The New Medical Centre Plus Autumn Colour

I dropped Sue off at the coffee shop for a date with a friend. My intention was to also get a coffee and then take it for walk around that corner to check out the new medical centre that will be ready for occupancy in a few weeks. It will house all of the town’s doctors as well as some other medical related offices.

I used the wide angle to capture what I could, I should have done better, but I was running out of room 

For a comparison, I drove over to our somewhat shabby and small current medical centre. 

Another pathetic photo on my part, but it was cold and windy,
and it is is a rather unimpressive  building.

That's quite a contrast, but it's just where Sue and I go to meet our doctor. There are also other doctors scattered about in town, but come mid-October, they will all be located in that impressive new building.

While at the new centre I spotted some changing vegetation off to my left. The photo developed much hazier than what I saw with my eyes, but I like it well enough.

That inspired me to drive about just a little bit more to see if I could find any more colour to photograph. I was in the car, so the photos would be different than the ones we see on our walks. This next photo is quite close to us but where there is less development.

Tree by the cornfield with a communication tower in the distance.

I really wasn't having much luck finding photos, so I drove up to the cemetery where I found this scene, looking along a line of tombstones with a couple of colourful trees at the end of view.

If you don't mind, I am going to tack on two more early autumn photos from our walk yesterday. The first is a view across the river from a narrow gap in the bramble on our side.

I went a little off trail for this photo while Sue waited on the trail.

Caturday 90: AI Cats in Boxes

I re-edited an old photo from Rideau Antiques. I liked the boxes. As far as boxes go it was a nice setup. But the boxes were missing cats. I picked five places to include cats and asked Photoshop AI to give me cats. For each position, I was given 3 choices. They are below. I think it works pretty well.

When this photo got noticed by a certain algorithm on Flickr, it got more than 4000 views and 140 faves as opposed to my usual 100/10 ratio, or something approximating that.

Colour on Main

Colour is appearing downtown, some of it natural although I am thinking mostly of displays. To begin, however, here is some gentle colour appearing near the bridge. There is more vibrant colour farther down, but I like the beginnings of yellowing in this composition under a pretty nice sky with some reflections below.

Downtown, I spotted an amazing-looking woman under a newly erected autumnal arch.

She let me sit beside her, and I was beside both her and myself with happiness.

Two other displays.

This ↓ is the opposite of colourful, but what an idea! Todd was affixing old images of main street to a plain electrical box. As you can see, he had already completed the side facing the camera.

Soon, he was almost finished the front too.

Oh My Goodness! Look what JJ did in Meta AI after I posted the Sue pic (up above) in family chat: Sue with two Lacey lookalikes. 

Not to be outdone, Danica added another. 

Aren’t we a silly bunch?

A Polarizing Figure

I already had this post, below, in the queue, when, oddly enough, the topic of JK Rowling popped up at the family dinner table last week. Let me note, in passing, that I do not follow JKR at all on social media, but I do very much like her Cormoran Strike novels. Someone I do follow, however, linked to the following piece, and I thought it worthwhile to post here.

Before reposting, however, let me say that JK Rowling is despised by many who think, quite mistakenly in my opinion, think that she is anti-transgender. She wrote a list of questions in a tweet to one of her haters and challenged them to state where she was wrong. This is the link, but I've copied and pasted it below.

As another man who once worked with me declares himself saddened by my beliefs on gender and sex, I thought it might be useful to compile a list for handy reference. Which of the following do you imagine makes actors and directors who aren’t involved with the HBO reboot of Harry Potter so miserable?

• Is it my belief that women and girls should have their own public changing rooms and bathrooms?
• That women should retain female-only rape crisis centres?
• That men don’t belong in women’s sport?
• That female prisoners shouldn’t be incarcerated with violent men and male sex offenders?
• That women should remain a protected class in law, because they have sex-specific needs and issues?
• That language should reflect reality rather than ideological jargon, especially in a medical context?
• That women shouldn’t be harassed, persecuted or fired for refusing to pretend humans can change sex?
• That women should not be threatened with violence and rape when they assert their rights?
• That freedom of speech and belief are essential to a pluralistic democratic society?
• That troubled minors, especially those who are gay, autistic and trauma-experienced, should be given mental health support instead of irreversible surgeries and drug treatments on non-existent evidence of benefit?
• That gay people shouldn’t be pressured to include the opposite sex in their dating pools, nor should they be smeared as ‘genital fetishists’ when they don’t?
• That cross-dressing heterosexual male fetishists aren’t actually oppressed, but having the time of their lives piggybacking off gender identity ideology?
• That said ideology, and the privileged, blinkered fools pushing it because they suffer zero consequences themselves, have done more damage to the political left’s credibility than Trump and Farage could have achieved in a century?

Let me have your thoughts.

In the meantime, I will share one of my opinions on this difficult issue. Labelling people is unhelpful. JKR is routinely labelled as a TERF (trans-exclusionary radical feminist). I don't know if she fits the definition or not. I certainly don't think being pro-women's rights makes one exclusionary. 

