Butterfly

My cousin got married last year on a lovely sunny day at the Devonian Botanic Garden. We were there quite early so that Megan could set her harp up, so we wandered around the garden for a bit and checked out the butterfly house. This was the first shot I got, and it turned out to be the best of the lot. I need to practice my closeup shots. Often I end up focusing on the wrong thing, and the picture looks kinda weird!

It is a really neat place, and I definitely want to go back and see if I can get some better butterfly pictures!

Statue of Liberty (back)

Oddly enough, of all the photos I took of the statue of liberty from just about every side, the one that turned out the best was of her back. *shrug*

The Statue of Liberty is kind of one of those sightseeing things you do because everyone does it. I wasn't particularly excited to see it myself, but it is actually a really pretty little island with a tremendous view of the New York skyline. It was a blisteringly hot day that day but it made for some nice pictures. What I like most about this photo is there really isn't much going on in the sky and there is no view of the crowds of people who were on the island at the time!

All That Glitters

One of the days while we were in New York, we decided to try and see as many things on our list of things to see as possible. We walked a lot, and saw a lot too!

Part way through that trip, I lined up this shot where the sun had a nice angle to glint off of shiny windows on two different buildings. I rather like the effect, what do you think?

3 Arches

Keeping up with last week's theme of arches, here's yet another shot of St Michael's Abbey on the way up towards the sanctuary itself. These arches were added after the original building was built in order to provide structural help to keep the Abbey from sliding or leaning.

I really like arches, if you hadn't guessed.

Arches

At St Michael's Abbey next to the Susa valley near Torino Italy, I took a lot of pictures. This particular one stood out for me today because it blended old and new. The platform built up there is one that helps support an elevator shaft and a set of stairs. So a combination of present day architecture and the architecture of hundreds of years ago in one picture. Fun!

Calm Lake

Diane reminded me of this picture I took with my old camera. I looked at it and remembered that I hadn't uploaded it, and I really really like it! So here it is. This was on a trip Diane and I took to Vancouver to go to our friends Ryan and Jazz's wedding. It was a pretty cool trip. We decided to travel by car, and stopped at a couple campgrounds along the way so that we weren't driving non-stop. We also stopped to visit Diane's Aunt and Uncle in Kamloops which was really nice.

This particular picture was at one of the campgrounds we stopped at. We were there fairly early and had a chance to relax and walk around. The lake here was beautiful and I got a few nice pictures, but this one is probably the best.

Torino at Night 2

Going back to my Italy pictures, this one is on one of the nights when we were walking around. Torino really was a fantastic city to walk around at night. It is too bad a lot of my night pictures didn't turn out. Walking around with a tripod was a tad inconvenient, but now I'm sorry I didn't do it because I could have had some incredible shots!

The Hallway

The hostel we stayed at in New York had very ... original colour choices on the walls. It made for some interesting photo opportunities, though it took me a few days before I actually wandered around to snap a few pictures. This one struck me tonight as pretty neat. I like how the light shimmers down both walls.

Lightwave

Diane setup some wall hangings she recently framed that she acquired in Japan. The two frames are those wall hangings, but what really makes the picture for me is the lamp and the waves of light that get cast on the wall, ceiling and across the room. Cool!

Empire State

I suppose everybody has an empire state building photo. I suppose that most have a better one than this one. But for some reason I felt like uploading this picture this week. I kind of like the angle, though I'm sure it's been done before!

In other news, my flickr stream has seen over 400 views!

The Sun Rises

On the trip to Toronto and eventually Boston, this was a little later than the early sunrise picture I posted awhile ago entitled "Good Morning Canada". I took several pictures like this but ran into trouble in all but this one when the glare from the sun showed the flaws in the glass on the older Air Canada plane window. In this shot, I used the wing to cover the sun - resulting in a surprisingly pleasing photo with the sun rays casting over the clouds and dispelling the darkness in the sky.

In a lot of ways, I wish I had grabbed a shot like this earlier when the sun wouldn't cause the glass to ruin the shot. I'm not entirely pleased with the airplane wing in the shot, but there wasn't really any other options!

Late Day Sky

On our first night in Boston, we enjoyed a very tasty meal at a restaurant that was perhaps not the fanciest place, but I really enjoyed my food! I have never had shrimp or scallops that tasted so good or were so large before in my life, and I look forward to having a chance to do so again!

After dinner, I tried a couple shots from the patio we ate dinner on, and this one turned out rather well I thought. It was getting towards sunset, and it made for a cool contrast in colours in the sky.

Candles

In St Michael's Abbey in Italy, there's some very neat stuff to look at. There's paintings on the wall, a real life choir singing in a corner, and these lit candles next to the window. Personally, I really like this photo though perhaps I am biased because it is one of the few photos I took inside the abbey that actually turned out.

JR's Kitty

This is JR's kitty. isn't she cute? I can't remember her name, so JR will have to remind me of it, but she's full of energy and cute as a button. Erm ... perhaps cuter than a button.

Boston Seaport

While I was waiting for the conference to start, I was treated to a pretty nice view from the Boston World Trade Center building we were in. This boat started going by and I grabbed a photo that I was a little surprised turned out so well through the glass window. It's kind of a peaceful looking picture in my opinion. You also get a pretty decent look at the Boston skyline which I think looks pretty neat.

Edmonton Skyline

After an afternoon of geocaching with my friend JR, I saw this neat sight from his 15th floor apartment. I asked him if we could take out the screen so I could grab a few photos from there. It's pretty cool to see Edmonton in all its glory. The shots I got turned out pretty well, so here's this week's photo.

Central Park Bridge 2

A second view of the central park bridge that I uploaded recently. I'm not entirely sure which I like better - which do you like better?

In recent news, I surpassed 200 views of my photostream as recorded by Flickr! Hooray!

Central Park Bridge

On our last day in New York, we got some time to wander around Central Park before we headed for the airport. It was a rather nice walk - we wandered around the reservoir for a couple of hours. I took a fair number of pictures, but the bridge pictures are the ones that turned out the best I think! You'll probably see some more of them turn up in future posts!

Evening Glory

Not too long ago, I was getting a picture frame for a picture I bought while I was in New York. On the way home, I saw this: The sun shining through a hole in a mass of dark clouds. I ran home, grabbed my camera and took a couple of photos of the phenomena. The pictures didn't quite turn out as good as I hoped - it was really something else at the time. It kind of looks like the kind of photo that would really have benefited from HDR. Oh well, I still like it, so that's why I'm posting it!

Phoenix Cloud

At Heritage Days, an Edmonton festival celebrating the diverse culture of our fair city, there was this really cool looking cloud. To me, it looked like a phoenix, rising from its ashes born anew. You could potentially argue it's a dragon with smoke coming out its nostrils. At any rate, I really liked this photo, so that's this week's selection!