"sometimes the silence is noisier than what the sound was…"

Anchorage Daily News columnist and radio show host Shannyn Moore describes the effect the Exxon Valdez spill had on the sound and wildlife of Prince William Sound. This excerpt was filmed in July of 2010.

Shannyn Moore was a fisherwoman in Alaska before the 1989 spill, she also helped with the cleanup.

Blackberry Diaries #752: Let the Games begin!

March 25th.

Blackberry Diaries #751: the Rhodester near The Second Cup

March 24th.

Blackberry Diaries #750: in Praise of Guelph

 

On a night like this, I am reminded of why we moved to Guelph, and of what a wise decision it was.

It's 9:30 pm and I decide to take Rhodie for a walk/run, not sure how far, we'll see how it goes… after all, it's a pleasant night @ -2Celsius, no wind. My neighbourhood streets are quiet, with the occasional car going just a tad over the 40kph speed limit. Going north on Gordon (morphing from highway to  main street through the middle of Guelph), the streets are well-lit, peopled by University of Guelph students on their last week of studies before final exams. A small chatty crowd at a bus stop, a runner/jogger or two, people say hi.

We get to the shuttered-for-the-winter Boathouse, just past the bridge at the confluence of the Eramosa and the Speed. It's a clear night, but even with the city lights, the stars are out. 

Guelph is a city where one doesn't look over one's shoulder. 

Sony Diaries Day 82: boy and dog

March 23rd.

Blackberry Diaries #749: Rhodie on a Sunday afternoon

when the late afternoon sun in early spring beams on Rhodie, the lion hunter, there is no other more beautiful man's best friend. March 22nd.

How to choose your Family Photographer

by DreB of DrewB Photography

How to Choose your Family Photographer

Sony Diaries Day 69: Rhodie + the Gryphon

March 10th (after midnight).

Sony Diaries Day 68: The Gryphon

March 9th.

Blackberry Diaries #748: the big bang

sub art.

Blackberry Diaries #747: man at the library

Guelph Main Library. March 8th.

I've yet to hear this ringtone...

.... of the sound of pissing (of urinating). Could come in a selection of tones: old man standing on urinal, woman sitting on a low-flow toilet, boy on a tree, person in an outhouse, person in a porta-potty, etc.

the beauty of weekends

It's been a miserable two months of alternating very cold, and numbingly-cold days. Workplace colleagues are short on patience, everyone's coughing on the bus, and I feel like throttling the next guy who greets me with the All-Canadian conversation starter, "cold enough for ya?"

This weekend holds the promise of a warming trend, and tomorrow, Sunday is going to be the start of something fresh. I have pressed the restart button in my head, and things are going to be great from now on.

And this is the beauty of weekends. Monday can be like the first day of the year,  a new beginning, with 52 restart chances.

Tuesday is supposed to go up to 9 Celsius... very nice!

Sony Diaries Day 63: Minimalist shooting with the Sony A7II

Here's a sample video of the promising potential that the Sony A7II brings with it. This video was shot handheld to simulate a slider, a steadicam, and a shoulder rig.

This is a real life handheld test of the Sony a7ii. I wanted to see what the 5-axis stabilization is capable of. I did panning/slider shots, rack focus, combinations of both, following shots, and stationary shots. Everything was handheld. Again, this was a real life test: just me, the Sony a7ii and my two boys going on a little hike. Because this was a real life test, in real life I am going to add some stability correction in post, which I did. 

I also wanted to test out the sLog2 or Picture Profile 7. I greatly appreciate that the ISO is now lowered to 1600 from the previous 3200 ISO on the Sony a7s. I am still learning to shoot in this profile so I have a lot to learn and was not able to properly expose my shots. Further, my metabones adaptor wasn't working consistently. It would read the f stop value, and then stop reading it and opening it up. So that left me with shooting a lot a lot wide open at 1.4 which dramatically made if difficult to focus and softened up the image. 

Gear:
Sony a7ii
Sigma 35mm f/1.4
Metabones EF to E mount adaptor (not the speedbooster)
Edited in Final Cut Pro X using the new Color Finale from ColorGradingCentral.Com
Music from Tony Anderson from The Music Bed.

Overdevelopment, Overpopulation, Overshoot: The Book

An eye-opener of a book, free to read.

Sony Diaries Day 60: Pileated Woodpecker

March 1st.