Blast from the Past

A blast from the past

There's a story behind this picture. 
I came across it while cleaning up today.

McGill University
MacDonald Physics Building
Physics undergrads, March 1968
Photograph by Glenn Springer

I should have written this years ago when my memory was sharper. You have to understand, this was more than half a century ago! Gawd, I'm old! I think this group of students were from Dr. Lee's Theoretical Physics class. My main recollection of that class were (1) Dr. Lee had a very thick accent and half the time we couldn't understand what he was saying, (2) we didn't understand it anyway because the entire class was on General Relativity and the convoluted mathematics behind the Schrödinger Wave Equation, and (3) I have a mind picture of a blackboard covered from wall-to-wall and floor-to-ceiling with equations. I do have a flashback to the astounding moment when I actually succeeded in deriving ' E=MC² ' from basic principles.

What I can't remember is the name of the head of the physics department back then. I know that Dr. Stansbury had been promoted to Dean of Arts & Sciences and I can picture his replacement, a dour and forbidding older professor (he was probably in his 50's! LOL). I should, I worked for him as a research assistant on a project involving predicting lightning for a summer or two afterwards. Anyway his name escapes me but he was an intimidating guy who always seemed to be angry at us and had no patience for any 'tomfoolery'. We'll call him "Dr. X".

We spent our time in the MacDonald Physics building, a stone edifice built in 1893. The halls were 'hallowed', that's where Dr. Ernest Rutherford did his work on radioactivity, for which he won a Nobel Prize (in chemistry, though!). As an aside, the CCD sensors that Nikon used in their digital cameras (they now use CMOS sensors) were discovered by Willard Boyle, a McGill Physics alum, for which he shared a Nobel Prize in 2009). And you thought this was going to be boring!

So the dark hallowed mahogany halls of the building were decorated with ancient pictures of famous physicists and class pictures posed in front of the building. Many of them dated back more than a half a century — what is now over a full hundred years — gazed at with reverence by students and faculty alike.  Dr. X was very much steeped in tradition, I recall. We, on the other hand, were irreverent. Oh, we did our share of stupid nerdy things, à la Sheldon Cooper, but we were all serious students, every briefcase contained a Keuffel and Esser slide rule and a book of log tables, spiral-bound notebooks filled with mathematical derivations and mechanical pencils because they were easier to sharpen or at least use after a lead broke. Remember, these were the days before computers, or even pocket calculators!

This was like mine except my sheath was green. It went with me everywhere. To quote Dr. Leonard Hofstadter, "I wasn't a Nerd, I was the King of Nerds"!

Someone came up with the idea of shooting a picture of our class that echoed the ancient pictures in the hallways. Since I was into photography (and actually owned a Nikon and had a darkroom), I was designated to take the picture. So one day we all dressed up in period costume as best we could, and gathered on the worn stone steps of the MacDonald building (I remember the steps being worn smoothly concave by thousands of students' feet over the years).

I shot the picture, I put the camera on a timer and ran into the shot. If you don't recognize me, I was the handsome fellow on the right with the Beatles haircut. Don't ask me for other names, they're long gone.

When I printed the 8x10's I made them sepia, to match the aged images in the hall. I know I printed one for each of us, and I wonder if anyone still has one!

On a quiet afternoon, with nobody else around, I took down one of the mahogany-framed, glass-covered pictures on a wall, and slid our photo in front of the existing picture. Then it went back up on the wall.

Every time we walked by it, we used to touch it and laugh inside. It looked just like the old ones. Then one day, maybe as much as a year later, Dr. X came into one of our classes. And seriously laid into us for violating and destroying a venerated piece of history. I remember I came clean and invited him to open the frame, so he could see that the original picture was still there, untouched. He stormed out, outraged and steaming.

That was a cool moment. Almost as good as the day we sprinkled moist Nitrogen Tri-Iodide powder on the floor around the lectern. About halfway through the lecture it dried and every step the professor took resulted in a mini-explosion! Nerds!

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February and early March are emotion-draining weeks up here in the Highlands. We had a wickedly cold January and everyone I know turned into a hermit, too cold to venture outdoors unless you had to. Sadly, after more than half of March is gone by, I've literally shot NO pictures. I just don't feel like getting out there. Later this week, I'm going to try to go up to Algonquin Park, especially if Dr. Ron comes for a visit and spurs me into it. I've been going from my bed to my computer chair to the couch and back again, with the occasional stop in the bathroom. Sad. My Garmin Vivofit says I've averaged less than 3000 steps a day, and I'm feeling it.

