Check out the amazing driftwood sculptures created by artist Heather Jansch.
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Category: Art
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Drayton Valley Photographer
Actually an Okotoks Photographer Now
My sister, Jackie Hutchinson, is a photographer in Drayton Valley Okotoks, Alberta. She still gets up to Drayton Valley for special occasions.
This is a screen capture of the new website I put together for her. It’s a work in progress as she develops her portfolio, but so far she already has some really nice shots online.
Update: Here’s a screenshot of the newest iteration of her site (as of September 2009). I’m blown away by how great of a photographer she’s become.
Check out jackiehutch.com to see more of her amazing photography.
Jackie and family have moved to Okotoks, Alberta.
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The High Level Bridge
I shot some photos yesterday around the city. This one above is a compilation of 9 images showing the Old Man River and The High Level Bridge. The bridge is Canada’s longest train bridge and is 100 years old this year. The trails on the ice are from the Canada geese that decided not to fly south for the winter. I guess it’s not cold enough this year to make it worth the long flight.
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Tales from Mexico
On Sunday we really cut it close making our plane. We only gave ourselves about 15 minutes of extra time assuming everything else went according to plan, which would have been fine except for a couple of mix-ups like Trev forgetting his runners. Not to mention he also forgot that Drew moved about a year ago and hence he accidentally went to Drew’s old house putting us slightly behind schedule for the road.
Once we got on our way things were pretty uneventful, but there was a near disaster when Forgetful Jones Wallace forgot to pick up his wallet on the other side of security which might have resulted in a missed flight due to no ID. I have been thanking my lucky stars that I haven’t yet done anything particularly embarrassing or potentially trip ending but remember the week is young. Anyway it’s all good and we are having lots of fun in the sun.
Today we hired a charter to take us to a couple of different villas up the coast and had fun snorkeling as well as hiking around on a couple of different beaches. The boat ride was really a blast. All of a sudden Drew was hit with a wave of nausea and began a not so friendly reunion with his breakfast on the port side. He looked in quite a bit of discomfort so I didn’t think it would have been right to document it in pictures. However I´m pretty sure Steve and/or Trev got a photo.
While Drew was just kind of taking it easy we were learning that it’s the manta ray mating season right now. There are lots and lots of large and small manta rays scouting the area looking for action. We were amazed to see one giant manta ray breach the water completely. Steve and Trev hopped in to get a closer look and I captured a photo with the manta as one of its fins came up out of the water. When I jumped in myself I was too late they were long gone.
When we got to town, we lounged around a bit, I picked up some stomach settling pills for Drew and eventually we hiked up to see a waterfall. Unfortunately when we got there we discovered it was pretty dry. Apparently they are on the verge of a water shortage in the village and so there isn’t a lot left over for the river, but despite that, it was still a nice hike.
We had dinner on the beach, enjoyed the weather and scenery for awhile and then and headed back into town.
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Greeting from Mexico
I’m having a great time here in Mexico. We’re keeping extremely busy going to the beach and lounging around.
Today we hit up El Eden and the Preditor Set restaurant. I’ll have some good stories to tell when I have more time.
In the meantime—my Mexico 2006 flickr set.
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New Nikon D70s Digital SLR Camera
For my birthday, coming up in a week from today, my mom got me a new digital SLR camera! I’m still learning all the settings, but I’m loving every minute of it.
It’s a Nikon D70s. I also got a few accessories for it, including a polarizing filter, a camera bag, and a 1gb memory card.
I’m a little hesitant to take it with me on my trip to Mexico, but I got it a week before my birthday so I could do just that. I’ll be watching it like a hawk; at the same time I think it will be worth it.
Here are 12 winter photos I took with my new camera.
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LED Throwies
Here’s a neat little project that anyone can do: make battery powered magnetic LED “throwies” that can be thrown and stuck to any ferromagnetic surface in your neighbourhood.
A throwie is made from a 10mm diffused LED, a small lithium battery, and a rare-earth magnet all taped together. They cost about $1 to make and the batteries last about a week.
Instructables has a page of step-by-step instructions to make your own throwies.
Also, check out throwies in action.
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The Song Tapper
The Song Tapper is a neat web application that can help identify a song that maybe stuck in your head, but maybe you don’t remember the name of it. The way it works is to just tap the spacebar to the rhythm of each syllable in the lyrics of the song you want to identify and then the server returns several possible names and artists. It’s fun and surprisingly accurate.
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Toy Story 3 Shelved
It has only been a short time since Disney’s all stock buy-out of Pixar and already some big changes are under way. The Los Angeles Times reports that with this deal comes an end to quarrel over Pixar sequels.
In remarks made during a Tuesday conference call with analysts, Iger and Pixar Chief Executive Steve Jobs implied what other sources confirmed Wednesday: that Disney’s 150-plus-person Pixar sequels unit — which is housed in a Glendale warehouse and is already at work on Toy Story 3 — will soon be no more.
“We feel very strongly that if the sequels are going to be made, we want the people who were involved in the original films involved in the sequels,” Jobs said.
Iger sounded the same note.
“It was really important to me that the people who made the films originally, who had the vision, who knew the characters and the essence of these films get a shot at making any films that were derivative,” the Disney chief said.
“While Disney might have been able to make them, Pixar making them is just so much different,” Iger added. “Not to take away from the talent of other people who might have been picked to make them.”
The announcement isn’t a complete surprise since Disney making Pixar sequels (or not making them) was a major factor during negotiations. Still it’s nice to see that Disney will no longer be destroying classics as they have done in the past. And because Pixar is taking over for Walt Disney Feature Animation, I guess this also means no more Dumbo 2? (Yes, they really were thinking about it.)
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Flickeur
This flash app “randomly retrieves images from Flickr.com and creates an infinite film with a style that can vary between stream-of-consciousness, documentary or video clip.” Your mileage may vary—I found it an interesting way of blending random content to create art.