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Tom's Birthday

Last night was another birthday party for London and area artist Tom Denomme. February 28, his birthday, is nearly here. Tom passed away in 2005 due to an unexpected medical ailment at the age of 51. What was different about this party is that Tom was not with us in person for the first time. This year's event was held at the London Music Club with a full house of friends and family of Tom. I had the honour of sitting with one of Tom's longest and best friends.

Tom came from a large family of 16 children. If you were schooled through the Catholic school system in London in the 50's, 60's, 70's, and 80's chances are that you knew of the Denomme family. Tom's brother Pete, whom I call a friend, happily opened the party by reminding us all how Tom would expect happiness, music, dancing, good food and conservation to be the order of the party. And it was.

Personally, I enjoyed the party. Three music features performed: The Two Uncles, Reverend Freddie and The Distiller's and Whiplash. As always at the London Music Club the entertainment was excellent! To go along with the music and socializing I had a couple of cokes and an order of the Jerked Chicken Wings. Delicious.

Peter and Jan Denomme, who are also the proprietor's of this fine establishment, had a table of hor's d'ouvres and fruit for the gathering. Peter was kind enough to encourage me to take photos, so I took 273 of them. A testament to the varied and eclectic group of people that Tom knew.

The day of Tom's funeral there was a traffic jam in downtown London because of the large number of people who came to pay their respects.

From an early age, and throughout his time with us, Tom was a larger than life personality ... someone who loved and valued everyone he came in touch with. His love for life and people was contagious. When you were with Tom you just felt good!

Happy birthday Tom!

Unique

To see the BIG version click on the image or go here.

Colour Full!

To see it BIG, click on it! Or go here.

Splendor In Pink

Click on the image to see close-up beauty or go here.

Pink Passion

Remember to click on the image to see nature's beauty close-up or you can go here.

Winterbuster!

Well it had to happen eventually! Winter came slicing out of the north, that ice sharp knife, making it graphically clear what a nice "winter" we had so far. We are grateful, I think, that it took until Feb.16 to feel the bite.

Hence the "sunny" daisy, my mental defence against the frigid weather. Fortunately, I don't have to go out, and even if I did, I wouldn't. It's just too cold. Minus 14C with a -25 wind chill.

I'll bet it's still nice in Alabama or South Carolina. Oh well, winter brings renewal.

Another Orchid

Here is another photo of a pretty taken at Bloomers Flowers at the market here in our fair burg. I am compelled to wish everyone in the reading audience a happy belated Valentines Day!

Kindly, a friend had prepared a dinner to celebrate the day, so that was the reason for my visit to the flower vendor. The staff don't object to a non-paying person taking photos of their stock, so of course, it is not an issue for a paying customer to take some images, which I did with their permission anyway. That is a very regular occurence, according to the staff, to have people walk by and stop to take photos of their stock without purchasing. Hopefully the daisies that became $4.00 more expensive on the 14th, will resort to the normal price the day after!

We enjoyed a supper of roast lamb, rice, salad and a dessert. The dessert was a chocolate cake with pudding in the center. All in all a delicious meal, shared with good conversation and, more importantly, good company!

Out of all the commercial holidays we have in the year, I am able to tolerate Valentines Day with the least amount of distaste. I think that if we, as a society, were truly concerned about the "importance" of "traditional" holidays, some new ground rules are in order.

First rule: no gift shall be valued at more than $20.00.

Second rule: All businesses and workplaces to be closed for one day prior to the day and one day after as well as the day itself.

I think that these two conditions would ensure that the focus on the holiday would be on the traditional values and concepts that led to the holiday being established in the first place. I think the economics should be removed from the holidays.

The second rule would ensure that there is time to be spent with people, away from the workplace, to reflect on and enjoy the meaning of the day. As it stands right now most of our holidays have become crass, commercial adventures. An economic orgy.

Nonetheless, the February day devoted to crass, commercial adventures and economic orgies was enjoyable in it's own right.

Here in south western Ontario the weather is mild for another day, to be followed by some -8 weather. Either way, it's really mild for this area, at this time of the year.

