A Sunny Day to Shoot For – Photography

February 4th, 2012 Thomasso

Oh glorious sunny days, even in mid winter, days like this cannot be missed by staying indoors. My enthusiasm dominated my lack of sleep from the work week, teasing my body to get up and get out, taking the camera with me outside as the Sun had no clouds to block its shine. In Vancouver, days like this are rare, or are in short numbers in the grip of the West Coast winter, as clouds and rain seem to last for months. From November to March, days are gloomy and dull for picture taking, and drag the soul down with it too.

The survivor of winter, a raspberry plant taking on the frost, short days, and attacks from a weed-eater machine by the local grounds keeper. Its leaves perked up, as we are now on “day two” of a sunny spell of weather.

The Fort Langley Airport seems busy also, and could be blamed on the perfect flying weather conditions.

I call this shot, “Tie-Die Clouds” becuase the clouds seem to have the same pattern as a sheet coloured with the tie-die method.

More of those “Tie-Die” pattern clouds. I know, my aviation friends are going to comment, and make say what the technical names are for these clouds. So, guys, for now, just enjoy the blog, and do not wreck the experience for everyone else.

Last one. The old pine that is near by. This poor tree as seen a lot of action over the years since I have lived here. From a near by house fire, to a couple of ice storms that broke most of its branches, I am amazed that it still lives. In just over a year, its days will end as gentrification will mean that it will be chopped down to make way for the next wave of development in Fort Langley. Enjoy its peace until then.

Posted in Around Town, Diatribe, General, Humour, Photographs | 1 Comment »

Getting Better Moon Photos With My Sony A33

February 1st, 2012 Thomasso

I have a better understanding of my camera now, and it is all starting to sink in–after further reading the owner’s manual. I had a golden shot of the Moon today, as it was almost overhead, and past the First Quarter position of its month long cycle around the Earth. Within five shots, and about ten minutes of waiting for a small cloud to pass by, I had my money shot of the allusive Moon with my 200mm telephoto lens.

I switched the camera to “M” mode (manual shutter and aperture) and dialed the shutter to about 1/40 to 1/60, and set my shutter to f11, and I was getting really awesome contrast, colour and sharpness in my images. Now, it is too easy to set everything up, but I am still far from being at the point where I can just instinctively adjust the camera to the best settings. The above image is taken at: 1/100, F11, ISO100, 200mm, using a Sony DT55-200mm F4-F5.6 SAM telephoto lens on a Sony A33 camera.

The funny thought I had the last time I was trying to shoot the Moon was I had forgotten how to switch back and forth from Shutter to Aperture settings in “M” mode on my SonyA33. Now, I see the right buttons, and have everything set up and ready for the next time I go Moon shooting. But it was frustrating the last time, trying to figure out why I could not adjust my F-stop. Now seeing the switching button on the outside of the camera, I feel kind of stupid, in a humorous way.

Posted in Around Town, Astronomy, Diatribe, General, Humour, Photographs | No Comments »

Growing Old in Canada: 2035

January 30th, 2012 Thomasso

Although at first when I was bombarded by the media of what the Harper Government was hinting at for the future generation of Canadians and their retirement benefits this week, I was angered, and despised every word that came from every Conservative M.P.’s mouth. But, after some cooling off time, and a full day’s worth of work, keeping my mind off it, I revisited the retirement issue and came to a different understanding of what is in store for myself, and other Canadians, when it is our turn to retire. My change in attitude also made me reflect on what the Harper Government is saying about the need to restructure the government on the huge shift in Canadian demographics that is ready to hit the country, like an avalanche of snow traveling down a very narrow valley. No doubt change is needed, and fast, as supporting so many Generation Xers with so little Y’s and Z’s, is a sure thing for disaster waiting in the wind to happen.

