The numbers have been changed so if you do see this parrot you should email me and I’ll contact the proper authorities. It has been almost a year since I took this shot so the bird could be back in Central or South America by now. Or it could have grown a beard. I think girl parrots can do that.
Technical Stuff: The parrot hooked me, but it was the cheesy that made me stop. I think the first thing you have to do to get a shot like this is to find someone with a parrot and break their window. After that it’s just a matter of time.
Actually… if you look at the parrot it almost looks like she was caught on a surveillance camera as she was stealing the cheesy from the cage… this is on Elgin Street, somewhere near the Elgin Street Diner. If you’re ever in the area maybe keep your eyes open for bearded female parrots stealing snacks.
This flower freaks me out… it’s the colour gradients on each petal, but especially those pointy things in the centre. I may have used flash on this because subsequent pictures of the same type of flower come out in a much darker blue. But they were also taken at a different time of year.
Technical Stuff: I may have used flash. Maybe not. It’s probably important to keep track of that kind of thing.
I found this on the front lawn of someone who hadn’t mowed their grass in a few weeks. So someone obviously thought this thing was a weed. The stalk was only a few inches long… crap that thing freaks me out. The longer you stare at the centre the more it looks like it was drawn to be in the movie Heavy Metal.
This is a small marsh just to the side of Highway 417 near Ottawa, and one of the few between the Quebec border and Ottawa not infested with “purple loosestrife”. Purple loosestrife is a large European plant with a purple flower. At some point it was brought here where it has choked out the native cattails, sedges and rushes. Which, in turn, kills off the species which live on those plants.
Technical Stuff: We stopped because my grandfather needed to take a nap. So if you want to get a shot like this it’s important to first have a 86-year old man in the car with you… and it’s vital that he has missed his post-lunch nap. I played with the exposure settings a little, if this was a regular SLR the aperture would have been open one f-stop. I really like the texture and colour of the water… and it looks like a little pool surrounded by rushes.
The loosestrife thing has gotten so bad municipalities are sponsoring “Loosestrife Control Days” where volunteers go into wetlands and tear the plants out. In Thunder Bay, Ontario the Lakehead Region Conservation Authority has been experimenting with introducing Galerucella beetles into loosestrife contaminated wetlands, the beetles apparently eat nothing but loosestrife… which is weird.
Sometimes the recycling guys miss things and those things become part of the ecosystem. That’s my apartment building in the background, I was just on my way to the grocery store when I found this scene.
Technical Stuff: My little pocket digital was set on ‘portrait’ with a centre-focus. It’s important when using small cameras to be able to shoot without using the viewfinder or the screen to set the focus. What I’m doing now is taking a single shot to get an idea of what’s there, then setting the camera to ‘multiple exposures’ and taking three shots at a time… when your hand is extended it’s more likely to shake so multiple exposure settings can help steady the shot.
The most important part of taking photos is having a camera around. No camera, no photo. Seems simple, but I’ll bet most of the time you’re out taking photos and you have no camera you never get the shot. I keep mine in my hand or in my pocket or in a satchel. If it looks like rain I’ll pack a plastic sandwich bag as well.
Opening faceoff against the Buffalo Sabres; March 27, 2008 — Photo by Me.
Ottawa Senators take the ice, 03.27.08; Video by Me
Let me know if the YouTube isn’t available.
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And it started so well. So promising… after losing in the Stanley Cup Finals last June to a stronger and more experienced Anaheim team the Ottawa Senators began this season with the National Hockey League’s best start ever, going 15-2… that’s fifteen wins, and two losses. Then, sometime around January, their brains exploded.
It wasn’t like they couldn’t win games… just that they couldn’t win them in bunches. From December until the end of the regular season in April, they went 28-29-8 and came within just a couple of points of missing the playoffs altogether.
It’s actually not that unusual over the past dozen years for the team which loses in the Finals to miss the Playoffs or get creamed in the first round. But the other teams previously in the same situation as the Senators started the season with losing records. They were hungover, burnt out from two straight months of hyper-competitive playoff hockey, whereas the Senators seemed to be energized and experienced.
