Evan and I headed downtown for some hanging-out time this afternoon, and stumbled into the #occupyCalgary protest. I knew something was planned, but had half-forgotten that it was going down this weekend. We stopped for awhile, watching the protest. He wasn’t scared at all - there was no feeling of anything unsafe, even with over a thousand people crammed into a square, chanting and waving signs. There were a couple dozen police officers in full gear, but they were there mostly to make sure everyone was OK. There was a really good vibe in the crowd. We even did some impromptu broadcasting for the DS106 community radio station’s coverage of various OccupyEverything events, and did a brief interview with an awesome woman representing a group trying to raise awareness about poverty in Calgary (specifically in regards to women and children, many of whom struggle to get by, despite being in a city that is the home for so much wealth).
I bumped into a computer science prof who was lugging a cart to get coffee. On the cart was a big homebrew remote controlled car, with a Microsoft Kinnect sensor strapped to it. Turns out, they use it to capture the motions of athletes. They use the data both to analyse the motion later, and to provide immediate audio feedback to the athlete. They’re working on a model that can follow speed skaters, at full speed, around the track. Awesome!
We headed west today, for what seems to be a Thanksgiving tradition - an easy family hike in the mountains. We stopped at the Barrier Lake ecology research station, which is now part of the University of Calgary campus. The site was originally a military camp, used as an internment facility and later a prisoner of war camp during world war II. Evan was pretty blown away that this camp even exists, and even moreso after learning some of the history. After exploring the research station path, we went across the highway to check out Barrier Dam, and the lake. Definitely not an unattractive region, especially with autumn colours.
I got the chance to go for a quick bike ride this afternoon, and headed out west of our house, into the Bearspaw region. Some really nice rural roads for riding, and gorgeous scenery. One stretch of road has a very steep and longish hill, and I occasionally try to see how fast I can go down it. Unfortunately, the wind was not cooperating, and I only got up to 67km/h. Still, total fun, but not quite what I was shooting for. The wind did line up to make some really fun stretches of open road. Hill climbing into the wind, which is way more fun than it sounds. And fast flat stretches - cruising along at 48km/h on a flat highway is a blast. After that, some quick bopping around roads to the northwest of the city, and then back to ride around our community before heading home.
I just set up 2 t-shirts on my CafePress account, to raise moolah for the DS106 Radio telethon.
I added “profit” to each shirt - $9US for the men’s, and $8US for the women’s (the women’s shirt is more expensive, but I wanted them both to be the same price).
Buy a shirt at $24.99US (apparently, that converts to $30CDN. WTF, Cafepress?), and I’ll send every penny that CafePress sends me to the DS106 Radio Telethon. (however that works). Cafepress only cuts cheques for $25US or more, but I’ll pass on the cash as it comes in.
The latest iteration of the campus blogging platform, UCalgaryBlogs.ca, is 4 years old today. It had run previously as a Drupal community (started way back in 2005!), before migrating it to WordPress Multiuser, and now just plain old WordPress. For its first year, it basically sat idle. Then, starting in the fall semester of 2008, things kind of took off. Slowly, at first, and then in bursts at each new semester.
Evan’s school is working on a schoolyard naturalization project, with support from the Calgary Zoo and money raised by parents and grants. The Zoo recently shot a promotional video, and included our school as the representative of the “planning stage”. Evan’s visible in a blur of blue on one shot. We’re working to restore the school’s land from graded-field status to something more natural and useful for education. The kids are pretty excited by the whole process.
My big summer project this year was to act as the chair of a newly formed “eLearning Discovery Working Group”, with the mandate to begin to identify what eLearning means at The University of Calgary. We were tasked by the CIO to find out what is involved with providing, supporting, and using eLearning tools in whatever ways are necessary to enable the activities of our students, instructors, and staff.
Over the summer, we began to build an inventory of eLearning tools - both centrally provided, and distributed and ad-hoc tools, to start to form a picture of what eLearning looks like to our University community. The inventory is extremely coarse, and we know we’ve missed huge swaths of activity on campus. But we had to start with something.
