Saturday, October 12, 2013

A photowalk

It's been a busy week.

Swam Wed morning, a bit clunky, but good practice for open water sighting. I was sharing the lane with two floaties. What confused me is they'd get out of the water for a minute so I'd think I had only one of them. Then they'd come back.

Yoga in the evening, a really good night, even if there was stereo snoring. My low back and hips are a bit stiff, perhaps from the hard run the other night. Tired, bed straight after.

Thursday we were out to friends for dinner and home late.

Friday I slept in a bit, and after a busy day at work met up with the famous Neil Zee for a photo walk to celebrate his 40th. It was fun to see a beautiful evening unfold, and a whole crew of people with cameras to record it. There are times I've thought about getting a nicer camera, but then I'd have to carry it around, and learn how to use it properly, and do something nice with the photos after, otherwise what's the point? For what I do, the iPhone takes perfectly nice photos most of the time. Here's a sample of my photos from the evening. Most have been tweaked slightly in Snapseed.

From the bridge between Prince's Island and Memorial Drive. The Bow looks considerably different after the floods.

The top of McHugh's Bluff is a great place for city scapes.

There's a tough set of stairs to get up to the top of the bluff, or a gently sloping cycle path. At almost any time you'll see people running up or down the stairs. One time I saw a girl's rugby team hopping up the stairs, one section on one leg, then the other leg. It's a long way up.

During the evening it looked like someone was doing a rocket test.

The light conditions were challenging for the phone, but I quite liked this shot, and it didn't take much tweaking. For some reason this looks like what would be on the cover if someone were to write a novel in the style of Charles Dickens, and published by a Can-Lit house.

This is much the same shot, but it was out of focus and zoomed in a bit on the Peace bridge. For most of the photos here I've just tried to make them better photos, on this I deliberately tried to make it look like a painting.

This wasn't the most dramatic sunset Calgary has ever had, but there were lots of subtle clouds and the interplay of jet contrails.



While all the cameras were pointing to the sunset I was looking the other way and noticed some guys playing on a tight wire. They were pretty good. They were nice enough to offer to let me have a go, but it's 6 feet off the ground. I've already had all the experience I need falling down, and am acutely aware of the shortcomings how my legs were feeling. Still tired and twitchy from the run. Not a good way to try to walk on a wire.

A bit later we ended up at the Peace bridge. I admit it is a pretty bridge, even if the story behind it is kind of sordid. Too expensive, no consultation, no competition. If you've seen nice photos of this bridge on social media, it's probably from Neil Zeller. He loves the bridge, and is the one organizing the walk. So of course it was included. The iPhone is really bad in low light, but this one came out ok.


It was a fun evening. There was a video shoot in the middle of the bridge that was wrapping up as we got there. The model was wearing a blanket, so there was some speculation what sort of photo shoot it was.  Many of the group crawled down the rocks to shoot underneath, and I'm happy there were no splashes. Afterward we ended up at Craft Beer. Really crowded, but at least it wasn't too noisy.

Today? All you need to know about today is that an early afternoon nap was a prominent feature of the day.

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