It's better to be

Sarah, May 2009

"Imperfection is beauty, madness is genius and it's better to be absolutely ridiculous than absolutely boring."—Marilyn Monroe

**500th post on my blog.

Mike

Spies like us

I read some formerly SECRET/NOFORN stuff Wikileaked over the weekend. While there is some fascinating stuff in there, it's likely no different than any other foreign government traffic. It's just that the US had theirs made public.

In university, back in the pre interwebs days, I occasionally read a bit of formerly classified stuff in my international relations and strategic studies courses: historical and 20th century UK US CDN etc. diplomatic, intel, and military files and communications. This wikileaks stuff, while it looks bad, really isn't new or anything that France, Russia, Japan, etc wouldn't have in their cables and communications. In fact, I imagine Russian or Chinese stuff would be a lot more frightening.

In one well publicized leak this weekend, US State is suggesting spying at the UN. D'uh. Thats a no brainer. Everyone does that. Any government worth their salt wouldn't think twice about snooping on their friends and neighbours. The ones with any strategic ambitions - like anyone in the G7 - most certainly do. It just hasn't been readily proven like this.

I hope no one ends up being put in harm's way over the leaks.

Mike

Bridging the Gap Series #2

This is, I think, an abandoned Pratt Pony Truss type bridge with what remains of a timber wooden deck - with large holes in places. Pratt Truss bridges are characterized by having a horizontal top chord - the beam on the top which allows for longer spans but tend to not be as rigid due to the lack of cross braces. This one had six vertical braces, and two sets of thin tensionable rod diagonal braces nearer each end. The Pony refers to the height of the bridge - any taller and it would be a Pratt Through Truss bridge - because you travel through it with the sides taller than you. I did not cross it. And to get from one side to another took a long detour. Photographed April 2009.

If anyone has a better description of the bridge type let me know. I wonder also what the eyelets - three on each top chord and one on each end post, were for. Perhaps there was more to this bridge originally.

Bridging the Gap Series #1

Single span, metal riveted double-intersection Warren through truss type bridge. Shot in Southwestern Ontario, November, 2010.

The following three images are details of hand railings from the bridge. While they are seemingly original, Armco type car guardrails have been installed below them to protect the bridge from cars.

Water Survey of Canada marker

On the abutment of  an old bridge in Southwestern Ontario. About 5cm in diameter. Probably bronze and very coarse texture to it.

These markers are used to indicate that the Water Survey of Canada is, or at one point was, monitoring water flow on a river at this point. Usually I have seen them on bridges. I don't recall whether there was monitoring equipment at this location. Will have to look again in the spring.

Mike

Caught Between Two Tigers

I was told the famous story about the man who falls. He is hanging above an abyss, clinging to a thin branch of a tree growing between the rocks. He may, with some effort, be able to pull himself up, but there is a ferocious tiger there, growling and showing its teeth. If he lets go, he'll fall into the claws of another tiger waiting below. And while he hangs there and worries, two mice come along. A white mouse and a black mouse and start nibbling through the branch, his only security. Anybody who 'studies' Zen will, at some time, get into a similar position. He is sure he has to do something, to give something up. He cannot refuse to do something because the position he happens to be in is disastrous. But whatever he does will not improve matters. And while he hesitates and worries, the mice of 'yes and 'no', 'this' and 'that', 'good' and 'bad' nibble away.

That is excerpted from Dutch detective novelist Janwillem van de Wetering's non fiction book "The Empty Mirror" about the time he spent in a Zen Buddhist Monastery in Kyoto Japan in the 1950s. At one point he told that story.

I guess that some of that rock and a hard place echos with me right now.

Photo is of my Meiji period bronze Buddha - modeled after the Great Buddha of Kamakura (Kamakura Daibutsu). Shot on a large tree stump on the edge of a farmer's field this afternoon.

Mike

Attitude is everything

Mindy, Summer 2008

“Take charge of your attitude. Don't let someone else choose it for you.”

--Anon 

Mike

Winning

Nadine, August 2008

Winning is about heart, not just legs. It's got to be in the right place.

