Merry Christmas

Another year passes by. Here is our USA/Canada 2011 traveling photo of Jenny and the little momentos from the places we visited. Have a great Christmas and New Year.

Time Will Tell ... - Mural - Downtown / Montreal (Thu 25 Aug 2011)

Time Will Tell ... - Mural - Downtown / Montreal (Thu 25 Aug 2011)
The Mural can be seen in the background of Mathematical Reflection (*).

Mathematical Reflection - Downtown / Montreal (Thu 25 Aug 2011)

Mathematical Reflection - Downtown / Montreal (Thu 25 Aug 2011)

Tree (#2) - Diamond Head Crater Park / Hawaii (Sat 10 Sep 2011)

Tree (#2) - Diamond Head Crater Park / Hawaii (Sat 10 Sep 2011)

Tracks - Cambridge / UK (Sep 2009)

Tracks - Cambridge / UK (Sep 2009)

Jenny - 2008 SSCSG Christmas Party - Miranda (Tue 16 Dec 2008)

Jenny - Sutherland Shire Cancer Support Group (SSCSG) Christmas Party - Miranda (Tue 16 Dec 2008)

Building Reflection - Water - Montreal (Thu 25 Aug 2011)

Building Reflection - Water - Montreal (Thu 25 Aug 2011)
A different view of this building (*).

Tree (#1) - Diamond Head Crater Park / Hawaii (Sat 10 Sep 2011)

Tree (#1) - Diamond Head Crater Park / Hawaii (Sat 10 Sep 2011)

Powerhouse Books - DUMBO / Brooklyn / New York (Wed 17 Aug 2011)

Powerhouse Books - DUMBO / Brooklyn / New York (Wed 17 Aug 2011)
You can see the reflection of the Manhattan Bridge in the window of the Book Store (*), which published the Vivian Maier book (*). Compositionally, this photo is very similar to yesterdays (*).

Detail - Powerhouse Books - DUMBO / Brooklyn / New York (Wed 17 Aug 2011)

Mural - Downtown / Montreal (Thu 25 Aug 2011)

Mural - Downtown / Montreal (Thu 25 Aug 2011)
For some reason this photo really works for me. The mural and it's colour and composition. Next the red and white barriers and their one sided support seem so delicate. The empy space of the road in the middle and foreground. Also the light is very even as it a cloudy late afternoon.

The Chocolate Corner - Brugge / Belgium (Sep 2009)

The Chocolate Corner - Brugge / Belgium (Sep 2009)

Figure in the Landscape - Mural - Sainte-Catherine St / Montreal (Thu 25 Aug 2011)

Figure in the Landscape - Mural - Sainte-Catherine St / Montreal (Thu 25 Aug 2011)
Here is the tiny detail that drew my attention to the giant mural. Love the colour and how he merges into that part of the mural.

Mural (3 of 3) - Sainte-Catherine St / Montreal (Thu 25 Aug 2011)

Make Pictures that are Larger than the Frame - Michael Davis - Montreal (Thu 25 Aug 2011)

Recently stumbled across a great blog (*) hosted by Michael Davis (*), a Professional Picture Editor (*). Lots of great insights there for any budding photographer.

The following is an extract from a post, that caught my attention:

You can engage people who look at your work more dimensionally if you decide whether to make the picture larger than the frame. [..]

The notion is pretty straightforward but explaining it is not so easy.

The idea is that when people’s minds complete aspects of a photograph that don’t appear within the frame, the experience of looking at the photograph is more dimensional than when everything fits within the frame.

From Make Pictures that are Larger than the Frame (*) by Michael Davis (*) [Tue 29 Nov 2011]

I think the first photo below demonstrates the dimensionality that Michael talks about above. The rear part of the car on the left hand side of the frame and the reflective puddle leading in from the bottom of the frame, being the elements needing completion.

I did spend a bit of time in this car park photographing the surrounding buildings. As I sit here looking back at that time in the car park, I can see that I experimented with different framings, trying to find something that was stronger than the others.

Maybe this is a good way to think about composing a photo - be a bit looser in the framing and make pictures that are larger than the frame (*). Thanks Michael.

Mural (3 of 3) - Sainte-Catherine St / Montreal (Thu 25 Aug 2011)
Mural (2 of 3) - Sainte-Catherine St / Montreal (Thu 25 Aug 2011)
Mural (1 of 3) - Sainte-Catherine St / Montreal (Thu 25 Aug 2011)
PS - If you look at the first two photos close enough you will be rewarded with the tiny detail that caught my eye - it was not the giant mural, but something much smaller that resonated with the mural. Will show this detail in a later post.

