Imablog Perspectives of a Canadian in the Old/Deep/New/Geographic South: This is where I ramble on about nothing in particular and post a few nice pictures.

At the Fair

Had a good time at the fair Saturday with some of my fellow photographer friends. There were a total of 8 of us that showed up (at last that showed up at the right meeting spot anyway). Pretty good turnout I'd say.

For Halloween, there weren't quite as many people dressed up as I thought there might be.

Wandered around and checked out the barrel racing and petting zoo to start off with.

What we were all waiting for though, was the sun to go down though so we could have some fun playing with long exposures and getting pictures of all the lights. Once it got dark, that's when all the real photography fun started.

This is one of those shots where you set a long exposure and zoom during the exposure. Gets you some interesting effects.

After the show in the big amphitheater, there were fireworks that we just had to photograph. I don't think there's a photographer in the world that can resist photographing fireworks.

After the fireworks, it was more midway wandering and playing with lights. For some reason, people kept asking if we were with the newspaper. Can't imagine why.

There's supposed to be some bull riding action tomorrow evening, so I think I might be heading back to the fair for some more photos.

Day old full moon

D-Day + 65

65 years ago, Allied forces stormed the beaches of Normandy, France.

CBC asks "What does Remembrance Day mean to you?"

This a poem I never get tired of reading.

In Flanders Fields

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
Between the crosses, row on row
That mark our place; and in the sky
The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
Loved and were loved, and now we lie
In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
The torch; be yours to hold it high.
If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
In Flanders fields.

- Lt. Col. John McRae (1872-1918)

Take a few moments to think about those who fought and died, and those who are still fighting.

Friday at Ted's

Pan Roasted Chicken Breast with Dill Butter / Local Heirloom Tomato, Havarti Cheese and Fennel Tart / Rita’s Roots Local Roasted Turnips, Purple Carrots & Beet Greens / Baked Pear with Vanilla Custard Sauce & Almond Caramel

I'd have been happy with just a big slice of the tomato tart. The rest of the dinner was pretty fab too.

Coming soon to an aquarium near you

Eye in the sky

Fall fun with labs

Today was the Coastal SC Lab Retriever Club's annual fall oyster roast. While everybody else was complaining about the weather, I was with a bunch of fellow Lab owners having a great time watching the dogs run and chase each other around, and leaping into the pond to chase after bumpers.

Wish I had remembered to bring my camera with me.

Filled with opinions

The only time I ever listen to the radio is when I'm in the car, and these days it's mostly tuned to NPR/ETV.

Lately the news and stories I've been hearing have been filling my head with tidbits of responses and arguments, particularly the health care related ones. I feel like I need to start assembling those tidbits into something more coherent, if for no other reason than to get them out of my head.

Often though, by the time I get out of my car and to some place where I can write them down, even the tidbits have lost enough coherency that it would take me too much time to reassemble them into something meaningful.

Then there's the fact that I probably need to spend my time getting through the work and school related reading, rather than typing up essay responses to NPR segments.

I guess I'll just have to let the tidbits rumble through my brain a little while longer.

Maybe I should start using the voice recorder on my PDA.

Help-Portrait Charleston

I found out about Help-Portrait through an email from a friend, who learned about it through an email from another friend.

It's a pretty fascinating project, an opportunity to help people through photography.

Help-Portrait is a movement of photographers who are using their time, equipment and expertise to give back to those who are less fortunate this holiday season

The ball's already rolling to do one in Charleston. Are you interested in participating?

I think the videos below do a better job of explaining Help-Portrait better than I would.

Waddle Wagon

Today the SC Aquarium kicked off a new penguin program, the Waddle Wagon. It's a spiffy little wagon that lets the penguins get out of the Penguin Planet enclosure and into the Aquarium amongst all their adoring fans. Only one or two of the penguins will be in it at a time. Penguin 138 (the youngest one) got to ride in it today.

At the moment, it's going to be an afternoon program, that will happen at 1:30PM, just before the regular 2PM show and feeding.

There was a pretty decent sized crowd today for being the weekend after Thanksgiving, and everybody seemed pretty excited to get up close to a penguin.

Go check it out! It's pretty cool!

Eagle

Liberty, the bald eagle at the SC Aquarium.

A dog and her ears

Nala's always had problems with gooey, yeasty ears and ear infections that flare up from time to time, but the past couple of weeks her ears have been particularly gooey. They're starting to clear up after a good flushing at the vet last week and treatment with Zymox.

A lot of things can cause chronic yeast infections in dogs and Nala has several of those working against her (loves water, floppy ears and slightly narrower ear canals than normal). They can also often a symptom of a food allergy or sensitivity, so to cover that possibility Nala's being switched to Nature's Logic Lamb for a while. It's still lamb (she's on California Natural Lamb & Rice now), but switches the carbohydrate component to millet. We'll see how she does on that for a little while. Simba will stay on the CN L&R, because he's still doing fine on it and there's no reason to switch him.

Sleepy dogs