speed recap #3

Today (Monday) has us checking out of the Palm-springs resort and actually heading on holidays.

Lots of travel to get to where we're going, so today's recap will include some photos from Sunday.

Advance warning - it's mostly exotic animals.

The 'kids' area/business centre (what a weird combo) also has a terrarium with some interesting critters; like this bearded dragon...

...and a chameleon.

What a looker! :)

I have no idea what this guy is (checked, and apparently it's an iguana), but he was in the tropical section.

Delightful African spurred desert tortoise named 'scooter' in his outdoors enclosure.

The view on my walk from breakfast back to the room

A shot of the typical south-western architecture that surrounds the resort

It's also Academy awards evening - so Lisa and I are getting our picks in... For the first year in a long time, we've actually seen some of the nominees, 5 of the 9 best picture nominees!

By the time this post goes live - the awards will have come and gone; so here's a photo of our attempts at guessing what a bunch of 'artsy' types in Los Angeles will pick as their most 'worthy' films of the year. (The tick in the circle is my pick for what I think will win, while the mark next to the circle is what I'd like to see win - aka my head/heart picks)

Best of luck everyone!

Oh, the ducks came back...

Hi, there... Any chance of some more food?

Please...

Ok then, we'll just see ourselves out.

Thanks anyways.

..we'll see you in the morning

speed recap #2

Duck, duck, goose?

swan!

The highly domesticated ducks came a knocking on our ground floor patio this morning, looking for a quick bite to eat...

Hello...?

...is there anyone home?

I know that you're in there!

Thanks.

See you tomorrow 😉

After Lisa's daily lectures, we took advantage of one of the 120-ish golf resorts in town, and 'hit the links'

I'm not exactly a good golfer... Not even a casual one... So for me it's more of a curiosity.

Fun to be there, but nothing too serious.

The rest of our foursome have been playing for decades :)

Scoping out the next shot

Daily dose of WTF...

10th hole snack-break

Aforementioned swans

Just chillin'

What's that? You'd like us to pose for some photos...?

...You got it!

See y'all tomorrow

WTF #2

We saw a few things during the flight that made us giggle in either delight, or confusion.

...like these awesome boots.

...this bottle of 'Febreze' Which is assumed to be empty, otherwise how did it pass through the security screenings? If it is empty... then why bring it in the first place?!?!?

...and this amazing rubbish container (for Zan.)
What exactly is regulated garbage? and is there any 'unregulated' trash on the plane?

new photo #3

Sony a6000 16-50 kit lens @16mm, f3.5 for 1/640 Sec Auto ISO (100)
It ended up taking almost exactly 24 hours of travel for us to finally make it to Lisa's seminar in Palm Springs, including battling peak-hour gridlock, followed by peak-hour traffic on the 3 hr drive from LA. (If there ever is a zombie appocalypse, don't be in LA when it starts!)
But we're here, and for the next few days; I'll have a chance to relax or explore...
Some more photos from the ride, I've kept a few asisde for a WTF post to come soon; should be fun.

Ceiling patterns - JFK airport

Much needed Beer

Our Plane to LA

Awesome 'relief' area for animal companions, so they can go to the bathroom too! :)

Flying over New York City

An alternate view of NYC

Mountains approaching California

positivity #2

***Update, there's a quick break in the fog, we're making a hasty attempt to board...***

Pondering the positive as I sit in the international departures lounge of the Halifax airport

Air travel is always a stressful experience. Recent world events have made it even more difficult for an Australian citizen, living as a Canadian permanent resident, to travel into the USA...

Not unexpected, but even with all the correct paperwork, and allowing extra time (to the extra time that has become normal); it can be a kind of comedic farce.

In short, it took two different delta representatives over 45 minutes to make their system recognise my authorization to travel.

Thankfully? Our flights have been delayed by several hours due to heavy fog, so everything has just 'shifted' by a bit

Positive #1 

It's amusing to my wife and her parents :)

Positive #2

The delta reps were able to train under pressure

Positive #3

There was plenty of time to have some breakfast 

Sunrise at home (yesterday, as we stayed at the airport hotel overnight in prep for our ultra-early check-in that has now been delayed). Not exactly related to the travel issues, but it was a cool sunrise ;)

The departures level at YHZ

Reprinted itinerary for the flights.

