Saturday, January 27, 2007

HDR PMC-IR Home on both sides

This is the Humber River in south central Ontario. When I was standing on the bank last summer I remember reflecting on the nature of rivers. So often in our world they form the boundary between one place and another, one people and another. They sometimes mark the difference between freedom and oppression, opportunity and poverty. The Rio Grande between the US and Mexico, for instance, is not much more impressive than this for much of its length, easily forded on foot, as thousands do. I've stood at the side of the Niagara River, marvelling that the land on the other side was not the same, not mine; someone else's... and that the same was true for them looking back; all the more remarkable that for a generation between the French and Indian War and the American Revolution, it was no such boundary at all. It was all "one" place, one people, on both sides. And then, one day, it wasn't.

And so standing here on the Humber, I remember feeling grateful that what was true on one side was true on the other; that it was all home; that wherever I stood, I belonged. It's not hard to imagine a history where that might not have been true, and this view here might have been like so many others: two ends that meet in the middle.

Thursday, January 25, 2007

HDR PMC-IR Falls


HDR PMC-IR Falls
Originally uploaded by Lone Primate.
I'm quietly proud of this image. I had to work hard to achieve it. I had to go to the falls, climb down to the river bed, wade up the river to the base, take the shot, then select just the right one. Not to mention the years I've put into learning enough about Photomatix and Photoshop to produce an image like this or to get a digital camera refitted to shoot infrared. A lot of work, a lot of love, and a lot of (my) life went into what you're looking at right now. Please... devote just a small moment of your own to enjoying it. :)

Before You, After You


Before You, After You
Originally uploaded by Lone Primate.
Something about the view really impressed upon me just how ephemeral we are. It's all be here since long before any of us, or even our kind, and it'll be here long after we're gone, too. Enjoy the moment and live in it.

Way back in 2006


Way back in 2006
Originally uploaded by Lone Primate.
If it weren't for the chainlink fence, you might be forgiven for really thinking this was a shot from long ago. Well, one day, it will be. But as of January, 2007, well... this was last summer. :)

Elysium


Elysium
Originally uploaded by Lone Primate.
A graveyard in Glen William. This was taken with an 18mm lens and an 0.42x wide angle adapter.

It can't be far


It can't be far
Originally uploaded by Lone Primate.
A view of the Credit River from the Forks of the Credit Provincial Park.

Ontario emblematic


Ontario emblematic
Originally uploaded by Lone Primate.
A treatment of our provincial flower.

Wednesday, January 17, 2007

B&W Lakeside moment


B&W Lakeside moment
Originally uploaded by Lone Primate.
Sort of related to my work in infrared, lately I've gotten interested in seeing what monochrome treasures might be lurking in my colour photos. I've been learning a little about channel mixing, trying to tease strong images out of the extremes and subtleties of the red, green, and blue channels. With a little help from curves, I've been delighted with some of my results. This one in particular appeals to me. Hope it appeals to you too. This is a small lake in a park in eastern Markham.

Tuesday, January 16, 2007

IR Jumbo jet landing 1


IR Jumbo jet landing 1
Originally uploaded by Lone Primate.

The money shot


The money shot
Originally uploaded by Lone Primate.

ABSOLUT-ly In Blue


ABSOLUT-ly In Blue
Originally uploaded by Lone Primate.
Not sure this is the kind of ad Absolut would appreciate, but it's honest. I found this bottle posed exactly as you see it here in a parking lot in North York... on my way to a Russian supermarket, ironically. :)

I think the yellow cross, reminiscent of Sweden's flag, is another nice ironic touch.

Thought I'd touch it up a little to bring out the flaggy goodness. :D

Thursday, January 11, 2007

A moment with Her Majesty


A moment with Her Majesty
Originally uploaded by Lone Primate.
Bonnie looking vaguely imperial... actually, she's just guarding her eyes from the camera flash.

Digital watercolour - Countryside storm front

Faux watercolour produced from a photograph I took last summer on Duffy's Lane. The technique comes from How to Wow Photoshop for Photography by Jack Davis and Ben Willmore.

Go live in the sky


Go live in the sky
Originally uploaded by Lone Primate.
Shot on the way home this week. Finch Avenue and Seneca Hill.

Smoke and mirrors


Smoke and mirrors
Originally uploaded by Lone Primate.
Front Street at Church Street, facing west; Saturday night, Jan. 5, 2007. The lights in the sky are spotlights.

Sunday, January 07, 2007

Bipartisanism, here and there

This weekend, I went beyond basic cable for the first time in 6 years or so. I'm watching A&E, and I've just seen a commerical in which President Bush I and President Clinton, sitting side by side, ask for citizens to review emergency preparations online.

