It's been rolling around the street for a couple of weeks. A couple of days ago it landed in my yard. For some reason I found this happy ball quite amusing!
April 2008 Archives
A pano of the Melsask Motel in Melville Sask. Took a bit of work to get this one to stitch. I'm trying to work out how to do panos properly. Step one would be to actually use my tripod! =P
After I get things a little more worked out and rationalize, I think I'll write up some tutorials and advice.
After I get things a little more worked out and rationalize, I think I'll write up some tutorials and advice.
Today was Earth Day, and I hope you had a good one. I saw a couple of articles today that really hit home for me. The Earth doesn't need just a day to be thought about, talked about, and considered. It needs our whole life time to be thought about, talked about, and considered. It's been said a million times, the Earth is our one and only home. If we don't treat it well, it won't treat us well either. Environmental concerns have gotten so political recently. Is global warming happening or is it not happening. If it is happening how fast is it happening. People have divided into camps with their own opinions and have completely forgotten some basic facts.
The fact of the matter is we really don't know what is going to happen with the environment if we continue down the path we're going down right now. What we do know is that carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas, and that it is currently in it's highest concentration in the atmosphere we have ever observed (by large magnitudes). That also includes going back through history by analyzing gases in ice in glaciers and on the poles of the earth. Basically we're forcing the Earth and in turn ourselves down a path that we don't know without a map, directions, or a clue where we are headed. Considering the potential consequences of destroying our home, this is not a good thing. A modern day house is built out of materials that are flame retardant, but most of us would never set fire to our home to see if we could get out alive before the whole thing went up in smoke. So why are we doing this with the Earth?
The simple fact is that we're not living sustainable lifestyle. If we want the Earth to be around for future generations we have to change our lifestyles now. I know that I don't live a sustainable lifestyle either. But I'm trying to change my ways and reducing the impact I have on the environment by making different choices in my lifestyle. The bonus in this is that it's actually saving me money in the long run as well. I think a lot more people would do more if they realized how much they could save. A simple change in my lifestyle was taking the bus to work. Last year in March I spent $218.69 in fuel for my car. This March I spent $50.01. I filled my car up once that month. Even after paying for my $71.25 bus pass (actually after the tax credits more like $61.25) I have saved money.
If I look at the year to date, last year by this time I had spent $663.69 in fuel. This year I've spent $259.65. I'm spending less than half than what I was a year ago. Sadly this will end soon, as my company is moving out of town, and I will no long be able to commute by bus. I will however try my best to car pool with someone.
I know I'm confusing issues a bit here. Saving the environment isn't about saving money. However I think that most people have an idea that making changes to their lifestyle is inconvenient, and troublesome. If people knew some of the benefits that came a long with it, they may start doing more. Lets face it, generally speaking we are a selfish breed. A lot of people need more than just a feeling of doing good, they need to feel as though they themselves are benefiting from their actions. Living in a highly consumer based society where a lot people have debts they can't afford is not beneficial to us, or to our environment. We're told day in and day out through advertising that we have to consume. Well we don't need to! We don't need everything we're told that we need. We don't need to be neck deep in debt. It's time to be happy with what we have, and to wake up and realize what we're doing to the world around us.
I prefaced this entry with a shot I took a few years ago of a windmill farm southwest of Winnipeg. Manitobans are lucky to have a fairly clean energy supply. Hydro electric and wind power is not without its problems, but it's better than a lot of alternatives. However we still have a long way to go to help live a sustainable lifestyle for all future generations.
The fact of the matter is we really don't know what is going to happen with the environment if we continue down the path we're going down right now. What we do know is that carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas, and that it is currently in it's highest concentration in the atmosphere we have ever observed (by large magnitudes). That also includes going back through history by analyzing gases in ice in glaciers and on the poles of the earth. Basically we're forcing the Earth and in turn ourselves down a path that we don't know without a map, directions, or a clue where we are headed. Considering the potential consequences of destroying our home, this is not a good thing. A modern day house is built out of materials that are flame retardant, but most of us would never set fire to our home to see if we could get out alive before the whole thing went up in smoke. So why are we doing this with the Earth?
