Eye Experience

I signed up for something else this week too. I enrolled in another course at Camosun that starts later this month. It is another photography course, but is not technical in nature. This course is titled Creative Photography: Developing Your Eye

Now that you know how to use your camera, how do you take great pictures? Taught by an acclaimed professional photographer, this course will teach you not only the fundamentals of light, space, and line, but also how to explore feeling, seeing, and thinking exceptional images. Optional weekly assignments will assist you to develop or enhance your personal style for whatever your photographic goals may be. This course is open to all levels of experience. Bring your camera and a desire to learn how to capture your world.

Sounds like it could be a very interesting course. I hop it works out better than the 100 Ways to Sell Your Photography course I took. Starts in September.

Canmore Distance

Well, I did it again. 😉 Actually I will be doing it again. I am talking about the 24 Hours of Adrenaline. There will not be a race in Whistler, so this time Mike has signed us up for the 2007 event in Canmore. Woohoo, I can’t wait. Should be a lot of fun again.

I plan to set up some kind of training schedule. Road biking is going to be a big part of it. Long road ride, hill repeats, and some off road riding to keep me accustomed to my bike. I will definitely be breaking out the heart rate monitor, and learning how to use that.

I don’t expect a technical race, and even if it is, I am sure I can handle the course. For me it is all about going the distance. The last race I did was a blast, despite the nasty weather. I am expecting great things from this race.

Snowbirds Intruded

Yesterday the Snowbirds were in town for a show for the Oak Bay Centennial. The day was very nice out, and I had high hopes to get some good shots. Last time they were here, I was extremely happy with my shots, and now I have a better camera.

The show started off with an RCMP Helicopter show. It was a little strange seeing a helicopter with a siren flying around. When that show ended, I expected to see the Snowbirds right away. Instead there was a very long pause of close to half an hour. Waiting in the hot sun was no fun, but the show was spectacular.

The show was off Willows Beach. We saw it was extremely crowded, and ended up at this small park next to the Oak Bay Marina. It was lovely. We camped out under this huge oak tree, picniced, and watched the planes. Quite a few times they flew right over us on their way to a stunt. Very cool.

Pics are here.

One odd thing though was some old lady that rudely intruded on our spot. We got there early enough that we were able to claim a bench. We had our things on it, and the nursing moms that were with us (3 of them) used the bench quite a bit. After nursing, one mom got up, and a couple minutes later this lady sat down in amongst our things. :wtf: Very rude, and very weird. If she had asked us to move some things it would not have been a problem, but to just sit down?

It was a great performance, and I had a great time yesterday. Maybe the next time they come to town Sprout will be old enough to appreciate the show 🙂 As with last show, I am extremely happy with the resulting pictures.

MessengerStatus

MSN Live Messenger is pissing me off. Time to do some testing. MSN Live has as a sponsor, LavaLife. I am not the target market for LavaLife. I am very happily married and I do not want to see these ads on MSN Live sites or in MSN Live messenger.

I decided to check my profile. There are a lot of setting there, and most of them I have left blank, or set prefer not to say. The setting for marriage status was blank. I have a suspicion (or hope) that this setting will modify the ads I see.

First thing I notice is that there is no option to specify “I’d prefer not to say”. Crud. I set it to married, and we will see if this gets rid of the ads.

I really hope that the settings on my profile will influence the ads I see. It would make sense wouldn’t it? You’d think a company like Micro$oft would place contextually relevant ads. Surely they have someone there that can code that feature up.

Update 1: now I see ads for date.ca. Not much better.

Update 2: the MSN Live preferences page still shows LavaLife ads. I am now thinking I am S.O.L.

Pirates Bust

What a weekend. Hot is the word.

My mom came down on Friday to visit Sprout. This meant Sox and I got time for a date. We headed out to see Pirates of the Caribbean. Fun movie with good action and decent effects. Long though. It was very nice to sit in pretty confortable seats in the air conditioned theatre. When we stepped outside the theatre after the movie we were greeted with the pleasantly warm evening air. Still a little humid, but very soothing and pleasing.

Saturday night we headed out for dinner (with Sprout this time). 6 adults and 3 babes = 1 very fun time. Excellent food and good conversation. It was hard to leave but Mr Sprout was up past his bedtime and was getting more than a little cranky.

After returning home I had planned to head out to Luminara to take some pictures. I wasn’t realy feeling into it, and really just wanted to stay home instead. I forced myself to pack my gear and get out there. As soon as I got close to Beacon Hill park, I was regretting going. Traffic was bad, people were streaming out of the park, and I was hot, tired, and cranky. As I was preparing to turn around and go home, I spotted a parking spot. On a whim I took it and headed in. It was a bust. Too many people, no inspiration, and it definitely wasn’t as cool as I remembered it. I took a few shots but just wasn’t into it. Also, lots of others were there taking pics too, and many of them were using their flash. This caused my pics to look like crap. *sigh* it just wasn’t meant to be. I quickly packed up and headed home.

Tonight we have another BBQ, then tomorrow some family arrives for a few days. Next weekend we are away. Busy times 🙂

GT-40 Bridge

On my way home yesterday I pulled up to a stop light, and when I looked to the left lane, there was a Ford GT-40 sitting there waiting to make the turn. Wow. What a gorgeous car.

Shiny, sporty, long, wide, and short. Couldn’t have been much taller than the bike I was riding. Some passerby yelled out nice car.

When the light went green the car left the line, but as soon as the road went straight, the driver goosed the throttle, and that car shot across the Johnson St bridge. The sound it made was something else too. A deep grumble that just emanated power, but I could tell that what I heard was nothing compared to what that car was capable of.

And just like that the car was gone.