Just a quick post to say that yes, there still is someone here. I'm currently quite busy with school and music as exams approach (especially music), and when you add my usual amount of procrastination on top you end up with a good deal of blog neglect. My sister's been nagging me to post, giving me the title of "Worst Blogger Ever", so I've decided that enough is enough and here you go. One shiny new blog post.
Seriously though, this is my pledge (and now motivation) to get cracking on the last few days from our trip plus do the write-up for the aftermath of Good Friday. If I don't hurry my wounds from the day may be healed before I get around to writing it. (that's a teaser, by the way.) I did start on one of the entries about an hour ago while simultaneously watching the NFL Draft, but unfortunately my multi-tasking skills need some brushing up and I ended up watching a lot more of the draft than writing my entry. So it's half done. But it's a start. And I'm rambling now.
Watch this space! Well...actually don't...that would get very boring very fast...just...subscribe or something so as to be notified when things come up...that way you don't waste your time checking. Or do come and check...up to you.
Thursday, April 28, 2011
Thursday, April 21, 2011
I just finished my kite for Good Friday. For those of you that don't know what the heck I'm talking about, here in Bermuda it's a tradition (although a dying one) to make and fly kites on Good Friday. The first kites flown had sticks of wood forming a cross, and then string and paper applied to make it flyable. Over the years kite designs got more and more elaborate, so now there are several different styles, but the two predominant ones are round kites and headstick kites. My siblings used frames from last year to make headstick kites, each about the size of an average human's torso. I made a large five foot round kite with two headsticks, resulting in a kite that's about six feet from the top of the headsticks to the bottom. Hopefully tomorrow I can get some pictures (or get someone to take pictures) of the kites being put up.
As a side note, my kite is going to be pulling so hard on the string I'll have to wear two pairs of gloves to just try to prevent myself from getting rope burn. Last year I had heavy duty work gloves for a 4.5 foot kite...the string went right through that.
As a side note, my kite is going to be pulling so hard on the string I'll have to wear two pairs of gloves to just try to prevent myself from getting rope burn. Last year I had heavy duty work gloves for a 4.5 foot kite...the string went right through that.
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| Is it...is it really me in a picture? What is this world coming to? |
Monday, April 18, 2011
More Macros!
This lens is awesome! I'll let the pictures explain why. None of these have been cropped or edited in any way.
Good news and bad news
The good news is that I was pleasantly surprised with a macro/portrait lens for my birthday. I can't even begin to describe how amazing it is. It's a little strange to get used to as it's 105 mm and that's it, but still can produce incredibly sharp images up close (limited depth of field, yes, but not as bad as the filters I was using). What's nice is that at 105 mm I can stand a few feet from the subject and still be getting a close-up shot, which is perfect for small animals that get scared by things coming too close (i.e. lizards. See below).
The bad news is I have a few specks of dust on my sensor. Inside the camera. They're nearly invisible on a lot of shots but when there's a sky in the background the show up like red paint on a white shirt. It doesn't help that the majority of the specks are in the upper half where the sky usually is. I'll be bringing it to a Nikon place in Montreal when I go there on Easter (piano lessons...long story...) and picking it up two weeks later when we go back for, yes, more piano lessons. Fortunately the specks are pretty small so I can generally edit them out (as I've done with two of them below...the third couldn't be taken out for obvious reasons...if you spot it...[no pun intended]).
The bad news is I have a few specks of dust on my sensor. Inside the camera. They're nearly invisible on a lot of shots but when there's a sky in the background the show up like red paint on a white shirt. It doesn't help that the majority of the specks are in the upper half where the sky usually is. I'll be bringing it to a Nikon place in Montreal when I go there on Easter (piano lessons...long story...) and picking it up two weeks later when we go back for, yes, more piano lessons. Fortunately the specks are pretty small so I can generally edit them out (as I've done with two of them below...the third couldn't be taken out for obvious reasons...if you spot it...[no pun intended]).
Sunday, April 17, 2011
New Zealand (Day 5)
This is taking a while, isn't it? I'm really starting to wish I had written these reports the day they occured on, even if it was just on notepad when I didn't have internet access. But I shall prevail! I hope...
Day five was our visit to Fangorn, Amon Hen, and parts of the Anduin River. Our tour guide was a former conservation officer who's job it was to ensure that the film crew while filming at these locations did not damage any of the nature in any way. Apparently, after a month or so of filming, the only thing he ever had to correct the crew on was their cigarette butts being left on the ground, but that was just on the first day and he never had to say it again. So all he did for those months of filming was hang around with Peter Jackson, which is a pretty sweet thing to be paid to do, if you ask me. He also helped out with a few scenes, and was able to give us a very good "behind the scenes" look at how they were all made.
