My son just celebrated his 20th birthday. And I asked him to identify some of the highlights from his two decades on the planet. One of his highlights was from a trip the two of us took to Houston.
And, as you can see from the video, we did have a bit of fun on that trip.
My wife and I went hiking yesterday at Killbear Provincial Park. The park is located just north of Parry Sound, about a 2-hour drive from home.
We dressed in layers for the cold and spent several hours hiking in snow and ice. Yesterday was supposed to offer some sunshine and it did not. The clouds remained gray and gloomy. So I made the best of the photo shoot.The first is from my wife’s camera to give you a sense of the area and the rest of the pictures are from my D200. For those of you who follow my blog on a regular basis, Santa did not come through with a new D3. It’s okay. With some therapy, I can get through this tragedy.
Last night was Trevor’s CD release party. The whole evening was a special time for me and my family. A great concert followed by an intimate gathering at Trevor’s home.
There were some very powerful moments during the concert. The one that made a significant impact on me was a Compassion video which highlighted the living conditions of a poor family in Bolivia. It is time for our family to help make a difference in the lives of children and I commit to sponsoring a child. Compassion is a great organization and you can learn more about sponsoring a child here.
Trevor did a wonderful job sharing the Christmas story in concert. He used a multimedia format which brought together music, art, dance, video, photography, sound and lighting into focus. A huge production effort. Really amazing.
At the release party, Lorraine and I were presented with a special gift for the work we did on tracking and mixing Trevor’s project.
How fortunate I am to be able to work with such amazing people.
I received a number of nice comments about yesterday’s photo of the day. That shot was taken the previous evening at Awenda Provincial Park.
We drove up to the park on Sunday afternoon from our home in Newmarket. The park was closed which meant that we had to hike about 2 kilometers from a parking area to the beach. And it was a pretty cold day. The light was going fast and I had to work pretty quickly to take some quality pictures.
There are two challenges with landscape photography. The first is subject material. Living near Toronto generally means a four to six hour drive roundtrip to find a scenic area. The second is timing. The golden hour of light is usually first thing in the morning or end of day.
At this time of year, end of day comes at about 5pm. No problem. We arrived to the beach by around 4. I kept shooting until it became dark. As you can see by the first photograph, I was shooting late. And, in the second photograph, you can see Matthew trying to find our trail back to the parking lot. Which was some 2 kilometers away. In the pitch black. Alone, in an abandoned provincial park.
If you get this message, perhaps you can find someone to help us out of the park. We are quite lost.
Just kidding. Matthew was an amazing scout. We eventually found our car.
Last weekend we hiked Rosseau Falls. I took my landscape photos and my wife took photos of me and my son. Here are a few to share with you. Lorraine is doing a pretty good job with that little Canon SD600 point and shoot.
In the first photo, you can tell that Matthew was a bit too close to the falls. And he lost his grip on the rocks and fell in to the rapids. I was able to pull him out of the rapids about 200 meters or so downstream.
In the second photo, I put him on the rocks, hoping that the sun would dry him out. My bad as the temperature was very cold. He froze, unable to move.
Just kidding. The falls offer many opportunities to get close in perfect safety. As you can tell in the third picture.
Last night, I copied over the photos of Awenda Provincial Park from my wife’s camera to my computer. We take two cameras on our hikes: the serious rig and the point and shoot rig.
And the differences in subject material can be interesting. You can see my formal landscapes of Awenda here. The beach is truly remarkable. However, my wife was able to capture a better sense of the size of some of the rocks. The first photo below is a shot that I took with my camera of the beach area at dusk. The next photo is from Lorraine’s camera. Lorraine’s shot of Matthew provides a much better perspective on the size of those rocks.
So last week was quite intense. I do not blog about my corporate side of life for a number of reasons. But part of the job does incur its fair share of stress from time to time. And so, after a major presentation yesterday morning, I took a mental health break in the afternoon. Lorraine, Matthew and I headed up to Awenda Provincial Park. The park is fairly close to where we live, about 100 kilometers, and we arrived there at 5pm. The trails are easy and the crowds at this time of year are light. We spent most of the time walking along the shore on our own.
Here are a few shots from the hike.
Last week-end we went to Hardy Lake Provincial Park and Torrance Barrens. A great day for hiking and photography. Here are a few more pictures from the day. Three pairs of shots: the first in each pair is a picture from Lorraine’s camera and the second in each pair is the view from my camera.
Good thing we had two cameras.