All going according to the new plan, we'll be in JFK by 1000, and then on to LAX by 1730, where we'll pick up the rental car, so we can all travel to Palm Springs for Lisa's conference.

Next positive, it'll be reasonably warm there :)

There may be a follow up edit to this post, or it might just bump over into tomorrow.

old photo #3

Driving over the Story Bridge, Brisbane. 29th May 2010 8:12pm

I had an interesting and happy connection with the bridge between 2009 and 2012.
As a tour guide - I lead many a successful trip, showing off the marvellous views from its central-city location.

Heading home after a sunset tour, I loved how close the supports of the bridge were in the outside lanes, and guessed that they might help to show "movement". The lights from the road deck lit up my dashboard in a cool way, and it almost felt like a tunnel... that went 'over' the river.

*Bonus Points for there being an actual tunnel under the river in the exact same spot.

I still kind of miss it.


Photo taken on the good old Nikon D50/Tokina 11-16mm (set to 11) at 1/8sec, f2.8 ISO 1600

speed recap #1

Tuesday 21st February 2017

0715 up for morning coffee, feed Oswald
0800 Lisa off to work
0850 Insurance assessor (construction company guy) arrives to inspect damage from last weeks blizzard
1000 assessor finishes up, type up notes for upload
1100 reply to emails, struggle with uploading insurance videos to the 'cloud'
1230 figure out 2016 sole proprietor HST payments, and report to CRA
1351 first attempt to make payment fails
1353 second attempt successful
1415 drive to post office, grocery, bottle shop
1500 wash Victor (my car), dig Benny (Lisa's car) out of the snow
1555 make some lunch (small salad) watch first half of photography documentary
1637 post daily blog

plans for rest of the day
coffee, then refine packing of suitcase

shave head, shower

vacuum house, prepare dining room for shampooing
prepare dinner, snack and appy drink
Lisa arrives home
charge all photographic gear/kindle/ipads/etc

gotta say that I find this type of post about as dull as you all might...

could be the first and last speed re-cap.

Single Word Post #2

bergschrund

new photo # 2

Kevin - 19th February 2017. 

Sony a6000, 50mm (kit), f5.6, for 1/80sec at ISO 2500

Couldn't decide on which photo, so here are another few ;)

old photo #2

Lifesavers at Southbank "beach" - Brisbane, late march 2004.

Looking through the rest of my photos from the day, it appears as though I was tagging along with Leon, while he was playing with a new DSLR - I've got some shots of Leon taking photos of one of his colleagues (Chris?) Perhaps it was a portrait shoot?

This was my first attempt at trying selective colour in a photo. I really liked the result.

Captured on a Pentax Optio S4 point and shoot. 1/400th sec at f5.0, ISO 50, with a 35mm lens equiv. of 49mm - Let's be honest here, the camera picked the settings, it's a point and shoot; and I really didn't know much about changing the settings back then.

Sadly I have no idea what program was used to to the colour edit. (It's been almost 13 years, and the metadata doesn't show those details)

Here's a link #1

red barns and stars...

W.T.F. #1

Clean your car!!!

One of the things I've had to adjust to as a new immigrant to this fine country, is it's weather; and the related chores that are associated with it.

On the one hand, you never really worry about heat-stroke, and rarely have a need for sunscreen above 30+.  On the other, much more laborious side, you have snow removal.

Please know that I LOVE snow...

...when it's on a mountain and you're there to engage in the sport of alpine skiing.

In my new part of the world, even though there's a serious lack of mountains, it's really not too bad. 

We typically seem to get about a month or two of snowy-times, and even then, it's only really about a week and a half of the truly bad stuff.

In the city, there's no where to put it, and driving is utter hell.

In the small towns (like where we live) it's more a problem of 'when' (hopefully not 'if') you'll have your local road plowed so you can actually leave the house.

Yes it's a chore to remove from the driveway/roof/sidewalk/car, But it really gets to me when people don't do the bare minimum required to make things safe. 

Like for example, cleaning their car of the snow that has fallen on it.

I'm not talking about a light dusting. I'm talking shit like this.

