fireworks and photographs.

(sounds like it could be an Ataris song title …)

it’s been another week, and another bunch of things have gone on in my wee world. a few days ago, Cagney, Anuj, Shanna and i headed to Columbia Lake for this year’s Canada Day fireworks display. it seemed shorter than last year’s show, but it was fun regardless, and Columbia Street was packed with people, disaster-flick-mass-exodus-of-refugees-style. i set up on a tripod to get some long exposures of the show, and i got moderate results, though a few came out nice.

other than that, my life has been very centered around photography as of late, which doesn’t really shock me — aside from a tonne of sorting i need to do for work, i’ve got a pile of other photos to edit for people, still. an ever-diminishing pile, but a pile nonetheless. fortunately, i should have enough time while doing laundry today to get most, if not all, of it done before tonight’s photoshoot.

all of these shoots are coming in handy at the moment, too, not only for portfolio building, but to contribute towards my Montréal fund. a huge step towards that trip was made yesterday when we booked our accomodations. i’m hugely relieved to have that out of the way — we were originally going to try for a quaint little bed and breakfast, but after checking out a list of suggested lodgings that Cagney’s Montréal-savvy friend Candice sent us, we decided to book a suite at an apartment-style hotel. it’s a little pricier than a B&B, but we get underground parking (as opposed to no organized parking) and a two-bedroom apartment with a full kitchenette, which will help us pinch pennies by allowing us to make most meals ourselves. let we forget the indoor swimming pool on the top floor of the hotel. i’m so excited for this trip — i’m looking at it as the first major step in indulging my wanderlust. the fact that we’re going to have a full day or two after checking out of the hotel to drive back home and stop wherever we please for another night only adds to my excitement. i think it goes without saying that i’ll take a photo or two while we’re there.

two legends in one day.

though this won’t be new information to anyone who hasn’t been under a rock since yesterday, nor can i offer any new information, i still feel the need to acknowledge something this culturally significant — of course, i’m talking about the deaths of Farrah Fawcett and Michael Jackson. Farrah succumbed to her two-and-a-half year battle with cancer and Michael suffered a heart attack, the likes of which came completely out of nowhere as far as i know. both were world record holders — Farrah for the best-selling pinup poster of all time and Michael for the best-selling album of all time — and both had huge impacts on popular culture. i bet it would’ve been hard to find a teenage boy in the 1970s who didn’t have a crush on the original blonde Charlie’s Angel; and Michael quite simply changed the face of pop music, in ways that i won’t describe because you already know what i’m talking about (and if you don’t, please make a point to join the 1.6% of the current world population that owns Thriller.) i heard someone on the radio today talking about how Michael Jackson’s death can be likened to that of Elvis Presley’s, John Lennon’s and Kurt Cobain’s, with all four holding their own niches as icons that changed the way the modern world thinks about and listens to and is influenced by music.

in slightly happier news, i seem to be having one of those awesome days where small, little things keep going right: i got a good night’s sleep last night and therefore wasn’t fatigued at work today; we got out an hour and 15 minutes earlier than we were scheduled to; i ran two errands after work, both of which i paid for in exact change; Joe and i are shooting a prom tonight and getting veggie burgers beforehand; and, lastly, the sun’s out and the humidity has dropped. and i have a weekend ahead of me that involves a family photoshoot for two people i went to high school with and a Phil’s night for a friend’s birthday. should be a good one!

pops.

first of all, happy father’s day to guys and dudes the world over who have wee ones and are therefore fathers. second of all, i only saw them once before they broke up. and thirdly, Cagney and i are in Stratford today, and i’m typing this from Gwyneth’s Macbook (ever notice how all laptops are referred to as “laptops,” and only ones made by Apple are referred to as their product name? no one ever says “pass me my Dell Vostro” …) while Cagney works on colouring Gwyneth’s hair.

