Montreal Walkabout on the Mountain

Glorious day, and worth the extra effort to get out of our flat, and thread my way past all of the massive road construction on my street to go for a wander on our mountain.

We are lucky enough to have Mont Royal Park smack dab in the middle of the city. There are sections that make you feel as though you're deep in the woods in the country, and other sections that feel like Central Park. This is because the landscape architect for both parks is Frederick Law Olmsted. The highlight for me is the grand lookout with its the stunning view of the city below.

My only pet peeve today is the number of people yakking on their cell phones oblivious to their surroundings and others. Some of them, unbelievably, were on speaker phone yammering on about groceries they have to pick up or in one guy's case, the wholesale price of silver amulets.

Seriously, people. Take five. You're in NATURE. Look around you, take it all in, and enjoy it in peace, because that's what the rest of us are trying to do.

We live in the far bottom right corner!

Spring fever

Mistakes Can Actually Work Out (Or, Pretend You Meant to Do That)

After I transferred my photos from camera to laptop a while ago, I noticed something odd about them. Many of them were over-exposed, while just as many were under-exposed.

Huh.

After much fiddling and confusion on my part, I finally figured out that I inadvertently pressed the "bracket" (Auto Bracket) button. This means the camera is assuming you will take three shots in a row of the same subject, and each one will go from light to dark, and then you're supposed to go to photoshop and blend them together for an HDR type photo.

But I didn't do that, I just went on my merry way, snapping anything that took my fancy in the park up on our mountain. So some shots looked bleached out and others looked vivid and other worldly.

But once I got over my panic of not knowing what I did (and I fixed it) I kind of liked the shots. Note that these were taken within minutes of each other in almost the same spot.