98:365 At the Aviation Museum - updated

Anna: Today, we decided to check out the local aviation museum. We didn't have time to check out the outdoor displays, but got plenty of photos - I took over 240 myself, but then, I was taking pictures of the signs and plaques, too. Otherwise, I'd never remember what they all were! *L* I'm just posting a couple of pictures for now and will add more to my flicker account later.


(Philippe) Most of the shots I took today were hand-held, 1/8 to 1/3 second, no flash.. The flash *did* light things up, but gave it that ugly, bright look so I gave up on it and did it the hard way.. Much happier with the results :D


Philippe: Doesn't this just *look* intimidating?




























Philippe: They had a few engines in various states of assembly so we could see the workings.












Philippe: They were restoring this bomber while we were touring.














Philippe: The most practical arrangements sometime look really good :D

























Philippe: This thing looks light enough to pick up.



























Anna: I've now uploaded more shots at my flicker account, here.



This was taken from under the tail of a DeHavilland Vampire MK 35. The first prototype flew in 1943, and entered RCAF service in 1946. The shell is all metal, with a section of sandwiched balsa wood in the cockpit, making it a highly maneuverable, well armed fighter.












These are the under-cockpit guns of a Mosquito FB MK VI, a high performance night fighter. There's another set of 4 guns sticking right out of the nose. The Mosquito was used by the 418 (City of Edmonton) Squadron RCAF. They were a night intruder squadron, first flying the Douglas Boston light bomber before being re-equipped with the Mosquito. The squadron was activated in Dedben, England in 1941 and adopted by the City of Edmonton in 1944.

97:365 - Nature park

So we went to terwilleger park today to see what it was like.. :)



This guy was sitting there, trying to go un-noticed.. Fat chance when I have a camera out :D





























This guy was sitting in a tire rut. The kids like his soft furry underbelly

















Playing peek-a-boo.. The original of this shot gets some serious detail :D
















These guys were boogeying pretty good; coming over to check out the two-legged buggies.


























The place was pretty good for paths and walk areas.. Saw *lots* of mountain bikes.





























If it's green, I shoot it, is my motto.















Only saw this guy because my daughter was bent like a pretzel trying to get him. Note the little buddy right behind him.













Standing too close to me when I have camera-in-hand is *so* not a good idea.













I miss my dog..




















Anna: I lucked out on the photo below - that and Philippe was holding the branch as steady as he could, as it was pretty breezy. *L*


You can view more photos here.

96:365 Almost Perfect

Almost Perfect

Anna: While the kids and I were out and about yesterday, we stopped at a Purdy's to pick up some chocolates. It's been a long time since we've indulged. My frugal nature, however, prevented me from paying for a fancy box of mixed chocolates when I could get more for my money from the "Almost Perfect" selection - bags of chocolate confections that, for one reason or another, weren't good enough for the fancy boxes or the display case.

Hey, they taste the same. What do I care if the surface as a scratch on it? *L*

Now, if I could just figure out why blogger took this photo and flipped it 90 degrees...

95:365 Signs and Reflections

Anna: After a trip to the library, the kids and I met Philippe for lunch at a mall downtown. Afterwards, I finally did something I've been meaning to do for our Art Project for a very long time. This mall has unique sign holders all over the place, made of wrought iron, brass, welded steel, rebar and other materials. This spider is a detail of one of them. The bottom portion of the
sign holder is a large web with the spider near the base. The web supports a frame that holds the signs. I got photos of about a dozen of these, each very unique in design, and I'm sure I've missed at least a few.





One section of the mall has a gorgeous skylight, surrounded by mirrors on the upper levels. The effect on a bright day like today is quite amazing. The photo doesn't do it justice.

93 and 94:365 Double post

Anna: Here's the photo I meant to post yesterday, but never got around to uploading before midnight.

Yeah, I think my daughter's cat is adorable. She has this habit of tucking her nose under things - her own leg, a pillow, blankets, our ears... whatever.







My elder daughter and I went for an evening photo walk, which turned out to be much shorter than expected, as it started to rain. We got a few pictures, though.


The road in front of our apartment building overlooks the river valley on the opposite side. It's all part of the park system, and there are a number of groomed areas clear enough of trees that we can get lovely views of the river. I was walking into one of these when I noticed something moving in the brush to the side and realized that it was a person moving under his/her covers.

You know, when it comes to being homeless, I can think of a lot worse places to have to sleep. This spot is just gorgeous.





A bit more effort into acquiring the comforts of home. Getting that couch down the sides of the ravine must've been quite the job.














We were walking past the other tower in our building when I did a double take, trying to figure out what it was I just saw on the sidewalk.

Yes, it really was a plastic woman with a cobra.

92:365 - Evening walk

Evening walk.. *nothing* was camera safe.. :D


Not sure what to say.. it stood still long enough for me to take a shot.. Wind and Macro don't mix, I've discovered.













This is a nice, striking mistake.. (wind again :D )














Daughter was apparently providing transport.














Other daughter was providing opportunity :P















Anna's got a thing for fungus, so I thought I'd grab this one.. I like the way it turned out :).










Anna: Philippe took quite a few more great macro shots, which can be seen here. I'm just uploading one of my photos from today on this blog. I uploaded more here, if you want to see them.



I like the little dandelion seed caught in a spider web in the bottom corner. :-D

91:365 At the museum - playing with a new lens

Anna: Philippe got himself a new macro lens today - I'll leave him to explain what he got - so we went to the museum again to test it out. I didn't take very many pictures myself this time, but I did get a few interesting ones.



Can you figure out what this is?

















Here's the whole thing. It's the result of a lightning strike following a copper wire into damp soil. The lightning boiled away the water and melted the soil into glass, leaving a bit of copper wire still visible at the end. Freaky!












I finally got a decent shot of my favorite egg in the birds gallery - taken from the rear of the display, so I wouldn't be blocking the spotlights. I just love the patterns on this egg!













Philippe was having problems with blogger, trying to upload his pictures, so I found a way to upload them differently. You can view the whole set here. He'll add his comments when he gets a chance to, later. :-)

Philippe: I got a 90mm 1:1 Tamron macro lens because they were absolutely *out* of the cheaper nikkor 60mm micro. This lens rocks :D

The lens is a bit of a pig, so I have to use either a tripod, high ISO or a flash... The cat did not appreciate my choice here ;)















*NO* clue what this bug is, but I liked the focus point.. Manual is almost mandatory with this lens as auto hunts for a while.















Synthetic Bismuth; again, with the manual focus set a little within the structure. I think I'll be kissing this lens goodnight for a while.






























Gypsum.. Pretty... monosyllabic...















This was one of my first tests of the lens.. "Don't... move.. the pencil....." :P