Some Told Me It’s All Happening at the Zoo

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Ah, the zoo.  Every time I go to Calgary to visit my sister we go to the Calgary Zoo, which is a fantastic zoo.  It’s been even more fun since I acquired my Canon DSLR.  I feel like a faux-nature photographer, able to take photos of animals I haven’t seen in person or may never get to see.  For the past two weeks my sister has been in town, so we decided to go to the Woodland Parks Zoo in Seattle, so I got my nature photographer on.  Above is a grey wolf.

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These two grizzly bears were awesome.  They’re brothers, the bear in the forefront was very active, walking around, drinking water.

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Both zoos have a butterfly exhibit.  Calgary has had theirs for several years so the butterflies are plentiful.  Woodland Park’s is brand new, so it will need time to breed more butterflies for a fuller room.  Still pretty, though!

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Le lion.

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Those who know me well know that I am terrified of primates, mostly gorillas, chimpanzees and baboons.  They scare the crap out of me.  I do, however, love orang-utans.  They are solitary and generally docile.  I mean, look at this guy’s face.

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Usually when my sister and I are at the Calgary Zoo, the red pandas are hiding and/or sleeping.  We got a little bit of action from this adorable guy, who climbed the tree branch and promptly fell asleep.

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Finally, my favourite animal at the zoo – the tiger.  Calgary has Siberian tigers.  Shown here are the Malayan tigers that Woodland Park has.  They’re so striking looking, and I love that the guy in the bottom photo has spotted something delicious.

Croatia (Part 6: Rovinj)

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Our last ‘home base’ in the Croatian leg of our Balkan odyssey was a peninsula called Rovinj (pronounced Roh-VEEN).  Rovinj sits at the northern bit of the country and the reason it looks so much like Venice is because it was occupied by the Venetians however many years ago.  Rovinj juts out into the Adriatic and is a haven for seafood and pasta lovers.

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Rovinj has the same beautiful, shiny brick streets as Dubrovnik and Split does, but the city takes on a different character than its Dalmatian brothers.  The climate is still warm and mediterranean but where Split and Dubrovnik has palm trees, red roofs and tourists, Rovinj has colourful buildings and laid back locals.

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We spend several days in Rovinj and we loved every minute there.  I had probably the best spaghetti and meatballs of my life there.

The sunsets were unbelievable.  Late September is my favourite time of year to shoot because the light is such a beautiful golden glow in the evening and I was so lucky to be in such a vibrant city at this time of year.

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Another one of the things I loved about shooting Rovinj was the colours.  As you may know by now, I love shooting in bold, bright colour and Rovinj had a lot to offer, with the neutral coloured buildings, pink, orange and red sunset, the brown of the rocks and the blue and green of the water.

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Ah!  If only I had brought my bathing suit I would have joined these sun bathing beauties on the rocks!

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If I lived here, I would drink a press of coffee and watch the sunset at this little table.  Every.  Day.

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We were lucky enough to close out our stay here with a sunset evening inlet boat cruise on the last boat of the day on the last day of the season.  I insisted we sail the Adriatic in Rovinj because we had to cancel our sail in Split, and we totally lucked out.  We headed out and the boat’s crew passed out glasses of juice and wine.  We were entitled to one glass of wine on the cruise but one of the deck hands kept refilling Pa’s glass.  We sat right up front to that I could get some uninhibited shots of the city from the sea as well as the sunset.  Then we got some unexpected guests – Adriatic dolphins!  The dolphins swam right up to the boat frolicked beside us as the sun went down on Rovinj and our time in Croatia.

The Fink

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This is Zoe the Fink.  Zoe’s my little buddy.  She is my fluffy, happy little monster.  Zoe eats everything she can.  Zoe is afraid of saxophones, the vacuum and bunnies.  Zoe barks at you when you walk in, wiggles her stumpy tail, jumps up and kisses your face.  Zoe knows a lot of tricks.  One time Zoe jumped on the counter and ate and entire pound of butter.  Zoe hates kids.  If she could, Zoe would spend all her time swimming.  I love Zoe the Fink.

 

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Croatia (Part 5: Zadar)

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Our pleasant-est of pleasant surprises on our trip to the Balkans was the coastal town of Zadar.  We decided to stay in Zadar randomly – it was a coastal town almost a straight line from the more inland Plitvice Lakes.  We read that it had a pretty old town and a newer interesting waterfront feature – the Marine Organ.

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After most of our day in Plitvice lakes we decided to head into town to check out the Organ and get some dinner.  We wandered through the old town and marvelled at the beautiful Venetian stone work – it was like a miniature, less crowded version of Dubrovnik.  The city is very clean and the stones shiny, like they polish them on a regular basis.  Little art galleries and pizzerias were strewn about the town.

