Daily Photo 2022: Aug. 16-31
Usually, I am not keen on targeted adverts... Except when they're informing me that there's about to be a kite festival a very short walk from my apartment. I had no idea such things even existed, and I am very glad an algorithm somewhere thought I should know!
2022 August 16
I went to a meeting with a coworker, and she made a stop on the way back. While she was delivering a broken espresso machine to the repair shop, a big horsefly rested on the windshield of her vehicle. Shooting through glass is always tricky, but I think the picture turned out decently.
Olympus E-PL9, 12-200mm telephoto lens
f22, 1/80 sec, ISO 800
IrfanView: Crop, Colour
2022 August 17
There's not much to narrate on this one. It was a rainy day. Travelling on a gentrifying side street on my return from work, I passed a planter of flowers. Snap! I did not realize until editing that my reflection shows in the drop(s). Does that mean this counts as a portrait?
Olympus E-PL9, 60mm macro lens
f3.5, 1/200 sec, ISO 800
IrfanView: Crop, Colour
2022 August 18
At least as far back as high school, I've been fascinated with dance-adjacent art forms like poi (and now climbing). Counted among my list of offbeat interests is slinging gyro rings. We're long past the craze... For all I know, I'm one of the last people in the province who still owns chatter rings!
Olympus E-PL9, 60mm macro lens
f22, 6 secs, ISO 800
IrfanView: Crop, Colour
2022 August 19
This is a detailed look at the snap on my old, much-loved wristwatch. It's been sitting on my shelf collecting dust for a few months now. I didn't realize quite how much dust it was collecting until it came time to view the photo! Gotta love the dirty truths that a macro lens reveals...
Olympus E-PL9, 60mm macro lens
f22, 8 secs, ISO 800
IrfanView: Crop, Colour
2022 August 20
Unbeknownst to me, a kite festival was scheduled for Halifax's Garrison Grounds in late July. That got rescheduled to August 20th and 21st, and by some magic the new date found its way to my social media feed. I am very glad it did, since I'm probably oblivious enough not to notice a field full of kites just around the corner. I'm not even going to attempt to cut this down to one photo; there were impressive sights at every turn. Instead, I'm including three from Saturday, and three more from Sunday.
Olympus E-PL9, 12-200mm telephoto lens
f9, 1/1000 sec, ISO 200
IrfanView: Crop, Colour
Olympus E-PL9, 12-200mm telephoto lens
f6.3, 1/800 sec, ISO 200
IrfanView: Crop, Colour
Olympus E-PL9, 12-200mm telephoto lens
f8, 1/800 sec, ISO 200
IrfanView: Crop, Colourv
2022 August 21
Butter chicken poutine, blaring Hindi techno music, and kites ranging from the pocket-sized to the gargantuan; that's pretty much my recipe for an awesome Summer day! Apparently, this was the sixth running of this festival, which also feature bouncy castles. I'm adding it to my calendar going forward! I really, really appreciated the atmosphere. It was just people hanging out in a field, flying kites; the whole thing was easygoing, idyllic, and sublime.
Olympus E-PL9, 12-200mm telephoto lens
f6.3, 1/800 sec, ISO 500
IrfanView: Crop, Colour
Olympus E-PL9,12-200mm telephoto lens
f6.3, 1/500 sec, ISO 200
IrfanView: Crop, Colour
Olympus E-PL9, 12-200mm telephoto lens
f8, 1/6400 sec, ISO 200
IrfanView: Crop, Colour
2022 August 22
Let's unpack this rather stacked photo! In the foreground is the HMCS Sackville. She is a WWII-era corvette, painted in tones of blue. Behind the Sackville is the CSS Acadia, a WWI-era ship with a stack and mast painted in mustard and black. My main subject for this photograph is actually behind the Acadia: The glittering Rise Again art piece. I had a hand in two or three of the construction details for its base. My involvement was incredibly minor, but it still feels nifty to have contributed to the Halifax Waterfront. I took this photo (and several others) so my coworkers could see how our efforts appear in the wider context.
Olympus E-PL9, 12-200mm telephoto lens
f9, 1/800 sec, ISO 200
IrfanView: Crop, Colour
2022 August 23
You may well yawn at this shot, which is a macrophotographic look at a carabiner. I took it after returning from the climbing gym, and to be honest, I had intended to snag a totally different photo while I was there... But I forgot! Regardless, I wanted to include a climby picture because August 23rd marks the day I finally conquered a route that had stumped me for weeks. It's rated 5.10- which means it is tied for the most difficult route (at least by grade) that I have successfully climbed.
