Roundup

A quick round-up of marginally interesting things going in.

1. We've moved Lego from Fantasy Lane Farm to Hopewell Creek Stables. Fantasy Lane was great, but it was a bit of a hike for us to get there and they had a habit of changing the feed without telling us. That said - it was good place for Lego and a great place for photos. Hopefully I can keep in contact with those from Fantasy Lane - a couple of them expressed interest in a photo shoot. Here is a flickr set of my photos from Fantasy Lane.

Hopewell Creek is right beside Maryhill golf course (for those of you who know the area) and it's a 5 minute detour from the route Tara makes to and from school. As long as they take good care of Lego, I'm sure we'll be more than happy to have him there (plus I get to go golfing more often now :) )

2. I made a really rockin' cream of celery and scapes (garlic tops) soup the other night. It turned out really well and I got to use my new immersion blender (which made it oh-so-smooth). If anyone wants me to try and remember how I made it, let me know in the comments and I'll post the recipe.

3. If any of you out there want to feel manly - go find yourself a tree and cut down. I did this past week and it felt good.

4. I'm wearing contacts now, at least when I'm not at work. Taking photos is a lot easier when I can mash the camera right up to my face. I also enjoy wearing sun glasses. This is a poor attempt at a contact self-portrait

I think that's about it

Spin

I would pay good money to see any of my friends do this. Seriously.

Art and differences of opinion

A coworker (and friend) and I had a friendly argument today about some art work. It all centered around a set of photos (on this page and no, I'm not telling you which set).

One of us argued that the photos were technically great, the other argued that they were severely technically deficient. We also strongly argued about their artistic merit, given the subject matter (wedding photography).

This is a coworker and friend who also takes photos. Our own styles are quite different from each other (and the same can be said about our subject matters). I didn't, however, expect there to be such difference in the what we though was good photography. The difference is vast, with one of us indicating that if he had paid for the photos he would ask for his money back and the other willing to spend money on these prints (even though they are of someone else).

All this to say: Art is subjective. Very. Very very subjective. So when you create something and you put it out there for people to enjoy, let your art be its own reward. Don't get bogged down by people who don't like it. Take their criticisms with a handful of salt, improve where you can, and don't be too harsh on others. Everyone gets respect but that doesn't mean their opinions do.

In the end the two of us decided to just disagree. Hopefully we can discuss something else tomorrow.

Arva Flour

Last weekend was my sister-in-laws graduation. We had a jolly good time which included dinner at my brother-in-laws apartment. While I was there, he gave me a mostly full bag of flour.

Odd? Not really - this flour is from the Arva flour Mills in Arva (which I think is near or in London). Tim said the flour was really good and told me to take the bag. Unbleached hard wheat flour. I used it tonight for the first time. I made pizza.

Oh.
My.
Goodness.

It was simply the best pizza crust I have ever made. Bar none. It was flavorful and crispy and chewy. I ate until I couldn't eat any more.

So the next time I'm in London I'm going to Arva Flour Mills and I going to stock up on flour. Hard and soft and maybe some semolina. I can hardly wait.

(Arva has/had a website, but it looks like they forgot to renew the domain.)

Double plus good

Two items of good news today. Well one good news and one really good news.

1. I got my camera back and everything is working. It took 4 weeks, but it came back working. My contact at Blacks (Ian) said that they replaced an SB circuit (which seems to be involved with the self-timer) but the guy at the store said they replaced the flash bulbs in both the popup and the flash. It doesn't really matter I guess a long as it works and stays working.

So all told, my camera was gone for 10.5 weeks in three separate 'outings'. Not a great record, but I hold no grudge.

2. I am officially a published photographer. I've been sitting on this news for a while because it seemed a little surreal, but it looks like it's real real.

I have a photo up in the American Museum of Natural History in New York, New York. It's in a exhibit on horses called "The Horse" and is centered around how horses have shaped our world. The exhibit is on until January and then it tours the world.

The photo is one I took at a dressage show last summer. It's a decent photo - I wish the background was cleaner and I had been a bit more to the right, but I like it. I was approached by José Ramos, a Graphics Research Supervisor for the museum; he saw my photo on flickr and sent me an email about it.

It seemed like a hoax at first, but the AMNH did exist, they did have an exhibit on horses coming soon and his name came up in the internal search a fair amount. He didn't want any of my information, just a copy of the photo and details of when and where it was taken. I decided to take a chance and go with it.

That was early April. Today I got a couple of photos of the panel that contains my photo. It's kinda crazy, but this is real. I have a photograph in a real museum.

Tara has a conference in Boston in the fall. If we can swing it, I may take some time off work and we'll drive down to the conference and and stop off at the museum on the way back.

If any of you are going to New York you should stop in and take some photos for me in case we don't make it.

Anyways I'm a happy camper these days (well, except for the fact that Tara's away at the moment).

Top row, second from the right. That's mine.

She gets beautifuler and then she leaves

My amazing wife has a new hair cut and colour. It looks pretty darn hot to me. she got this done Friday night.

I just got back from the airport. I dropped her off for a three week course in Madison Wisconsin. I'm home alone for the better part of a month.

So my wife gets even better looking and then leaves. How fair is that? To even up the score, I just bought a bag of Lays Sea Salt and Pepper chips. Tara can't have those because the have MSG. Now we're even.