To see the larger version of the orchid, click on the image, or click on the URL below to see it at Flickr.
http://flickr.com/photos/mike_55/99897729/.

Choun haru daeseyo. Have a good day.

Ladies and Gentlemen ... Ms. Jennifer Thorpe!

Another good gig at the London Jazz Society. I am surprised at the number of younger people that are in attendance. By younger I mean those in their thirties. Jennifer Thorpe, chanteuse extrordinaire, is in her 20's. A beatiful lady with a beautiful voice. The show is 3 hours with two 15 minute breaks. For five bucks it's a great value.

The list of songs was varied, but it did offer some songs that even I knew were classics. Songs like Mack The Knife, Choo Choo Chooboogie, and others that escape me now.

Newbie Photographers

Being a newbie at anything can be a discomfort, because we know that we will make mistakes. Isn't it true that therein lies the learning? I used to read a lot of Stephen King books. One day I had the opportunity to read an interview that some lucky reporter got to have with him. One of the questions, and this is not a direct quote; but the question was something to the affect of this. "You make a lot of money writing books. What would you tell others who would like to make money from writing?". Mr. Kings answer was "Don't bother. You have to write because you love to write. You write because you have to.".

Recently, taking photos has become an interest for me. This is the best piece of advice I have come across for someone who would like to learn to take "good" photos. "Take lots of photos. Then take more photos. Then take lots more photos.". Good advice. After all, the learning is in the doing.

I have a Flickr photo account here. There are about 650 images that I have posted there. This is a small amount of the exposures I actually take in a month. The Gerbera daisy photos that are there are a good example. I may have 6 to 12 photos there, but those came from a group of around 120 to 140 that I actually took. Flickr is cool because one of the many things it can do is that it keeps track of how many "hits" or "views" an individual image gets from other people who are also taking images. Some get more "views" than others. Most get a few. Some get a lot. In general it comes down to this: some photos have more appeal than others. I am a consistent "few views" recipient. That is to say that 10 views is good for the images that I post. So 2 weeks ago when I posted an image, and in three days it gets over 350 views, 10 people make it a favourite and , I also get 12 comments about how cool it is, that makes you really take a hard look to see how the photo is built or structured. Anyway, what I am saying is that for a newbie like myself, it is a welcome surprise if that happens.

That's why this story caught my eye. Click here to see the report. Firstly the guy is a Canadian photographer. However he is not an accomplished photographer. He actually is a print reporter, a newspaper guy, a writer. Who happened to start carrying a camera around with him. To get to the point, this "newbie photographer", ended up winning a very prestigious international photo award for an image he took. Much to his surprise. I don't enter contests, but still it is encouraging to know that it can happen. Yes, you have to be there. Yes you have to have the camera and tripod. Maybe, if you've taken a lot of photos you'll take one that has a lot of "appeal". That's why I found this news story so interesting.

Red One

Here's one of the recent half dozen I purchased. Pretty colourful aren't they? They are a good seller, all three of the vendors I frequent have a fairly good selection. These are handy to have around, especially now that winter has settled in. http://flickr.com/photos/mike_55/97215640/. You can click on the above image to see the larger version as well.

The first Sunday of the month means Jazz Club time. This will be the second one for me. I am looking forward to it. It is a well lit venue so it will be a good photo op. There is always a good turnout. The band has a sax player too, so that always adds an enjoyable vibe. Nat King Cole is going to be among the covers and I'm interested in learning more about his music.

Right now I'm listening to Dire Straights - Romeo And Juliet. It's from a CD titled "On The Night". If you like Dire Straits you probably already have it. Right now reading some fairly light Canadiana by Barry Broadfoot - The Immigrant Years: From Europe And Britain To Canada 1945-1967. I do enjoy it. There are a number of first person accounts. It reminds me of reading blogs.