For example, when the Uruk-Hai are chasing after Frodo at the breaking of the Fellowship, there's a scene where they are all running down a hill (a relatively steep hill at that). The one trouble is that the big Maori guys they enlisted to be the Uruks couldn't see a thing through the masks (I can vouch for them...seeing through one of those masks is freakishly difficult), so when they tried running down the hill they'd all trip and fall. Peter Jackson then had them run down it over and over again without the masks so they could figure out where to run, and then had them do it again with the masks on. Also, shortly before that point when the Fellowship is still rowing down the river there are several shots of Uruks running through the forest. The interesting thing about those shots is that they were all taken in the same place and with only about six extras. And yet, because of the nature of the shots it looks like a horde of them racing through the forest.
To get to the location itself was quite a journey in and of itself as it involved at least an hour of driving along on bumpy gravel roads in an incredibly remote location. It was miles from anywhere; just fields and hills as far as the eye could see and further.
The rest of the day was spend heading off to Queenstown. Amazing drive. You'll see parts of it in future days.
I didn't get a lot of pictures on this day as rain was threatening a lot of the time and it was dark in the forest.
Fangorn
The Anduin River (actually a lake...but who's gonna notice that?)
The beach on which they parked there boats. Sean Austin (Sam) had to run into freezing cold water seven or eight different times to get that shot of when they leave. Every time he had to completely change his costume.
If I can track it down (and remember to do so) I'll get the video we took of us chasing after Patrick down the hill.
Day five was our visit to Fangorn, Amon Hen, and parts of the Anduin River. Our tour guide was a former conservation officer who's job it was to ensure that the film crew while filming at these locations did not damage any of the nature in any way. Apparently, after a month or so of filming, the only thing he ever had to correct the crew on was their cigarette butts being left on the ground, but that was just on the first day and he never had to say it again. So all he did for those months of filming was hang around with Peter Jackson, which is a pretty sweet thing to be paid to do, if you ask me. He also helped out with a few scenes, and was able to give us a very good "behind the scenes" look at how they were all made.
For example, when the Uruk-Hai are chasing after Frodo at the breaking of the Fellowship, there's a scene where they are all running down a hill (a relatively steep hill at that). The one trouble is that the big Maori guys they enlisted to be the Uruks couldn't see a thing through the masks (I can vouch for them...seeing through one of those masks is freakishly difficult), so when they tried running down the hill they'd all trip and fall. Peter Jackson then had them run down it over and over again without the masks so they could figure out where to run, and then had them do it again with the masks on. Also, shortly before that point when the Fellowship is still rowing down the river there are several shots of Uruks running through the forest. The interesting thing about those shots is that they were all taken in the same place and with only about six extras. And yet, because of the nature of the shots it looks like a horde of them racing through the forest.
To get to the location itself was quite a journey in and of itself as it involved at least an hour of driving along on bumpy gravel roads in an incredibly remote location. It was miles from anywhere; just fields and hills as far as the eye could see and further.
The rest of the day was spend heading off to Queenstown. Amazing drive. You'll see parts of it in future days.
I didn't get a lot of pictures on this day as rain was threatening a lot of the time and it was dark in the forest.
Fangorn
The Anduin River (actually a lake...but who's gonna notice that?)
The beach on which they parked there boats. Sean Austin (Sam) had to run into freezing cold water seven or eight different times to get that shot of when they leave. Every time he had to completely change his costume.
If I can track it down (and remember to do so) I'll get the video we took of us chasing after Patrick down the hill.
Sunday, April 10, 2011
New Zealand (Day 4)
While this day is technically not the day after Day 3, that's because Day 3.5 (as I shall henceforth call it) was a transit day. The number one objective of that day was to get from Wanaka to Te Anau. That involved a spectacular drive through the mountains (including a drive over the highest paved road in New Zealand), a stop in Arrowtown for a late lunch, and finally arriving in Te Anau in the evening. Calling it a transit day is not to say it wasn't an absolutely awesome day, as mountain scenery is amazing, but other than just driving not too much happened.
Day four was the day we visited Milford Sound. The whole south-western coast of the South Island is fjords and mountains, much like Scandinavia. The drive there was amazing in and of itself, let alone the fjord. We stopped by at the Mirror Lakes where the water is, well, a mirror. Not a single ripple to mess up the reflection.
The rest of the drive was, as stated already, amazing. Words really don't work in this situation so I'll let the pictures do the talking for you. Bear in mind that the first two were taken from a moving vehicle. That's what caused the blurring.
And yes you get a virtual cookie if you figure out the secret nature of these pictures.
Somewhat fortunately for me, Milford Sound really defies description. There were mountains, waterfalls, water, some seals, some birds...all combined to make a wonderful amazing scene of awesomeness. Again, words just don't serve here so I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.