The simple fact is that we're not living sustainable lifestyle. If we want the Earth to be around for future generations we have to change our lifestyles now. I know that I don't live a sustainable lifestyle either. But I'm trying to change my ways and reducing the impact I have on the environment by making different choices in my lifestyle. The bonus in this is that it's actually saving me money in the long run as well. I think a lot more people would do more if they realized how much they could save. A simple change in my lifestyle was taking the bus to work. Last year in March I spent $218.69 in fuel for my car. This March I spent $50.01. I filled my car up once that month. Even after paying for my $71.25 bus pass (actually after the tax credits more like $61.25) I have saved money.
If I look at the year to date, last year by this time I had spent $663.69 in fuel. This year I've spent $259.65. I'm spending less than half than what I was a year ago. Sadly this will end soon, as my company is moving out of town, and I will no long be able to commute by bus. I will however try my best to car pool with someone.
I know I'm confusing issues a bit here. Saving the environment isn't about saving money. However I think that most people have an idea that making changes to their lifestyle is inconvenient, and troublesome. If people knew some of the benefits that came a long with it, they may start doing more. Lets face it, generally speaking we are a selfish breed. A lot of people need more than just a feeling of doing good, they need to feel as though they themselves are benefiting from their actions. Living in a highly consumer based society where a lot people have debts they can't afford is not beneficial to us, or to our environment. We're told day in and day out through advertising that we have to consume. Well we don't need to! We don't need everything we're told that we need. We don't need to be neck deep in debt. It's time to be happy with what we have, and to wake up and realize what we're doing to the world around us.
I prefaced this entry with a shot I took a few years ago of a windmill farm southwest of Winnipeg. Manitobans are lucky to have a fairly clean energy supply. Hydro electric and wind power is not without its problems, but it's better than a lot of alternatives. However we still have a long way to go to help live a sustainable lifestyle for all future generations.
Amanda and I had a lazy start to the day on Sunday. Eventually we got outside in the afternoon to get some yard work done. It's still nice to sit back and relax a bit on the weekend though.
I've been shooting for a friend's band every once in a while. I was pretty impressed by their performance, more impressed than I was by my own photography that night.
Anyways if you want to check them out they're known as The Shouting Ground.
Anyways if you want to check them out they're known as The Shouting Ground.
I'm going to preface this post with a bit of a note. This is an example of types of posts that I'm adding to my photoblog. The idea of adding a daily picture has grown old on me. While I'll continue to post interesting shots that I have taken I will also be discussing some photography and photography related topics. As in this post I will likely diverge on topics but I will try to keep relevant to photography on some level.Edward Burtynsky had a show at the Winnipeg Art Gallery that ended just this past weekend. I took my sweet time getting there as the show had been there for 2 months previous. But I'm glad I made it. It was my first opportunity to see large format prints in person. Quite amazing actually. Even with those enormous prints you could still inspect them with a loupe and find new details in the image. I actually wished I had gone sooner, so I would have been able to think about what I saw there and head back again for another viewing. A lot of the pictures are part of WAG's collection, so they'll likely see the light of day at the WAG at a later date.
Burtynsky specializes in large format
photography. His main subject is the impacts of industrialization on
the earth. The scars and damage we leave in our wake because of our
industrious society. I find his image to be very haunting and make me
question whether modern society is headed down the right path. I do
wonder if maybe we've gone too far down the wrong path and it's time to
turn around and head back.Since becoming a home owner just over a year ago, I've tried to be conscience of the decisions I make and how they affect the environment. So far I'm pretty religious about the following:
There still quite a few more things that I would like to do:
- Recycling
- Composting
- Buying products with less packaging
- Buying locally (hard to find local produce in Manitoba in the winter)
- Using environmentally friendly cleaning products
- Not using herbicides or pesticides on the lawn or garden
- Commuting to work on public transportation
- Installed high efficiency lighting where possible and turn the lights off when they're not needed.
- Not supporting big box companies particularly Walmart who take advantage of the poor and irreversibly damage local economies. This one is not completely environment related, but I do honestly feel that supporting businesses like Walmart has huge environmental impacts across the globe.
