Learning Photography

I finally enrolled a photography online class as i set up my goals in this hobby much higher. I found a lot of flaws to images i took (which doesn't matter to me really, because it is much more for family collection than anything else) for which i consider great in my novice eyes. Well, taking pictures of my family at their most candid moment is great but i am now challenging myself to try ways to better improve my basic knowledge. I just want to mention that while blogging, it inspired me as well to take photographs in whatever chances i could get; thus, getting absorbedly crazy in this hobby. I might be sharing some of the images i will be submitting to my class and see how you can critique or comment on the subject. Finally, my long and winding whine will slowly come to an end...or really? Will see next month as i progress to my journey in learning how to shoot creatively. Wish me the best...

Wordless Wednesday

These images were taken from a Childrens Carnival in Avenches, Switzerland.

more entries from Wordless Wednesday participants

Ticino Adventure

Ticino is the canton located in the southern part of Switzerland and their language is Italian. This is our second time visiting the area, only this time, we decided to stay in the town of Locarno for 4 days.

It takes about 4 hours of driving and a 20 minutes interesting ride on a train car. This train carry all the cars heading to the other side of the pass (Instead of taking the high road up the mountain which is close during winter time). On the way, we pass the town of Andermatt before going through the St. Gotthard tunnel (this is the third longest road tunnel in the world ). It runs from the north to Airolo in the south, and is just under 16.4 kilometres (10.5 miles) in length. This is our only entrance to Ticino during winter.

We arrived at our hotel in the late afternoon and the beautiful weather right away welcomes us . The hotel is superb (exceeds my expectation). After settling in, we took a short stroll along the quai and getting acquainted to it's surroundings and sights.

The following day, we decided to visit the town of Ascona and it's nearby town. Ascona lies in a spectacular sunny bay on Lake Maggiore. It’s one of the best loved and most exclusive tourist destinations in Switzerland. Then we drove up to the town of Ronco where one can check the vista point to have one of the best view of Lago Maggiore and the Brissago Islands. The end of the day was a short adventure of finding a "Grotto". Nothing is more typical for life in Ticino than the grottoes, simple taverns in quiet hideaway places, well in the shade of trees. They usually consist of a kitchen and a generous garden with solid granite tables and benches, where everybody sits in the coolness of the trees, drinking and eating the products of the local cuisine (such as the famous Polenta and Risotto ala Ticinese). It was so good!

The third day brought us to the center old town of Locarno. The "piazza grande" is where they hold the international film festival each year. There was a festival of Camilla in their park where various colors of Camillas were displayed. We checked the tourism office for some other interesting sights and places to see. We found the place we fancied, the Valle Versazca. The rest of the afternoon was an excursion going up the valley where the river runs wild with it's magnificient beauty. It was extremely spectacular.

Our last day was visiting the town of Bellinzone aka Bellinzona (The capital town of Ticino) before heading our way back to Vevey. It is a beautiful town with three castles. They said that it was its unique geographical position which made Bellinzona as the "key to the Alps" from the sourthern people (like Italy...) and from the north as the "key to Italy". Today, there are so much charm and beauty as you stroll the town. You can feel the old and rich history with each sights you see.

There you go...our travel report for this month. Until next time.

If you would like to see more photos from our trip, you may visit my family online gallery.

Photo Hunt: Metal

Happy Easter Everyone! Here is Easter Sunday hunt for this week's theme.

A giant metal fork in the lake (technically it is made of steel), one of the many fascinating architectural images in our town of Vevey.

This structure was displayed for the second time last 2007, situated directly across the Musée de l’Alimentation (Nestlé Alimentarium), a museum devoted to the history of food products. The fork was to be displayed only for one year to commenorate its 10th anniversary. It was supposedly taken down last January but I am glad the petition to keep it around was granted. I searched more online for some information about this work of art. Below is an excerpt from an online blogger, Peterblog.