Given that there are only two 'real' parties in the US, I've always found it interesting that American policitians do this kind of thing so regularly. It's very rare in Canada.

A case in point: "Liberal MP Wajid Khan crossed the floor to join the Conservative party Friday... after Liberal Leader Stephane Dion urged Khan to choose between his Liberal caucus membership and his role as special adviser to the prime minister on the Middle East and Afghanistan."

I'm glad Dion won the Liberal leadership, but this was an ass-hat move. I can't imagine a better lever going into an election than "we have the resources and the governing party had to borrow them from us, and we acquiesced", and Dion just pissed it away, Canada's version of the jealous God of the Old Testament. Yeah, this makes the Liberal Party look soooooo good. Wajid Khan was putting Canada first. Apparently, that's not in the interests of the Liberal Party.

So is voting Liberal in my interests as a Canadian? Just a thought.

An idle happy wish :)

You know, it's probably not going to happen in my lifetime (I'm 38), but I'd like to live long enough that just before I die, they're able to transfer my personality and experience into a robot. After a lifetime of "the heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks that flesh is heir to", a long retirement as a wisecracking robot in the mode of Crow from MST3K would be "a consummation devoutly to be wish'd". I'm banking my karma towards it, at any rate. :)

Wednesday, January 03, 2007

The sun between the earth and sky

The sunset on the drive home this evening. Hard to believe it, but supposedly the days are getting longer now...

Tuesday, January 02, 2007

Hurray for the Allies!

US admits: Operation Blow Shit Up "not 100% effective"
Operation Blow More Shit Up being drafted planned


WASHINGTON / LONDON / OTTAWA — In a public statement today, officials of the US Defense and State Departments admitted that the program of blowing shit up, lately focused on Iraq, has not been completely effective in re-ordering the world in the image of the United States and laying the world prostrate at its feet forever and ever and ever. "Frankly, we may have made a slight miscalculation," admitted one State Department official, who confessed herself "disappointed that people in other countries seem to be possessed by a strange, unanticipated stubbornness that almost resembles pride and patriotism — except that those are, of course, uniquely American virtues."

Asked how the war in Iraq could be brought to a successful conclusion, a Defense Department spokesman said, "Obviously aerial bombardment, troops on the ground, and the deaths of hundreds of thousands of civilians is not the answer. The answer is more bombing, more troops, and more civilian deaths. Operation Blow More Shit Up is on the drawing board as we speak. As a result, I think we can safely say the war will be over by Christmas, or maybe even Thanksgiving. We've never been wrong before. I mean, after all, once we finally unleashed the Tet Offensive, we won Korea just like that."

This attitude is finding a warm reception across the pond. In a massive effort to increase sucking up, the United Kingdom is matching the US effort by stepping up Operation Kill Wogs with Operation Kill More Wogs. According to a functionary attached to the Ministry of Doing Whatever America Says, "The policy did wonders for building and securing the British Empire. It will be every bit as effective for the American Empire. Ah, I mean, for the process of enhancing global security."

Meanwhile, in Canada, government officials and high-ranking military officers expressed bemusement that Canada's ongoing Operation Spoonful of Maple Sugar Helps the Cyanide Go Down in Afghanistan is not reaping the desired results, other than getting Canadian soldiers killed in order to free up American soldiers to get killed in Iraq. "Why can't these people understand that we're there to keep the peace? They have no right to hate us; we're peacekeepers. Canadians do not fight wars, they keep peace. I thought everybody knew that. It's been that way, since, like, forever. It's in our Constitution, I think. Or maybe it's the Bible. But the point is, everywhere a Canadian steps, peace springs up around his feet. If we flatten their villages, it's peacekeeping! If we smear their families like peanut butter across the plains, it's peacekeeping! If we burn their crops, atomize their infrastructure, and eviscerate their government, it's to keep the goddamn peace! How many of these idiots do we have to kill before it sinks in? They never had peace till we arrived! We invented peace! We own peace! Peace peace peace peace, peace peace peace!"

Canadian officials, while discouraged by the failure of Afghanis to grasp that the destruction of their country and traditions at the hands of the West is entirely for their own good and that they ought to be happy about it, nevertheless expressed determination to "stay the course" with the operation, as well as with Operation Bomb Them to Democracy. When asked how people would vote with their limbs blown off, officials explained that Afghanis would be fitted with special voting prostheses that would enable them to mark an "X" with virtually no excruciating pain, "once the terrorists have been routed and the peacekeeping is over". Pressed to speculate as to when that might be, officials responded, "Oh, Christmas, probably... Maybe even Thanksgiving." When asked "of what year?" they replied, "No comment."