Not my photo thankfully - as I'd most likely have flown into a rage at the thoughtless ding-bat that was driving. 

Clearly it's on the extreme end of the problem (almost to a point of hilarity), but the point still stands.

Lisa can confirm that this is one of the few things that 'really' gets me mad on the road.

When you're driving at highway speeds, and snow flies off the car in front of you - there's a real possibility of the situation becoming lethal - and I don't mean from road rage.

If you can't see out of your car, then how do you intend to be anything other than a dangerous nincompoop in control of 1+ tonnes of steel and glass (and plastic and sometimes aluminimum)?

So for the love of Cthulhu! Clean Your Fucking CAR!!!


This road safety announcement has been brought to you by - The association of little aussies that actually care about driving somewhere safely, and don't want to have to engage in emergency maneuvers on what is regularly regarded as one of the most deadly highways in canada, all because you're a thoughtless douche.

T.F.T.W #1

Stop talking, start doing = the curse of planning... 

Part of the reason for this experiment known as a daily blog, is to try and reduce my reliance on procrastination and sheer blind-rush.

My biggest problem seems to be a love of lists; The illusion of progress. The death of doing. The enabler of procrastination.

It is so deeply rooted in my soul that I find it very hard to break out of.

I've spent the vast majority of my life putting things off, and then when faced with a looming deadline; cramming as much effort into as little time as possible...

Of course the one true antidote is to just "do it!" (Whatever the 'it' may be)

Putting off a phone call, or a chore? You can never go wrong simply "doing it!"

Don't put off 'till tomorrow that which can be achieved today!

Feeling nervous about some upcoming social interaction? 

"do it!"

Before I start to sound like an advertisement for a certain swoosh-y company, I should mention that one of the reasons I love lists, is that the feeling of creating a list is similar to the achievement of something, but without putting any effort in..."Now I have a plan!" 

It's very enticing. The "ticking-off" part of a list is even more enjoyable, and having a plan is always better than 'not' having one; but having a plan and 'not' actioning it fully, is a daily struggle.

So please help me break the bonds of procrastination. Do you find yourself under the thumb of eternal delay? How do you deal with putting things off? What tips can you give an eternal planner?

Every journey of 1000 miles might begin with its first step, but sometimes that first step is a list ;)  

See you all tomorrow.

Positivity #1

Yesterday was a bit of a crap day.

Full-on Blizzard conditions dropped a bunch of snow that we needed to dig Lisa's truck out of, so she could head over to open the clinic.

The resultant winds caused damage to our roof, and I (stupidly) headed out onto the upper-deck with a ladder, in the middle of the 80km/ph gusts; to either re-attach, or solve the banging... thankfully, the 'flashing' blew off, and I retrieved it from the back yard before it disappeared forever.

Lisa closed the clinic early, and had to dig the truck out of her parking spot (as its 4wd system couldn't handle the amount of snow). Thankfully the company who is contracted to plow their parking area turned up after a few minutes and helped finish the digging.

While this was going on, I was blowing a couple of feet worth of heavy-packed snow from the driveway, creating space for the truck on her return. 

Once complete - the local construction grader drove by as a 'plow' and filled the driveway entry... 

So I restarted and finished the job.

Lisa finally made it back home to find me in a bit of a panic having called a few roofing companies looking for advice on a slightly more pressing matter than the missing flashing.

The wind was driving snow up into our 'attic crawlspace'

For the next 4 hours, Lisa and I scrodged out as much snow as we could, laboriously filling buckets, and shoving re-purposed insulation batts into the holes to prevent more snowy ingress.

Insulation batting is kinda itchy after a while, and moving about the narrow spaces (delicately crawling on support beams so as to not fall through the ceiling), has helped to reminded me that i'm not 20 anymore.

After the attic was done, we headed over to both our elderly neighbours, and proceeded to dig them out.

Heading home to make some dinner, we re-cleared the ends of the driveways that had once again been filled by the grader-plow.

Doesn't sound too positive so far...


Now for the good.

Barb (one our neighbours) - put on an amazing snack-spread of wine and cheese, and sat for a chat when we were done, providing a number for the repair company that fixed her roof a couple of years ago. 