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When we made our way outside of the old wall we were thrust upon a vision of utter majesty – the orange-red sun setting on the restless, white-capped Adriatic Sea, the sound of Nikola Basic’s award winning urban art instalment – the Marine Organ.  As mentioned in a previous post, the Marine Organ is a set of polyethylene pipes of varying lengths and widths set into the concrete seafront with slats on one end to allow the wind, waves, and water in and an opening on the other to the let the chance music out.

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We sat on the steps, watched the sailboats pass by in the choppy waters and the sun set, and listened to the music.  The music was enchanting, harmonious, hypnotizing.  I could have listened to it all day.  We noticed that there were a few cafes set back from the concrete steps and decided that some day, one day, when we return, we will spend more time in Zadar and sit at one of those cafes for a day, drink the delicious coffee and listen to the music of the ocean.

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God Only Knows…

I’m not religious.  Or spiritual.  It’s not that I’m particularly anti-religion, I’m more a-religious, but I can definitely appreciate some of the positive things that have come out of religion – Johann Sebastian Bach stated that all of his music he created for the glory of god.  There is a lot of music that I love that was created for that reason, from the aforementioned Bach to Mahalia Jackson and Stevie Wonder.  I also love the architectural, artistic and engineering feats that people have built for their god, and I love photographing it.

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I really enjoyed taking photos of these mosques in Sarajevo.  Where I’m from we don’t have a very big Muslim population so there aren’t very many mosques.  I would have loved to have entered and seen/photographed what it looked like on the inside, but sadly it was closed.

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The above photo is of a statue of Jesus (obviously) located at the front of the Catholic Cathedral in Sarajevo.  Again, closed to the public.

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The photo below is the inside of the Serbian Orthodox Church in Ljubljana, Slovenia.  I had never been inside of an Orthodox Church and there were no photos allowed, but the kindly old priest made a concession for me.  He explained to Ma, Pa and I why the entire interior of the church is adorned in paintings of the icons, why there were no pews, the main differences between Orthodox and Catholic.

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I’m excited for my upcoming trip to Germany, where I will be taking more photos of religious buildings!

Ryan and Cris

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So, I don’t photograph people.  Not posed photos at least.  But when my close friend Ryan and his fiancée Cris asked me to take some photos for them, I thought, why not?  Ryan is one of my top-tier friends, the upper echelon of my circle of friends, the exclusive group of few who see the real me.

I met Ryan my first year of high school.  We were in band together and I was immediately attracted to him, not just because he’s my “type” (tall, dark and handsome) but because he was devastatingly funny, supremely charismatic and profoundly intelligent.  We grew closer throughout high school and drifted apart somewhat after graduation, only to rekindle our friendship in our 3rd year of university.

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After graduating from university I foolishly made the decision to get married and Ryan and I lost contact all together until about five years after my husband and I had split (probably about 8 years since we had last spoken) I added Ryan to Facebook and we started messaging.  On one of his trips to the mainland (he had moved to Victoria) we decided to meet up for cake and coffee and it was like no time had passed.  Ryan was the happiest I had probably ever seen him, he was finishing up on some carpentry classes and had started maybe sort of seeing a girl that he had known for quite a few years – Cris.

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He and I pretty much poured our hearts out to each other in some of the most cathartic conversations I’ve had in a long time – we shared about our battles with depression, anxiety, ennui, and crisis – and ended up sending each other funny videos that we watch when we start feeling edgy.  Ryan soon made the decision to move back to the mainland, much to my delight to be closer to his family and Cris (and me, as I like to think).  He talked about how their relationship was progressing and how I should meet her.  He told me how into music she is and that she’s bright and warm and kind.  I was interested in meeting her as I had met several of Ryan’s previous girlfriends, and a lot of them were of the dramatic type, to put it euphemistically so on one of our White Spot get togethers Cris came too.

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We talked about classical music and fashion and things like that.  I felt completely at ease with Cris, as if I had known her for a long time.  I remember leaving dinner thinking to myself, “she is the most normal, grounded girl Ryan has ever dated”.  Ryan and Cris moved in with each other and Cris spent more time hanging out with me and Ryan on our get togethers.  Cris was so easy to get along with and Ryan’s eyes flashed whenever he spoke about her.  There was never any doubt in my mind that the two of them should be together.  It got to the point where Cris and I have become close friends and text between the two of us.

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When Ryan told me that he was thinking of buying a ring, I immediately thought, “yes.  This is the way it should be”, which is counterintuitive to my natural reaction of marriage, which is “RUN”.  Ryan and Cris had a private proposal and have set a date for an intimate and what will I’m sure be beautiful ceremony in December.