this afternoon, there was a lovely steak dinner at Cagney’s parents’ place for father’s day and, just so my own dad doesn’t feel too left out, Cagney and i are headed over to see my folks tomorrow night after i’m off work for dinner there. shouldn’t be anything too spectacular — a couple of cards exchanged and some food eaten — but it’s always nice to have dinner worth my parents. after all, it’s one more meal that i don’t have to go to the trouble of cooking i miss them from time to time.

other than those details related to this particular holiday, nothing out of the ordinary has gone on lately. i had a photoshoot with Stevie’s new band, Manorwood, yesterday, which ended up happening in the span of a few minutes in Stevie’s basement instead of outside as originally planned, due to rain (incidentally, it stopped raining not long after the rest of his band members left. figures.) we’ll do another photoshoot outdoors soon, on an evening when the weather is clear enough. i have a really cool idea for some really simple and clean-looking photos against a background of lush greenery; Stevie and i even scoped out the perfect spot for it, so i’m stoked to try it. for now, though, they’ll have a few shots of a scattered jam session in the basement, which actually turned out a little better than i thought it would. all i have to do is edit them (and catch up on a pile of editing photos, and sorting more photos for work,) and then i’ll be on my way.

worth valuing.

on my way home from work today, i was stopped by a police officer at a green light in front of Wilfrid Laurier University so that hundreds of Iranian peace protesters could cross the street at the lights as part of their protest march. i silently cursed the fact that i didn’t have my camera at my side, but i thought quick and got out my dinky cell phone camera:

i’d heard about the civil unrest in Iran over crooked election results and police beatings against protesters, but the flyer that one of today’s marchers handed me through my open van window helped to explain a little bit about why they were on the streets this afternoon.

while stopped at the lights watching the protesters chant as they passed by, my mind dwelled moreso on the process of the protest march than the actual cause of it. though i’m sure i should brush up on the conflict in the area, i couldn’t help but think that if these people who marched today had done so in the streets of Iran, Iranian government officials would have been likely to fatally attack them. even though some motorists who were held up by today’s marchers likely cursed the delay, we’re incredibly fortunate to live in a country where peaceful assembly is completely legal, which is a right worth valuing and defending, if need be. freedom of speech and peaceful expression is something so basic, yet so denied to too many of the world’s citizens, and it’s something we shouldn’t take for granted — even if it makes us ten extra minutes late getting home at night, we should marvel at the fact that we’re privelaged enough to be held up because of it.

also, in lens-related news, i did a little shooting tonight with the macro lenses that Brandon and Joe lent me; not the amount of shooting i’d maybe hoped to do, but enough to come to a conclusion about them. if i can step back into my fantasy budget mindset for a moment, i think i’ll likely end up buying the 60/2.8 at some point, if either. it focuses faster, feels more solid in the hands (even though both feel like — and are — solid hunks of professionally-crafted metal), and macro functions just feel better at a normal focal length as opposed to a telephoto. what makes this conclusion extra sweet is the $400 i’d save if i were to buy the 60/2.8 instead of the 105/2.8 VR.

buck a litre.

i welcomed summertime gas prices when i noticed the local Sunoco sign as i drove home today — filling up is going to become so much more fun!

other than that iota of complaining (oh, i got a parking ticket at the university today — stupid me forgetting to display my service permit), i’m excited for work tomorrow; Brandon has agreed to trade lenses with me for a day — his 105mm VR micro for my 10.5mm fisheye. the condition i proposed for the one-day swap is that we each have to come in to work on Friday with a photo taken with the other person’s lens that exemplifies the lens’ abilities. should be fun!

in accordance with my Dredg obsession, i found out today that a video has been released for Information, and it can be viewed here. the song seems to have been trimmed down by about 1:45, eliminating part of the outro as well as the entire bridge, but it’s still a gorgeous-looking performance video, the likes of which i’ve come to expect from Dredg.

adventures in food. and spillage.

i’ve had a great past few days, and there have been a few food-related instances to accompany them.

