Sidewalk scholar

Wednesday, May 7th, 2008

I almost fell out of the taxi, holding baby J under one arm and dragging out her buggy behind me.
Source of great amusement to the devout beggars lining the sidewalk around the mosque. Baby J waved wildly at the old men and got big smiles in return.
Having broken the ice, I asked the nearest guy […]

Photos in motion

Monday, January 7th, 2008

Here are a couple of examples of a very neat little program called Sqirlz, which makes water-related animations out of photos. In the first example, of Villa Sonsbeek in Arnhem, I tried to capture the slow swell of a breeze-blown lake. I’d give it 5/10.

In the second example, more appropriate for this time of […]

Future anterior

Thursday, November 1st, 2007

Here’s another neologism for you — premem — similar to my previous new word, and also triggered by one of my children. It means “pre-memory”, and while sounding like something out of a Philip K. Dick story, my meaning refers to a more intimate epiphany, one of those “golden moments” when you can already visualize, […]

Grimm times

Monday, October 8th, 2007

The last few days have given us some beautiful misty mornings. I took this detour home after dropping the kids off at school this morning. Carved in the bark of the last tree were the words, “Dopey 4 Snow White”.
Hmmm … I wonder what will happen if I eat these mushrooms …

De time so bleaky

Monday, May 14th, 2007

The title of this post refers to the overcast skies we’ve been having lately in Kingston. For photography, the stark whiteness is something terrible to deal with. No amount of fiddling with contrast or brightness can save the sky because there is simply no data recorded. This means an extra step or two in the […]