Tag: 1aDay Page 1 of 6

This past weekend, my youngest daughter, Kelly, (on the left) who goes to school in Louisville, KY and is on the womens’ rowing team there, was participating in the regional finals for The Big East Conference at Oak Ridge, Tennessee.

While Louisville did all right, it wasn’t the kind of finish they were hoping for to their season, and that elusive entry into the NCAA National Finals won’t happen this year. But there’s still time for Kelly to get there. She’s entering her senior (and final) year at Louisville in the fall.

I would have loved to have been at the regatta but getting there from here on the West Coast proved to be more than I could handle this year. Heather and I are hoping to be there next year.

However, my cousin, Charles Traynor, was at the regatta, since his daughter, Kat, (on the right in the photo) who is a year older than Kelly, goes to school at the University of Iowa and is also a rower at that school.

As luck would have it, both cousins are the strokes for their respective boats and they were lined up side-by-side on Saturday. Charles sent me a note that tactfully said it was a “great” race. Kelly put it more bluntly in a text message – “Iowa dominated.”

After the race, Charles caught up with Kelly and Kat and grabbed this picture. There’s something kind of cool about the fact that those two cousins grew up on different sides of the continent (Hamilton and Victoria) but ended up racing against each other in Oak Ridge, Tennesee. And I’m glad that Charles was there to capture the moment.

Congrats Kelly and Kat.

Retail corner
Originally uploaded by Dave Traynor

This photo shows a corner window in the new retail area of my cousin’s organic bread bakery, La Boulange, in Qualicum Beach. It’s a great operation and I was visiting with him on Sunday afternoon.

This picture is from a set of photos of John’s newly-renovated operation that I’ve posted on my Flickr site.

You can read more about his operation there.

I was up there to visit John’s Dad, my Uncle Alan, who will be 97 this month. He’s recuperating in hospital in Nanaimo from a recent stroke and a broken wrist. But he was in good spirits today, still able to quiz me about all of my family and tell me all kinds of stories about the “old days.” He’s the only link left of my Dad’s family, so he’s very special and I’m glad he’s doing so well.

Like most of you, I participated in the global phenomenon that was Susan Boyle’s YouTube version of her now-famous performance. (If, by some chance, you haven’t seen it, you can see the video here.)

Since my first viewing of it (and yes, I teared up – actually, I cried like a baby) I’ve been wondering what the incredible response from around the world to this lady from Scotland really means. So far, I haven’t come up with any blinding insights, but today, I did come across a blog post from Bob Cringlely that does a good job at tackling some of those questions, so I thought I’d pass it along.

Here’s the link.

And if you have any more insights, please add them to the comments.

A silent protest speaks volumes
Originally uploaded by Dave Traynor

My photo for today is not one that I took. Instead, I’m posting one from last weekend’s IV Peoples’ Summit, held in Trinidad & Tobago, at the same time as the political leaders were attending the V Summit of the Americas.

Common Frontiers Canada’s coordinator, Rick Arnold, was in Trinidad and I was helping him post his materials to a special website we created for the Summit on the Common Frontiers website. (I’m the webmaster for the CF site.)

This photo was taken by Rick and shows a silent protest being staged by some of the participants.

If you’d like to learn a bit more about the IV Peoples’ Summit, visit the special CF site. You can also see some more photos from the event at the CF Photo Gallery.

Last one out, turn out the lights
Originally uploaded by Dave Traynor

I spent last Friday touring local Victoria media outlets with the Vancouver Island chapter of the Canadian Public Relations Society (of which I am one of the Board members.)

It was an interesting day, especially given the kinds of pressures that a lot of the media outlets are feeling these days. Ironically, our tour of the local paper, the Victoria Times Colonist, didn’t work out quite as planned. We were supposed to see the press in action (that’s a view of it in the photo) but it wasn’t running in the afternoon. (It’s usually printing flyers or something at that time of the day.) The silence of the place was deafening.

There are a lot of people out there predicting that newspapers like this one will be out of business very soon. I wonder…

I’ll have more pics from our tour later this week.

For those of you that have been following my 1aDay posts, you’ll notice that there’s been an interruption recently. I’ve been battling some computer problems which have affected my ability to edit photos.

My trusty Apple Powerbook laptop, which is my primary computer, is getting cranky. My photo software resides on this computer but in recent days, the colours on my monitor have gone wonky. I’m still able to work on it, but the colour shifts are all over the place, which makes adjusting photographs a bit of a crapshoot.

So, I’ve decided that it’s time to upgrade the computer I use for my photo and web work. Today, I ordered a new 24″ IMac, just like the one pictured here. It’s a nice machine – very fast, with an outstanding monitor. Needless to say, I’m pretty excited and looking forward to its arrival. That should be sometime this week, assuming that Fed Ex can find its way to the Island.

I’ll be sure to let you know when it arrives.