"It spent the last ten years decorating the grounds of Berndorf Ltd, a Lucerne-based cutlery manufacturer, and is back to celebrate an exhibition of place settings at the Alimentarium. The poor fork was banished a few years after it was set up orignally, in contravention of some local regulation or other.
It is the work of Jean-Pierre Zaugg, and artist from Neuchâtel (on another big lake, curiously enough) and was made by Georges Favre in Vevey out of stainless steel."

It still stands until now and you will see the different view of this metal sculpture when you walk along the quai perdonnet in whatever time of the year.

Happy Photo Hunting!

Until next week...

photohunt

The Stephen Leacock Building

Like Montreal itself, McGill University experienced a building boom in the 1960's. A dramatic climb in enrollment during this period meant that faculties and departments were outgrowing their spaces. Construction projects all over campus sought to fill this void, including a new building for the Faculty of Arts.

Leacock was strategically connected to the ancestral Arts building.

Built in 1965, the Leacock building was named after Stephen Leacock, a well-known Canadian humorist and author, and a McGill professor from 1901 to 1944. The exterior of the 10-storey structure was made of precast load-bearing concrete panels, each of which contained a sealed window. Concrete pillars helped support some of the projected portions of the structure, including a corridor that connected the tower to the old Arts building. The first floor circulation passageways were designed to be lit for the most part by natural daylight, which entered through glass walls on the east and south sides.

A student lounge area, complete with ashtrays.

A typical 60's Leacock office, left, and the glass walled corridor to Arts, right.

Inside, the first 3 floors were reserved for student and lecture areas. These lower floors were accessible from terraces located on the second and third floors, or the first floor street level entrance. This was intended to keep student traffic to a minimum.

Some 24 lecture halls ranged in capacity from 30 to 200, not including a 650-seat auditorium located on the first floor. The latter was designed with no windows (to provide fewer distractions), and its seats sloped in the same direction as the natural hillside.

The upper tower was reserved for 125 offices, accessible by elevator.

A mod council room in the Leacock building.

A little known fact is that the Stephen Leacock building was originally planned as two towers. Had this been the case, Morrice Hall, a beautiful Collegiate Gothic style structure built in 1871 (and still standing today) would have been demolished for the second tower...

Leacock and Morrice Hall (formerly The Presbyterian College of Montreal).

View from Doctor Penfield Avenue.

images: archives.mcgill.ca

Happy Easter Sunday

We just got back from our long weekend vacation and I am organizing my photos taken during the trip for posting. I know it will be another long week of absence for me as I am currently occupied with my family and the holy week vacation.

I will catch up and visit you all when things get back to normal. For now, I thank all of you who came to visit me and wonder if there will be any updates to my blog. There will be so much to share in few days time.

For now, I wish everyone a wonderful time with your family. Happy Easter!

Expo Inside Out!

Another magazine figures prominently in my Expo 67 collection. Acquired in 1997, Expo Inside Out! was my first ever Expo collectible.

Ironically, the item that inaugurated my collection was not in any way an official souvenir. Published by Omniscope Magazine of Westmount, Quebec, Expo Inside Out! was a 48-page unauthorized guide to "what to see" and "what to avoid", at Expo 67.

From the foreword:

"We have not attempted an encyclopedia of Expo. Nor have we collected hymns of praise for Man and his World. [...] Our guide is highly unauthorized [...] Our research was done without benefit of red-carpet V.I.P. treatment, and all opinions expressed here are either personal or objective. They are not Expo approved."

Using a 5-star rating system, every pavilion, many rides and shows, as well as some services were scrutinized by this publication. Every facet of touring Expo 67 was discussed, including restaurant and bar reviews, shopping guides, and touring Expo with children. Various pre-planned tours were proposed for those visiting with time constraints. Routines were suggested for rainy and/or overly crowded days.

The result offers a completely different view of Expo 67. Often funny, the scathing reviews are my favorites:

"Venezuela is the fastest pavilion at Expo
if you skip the film. Skip the film."
•
"Germany is a pavilion through which you
walk slowly, wondering what you're missing..."
•
"[La Spirale] spirals up. It spirals down.
What did you expect for a dollar?"

images: personal collection