Chinese New Year

Canon EOS 20D

Shot through the back window of my van. This guy didn't want his picture taken. This is what he awoke to on the first day of the Chinese New Year.

I had a clear shot lined up while he was in his store, serving customers. Then his wife showed up in the Honda. It detracts from the simplicity I was hoping for.

Erie

Canon EOS 20D

This is another shot taken directly from the CF card. No editing. This is the sunset over western Lake Erie on January 21, 2006. I stepped outside to get some shots of four geese with the Fermi II cooling towers as a back drop, and ended up with this shot instead. I'm looking west towards Michigan and Ohio off the breakwall at my in-laws property in the former Colchester South (now Essex). I was shooting with the EF 70-300 lens. All that stuff in the foreground is ice.

Prime Minister

Canon EOS 20D

Raw, unedited shot from the Windsor Hilton--Stephen Harper's last campaign stop in Eastern Canada before heading back to Calgary. It was taken Sunday, January 22, 2006 at 7 a.m., about 39 hours before he was elected Canada's 22nd Prime Minister.

These are about the newsiest shots you're likely to see at glasspoeme. I love the convention floor feel, the crazy shadows caused by the flahes from the photographer pool. I was on the media riser at the back with Christie Blatchford from the National Post.

Sister Philipa at 33

Canon EOS 20D

Jennifer turns 33 today. As a girl, she was in convent school at Sacred Heart in Halifax. She was to be a nun named Sister Philipa. Before she took her vows, her family moved to Windsor, and she met me in The Coach & Horses when I was singing in a band called Elephant. That was in 1991. We got married in 2000, and today we have two boys--Nathanael (3) and Jonah (8 months), with a third on the way in August.

These are amongst the first photos I took with the 20D. Jen is sitting on our living room couch reading The LaSalle Post while I delved into the camera manuals, monkeyed with settings, fiddled with features, and fired off all kind of test shots. At the time, I only had the EF 70-300mm 1:4-5.6 lens, so I'm right on top of her. I really like the rich red tones in the third, darker shot. These were taken on January 5, 2006.

I think the photosmart 735 is officially out of the camera repertoire, as useful as it was. It was always only on long-term loan from my in-laws. I'm going to leave it in the roster, though, because photos taken with it will no doubt be appearing here.

Stephen Harper will be at the Hilton in Windsor at 7 a.m. An eleventh hour stop because the Windsor-Tecumseh riding is so close, a win by Fuschi, bumping Comartin from the House, could clinch a Conservative majority. All politics aside, I'm just going to get the shot.

The Press Conference

Canon EOS 20D

Things have been a bit on the moody side at glasspoeme. I love colour. Then why, you might ask, did I post this shot?

This image is so stark and lonely, yet it manages to suggest bright colour, high mood. I have no clue who the lone gentlemen is, himself a photographer. The tripod pointed at the unattended podium... or is that labial twist of polished rock making a funding announcement? Ontario's red ensign is a nice dash of colour--like a cardinal in the snow.

This was taken at about 2:30 this afternoon in the Rodzik Room at the Art Gallery of Windsor. Members of the press were milling about, waiting for the arrival of Laurel Broten, Ontario's Minister of the Environment. I was standing talking to one of my old Windsor Star friends, Dan Janisse, when I noticed this one guy just standing there, meditatively. The shot wrote itself.

It was unintentional, but I like the tension between the horizontal wide angle and the strong vertical lines. Very little cropping or photoshopping. There are several more from this series, some when the press conference is actually in progress. None, unfortunately, of Minister Broten's press secretary, Lindsay Mack.

Detroit can be seen in the background, across the Detroit River. When this room isn't set up for press conferences and functions, it has these very moderne green leather cube chairs that are just great for sitting in with a laptop, some headphones and a coffee and getting some writing done. I've spent many a serene hour in there.

Standardbred

Canon EOS 20D

This was shot yesterday at a standardbred training facility in Oldcastle, Ontario. I was there to interview and talk to Brian Tropea. He owns, trains, and races standardbred horses. We were standing in his large stable, talking about the politics of harness racing, when the large doors at the far end cracked open like a hangar. I fired off this shot mid-sentence. In the field with the wind chill, it was about -20 degrees Celsius. The steam coming off the horse was unreal. I'm glad it showed up in the shot. My favourite thing about this shot, though, may be the blue cooler--a shock of colour in such a moody image.

I hope to add a music and book feature soon. It will be over to the left, right below the gear list. In lieu of getting that going, I've been listening to The Howling Hex's You Can't Beat Tomorrow, as well as Magnolia Electric Co.'s What Comes After the Blues.

As far as reading goes, I haven't had much time, but Ian McEwan's Amsterdam continues to surprise with some very subtle, hilarious humour. Having read three of his other novels, I didn't expect him to be pulling off these on-liners. Maybe you have to be in the newspaper business to find them funny, but the stuff that takes place in the newsroom is dead-on accurate in its depictions of journalistic one-up-manship, pettiness and ruthlessness.

I'm also rereading Christian Hawkey's excellent book of poetry The Book of Funnels. It's even better a second time through. Verse Press always puts out strong stuff.

River Canard

Canon EOS 20D

River Canard is a very small community just outside of Windsor. St. Joseph's church is a massive landmark visible from many kilometers away in this very flat part of the world. This shot does not give one the appreciation of just what a monolithic building this is. I would estimate the statue is some 160 feet from the ground.

I took this picture last week while cruising the backroads, waiting for something to happen. It wasn't until later that I realized Jesus appears to be doing his best Karl Wallenda .

K1000

photosmart 735

My beloved K1000. It's nearly as old as I am. I bought it used in a pawn shop for $500 (shows you how well they retain their value), and it served me well for over five years as a photojournalist, working freelance as well as for a major daily newspaper. I even garnered some award nominations shooting with the venerable Pentax K1000.

Ironically, this photo was taken with an HP photosmart 735 digital. A handy little thing. Even more irony: after years of swearing I would never stray from my K1000 and 35mm film, I just dropped a tonne of money into a Canon 20D digital.

Has the Pentax been put out to pasture? Well, not forever. I'll break it back out some day. The romance with film is not over. But right now, I'm just having too much fun with the 20D.

glasspoeme, then, will primarily be a photoblog. It will also be a literary blog. A blog dedicated to poetry, fiction, underground/indie music, films and interesting people.