Joiner's Musings

Thanksgiving at the cottage.  There is nothing like spending Thanksgiving at the cottage with family. We flew up on Thursday evening, picked up our rental car and it was an easy hour and a half to our summer cottage. This is our third successive Thanksgiving and of the three the coolest one. Temperatures during the night dipped to around zero. However our new wood-stove provided all of the warmth we needed.  We even managed to get the motor out; a simple task since we kept our old 5hp Mercury after having purchased a new outboard motor this past year. It was nice to see family. Our daughter joined us as did a sister , brother and their families. As you can see we all gathered around for Thanksgiving dinner and yes, a wonderful turkey complete with stuffing, poteatoes, vegetables and other sundry was prepared for the occasion.

I have been experimenting with my 45mm 1.8 on my newly acquired Olympus EPL-5 pictured above and each shot I take with the EPL-5 continues to impress. The shot of the toy truck is taken with the 45mm wide open at 1.8 so that I could see the quality of the bokeh. I think it is pretty good and at that distance the depth of field is quite shallow and the quality of the blur is quite acceptable, I think. I like this camera a lot. I like the fact that it has the same sensor and IQ as the OMD. I like the articulating LCD display and the touch screen which I did not think I would use. But I am most impressed with low light ability. On my EPL-2 any low light situation was a challenge and with no focus assist light the lens hunted desperately trying to find some contrast which made for some very frustrating shooting. I like the size, smaller than my EPL-2 and the robust metal body construction. I also like that my VF2 looks good on the new camera and for now it is staying on. I final...

I am a longtime user of Olympus 4/3 cameras and it was not too long ago that I could not have taken this shot. It is downtown Truro, Nova Scotia, at night taken with an EPL-5 at 1/50s with an ISO of 6400. It is a RAW photo simply converted to .jpg with no post processing. I say this because my first camera, an Olympus E-500, was simply unusable at night and 400 ISO was the reasonable limit. Two years ago I bought an EPL-2 and found it only marginally better than the other 4/3rds cameras that I had although I found that OOC shots required very little post processing and it was a delight when the light was great. But any kind of tricky situation where the light was lacking was a real challenge. Then along comes my recently acquired EPL-5 a camera that has the same sensor as the OMD (and AF) which many reputable camera review sites are calling the best camera of 2012. There are so many things that are much improved in the EPL-5 as opposed to my EPL-2. Some things I like  are imp...

We just returned from our trip to Victoria, BC. Pictured above is the Christmas Tree prepared by my daughter and her partner.As you can see it is brightly lit and is a wonderful addition to their well appointed home in Victoria.. The photo was made with a tripod at a very slow shutter speed and without a flash. You can see that the effect is very dramatic. The weather was predictable during our one week stay, but despite that we managed to be very active during our one-week stay and saw as many of the sights as we could and of course taste the fantastic craft beer that I am sure BC is known for. Never in any place in Canada have I been exposed to the number of varieties of craft beer with Tug IPA being my personal favorite. The flight back was long, after all 4500 kilometers is a long distance to fly, but I got plenty of great photos and memories to boot.

This stuff is coming soon. We have had a taste of snow but are lucky enough not to have had much of it come down so far. I am not too crazy about snow in December and thankfully we don't get much of it till after Christmas. Last winter was fairly mild and this winter is predicted to be mild as well which, for us, means freeze-thaw cycles throughout the winter months. I have seen some brutal winters on the east coast and of course the worst was our famous "White Juan" in February of 2009. We were snow bound for 5 days. My son and I were supoosed to fly out in mid Febreuray but had to delay our trip by one day because the airport was closed. Anyway, here's hoping for a mild winter!

We've been to Cuba several times but not since 2009. No doubt things have not changed much. We have been all over Cuba having seen the many historical sites. Cuba is rich with history as anyone who has ever visited will agree. This time we plan to stay in Holguín province, in a little place called Guardalavaca. I know we will not be disappointed since the resort where we are staying is highly regarded. We always look forward to our vacation in the sun because as most Canadians know it can get damn cold up here. Here are a few shots from our 2009 trip to Trinidad, Cuba. It was a long and bumpy bus trip to this world heritage site but the sights and scenery were worth the trip. I remember passing over the hills where Che Guevara hid out during the revolutionary war and trying to envision just what it was like in the 1950s when Cuba was on the verge of forming a new nation and the struggles of surviving in the wilderness with limited weapons but the will to be victorious. ...

Our most recent acquisition is a Ridgeway grandfather clock. We purchased it privately and from information labels on the inside of the clock itself, it appears to have been made in the US in 1996 by the Pulaski Furniture Corporation. Pulaski was later acquired by Howard Miller Clocks and although the Ridgeway brand is still available to this day they are sold under the Howard Miller group of companies. The clock stands about 7 feet high. It plays a Westminster chime on  the quarter, half, three-quarter and strikes the hour. It is in exceptional condition in a striking dark oak. Perfect for our country style home. Although the clock works very well, some day we will have to get it serviced and locate a horologist in our area. That should be a challenge. We receive many positive comments about our clock. I will always love the sound of a tall case clock in a home.