Pacific Dragons Fundraising Cheque Presentation to the SSCSG - Miranda / Sutherland Shire (Tue 13 Dec 2011)

Today, Jo and I attended the Sutherland Shire Cancer Support Group's (*) - SSCSG - Christmas Party. It was the 16th time we have attended the Party, and it is the 3rd time since Jenny's passing

We were honoured to present to Liz Swanbury, a Social Worker from Calvary Hospital (*) and Group Co-ordinator, a cheque to the value of $1,113, on behalf of Pacific Dragon's Dragon and Outrigging Canoe Club (*).

The SSCSG was formed in 1993 to help people whose lives have been touched by cancer. For the 2009/2010 and 2010/2011 paddling seasons, the SSCSG was Pacific Dragon's Fundraising Charity.

Jo, Debra, Liz and Geoff (R to L) - Pacific Dragon's Fundraising Cheque Presentation to the SSCSG - Miranda / Sutherland Shire (Tue 13 Dec 2011)
Jenny (Jo's Identical Twin Sister and my Wife) was diagnosed with Breast Cancer in March 1996 and she lived a full and active life with the disease up until shortly before her passing on Tue 30 Jun 2009.

Jo and Jenny - Glebe Point Road / Glebe (Sun 04 Feb 2001)
Jenny found the SSCSG early on in her shared life with cancer and it became a constant in her life, just as the paddling would when she found it in January 2001. Jenny looked forward to and attended the weekly Tuesday morning meetings of the Group.

Petria King Workshop (*) and the SSCSG - Quest for Life (*) - Bundanoon (Tue 23 Mar 2005)
Pacific Dragons Women's Team (Jenny with her blue head scarf front right) - Penang / Malaysia (Sun 04 Aug 2008)
Jenny met many amazing people at the Group and she (as well as Jo and I) learnt much about cancer, it's treatment and progression. It showed her and us how to live and ultimately, about how to die.

A few months after Jenny's passing Lisa asked me to write a few words about the SSCSG and what it meant to Jenny. At the time I struggled to find the words. They were there, I just could not write them down coherently. So Lisa kindly and gently quizzed and probed me at the Shed after an OC6 session one night. From my ramblings she was able to write the following which was used in support of the SSCSG being Pacific Dragon's Charity for the 2009/2010, and as it would turn out, the 2010/2011, paddling seasons ..

Geoff tells me that this group was important to Jenny because it taught her about the cancer she was living with, including providing opportunities to attend programs to learn about the importance of good food, positive attitudes, meditation and loving support.

She got to spend time and form friendships with people going through the same thing, volunteered with the group to raise a huge amount of money for cancer research and support through Daffodil Day and Relay for Life, and it also helped her prepare herself for the time when the disease would take her from us.

Jenny also became an important role model for the group, inspiring them through her support and the way she chose to live her own life.

Each year at this celebration, the Group remembers those members who lost their lives to their cancers, and related illnesses, during the year. This is done by Liz reading the name of the lost member and then Debra (one of the leaders of the Group) striking a bell. This year four names were read and the Bell struck after each name.

Jo, Jenny and Geoff - SSCSG Christmas Party - Miranda (Tue 16 Dec 2008)
Over the years when Jenny was with us, when the Bell rung, I always felt lucky that we had another year together. Today, as always, Jo and I would remember how we heard Liz read Jenny's name and Debra's Bell ring at the December 2009 Christmas Party. We miss her dearly and she is remembered fondly by many.

Jo and I thank Pacific Dragons for their generosity and support of the SSCSG. Jenny would be touched by your kindness.

Jenny - St George Private Hospital (11:48am Tue 23 Jun 2009)

Jenny - Glebe Point Road / Glebe (Sun 04 Feb 2001)

Jenny - Glebe Point Road / Glebe (Sun 04 Feb 2001)

Mural (3 of 3) - Sainte-Catherine St / Montreal (Thu 25 Aug 2011)

Mural (3 of 3) - Sainte-Catherine St / Montreal (Thu 25 Aug 2011)

Mural (2 of 3) - Sainte-Catherine St / Montreal (Thu 25 Aug 2011)

Mural (2 of 3) - Sainte-Catherine St / Montreal (Thu 25 Aug 2011)

Mural (1 of 3) - Sainte-Catherine St / Montreal (Thu 25 Aug 2011)

Mural (1 of 3) - Sainte-Catherine St / Montreal (Thu 25 Aug 2011)

Whirlpool Rapids - Water - Niagara Falls / Ontario / Canada (Thu 01 Sep 2011)

Whirlpool Rapids (*) - Water - Niagara Falls / Ontario / Canada (Thu 01 Sep 2011)

Abstract - Saint Lawrence River / Lévis / Quebec (Sun 28 Aug 2011)

Abstract - Saint Lawrence River / Lévis (*) / Quebec (Sun 28 Aug 2011)

What I think about when I think by the side of the River Charles - Boston (Mon 22 Aug 2011)

Jogging Path (1 of 5) - Charles River / Boston (Mon 22 Aug 2011)
Jogging Path (2 of 5) - Charles River / Boston (Mon 22 Aug 2011)

Jogging Path (3 of 5) - Charles River / Boston (Mon 22 Aug 2011)
Jogging Path (4 of 5) - Charles River / Boston (Mon 22 Aug 2011)
On a whim, I recently bought myself a copy of Haruki Murakami's (*) book, What I Talk About When I Talk About Running (*). As I read it, I was quite taken by the following passage ..

