Reflections.

They say the best camera is the one you have on you. So here is a cell phone photo of City Hall reflected in the wading pool. Here I sit with my daughter, listening to the strains of Peter, Paul and Mary.

The Hippy Bus is Dead

Long live the hippy bus.

Living Book

Today my older daughter and I headed downtown for a library event. Along with a book sale, entertainment and more, they had several people acting as Living Books. This is my friend Laura. :-)



She's awesome, has had an amazing life and, from our past conversations, I know she would have been a most interesting Living Book! I look forward to hearing more about how it went from her perspective.

Living Books is a very interesting concept. Volunteers are chosen to represent various groups. People can "check out" their Living Book and ask whatever questions they want about this person's experiences. In Laura's case, she was The Life of a Traveler. Others shared their experiences as a Cree woman, a formerly homeless man, an adoptee, an immigrant, a mom of triplets, and many more. Each person could be "checked out" for 45 minutes and did 3 time slots. Each time slot got reserved weeks ago! This has turned out to be a very popular program, and I am tickled that my friend got to take part. :-D

Walking

At Churchill Square, swing by from the library to see what's going on. I saw banners reading Celebrate Edmonton, and more BBQ's going than I have ever seen before! Rows and rows and tents full of them, with a cloud of smoke and the delicious smells of charred animal flesh hovering over the square.

Now I'm hungry!

Trying new things.

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Originally uploaded by amkb

The girls and I like to try new foods now and again. My older daughter has particularly adventurous tastes. *L* Today while shopping in a grocery store we don't often visit, she went through the import aisle and found these. Taro flavoured mochi.

How... fascinating. *L*

We had no idea what it was, though after looking it up I realized it was just a matter of forgetting the name. I even have recipes for mochi. We just never had the chance to try it before.

I'm not sure if I like it! The taste is sweet and I like taro, but the texture...


... it's like flesh. That's all I can think to compare it too! When we opened the package, we all just sort of looked at them for a bit. It did not look much like the photo on the package. Then I poked at it.

Gah!!!!!!

So... fleshy.

That didn't stop us from trying it, though.

We've had two each, and I still don't know if I like it or not. That weird, chewy, fleshy texture.

I just asked both girls what they thought. My younger daughter can't get past the texture and has decided she finds it icky. My older just said, "skin!" *L*

Yeah, that about sums it up.

Yet I can picture myself suddenly craving this stuff at some point!

Floating

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Originally uploaded by amkb

A pair of hot air balloons as seen from our balcony. What a view they must have up there!

Click on the image to go to my flickr page and see a few more photos.

Wishing I had my real camera

Wishing I had my real camera! Cariwest in Churchill Square.

Friday Night Folk Fest

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Originally uploaded by amkb

My first attempt at time lapse photography. I don't have all the equipment to make this easier - namely, I lack a timer! I spent the evening sitting on the balcony with a tea timer. *L*

I used a Nikon D80 with a Nikkor 70-300mm lens. I had the ISO at 100 and the camera set on Program. To reduce vibrations, I weighted the camera with a bag of lentils. *L* Most of the images were taken at 5 minute intervals, but after it got dark, the timing relied more on whether or not something interesting was going on. I did move the camera every once in a while. At one point, I noticed the crowd seemed to congregate off to the side for a while. Later on, when the shutter was open for several seconds, some bright lights near the tents were overwhelming the shots, so I adjusted to move them out. As the festival wound down at 1 am, I adjusted to better view the people leaving.

The images were put together using Magix Movie Edit Pro15 Plus. Each image is set to 0.15 seconds. The music is called Serious Curious, and is proprietary to the Magix software.

Playing

It's that time of year again. Music from the annual Edmonton Folk Festival is drifting in through our windows, and out our south facing windows we can see the crowds on the hill. Every year I think that maybe this year, I should get tickets and actually go to the festival. I only ever hear rave reviews.

Then I see the crowds on the hill and realize that, as much as I'd love to check it out, I just don't have the temperament for it! *L*

Instead, I enjoy the view and take a few pictures. Once it gets dark, I like to start playing with the camera. For tonight, I'm particularly happy with this one.



There's a bit of noise reduction and local tone mapping done to this, plus it's 50% of the original size. The timing worked out rather well. I started off zoomed in as far as I could, then while the shutter was open, zoomed all the way out again. (Nikkor 70-300mm lens) In the second or so that took, the stage, which faces away from our balcony, suddenly lit up with a bright blue-ish white light, adding an extra element to the photo.

Hmm.

Every now and then, you see something that makes you wonder how the heck someone managed to do something. Take this little escapade.




We came out a couple of mornings ago to find this, which is across the road from our home and part of the housing co-op we live in. If you visit my flickr set, you can see the damage to a willow tree outside of this shot, too.

Now, for someone to jump the curb, run up against a tree and a street sign, through a hedge, then back onto the street it odd enough. It gets more interesting when you see the angle from the other side of the hedge.





Yes, there's a retaining wall there. You can see the black marks left by the tires as the vehicle, whatever it was, went over it. The tire marks continued down the lane, then went off the road to the other side of a power pole, through some mud and grass, before joining up with the lane again and eventually disappearing onto the road.

Just how, exactly, does one do something like this? And what kind of vehicle was it that could do it? I'm guessing it was something jacked up rather high, as there's no sign that the body of a vehicle scraped anywhere on the tree, sign or retaining wall.

Hmm.