“It is a globe of simple branches.
It represents canopy and the trees that surround and protect the globe, the Earth.
Cast in bronze, it demonstrates the strength of the canopy, while the delicate twigs expose its more fragile nature.”
Category: Photography
Equipment, examples, history – all matters photographic
Irish dancing
During this year’s Founders Gaudy Irish dance lessons were provided for the 17th or 18th year in a row. I got some photos.
Project Apollo Archive
A Meeting of Minds book launch
I was hired to photograph the launch of Massey College historian Judith Skelton Grant’s book: A Meeting of Minds: The Massey College Story.
The book contains at least two of my photos. There is one of a Massey dinner which I have also made into a mosaic, used as a two-page spread for the front end paper, and one of the college in the snow, used as the back cover.
Regional government in the arctic
On Thursday and Friday I photographed a conference at the Munk School, hosted in part by the Bill Graham Centre for Contemporary International History: Regional Governments in International Affairs: Lessons from the Arctic.
Petro Christening
Today I photographed the Christening of my cousin Ivanka’s son Petro Kyrylo Sochocky.
“Toxic Tour” of Sarnia’s chemical valley
On Saturday, the Aamjiwnaang First Nation brought in about 200 people by bus to witness firsthand the petrochemical complex that surrounds their reserve.
A number of Toronto350.org members took part, partly as a means of showing solidarity and support for aboriginal communities who are resisting fossil fuel development and climate change.
Post-wedding brunch
This past weekend, I was in Midland for my cousin Marko’s wedding.
The official wedding photographers/videographers asserted their exclusive domain over the wedding and reception, preventing me from getting any shots there (and saving me 12+ hours of post-processing).
I did get some shots at the family brunch the next morning. Several of the photos are of my cousin Tamara’s son Mykyta, who I have photographed before.
Watching the aurora
Thanks to the intervention of my friend Amanda, I spent the weekend at my friend Sabrina’s cottage on Paugh Lake, near Barry’s Bay, Ontario.
I had high hopes for a clear view of the fading Perseid meteor shower on Friday and Saturday night. Friday night was overcast and raining, though it was still remarkable to be in a place where rain falling on roofs and water, along with animal noises, were the only things audible. I am not sure when I was last outside a major urban area, but there haven’t been many cases since I moved to Toronto.
Saturday gifted us with perfect astronomical viewing conditions: far from city lights, and untroubled by the moon. We didn’t see a lot of meteors, but the sky was so full of stars that it made identifying familiar constellations a challenge. Across the sky, the band of the Milky Way was clearly visible, wheeling above us as the night went on.
Experimenting with some long exposures with my Fuji X100S (and a stepladder and dishcloth as an improvised tripod) I was surprised to see that the vague light in the northern sky came out as brilliant colour when photographed at 1600 ISO with a 30″ exposure.
I ended up spending hours photographing the aurora. There will be high quality images soon (and animated GIF is a terribly low-quality format for something so beautiful), but I wanted to put something up right away that would show the movement of the lights.
You may need to click the thumbnail to see the animation:
Aside from reducing the resolution and converting them to GIF format, these images are straight from the camera, not manipulated with any sort of software.
Decorative photos
