Day 44 - Logans roll through

Some pics from the 15 minute whirlwind visit with the Logans. I may have to change my pic of the day to one of these.

Day 44 - Smarties

Smarties are a colourful sugar-coated chocolate candy popular in Canada, Europe, South Africa, East Asia and Australia. Smarties are not sold in the US...I have no idea why. Canadians will fondly remember the long lasting Canadian advertising jingle from the 1970s - mid-1990s "when you eat your Smarties, do you eat the red ones last?"

I bought a box today to continue my blue theme this week. Huh, no blue smarties? Apparently artificial coloring was removed from Smarties in the Canadian market in March 2009. The new range of colours includes yellow, brown, orange, red, pink and purple; the blue and green have been removed. I do not like the new flavors.

Day 43 - Skateboarding at the Common

Day 42 - Blue bike

I walk past this bike on the way to work. I like the color and the whitewall wheels. I decided to play with color channels and isolated the blue.

Stupid fact: When I first learned to ride a bike I threw training wheels to the wind and drove a real bike. I think it had a banana seat. Unfortunately, I was only allowed to ride in the ditch. I must have looked really stupid biking around the neighborhood ditches. I was happy though. To this day I still think of the ditch as a bike lane.

Day 41 - Blueberries

I can't believe this is the last week of July. Summer is going waaaay to fast, August is almost here. This is around the time of year I recall as a kid starting one of my summer jobs - blueberry picking. Cumberland county, Oxford specifically, is the wild blueberry capital of Canada. Nova Scotia's wild blueberries are exported to the United States, Japan, Germany, United Kingdom and other countries.

Health fact: Wild blueberries are high in antioxidants which have many health benefits including anti-aging effects, cancer inhibiting properties, and heart health. They are also really tasty in pancakes and on cereal.

Day 40 - Beach day

The beautiful weather finally allowed for a beach day. It seems every other Nova Scotian had the same idea; beaches were insanely busy. Fortunately nobody goes to Lawrencetown, which was its usual rocky, cold and foggy self. A brisk wind meant the kids and surfers were loving the wave action.

Day 39 - Pride parade

Alot of outrageous fun today at Pride. From all the costumes I liked the balloon fairy wings the most. More from pride parade here.

Day 38 - Impromptu photobooth with Andy

I had an enjoyable night on the town Friday night with my good friend Andy, who is moving to Australia in August. I hate when friends leave town but I am happy he will be heading for a good opportunity. To keep in touch he has promised to finally join Facebook.

Day 37 - Another $&%@ purple flower

My name is Brad and I am a purple flower addict. I dig these funky flowers (once again, no idea what kind they are) and the rain made for nice flower photography on my walk to work this morning. So I will justify my purple flower addiction by the fact that the lighting these days has been conducive to this type of photography. Yeah, that's it.

Fun fact: This type of purple is on the red-violet side and is often called artist's purple. It is the pigment on the colour wheel between violet and magenta. In the Munsell color system this would be a chroma of 12. It is also called red-purple.

Day 36 - Common concert aftermath

I had a walk through the Halifax Common for the first time since the Kiss concert that occurred over the weekend. As expected it was a muddy mess. Who knows how long the Common will be out of commission.

There is ongoing debate about usage of the park and direct taxpayer subsidy to run these concerts. As much as I love music I do not personally think this venue, Canada's oldest public urban park, is practical as a long term solution for concert venues. It is just too disruptive to the ongoing, uninterrupted use of the venue through very short summer months. Yes I realize it has economic spinoffs, but I don't think it is worth the mess of ruining a park for weeks on end just to bring aging geezers to the city to rock out for a day.

Just my two cents. Rant over. Now if U2 were to play.....

Day 35 - Lazy neighborhood cat

Our neighborhood has alot of cats. They love hanging out in our backyard, perhaps owing to our mess of bushes; the jungle of forsythia makes good hunting grounds. I don't mind the cats as it keeps the mice population in check and they are quite friendly. They also seem to do their business on other lawns. Who needs a pet when you've got the neighbourhood cat hangout?

This fellow is the friendliest of the neighborhood cats. He basically lazes around looking to have his neck scratched. He is not much of a hunter. I have no idea what his name is.

Day 34 - Another purple flower

On my way to work this morning I spotted this flower. Once again I suck at identifying flower types...anyone? I liked the possibility for a soft water color effect with the water drops so I opened up my aperture to a narrow DOF and fired off a few shots.