It's been 10 years since I lived in Cambridge [Boston]. When I saw the Charles River again, a desire to run swept over me. Generally, unless some change takes place, rivers always look the same, and the Charles River in particular looked totally unchanged. Time had passed, students had come and gone, I'd aged ten years, and there'd literally been a lot of water under the bridge. But the river has remained unaltered. The water still flows swiftly, and silently, toward Boston Harbour. The water soaks the shoreline, making the grasses grow thick [..]

Maybe because it's the home of the Boston Marathon, Cambridge is full of runners. The jogging path along the Charles goes on forever, and if you wanted to you could run for hours. The problem is, it's used by cyclists, so you have to watch out for speeding bikes whizzing past from behind. At various places, too, there are cracks in the pavement you have to make sure you don't trip over, and a couple of long traffic signals you can get stuck at, which can put a kink in your run. Otherwise, it's a wonderful jogging run.

I sat beside the River Charles. It was late afternoon on the last day of our 4 days in Boston. We had arrived on the Friday from a week in New York. Here are a few photos from my time sitting by the River Charles.

We had already been away for a day short of 4 weeks and it would be another 3 weeks before arriving back home. I was enjoying the trip but was thinking a lot about all the changes that had been occurring in my life - I was without a car and I had moved back to Kirrawee while I waited for my house, I had never really planned or contemplated to live in, to become available while I was away. Tried not to think about these things too much from a far, as I had no control over them. Instead, I just sat myself down on a seat bench by the River Charles and tried to think of other things.

I sat there in the beautiful afternoon sun, I thought of many things. I thought of all the other times I had been to Boston, what took me there and what I did while I was there. I also tried to remember who I was and what I was doing in my life around the time of each trip.

September and October 1988 was the first trip, and it would be just under a year before I would meet Jenny for the first time.

I reflected on the two years since Jenny had left us and all the things that happened since that time. In some ways, it was just sitting there by the River Charles, that I finally stopped and had a chance to clear my thoughts and to really think about things.

I had really kept myself busy and distracted since Jenny's passing (*) - it was one way of coping with the enormity of Jenny's loss. In some ways, I was starting to forget things - who I was, the things that we had done and what I thought I was going to do with my life.

As I sat there by the River Charles, I watched the walkers, runners and bicycle riders go past. Their long shadows, created by the late afternoon sun, are what struck me and this is what kept me interested as I captured these photos. I wondered who these people were, what had brought them to Boston and whether one of them was the future creator of the next social media craze.

A couple of rowers set off from near where I sat and I wondered if they were the Winklevii (*) of Facebook fame (*).

MIT / TIM - Charles River / Back Bay / Boston (Mon 22 Aug 2011)

As I sat there I could see tiny sail boats, standup paddle boards and wind surfers. One wind surfer was fairly inexperienced and a more experienced wind surfer went to his aid, if only to provide advice and moral support, in the knowledge of just being there.

The small sailing boats were from MIT, which is just across the River, and it was only when I saw through the transparent sails, that I realised that in reverse, MIT, spells TIM, my late Brother's name - so I thought about him for a little while. He had been to Boston a few times also, so I thought about all the same things for Tim. Maybe he had sat here and pondered some of the same things, 25 years earlier? I also wondered why I had never made the MIT to TIM connection. Or thinking about it now, I think I may have thought about it a long time ago, but maybe I had forgotten remembering the connection.

Have been to Boston four times prior to this trip and I have visited it on each of my trips to the USA. The last time was just over 17 years earlier in April 1994, where I had hoped I might be able to run the Boston Marathon (*).

Now as I sit here and think about the things I thought about by the River Charles in Boston that late afternoon on Mon 22 Aug 2011, I can now see where Haruki Murakami's (*) ran along the side of the same river on the very path he captured in words above and I have captured in the photos on this page. I also now have an appreciation and can imagine where he found part of the inspiration to write What I Talk About When I Talk About Running (*), which I am now reading and enjoying.

That will do for now. Just leave it here.