We emigrated from London, England to London, Ontario in 1964. My father was from Eastern Europe and my mother from Scotland, which is where I was born. So I've been walking around the planet for the last 50 years, a Scotsman with a Ukrainian/Polish surname. Guess what nationality, or what country, people always assume I'm from? I don't think that stereotypes are any better or worse depending whether or not it is based on visual appearance or not. Stereotypes are stereotypes, period. This much I know ... they really suck, big time. And I learnt that at a very young age, first hand. But you know what I tell my self and all the other "victims" of stereotyped attitudes? So what? Why would I or any other rational person waste our time worrying about what some ignorant or rascist people think or more to the point - don't think? To a certain extent people are "victims" because they feel compelled to wear that label. Or they believe that there may be some kind of righteous, divine honour in being an innocent victim. There isn't. Besides, racists come in all races.

It's freezing outside and I'm tired. Time to have something to eat and go to bed and read. Laundry in the morning to be done.

What a great day it was. Have a good night.

Cymbidium

Let's see ... today is February 10, that means 18 days left in this month, then 31 for March and of course April hath 30. Hmmm ... 79 days left with the possibility of real winter like we have today. I don't mean to sound whiney, we haven't had a day this year where it has been under -20C. That is a good thing! Even yesterday the wind chill was a balmy -12. So I really am grateful.

I have instituted a number of strategems to provide the feeling of warmth, a feeling that there is light at the end of the tunnel winterwise. These do not include skiing which I gave up in 1983, or Polar bear diving, which seems to be a New Years Day activity, where people break a hole in the ice and jump into the water.

No my strategies are more mundane to say the least! Taking more hot showers! Buying fresh cut flowers. Wearing long johns and a hat, to keep the top and bottom covered. Eating hot food. This has been the best winter ever.

Speaking of fresh cut flowers, our friend in the photo, Cymbidium ... can be had for about $3.50. The same price as a daisy more or less. The Gerberas cost less than 15 bucks tax included for 6. And unlike airborne Canada Geese, they are easy to photograph indoors. Actually airborne Canada Geese are difficult to photograph outdoors as well. Indoors is warm.

I still go for walks, to take pictures, to go uptown. I just make sure I limit the amount of time in the great outdoors. Yesterday, for example, I stopped in at a camera shop. And yes, it was warm in there. Besides that, it was time to take my own advice and strike up a working relationship with a photo geek. That is good advice to act upon if you are going to spend money on a camera. I have turned into a bit of a photo geek myself and spend a fair amount of time here: www.flickr.com/photos/mike_55. Flickr is a great place to learn about photography. If you are interested in photography as a hobby you might what to check it out. If you store 200 pictures or less in your site, it's all free. I pay $25.00US/ year to keep about 650 exposures of various quality.The bargain is in the people, the contacts I have made there. To keep this post short and to avoid sounding like an unpaid commercial, enough said for now about Flickr.

Getting back to the camera store visit. Besides meeting somebody who works and knows about cameras, the other reason to be there was to check out a Nikon D70s. It is undoubtedly an incredible camera. There are others too that I would like to learn about, the Canon Rebel XT. I expect to buy a camera in approximately 24 months. There are a number of reasons why that time frame exists. Let's see if I am still taking photos between now and then. If not, let's not waste money on really cool dust collectors. If I am still taking photos, then at that time I might as well turn it up a notch and get a DSLR. Hence the research. It is quite possible that the cameras I have mentioned will be discontinued by then. What I am learning is what A $2000-$2500 camera is capable of. The Nikon D70s retails yesterday at $1598.00 Canadian dollars, not including 15% tax. Then there is memory storage of some kind. Also required is a good quality macro lense, at least $300. More than likely a quality telephoto lense, another $400, I would think. A ring flash, I'll need a new tripod by then and a bag to store it all in. All told I would guesstimate between $3000-3500 tax included.

That sure is a lot of money isn't it. Someone I know intimately: quit smoking ($3600/yr), quit drug addiction (another $3600), quit drinking ($3840) AND has no liabilities, and makes at least $60,000/yr. His giving up those habits have other positive aspects besides the financial. So, in the grand scheme of things 3 grand is not a huge amount of money, don't misunderstand, it is a lot of money. I can live for three months off of 3 grand.
My friend should get into photography, he will have a lot of spare time now.