Day 33- Dingle Tower

We enjoyed the sunshine today and avoided the waterfront crowd via a walk to the Dingle Tower. I was pleasantly surprised to see the Dingle itself open to the public.

I hiked to the top to take in an amazing view of the Northwest Arm. Unfortunately the windows were barred with a mesh metal so my pics are kinda wonky. I managed to salvage a half decent shot through the mesh via a shallow depth of field and infinity focus.

You can see the rest of my Dingle Tower wanderings on my flickr stream here.

Day 32 - Tall Ships Day 3

Rain rain rain rain rain. And more rain.

Day 31 - Tall Ships Day 2

This morning I had a wonderful stroll along the waterfront watching the tall ships. Although the light was gloomy most of the day the crowds were light and the tall ships were incredible.

You can check out some of my other tall ship pics here.

I decided on this pic even though the subject is not really a tall ship. I enjoy the sense of play kids have in this pic. There is something about sliding on that wave that makes kids crazy happy. Kinda makes me happy too.

Day 30 - Tall Ships day 1

The Tall Ships are here! The Tall Ships are here! This is the biggest Tall Ships gathering since 2000. Bring on the madness of tourists wandering the waterfront. I suggest early morning viewings to beat the crowds. I had a quick run down after work, enough time to grab a quick snap, but did not have time to stroll the entire length of the waterfront. I will likely get down early tomorrow morning to explore a bit more. Hopefully the gray skies will lift.

Fun fact: I have fond memories of the 2000 Tall Ships: it was the year I met my wife Leah, the year I bought my first camera and the year my niece Lauren was born. A pretty darned good year.

Day 29 - Pete's Frootique

Today I wanted to take a break from all the close-up macro photography I've been taking and kept an eye out for a suitable wide angle picture. I dropped into Pete's Frootique after work and noticed this opportunity for a shot from above.

Day 28 - Foxglove

I've passed by this flower on the way to work over the past few weeks. I've been waiting for it to bloom in full before taking a photo. It seemed to be in its prime this morning so I grabbed a quick shot. I like the patterns within the bulbs.

Day 27 - Red wine bubbles

While BBQing dinner this evening I was doing my customary swirl of red wine glass and sniffy sniff. After a few swirls I noticed bubbles forming on the edges of the glass. I decided to capture 'em as a daily pic.

Day 26 - Funky pattern on rock

Taking it back down to a single pic today. A funky pattern on a rock. Nothing fancy but I like it. No idea what these things are. Fossilized bits of something?

Day 25 - Valley Drive

On the way home from Digby we noticed hay is finally getting baled after weeks of rain. I stopped along the highway and grabbed a quick shot.

Day 24 - Christmas in July

The campground had a Christmas in July theme over the weekend. Trailer park folk take their decorating themes seriously.

Day 23 - The sun arrives

Day 2 of camping. The sun finally made an appearance after weeks of cold, damp cloudy weather. I did not do much today except sit, drink beer and watch the tide come and go.

Day 22 - Camping

We spent several days camping at Jagger's Point outside Digby. My inlaws kindly loaned us their new trailer. I must say it was a pleasant change from the usual tenting experience we are accustomed to. We had a beautiful spot along the water overlooking the Digby Gut.

Day 1 of our camping trip was a lobster boil. We had some delicious lobsters caught locally.

After gorging on lobsters we went for a walk. We came across this gigantic beech tree, which must be over 150 years old. These tree huggers enjoyed playing in the tree.

Playing with light and long exposure. I definitely needed a tripod for this, which sadly I did not have.

Day 21 - Fraggle flower

The cloudy weather sucks for the beach but the soft light is perfect for flower photography. I got a few pics from the Public Gardens today. This one seems to be the most interesting. As one of my Twitter followers said "it's like a crazy alien muppet."

Intermission

A quick break from project 365 activities. I made a mini macro studio light tent. I thought it might be fun to photograph small objects, for what purpose I am not yet sure. It might come in handy in the dead of winter when I have nothing outside to photograph. It was quite easy and there were tons of instructional videos online. All you need is a box, tissue paper, construction paper and a couple of lamps. I bought the lamps for $20 at home depot and scavenged the rest of the stuff from odds and ends kicking around the house. Detailed instructions can be found here.

Day 20 - Cloudy beach days

Today was our first day of vacation. We headed out to Queensland Beach hoping for sun and a lazy day on the beach. Surprise surprise, we found cloud and more cloud. And sweaters. Well at least the beach wasn't busy. Forecast is looking up for the next few days so here's hoping the summer finally makes an appearance here in Halifax.