Photographing these two was not only fun, but natural.  I didn’t feel contrived.  The whole process was easy, thanks to Cris’ natural beauty and ease of being and Ryan’s infectious playfulness.  You’ll definitely be seeing more of them in blog posts to come.

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Croatia (Part 4: Plitvice Lakes)

Plitvice Lakes National Park is probably the most recognizable landmark in Croatia, maybe in a close tie with Dubrovnik.  I was prepared to take a lot of photos while we were there, but I took A LOT.  I just could not get over the scenery.

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As mentioned in a previous post, the site is 16 terraced lakes connected by a series of waterfalls.  The park staff says that because of the unique chemical makeup and how soft the rock is, you never see the same park two days in a row.  The water is always cutting new pathways and changes colour depending on the time of day and time of the year.

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We were there in late September so we were treated to turning leaves and emerald green waters.  Sometimes the water is more blue and is different depending on what part of the park you’re in.  The park also has some iconic bridges and boardwalks that cross the lakes. We didn’t partake as they were roped off, I suppose due to weather.

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This place is (in my novice opinion) a landscape photographer’s dream.  So many different vantage points, colour, texture, light.

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I tried my best to get some shots to show how unbelievable clear the water is, but in the case photographs just don’t do it justice.

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I loved the way the water just cut through rock and growth and moss, creating thousands of little waterfalls.  A lot of the time you can’t even see where the source is, making it look waterfalls were appearing at random.

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As I have previously mentioned as well, the reason the water is so clear is because mud and dirt calcifies very quickly, make the lake bed rock instead of mud and sand.

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My favourite part of photographing the park was all the vivid colours.  I like to think that if I do have a trademark as a photographer, it’s that I try to capture colour and depth, and the Lakes gave me a great opportunity to indulge myself.

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It Makes Me Mellow

 

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White Rock

I love taking photos of chaos.  I love when the shot is busy, lots going on.  I love lots of colours, details, movement.  I find taking calm or placid scenes challenging because they are a lot less forgiving than the busy ones.  The shot has to be perfectly level and the light optimal.  I’m lucky that because of where I live geographically I get plenty of practice, at least for calm ocean/water shots.  Above is in White Rock, a wealthy suburb of Surrey.  It’s hopping in the summer with a great pier and a strip of restaurants (Uli’s being a personal favourite) but in the winter it’s much more subdued and serene.

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Howe Sound

Howe Sound is a lovely, calm inlet north of West Vancouver.  This was taken somewhere between Lion’s Bay and Squamish.  Both the weather and the sea were calm that day, a typical West Coast October.  Not too cold but definitely not warm.  The ocean isn’t quite a completely calm piece of glass, but still flat enough that it was a bit of a tricky shot to get right.

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Mount Triglav National Park, Slovenia

We took this peaceful scenic detour through one of Slovenia’s most iconic landscapes (Mount Triglav is on their flag) towards the end of our trip there.  First of all, Slovenia is awesome.  The people were warm and generous and the natural beauty was absolutely gobsmacking.  Go there.  Anyway, this was the typical view of our drive – shades of green and yellow, quiet, bright.  Manicured hayfields and alpine homesteads dotted the landscape.  Some of the stress of driving in a foreign land (temporarily) melted away.

 

 

Croatia (Part 3: Split)

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Split.  Split is very cool.  The main attraction of Split is Diocletian’s Palace, the retirement home of Roman emperor.  Mountains on one side, Adriatic Ocean on the other, palm trees aplenty!  We stayed at a pansion whose owner may or may not have been some sort of Croatian gangster named Ivan.

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Split was pretty laid back and super interesting.  The only part that I found particularly cheesy was a ‘reenactment’ of some sort of proclamation by the Emperor himself (some schmuck in a toga).  You better believe that those bedazzled, be-visored cruise ship tourists got their iPads out for that one.  One of the many things I liked about Split was that you were never too far from the sea.

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The Mediterranean climate proved for some lovely, bright sunny photos, and the ancient architecture a perfect model.

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It’s amazing to me to be able to photograph real, authentic, ancient bits of history and architecture, like this pillar, an original feature made from red marble native to the region.

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I like to try and imagine what some of the areas that are in disrepair would have looked like in its glory days, like the above tower used to have a domed roof, according to historians.

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On a more personal note, I got spend my 31st birthday within these walls.  I got some delicious pizza, Croatian cream cake and liquor, thanks to the generosity of our host Ivan.  Definitely one of the cooler birthdays I’ve had.