My house is for sale — as I said last year, I want to move back to the city when I CAN instead of when I HAVE TO. I love living here, don't get me wrong — but at this age and condition, it's that time. Here's the link to the listing if you, or someone you know, wants to live in God's country. http://www.trilliumteam.ca/viewlisting.php?id=1344553

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Tassimo is discontinued

No big surprise, if you go in grocery stores the variety of Keurig K-cup pods is overwhelming. Loblaws has cut back on the variety of Tassimo pods available, the writing is on the wall.

Too bad, because Tassimo had two things going for them: larger pods to brew a strong extra-large cup, and Latté/Capuccino varieties that included milk pods.

So I guess I'm buying a Keurig machine. I already have a small one for travel (but it isn't very good). 

Update: I bought one. Costco had the best price on the Keurig Elite. I set it up and tested it, it's pretty good. There's so much choice of coffee varieties, it'll take a while to settle on the ones I like best! Too big for travel, though...

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Carden Plain

The birds aren't back yet. I'm seeing reports in other areas of the Province — further South — of meadowlarks, kildeer, bluebirds. Even a Phoebe. Nothing at Carden yet. Wylie Road is still closed  (I wouldn't dare, snowcovered and not plowed) beyond the Warbler woods. I did hear some meadowlarks but they didn't come out.

There were two pair of trumpeter swans on Canal Lake at Centennial Park Road, and I saw some European Starlings on MacNamee Road.  

Give it a few more weeks.

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I'm well on my way to planning my Newfoundland trip this summer. Yes, I'm going back again, I don't think I want to live there (you think winter was tough here?) but I absolutely love it there. I've booked all my accommodations, except for a few travel days and one four-day period at the end of July which is up in the air. I'm looking at leaving home around July 1st or so, coming home about August 20th.

This was the original plan, and it's looking good. I won't go to Labrador — it's a trek and I don't think there's that much to see — and the timing's a little different. 

The one new place for me is the Northern Peninsula, overlooking Iceberg Alley and near the Viking settlements at L'Anse aux Meadows. I'm bringing all the camera gear and the computer — whether I get a new camera for the trip depends on the sale of my house. 

I've booked 2-bedroom or more accommodations throughout but I'm on my own except for a week or so around the end of July/beginning of August. I'd love some company and I know all the great spots to shoot, so if you've always wanted to go to the Rock, now's the time! Get in touch!

Here are a couple of pictures from last summer that I've been working on. 

This is the well-known "Cribbie's" house at Tor's Cove, south of St. John's. I did a bunch of post-processing on it to convert it into a sketch. I will print this when I get a chance. 

This is actually right around the corner from there. It's called "Fox Island". 

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Parting Shot

I reworked an older image that I had taken in Old Montreal. A Facebook colleague had put up some work that showed an effect I really liked. I couldn't duplicate it (nor would I want to) but it inspired me to make this picture:

That's it for now! I'll be back...

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Lazy but Talented...

Shooting people on the street

I've had a lot of positive feedback on my Old Montreal shots, particularly the old guy walking. John called it "The Traveller" and I love that name. Thanks!

As a very shy person, I have a very hard time going up to someone and asking them if I can take their picture. I don't know how people do that, and I wish I could. Some people even go the extra step and say, "please sign this model release"! I can't even begin to think how to do that.

I get that the Traveller was in a public place and therefore I have the right to photograph him, and probably to use his picture for non-commercial purposes. And there's no question that I can say what I think about him as long as it isn't outright slander (a street performer in Ottawa has taken offence that while I thought he was an adequate saxophonist and I even thought he should be in a more prestigious place, like New Orleans; but I said he wasn't "outstanding". Every week or so he writes a rambling ranting, sometimes profane comment on my blog, so I've had to block him).

Paradoxically, the few times I have asked, the people have said "yes". I don't know why I don't do it more often. How do others deal with this?

As an aside, I once took some pictures of kids eating HUGE ice cream cones at Kawartha Dairy. A parent came up to me and told me to ask permission first. I get that (we live in a sad society where you would have to!). A lesson before you point the lens...

Here's another image from Old Montreal last week.

On the way to Ottawa there were some abandoned Cessna 150's at a fuel stop.  

I wasn't the only one photographing them. Ahh, Lightroom's local adjustment brush... 

Got my Filter Adapter!

Very, very slick. This is a product I recommend. It works just as advertised: attach the adapter to your lens, screw each of your commonly used filters into a holder, then when you want to mount a filter, it simply magnetically clamps to the lens.

The magnet is pretty strong: I don't see the filter falling off, although I wouldn't rely on it riding a motorcycle at speed or banging through the brush on my ATV. To remove it, just lift it off at an angle (magnets work like that...). I tried both the 10x ND filter and the circular polarizer on my 17-35mm wide angle and they work perfectly. Note that Xume points out there might be vignetting on ultra wide angles, after all, you're adding an extra ring on the front of the lens, and they're right. Here's a test shot with the polarizer on board, at 17mm

The vignetting disappears at about 20mm. 

