Part-time prevaricator
Our friend Tess dropped by for a visit last weekend, and stayed overnight. I decided to snap a photo of her, and one of Kathleen as well.
Then I saw a lovely red-and-yellow autumn tree on my way to work.
And today it snowed.
I went out last night, since it was clear, and visited my friend Tim, who’s camping this weekend at Wasagaming. I snapped some star trails at his campsite (my battery, almost dead, managed 80 shots at 10 seconds each).
On the way home, I pulled off the highway about ½ a mile down a gravel road, and tried out a panoramic photo of the Milky Way. I set my camera up in portrait mode and shot 5 photos, 45 seconds each, tilting the camera up after each shot. The camera started out aimed at the horizon and the last shot was pointed straight up at the zenith.
I stitched the photos together using Hugin, which did a very good job of automatically orienting the photos and finding the matches. I didn’t have to massage anything manually.
Le voilà:
This is something I’d love to replicate, some lovely evening.
So I went for a bike ride. I headed out to the countryside south and west of town, and on one of the mile roads I paused to take some photos in the “country roads” style.
Where I stopped, though, there was a dead bird on the road, a big one. I think it may have been a hawk. While I was snapping photos, two other hawks landed on a couple of nearby telephone poles and started squawking. One flew a couple passes over me. I put my camera away and rode off about another ¼ mile down the road, where I stopped for a few more photos. As I was snapping away, I heard/felt something whoosh over my head, maybe three feet above me. I looked up and one of the hawks had followed me. I snapped a couple quick pictures of him (one’s at the top of this post) and then took off again.
After that they left me alone, and I took some other photos.
I happened to be out and about last night with my camera, and took a couple of photos.
I went for another long bike ride today, and took a few more photos, several at the Assiniboine and a few at the community garden in the south end.
Interested in prints? Let me know.
I went on a 23-kilometre bike ride on the Monday of the August Long Weekend, before it got too hot outside. I took along my camera, with my 50mm, 24mm, and Lensbaby lenses.
Here are the results.
Saturday, I:
Continue reading “Writing Retreat, Day 6″“Can I help you with something?” Headless mannequins wore flimsy cotton dresses in earth tones. Countertop racks displayed neacklaces and bracelets made of beads, pearls, or smooth and polished stones. A sign at the back said RESTROOMS FOR PAYING CUSTOMERS ONLY.
“I need a washroom,” I said.
She motioned at the sign.
“No, I need a washroom.”
She sighed, though I couldn’t tell whether she was exasperated with me or with the situation I was evidently trying to put her in. “Policy,” she said. Then, giving me a good looking-over, she said, much more quietly, “You okay?”
Yes, I wanted to say.
“No.”
From Translations
It seems I’m a bit behind on the ol’ posts. Here’s a quick recap of Wednesday to Friday:
On Tuesday, I:
Here’s a quick sample of the writing so far (still 1st draft):
Continue reading “Writing Retreat 2019, Day 2″Your nose is broken, she’d said. I reached up and touched it, gingerly, expecting pain. Instead it felt cold and numb. Touching it felt like I was touching someone else’s nose. Like it was made of wax.
I felt a thin strip of metal or metal-like plastic that ran from between my eyebrows down the bridge of my nose to its tip. I tried to lift it off, to pry a nail under it, but couldn’t. It was like it was a part of me. Maybe it was a part of me now.
You’ve been concussed. That part I didn’t need to check to believe. I remembered the headache, the nausea that never quite went away and never quite resolved into actual vomiting. When I lay down on the bed, the room seemed to shiver and spin, slowly, an orbit that I didn’t like.
From Translations, 1st draft