Sacrificial Ted

A few km after, and on a different country road from the pile of discarded music in the previous post, I pulled up to a T junction. I first saw the bear in the construction helmet and hunting vest lashed to a hydro pole to my left. I did a double take and shot some photos. Figuring that was it, I turned onto the main road and then saw smaller generic teddy bear number two. It was attached to the yellow traffic sign a bit past the intersection going the other way. Walking back, I finally saw the amputated baseball uniform wearing Barney with the cobwebby crotch. It was either some warning to stuffed animal collectors they were not wanted in the township, or an elaborate memorial to a car accident. Seemed it was quite extensive and seemed to be a lot of work. Can't blame em for stringing up Barney though.

Analog Trash

Coming home from visiting with Jen, I took a very indirect root. Even found a beach sand section of road where there really shouldn't be. Probably remains of a pre glacial shore line.  At one point I saw this dumped about 3-5m from the side of the road in some weeds. It looked like someone had backed up a pickup truck and thrown all this out. A rusted suitcase full of 8 track tapes, cassettes and records. The lot had been there for some time I imagine as the records had softened and melted over the harder surfaces underneath.

This particular former vinyl was "History of the Grateful Dead, vol 1 (Bears Choice)" recorded at Bill Graham's Fillmore East, Feb 13/14, 1970. Warner Brothers label.

Mike

A part of nine lives

With no sign she left.

Hearts and laps, Tia warmed.

All cats their time, have.

Mike

Long shadows

Out walking at 730am today. Long shadows in front of me. My legs are actually much shorter.


Mike

Lizzz as Water Colour

Miss Lizzz by Akira Otani

During the summer, I had a request to add an image to a new group on Flickr whose members would do paintings or drawings based on your work. Akira Otani, who lives in New York, but is originally from Sao Paulo, Brazil, let me know today he did this water colour after my image At Her Railing #2 of Miss Lizzz.

Pretty cool I think. Thanks Akira. :)

Mike

30th Annual Terry Fox Run this weekend

Terry Fox, 2007

I read on the CBC that the Terry Fox Run turns 30 this year. And has raised over half a billion dollars for cancer research. Little did Terry Fox think back in the day, his one man goal to run across Canada would turn into this.

The image is one I shot after dark in May of 2007 of the statue of Terry Fox near Thunder Bay, Ontario. It is a 9 foot tall bronze resting on a 45 ton granite base that is not visible in my shot - tripod mounted Canon XTi, ISO400, 15 second exp., only lit from the monument floodlights. Terry Fox succumbed to his cancer and had to give up his cross country run near the spot above the Trans Canada Highway on which the monument and interpretive centre was placed. That section of the highway is appropriately named the Terry Fox Courage Highway.

You only have to drive through that part of the country to realize how staggering a thing it must have been for him to do what he did. You hear the stories around this time of year when the various Terry Fox runs happen, but I tell you, until you actually see where he did what he did, it doesn't hit home. With the exception of a small segment on the St. Johns side of New-foundland, I have seen the whole route he ran. I couldn't help but be impressed and humbled. In warm and bitterly cold weather. Jogging in his signature hop-skip style with an artificial leg. With cancer slowly coming out of remission. He just soldiered on. Running 40 a day till he could no longer.

For those of you outside Canada who have not really heard too much about him, check his Wikipedia page.

He wouldn't have thought so, but the guy was a hero for sure.

Mike

Richard's A.L.S. hike for the cure at Kortwright

My friend Richard, pictured above with his daughter Amelia, has amyotrophic lateral sclerosis - commonly referred to as Lou Gehrig's disease or just A.L.S. He was diagnosed five years ago, and in the last year he has had a rough time of it.

Only having a passing familiarity with A.L.S., I went to Wikipedia: A.L.S. is a form of motor neuron disease. A.L.S. is a progressive, fatal disease caused by the degeneration of motor neurons, the nerve cells in the central nervous system that control voluntary muscle movement. The disorder causes muscle weakness, they develop fasciculations (twitches) because of denervation, and eventually atrophy because of that denervation. Affected individuals may ultimately lose the ability to initiate and control all voluntary movement; bladder and bowel sphincters and the muscles responsible for eye movement are usually, but not always, spared.... Doesn't sound too pleasant. It is also what has robbed Stephen Hawking of his human voice and has confined him to a chair for so many years.