However after coming back from the Burtynsky show and seeing the damage that we do to the Earth I wonder if it is enough. Between his quarry work, his urban mine work, and his Three Gorges work, I really get the feeling that we're still really screwing things up. Recycling isn't as clean and as environmentally friendly as most people would think. We export our junk to poor countries and expect them to deal with it. Electronics are shipped off to Africa where people burn them in fire pits to reclaim copper and other precious metals. Meanwhile dioxins are pumped into their lungs and our atmosphere. Our ships are shipped off to Bangladesh, India, Pakistan where they are floated on to land and dismantled by poor people who are again exposed to all sorts of pollutants and chemicals that are found on and throughout these ships.
- Get a push reel mower so I'm not burning gas for my lawn
- Catch rain water for the lawn and garden
- Install high efficiency furnace to for heating the house
- Re-insulate areas of the house that loose heat
- Generally keep an eye out to keep the house running efficiently
In January of 2008 National Geographic had a great (though slightly depressing) article about High-Tech Trash and how it is dealt with. It mainly discussed all the ways that we do things wrong, and just barely touched on what we're doing right. I think this is an important thing to think about. We know that we're doing things wrong, but I don't think we don't know how to go about doing them right. Either that or we don't want to spend the money to go about doing them right.
That being the case the best thing that an average person can do is to reduce the amount of stuff that they purchase and use. I think in the long run this will have the biggest impacts to improving our relationship with our environment. We need to go back to an era where when we buy an appliance for the house, it's something that we can continue to use for decades, not barely a decade. We need to encourage and support companies that design and build things that last and that are servicable. For example, electronics that can be serviced and not just thrown out because something simple like a power supply failed.
I think Zack De la Rocha said it best when he screamed WAKE UP!
4/4ths of Team Balls in the Fridge (and a few more) at the Annual Last Chance Bonspiel in Portage La Prairie.Note to those interested: When I shot this it really reminded me of Martin Parr's style, admittedly with the focus reversed. Though I did use fill flash to get the foreground subjects bright and popping in this photo.
Some examples of Parr's work:
3/4's of Team Awesome Face at the Annual Last Chance Bonspiel in Portage La Prairie.
Well it's finally happened. After years of threatening to close the Drive In just outside of Winnipeg in Headingley, they finally called it quits. Apparently not enough customers to justify keeping it open. I shot these last summer as an idea for a project I was going to work on this summer. Sadly I won't get to shoot it now, but I did get a few shots that I liked.
Luckily there is another Drive In about a 20 min drive from my cabin. Maybe I'll work on a project there instead. However it's a small rural Drive In, it has a lot more character in a way, but it's not to the same scale that the old Winnipeg Drive In was. I'm crossing my fingers that someone will reopen the Drive In someday.
Note: This is my first Flash post, so if things aren't working please let me know. Yes I know Derek, you can't see it in Linux! I'm working on something to make sure photos are displayed no matter what, it's just not functional yet.
Welcome to the new PhotonicEye website!
For quite a few reasons I've decided to change the software that I'm using for my photoblog. I want to go a little beyond just a photoblog and have the ability to publish all sorts of materials. Pixelpost is definitely great photoblogging software bit it was limited to only really publishing pictures. I have now migrated to Movable Type which should give me a lot more flexibility in what I can publish. Please be patient over the next month or so as I get this software figured out and customized to my liking. So far the transition has been fairly smooth. Lets home that continues!
Oh! If you're looking for my old photoblog you can find it here! I may try and import it to my new Movable Type blog if it isn't too hard and time permits.
For quite a few reasons I've decided to change the software that I'm using for my photoblog. I want to go a little beyond just a photoblog and have the ability to publish all sorts of materials. Pixelpost is definitely great photoblogging software bit it was limited to only really publishing pictures. I have now migrated to Movable Type which should give me a lot more flexibility in what I can publish. Please be patient over the next month or so as I get this software figured out and customized to my liking. So far the transition has been fairly smooth. Lets home that continues!
Oh! If you're looking for my old photoblog you can find it here! I may try and import it to my new Movable Type blog if it isn't too hard and time permits.