Like taxes and death, Ben Franklin also needed to include growing old, and becoming dependent once again in the cycle of life. It is going to happen to all of us who live a full and natural life. In Canada, before these social programs, like the Canadian Pension Plan, (C.P.P.) and Old Age Security, (O.A.S.), families had to shoulder the burden of looking after their elderly parents, as many did not have the luxury of saving up enough money to support themselves in retirement. These social programs were set up to help people with their retirement, while reducing the burden on their children to support them in this time of retirement.

But what do you do when the next generation of tax payers will be reduced to two-thirds of what the tax base is today?

I have to hand it to the Conservatives in their method of presenting their future legislative initiative of retirement onto Canadians like this. With a majority government, and stacked Senate, they fear nothing as they are only less than a year into their four year term of rule until the next election. It is no secrete that the Babyboomers voted towards the right, while a very large group of the population never bothered to vote at all. So keeping the largest demographic of the Canadian population “happy,” is good business. The Conservatives played this hand very smart. As the media will turn its sights on other issues, this issue of retirement will fade away, and Canadians will forget and worry about the here and now as retirement will just be part of the background noise amongst the bombardment of our daily does of information.

What I see when I look into my crystal ball?

I see a lot, and it is not pretty. I see more Canadians voting Right wing in the Future. I see Country music being the dominant music, defining our Canadian identity. And it gets worse.

The money that I am paying right now into the C.P.P. and O.A.S. is me supporting a broken system that when comes my turn to benefit from, the money jar will be empty, and I can put the label, “sucker” on my forehead afterwards. To add insult to further injury, the expectation of Canadians living in a devolving society means that the children beyond Generation Z will be far worse off than anyone could ever imagine, when they are expected to fully shoulder the burden of supporting their parents just like Canadians did back before these social programs were first implemented. The realization that all retirees will be working well pass the age of retirement, and the extension of the age of retirement from 65 to age 67 means a very crowded labour force for the Generation Z’s and beyond.

At this point I turn off my crystal ball becuase I want to throw it across the room, and crystal balls are not cheap now days.

Am I disgusted at this whole situation–of course I am–growing old scares the living bejesus out of me! However, can we blame it on any one person, or thing? No, no we cannot! All we can do is try and mitigate the problems the best we can. There are several solutions to this problem, we just need to have the guts to implement them, whether through immigration, or just leave it and let the total collapse of these social programs happen; it is up to us to change and adapt to this new environment.

Posted in Diatribe, General, Humour, Social economics | No Comments »

Going through Last Year’s Photos

January 29th, 2012 Thomasso

Since it is raining out like crazy, to the point that I cannot get any sleep becuase at times it is so loud, I thought I would spend some of that time going through my photos from last year and try and organize them into something more manageable. Then, of course, finding photos that look awesome from my rearranging and sorting is what I would like to post and present to you today.

Remember that these photos were taken before I had properly set up my camera. All of the first 300 or so images I captured with my Sony A33 camera were basically set in “AUTO” mode, letting the camera decide what is best for me.

Now that I have a ten-fold better understanding of shooting techniques, and a twenty-fold better understand my camera, these photos are atrocious now that I see them in my humble opinion.

Now I see a nap time coming on as I fight off insomnia.

Posted in Art, General, Humour, Photographs | No Comments »

Fort Langley and Filming of Super Natural

January 20th, 2012 Thomasso

For the last couple of days, during the little freezing weather stint, the sleepy little town of Fort Langley has being the epicenter for the television science fiction/horror show, “Super Natural.” They have being filming here for most of all day and night over the last two days now, mostly taking up the down town area between Mavis Avenue and 96th Avenue along Glover Road.

I just found out that this was “Super Natural” being filming here from some of my Twitter friends a couple of hours ago. Thanks @DearHeartxoxo !

At first I thought they were nuts shooting in these frigged temperatures that we have been getting for the last week. But it appears that minus ten is nothing for these guys -  they can handle just about anything.

Today has ended the freeing period that I hated so much, marking the end of five solid days straight of minus degree weather. Now it is above freezing, but rain, or drizzle, is plaguing us, and all of this melting snow is just soaking everything. There is a storm warning, but I fear that that will hit us tomorrow as wind and rain will rule the day tomorrow. But it is warmer out, and that makes me mildly happy.

