iPhone Photos

It does surprisingly well, considering this is an older 3GS, not the 4 with the better camera.

Peppers

I love the profusion of produce at the farmers market this time of year.

iPhone + Lightroom (click for larger view)

Patagonia Time Lapse

Beautiful time lapse video of Patagonia by Adam Colton.



As usual, it's worth viewing it larger size.

Happy Birthday Mendel

Cute Google graphic for Gregory Mendel's 189th birthday:

Growing is Forever

Watch it on Vimeo to get a larger version.

Urban Friends

I went for a run this morning and even within the city it's great to see other creatures besides humans.

The pelicans were out cruising the river. They are such beautiful flyers, although a little awkward looking taking off and landing.

A Northern flicker was out in the grass. They are the only woodpeckers that feed on the ground, often on ants. They are even known to crush ants and rub the resulting formic acid on themselves to kill parasites. I've seen quite a few of these this year.

A couple of Yellow warblers were hopping around in the bushes and trees. Such colorful little birds.

After my run, when I was sitting on a bench watching the river go by, a short-tailed weasel (aka stoat) ran across the path in front of me. It didn't seem to notice me and stopped under my bench for a moment before running a bit farther down the path and disappearing into the underbrush.

Life is good.

Fern Meadow

A beautiful meadow carpeted with ferns. This was from our recent Appalachian Trail hike. The video is not the greatest quality but I hope you get a feel for how beautiful it was. The music is, suitably, Copland's Appalachian Spring. (I thought I was using a short enough clip of the music to be legit, but it got detected and can't be played in Germany because of copyright.)



For a bigger version, click on the Vimeo button at the bottom right.

Shot with a Canon G12 and stabilized with iMovie.

2011-07-07 Update: The video quit working on YouTube, probably because of the copyright issue, so I switched to Vimeo.

Spreading the Word - EcoFriendly Sask

For some time I've wanted to do something to help the environment, but it's hard to know where to start. I have this blog where I sometimes talk about environmental issues, but I doubt whether my rants really do much to help the environment.

And so EcoFriendly Sask was born.

My sister Penny has a blog as well (Wanderlust and Words). I really liked the way she told the stories of people and their passions. She also has a weekly Flavourful Saskatoon post about local food happenings.

What if we were to start a blog (and Facebook and Twitter, of course) to talk about local environmental stories and happenings?

At first we were both a little sceptical as there are already so many environmental organizations and websites. But there aren't any websites focusing on the local environmental news and issues in Saskatoon and Saskatchewan. No one was gathering the news from all the different organizations, each with their own focus. And no one was telling the stories of the local people and their passions.

Did you know that Saskatchewan's newest national park, Grasslands, was recently expanded? Did you know that the Canadian Center for Policy Alternatives has a Saskatchewan office that recently released a report on Sustainable Power Options to Complement Wind and Solar? Do you know which businesses are out there if you want to install solar panels or geothermal? Do you know what events are going on this month related to the environment? That's the kind of information we wanted to share.

The more we thought about it, the more it made sense. I was already following the environmental news, and Penny had already developed a reporting style that we thought would work well.

We brainstormed for names and ended up with EcoFriendly Sask. We're not sure where we'll end up, but we're going to start by gathering the news and stories on the environmental front in Saskatoon and Saskatchewan and passing it on via blog, Facebook, and Twitter. We hope to raise awareness, educate, and encourage.

I hope you'll join us at EcoFriendly Sask, and please Like us on Facebook, and follow us on Twitter.

Pike Lake

A few photos from kayaking this morning at Pike Lake.

(click to view photos)

Pool of Possibilities

I stopped by the Mendel today for coffee at Museo and to check out the Pool Project exhibit of Courtney Milne's photographs.

If you get a chance I would definitely recommend having a look at the exhibit - wonderful photographs.

My father went on photography workshops with Courtney and was always envious of his photographs and his success. I also wish I could take such beautiful photographs.



A nice video about Courtney and his pool project. Best full screen.

Complete Streets

Complete Streets: It’s About More Than Bike Lanes - interesting video on the issues of bike lanes, pedestrians, and traffic in New York.

One thing I noticed in this video is that not only are the bike lanes inside the parked cars, but there is also a space between the parked cars and the bike lane so you don't get wiped out by someone opening their car door.

Unfortunately, this also reminds me about how minimal our biking infrastructure is in Saskatoon. If you want to get wiped out by a car door in Saskatoon I suggest biking south on the downtown part of Spadina. Although this is nominally a bike route, you're squeezed between busy traffic and people frequently getting in and out of parked cars. If someone does open their door in front of you, you'd better be able to stop since your only other option is to swerve out into the traffic. Saskatoon's idea of bike infrastructure is to paint a few sharrow chevrons on traffic lanes and fantasize that somehow that makes it all better for bikers. Sorry, but that's pathetic. A recent study doesn't show much benefit to cyclists. (Their conclusions are the opposite, but aren't supported by the data as far as I can see.) I guess they might be better than nothing, but not by much.

Prairie Skies

The living room faces the sunset so when I see colors like this through the trees sometimes I have to grab my camera and try to capture it. The mosquitoes also enjoy the opportunity to feast on me while I'm standing in the driveway taking pictures!