-- Lance Armstrong

Mike

I created a Tumblr

I know I am behind the curve, but late last night - actually well into this morning, I created a Tumblr account: mikewoodphotography.tumblr.com. I am going to continue to use this blog, but will use the Tumblr page to upload my photography only - not all the other stuff :). I set it up to see if I can reach a slightly different audience than I do now. It's micro blogging, but not as micro as my Twitter account. Skinny blogging? :)

Setting up the page was very easy once I knew my way around the interface. I tried out several different themes, and settled on one that would allow me to replace background images, tweak fonts and so on.

A couple hours in, I had created an account, modified the background I use from my Twitter (it slid right in there nicely), had made a couple of posts, linked my Twitter, and lastly, installed Google Analytics . Might as well know if anyone is stopping by my Tumblr. I have had Sitemeter on here since I created the blog, and I am used to the interface and what it gives me for pageviews etc, but I am excited to see what G.A. can display. It looks rather tasty. And much deeper content. Just need some views to see what's what data wise.

Tumblr seems to be the current way of rapidly sharing content (re-blogging at the click of one button is fantastic), and quickly getting different eyeballs on my work. In the past couple months, I have gathered photographic inspiration from it, and some of my fav photographers and bloggers have Tumblr pages.

There will probably be some cross over in terms of content I post there that has already been on here, but I hope you can deal with that if you are checking out both. :)

If you have a tumblr, follow me.

Mike

At the moment the blitz attack happened

Done just for fun, and shot after the sequence in the chair in July. Light was getting low so I had Lizzz jump and spin around as close to the same mark as possible and shot a few dozen frames handheld at longer exposures. This image is a combination of about 11 images. Layered in PS and then flattened. Colour, brightness, contrast tweaked in post in Lightroom.

Details: Canon XSi, 24-105L, 1/25-1/50 sec handheld exposures, 24mm,  f4-f4.5, and a mix of ISO 800 and 1600. Only time flash was used was for the main image.


Mike

Flow chart on how to respond to blog commentary and critiques

I think that this 2008 US AirForce blog assessment response strategy flow chart could be helpful to a lot of large organization when they consider responding or not to a blog that has said something about them. Divided into Assessment, Evaluation and Response, it would even be useful to other bloggers to refer to before they fly off the handle.

I found the above chart on the TechPresident site. And the original image - while it belongs to the US AirForce, was here on Flickr.

Mike

Go placidly amid the noise

Corey, June 2010

"Go placidly amid the noise and the haste and remember what peace there may be in silence. As far as possible without surrender, be on good terms with all persons."

- Max Ehrmann, from Desiderata.

Have a good weekend everyone!

Mike

Ryn, a portrait

My artist friend Ryn from Designs by Ryn. Shot last week with only a few moments of daylight left as the early setting sun dipped behind the trees. I have known Ryn for almost two years, and this was the first time I have done a portrait of her. It wasn't through my lack of trying, but the key turned out to be an ambush request while out for a walk. It was worth the wait. :)

Mike

If you wish to be useful, never take a course that will silence you.

Lizzz, Summer 2008.

I was reading the Cluetrain Manifesto and came across a commencement speech delivered by writer John Jay Chapman to the graduating class of Hobart College in 1900.

While some of the language is dated, something in this resonated with me.  Excerpted below. Full text on Wikipedia.

Pitted Joy

I went for a walk last week at a favourite location of mine, and came across this thin brass ornament attached at eye level to a little tree branch with a twist of corroded wire.

Certainly showing the signs of being out in the elements, it had probably been there since last year. While obvious to me, it had been missed, or perhaps left, by hundreds of hikers and birdwatchers.

Might make a nice Christmas card... posted it to my  Redbubble.com (fixed link)

Mike

Deep tracks in damp sand

Not having access to a tire track database - or is that a tire tread database? - I don't know what vehicle made these, but the crisp curved thorn-like impressions left in the sand are quite appealing.

Mike

What remains

Before having a tete-a-tete with a giant road grader - after driving over it's pristine work on a virginal graveled/sanded rural side road, I came across these remains. I had just set off from a Y junction where I had pondered which way to go on my inadequate yet functional analog map (GPS would seriously be my friend in these situations) and decided on going right.

In Mud

Shot back in August of 2009.

