Last Light

Last Light, originally uploaded by dangeresque2.

You know what, the photo talks, I'm goin to sleep. :)

Classmates and Class Reunions

"Well, what the heck." ... To quote a famous Winnipeg saying. All too appropriate right now. Just blasts from the past all over the place these last couple of weeks. First, my high school reunion, like 10 years baby, was last weekend. I mean wow, 10 years. I didn't go, are you surprised? Will you go? Did you go to yours? What happened! Comment and let me know! Anyway, a couple of my pals did go, and I heard the details for the most part. Excellent work, boys! Basically, it amounted to Marriages, Births and Deaths. And fatter people. That's the 411 that I got. I admit that it would have been cool to reconnect with a couple of those people.

I actually thought that it was just going to be a show-off-fest, but from the sounds of it, it really wasn't much of that at all. I don't know why I thought that, but maybe it is because of all of the TV that I have seen on the subject in the past where everyone is trying to put on a brave face and showing their successes. It might have something to do with my school though, for those who weren't there, it was pretty country, bringing people as far as about 45 minutes out from Winnipeg, so maybe we were all just a bit more "real".

That's not all... Today, I got a message from Sharon, who was my high school sweetheart. I'm not sure if it was a coincidence with the whole reunion or not, but she sent a message through the classmates.com web site, that I signed up on just to see who was out there. Very interesting... I haven't seen her for about ... I have no idea... I think the last time was about 3 or 4 years ago, and I remember thinking that I might never see or hear from her again. Oh no, it wasn't anything that I did, we just didn't seem to be interested in trying out a friendship. I know that she moved away, and that's the last that I heard of her until now. I'm a little excited to hear what she has been up to over the past while.

Photography's Place

After taking pictures of some of my friends, I realized something about how people look at photos and how they see themselves in those photos. They want to be pictured how they want themselves to be remembered. I think that If I can capture that in a person's photograph, then I will be able to really find the pictures that I am after.

Painted Rose

Painted Rose, originally uploaded by dangeresque2.

This rose caught my eye immediately. I saw it when I was vacationing in San Francisco a few weeks ago. It has a sort of haphazardly-painted look that I really liked.

Anyway, this shot is special because of where the flower was found... In the Sonoma Valley in California. I just happened to stop in at this one particular town, Sonoma, while I was driving through looking for wineries to experience. (The Sonoma valley neighbours the more well-known Napa Valley, to the east).

As I strolled about looking for interesting things to photograph (and air-conditioning as well), I stumbled upon the Sonoma Valley visitor's centre.

I learned that Sonoma was the town where California was born, taken from Mexico in 1846, it was declared a republic by a group of American Army engineers, who without orders raised the "Bear Flag" in this town's central plaza. So, California was its own Republic for a few weeks until the people voted to join America. The bear flag then became the State flag they have still today. Look here for a more detailed explanation if you are interested (http://www.sonomavalley.com/html/mexico.php). Wow, and I was just looking for wine pictures!

The flower that you see here was growing out of the beautiful eight-acre central plaza in the town (which is very popular in towns in California as I saw throughout my trip), but this is still California's largest. Not only that, but it was the very plaza where the flag was raised on that day by the so-called "bear-flaggers", and where California was born.

What is with the married girls?

Alright, since I'm on a roll here with the posting, I'll talk briefly about my Thursday night. My buddy Dave talked me into going out with him. The pitch was that his friend (a girl) and her friends were out and wanted to get a group together to go from bar to bar. This friend of his was fun to hang out with last time (when we stayed out dancing 'til 5:something-ish in the a.m.). :)

Now, it's not like I'm looking to be starting a new relationship of any kind, and I knew that this friend of his is engaged, so I figured that adds up to another one of those fun nights of harmless drinking and dancing. I guessed that her friends were probably of the female persuasion as well, so I convinced myself that it was a good chance to have a bit of fun and conversation, and to meet some new people.

Well, once we all met up on Whyte, two things became obvious. The first was that they were indeed female. The second was that they were both married (editor's note: that's two married girls and one engaged girl!). Not because their husbands were on duty or even being dragged along mind you, I only knew because of the hardware on the ring finger. Oh, and verrrrry shortly, a third realization was had by my faithful wingman and I: they were all a few drinks ahead of us.