But the truly amazing thing has to be, just how lucky I am to be able to share a life with Lisa. 

Seriously, she fucking rocks. 

My wife headed out in despicably bad conditions to open her business and care for the animals in clinic. Dug her car out, not once - but twice. Crawled into an impossibly shitty situation to help remove snow, and then as if it wasn't enough, helped dig out our elderly neighbours, before preparing dinner for us while I was finishing the driveway.

If questioned 'why' she did so much during that day...

her answer would be 'Because it needed to be done'.

I love her with all my heart. 

...and if that isn't a positive, then I don't know what is.



see you all tomorrow

Single Word Post #1

Nor'easter

old photo #1...

Big Tree, C, and me... August 2001, somewhere during a day-hike in the forests near Whistler, BC. 

I think Christina was living on Vancouver Island planting trees with a friend Kym?, and visited me in Vancouver. We all headed up the sea to sky highway for a day hike.

Either Kym took the photo, or it was on a timer... (canon ELPH film point and shoot)

new photo #1...

Taken from our upper deck at the end of January. One of those moments where I was really happy to have gear sitting ready to go at all times... the colour in the sky was spectacular, and the sun was setting fast - 12mm Rokinon on Sony a6000, 3 image HDR in Aurora.

a roadmap...

So I'm slowly figuring out how to approach this "flipping" of my social media "switch"

I challenged myself to provide something new every day...
...that's Seven... Days... A... Week...

Obviously this could all descend into chaos by day 3 if I don't have some kind of framework. It's very much in my nature to do things on the fly, but that could be one of the biggest reasons that I start to drop the ball on any new skills.

here are my 'daily' plans so far

1 - new photo
2 - old photo
3 - T.F.T.W (thought for the week)
4 - speed recap of my day/week/month 
5 - "Single Word Post"
6 - something positive: a challenge
7 - WTF!
8 - "here's a link"

As you can see, there are 8 on the cards.

This means that I won't need to fall into the trap of making a specific day of the week "new photo Friday" or some rubbish like that.

Any of the 8 can come in any order and with any frequency. 

Yay for the illusion of structure! 

To give you a little more information on what each of these may end up looking like, here's a quick break-down of what they mean to me.

- New photo - seems pretty self explanatory - I'll post a photo that hasn't been on the web before (I'm not going to have some rigorous rule for 'when' I took the photo, but it can't be something that I've searched for in my archives, and ideally it'll be from the same day as my post) 

- Old photo - also as advertised - I'll pick a photo from my past and try to give an explanation of how, where, or why, I took it in the first place.

- Thought for the week - This is my attempt at what will hopefully become a discussion. There's no right or wrong, just my viewpoint on a topic that will hopefully bring that idea into your world in a way that you can expand upon, disagree with, and discuss. In short - if I'm thinking about it then others probably are too. I'm not interested in trying to 'change' anyone's way of thinking, I get it - most people are pretty set in their ways. What I am interested in, is other peoples points of view.  Please feel free to comment, or send me correspondence privately if you like.  I'm interested in how you think. (Over 30 topics sitting here ready for discussion - with plenty more to come...)

- Speed recap of my day/week/month - Where I use 500 words or less to post the highlights as I saw them 

- "Single Word Post" - I post just one word - literally one, with no supporting information - it could be something wacky from the dictionary, a word I've seen that amuses me, maybe even something that I've made up?

- Something positive: a challenge - I have to deliver a post with a positive tone about something that has happened to me, or the world in general.

- WTF - as in What the Fuck! - a link, photo, my chance to vent. Could be literally anything that's made me go W.T.F.!
 
- "Here's a link" - as advertised on the tin - I'll post a link... It may or may not have an explanation

So that's the general idea. 
I'm starting to get excited. 

See you all tomorrow. 

New Beginnings

Hi!  I'm back.

As you can read above in the modified description for the blog, I've been feeling a little like there's been no content creation happening on my end - and a lot of idle scrolling around social media.

firstly a little housekeeping is in order.

The website is dead - has been for a while. 

I bring this up only because a lot of the images in the archives here have a watermark that links to the (now defunct) website.

for my first post - I'm throwing up a self portrait taken a week or so ago with a new lens that I was playing around with.

cheers, 
Ian