Time Immortal

…but of course, it’s permissible because he’s doing it in the context of “speaking truth to power” and casting aspersions on the Christianist bias of society’s traditional observance of the Christmas season:

“Instead of perpetuating outdated and confusing holiday myths, it might be more fulfilling to return to the original source of these seasonal celebrations. How about getting back to basics and enjoying some magical mushrooms with your loved ones this solstice? What better gift can a family share than a little piece of love and enlightenment?”

Whatever you say, man. Peace, free love, and mushrooms — a winning combination, if your goals are, in order: a) to see your country taken over by violent thugs, b) to get five different STDs before age 50, and c) to explode your brain in a vain attempt to flee reality.

Ladies and gents, meet Dana Larsen, NDP candidate for West Vancouver (Sunshine Coast).

Exit question: is the penultimate sentence in the above quote, is Larsen advocating for giving magic mushrooms to children (”with your loved ones”)?

Update: Welcome, Steynians!

Every year at the Alberta Provincial Legislature, during the time when the Christmas lights are on display, a large ice sculpture (or a series of smaller ones). This year, the theme seemed to be Santa’s elves.

Okay, this guy actually looks kind of spooky. Part of that comes from the backlighting, of course, and part of that comes from the blurring that the Lensbaby causes. Part of it, I think, comes from the lack of detail in the face — there’s this smug grin, but now much else, and the glassiness…

…anyhow, it’s kind of creepy. But I do like this picture, in spite of the fact that the subject haunts my memory for a few seconds after each viewing. In particular, the star effect caused by the Lensbaby is very visible here, and it looks exceptional.

Edit-wise, I didn’t have much to do for this shot. I adjusted saturation a bit, but didn’t have to worry about digital noise as much because there was much more light in the scene — I could afford to shift the ISO downward a bit. I remember that I used what passes for spot metering on the EOS 350D for this shot, telling the camera to expose based on the light in the center 9% of the frame. The background is a little darker as a consequence.

Just to show off what the Lensbaby can really do when you try and push it, I’m making this the Pic of the Day.

I took this shot fairly early on in January of 2008, when Grace and I met our friends Sharon and Dave at the Alberta Provincial Legislature grounds to take in the fine display of Christmas lights. The Legislature lights are always a treat to behold, and they presented a perfect opportunity to see just what the Lensbaby could really do when you took it out “into the wild” and had a go at situations with lots of point sources of light.

As the Reader can hopefully see, Grace’s gift to me delivered handily! Strings of Christmas lights become streams of stars, and the blurring gives a sense of pseudo-motion to the image that I really, really like. Of course, since it was so dark, I had to set the ISO to 1600, which meant that there was some noise reduction to be done in post-processing. Would that I’d had the time that evening to make use of a tripod (and thus, a lower ISO setting), but I’m not going to complain; the shot still turned out, and I can notch up another impressive performance by my new lens.

Shaun Barrowes writes in with a bit of a plea.

My brother was recently diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor and is now fighting it. So I’ve decided to get involved.

I’ve started a fund raiser for Cancer Research to help all those fighting cancer.

Between now and Christmas of 2008, 100% of the proceeds from the sales of my current single, “Never for My Sake” will be donated to Cancer Research. As a musician, it’s my way of giving back and supporting a cause I believe in.

For more details on this fund raiser, visit my blog: shaunbarrowes.blogspot.com

I know you’ve got a lot of readers, and probably a lot of people asking for you to post something for them. This isn’t for me, it’s for all those like my brother currently fighting cancer. So if you could at least check it out and see if it’s something you’d like to mention on your blog, it’d really help us out! Thanks!

Always glad to be of assistance!

Give this man’s blog a visit, O Reader, and check out his website as well. Not a bad little tune, either — and it would appear to be available through iTunes if, like me, that is your preferred method of acquiring new music.

Here’s another Lensbaby image; once again, there’s not really anything that’s in focus; what the Reader is looking at here is a few strings of hanging lights that Grace and I (and her two sisters) walked past late on New Year’s Eve.

Not really much to say; edit-wise, I had to do a fair bit of noise reduction, because once again I had the ISO ratcheted up to 1600 again (as is usually necessary when I’m shooting indoors and/or at night). A bit of adjustments to the shadows and highlights brought the lights out a bit more. But those aren’t exactly time-consuming edits, and really…I like how this shot turned out. Christmastime and the days that follow the holiday are a great time for the use of a toy like a Lensbaby.

Still more Lensbaby fun. This is another shot I took while in Vermilion for the Christmas weekend last year, and it also concerns hoar frost on the trees and shrubs about town.

The Lensbaby really works well for shots of this nature, I’ve discovered. It allows for all the focus to be placed on one element of, say, a shrub or bush, while at the same time giving the background a very attractive blurring effect. Small points of light (glinting off the snowflakes and frost) turn to stars because of the aperture plate, although this latter effect isn’t as evident in this picture.

And the contrast is excellent.

I probably could have brightened this shot a bit more in Lightroom, but I’m still very happy with it. The few branches in the foreground almost seem to leap off the screen, and the contrast is excellent. The Lensbaby is, for me, mostly a toy, but shots like this demonstrate that it is more than capable of turning out a truly exceptional image, even if it isn’t as sharp a lens as…say…my 50 mm f/1.8.

More Lensbaby fun. While I was in Vermilion for the Christmas weekend last year, the temperature took a bit of a dive, and one of the more pleasant effects thereof was the emergence of hoar frost on the trees and shrubs about town.

The Lensbaby really works well for shots of this nature, I’ve discovered. It allows for all the focus to be placed on one element of, say, a shrub or bush, while at the same time giving the background a very attractive blurring effect. Small points of light (glinting off the snowflakes and frost) turn to stars because of the aperture plate, although this latter effect isn’t as evident in this picture.

And the contrast is excellent.

I probably could have brightened this shot a bit more in Lightroom, but I’m still very happy with it. The few branches in the foreground almost seem to leap off the screen, and the contrast is excellent. The Lensbaby is, for me, mostly a toy, but shots like this demonstrate that it is more than capable of turning out a truly exceptional image, even if it isn’t as sharp a lens as…say…my 50 mm f/1.8.

This is another picture from the Christmas Day sledding. After a few runs down the tree-lined path, we moved to a hill a few hundred metres to the East, and kept on sledding there. If you’ve never tried to go down a hill on a baking pan or a big, metal bowl, O Reader, let me assure you that you’ve missed something…unique. It’s surprising how fast those metal bowls can go, especially.

This is one of Grace’s sisters coming to a rather…abrupt stop on the hill (hence the large amounts of flying snow). I had to wait a fair bit for this shot, and getting into position certainly kept me…cool (given that I was stretched out prone on the snow). As was the case with the previous picture, I just love the action in the shot — I think it makes the picture.

Edit-wise, I didn’t have to do as much to this shot, as I’d remembered to reduce the ISO setting on the camera by this point. I did have to do some highlight reduction, and I boosted the red and green saturations a bit (and the green luminance) to bring out some of the background details. Still, I’ve always been pleased with how well Canon cameras conduct themselves in outdoor conditions, and one of the great joys on my old PowerShot A70 was shooting outdoors in winter. The same holds true on the EOS 350D, I can assure you.