Saturday was a long and busy day, and it started out with an early morning; i’d volunteered to photograph this year’s charity walk for ALS research, which i was nominated to do by Joe, as his wife’s cousin was an event volunteer. through talking to her, i actually learned a lot about ALS, as i hadn’t much clue about it beforehand; here’s some background on it if you’re as clueless as i was before that morning. nevertheless, it was eye-opening to talk to people who’d dealt with — or are dealing with — ALS in their immediate family, and it was fun to shoot each team’s group photos and get general event coverage.

that afternoon (without much downtime after finishing up at the walk, actually), i met Pawly and Laura at the Kitchener Auditorium skatepark for round two of their engagement photos. they brought their longboards to incorporate into some of the photos, and even brought a third one for me, which i bombed around on for awhile — they’re really great fun! we ended up going to Waterloo Park to shoot the photos, though, as the skatepark was too populated with kids to do any sort of staged shoot there (plus the parking lot was full of Jehovah’s Witnesses, who were at the ad for a gathering of their kind. and yes, i brought home a bible propaganda pamphlet.) all in all, Pawly and Laura are always a fun time to be around, and taking their pictures again was no exception. i’m excited to get together with them in a few weeks to discuss the details of their August wedding, which i’ll be honoured to photograph.

that night, before what turned into one of the best Phil’s nights Cagney and i have had overall, we went to Ethel’s Lounge for dinner. i wasn’t in the mood to cram myself full of meat, so i had the falafel wrap, as i’d never had falafel before but heard it was good. and, oh, it was good:

this hummus-slathered wrap contained five small “pucks” of fried falafel, alfalfa sprouts, peppers and onions. it’s food like this that’s going to make me not care about eating meat ever again, if i indeed do make the leap into vegetarianism. it was also free, as our server accidentally spilled my second drink on me as she was bringing it out to me. i didn’t feel upset or anything, as it was only Sprite and i don’t get in a tiff over small things like that, but it was nice of her to credit my meal anyways.

tonight, i came home from work to Cagney in the kitchen, as she prepared seasoned chicken breasts with vodka sauce in the oven, whole wheat noodles on the stove and a bowl of caesar salad with bacon. she cooked for three, as she’d invited Chris over for dinner. frankly, it was delicious, and i’m more than grateful that i have a girlfriend who not only can cook, but lovingly does so when she can (don’t worry; i did the dishes as a sign of gratitude.)

after supper, Chris, Cagney, Mel and i went bowling, and then to Marble Slab for some ice cream. i’d never been to a Marble Slab before, though i’d heard nothing but the best about them, and i now know why — what’s awesome is that all of the ice cream and waffle cones are made right there in the shop instead of frozen and shipped in. after choosing a couple of flavours of chocolate ice cream — a pint in total, to be exact — i chose a few toppings, which were mashed into the fresh ice cream atop a frozen granite slab and then squished into my one-quart container. it’s by far the best ice cream i’ve ever had, probably because it’s all made with actual homemade methods, and is made of real cream and not watered-down ice milk or whatnot. also, i somehow have some of it on my shorts and down my leg. yeah, i know; coordination isn’t my strongest suit.

as of right now, i’ve got a bed to get into after showering so that i’ll be all there at work tomorrow. i’ve also got a few more photoshoots to do in the coming weeks, but i should get on with editing the ones i’ve done before more pile up and eager people get restless.

keep moving onward.

my preorder of the new Dredg album came in the mail yesterday, complete with a sweet shirt, and i made a point of sitting down with headphones on tonight and listening to it in its entirety.

it’s called The Pariah, The Parrot, The Delusion, and, like all of Dredg’s works, the album as a whole runs with an underlying concept. though i’ve yet to try to make the connections myself, it’s apparently based upon Salman Rushdie’s essay, Letter To The Six-Billionth Person, referring to a letter that is ambiguously addressed to the world’s six-billionth citizen. Pariah’s album package is designed to look like a postage-laden envelope, and stamped on the front cover is the addressee “seven billionth,” so the album is presumably addressed to the world’s seven-billionth citizen. an interesting concept, and something i’d like to read more into.

