photography: Canal Lachine

 Just a few photos I took with the iPhone on my morning ride yesterday. I used the 48-megapixel raw setting. 

update: 25 Years later remake: South West Corridor

 I spent 3 days working on remaking the set for the SW Corridor shot. Most of it is made from still and video cutouts. The buildings in the rear I drew in Affinity vetcor. The animation on this was very simple so it didn't take long to do after everything was set up. There is a right wing to this set where we see the friends walking as a butterfly flies past them, which is challenging character animation and the sick friend is walking with a walker. 

The original shot is below. I am not reinventing the animation so it's very similar but more natural looking, I hope. I noticed there are vantage points on the corridor where more Boston landmarks are visible so I think it has more a sense of place now. 

Upate: 25 years later rain scene

 

I made this 2 times the duration, added different rain effects and details like the fences. I also change it from a few butterflies to one. 

photography: Mobius Meadows Farmstead.

 I spent a few days at a friend's farm. Mostly taking photos of items for his website and social media. I also took some of the animals there. 

Updating older animations: 25 Years Later (2020) Barn in the rain

 

Still chugging along. I liked this in the original version and it had some challenges in Blender but it looks OK. The idea of this shot was the inspiration for the entire original project. 

Updating older animations: 25 Years Later (2020) south end room

 More progress than I expected in the last 2 days. This is an interior room in Boston's South End. Several shots happen here and I hope it's a nice scene with the 2 characters. 

Photography: Parc Safari

 We took the kids to Parc Safari on their visit. Again, they loved it and again I was disappointed. The ads show giraffes and all kinds of exotic animals and the "safari" now consists of local animals only. The zoo part had animals like alpacas that I see on my friend's farm all the time. There were a few big cats as well but it seems like they might be transitioning from zoo to water park. I did get some nice photos and was able to use the camera in a new setting, namely a moving car with animals sometime a distance away. 

Photography: Montreal's Insectarium 2026

 I had my nephew's family here for a few days and his boys love dinosaurs but the younger one really has been into bugs these days and I told we would go to the Insectarium. I have not been since it was renovated and the kids loved it. I was let down a bit, though. It has less to really see in it, opting for a large part of it being a series of pathways that look like you are in an ant tunnel. That is well done and why the kids love it but they also didn't have many living insects other than butterflies and what was a large open area with bugs prepared and pinned in frames is in a smaller room with some of the exhibits too high to really see, especially for young children. They did add a permanent butterfly room, which was pretty great. 

I got to use my new Nikon Z 5II and have a lot to get used to with it. 

Updating older animations: 25 Years Later (2020) more progress.

 

I have made more progress on this improved version. I am keeping several shots from the older version; they look good, and recreating them to look the same is a waste of time and effort. The indoor lighting, I think, shows a huge improvement in the characters from the original, and I can get much more emotion on the faces. 

EXhibition: Escher Exhiibtion

Exhibition Website

I recently had the chance to see some of the works of Escher right in front of my eyes here in Montreal. I went with a good friend, and we were there for a couple of hours, enjoying the work and having great discussions about it. 

Even on a Tuesday afternoon, it was well attended but not packed, so it was easy to linger on the images we wanted and not feel rushed to see it all. There was a lot to see. It shows work from the early days to the end. Most of his best-known pieces were there, and many more rare images as well. The prints, mostly wood engravings, I would say, were excellent quality, a joy to see in real life. 

There were a few "asides" I did not really think were needed. A room that, depending on where you stood, made you look large or small, a room of mirrors... these things had little to nothing to do with his work, and not many people were using them. They might have been there to engage younger people, but even the children that were there were much more intrigued by the work itself and the videos showing how it was done and what inspired it. It was a bit expensive at 30+ dollars a person, I thought. Granted, I haven't had money or time to see many exhibitions in recent years, so I don't really have a good idea what these things cost these days. 

The show is here all summer, ending in August, so if you are here, go see it. Keep in mind the unrelenting construction in Montreal made this almost impossible to find. The entry to the Place des Arts metro station was closed, and it was not clearly indicated how to leave the station, and the space itself was hidden from view by tents on Saint Catherine. I was lost for 45 minutes trying to just get there!! Not a week before, the configuration of the area was completely different!