Combining soybeans in northern Ohio at night

In the final week of October, I visited relatives in NW Ohio. As I drove through the flat countryside, I could see clouds of dust in nearly every enormous field of soybeans because farmers were finally able to get into their fields with heavy combines. Rain was forecast, so everybody was working against the clock. As long as the moisture content remained below about 14%, farmers would not be docked $0.50/bushel. Experience told them years ago that they could work into the night until the dew descends, so one could see combines crisscrossing fields with powerful headlights, enormous semi trucks parked on small country roads, waiting to be loaded and go to the local farmers' co-op elevators where the soybeans would be weighed, sold or stored.

These photographs show my brother-in-law David hard at work near Ridgeville, Ohio. He showed us how some of the bean pods had already opened, dropping beans on the ground. Because weather did not let farmers harvest as early as usual, this year's crop would obviously be lessened. His beans are destined for making oil.

Wine Research Centre, Library and Vinotheque, The University of British Columbia

In 2002, the Wine Research Centre in the Faculty of Land and Food Systems of the University of British Columbia officially opened a British Columbia chapter of the Canadian Wine Library. This beautiful B.C. Wine Library and Vinothèque already has about 8,000 bottles of wine and is capable of housing up to 22,000. As the Centre's website explains, an advisory board of winery proprietors and academics in British Columbia suggest which young wines should be obtained for study. These are then procured, often in units of two cases (24 bottles). The bottles can then be analyzed by the Centre's very active laboratories and carefully tasted annually over the next 24 years. Among the Centre's many goals is that of determining which varietals are best suited for which of the province's many micro climates and terroires.

My thanks to Associate Dean, Dr. Hennie van Vuuren, Eagles Chair in Food Biotechnology and founder and Director of the Wine Research Centre, for allowing me to photograph in the nicely-chilled Library. I will never again leave home without a corkscrew.

October sunrise over Vancouver, B.C.

The sunrise this morning, Saturday, October 10th, 2009, was spectacular. Many people could be seen taking pictures as the cloud cover started to break up over downtown Vancouver just as the sun was filling the lower cloudless horizon with fire. It was perfect for HDR photography in which you use a tripod in order to take multiple photographs (I usually took 7), each at a different exposure, and then merge them in order to get an enormous tonal range of luminosity, saturation and detail. This technique can often make photographs seem more like paintings.

The Village of Durfort (Gard), France

The medieval village of Durfort (départment du Gard) now has about 500 inhabitants. Durfort undoubtedly developed around the 12th-century chateau constructed during the height of feudalism and provided it labour and supplies. The modern village is now both sleepy and beautiful, with many of the stone homes being carefully renovated. The agricultural plains have been productive for centuries.

We focused mainly on the village's charming narrow walkways and followed the 14th-century wall, finally pausing on the outskirts of the village for a lovely luncheon, which sustained us for the challenging hike up the local mountain.

Graffiti in downtown Vancouver (part 2)

It seems that, as Vancouver prepares for the 2010 Olympics in February, there is a concerted effort to clean up the downtown area. Every week we hear of both rumours and concrete plans for 'looking after' the homeless in our city, some of whom are locals and some immigrants from other, colder parts of Canada.

I was surprised, however, to see how difficult it is becoming to find graffiti in Vancouver. Some alleys have allowed spray paint artists freedom to depict things of their choice in what we might call the International Style. There is also ample evidence of taggers (graffitists who only paint their practiced and uniform 'signatures') here and there, particularly on telephone poles, which apparently are not the responsibility of the store owners. But more often than not, there are many neat newly-painted squares on walls and doors, squares whose paint which is similar in colour but does really blend in perfectly with the rest. Each of these thousands of squares covers graffiti, testifying to the industry and determination of store owners and civic-minded citizens to stamp out graffiti. Consequently, it is becoming increasingly difficult to find interesting graffiti to photograph.

But happily, Jesse and I managed to find some today. Under his tutelage, I have become interested primarily in sites which have layers of paint, either tag upon tag, or spray paint art by domesticated graffitists partially covered by the more spontaneous strokes of a hurried tagger working late at night. Today, I was particularly interested in taking closeup shots showing drops of paint superimposed on other paint.

I will begin with a doorway which faces an alley in the downtown east side. This exhibits both the squares of paint attempting to cover graffiti and, since the store owners did not act sufficiently promptly, there is also new graffiti, especially tagging. Thereafter, these pictures will usually include closeups of layered graffiti and some rather neatly-fashioned tags on bricks (a new interest of mine). Except for the initial shot, each photograph was taken with the 100mm macro lens, using a tripod. For additional photographs, please see my initial posting on Graffiti in downtown Vancouver.

Gathering September Storm over Vancouver's English Bay

The afternoon of September 19th was enlivened by an approaching storm, fairly high winds (which soon dissipated), and dramatic cloud formations. I shot until blowing rain forced me to retreat to the car. These pictures were taken either along Cornwall or from Jericho Beach, both of which overlook English Bay, downtown Vancouver and, across the bay, North and West Vancouver. For about one minute, there was a fascinating interplay of a burst of sunlight which was highlighted by the backdrop of dark clouds.