This is a 190 degree view from the deck of my parents’ house in Hønefoss, Norway. If not stunning, it is at least pretty. You can see my sister Cecilie sunbathing to the right. The wall on both sides of the panorama is the same wall. This is from 2006; it has just taken me a while to post it.

That’s a no brainer, but seriously, don’t do it. This is nothing to be proud of, but where better than to humiliate yourself than on the intertubes, for all to see. Jenna and I have missed our flight three times now. Three! How is that possible? Border crossings, traffic, parking trouble, but most of all, we only have ourselves to blame. Here’s what transpired and the result:

• Flying to Lima, Peru, via Houston from Detroit with Continental: it took an hour to park the car and get to the terminal. Missed our flight to Houston by 10 minutes. The very kind people of SkyTeam put us on a Northwest flight to Houston that left 20 min later and we caught our connection to Lima.
• Flying to Oslo, Norway, via Detroit and Amsterdam with Northwest. We were just late. Checked in 30 min before the flight, security took an eternity. I arrived at the gate 5 min before it was supposed to leave. They wouldn’t let me on, said there was nothing they could do. I pleaded with them. They did some computer wizardry. Then they said, “go, board the airplane. Just go!”. And we did.
• Flying to Tampa, Florida, via Atlanta with Delta. The border in Buffalo took forever and parking too. Missed check in by 5 min. Ran for the gate, with our luggage, but the people there would not do the same wizardry as last time. Flight missed. We rebooked our flight for $50 each and it took 7 hours longer and a lot of stress to get to Florida.

Need I say that this will never happen again?

A pelican getting ready to dive bomb an unsuspecting fish. Again and again I tried to catch a pelican the moment before they hit the water, and I was foiled each and every time. Just not quick enough. Have a couple of almost half-decent ones, but they’re a little blurry and the bird is half submerged already. Not this time I guess, but I still got some good pelican shots.

Well, his name might not Henry, but Jenna remembered a pelican on this pier from about 10 years ago, so it could be the same one couldn’t it? He was cool, just sat there to be photographed.

Update: apparently, it is the same Henry.

I’m in Clearwater Beach, Florida for five days. It’s so nice here! Everywhere is lush and green, and the beaches are like pure, white powder snow. Nice to get away and relax for a few days.

This picture taught me somthing about circular polarisers and vignetting. The vignetting was not as bad as seen in the picture, but where it occured, it was completely opaque. I exaggerated it. I must figure out how to avoid this in the future, and if necessary, buy a more expensive CPL.

Magnolias are gorgeous flowers. Many people have magnolia trees in their gardens. Here’s one of many, many pictures that I took with my 300mm.

Closeup of the trees from the last post. Here you can see what I mean. It looks decently sharp at this size, but try to open a bigger version of it (or don’t). They’re beautiful though.

• Nikon D70, Nikkor 300mm at 270mm,  1/100 sec at f/14, ISO 200, CPL
• Hard to keep it sharp at that extension/f stop. Put it in burst mode but should have compromised on the ISO instead since I had no tripod.

There are lots of these trees around. I don’t know what they are called, but if you know, I would appreciate a tip. They’re pretty, and wonderful subjects. However, my efforts yielded no good closeups this time. Essentially I could not keep a wider aperture without a tripod, which I didn’t happen to have on me. In this picture the shallow depth of field makes a rather cool effect though.

It was a busy day on the Welland Canal, I saw four ships in just two hours. Three actually went past me, and I saw another one in a lock further down. No doubt there were ships in all seven locks yesterday.

You know, the canal between Lake Ontario and Lake Erie (the Welland Canal) is only 500 metres away from where I live and I almost never see it? I hear the ships sometimes though. But I’ve lived close to the canal for three and a half years without paying much attention to it. Therefore I took a walk along the canal yesterday in the balmy weather.

I got an early birthday present from Jenna, a Nikkor 50mm f/1.8 :) I’ve wanted a 50mm normal lens for a while, so this was perfect. For those who wonder why a lens that can’t zoom is so great, it makes it much more light sensitive (lower f number = greater aperture = more light). Put the other way around, it’s a faster lens since you can use a higher shutterspeed. That means I can take pictures when others have to use a flash, or of things in motion, and that I can take pictures with shallower depth of field (area in focus). Apparently, it produces nice sharp pictures and has good colour reproduction, although I’ve yet to take enough pictures with it to see the difference.

• Nikon D70, Nikkor 50mm, 1/1250 sec at f/1.8, ISO 200.

I guess I’m going to the University of Waterloo then! I accepted their offer today. I’m slightly overwhelmed with work right now (papers, exams) so more information will follow later.