One of the things I like doing most with my camera is experimenting with long exposures. There’s something compelling in bending time, and seeing what happens to the light that gets captured. Longer exposures means more light, often meaning you can see things that aren’t visible to the naked eye. Or, motion becomes visible.
start of day: a 30 second exposure, shot without a tripod. I was riding to campus one morning, extra early because I was facilitating a workshop, and something about the quality of the light caught me. So I pulled the bike over, slapped the XT on top of a cement sign, and popped off a long exposure. The lights were just coming on for the construction site where the EEEL building was being assembled, the sun was just starting to light the eastern sky, and the head and tail lights of cars were bright against the darkness. A fun capture, and something that wasn't the way it seemed.
clix: the "bike blur" photo. only 1/125s exposure, but shot wide open on a bike going about 30km/h, with the camera held low and close to the asphalt. motion becomes exaggerated and time warps.
rush hour: a 15 second exposure of rush hour traffic passing underneath the pedestrian walkway leading from the train station to main campus. Not a single vehicle is actually visible. They disappear in the long exposure, leaving an abandoned arterial route, streaked with ghostly light.
purple tunnel: a 3.2 second exposure of evan walking in the underpass leading from the train station to the zoo. the purple lights actually change colour (they shift through the full spectrum) and the longer exposure makes the details of the tunnel visible, while turning evan into a ghostly figure.
english bay: an 8 second exposure, shot in pitch darkness over english bay, using a driftwood log as a tripod. the waves blur into glassy flatness.
train blur: 1/5 second exposure in bright daylight, from a fast moving train. warp speed!
I’ve hardly touched the DSLR in the last year, shooting almost exclusively with my iPhone. Being able to mess around with exposure is the biggest thing I miss. I may have to break out the camera again…
Duncan just wrote an interesting post on the decline of photographic editing. Not pixel-mashing editing, but selecting and critiquing. cringe curating.
Duncan is a professional photographer, who does some amazing work. He works with other professional photographers, who hang out with other professionals. And, apparently, they’re all noticing the same thing. Less actual editing of photos. Finding the best and tossing the crap.
In the olden days, it cost money to take, process and print every photo. But that cost put a limit on the number of photos taken (for most people). Which further meant that editing was more feasible. Fewer photos, easier editing.
During Northern Voice 2011, much time was spent at Sanctuary Studios, making noise and having fun. I brought my DSLR to the Thursday session, to see if I could capture some of the energy.
It was not a large room - we were in the “stage room”, which, surprisingly, has a stage filling half of the room, and a couch/sitting/standing area taking the rest. Not a lot of room, once everybody got in. It was also very dark in there, in line with the B Horror Movie motif for the entire studio (which was awesome). I didn’t bring my tripod, so had to figure out a way to get a decently stable shot. I put on my wide angle lens, and shot at 10mm, wide open (which isn’t very wide, only opening up to f/4) and ISO 1600. Even at that, I was only able to get decent shots with nearly a second of exposure.
start of day: a 30 second exposure, shot without a tripod. I was riding to campus one morning, extra early because I was facilitating a workshop, and something about the quality of the light caught me. So I pulled the bike over, slapped the XT on top of a cement sign, and popped off a long exposure. The lights were just coming on for the construction site where the EEEL building was being assembled, the sun was just starting to light the eastern sky, and the head and tail lights of cars were bright against the darkness. A fun capture, and something that wasn't the way it seemed.
clix: the "bike blur" photo. only 1/125s exposure, but shot wide open on a bike going about 30km/h, with the camera held low and close to the asphalt. motion becomes exaggerated and time warps.
rush hour: a 15 second exposure of rush hour traffic passing underneath the pedestrian walkway leading from the train station to main campus. Not a single vehicle is actually visible. They disappear in the long exposure, leaving an abandoned arterial route, streaked with ghostly light.
purple tunnel: a 3.2 second exposure of evan walking in the underpass leading from the train station to the zoo. the purple lights actually change colour (they shift through the full spectrum) and the longer exposure makes the details of the tunnel visible, while turning evan into a ghostly figure.
english bay: an 8 second exposure, shot in pitch darkness over english bay, using a driftwood log as a tripod. the waves blur into glassy flatness.
train blur: 1/5 second exposure in bright daylight, from a fast moving train. warp speed!