There are a couple of excuses, a player with a bad attitude, a coach who got fired and some injuries to key players, but really the team just got into a deep funk. The team was in a malaise worthy of 1979’s Jimmy Carter. They tried meetings, they tried a couple of trades but everything they tried just seemed to act as a hand pressing down on the heads of the players.
The Ottawa Senators, despite losing some excellent and talented players over last summer, are still one of the deepest and most talented teams in the NHL. But after January they had no focus, they looked like they were lost… like they were mildly stoned.
But really, because Bryan Murray, the General Manager, waited so long to change the coaching staff, and actually replacing the Head Coach with himself, there was actually very little the Senators could have done. The team lacked focus even to the point of having no set system for their offence, defence and special teams. They were just players milling around most nights.
And that’s how they went into the Playoffs. They also went in missing three of their top six forwards and played against the Pittsburgh Penguins, probably the most offensively talented group of players on any team this season.
And now they’re out, swept in four straight games in a seven game series. And they’ve got three months — the Off Season — to figure out how to break this weird malaise…
Daniel Alfredsson, the captain of the Senators, actually played two of the games with a torn MCL knee ligament.
Of course now I’m stuck with a gloating step-father and grandfather, who are both lifelong fans of the Montreal Canadiens… the Senators have made the playoffs in eleven straight years, winning the Eastern Conference Championship, the Presidents Trophy and several Division Championships along the way. The entire time my step-father and grandfather have told me how crappy Ottawa’s players and coaches really are, all while watching Montreal fail to make the playoffs.
And now… Montreal has a team, led by a phenomenal rookie goaltender, which might actually make a run for the Stanley Cup Finals. Which has my family members deluded into believing the Canadiens have a chance at winning. They don’t. The Senators at full tilt might have had a shot at winning the Stanley Cup this year, but it would have been a serious struggle. That’s how strong the Western Conference is…
I really hate the Off Season. Because the Senators have been so successful during the past few years this is as early as they’ve been out and I’ve had to change my allegiances.
So now I’m going with Pittsburgh to win the Eastern Conference, and the Anaheim Ducks from the West, and I think they’ll repeat as Stanley Cup Champions. And I am aware that both teams, over the past two playoff seasons, crushed the Senators like a pop can.
…I can’t believe the Senators got beaten last year and this year by teams named after waterfowl.
This was a bare sidewalk twenty-four hours ago… — Photo by Me, March 09, 2008
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I thought I’d have some time to write this week, but my grandfather’s computer, my moms package delivery schedule and various issues with WordPress, Bell Canada and 504 Messages got in the way.
I managed to go all of last week living on other people’s “normal schedule”. But some 504 Weirdness from Thursday until Saturday that would take way too much time to explain threw me back into my personal “normal schedule” and I haven’t been able to straighten things out because people keep insisting on enjoying my company… fukkers.
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February 01, 2008
Let me know if the YouTube isn’t available.
This is mom and I driving home, listening to CBC Talk Radio, as the storm was just starting. By the next day another 26-inches of snow had dropped on my Little Village.
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I’ve also been playing a lot of Max Payne recently which probably has something to do with my time switch. I started on Saturday while waiting for the 504 BS to sort itself out. Muscle memory is an amazing thing. I haven’t played Max in almost a year so I was staring at the controller trying to remember what the controls were, then the game started and Max got off the subway and the killing just started. I managed to shoot my way through the entire first two Parts before dying… that’s like twenty freaking levels of stone cold killing bliss.
I’m pretty sure I’m going to be exhausted all weekend as I try to move my schedule back so I’m just going to post some photos and YouTubes I’ve done over the past few months until I have the energy to start writing again.
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If you find a broken link, or the YouTube stuff isn’t loading
properly, let me know and I’ll find an alternative…
I’m Canadian, it’s what we do. Off the ice.
cultural sn:afu 