Half a minute earlier...

Half a minute earlier...
Originally uploaded by d.yaro

This photograph would've been interesting. Well perhaps....

It was about 4:30pm in the afternoon. I had taken a couple of photographs of the mist enshrouding Swangard Stadium and the NW corner of Burnaby's Central Park (which actually isn't the geographical centre of Burnaby). I walked a bit and was standing on the NE corner of the intersection taking in the view of the North Shore mountains. I thought to myself "That would make a nice photograph. Those clouds are so interesting looking." As I was letting that thought pass through my mind a saw a bright streak of white light pass from east of the mountains (the right side of the photograph) and then vanish in the west. It must of been visible for less than a second or two. I was dumbstruck for a moment. Then I realized I had most probably witnessed a meteor (or very large meteorite) burning out as it entered the Earth's atmosphere. Later on I theorized it could've been space junk too. But I like the meteor theory better.

This event does highlight a bit of why I take photographs. Partly I'm trying to capture images that are visually appealing. Partly because I'm a bit of a "documentarian". I collect images and data just like I collect objects. Somewhere in me is this part of my character that says "You live in the now so it never hurts to create a record of those moments". Sometimes those images do tell a story but more often than not there have to be accompanying words that define the context the image comes from. If not for these words then the photo I've posted would be just a so-so image of clouds enveloping the local mountains. Which wouldn't be all that much to write about.

^%$#@! YouTube

The two videos I shot in Cambodia and which I've uploaded to YouTube include this one. Unfortunately the darn upload process got hung when it hit 94% completion. I let the session sit overnight, not being sure if it actually was hung or not, and was essentially annoyed when I found that it really had come to a crashing halt. The second video got uploaded on the first try which is good because the thing is in a 9.4MB .avi container. The file size limit for the service being 10MB. Given the amount of time it took to upload the thing I really wasn't in the mood for another crash at 90%+ completion.

Anyways, that's my rant of the day. Will think of something better to say next time.

Dressing a Wreath

Dressing a Wreath
Originally uploaded by d.yaro

The young girl in the photo I took probably doesn't have a clue as to what the full significance of the day's activities were, including the placing of the plastic poppy to make a wreath. In time she'll get to know though.

I was reading an article today on the CBC website about a graveyard in Gaza for Canadian soldiers who had died while serving as peacekeepers during the Suez Crisis in the 1950s (http://www.cbc.ca/world/story/2008/11/10/f-gaza-war-cemetery.html). The article is quite nice and very touching. The one vitriolic comment posted a reader, accusing the author and the article of being anti-Israeli propaganda was...mind numbing. Thankfully it was removed by the moderators.

Remembrance Day 2008

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Originally uploaded by d.yaro

My quip about Remembrance Day which I posted in a forum I frequent: "My left arm may show up on the six o'clock CBC news. I was holding my umbrella over Vancouver City Police Const. Usui to try and keep the rain off of him at today's Remembrance Day ceremony. The CBC cameraman did take a short shot of Const. Usui with me standing next to him. I'll never know what will come of that since I don't have cable TV and thus I don't watch TV news." The officer in question is the fellow in the dark VPD uniform. He'd just got back to work after suffering from a cold and needed to try and stay out of the rain...

Third Shutout in a Row...

Third Shutout in a Row...
Originally uploaded by d.yaro

...And I think the guy wearing the pads is happy. Not a bad shot considering I'm sitting in the sixth row of the upper bowl at GM Place. Anyways, the game itself wasn't exactly thrilling but it did have it's moments. My buddy Steve and I had this running schtick regarding a comment he had read somewhere from some enthusiastic fan claiming that Bieksa was a Norris trophy contender. It turned into a game between us of comments such as "Don't worry, he's going to break the game open with an end to end rush". Well...it would've helped in that game. There was a lot of dump and chase hockey going on.

PS: If you check my photostream in Flickr you'll find two photographs I took that are close in time to the two goals the Canucks scored. One was taken a split second after Salo scored and one was taken a split second before Daniel Sedin scored.

A bit of room...

A bit of room...
Originally uploaded by d.yaro

As per the comment I posted in Flickr... I managed to pull out of that parking spot without making contact with the two cars around me. To get an idea on how much room I had, the round white object in the left photograph is the lid of a McDonald's soft drink cup. I probably had about a foot in front and maybe 4 inches in the back.

Years ago I managed to deftly steer a dragon boat into its berth at a local marina. It involved approaching the back tip of the berth almost head on and then stalling the port side of the boat in order to turn it so that the starboard side came to rest against the dock. I pulled that trick off and one guy in the boat turned to me and said "I bet you don't have any problems parallel parking".

Gas for Under a Dollar a Liter

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Originally uploaded by d.yaro

With my PetroPoints discount it turned out to be 96.4¢ per liter. I've forgotten when it was last under a dollar a liter. It's been that long. Anyways, that within itself is no big deal.

What's interesting from my perspective is that I took this photo using my Canon SD1100. I put it into night snapshot mode and turned off the flash. I zoomed in a bit and held the camera at about a 30°angle facing upwards. Given that I did that quickly, since I didn't want to look like a complete idiot, I think this photograph turned out pretty good. The colours look good and the image of the sign, the price and lettering is quite crisp. Given that the SD1100 is by design a "point and click" camera I'm quite pleased with the result.

Morning Sun - Nov 4 2008

Morning Sun - Nov 4 2008
Originally uploaded by d.yaro

It's an odd photograph with which to mark a historic day. Sure it's the US election I'm referring to. People can say "But you're in Canada so it doesn't matter to you" but in my mind it affects everyone. We're all interconnected. Whether or not its the beginning of a change for the better or the waning days of the great empire...only time will tell. I'm just savoring the moment. A new US president has been elected, it's raining again, I'm gazing at a photograph I took of the sun trying to burn off the late fall cloud cover and I'm listening to the song "Horses in My Dreams". It's all so strange...