Calgary Road Trip part 2: The Zoo

May Long Weekend was looking up by the time we reached Calgary. The weather was still on the cooler side, but nothing like what we had to drive through getting there! Saturday morning we jumped in the car and made our way over to the Calgary Zoo. It was a glorious morning, bright and early, the birds were singing, and I was so ready to take some pics! I remember one of Ross's assignments this year for shoot week was a Safari theme. I never got around to doing that and I thought this would be the perfect opportunity! I found a park bench and had my head in my camera bag putting my telephoto lens on to the camera when I heard a gentlemen's voice say,

" You had better get to work, there is a lot to "Shoot"! 

Something about the "ring" of his voice, that call to action, reminded me of....hummm of a photography teacher or two that I know?

I glanced up only to find a telephoto lens bigger than mine and a kindly looking gentleman behind the lens. 

" I tell all my photography students to get memberships here, it's a great place to come and practice" he continued on.

(What's the odds? I get away from school for a weekend and the first person I meet in Calgary is a photography teacher! GO FIGURE!)

" What type of photography do you do, I asked?"

"I do wildlife and sports"

"Really, I'm here to try some wildlife photography and sports-volleyball- my son's in the nationals this weekend" I heard myself reply...

My husband just sat there shaking his head.. Fate, coincidence, what is it with these photographer types that they find each other anywhere they go???

It was great sharing some tips from him and having a bit of an insider's perspective to the Zoo. He obviously had been there quite a bit!

The  entire experience was great! The Zoo has a lot of great animals and not a lot of bars to try and shoot through. Just thought I'd share a few with you! Enjoy! 

 

Ebonie's Road Trip

Fog in the Carberry Hills, Manitoba

Ah Yes, nothing like sitting in a car traveling across the Prairies, destination Calgary. My oldest son was playing in a National Volleyball Tournament there this long weekend. Middle of May, you can expect all kinds of weather! We left this past Friday in pouring rain, which turned into snow, and then heavy fog. This can put a real damper on the creative juices- it's not like my husband was about to stop the car for me to take pictures in the elements we encountered! I began to fidget with my camera (Yes, a sign of my photoholic tendencies), and began to think,

why not take a picture-So what if it's fast , inside a moving window with a pretty dirty, rain splattered windshield what's the worst that could happen? It's not like I can't hit the delete key! So I began snapping away! The next two images I thought turned out kind of neat. They remind me of an abstract water painting...

We drove as far as Calgary, Alberta and then spent a morning going into the Rockies to visit Elbow falls.

Elbow falls- I took about 15 images at the same position of the falls and found this one that captured a rainbow!

One of my goals for the trip was to try and slow the motion of water in an image. Good thing I remembered the tripod!

We went also to "Forget Me Not Pond" only to find it still partially frozen, only beginning to thaw!

We saw a lot of wildlife along side of the road. This deer I just realized as I edited him was really "Sassy" It was sticking its tongue out at me! You may want to click on him for a larger view to really get the look in his face! It's not the best image -But it makes me laugh!

Yes, Ross, I did get out of the car to take this shot. I just made sure I could run to the vehicle faster than he could charge at me!

Sunrise, just outside Medicine Hat, Alberta. On our way back to Winnipeg.

Story Telling Festival-Ebonie on assignment!

A couple of weekends ago, I announced to my husband, that WE (You know, if I make it sound like a combined effort it always goes over better) had a free date night, Saturday, May 9th! All I had to do is show up and take some pictures for the event coordinator. Happy that the word free was in the sentence, Henry says "So where are we off to???" I casually and quite hastily say..." Oh, a story telling festival concert".

"A WHAT" he replies,

"A story telling festival"

"What does one do at a story telling festival???"

" Tell stories" I announced in a matter of a fact way. Little did I know what it was all about- I didn't quite know. Admissibly, I had visions of staff milling around a water cooler sharing really bad stories of how their weekends went. I pushed the thought aside and put on my voyageur spirit and off we went to the University of Manitoba's St. John's College to attend the concert.

 What we saw and heard that evening was no less than a outstanding evening filled with emotion and very real personalities. Four and a half hours of listening to that made us laugh, learn and evaluate ourselves and our interaction with the world around us. We  were brought to laughter by the likes of Blake Travis, a very funny story teller and vocalist-percussionist from St Louis along with Christopher Marc Welsh and Duffy his puppet who tell a story without words, and we can't forget the  unbelievable youthful antics of Richard Van Camp from the North West Territories. 

An Irish nun, sister Cyril Mooney, who runs a school for street children in India, and teacher Marc Kuly and a couple of his students from Gorden Bell made us more aware of events that happen in children's lives here in Winnipeg and around the world, and I know for my husband and I, it was a great reality check to be thankful.

We heard story telling also told through music and song, thanks to Gerald Laroche and Sierra Noble. 

