The famous gopher …

More accurately, I suppose I should say “The Famous Richardson’s Ground Squirrel.” Ever have one of those days that just make you smile? For most aspects of my life, today was a pretty normal day. I worked a 13 hour shift at my day job, a shift that felt about twice as long, lol. But none of it really mattered, thanks to an email I got this morning.

Fireworks over Medicine Hat

I found a spot in the park just down from the light industrial area, just off South West Drive (thanks Lacy for the tip on location … awesome spot!!! Check out 50.018622, -110.700957 in Google Maps to see my exact location for these, and I’ll be putting them on the flickr map as well) to set my tripod up last night for the fireworks. There were about two dozen other people gathered there as well watching, and it was a pretty good show overall. The shot on the left was one of the first bursts of the night … I knew that I wouldn’t get great shots overall with the Medicine Hat teepee in frame, since many of the fireworks would drift off frame to the left and at 18mm focal length, I’d miss a lot of detail as well. Still, I wanted one shot with the Teepee and fireworks fully in frame, and I did manage to get this one.

Sunsets and Blossoms … summer in Alberta

Not that I’ve had much time to enjoy it. I wanted to post a comment yesterday about the Summer Solstice … whether its the history, the astronomy, the time, the monuments, or any of the other fascinating aspects of the Solstice, the beginning of summer has been an important date to humans probably for as long as humans have been humans. Unfortunately, I worked 14 hours of it, so I didn’t have much time to write anything. I did have a little bit of time to wander around with my camera for a few minutes near dusk however, so I thought I’d post a few of those to compensate for missing the actual Solstice on here.

This and that …

Haven’t been posting here much lately … work has been keeping me pretty busy and I haven’t really seen much thats inspired me to write (or rant if you prefer) in the last week or so. I’ve been out doing a little bit of photography, but even that has taken a backseat to the day job in recent days. At the end of this entry I’ll link to one of the recent ones I took after wondering what to do with a dead iPod. Also, I stumbled across an interesting post over at Why Don’t You Blog? with a link to the Rense.com pictures that form the base of my “Feeling Insignificant Yet?” post from last year.

The delicious nougat of interestingness

I’ve discussed the concept of “interesting” photos in Flickr before … the main Flickr Explore page is an excellent portal into some of the most stunning photographs being taken around the world. While I have no clue what the actual formula for interesting is, it seems to be made up of a number of different factors …

Foley Loaded gets off both barrels

Well, the show is over and done with, and I’m pretty sure a good time was had by all. Overall I think crowd response was excellent, and the Esplanade is really a great room to perform in. There’s quite a different feeling between a comedy club stage, and a place like the Esplanade (a feeling that must be greatly multiplied in even larger auditoriums or arenas) … I always feel a little closed-in, a little claustrophobic on the small stages in the small rooms at comedy clubs, though I hadn’t really realized how much. There’s so much more freedom, or at least it seems that way, and I’m sure the fact that the crowd is farther away and harder to see helps the feeling as well.

Prairie Cinema

Aurora Borealis from the Trans Canada Highway between Brooks and Medicine Hat, Alberta.  Click here for more of my flickr pics …

Around the world in 24 hours and thousands of pictures

Well, the deadline to submit your pictures to the 24 Hours of Flickr photo pool is fast approaching. May 21st is the last day to submit your entry, but the photo pool is already starting to fill out nicely. At last check, there were 6691 photos submitted to the pool, and the frequency of submissions seems to be dropping as time goes on. It seems likely to expect a bit of a spike in submissions just before the deadline, but I expect the bulk of the submissions are already in. My contribution to the project is the photo above, titled Popcorn. Click that picture to see my complete set of pictures from May 5th.

Help choose my photo of the day

24 hours of flickr is now officially over, but we have until May 21st to post our contribution to the group. I’d like to make a decision earlier, but I am having some trouble figuring out which one I should use. So, I thought I’d ask for suggestions here. Click the picture on the left to get to the set of pictures i took on May 5th, 2007, and have a look around. Either leave a comment on this post about which picture you think I should use, or leave comments on the picture at Flickr, depending on what is easier for you (if you have a Yahoo ID, then you already have a Flickr ID too). I’m not sure when I will make my final decision … certainly before the 21st … but I am curious what my readers here think. Help me out, and vote for your pick as my contribution to 24 Hours of Flickr … but remember, it has to be a picture from the “24 Hours of Flickr” set.

Life on Earth … the gallery

I’ll be heading out to try and capture my own contribution to the cause at some point today, but I wanted to post a quick message pointing everyone towards the photo pool for 24 Hours of Flickr. Its already starting to fill up … at time of writing almost 300 people had already added their shots, and there are some fascinating ones. Check back throughout the day to see the new additions, and in fact, photographers have until May 21st to add photos, but they MUST have been taken on the 5th of May, 2007. I expect that, at the end of the “day” it will make a fascinating slide show.