Amy accompanied me on a walk-about exploration of an area that I knew on occasion to be quite muddy. After some recent rain it had certainly met my expectations. I located a particularly large mud puddle which was about a foot deep and 20 x 8 feet in area. I figured her getting in it and getting very muddy would be a good plan for photos, and she indulged me. :)

It is certainly important beforehand to have a means to clean off, towels, bag for muddy undies and shirt, and a means of protecting car seats. Doing this on an impulse would be a bad idea. :) And this was one of those times where I didn't think it necessary to follow a model's lead and get in the water  - like I have done with others on shoots. I was fine where I was. And so was my camera.  :)

Additional Trees on blue

Spent part of the afternoon editing these - and others, on my pokey computer while watching RedBull's Sebastian Vettel become the youngest F1 world champion at the Grand Prix in Abu Dhabi.

A tree on blue

Went for a walk on Saturday. Pointed the camera up. After a bit more walking around, and later, a bit of editing, I had a 139MB tiff file at 8544x5696 pixels. A beast to save on my pokey machine and took forever to export as a smallish low dpi Jpeg.  I like the result though :)

This is available as a print if anyone is interested


Mike

Even when your world is collapsing

Take the time to look around.

The old Embassy Hotel on Dundas St., in London, Ontario. Photographed after the fire, during the early stages of demolition. May 17, 2010.

Mike

Rusted and trackless TD-14A

An International Harvester TD-14A tractor, Serial Number 38704. It was abandoned long ago, and is now missing its engine and tracks.  Shot April, 2009 just inside a tree line on the edge of a field near London, ON.

The TD-14A was a diesel engined crawler tractor (so it had tank tracks) built by the International Harvester company from 1949 to 1955. From what I Googled, the serial number puts it's build to 1954.

For the Fallen

They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old:

Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.

At the going down of the sun and in the morning,

We will remember them.

- From Laurence Binyon's poem "For the Fallen"

Mike

Carl Sagan 'A Glorious Dawn' feat. Stephen Hawking

Today is the Second annual Carl Sagan Day apparently. So why not celebrate it with Carl auto tuned and featuring DJ Stephen Hawking. :)

Makes you wonder, when Carl Sagan and his team put together The Golden Record mounted on Voyager I and II, if he could have envisioned that video happening. :)

I almost met him when he did a lecture at U of T's Convocation Hall one evening in April 1985. After the lecture, he did a book signing and I made my way down from the upper tiers to get my copy of Cosmos signed - that I had brought along just for that purpose. When I was about a dozen people from the front of the line, he was told it was getting late and they had to end it. That was really disappointing to me, but it was awesome hearing him talk in person about the Drake Equation .

It would probably seem completely dated now, but I would love to see Cosmos on DVD.

*Video originally found on DC Debbie's Blog here.

Mike

The path lies before me

Is this the path that lies before me?  Or am I looking back from where I came?

Mike

Fall back, Spring forward, later.

In most of North America, the clocks go back an hour tonight.

Tomorrow also happens to be Nadine's birthday. She wants to make sure everyone changes their clocks, microwaves, coffee makers, watches - and that confusing to set one in the car too -  so she gets a 25 hour birthday. Don't let her down.

Happy Birthday Nadine. :)

Mike

New video from Rusty Water "Two Crows"

My friend Derek and his band Rusty Water and the Broken Troubadours ( Facebook & Myspace &  @RustyWater_BTs on Twitter) released the video for "Two Crows" this week.

Check it. And if you are in a position to do so, book em.

Mike

What do you see when you go out?

Non descript unpaved country road. Appliance door in a faded creamy yellow. Perfectly balanced on a fence post on the edge of a wooded area.

If you don't speed your pickup trucks down the rural roads mowing down little critters as you slug back cans of '50, you might see things. Give it a shot. :)

Mike

Snow as a metaphor for change?

No, this wasn't on-the-ground accumulation. This was outside a hockey arena yesterday. But it's just around the corner. Like change.

Mike

Ah to do the work of an Amphora

The work of the world is common as mud.

Botched, it smears the hands, crumbles to dust.

But the thing worth doing well done

has a shape that satisfies, clean and evident.

Greek amphoras for wine or oil,

Hopi vases that held corn, are put in museums

but you know they were made to be used.

The pitcher cries for water to carry

and a person for work that is real.

-- Marge Piercy

Ah, to do the work of an Amphora or to make a Hopi vase...

Mike