The "Prince of Pot", Marc Emery, was back here in his hometown the other week. He is a few years younger than myself. We grew up in the same general part of London and when he started going door to door for his various causes, my door was one of the ones he knocked on. Nice guy, a little unorthodox, but most achiever's are in little ways. City Lights, the used book store he started, is still doing quite well even under different ownership. The word on the street is that he expects he will spend his remaining days in an American federal prison. Apparently he expects it will be a "supermax". That way access to or from him will be practically non-existent. He has two years left in his extradition appeal, here in Canada. I believe he is around 46 years old. What an unfortunate demise of a very colourful do-er. Was he always right? Maybe not. He was the one that always had the ability to ask the hard questions, to be blunt, he had the guts to ask those questions. Sometimes people were offended by his questions despite the fact that they were a right of his citizenship.

Do I agree with what he did? No I don't. One of the crucial obligations of the right to freedom, is to obey the law. That's life.

I had a wonderful conversation with a Korean couple at the Korean market last night. They are both ministers with the United Church of Canada. He is from a beautiful island in Jeolleonambukdo(sp?), and the lady is from Jongno-gu in the heart of Seoul. I was there to get some Nong Shim hot and spicy ramyen.

Today is a good day. Have a good one. Ciao for now.

A Balanced Diet

I do apoligise for the lack of professionalism displayed in this photo! Obviously I should have had a sheet on the table and one on the wall behind it. I will do better. As penance I will launder the sheets, nothing but the best for my readers and myself! Apart from that ...

I was pleased as punch that I didn't have to do any modifications to the subjects in order to get the fruit stack pictured! We have an excellent market downtown and as my timidity about setting up the tripod diminishes I promise to let you see how nice it is. There are two flower sellers there and they are both very good. The one always seems to have a number of orphans looking for a good home. The other has bamboo and orchids.

The geraniums, that have been part of our family for the last year and a half are getting ready to bloom again. I also recently discovered that Gerbera Daisies were discovered by one Robert Jameson, a Scotsman, in South Africa in the late 1800's. Check out this link if you would like to know more about these beautiful flowers.

I'll keep the weather report to a minimum ... it's snowing like hell outside!

Photo stuff keeps me occupied, it's a nice way to spend time. There is a certain social aspect to it when you set up your tripod and camera in public. It's pleasant and friendly. One of life's serendipities. If you like looking at photo's go to Flickr.com. There are millions.

Another great day. Have a good one. Bye for now.

Mike.

Swan On The Bay

I had the chance to get to Bayfront Park in Hamilton, On., yesterday for a few hours. This gave me the opportunity to learn what it's like to shoot moving subjects at a distance. It is a very different type of photography compared to what I am used to! The big lesson was patience. The number of times that a flock of geese or a couple of swans would come in for a landing right where I had been 30 seconds ago was somewhat frustrating, in a slightly humorous way. Yesterday's lessons learned will pay off in the future.

Bayfront Park is a recently developed area on the Hamilton side of Burlington Bay. This is all on the western tip of Lake Ontario approximately 40 miles southwest of Toronto. I am not used to spending time in a huge natural water environment like this. Every second was enjoyed to the max! The lake in it's own right is worth seeing, but this area has the added bonus of the Niagara Escarpment which runs from the Niagara Falls area right up to the tip off the Bruce Peninsula at Tobermory on Georgian Bay. Then it continues underwater to surface on the north side of Georgian Bay. I'm not certain if Manitoulin Island is part of the escarpment, but I think it is.

The clarity of the water and the incredible underwater formations are two of the reasons that Tobermory is such a preferred scuba diving area. There are other reasons as well. This area also is home to Fathom Five Underwater National Park which protects these unique submerged geologic formations. Suffice to say that in the late 80's for two years I was a scuba diver in this area and got to witness the Niagara Escarpment at 80 feet underwater!

It was a great morning to spend a few hours on the lake. I took well over a hundred photos but due to my lack of outdoor/wildlife photography experience there were very few keepers. With practice, experience has shown, those odds will improve. In light of it being a weekday morning there were very few people enjoying this natural area while I was there. Clearly, I do myself a big favour taking the camera and tripod with me whenever and wherever I can!

It was a great day. Remember to click on the image to see the larger version.

I hope you are having a good day. 안뇽히겨세요.