Olympus E-PL9, 60mm macro lens
f22, 6 secs, ISO 800
IrfanView: Crop, Colour
2022 August 24
In profile, when sunning on buoys and docks, I think cormorants are beautiful birds. I love their sleek beaks and oily black feathers. Face on, they become positively medusa-like! This is one of a barrage of photos I took, wanting to catch the bird diving. While I did get a pose close to what I originally intended, this pre-dive shot is much more compelling.
Now please, creepy cormorants, never look at me again!
Olympus E-PL9, 12-200mm telephoto lens
f6.3, 1/1600 sec, ISO 3200
IrfanView: Crop, Colour
2022 August 25
Here is a rare morning-commute picture. These tree-lights are always off in the afternoon and I have long wanted to photograph them. I used bokeh - deliberate soft focus - partially because string lights look better that way and partially as a visual pun... I had an eye appointment after work and figured that with the dilation I should take a blurry photo before my vision became blurry!
Olympus E-PL9, 12-200mm telephoto lens
f3.5, 1/250 sec, ISO 2500
IrfanView: Crop, Colour
2022 August 26
Here's a trick I learned at work today: If you wear a reflector vest into a washroom with laser-activated taps, you can turn them on from much farther away than usual! Here's a reflective armband made of similar material to my site-visit vest. As an added pun, this band is yellow. During my eye appointment on August 25th I was injected with dye to make the vessels of my retina stand out for a scanner; afterward I was quite yellow myself! And yes, I listened to the Coldplay song Yellow while writing this.
Olympus E-PL9, 60mm macro lens
f22, 3.2 secs, ISO 800
IrfanView: Crop, Colour
2022 August 27
My Saturday plan was to go fly a kite, and take a picture of it. When I went, however, the wind was virtually non-existent. On my way back I wandered through the Public Gardens and came across this lovely arrangement of plants.
Olympus E-PL9, 12-200mm telephoto lens
f7.1, 1/800 sec, ISO 200
IrfanView: Crop, Colour
2022 August 28
The wind was back up on Sunday, and I got in some excellent air-time. It's remarkably pleasant to stretch out on a sunny hillside, head resting on a backpack and lazily watching one's kite drift above. Later, I flew the kite from the Garrison Grounds to the Commons, a journey that included crossing the street. That may not sound like much, but it was slightly thrilling to do for the first time. For that event, I kept the kite on a much shorter leash than in this photo.
Olympus E-PL9, 12-200mm telephoto lens
f6.3, 1/1000 sec, ISO 200
IrfanView: Crop, Colour
2022 August 29
My Aunt Gail and cousin Tom passed through town on August 29th. After a delightful supper with some local cousins, Tom and I went for an evening stroll along the boardwalk. Along our way, we noticed that some of the docks are now illuminated from below. Très chic.
Olympus E-PL9, 12-200mm telephoto lens
f3.8, 1/20 sec, ISO 6400, -0.3 EV
IrfanView: Crop, Colour
2022 August 30
This is a top-down view of a bee investigating a big, hairy thistle. The bee was quite intent on its task; the whole time I was photographing I never saw its face.
Olympus E-PL9, 10mm macro lens
f2.8, 1/500 sec, ISO 1600
IrfanView: Crop, Colour
2022 August 31
Kites make great pets! Just like dogs, when you take them for walks on a leash, strangers will make conversation with you. They tend to stay quiet while inside, and only get flappy when a big wind excites them. They travel well, but it's also no big deal to leave them home alone. Like puppies, sometimes they have trouble heeling. It's nice to give them a bowl of water every so often, and as long as you don't feed them Kevlar or glass-coated string they'll socialize nicely with other kites.
Olympus E-PL9, 12-200mm telephoto lens
f4.5, 1/60 sec, ISO 6400
IrfanView: Crop, Colour
Through the end of July and much of August I had a project at East Peak: a climbing route rated 5.10- (A solidly intermediate rank). I had only ever managed one 5.10- before, and I found that one a fair bit easier than this. Once I finally managed to send the route, I put together this video of my efforts. To count as a proper ascent, the goal is to get both hands on the final hold, and be in control (which is to say, not snatching at it during a fall).