The filming normally does not bother me except for the odd traffic snarl; however, last night the flood lights that were lifted on top of two huge cranes, that bothered me as the light shown into my bedroom window. They were shut off around ten thirty last night, but I still had to force myself to sleep, with the curtains drawn, but it still looked light daylight outside. Tonight is more of the same. They have the same two cranes up, and again the light is shinning onto Glover Road, one block over form me. They are very bright, so the spill-off from them makes it look like the light is shining right at my windows.

You can see the tree on the left is lit up from the crane on 96th Avenue, and the light that you can see is over at Glover and Mavis Avenue – one block away. These are massive lights, and they are bright!

Fortunately, it is Friday, and staying up late tonight is an option.

Posted in Around Town, Bitching about weather, Diatribe, Events, General, Humour, Photographs, Socail Media, Twitter | 2 Comments »

An Icicle in Mid Drip

January 15th, 2012 Thomasso

It was such a picturesque day in wintery Fort Langley that I could not resist shooting an icicle melting away in the sun, as water dripped downwards from it like a leaky faucet in a down town crack-house. They were pretty, and neat, to watch becuase we do not get icicles that often here in the Metro Vancouver area, so it was a “stand and stare” moment for me.

Capturing the dripping action with a digital camera had its moment too. Close the aperture, shorten the shutter, up the ISO for that high speed catch. My only limitation was time becuase I was already freezing from my little walk around town. Dress for winter if you want to take outside photographs in winter. Lesson learned!

ADDED: I was going to go outside again after I warmed up to shoot some more, but ended up not going out becuase of other things popping up that needed to be dealt with–then it got too dark. So I just went through my photos again, and found another image that I think has some good qualities.

I guess now I have to master too the art of high speed photography. The ISO and shutter speed have to really be quick to catch these drips! Shooting with the camera set to Automatic, The drips would never be caught. I think two things were happening. First, my timing was lousy. Being so close into the subject, and waiting for the drip to happen, then pressing the shutter button, timing was everything – I had to be quick. Second, my shutter speed was just way too low for this type of capture. I needed a super fast shutter speed to catch the drip in mid flight after it left the icicle.

I know I tried a bunch of times, but everything I was doing was just too slow.

The image above I cropped to give it better positioning, but was shot at a wider angle as compared to the image at the top of this post.

Posted in Around Town, Bitching about work, Diatribe, General, Humour, Photographs | 3 Comments »

Stupid Says, “I’m Stuck.”

January 15th, 2012 Thomasso

Here we are in mid January, living in South Western Canada, at a time of year when snow sometimes falls, and stays on the ground, and creates these winter like environments that are talked about during Climate Change conferences. Although, over the last few years, snow has become a foreign concept to most, snow does fall, and blankets the ground every once in while. We are living in one such moment in time when snow has invaded our land, and it appears that it will stay for at least the next few days to come.

Even though we do not get snow often, we are responsible for keeping ourselves prepared for it.

We cannot depend on our governments to keep the roads the clear, as they themselves are mired in debt, resources shortages, and in some cases, exercising austerity measures through limited snow clearing operations, or just to clearing the main roads only. So it is up to each and everyone of us to have proper snow/winter equipment, and to be able to deal with these types of weather on our own. Hey, we all voted for this, so now we must deal with it.

It never ceases to amaze me at just how forgetful some people can be when dealing with snow. Take for example, my neighbour who drives a Honda Accord. He drives with summer tires on his vehicle all year round. He is currently stuck, in his own driveway. He is angry, upset, blaming everyone and anything at his own stupidity. He will only be satisfied when the snow melts and he can drive once again with his Honda Accord bearing summer tires.

Posted in Around Town, Bitching about weather, Events, General, Humour, Social economics, Social Justice | 2 Comments »

Breaking News: Changed My Twitter Pic!

