The Golden Hour on Silver Lake

We have been on holidays since last Friday although we are not heading off to the cottage until tomorrow. Mostly so far, we have been attending to those little chores and appointments that pile up. Today will be a day to compile whatever we think we need for our time away. There's much stuff to collect from here and there and pile at the door before we endeavour the Herculean task of trying to pack it all in the vehicle tomorrow. Ah well, we usually manage.

On Saturday, however, we did enjoy an early mini break. We drove about an hour west and parked our car, our chairs and ourselves on a little peninsula on the shores of Silver Lake. We enjoyed a modest picnic lunch and some reading. I was really waiting for the golden hour, the hour around sunset when the light becomes wonderful if we're lucky and good pictures can be taken. While we did not enjoy the most beautiful sunset ever, the general light did become really lovely after the harsh and bright light of the preceding hours.

I took these first two photos about 30-40 minutes before sunset. I rushed the golden hour just a bit but was getting too anxious to hold off any longer.

For much of our waiting time we sat by the water on the other side of this knoll looking at the picturesque farm across water. You can barely see it in this view, but we'll come back to it later.

There were a few fishers on the lake during our hours there, but this guy stayed the course longer than most.

A little later, I took these next two pictures.

The sun lights up the rock and trees.

This might be my favourite photo of the day as I pointed my camera away from the setting sun to a point of land to the east. It's a simple picture, but the blues of the water really please my eye.

We come to the time where the sun was beginning to sink below the horizon but still peeking out and casting pretty wonderful light.

The fisher is still out there as the sun dips halfway below the horizon.

The sun is just about gone, and three loons come out to play in the golden light. I know this photo looks phony and photoshopped, but this is the way it really was, at least according to my camera.

As the sun was almost disappearing, I decided to take another photo of the farm on the little peninsula to the west.

I took this final shot after the sun had gone down but was still casting light over the western horizon.

The sun is gone but the light remains for awhile. I took a lot of photos that I didn't keep. For this one, I remembered the rule to keep something in the foreground of a landscape photo. I got low for this shot, and I think it paid off.

That's about it folks, the Golden Hour on Silver Lake. Today we scramble to get ready and tomorrow we head to cottage country. We'll see you in a few weeks.

In TRAINing

There is a small display of railway memorabilia crowded into a corner of the building that was once an old railway repair centre but is now a wool grading station. I finally got around to paying a visit with my camera but was pleasantly surprised to actually see some railway cars outside. I was surprised as the line has fallen into disuse and is being pulled up for whatever reason makes whatever sense to whomever, and we are no longer used to seeing railway cars. Naturally, I stopped to snap a few pics before I headed inside.

The coupling end of a freight car.

The cars were sitting amongst the Queen Anne's Lace. Call it a train of lace if you will.

These ties have been pulled up from somewhere or other. The cars that they were or will be loaded onto stand waiting.

After baking in the hot sun and not getting any good photos in the dreaded, flat afternoon light, I headed indoors to grab whatever other mediocre photos that I could.

This mirror is set up to resemble the window of a former telegraph office. You can see that this is a multi-use room where the clothing displays from both the equestrian shop and clothing shops occupy much more room that the railway displays. Sadly.

A "tree" of old signalling lanterns.

A push cart once used to ride workers along the rails.

Bored Boarder. I guess the cat has the option of paying 25 cents or one mouse for his lodgings, and if he catches a mouse, he won't need to bother with the 25 cents for eating. He or she was a very cool and calm sort of feline because I was using my wide angle lens, so I was very close when taking this picture.

An old immigration poster that was used in Britain. I wonder if my forebears were influenced by such advertisements?

Finally, here's some funny looking guy looking at funny looking you.

Before and After Surgery

Because a certain little girl had her tonsils and adenoids removed this week, had her ears mucked out, and had tubes inserted in both ears, I think she should be bestowed with some photos on Buppa's Wall of Fame. So let's start with a few happy photos from the days before surgery when she is exhibiting her usual happiness with life.

After the operation times were a little tough for the poor tyke, with few smiles and looking very wan. She was and still is on both morphine and antibiotics. The first picture was taken with Mom in recovery and the second at home later that day.

On the day after, however, she is beginning to show some life and colour as she sits with Amma who is reading her a story or two or three.

We're supposed to keep her very quiet for a few days and somewhat restrained for a few weeks. Good luck with that since she actually suggested going swimming on the day after.

Amma and Buppa's Summer Camp

We are two weeks into Danica's two-month summer vacation, and it feels as though we have been running our own summer camp program. I can recall picnicking at the waterpark, picnicking at the mill, sitting on the dock at Riverside, visits to the library, visits and lunches at Amma and Buppa's, and two afternoons in the neighbour's pool in addition to daily morning swimming lessons at the community pool. Too bad that activities will shortly be curtailed for Danica's tonsillectomy — poor child.

Naturally, I took one or two pictures, aside from the videos that I have recently posted. Brace yourself. :)

Waterplay

The playground at the mill

Exploring at the Stream Study area at the mill

Learning the backfloat

Learning to relax in the water

An Olympic breath

An Olympic jump

Fun with Buppa

One, Two, Three, Jump

Beware Tsunami

Sitting on the dock of bay ... er ... river

At the library

Pool Fun

For the past two weeks with Danica off school, we have pretty well had two kids full time. Swimming has been a major part of our days, beginning with lessons in the mornings and sometimes in the neighbour's pool in the afternoons.

At the beginning of the session, Jonathan was still a reluctant participant in the exercise, but within the past few days, his switch has flipped and he is really into it. Stunningly, he is even jumping off the diving board. What a change!

I took six frames of one of his jumps, aligned them in Photoshop and with a bit of selecting and masking combined the six frames into one.

Here are a few video clips of the kids in the pool. I'll let you guess who the white-skinned, bald guy who needs a bra is.

I didn't put the same amount of work into this video as the previous one, but they both play well in full-screen mode if you care to see them larger.

As you can tell, we are having a blast, even though we're pretty tired at the end of days and weeks.

Swimming Lessons

Since I just spent a few hours putting this video together, I'm going to post it, darn it all. It's just over two minutes long of the kids swimming lesson this morning (Wednesday). The newest version of Photoshop (CS6) allows some video editing and probably enough for those of us who are most interested in still photography but wish to shoot some video on occasion.

It's Been Awhile

Oh my, it's been almost a week since I last posted, so here's a quick post before another busy weekend. I have some Canada Day photos, some photos of the kids swimming, and some other photos that I just like. So here we go.

I hope you all have a good weekend.

Danica has taken to the pool with her usual enthusiasm for life.

And there she goes.

In the evening of Canada Day just before they headed off to see the fireworks.

Mom and her boy enjoy a Canada Day hug.

Grandma and the boy sitting around the campfire in the evening of Canada Day.

I took this early in the morning on a walkway near us.

I also took this on the walk. That's our Mississippi River.

This was taken on another early morning, a brief drive from our place.