musically, Pariah is better than i thought, and i’d already preempted it as my personal pick for album of the year. the production is phenominal, the presence of new instruments and sounds was unexpected and fit perfectly — it’s as if Dredg took the sprawling experimentation they displayed on El Cielo and Catch Without Arms’ concise sense of pop songwriting and wove them together in a way that meshes better than i could’ve imagined. Silverchair has a permanent spot at the top of my list of favourite bands, but if there was any ambiguity as to Dredg’s standing on the list before i listened to Pariah, i can say with a great deal of confidence that they’ve secured themselves the #2 spot (or possibly even spot #1.5.)

naturally, i’d encourage anyone and everyone to buy this album legitimately, but download it if it means hearing the whole thing.

he finally came true!

i’ve been super busy lately, as the huge gap between my blog posts — which are becoming somewhat of a norm — can attest.

basically, the first week of photographing the 2010 graduating class of engineering students at UW is going well. it’s been a lot of fun working with Justin and Brandon as our two new main shooters. i remember being in their position last summer, shooting my first few grad sessions and such, and it’s amazing to think how much i’ve learned and the eye i’ve developed for my work since then. it’s kind of amusing, too, to watch both Justin and Brandon develop their own little habits and mannerisms and get into the groove of shooting grad sessions in the manner that we shoot them. even though it can feel like a bit of a daily grind at times, i genuinely enjoy my job — i work with good people who all operate in an ethically-sound fashion, the pay is fair (and i literally mean that as “fair,” not as “moderate”,) i’m subconsciously learning more about portraiture than i ever figured i would, and i feel as if i get little bits of senority added to my standing every time i’m in a position to instruct or guide someone. i suppose i could summarize by saying my job is progressive.

speaking of photos, i ended up attending and photographing ARC Cloathing’s spring/summer 2009 line at their second annual fashion show, which was hosted at the Children’s Museum in downtown Kitchener. Curt and Cory ended up opening up their shop after the show for a late-night shopping party, where i picked up a sleek red track jacket. have a look at some of the better photos i captured that night here!

as good as all of this work- and photo-related business is, it’s all overshadowed by the surprise that Cagney got me yesterday, the likes of which she spilled the beans about a couple days beforehand — she got me my very own kitty! photographic evidence suggests that there could not have been a better kitten for me:

his name is Rodney, and he’s named after the godfather of modern street skating. Cagney chose Oliver as his middle name, after the titular character in Oliver and Company.

i had to work today and, unfortunately, had to leave him at home, but Cagney had the day off so i felt better that he was being babysat (and monitored closely around Zipper, who hisses and growls at him out of terror whenever he gets too close — poor thing!) apparently, he’s much like me; not only in terms of literal appearance, but in the fact that he loves hot chocolate and hates eggs. as i type this, he’s napping on my lap, and has already taken naps — both on his belly and upside down with his arms cocked out at a weird angle in the air — on mine and Cagney’s chest, shoulders and legs, and in the couch cushion cracks. my heart is still melting over his sheer cuteness. i just hope Zipper eases into him in good time and realizes that she has no reason to be so on-edge around him (although, to be fair, every other male cat she’s had to room with has scared her to some extent, simply because they were larger than her and much more aggressive, even if it was only the “hey, hey, play with me!” type of aggression.)

i’d better get the little dude’s bedroom litter box and food dishes ready before i hit the hay myself — we’re probably going to keep him in the bedroom away from Zipper at night until she warms up to him. until then, i get to look forward to wee claws and teeth using my toes to climb up onto the bed!

grease lubricates arteries, right?

many famous last words have been uttered by many people throughout the ages, but perhaps none are so dismissably laughable as proclaiming that you’re never indulging in a particular vice again. “i’m never drinking again,” said in the throes of hangover glory, are common, and everyone — including the proclaiming party — simply knows such statements to be utterly false. with that said, i’m never eating Taco Bell again.

