Spending the long weekend in Vancouver in the middle of a business trip. If nothing else, it gives me an opportunity to visit all the old sights that I remember from when I lived here about 35 years ago.
Horseshoe Bay is one of the main ferry terminals to Gulf islands and Vancouver Island. Here, the Queen of Oak Bay pulls out for a trip to Nanimo.
We’re just starting a week of vacation. Looks like it will be a busy one! Tomorrow morning (Tuesday), I go for my Class 3 medical which I need for my student pilot’s license and Thursday I’m writing my PSTAR exam.
In between, we’re off to one of our favourite spots – St. Jacob’s Ontario. We arrive Tuesday afternoon and it’s straight off to the outlet mall. Later in the evening we’re off to dinner at Benjamin’s in the centre of the village. Wednesday morning it’s more shopping and we’ll be back home in the afternoon so I can continue studying.
St. Jacob’s is a wonderful town for photography. I took the picture above a few years ago because how often do you run across a broom maker? The village is nestled in Mennonite country and, even though St. Jacob’s is very commercial, time slows down just a little to accommodate their lifestyle.
Haven’t posted much lately. Haven’t even had the camera out of the bag for a while.
If you read my other blog, you’ll know that I’m concentrating on training for my Private Pilot’s License. Very intense with a combination of ground school and in the air instruction. Once I feel a little more comfortable at the controls you can expect to see quite a few aerial shots.
Until then, not much action here.
About a year ago, I was contacted to see if a picture I took at Niagara Falls could be used on a website called SCHMAP. As the photo was published under a Creative Commons license and they were going to attribute it, I said sure.
Got an email this week that it was now being used on their iPhone version (it’s the one on the top left). It’s actually a pretty crappy picture but, at least it’s being used somewhere.
A few of my shots have made their way on to other websites and, for the most part, people have been diligent about following the terms of the licensing. What surprises me is that they’re usually pictures that I consider throwaway. For instance, Upgrade: Travel Better used a shot of a ZOOM 767 that I took through a fence at Pearson International Airport. The fence is clearly visible and I only took the shot to show my friend Jim who flies for them. Imagine my surprise when it started getting hits.
Just goes to show that one person’s garbage is another’s gold.
A young Canadian celebrates our 141st birthday at Chingacousy Park in Brampton. Despite my patience, he steadfastly refused to jump and dance as he did before I pointed the camera his way.
Canada celebrates its 141st birthday today with events everywhere. Although we’re known as an understated country, we do pull out all the stops on July 1st. Our evening will end tonight with a massive fireworks display that will scare the cats and cause a slight swelling of our pride.
Everyone jumps a little higher on Canada Day.
Today’s pick is the result of a happy accident. I was watching a tutorial over at Photojojo which involves using Selective Colour Range in Photoshop. The idea is to use the selection to level the brightness and contrast.
Instead of the intended result, I got this. A shot of a Cessna Crane in storage at the Canadian Aviation Museum in Ottawa.
(Nikon D80 f3.5 1/120 second heavily Photoshopped)
Back from Ottawa. Still smiling even though my Jeep wouldn’t start at the airport and it cost me $52 to get it going.
Enough bitching. I had an incredible time at the CAHS meetings. I spent last night at dinner talking to an ex-RCAF Fairey Swordfish pilot who flew them in the mid 40’s. Fascinating individual with lots of stories.
This afternoon, I loaded about 300 pictures up to my Flickr site. They’re all fairly low quality as I’ve decided I don’t really want to put my high resolution work up where everyone can steal it. I don’t mind people using them (they’re all covered under a Creative Commons license) but that doesn’t mean I need to make it easy. Really good ones will be loaded here after I finish post-processing.
Anyway, if you want to see a bunch of photos of planes, you’ve got your choice of the Canadian Aviation Museum or Vintage Wings of Canada.
Hope you enjoy them and if there’s one you’d like to see “cleaned up” and supersized, leave a comment.
You couldn’t wipe the smile off my face with a hammer. A visit to Vintage Wings of Canada in Gatienau Quebec and a chance to see their fantastic collection of vintage aircraft. A hot day, the smell of exhaust and the sound of magnificent engines.
One of the stars is this Supermarine Spitfire Mk. XVI. Built in August 1945, she wears the markings of squadron 421 of the RCAF.
(Nikon D80 f11 1/500 second)