From Richard's A.L.S. 2010 website where he was updating everyone on his year:

I have effectively lost the use of my hands and arms. I can still do a few minor things but I need someone to help feed me, dress me, etc. I have a personal support worker coming in a couple of times a day to feed me - I am not so thrilled about this - but I have at least managed to persuade her to pretend that the spoon is an airplane.

Richard has certainly not lost his sense of humour. Something that has to be tough when you risk your shoulders dislocating when standing too long - even if he says they make a cool clicking sound when it happens.

I have to admit it was tough to read what Richard wrote - even if it was with a sense of humour. I was trying to remember how long I have known Richard. Since probably Grade 1 or even Kindergarten. We went to the Toronto French School together till I left at the end of Grade nine. It seems like a lifetime ago.  Richard is probably one of my first school friends. While we have not really kept in touch over the years - till social networking sites came along at any rate, I think of friends from that time now and then. And to see Richard having the challenges he is having makes me want to help him out even though I don't have the money to do so.

Richard is having his sixth annual hike to raise money for A.L.S. at the Kortright Centre for Conservation in Woodbridge (map near Toronto) on Saturday September 25, 2010. His goal this year is to raise $25,000, and so far he has had nearly $7000 in donations. In the past five years, the hikes have raised almost $90,000 for ALS research.

If you are in the area, grab some pledge forms from his site, come out and support him in finding a cure for A.L.S. If you can't come out, or don't live near Toronto, you can make quick donations directly through his page.

Richard is a good guy. Help him in his quest to cure A.L.S. if you can.

Mike

**photos used with Richard's permission from his A.L.S. page.

Vanessa

Vanessa #1

I met Vanessa about ten years ago when we both worked at the same company. I don't think I had seen her face to face in about eight years or so, but at one point during the summer we talked about getting together to shoot a couple photos to update her Facebook profile pics.

Vanessa #3

We met up on one of the last warm weekends of the summer and chatted for a bit before heading to the location to shoot. We shot for about an hour and got some results that we were quite pleased with.

Designs by Ryn

Dreaming Mermaid

©Designs by Ryn

My friend Ryn - who is a real creative soul and full of awesome artistic ideas on many fronts, has just launched a website for her rubber stamp designs. I have watched Ryn go from having this idea in the back of her head for her own stamp business, through all the different design, production, packaging and business phases, and finally to the point where it is online and she is able to take orders. It's been pretty cool being on the periphery of all that. :)

I have held the actual stamps - and after having received an education in stamp making over the past year, I can say her products are worlds better than some of the crap you can buy out there: cool designs, fine edges, deeply etched and highly detailed. If you are into scrap booking or making cards and so on, it is worth a look.

Check out her Designs by Ryn if you get a chance. I know she will be adding more designs as she grows her business and I look forward to seeing what she will come up with next. :)

Mike

No internet for 12 hours makes me twitchy

In Oxide We Rust

I said I was going to blog the other day. Didn't get around to it. On Friday a large earthquake hit ChristChurch, NZ where a relative of mine lives. She is ok, but the city is a mess. Then another friend of mine in Oslo disappeared off Flickr. No emails back from either initially. But both are ok.

Later on the weekend, after taking some cool images of Kait and Jen on Friday, and shooting some portraits on Saturday, I was reading up on Wordpress and messing around with Torrents.

Lizzz on her chair

On Her Chair #1

Visited with Miss Lizzz, hung out for a while and shot some photos on her balcony late one evening before dusk. Higher ISO and just having some fun. With the absence of pants. She thought that doing a couple of these in black and white would be good. but I decided that colour worked quite well for this series so I kept it consistent throughout. Might be a second bunch, but it got too dark and the second idea we had would have worked better with a tripod which I didn't have with me.

On Her Chair #2

On Her Chair #3