Also, just so you know New Zealand days 2-4 are part of week 13.
Saturday, April 9, 2011
Week 11
Late? Yes. Desktop? Yes. Traveling? Yes. You do the math.
Here are the pictures for Week 11. That would be March 13-19. As in just under a month ago.
Also, as I'm sure you can guess the process of selecting pictures for each week during the trip will be frightfully difficult. I'm hence looking to speed this process a little by asking you, the reader (plural? maybe...), to be so kind as to pick out a favorite for each week. For week 12 it's anything from Australia and New Zealand Day 1. I'll mark out the other weeks as the posts come up.
EDIT: Oh the horror I messed up my uncle's picture. Early Allium is actually for week 12.
Here are the pictures for Week 11. That would be March 13-19. As in just under a month ago.
Also, as I'm sure you can guess the process of selecting pictures for each week during the trip will be frightfully difficult. I'm hence looking to speed this process a little by asking you, the reader (plural? maybe...), to be so kind as to pick out a favorite for each week. For week 12 it's anything from Australia and New Zealand Day 1. I'll mark out the other weeks as the posts come up.
EDIT: Oh the horror I messed up my uncle's picture. Early Allium is actually for week 12.
Week 11 (March 11, 2011)
"Home Again"
Uncle Glenn
"Waiting for a Miracle"
Aunt Deanne
Uncle Dan (sketch)
Alexandra
"Kaldi"
Monday, April 4, 2011
New Zealand (Day 3)
I must say, air travel within New Zealand is quite interesting. I'm typing this on a small propeller plane with approximately seventy passengers. There are no oxygen masks in case of a loss of cabin pressure as there is no need of them; we're not flying high enough. The icing on the cake, however, is the very noticable absence of a security check. They do have a security check-point for gates 2 through 7 but not gate 1, which we boarded through.
Moving on from that. The title of this post implies that I will be giving a narrative account of day three of our journey through New Zealand, which I have failed to do thus far (in this post itself or in general, your choice).
Day three started for us in Wanaka. Fortunately for us the bed and breakfast place we stayed at had a beautiful grand piano, so we were able to get some practicing in. Boy did it ever feel good to play. The tour we were taking was not specifically a Lord of the Rings tour, but it did take us past some mountains and scenery featured in the movies. We were picked up from the bed and breakfast and taken to Matukituki River for a jetboat ride. A jetboat ride is much like one of those roller coaster rides which swings you precariously close to small trees and rocks strategically placed to scare the living daylights out of passengers, only there is no track and the only thing keeping you in your seat is gravity and your own strength. In addition, much of the river is but a few inches deep. It certainly was a hair-raising experience, swinging around in a few inches of water, passing within inches (or, in some cases, an inch) of trees, rocks, and branches protruding from the water. All at high speed; a jetboat is much like a hydrofoil in that it only needs an inch or two to operate, so long as it is moving at high speed. In this respect it is quite similar to pod racing as in Star Wars. At one point on the return journey the driver took us through a miniature slalom course of trees, the distance between the trees being hardly more than the length of the boat. Unfortunately, my mother was too occupied with keeping her eyes shut to take any video, and as she was up front and I was in the back I wasn't able to do the video myself.
When we weren't busy hanging on for dear life and praying that our driver doesn't suffer any lapse in his hand-eye coordination, the scenery around us was amazing. The river we were racing up ran through the middle of a mountain range. There are a few scenes of Rohan filmed on the hills, but it's all pretty standard stuff. The final destination of the trip was quite spectacular as well. We arrived to a moderately sized grassy field with a creek running through it, leading up to a mountain with a massive glacier. We all found that it looked very much like the glacier that feeds Lake Louise near Banff in Canada. After a walk up to the forest at the foot of the mountain, throughout which our guide was explaining much about the natural forces at work. Frankly, words can't really describe the scenery as well as pictures can, so I think I'll let the pictures do all the talking from here on out. At least in regards to the mountains.
As the tour was only a half-day tour, we went to Puzzling World to fill the rest of the day. Puzzling world is a place full of puzzles and illusions, as well as a large maze. In addition, sitting outside of the entry is the Leaning Tower of Wanaka which leans a full fifty-three degrees. We did the maze first, quickly splitting up into four groups, those groups being my father, Patrick, and Charlotte, then Jordan and Abigail (well...Jordan with Abigail tagging along), myself, and then my mother just stood on one of the bridges and tried her hardest not to move into the maze. The purpose of the maze was to get to, order, each of the four corner towers; yellow, green, blue, and red, and then back to the start. To reach the yellow corner, however, the route was so long and winding through the maze that most of us found a few of the other corners before the yellow one, meaning that to find the remaining three corners after the yellow took about the same amount of time as finding the yellow.
