11-11-11

For all the lost souls that fought in countless battles... thank you!  Today has special meaning to me, having served in the Canadian Armed Forces from Aug 1981 to June 1982.  During that time, I had the opportunity to view military footage of battles fought in WW1 and WW2, but of all I films I saw, none are more vivid for me today than the battles at Vimy Ridge.  Canada lost a lot of good men on that plot of land, all to protect our freedoms....   

So after my moment of silence... I hoped on my bike to clear my head.  It wasn't until I was almost home when I realized I was about to hit 11111 km on my bike.  I pulled over and captured the moment...

So what does this have to do with Remembrance Day?  Nothing, but I could not have planned my riding over the last six months to be able to clock 11111 km specifically on Remembrance Day....  Maybe there is some deep meaning to it... as to why I would try to cover two very different topics in one blog, but if there is, I can't find it....

WTF!!! Where did that come from?

Oct 19 2011 - 10000 km

10000 km and Madame Noir needed a fresh lube.   4 litre bottle of lube, filter, crush gasket and torque values...  All set!!!  Hoped on and rode her for 20 minutes...  she was hot!  Wanted to keep going, but I pulled the plug and let her drain instead.  Dropped her filter, lubed and screwed on a new one on and torqued her.   Hmmm, rushed the job and didn't fill the filter... So I had to screw off the new one, fill it and torqued it back up.   Plugged her, filled her up full and ran her to check her levels.  Purrfect!

Clean up is always a bit of an exercise... things are slippery and dirty...  but this clean-up was special...  I got a surprise!!!  Wiping things up, I found a black ring with three white stripes on the side, sitting in the bottom of the oil pan???  WTF?  It must have come off the filter when I dropped it to fill it...

Well Madame Noir can't run if it she ain't sealed right;  I mean a leak is not a good thing when she's running hot and running hard.   So I pulled the plug on her for the second time today, drained her fresh lube and removed her new filter and sh-t!!!!  The ring for the new filter is there!  Dang!!!  So back on it went, torqued her up, plugged and refilled her one more time and... done!!!!!!

Madame Noir got lubed twice today, but she is happier for it...  all filled up and ready to be ridden... hard!  It's the only way to she likes to ride!

Seebe

Went riding to soak up some of the colours of fall.  I ended up stopping at Seebe Dam, a place Ken showed me earlier in the year and one that we have been wanting to do some night shots of.  Well it wasn't night and it wasn't planned, but I managed a few bracketed shots that lent well to my favourite processing method - HDR.

Seebe West

Seebe East

Seebe North

Seebe South

Riding... a new passion replacing others... in life.

Since picking up an enduro R1200GS motorcycle, which replaced my cruiser, I have been riding all over SW Alberta and interior BC with some back roads around Calgary thrown in.  Below is one of the latest routes which can be found at http://www.motowhere.com and listed as "Powderface + Maclean Creek Trail", a 200 km round trip with 100+ off road.


Powderface + Maclean Creek Trail

Share the ride..................

More Falls

Once again, it's been a while.  Things got busy with my sideline business www.ktcphoto.com and shooting amateur sports this spring.

So, I was out hiking this May long weekend and captured some water falls... again; these are of Johnston Canyon Lower Falls.  Plus, the following day, I shot Mount Inglismaldie reflected off lake Minnewanka outside of Banff, Alberta.  I love being outdoors and capturing landscapes!  As usual,  I have added my own HDR twists to the scenes... Cheers!!!

Halex Photography - Growing a Dream

I want to reciprocate Ken Richmond's kind gesture of mentioning me and my new photography site www.ktcphoto.com in his blog.  But, while I had an idea to start my own photography business and was tossing that idea around, Ken took his idea a whole lot further, faster and turned an idea into a growing business!!!

So, congratulations to Ken for turning his dream into reality!!!  Check out his site to see what Ken has been up to... www.halexphoto.com ....  and what services he is offering.

Good luck in your endeavors Ken!!!!

The Universe is a Beautiful Thing

Wow, it's been a while!!!!!  So, what better way to get back to blogging by talking about and presenting one of my more challenging photo shoots.

It's December 21st!!!!!!!!  What?  So!!!  Wellllllll, that's Winter Solstice!!!!  But this year, it coincides with a total lunar eclipse!!!!! Next time that will happen will be in the year 2401... and I, you and the rest of us, will not be around to see that one :-(

I heard about the event on the news, which is unusual, as I am normally up to speed on celestial occurances...  but not this time.  With only a days notice, I gathered my gear and studied up on how to take photograph of such an event... as it turns out, there is a lot more involved in taking a picture of the moon, in the dark, while freezing my a_ _ off !!!  LOL!!!!

Shot with a Nikon D3S, Nikkor 70-200mm f2.8 lens and 1.7x Teleconverter  at
ISO 200 to 1000, f16-11 and shutter speeds of 1/100s - 1.3"

Taking the shots was a lot of fun, but it was also scary (that's another blog)...  and it was cold (did I mention that?).  When I arrived at 10 pm it was very bright, but then turned dark as the eclipse unfolded... which was eerie.... and many frames later, viola!!! You be the judge;  I am pretty happy with the results....