Other speakers included Ruth Christie, Dora Maendel and Dan Keding. Wow! Who knew there was such a great festival to attend! (I've had my head in the books with school this past year!) This was the  4th annual festival and I'm really hoping there is a 5th next year! Next year it's a date night for the whole family! You should check it out to!

Above and below: 1,000 cranes mobile designed by Brian Cox , cranes folded and constructed by Grade 4-6 students at Springfield Heights School. The Mobile was later presented to Sister Cyril Mooney for her school in Calcuttta, India.

 
Below: Blake Travis

Below: Dora Maendel an English teacher from the Fairholme Hutterite Colony near St Claude, Manitoba.

Below; Sierra Noble

 

Below: Musical instruments of Gerald Laroche used in his story telling.

Below:Sister Cyril Mooney and Christopher Marc Welsh share a bonding moment with puppet Duffy.

Say what ?????

Ever had one of those days, you know the kind of day you kind of just walk through, where everything around you seems to be going on some kind of Gaussian blur filter? (like that? It had a little photoshop influence with the Blur bit?) On those days, people's mouths move but you can't hear any words. If you hear something,  somewhere between the words hitting your eardrum, there is a slight moment of disfunction as you brain tries to make sense of what you're hearing but can't quite put "two and two together"?

 My body's way of dealing with those days is to go into overdrive and try to fight the urge to just let things slide. NOOOO my brain says -WAIT lets analyze this, because maybe if we just think about this 2 seconds longer we may just make sense of what we(my ears and I) just heard. You have to just wish the day ends as soon as it begins. I had one of those days this past week . Yep, a real winner!!! 

It didn't start out that bad. My husband asked me to come take some pictures of him for work related items. That would mean going into a factory... This would mean putting on a bright orange hard hat... This is interesting, as I seldom wear bright orange  hardhats....I got out my camera put on my external flash and brought my camera up into the ready position... I went for the view through the view finder....KLANK! What??? I tried again, I raised the camera to my face and...KLANK! Yes, admissibly I did try a third time! In my defense, IT WAS THAT KIND OF DAY! I could, no matter how hard I tried, get my camera to my face without it hitting the visor on the hard hat.

I had to concede that, either I wear the hat and take no pictures or the hat would come off and I would get the pictures done. The latter won out, however, that is not where the story ends. Henry then proceeds to introduce me to a fellow worker in the plant.  He no sooner introduces me and the person says: 

"She looks Like Princess Leah"

Silence...

More silence...

My brain has now gone into it's "2 seconds more" mode.

How does one respond to that? Princess Leah is from the movie Star Wars, I remember, I went to the theater to see it premier, and that was what about 29 years ago????So what does that mean?

 That I look retro????

Do I  have a 70"s kind of look about me???

That maybe my lovely hardhat had pushed two bun type hair clots on either side of my ears???

Maybe he was referring to the fact that I looked like Carrie Fisher?? Great! If it was a direct comparison to the movie, I'll take those glowing cheeks and body any day!

But if it was a direct comparison  to her now, she is definitely older then I, and I believe she's lived quite the hard life! ....GREAT!

I've been mistaken for a few people in my day. I remember one lady approaching me on the Fairy to Victoria and asked if I was The Duchess of York, my Canadian accent assured I was most certainly not.. Another time in my early 20's, an elderly gentlemen asked me if I was Miss Canada as I waited in the mall one day-- --understandably so,---- Oops...I realized after, I was sitting under the sign announcing her visit that day...

But Princess Leah????

I looked at my husband with that perplexed look on my face not quite sure how to respond to that.. a pleading look in my eye..H-e-l-p ...I don't understand..

What I saw was just as much confusion. He however, was quick to add with a awkward laugh:

"Well, hopefully she'll stick around longer than Princess Leah did!"

Silence...

More silence...

Now what does THAT mean????.....HUMMMMM..... How many more hours left in this day???

What did I learn this week?

Meet S.J. -an aspiring model and a good friend of Tiffany's (a fellow classmate of mine). Some of you who follow the PrairieView blog may have seen the documentary work of Amanda O who "snapped" off shots of me "snapping" off shots of this young lady. The Shoot was a fun time and also an ongoing experimentation with studio lights. The first time I've worked with a black paper background. URGGGGG!!!! I did pop my head into Cory's office while setting up for the shoot and he did warn me about footprints on the paper! We were very consciences of wiping the feet off as we walked onto the paper. But alas maybe not enough! Hours of edited footprints can attest to that fact! Paolo (another classmate) said that he actually had seen studio's ( I think he said in Singapore) where they put tape under the shoes to avoid the footprints on the paper. HUMMMM!!! The things I learn at school! We also took the shoot outdoors, thank goodness the weather is getting a little nicer! S.J was a great sport! 

 I wish her all the best with her modeling career- the camera sure loves her!