Moving on from that, there were the illusion rooms, which really were quite something. There was the room of following faces, a room full of faces which appeared to follow you around. There then was the tilted room which simply was an area tilted up fifteen degrees. It was very confusing to walk about in it, because the mind, surrounded by walls all on this angle, thinks that the floor is flat. THus, when you try to walk, you find yourself falling even though you're telling yourself over and over again that it is not actually flat. Included in this room were several illusions, such as water flowing uphill, or stairs that were actually flat but thanks to the tilt of the room appeared to be tilted forwards. There is a video below that explains the appearance of this much better than I can. Finally, there was the perspective room, making you appear to be a giant or a hobbit. Again, the video below explains this thousands of times better than I can with words.
The pictures below are far more interesting than the wall of text above, I promise you.
Video! I have no idea what happened to the sound in the last two...but they're pretty self-explanatory anyways.
Some pictures of the lodge at which we stayed...
Moving on from that. The title of this post implies that I will be giving a narrative account of day three of our journey through New Zealand, which I have failed to do thus far (in this post itself or in general, your choice).
Day three started for us in Wanaka. Fortunately for us the bed and breakfast place we stayed at had a beautiful grand piano, so we were able to get some practicing in. Boy did it ever feel good to play. The tour we were taking was not specifically a Lord of the Rings tour, but it did take us past some mountains and scenery featured in the movies. We were picked up from the bed and breakfast and taken to Matukituki River for a jetboat ride. A jetboat ride is much like one of those roller coaster rides which swings you precariously close to small trees and rocks strategically placed to scare the living daylights out of passengers, only there is no track and the only thing keeping you in your seat is gravity and your own strength. In addition, much of the river is but a few inches deep. It certainly was a hair-raising experience, swinging around in a few inches of water, passing within inches (or, in some cases, an inch) of trees, rocks, and branches protruding from the water. All at high speed; a jetboat is much like a hydrofoil in that it only needs an inch or two to operate, so long as it is moving at high speed. In this respect it is quite similar to pod racing as in Star Wars. At one point on the return journey the driver took us through a miniature slalom course of trees, the distance between the trees being hardly more than the length of the boat. Unfortunately, my mother was too occupied with keeping her eyes shut to take any video, and as she was up front and I was in the back I wasn't able to do the video myself.
When we weren't busy hanging on for dear life and praying that our driver doesn't suffer any lapse in his hand-eye coordination, the scenery around us was amazing. The river we were racing up ran through the middle of a mountain range. There are a few scenes of Rohan filmed on the hills, but it's all pretty standard stuff. The final destination of the trip was quite spectacular as well. We arrived to a moderately sized grassy field with a creek running through it, leading up to a mountain with a massive glacier. We all found that it looked very much like the glacier that feeds Lake Louise near Banff in Canada. After a walk up to the forest at the foot of the mountain, throughout which our guide was explaining much about the natural forces at work. Frankly, words can't really describe the scenery as well as pictures can, so I think I'll let the pictures do all the talking from here on out. At least in regards to the mountains.
As the tour was only a half-day tour, we went to Puzzling World to fill the rest of the day. Puzzling world is a place full of puzzles and illusions, as well as a large maze. In addition, sitting outside of the entry is the Leaning Tower of Wanaka which leans a full fifty-three degrees. We did the maze first, quickly splitting up into four groups, those groups being my father, Patrick, and Charlotte, then Jordan and Abigail (well...Jordan with Abigail tagging along), myself, and then my mother just stood on one of the bridges and tried her hardest not to move into the maze. The purpose of the maze was to get to, order, each of the four corner towers; yellow, green, blue, and red, and then back to the start. To reach the yellow corner, however, the route was so long and winding through the maze that most of us found a few of the other corners before the yellow one, meaning that to find the remaining three corners after the yellow took about the same amount of time as finding the yellow.
Moving on from that, there were the illusion rooms, which really were quite something. There was the room of following faces, a room full of faces which appeared to follow you around. There then was the tilted room which simply was an area tilted up fifteen degrees. It was very confusing to walk about in it, because the mind, surrounded by walls all on this angle, thinks that the floor is flat. THus, when you try to walk, you find yourself falling even though you're telling yourself over and over again that it is not actually flat. Included in this room were several illusions, such as water flowing uphill, or stairs that were actually flat but thanks to the tilt of the room appeared to be tilted forwards. There is a video below that explains the appearance of this much better than I can. Finally, there was the perspective room, making you appear to be a giant or a hobbit. Again, the video below explains this thousands of times better than I can with words.
The pictures below are far more interesting than the wall of text above, I promise you.
Video! I have no idea what happened to the sound in the last two...but they're pretty self-explanatory anyways.
Some pictures of the lodge at which we stayed...
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