Blog

The light, the light

Posted on by Patrick
Soft pale light on a grey wall

I went on cam­pus yes­ter­day for the first time in a month, and took a few min­utes to check just how emp­ty the Knowles Douglas/Student Union com­plex was. No lights were on; it was all lit, soft­ly, by the sun.

Above is the cor­ri­dor that con­nects the Stu­dent Union build­ing to the KD space, where the book­store and the cof­fee shop are. Below is a view of the closed cof­fee shop.

The coffee shop
For­bid­den Flavours, closed for now

And, as a bonus, today I saw a robin in the yard. I snapped a few pho­tos at a high zoom through the screen and win­dow. I think the lines of the screen con­tribute to the slight­ly sur­re­al look of the pho­to.

Robin redbreast in my yard
Robin on a downed branch

Brenizer bike

Posted on by Patrick

I’ve been read­ing late­ly about the Breniz­er method (some­thing I’ve appar­ent­ly been doing already, with­out know­ing that’s what it’s called). Essen­tial­ly, you take a bunch of pho­tos of a still sub­ject, then stitch them togeth­er into one image. The result­ing panora­ma will have the depth-of-field (ie, back­ground blur) of a sin­gle pho­to tak­en with a much, much wider lens.

Con­tin­ue read­ing “Breniz­er bike” →

North Hill campus

Posted on by Patrick
ACC North Campus

I don’t recall ever being on ACC’s North Hill cam­pus since, well, since ACC took it over. On my ride today, I decid­ed to stop in and see the sights.

The main build­ing, pic­tured above, was part of the Bran­don Men­tal Health Cen­tre before the grounds were pur­chased by the Col­lege.

Behind that build­ing I found a love­ly lit­tle park-like space.

A small park behind the main building, with a lilac tree

Also back there was a chim­ney tow­er so tall it took three pho­tos to cap­ture it all, stitched togeth­er using hug­in.

A very tall chimney

I also found a sec­ondary build­ing where a cou­ple small trees appear to have tak­en root in the brick­work.

  • Trees growing on a ledge
  • A tree growing in the brick wall

I was quite enam­oured of the shad­ows in the one pho­to, and I can’t decide if I pre­fer it in colour, or in black and white. What’s your pref­er­ence?

Trees growing on a ledge

Series: Bike Ride Photos

The entire series: Down by the riv­er; Bike ride birds; The ex-gar­den and the weir; Snap­shots of a ride; Across Town; Black­bird; North Hill cam­pus.

Across Town

Posted on by Patrick

A cou­ple pho­tos, one from the south­west end of the city, one from the pedes­tri­an bridge over the Assini­boine, both shar­ing a cer­tain beige tone.

  • Canada Post mailboxes
    Some funky designs on the Cana­da Post mail­box­es in the south­west end of the city
  • River and bird
    A bird in sil­hou­ette against the Assini­boine Riv­er

Series: Bike Ride Photos

The entire series: Down by the riv­er; Bike ride birds; The ex-gar­den and the weir; Snap­shots of a ride; Across Town; Black­bird; North Hill cam­pus.

The ex-garden and the weir

Posted on by Patrick
The erstwhile Eleanor Kidd Gardens

Pho­tos from today’s bike ride: the once and per­haps future Eleanor Kidd gar­dens, and the weir on the riv­er near First Street.

There’s some evi­dence that the city (or some­one) has plans to ren­o­vate the gardens—there’s a rough road along­side the space, where before there was noth­ing, and some dirt piles near­by. I most­ly hope some­thing gets done. It was a love­ly space, back when it was cared for. I went to a wed­ding there, and it was full of flow­ers of all colours and scents.

(The part of me that finds beau­ty in decay likes it how it is. Well, except maybe for the spray-paint­ed penis on one of the pil­lars.)

  • The gar­dens
  • The cov­ered walk­way
  • The weir on the Assini­boine

Series: Bike Ride Photos

The entire series: Down by the riv­er; Bike ride birds; The ex-gar­den and the weir; Snap­shots of a ride; Across Town; Black­bird; North Hill cam­pus.

Bike ride birds

Posted on by Patrick
Red-winged blackbird

I biked about 12km this after­noon, and I took my cam­era along with me. I saw some geese (so many geese) and what I think was a red-winged black­bird.

  • A red-winged black­bird (I think) singing his lit­tle heart out
  • A goose stretch­ing its wings
  • Some geese on the water

Series: Bike Ride Photos

The entire series: Down by the riv­er; Bike ride birds; The ex-gar­den and the weir; Snap­shots of a ride; Across Town; Black­bird; North Hill cam­pus.

Down by the river

Posted on by Patrick
Dead, barren tree

I went for a short bike ride today, after I fin­ished work: over the bridge and down to the river­bank. I man­aged to get a cou­ple pho­tos of a kayak­er enjoy­ing the weath­er, and I’m try­ing to decide which one I like bet­ter. I think I like the clos­er-in one, though I wish I’d focused it bet­ter. (Look­ing at it again, maybe I could lie and tell peo­ple I meant it to be an impres­sion­is­tic image.)

  • Tight crop of the kayaker on the river
    Tight crop
  • Full shot of the river and the kayaker
    Full image

(Actu­al­ly, they’re both crops of the same pho­to.)

I also got a pho­to of one of the trees that died in the 2011 flood, with the new crop of wil­lows vis­i­ble behind it. That one’s at the top of this post.

Series: Bike Ride Photos

The entire series: Down by the riv­er; Bike ride birds; The ex-gar­den and the weir; Snap­shots of a ride; Across Town; Black­bird; North Hill cam­pus.