Lest We Forget

I was disappointed on Remembrance Eve. I had wanted to take some photos of the cadet's vigil at the cenotaph like I did last year. But alas, it was even colder and windier that last year, if that's possible, and so I let the notion die.

But Remembrance Day itself was calm and sunny, cold but still appealing. So, off we went to stand in the cold and honour the soldiers of the past, and even of the present, by showing up.

Veterans, soldiers and cadets marched in.

Hymns were played, wreaths were laid, and names of the fallen were read.

We will remember.

A Surprise Request

I was surprised when I was contacted on FB regarding a photo that I had posted in June 2017. She wanted a copy for someone who is retiring from townhall.

It took me awhile to find the photo that she described in words (although she later send me a link). I wonder how she found a photo from more than a year ago because things do get buried both quickly and deeply on FB.

When I found it, I realized how much I liked it at the time both in terms of light and composition. I had never printed it because of the  work area at the back. It's difficult to see at this resolution, but it's there. But I printed it for her.

It was only after printing that I decided to have a go at photoshopping away the netting. I think this will look better on a larger print.

I had another image from that very nice summer evening, which I also photoshopped in the same way ... and ... oops ... I just noticed that I didn't remove the netting in the reflection. Must go and do that now, but I'll leave it here as is.

I have now made a mental note of both images and will likely print and display them at one or both of my little display areas in town. I try, for the most part, to feature local photos in these places, so these will fit the bill as it were.

Successful Photos

Phew! I am finally up to date and posting in real time. Well almost real time as I am typing on Monday for posting on Tuesday. But at least there is no longer a time-lag of a week or more.

What I thought I would do is to post from Flickr, some of my most successful recent photos. These are the ones that somebody, official to Flickr, somehow noticed and featured in a section called Explore. These are not always my particular favourites or even what I consider to be my best photos but ones that get noticed for some reason or other and, therefore, make the list as it were.

My most recent, just from this past Sunday, is this blue jay photo that I earlier posted here in Blogger. It has more than 6 300 views as I type this. It will get more (> 13 000 as I check in before posting this on Tuesday morning), but it will not be one of my most viewed. (BTW, when my photos don't make it to Explore, I only usually get 100 - 200 views. I seldom post to groups, so I'm not sure how I even get this many views for a normal posting.)

(I am linking right from Flickr, so these are higher resolution images than I usually post here are available it you wish to do some clicking. You should be able to click the photo to go to Flickr, and if that doesn't work, I have also posted direct links below each photo as well as in the description. It's not that I expect anyone to actually do this, but it's for the record.)

https://flic.kr/p/2bwTmH1

Prior to the blue jay, this one of Linda doing a lip sync garnered almost 85 500 views. Linda ran for town council and was successful in our election just a few weeks ago.

https://flic.kr/p/2aBagku

I was surprised by this one from Eagle's Nest, Calabogie. I took it last year but just posted it this year as autumn began. It had almost 53 500 views.

https://flic.kr/p/2bgYVoE

Finally for now, although I might make another post like this, is this one of JJ playing hockey. It was one of his first games three years ago, and as this years hockey season was about to begin, I finally posted it. I like the way that he is at the apex of the triangle (or V). It only received a little over 4 000 views.

https://flic.kr/p/2aP4v49

I'll see how this actually views and links when it posts to decide if I will do any more like this.

First Snow Leaves

I did say that for the first snow I had hoped to find some snow on leaves to use for macros — proper macros, I mean, with a macro lens and maybe also with a tripod in my garage, out of the wind.

As I've already mentioned, that wasn't about to happen, but along with shooting some winter scenes in the park, I did get a few close-ups.

Another car had parked here, so these fallen leaves weren't completely covered, which is what I had wanted.

As I walked through the park, I also took a few photos of leaves on branches.

And that was the first snowfall, and likely the last of any significance anyway, for awhile.

The First Snowfall

This is getting ridiculous. I have so many posts in the queue that I am writing this on one Sunday to be posted on the next Sunday. However, there will likely be many days in the upcoming bleak months when there is nothing much to exult over.

But, after posting autumn shots in the park just two days ago (in the readers' chronology anyway), winter happened.

The weather gurus had forecast snow, and I had been expecting a light covering, but we received quite a dumping — in October terms anyway.

So ... I jettisoned my plans to look for lightly snow-tinged leaves for macro photos because they were well buried as you might guess from this shot ↓ of our car in the driveway. Keep in mind that I had already cleared most of the front and all of the windshield.

I don't like to get my snow tires installed until mid to late November because I don't prefer how they ride (noise mostly), but I decided to head out anyway. I drove back to the park where I had taken photos just two days previously.

And ... it was quite wonderful.

With some colour remaining in an otherwise snow scene ... well, I quite liked what I was seeing.

So here are the photos, once again, more than is ideal (IMO) to show, but I have already culled.

That was fun. The next snowfall will not be colourful, I'm afraid.

Danica's Sunset Shots

Still back on last Friday, Danica came for a sleepover, mostly for her scheduling convenience as there were some conflicts with parental and sibling needs. We did not mind, to say the least.

So on the evening, after the autumn photos in the park, we put a camera in her hands and took her out for a bit of a shoot. It was getting late (yes, we will soon have sunset at 4:45PM after the time change), but there was a sunset.

First, we went to the railway bridge, and she took a few photos looking upriver, westward toward townhall.

She got some geese in this photo but would have lost one after straightening the photo, so I helped her out with a bit of cloning.

We drove downtown were she was able to see the sunset more directly.

A friend on FB described this as a butterfly sunset.

She did a fine job.

Mostly Frames

... park visit continued ...

I shot a few of what could be called macros, but unless they're tighter than this, I prefer to say close-ups.

Other than that and the falling leaves of the previous post, I concentrated on trying to find frames.

While that one ↑ worked the best IMO because of the red and the shallow depth of field, here ↓ is a good one (I think) of Sue.

Although it helps, frames don't have to have people as the focal point.

It snowed the next day, so I think we can safely say that true autumn is over hereabouts. In terms of outdoor shots, I think November has to be the bleakest of months.