Last week I was at a rented cabin up at Minnedosa, writin’ words and takin’ photos. I had a bunch of goals for the week, but how’d I do?
Continue reading “Writing Retreat 2021: The week in review”Writing Retreat 2021: The week in review
photography
Writing Retreat 2021, day 6
On Friday, I:
- Continued outlining “Praise The Torch”
- Did some update work on my grant application
- Read more Zero History—I think I’m just about halfway through now
- Went for a bike ride—not a long one, but I climbed a lot of hills and got a few photos
- Watched a few more Firefly episodes
I decided that, even though the sky was clear, I’d stay in and not keep myself awake past 2 am again. I was in bed reading by 11 and asleep before midnight, and I think that was the right decision.
And now I’m going to start packing up the cabin. My time here draws short. As always, I’m feeling conflicting emotions: I’ll be happy to be home, but I’d love another week doing this kind of thing too.
Vacations: They’re Never Long Enough.
Writing Retreat, Day One
In my first full day at the cabin, I:
- Worked on the outline for “Praise the Torch When ‘Tis Burned” (aka the “ghosts in a derelict starship” story)
- Went for a bike ride, snapped a few photos (one of which I liked—the “On Reflection” below)
- Stopped in at the store for a couple of groceries that I forgot
- Decided, on seeing how many people in the store were maskless—including at least one employee—that I’m going to make do with what I’ve got for as long as I can
- Went for a drive to check out a possible photo site discovered by my friend Tim
- Met up with Tim in Sandy Lake for a physically-distanced chin-wag on the sidewalk
- Worked some more on the “Torch” outline
- Realized at about 10:15 pm that
- I didn’t have enough fuel to get me to the photo site I’d checked out earlier and back, and
- all the gas stations in my vicinity were closed
- Watched an episode of Firefly
- Checked the sky just before midnight—nice and dark and clear—then looked up “Dark Sky Sites Near Me”
- Decided to check out a fairly close site, about fifteen minutes’ drive from the cabin
- Got the header photo (and a couple others)
- Returned to the cabin at 1:30am and dropped into bed.
On Reflection (Minnedosa) 
Rabbit, rabbit
I’ve only just today heard about the superstition that saying “Rabbit rabbit” on the first day of the month brings luck. How long were you planning to keep this from me?
Does it count if there’s a chubby bunny chillin’ in your yard for a few hours on the 1st?
Writing Retreat 2020: The Numbers
My goals for this past week’s writing retreat were:
- Finish the last scene in “The Slow Apocalypse”, first draft
- 1,500−2,000 words a day in either Translations or “Dried Flowers”
- Photos of the Milky Way (possibly a video) and Comet NEOWISE
- Photos of the countryside
- Daily bike ride
- Some kayaking
Let’s see how I did.
- I finished “The Slow Apocalypse” on my first evening
- I wrote 13,000 words between Translations, aka Daniel, Daniel, Daniel, and “Dried Flowers”
- I got all kinds of photos of the Milky Way and the comet—even on the nights where clouds were forecast, there was usually at least some time where the stars were visible
- I also took all kinds of photos in the daytime
- I rode my bike every day, for a total of over 60 km (which surprised me)
- And I went out in the kayak three times, covering about 10 km in the lake
So, on balance, that was a good week.
Continue reading “Writing Retreat 2020: The Numbers”Writing Retreat 2020, Day 3
Monday, I:
- wrote 1,100 words in the morning (eventually)
- went for a 11 km bike ride (top speed, coming down a hill: 48.5 km/h)
- while out riding, I took photos using only my lesser-used lenses (the Lensbaby 2.0 I bought from my hairdresser and the Soligor 35mm f/2.8 I bought at the 2019 Dunrea Flea Market)
Morning coffee 
Masonry 
Flowers 
Closeup 
I heard you like canola fields 
Leaf and sign 
Mixed messages
This reinforces my previous experience with the Lensbaby lens: it’s great for macro shots, like the one with the single stalk of flowers against the grass, but in most other uses it reduces most if not all of the frame to an impressionistic blur. If that’s your aesthetic, great, but more often than not I’m disappointed in the photos I take with it.
It’s still fun to play with, though.
- wrote 1,000 more words before supper (a lot of conversation; stories being told)
- evaded clouds and fog (oh my so much fog — I had to change locations 3 times because fog rolled in) to capture shots of Comet NEOWISE and the Milky Way
Comet NEOWISE, just as the fog started rolling in 
Comet NEOWISE 
Comet NEOWISE 
Milky Way and a shooting star 
Also the Milky Way, and also a shooting star
The bluer photo of the comet, the close-up, was taken with my 50mm f/1.8 lens. Look closely, and you’ll find I caught both tails. You might have to view the photo at full size.
As always: if you’re interested in prints of any of these photos, let me know. We’ll see what we can work out.
Light show
Last night, about 11:30 PM, I set up my camera in the spare room upstairs, to try and catch some lightning during the storm.
The header image above is a composite of about 15 frames where I captured lightning bolts. Below are two of the individual frames.
And here’s a video of the whole show (10s frames at 6 frames a second means that one second of video represents one minute of real time).
Back lane flowers
I spotted some lovely flowers in a back lane on today’s bike ride. Since I had my camera, I stopped and snapped some photos. Enjoy!
Lilies 
A poppy, perhaps 
Daisies 
So many daisies 
Some lovely flowers
A pop of colour
Another weekend, another 27 km on the bike, another smattering of photos.
Bend of the river 
Hammer Time
Got a preference on this one? Near, or far?
[twenty20 img1=“3977” img2=“3978” before=“Near” after=“Far”]
Brenizer bike
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”