the past four days have been rather irresponsible on my part, as far as eating habits go. my usual diet of comparatively little junk was put second to Friday night’s post-show pizza, Saturday night’s movie marathon pizza, yesterday’s sausage on a bun after the JDRF walk (the likes of which i topped with a slice of pizza) and today’s Taco Bell family platter that was split between Joe and i, as is tradition on grad setup days.

even though pizza three days in a row is excessive — even though i could argue it as a sign of devotion — it’s not terribly out of the ordinary, but five tacos, plus fries and deep-fried tortilla chips, was overboard, especially considering the quality of Taco Bell.

after my grease feast, i felt as though my ingested food was pushing up on my lungs from below; laborious breathing and the like. while being over-full is a crummy feeling as it is, having that feeling because of deep-fried quasi-meat is just shite. as much as i pride my metabolism on being able to maintain my fairly skinny frame in the wake of greasy food, the fact is that it just can’t be good for me, not to mention i felt like ass for the rest of the day. i think i’m going to lay off meat for a little while, with a possible exception of white chicken meat when i go to dinner at my parents’ place this week.

the fact that i seldom crave meat in large quantities often makes me entertain the notion of going vegetarian, but i’d like to brush up on healthy and nutritious recipes in that vein before making a conscious commitment (and learn to cook in general.)

until then, i think i’ll be content simply eschewing fast food*.

* pizza in general and Subway are explicit exceptions.

to boldly go.

again, it’s been a few days; apologies to my audience.

a couple days ago, i went to the movies with Cagney, Anuj and Shanna to see the new Star Trek movie, the likes of which Anuj and Shanna had seen previously. the fact that they were willing to go see it a second time in theatres hinted to me that it must be good, although i walked out of the theatre at the end dismissing my initial understatement; this movie is absolutely fantastic. i actually thought it to be better than The Dark Knight, which i thought — and still think — is close to a perfect movie.

i’ve had little, if any, exposure to the original Star Trek TV series from the 1960s, and only marginal childhood exposure to The Next Generation, and i haven’t seen any of the older movies whatsoever. with the new movie, however, no prior knowledge of the franchise is necessary to understand the characters or plotline, as everything is explained from scratch without any presumptions. knowledge of prior events, such as actors who played certain roles in earlier incarnations of the franchise, is helpful on the basis of novelty.

as is the case with most science fiction movies, my suspension of disbelief was turned up to maximum capacity, but even so, i had to marvel at how the surfaces of several different planets, as well as the space in the upper atmosphere of one of them, were conveniently supportive of human (or Vulcan) life. i suppose that could easily be answered by saying the planets featured in the film are likely among the few in the reachable universe that have been deemed capable of supporting life in a similar capacity as earth, but it still got a bit of a raised eyebrow from me.

yesterday was a bit of a low-key band practice for Anuj and i only, as Kyle is away on tour with Broadcast Zero, from which he’ll be returning in July. even so, we managed to write a couple new riffs together, which surprised me, since i generally benefit largely from the presence of a drummer. before leaving the hall, we jammed through one of our completed songs, for which i played drums (and by “drums,” i mean “the one snare and floor tom that Kyle left behind.” needless to say there was a lot of tapping on the rim of either drum to substitute for a ride.) then last night, since Cagney and i seem to enjoy Anuj and Shanna’s company for movies so much, we had them over for two thirds of a Back To The Future trilogy marathon. unlike 24 hours ago, i can now say i’ve seen the original Back To The Future, and i can also say i understand several one-liners i’ve heard used in casual conversation that previously flew over my head (”great Scott!” comes to mind.) Cagney and i had to be up early this morning for this year’s JDRF walk, but we’ll fit the third movie into our schedules sometime soon, hopefully. also, props to the homemade cookies that Shanna brought over.

as for right now, Cagney’s out for lunch with an old highschool friend, and i need to pay our rent adn go pick up some beer for Andrew’s barbecue tonight. plus it’s too nice out to sit inside; maybe i’ll go find a bench to read on.