint street early in the day.  Try this:  close your eyes and imagine being in their place. Didn’t work?  Yeah, me neither.  Instead I’m here in this little hotel room with a computer and foreign language TV for company. :-)

But for the couple in the picture, I imagine it was a good moment for them.  Nothing disturbed them – not even an unknown pesky photographer with a zoom lens quite a distance behind them.

This picture meets with the approval of my daughter so I thought I would share it here.

FREEDOM

A little over 21 years ago, my world changed (again) when my first child, a daughter, was born in October of 1989. A mere 21 days after her birth, starting on November 9th, the whole world changed in a way that has repercussions today and that will continue into the future. I was not quite 30 when I watched live on television the fall of the Berlin Wall. For my whole life up to that point, the people of East Germany lived under an oppressive regime not ever knowing even the simplest freedoms that I had always enjoyed and that my new born daughter would inherit. I remember watching the news on TV as throngs of people were tearing at the wall, jumping over it and cheering.  I remember watching the East German guards standing there looking on and being powerless (for the very first time in their lives I imagine).  I remember the TV cameras showing a man shaking the hand of another through a hole that had just been smashed through the wall.  It was an incredible time.

For my daughter and my other children to follow, the fall of the Berlin Wall is nothing more than another subject learned about in school.  But for me this morning, as I walked past Checkpoint Charlie and into East Berlin, it was all very real as I remembered that time. The repercussions of those events two decades ago are being played out again in Tunisia and on the streets of Cairo. People want to be free. I take my freedom for granted but today I am reminded that I need to be grateful for it.  Free people should express their gratitude once in awhile. After all, they a free to do so, and that is what I am doing in this post. There are so many simple and important things to be grateful for:  The freedom to write this blog for example, the freedom to have an education and learn a skill, the freedom of opportunity, to start a business or work for one of your choosing, the freedom to raise a family, to own a home, drive a car or ride a bicycle in the mountains, the freedom to own books, browse the internet, save money or spend it, the freedom to congregate, enjoy friendships, to love and to marry, the freedom to do or be just about anything you want if you desire it. And that’s just for starters. The list of freedoms I have cannot be enumerated in this blog.

Below are some photos and descriptions from my walk this morning.

This is the location of the notorious Checkpoint Charlie – a Cold war crossing between East and West Berlin.  Today it is a historical site with a large museum.  Notice the McDonalds on the right. It may not be obvious but a McDonalds in East Berlin is a symbol of the freedoms I enjoy today.

This is a section of the Berlin Wall (on display at the museum).

There was a 150 kms of the Berlin Wall that came down in the blink of a historical eye. Today all that remains standing of the Berlin Wall is this small 200 meter section.  It was heavily damaged from the events of 1989 but historical societies stepped in to preserve it for future generations.

A Starbucks in East Berlin?  Yet another unobvious symbol of freedom and democracy.  I was actually more interested in the building.  While taking the picture, it occurred to me that I was standing on a corner in East Berlin pointing a camera at a building. A scant two decades earlier, I would have been shot for doing that.

I love my freedom!

Pastries for Breakfast

I got up early this morning to wander around the town square while it was still quiet (I wanted to take some pictures before the hustle and bustle started). Some of the shopkeepers were just starting to open up including one of my favorite shops in Europe - the pastry shops! The other two favorites are the bread shops and the cheese shops. One thing quite different from back home is that there are a lot of smaller bakeries around everywhere you go.  It seems like there are several on every street – at least on the main streets.  I love European pastries!  Below are photos showing two fine examples of what I’m talking about.

This is just a small sample of the fine delectables on offer at these shops.

This tasty pastry (held in my hand for this picture) was wonderful.  It had a really smooth icing with creamy custard on the inside. The pastry itself as light as air and practically melted in your mouth.  It was slightly warm having been made fresh just a short time before I got there.  It was so worth 2 Euros!!

A Museum at Night

Well how lucky can I be?  I went out last night to photograph a building and it was snowing and windy and cold.  It couldn’t have been any better. Seriously.  I froze my butt off (well, my fingers actually) and I couldn’t be happier.  It is only in these conditions that a photographer can get a shot like the one below.  I mean, how else could I get set up in the middle of the road with my tripod and gear to take this picture without worrying about people or cars ruining the opportunity?

This is the Linz museum.  It’s an HDR photograph that I pushed slightly into the artistic realm in honor of the museum. Click on it to make it large – the best way to view HDR IMO.

Shopping District in Linz

What to do when the weather sucks and there is nothing but gray sky's, light snow and dull colors?  Shoot at night!  Here are a few shots from the stores around here to show the “flavor” – not typical of stores back home. I am near a large shopping district and it seems to mostly fashion stores in old buildings. Oh yeah – click on images for a larger view.

Linz, Austria – the Old and the New

I arrived in Linz today and is a cold and gray.  This is typical for February I expect.  Ironically, it will be warmer and sunnier in Calgary but with a lot more snow.

Europe is a place of old world and new world contrasts and the next two photos show this.  The contrast I am talking about is a result of very old buildings being preserved and very modern building being constructed.  Hotels are like that too.  I stayed in a quaint hotel in Sweden with no air conditioning and a 3 foot wide elevator (that was all they could retro-fit) and I’ve stay in an ultra-modern hotel in Amsterdam that had lot’s of electronics and heated floors.

The photo above is a view from the hallway window in the hotel I’m staying at in Linz.  The three church spires are very prominent and line up nicely which makes for good composition.  The churches are of varying ages but the center one will to be several hundreds of years old.  In the midst of these buildings from the past, is a modern steel-gray and glass office building of today.

This nighttime photo shows a modern train amidst old world architecture and cobblestone streets.

It’s been a long day but getting out and taking a few photos gave me reason to stay awake longer.  Staying awake is essential your first day when you are in a significantly different time zone.  Of course, flying overseas always makes for a long day!

Ride’em Space Cowboy!

I came across this curious character at the Calgary airport this afternoon.  It is just so Cowtown.  We have a Cowboy Astronaut with a White Hat, jet-pack (or oxygen pack) and he is riding a rocket.

Of course when I saw this, I laughed and immediately thought of that iconic scene toward the end of the movie “Dr. Strangelove”.  You either know what I’m talking about or you don’t.  Yee Haw!