Jogging Path (5 of 5) - Charles River / Boston (Mon 22 Aug 2011)
A bit of ramble to mark my 700th Post here.

Cloud Gate (1 of 2) - The Bean - Millennium Park / Chicago (Wed 07 Sep 2011)

Cloud Gate (*) (1 of 2) - The Bean - Millennium Park (*) / Chicago (*) (Wed 07 Sep 2011)
Saw this amazing sculpture in a few movies early this year. It was a must see when we were in Chicago in early September.

Jenny - Aitutaki Lagoon / Cook Islands (Fri 15 Dec 2000)

Jenny - Aitutaki Lagoon / Cook Islands (Fri 15 Dec 2000)

Stevenus Coliberty (2 of 2) - East Village / New York (Wed 17 Aug 2011)

Stevenus Coliberty (2 of 2) - East Village / New York (Wed 17 Aug 2011)

Water - Niagara Falls / Ontario / Canada (Thu 01 Sep 2011)

Water - Niagara Falls / Ontario / Canada (Thu 01 Sep 2011)

Stevenus Coliberty (1 of 2) - East Village / New York (Wed 17 Aug 2011)

Stevenus Coliberty (1 of 2) - East Village / New York (Wed 17 Aug 2011)
A Google search (*) reveals a bit more about the Red Poster/Print on the door ..

Mysterious prints of the "Colbert Report" host were spotted in the neighborhood earlier this year, featuring the bespectacled funnyman in a riff on Andy Warhol’s famous Campbell’s Soup can painting.

Now, posters of the mock newsman reimagined as a mash-up between the Statue of Liberty and Boticelli’s iconic "Birth of Venus" painting — accompanied by the words "Stevenus Coliberty" — have appeared inexplicably on mailboxes and walls throughout the East Village.

Fri 05 Aug 2011 - More here (*)

The poster in the Top Right corner says Yours Truly ... A.S.A.P.

UN Building - East River / New York (Sat 13 Aug 2011)

UN Building - East River / New York (Sat 13 Aug 2011)

Intermezzo - 202 8th Ave / Chelsea / New York (Wed 17 Aug 2011)

Intermezzo (*) - 202 8th Ave / Chelsea / New York (Wed 17 Aug 2011)

Annie Leibovitz: Pilgrimage - Letterman (Tue 08 Nov 2011) / New York Times (Sun 30 Oct 2011)

Water - Niagara Falls / Canada (Thu 01 Sep 2011)
Niagara Falls - Ontario / Canada (Thu 01 Sep 2011
Niagara Falls (Detail #1) - Ontario / Canada (Thu 01 Sep 2011)
Niagara Falls (Detail #2) - Ontario / Canada (Thu 01 Sep 2011)
We spent Thu 01 Sep 2011 (*) at Niagara Falls (*). When we were planning the trip back in early June 2011, I was not that keen on spending a day at the Falls. However, when Jo showed me the photos (*) of her trip there with Jenny back in 1987, I felt we had to go. I guess another kind of Pilgrimage (*).

After a little searching on wikitravel (*), we decided that we could catch a bus out from and back to Toronto (*) and not do the guided tour thing with a travel company, which included a stop at a winery. Figured by doing a local bus trip, we could do our own thing at our own pace.

On our arrival at the Falls we were mesmerised by the flowing water and spent a good hour there, just looking at the water roll over the edge. These photos and its details (exposed by cropping) capture a little of what we looked at for so long.

Watched Letterman last night and saw Annie Leibovitiz (*) being interviewed. Much of the interview touched on her new book Pilgrimage (*) which I knew was in the works (*). Was pleasantly surprised to see the Niagara Falls featured in the book as well as being the cover photo (see below).

David Letterman - Annie Leibovits - Tue 08 Nov 2011 (*)
Finally, from the New York Times (Sun 30 Oct 2011), Dominique Browning writes (*)..

So Ms. Leibovitz planned a trip to Niagara Falls. Nothing went right. They were late getting on the road; their hotel room was given away; when they finally found a place to sleep, their room had a view of a cement wall. Ms. Leibovitz, fielding calls from lawyers as she approached the falls, couldn’t take them in. “I didn’t quite get it.” But she noticed that her girls were mesmerized. She went to where they were standing, and grew still. “I was stunned by the beauty of the water (*),” she says. The picture she took that morning became the cover of the book.

Further on she talks about the creative process, about how to sustain it..

"Talent is something anyone can have. It can go away. It needs to be nurtured, taken care of. The best thing about getting older is that you kind of know what you are doing — if you stick with something. It doesn’t get easier. But you get stronger. Pilgrimage (*) is an exercise in taking care of what I do. My books are my way of being able to express myself completely."

Pilgrimage - Cover - Annie Leibovitz