My very first DSLR video: worth reposting on a wet, dreary October day

A short video shot at the Guelph Arboretum, April 17, 2011, using a Canon 60d, Tamron 17-50f2.8, Canon macro 50f2.5, Manfrotto fluid head. Onboard mike used. Camera was wrapped with a Ziploc (large size) bag, and a small umbrella was used as well.
Edited in iMovie'11.
Music by Blue Rodeo.
Video was shot as an exercise for practice and is not meant for commercial use.

iPhone Diaries #653: Sleeping arrangements

what happens when one gets into bed later than usual... the critters take over your spot. Oct 20th.

pre wedding teaser

Maral and Farhad on a pre-wedding shoot, Sept 2013.

Dinner fare at the Liberty Grand

second course

third course

 dessert, , Oct 7th.

Worth watching again

I got an email letting me know that the link to my blog entry from dec 4th 2013 had changed. So I watched this video one more time and I  feel the same way now that I did then.

I stumbled across this video by Aram Vidal and I'll tell you why I love it.

The video opens in a languid, muggy, tropical rain, akin to the thin layer of soup we all thrive in. The  images are clearly recognizable but the edges blur into the next image, as if each element in the scenery are all linked to each other, all things stewing in this fertile atmospheric plasma.  The colours are bold, with a corporeal bluish green cast punctuated by the lively saturated reds and yellows of the people. The shallow depth of field gives the main subjects a sense of intimacy and reality while the background maintains a dreamy far-off look to it. The hand-held camera and the amateurishly (on purpose, I'm sure) recorded audio, in tandem with scenes that go out of focus when we think they should be in focus, lends an earnest authenticity to the whole scene.
The slow-to-increasingly fast beat of the raindrops on a tin-something speaks of a rising urgency to arrive at something, in contrast to the slow pace of everything else. A lazy acoustic rendition "Cry me a River"  is very appropriate, very intimate and very personal. The efforts to light the lighter, mostly failing but sometimes succeeding, speaks of life itself.
In the end, Julian reclines on the front seat of his car, his friends in the back. Julian seems perplexed but is not willing to seek out an answer. His expression is a mixture of defeat and acceptance.
Life is both wonderful and meaningless. It is ultimately futile to question why, how, and when. Human conceit aims to find answers with ever more powerful telescopes, microscopes and particle accelerators. Philosophers try to philosophize and religions, as usual, aim to deceive. Julian uses tarot cards.
Why not?
Towards the end of the video "My Funny Valentine" plays and ends with "... each day is Valentine."
In the end, each and every day is still a Valentine.

Documental. Un día cotidiano en la vida de Julián, un joven en la Ciudad de México.
Filmado inicialmente para el proyecto "Life in a day"- 10/10/10.
Review: http://elementalview.blogspot.ca/2012/12/julians-day.html

Taxing those who can least afford it.

This is in the US of A. Is this happening in Canada as well?

prison-profiteers

Gingko biloba

 

The ginkgo is a living fossil, recognisably similar to fossils dating back 270 million years. Sept 29th.

keep (on) looking!!

a cry for love...

a detail from above. Oct 1st.

Sheri and Bill

Sept 29th.

the "Scream"

I've posted on an earlier blog a previous photo of this stone. On this particular Sunday morning, it was more expressive than usual.

Can you spot the "Scream"?

 the Goldie Mill

reds and golds, yellows and browns: the colours of Fall

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sunday morning at the Goldie Mill, by the Speed River. Sept 29th.