January 7th, 2012 Thomasso

Breaking: I just changed my Twitter image, the image that is used as your avatar when you use your Twitter account. After almost six weeks having the new camera, it dawned on me to shoot a better looking image for my Twitter Identity with it instead of the web-came one I had before. So keeping with the theme and tradition, I used the same pencil that I have always used.

I have kept the same general image because I find it is hard to follow when Tweeps (Twitter users) keep changing their images around, especially when they use obscure alphanumeric names as their handles which are almost impossible to keep track of. I am now at just over 800 followers, and I am following the same number on my Twitter Account. Keeping track of that many people with weird names, I need all the help I can get, so changing your photo throws the whole memory game out the window for me.

After having the new camera for almost six weeks, I finally just got around to taking a good quality image for my Twitter Account today. Below is the stock image that I cropped and edited my final image from.

Regrettably, using Twitter, you are limited to an image size of only 700k bits, so any edge on image quality is a boon once you start reducing your image size down to this small 76 x 76 px size area.

Posted in Art, Diatribe, Events, General, Humour, Photographs, Socail Media, Twitter | No Comments »

Another Inspiring Moment in Art, Done in Five Minutes

December 27th, 2011 Thomasso

Yes, another inspiring moment in art, all done within fine minutes using my 9 by 12 inch USB drawing tablet. As per usual, I was board out of my tree, and needed some mental stimulation last night to get me through. I was tired from my marathon of reading, and had a few hours to kill before I needed to get to bed to sleep to start my work week on the right foot. My sleep cycles got all mixed up from the long weekend, so setting myself up for sleep was a priority. I plunged in my graphic tablet and away I went.

I know, it is not much to look at, but what do you expect for five minutes of drawing time?

I used a program called My Paint, which is an open source and it is free to use. It has some amazing brushes and brush effects in it, and it is very easy to use. It is nothing like the thousand dollar proprietary software you see on the market, but for its cost, this program rocks!

I did have a hard time sleeping. My sleep through the night was difficult becuase I was not that tired; in fact I was a little cranky this morning from the lousy quality of my sleep last night. My five minute art therapy was a bust in that regards, but it was fun.

My hand and eye coordination is off becuase I am drawing on a tablet, and the results, or what you are seeing, are up on the monitor, so I found my arm wanting to do weird positions while I was drawing; I was having to really think out what I was doing. A very weird feeling to get used to if you are only used to drawing on a piece of paper instead of looking up at a monitor while drawing on the table.

Posted in Art, Diatribe, General, Humour, Software, Story Telling | 1 Comment »

Reminiscing Through My Old Digital Photos

December 26th, 2011 Thomasso

I was going through some old disks, the old fashioned 700MB CD type,  that I had tucked away. I found this disk that was not labelled, other than “Digital Camera” on to, so I threw it in the PC and fired it up to have a look. Reminiscing through these old digital photos of 2002 made me laugh, and some sadden me as there are people who have passed away since, but the photos were neat to look at again after all these years even though they were small JPEG 800 x 640 images. The quality is poor on these from that old Kodak Point and Shoot camera – which by the way cost a whopping $800.00 at the time!

This photo stood out for me. It is a photo of my return trip from Vancouver Island back in October of 2002 from where a mountain of detergent foam covered the road at the intersection of Highway 10 and 58 Avenue in South Surrey, BC. Because I was driving, I had to drive ahead, pull over, find my camera, then drive back to take this shot. The foam had already retreated back to side-walk by the time I took this shot.

I had to retouch the photo, and converted it to a PNG file. I also added the 2012 LOGO on it too becuase of the modification I did to it.

Apparently this happens numerous times a year when jokers put detergent in the fountain, and it bubbles up and spills onto the road. I remember hearing people laughing as they drove by; it was quite the sight!

CORRECTION: The actual address is Highway #10 and Scott Road in Surrey, BC. Highway #10 is also 58 Avenue (Dec 27, 2011).

Posted in Events, General, Humour, Photographs, Story Telling | Comments Off