The Riverbank

Took advantage of a free morning and beautiful weather yesterday to saunter over to ye 'ol riverbank near home.  The Red River is usually high and a mad rushing Torrent of Flood Terror this time of year.  Actually... no... wait...  It's usually still mostly frozen this time of year with ice jams of primary concern.

Enter Global Warming.

It's been 20'ish Celsius here on the prairies which for mid-March is insane.  Snow is pretty much all gone, and the waters are flowing freely.

And they're low.  Incredibly low.  Thankfully low given the burden flood fears this city has enjoyed over the years.  To wit this post from last year.

So with the well exposed riverbank there is ample textural detail to capture.  Wasn't "seeing" as much as I would like so frames are limited, although I ended up really liking the first of this series.  

Now let's see if this lasts and merges into another glorious summer.

Travel Trilogy Too

Strange how travel ebbs and flows.

After an almost-three-month drought of being grounded I found myself last week on the second of a back-to-back let to Toronto.  Gear in tow and with a seat at the window I thought I'd expand upon the engine shot from the week prior.  This time around in black and white, with the addition of a simple horizon image with the clouds sweeping in like rolling water.

Back down to Earth for a little while now.

Rarified Air

I'm a travel snob.

I freely admit it.

Having achieved airline status now on my third (?) year I've come to very much enjoy the perks associated with priority boarding, lounge access, and the piece de resistance...

Executive Class upgrades.

All these things make the chore of travel less of a, well, chore.  And so I find myself this morning sitting in my comfy exec seat with not one.  Not two.  But three open seats along my row.  Strangely only half the executive cabin was occupied.  Presenting me with a photo opp that I've not had before...



This was in stark contrast to my Friday return from last week where Air Canada saw fit to change aircraft and plow us into an "economy only" air bus that had nothing for chow other than light snacks.  And no seat-back entertainment.

Heathens.

Tickets Please

Another weekend, another game, another arena.  While waiting for the girls to hit the ice I noticed the "ticket booth" at the front of the arena.  Now apparently used as a storage facility.  Shooting from inside looking out through a window is of course too much dynamic range for a camera to handle.  Even that aside the image I had in mind screamed HDR.  I wanted to bring out all the texture of the counter and brick while also having the window grate and graffiti clearly visible.

So I jammed my lens against the glass and rattled off a bracket of nine frames.  Generally I don't go for such a hyper-real graphic HDR style but it fits here.  At least for me.  Processed with Nik's HDR Efex Pro and Photoshop.

Toronto Travel Trilogy

Just back from a quick three day trip to Toronto.  First in some time.  As always had The Camera with me but really was too damn lazy didn't have the opportunity to do much shooting.  But in the interest of generating something, and going with a theme of three (three days, three photos) I offer a trilogy of travel from the lounge to the tarmac to the air.