I bought the starter kit for $53, for my 77mm diameter lens(es). It comes with one lens adapter and two filter holders. Down the road, I might buy another kit so I can use other filters and put an adapter on each lens (and my lens caps: you can't click a lens cap into the adapter, you have to use a filter holder. That said, I don't use caps when the camera's in the bag, I have a cleaning cloth up against the front of each lens).

Shipping to Canada was only $4, it arrived in about 3 days. There's a little video on their site, click the link!

D600 dust 

I have my D600 back and yes, there are some dust spots again. Only 2 or 3 that I can see, a manageable number for now, and they only really show up at small apertures or when I do an HDR (the merge process seems to enhance them). Les Palenik has reported that he's seen some too.

But as Les points out, "...amazing IQ. Sometimes, I can crop a 24MP image into 4-6 different pictures. Or if I don't get it sharp in camera, then I downrezz it to 6-12MP which makes it sharp enough."

I think it comes down to that. The image quality is so high you see EVERYTHING. Anyway, I'm convinced the D600 is the right camera for me.

I should point out that Les is a prolific micro-stock shooter and the stock sites are very discriminating about image quality. In fact I didn't qualify when I tried a couple of years ago (I'm going to try again). So he knows what he's talking about.

D5100 for sale

 Unfortunately, I can't afford the luxury of having two cameras at this time. I bought the D5100 factory refurbished from Nikon to use while my D600 was in the shop. It has a spiffy fold-out LCD that I'm going to miss, the reach of an APS-C sensor (16.2Mp), it's light, it's fast, it has some neat built-in effects. It handles high ISO situations really well, too. Check this out:

My grandson, Ryan, with low available light. 1/125 at f/8, ISO 6400. I adjusted the exposure a bit in LR, tweaked the eyes and a bit of skin softening, got rid of some visible background in the right corner and cropped it slightly. NO NOISE REDUCTION (well I always add a touch of sharpening and NR on import for all shots, but just a touch)

Here's the deal: $425 (OBO) gets you the body and all the stuff that came with it from Nikon, including warranty. The camera sells new for $565 tax in.  If you want, I have a small MF lens, and I'll discount a DSLR course if you want to learn how to use it. Contact me. Hurry, I think this is going to go fast.

Lazy but Talented

My sister bought me a t-shirt a while ago, it says "Lazy but Talented". I wear it all the time and she knows me. There's a message here... wait for it!

My grandkids were up for a few days this week and Ryan, the 13-year old who is now taller than me, had my D5100 for a bit, while I shot with the D600. We stopped at the Stanhope Airport and there was a helicopter parked there. I took a few shots, but Ryan, who is NOT as lazy as I am, climbed up on top of a storage tank (wonder what's in it!) for a different perspective. On his own, I might add... no prompting from me.

Single frame Nik HDR EFEX toning, in case you were wondering! 

His picture was better than any of mine. The message I alluded to is, "don't be lazy. Find that unusual perspective. Make the effort".

Ryan's picture. Again toned and tweaked in LR. 1/200 at f/9, ISO 500. He was in Aperture Priority, by the way, not Automatic. Take a course! 

While we're on the subject of the D5100 (I'm starting to have second thoughts about selling it!)

This Ruffed Grouse was on the road to the Haliburton School of the Arts (the Haliburton pioneer museum is worth a visit). I grabbed the D5100 and shot out the car window. He did a little dance and fanned his tail for us! 

I mustn't forget my granddaughter Kelly. She's the "Fish Whisperer". She does everything wrong by the book, but she's the only one who catches fish! Deliberate silhouette and I was looking for the rimlighting on her hair when I shot it. This was actually shot with my point-and-shoot, so it's not the camera...

This was really tough!

I've shot waterskiing/wakeboarding from Janie's boat before. It's a real challenge! You're bouncing around, it's hard to keep the camera steady, and tougher still to keep the subject in the frame, never mind in the middle where you can autofocus! In hindsight, I should have pre-focused at his distance (the rope isn't going to change length!) and I should have put the "Active" VR on, something I forgot completely about until this very moment. Next time.

Waterskiers have their eyes closed a lot. With water streaming in their faces at 30 or 40 kph, I'm not surprised! They also get weird expressions when they're exerting physical effort or focusing on what they're doing:

David (Janie's son) is concentrating on a wakeboard trick. You probably can't see the facial expression unless you blow the picture up (click on it). 

You can see it in this one, though! Sorry, David. 

Sometimes things don't go entirely as planned... 

So here's the shot David's probably going to put on his FaceBook page...

I'm going to hop on the ATV and head over to the white water to see what's going on. TTFN...

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