A good day
Originally uploaded by Dave Traynor

I want to put together a set of photos from our trip to Haida Gwaii last summer. It’s been a long time between being there and starting to work on the photos.

As I was going through some of them (the majority of the photos were taken with my wife’s camera, but I did have mine along with me) I was struck by just how gorgeous the weather was when we were there.

We had arrived expecting the normal weather the Queen Charlottes’ provides in the summer – lots and lots of rain. Instead, we were treated to a week of glorious sunshine, warm weather and little wind. It as a perfect setting for a kayaking adventure.

We had chartered a boat to transport us around, the Anvil Cove. That’s it anchored off in the distance in this photo. It’s a great way to kayak – especially when you’re a relative rookie with issues about sleeping on the ground, etc. The bunks in the Anvil Cove were perfectly good at night, and the cook onboard fed us great meals.

I like this photo because it sums up the best parts of the trip. The weather, of course, and the spectacular, unspoiled wilderness. Most of the time we felt like we were the only people in the whole park.

I recommend a visit to Haida Gwaii, if you haven’t been in your life. It’s worth it.

Fallen forest
Originally uploaded by Dave Traynor

The forest has many moods. When there has been cutting, the logs lay where they fall. This isn’t logging for profit. The cuts are being done by the local municipality to bring down winter storm damage and remove trees that could cause damage or are a threat to people using the parks.

But in the early morning light, they create a mysterious landscape that I enjoy. This photo is an attempt to recreate that feeling by playing with the colours and texture of the photo. A photograph can be many things. It is a record of what we saw but it can also be a view into what we see. Snapshots capture what we’re looking at and today’s cameras do that beautifully. But when we are in a photo, we experience the sounds, smells, heat, cold, light, dark, taste – information that we retain in our memory, whether conscious or not.

Sometimes a photo can bring those memories back. That’s what I’m experimenting with here. It will take awhile for me to understand how the various options available through this new software work and how they can affect the image you’ll see. But I’ve got lots of time and lots of memories to work with.

Spring colours
Originally uploaded by Dave Traynor

More photos of flowers. This time, a lower perspective gives us an interesting horizon. These flowers are alongside a ditch but shooting up from the bottom of the ditch, combined with a little work back in the digital darkroom gives us this shot. Could be a day at the beach near Parksville…

I’ve fallen behind in my postings for my 1aDay collection. So today, I’m posting four photos, which show some of the reasons why I like living here in Victoria.

This first photo is called “A Pink Boulevard” and shows the TransCanada Highway, looking southeast towards downtown Victoria. (Click on any of the photos to see a larger view on my Flickr site.)

What I like about this is the rows of cherry trees in full bloom on the boulevard. They add a nice touch to the morning commute.

Too bad they can’t stay that colour year-round.

The second photo on this catch-up day is called “Bike Commuter Heaven.” It’s taken from the same flyover I was standing on in the previous picture. It shows the Transcanada on the left and the Galloping Goose Trail on the right.

The Galloping Goose Trail is an old rail line that runs from downtown Victoria all the way to Sooke. It’s become a vital part of the trail system in this area and all kinds of people commute to work on it every day. It’s also popular with walkers and roller skaters, of course.

Normally, this photo would show a biker on the trail. But wouldn’t you know it – I waited 15 minutes (while my dogs tried to figure out what I was doing) but not a single biker came along! Of course, once I got to the other side of the bridge, a big pack of bike racers went flying by. That would have made for a great shot…

Number 3 on my list is a shot I call “The Weed Bed.”

It’s another example of the kind of stuff that pokes up all over the place in this area. No one tends these plots. They just are there.

This one sits behind a big secondary school not far from our house. The school is built near a large outcropping of stones, from which you can get some great views of the surrounding area. And throughout the area, there are these patches of colour at this time of year.

Yellows, purples, greens – a riot of colour almost everywhere you look. I don’t know whether the kids that go to this school appreciate the view. It doesn’t seem like it’s that big a deal to them, judging from the piles of garbage that have built up in the rocks. It looks like plenty of people like to hang out there and eat lunch. I just wish they’d use the trash cans near the back doors when they were done.

Finally – my fourth picture today is called “The Side of the Road.”

This is a view of the TransCanada, showing the kind of stuff that grows along the road here. Not everywhere, of course. And not all of it is natural. A lot of trees are planted. But it’s amazing how much colour appears in the ditches and on the sides of the rocks along the roads.

If you look closely, you’ll catch a glimpse of Roxy wandering into the photo. She’s not usually at the side of the road – at least not unless she’s on a leash.

I hope I’m not boring you with these pictures of the spring colours here in Victoria. I know I’m going to get some grief from those of you that are still dealing with the dregs of the winter. But hey, it’s spring now everywhere – officially. And I’m seeing the colours around here in a different way, now that I’m wandering around with a new camera. It’s a great way to enjoy your neighbourhood.