We spent a couple of hours between a couple bars, doing our best to catch up by ordering a few wobbly-pops as time went by. Hey, dancing is tough work, have a beer! :)

Now, I'm a flirt, but to a point... I try to read signals and watch for cues, but I really get a kick out of flirting. I'll use looks and gestures, but usually won't resort to anything physical. But, if the girl is in a solid relationship such as a marriage, I'll keep a little more distance, it has proven to be a good choice for keeping me out of trouble. What is your angle on this one, what do you do?? Comment for me!

As I kept my distance from these forbidden fruits, I noticed that not everyone shared the same respect for the obvious signs. The girls themselves were happily dancing with and talking with other guys in what seemed to me to be a flirty fashion. I must have been right, because one of the mystery gentlemen invited one of our counterparts back to his place for a "party". This one girl managed to wander over to his car, lured away from our protection.

It made me think alot about what marriage must mean to different people. I find it very interesting to see what some people think is ok for themselves, and even to see what their friends think of what is happening to their friends. This post could probably trail off into my thoughts about evolution of our species and how I think dating and emotions tie back to our long history and genetics... But I'm gonna have to stop myself before I get outta control!

Anyway, to each their own, but from what I saw, for the readers at home... if you are thinking about being flirty, think ahead a little bit to what's going to happen next, and what you're going to do about it. And try to think about it before you start drinking! ;)

Well, it turned out that the girls were good enough friends to pull the one straggler back to reality and out of the clutches of those persuasive guys. At that point, after last call, we decided to swing the girls back over to Whyte for a cab (and maybe on to the next venue?) in a fashion Dave described as "herding cats" because of the womanly elegance that any girl would possess after about eight drinks. Then, they ditched us. I said good night, sir!

The Sparkly Firework

The Sparkly Firework, originally uploaded by dangeresque2.

This shot is a sample of what I saw on Canada Day here in Edmonton. It was tricky to find a good spot to view everything, but I did really well as I found one fence/railing on the side of a path along the bank of the river. Anyway, there was a tree that obscured the shot a little, but the experience was great (I have alot of ideas for where to be next year too!)

Christa accompanied me and braved the plentitude of walking and crowds that were involved. Good on ya, Christa! And all in those sandals too!

Anyway, this picture shows one of those sparkly fireworks that drifts slowly back to the ground. It lit up all of the smoke from the others shot just before, and gave the whole area a nice glow.

I took other shots, but none turned out this nice. Tough to get practice when it only happens once a year... But I made my usual shoot notes, so that I won't forget the details next time.

Where are my photos?

Well, I've posted my photos in various places around the Internet... So far in three different spots. Here they are for those who are interested:

The newest is my membership to Flickr. Flickr is a neat community site where people share and discuss their images. Mine just showed up there today... Hopefully people will have said a nice thing or two by the time you read this to set a good example for you. ;) Here are my Flickr photos (http://www.flickr.com/photos/dangeresque2/).

My most exciting venture now is in taking pictures of people. I have set up my own site, aDayInYourLife.ca, to showcase those particular shots.

Last (or first, rather), but not least, is my WebShots album. This was the first major installment, and features my earliest digital pics. (http://community.webshots.com/user/dangeresque2).

Elmo, the baby fish!

Apparently, I'm an excellent fish keeper because my fish have reproduced! Yes, I now have a little orange fish that popped out of one of those little caves in my fish tank! I couldn't believe it!

Apparently, the little guy's name is Elmo... Christa named him when she saw how cute he was and said "aww" a bunch of times.

The funny thing is, I was away on my trip to San Francisco at the time, and no one was taking care of them. Actually, I was gone for 10 days, much longer than the maximum sized drop-and-forget vacation solid feeder for fish. I remember asking the girl at the pet store, who obviously had more love for fish than me... She said that there is no 10 day feeder, I'll have to get someone to take care of them while I'm away. Yeah right. Hahah. My fish will take care of themselves!

Well, I'll be the first to admit that when I left, I was expecting to have less fish, not more! What I did when I left was to drop the 7-day feeder into the tank, and for good measure, dropped in another 3-day feeder, because 3+7=10 right? I didn't get through University for nothing! Well, I knew that wouldn't exactly add up, but it did turn out!