The problem is labels; they can almost become a smear. Once one is labelled, lines are drawn, and it may become very difficult to discuss the issues. How would we discuss any of the above items when someone is chanting "TERF, TERF, TERF" in an accusatory tone?

There does not have to be two exclusionary camps, both claiming virtuosity. There can be gradations of how people stand on different aspects of the issues. I might firmly agree with some of her points but waffle a little on others. Like JKR, I don't like to see women who have trained hard in a sport to be upstaged by a trans person who went through puberty as a male and thereby accrued some physical advantages. On the other hand, I, am quite happy to be served by a trans cashier at the checkout, and I beleive that JKR would concur.

Point Form: From Sleep to Wool

• I have set my sleep goal at 6.5 hours. I finally just reached it again on one glorious night — barely, but sill. It had been 18 sleeps since since I last achieved that lofty goal. In 6 of those 18 nights, I didn't even manage 5 hours although I usually came close. On only 2 nights did I sleep for even 6 hours: one night exactly 6, the other a remarkable 6:05. I must add that I had a rather good period of about 10 days before those almost 3 weeks in which I sometimes slept for 7 or more hours. I had thought that I had turned the corner, but was disappointed to subsequently learn otherwise. 

• The drought continues. From the trail bridge, we saw a man walking his dog on the river. You would be swept away from that spot in the spring. I told my friend, Nick, about this opportunity. He is nimble enough to get down there and find interesting photos if he chooses. It's best that both both Bob and I remain on good paths.

• Speaking of the lithe, fit Nick, oddly enough, he is the one of the three photography amigos who has had the closest brush with his mortality, but he is now as fit as a proverbial fiddle, and it is Bob and I who creak about. Nick reminds me of my ex brother-in-law, who has had two life-saving heart operations but is now physically active and goes through his days without much pain or discomfort.
  
  
• About once per week, we walk from Junction Park around to Tims where we pick up coffee. We then continue our walk past the police and firehall around to the the other end of Junction Park. On our way, we pass by the junction model reconstruction. It has appeared in my blogs in the past but not lately, so here it is. It's a monument to our history, but there are no more trains, either north-south nor east-west. At one point in time, you could travel to the Atlantic or Pacific by rail from this town.

The play structure is way in the background. That is where we start and end our walk,
and it is there where we sit to drink our coffee.

• We pass another building near the beginning of this walk (I am going back and forth in this post): the Wool Growers Co-Op. It is the wool grading station for all of Canada. Someday, I will take you inside again, as I have done in the past.

• Speaking of wool, Sue has begun her typical and next winter afghan project. Once September hit, she was ready to tend to her knitting.  I know it's crocheting, but knitting sounds and reads better, especially along with "tends to __"

Phone Portraits

On our coffee meetup, I showed Nick and Bob what an iPhone could do right on the spot while taking a portrait. There are several light modes (for want of a better term) that the photographer can call upon.

I took a photo of Bob to demonstrate. This is how his portrait came straight from the phone with no post editing, except for a slight crop if I recall. Keep in mind that we were in a lighted and busy coffee shop. One crazy thing is that you cannot apply this effect in post (or at least I haven't figured out how),  but only as you take the picture.

Bob liked it well enough that he asked me to send it to him. I did, and he used it on his Facebook profile straightaway.

I then used a different setting for Nick. I do admit to doing a little post editing on this one. I cropped, removed some light spots on the edges, and gritted up his face just a little. But the basic image was what the phone initially developed.

It's amazing really: no studio lighting, just quick shots in an uninspiring coffee shop.

I've done this with Lacey too. She doesn't get on the chair with me often, but she recently did, looking for treats and not my companionship. I took a photo to mark the occasion.

That ↑ was the plain photo, but as she lingered, I took two more photos using those interesting light modes.

Whether you like the photos or not, I find it pretty impressive what a phone can do with a quick press of the shutter. It sure has little to do with the photographer's skill. It's called computational photography that goes beyond recording light and colour on a pixel. 

Computational photography uses software, digital sensors, optics, and smart lights to digitally capture and process the world, enhancing images beyond what traditional optical processes can achieve. By leveraging algorithms, this technology produces features like high-dynamic-range (HDR) imaging, portrait mode, night mode, and even augmented reality (AR) filters by combining multiple exposures or using artificial intelligence (AI) to understand and reconstruct scenes in new ways. 

I do not know what versions of the iPhone can do this. I am using an iPhone 13.

 

O-Kee-Lee

I have taken you to various parks, trails and woodlands, all within our town, over the summer, but we had yet to visit O-Kee-Lee. I don't know if I should call it a park or a woodland or what. It is a small woodsy area with path going through it. The woods off the trails are very scrubby, but we can find a few interesting photos along the paths. As you know, I like woodsy trails and the shapes of trees, so here we go.

A winding path shortly after we entered with a bit of autumn colour just beginning to emerge in the distance.

Not very far in I found a little patch of changing leaves with tree trunks looming in the background.

As I have said, I am quite drawn to shapes of tree trunks and branches.

More shapes near the end of the first and main path.

Looking upward and to the side from close to the same spot as above,  I love the gnarly shapes high up there.

I think my final photo is my favourite of the day with that splash of red framed by other tree trunks.