Another weekend in Toronto, and another outdoor event. A free outdoor event. Free .. say it with me. Mmmmm ... free. Totally had a Homer Jay Simpson moment there.
This weekend the event was the Toronto Nautical Festival. A rather grandiose title for what was a few tall ships anchored around the inner harbuor and some Maritime music, but I can't complain. The Blue Nose came. The only time I've gotten close to seeing this schooner was in its home port of Lunenburg Nova Scotia and it was fall, offseason and I may have seen it but there was tequila involved and I really don't remember. Not remembering is pretty much the point of tequilla.
So Collette and I decided to take advantage of the event and we went down Saturday. I took my little Samsung palmcorder (there is a video below) but Collette had left her little Nikon Coolpix at school. Bummer. More on that later.
The day began cool and cloudy with a little bit of rain. For a semi-Maratime event I found the weather .. authentic. Not a bad thing because it kept the crowds at bay. The only problem with outdoor free festivals in Toronto is that everyone else likes them as well .. and I mean everyone. I've stopped going to certain annual events because the crowds have developed into some Moloch-like all consuming beast .. and I have a bit of claustiphobia .. and really, I just don't like people. Well, not so many people .. all at once.
So we wandered around Harbourfront in the clouds and the rain and got to board three of the larger ships. There was free music but we decided not to hang out that long. Which means we've missed an opportunity to see the Bara McNeals for free a couple of weeks in a row. Damn.
Still, we enjoyed ourselves, I love wandering around these old ships; I'd seen the Niagra before but not the Pride of Baltimore and had never been on the deck of the Blue Nose. So it was good.
Here is a little video compilation of the day, music by Nova Scotia's Natalie McMaster.
The Nautical Festival from Victor Kellar on Vimeo.
This weekend the event was the Toronto Nautical Festival. A rather grandiose title for what was a few tall ships anchored around the inner harbuor and some Maritime music, but I can't complain. The Blue Nose came. The only time I've gotten close to seeing this schooner was in its home port of Lunenburg Nova Scotia and it was fall, offseason and I may have seen it but there was tequila involved and I really don't remember. Not remembering is pretty much the point of tequilla.
So Collette and I decided to take advantage of the event and we went down Saturday. I took my little Samsung palmcorder (there is a video below) but Collette had left her little Nikon Coolpix at school. Bummer. More on that later.
The day began cool and cloudy with a little bit of rain. For a semi-Maratime event I found the weather .. authentic. Not a bad thing because it kept the crowds at bay. The only problem with outdoor free festivals in Toronto is that everyone else likes them as well .. and I mean everyone. I've stopped going to certain annual events because the crowds have developed into some Moloch-like all consuming beast .. and I have a bit of claustiphobia .. and really, I just don't like people. Well, not so many people .. all at once.
So we wandered around Harbourfront in the clouds and the rain and got to board three of the larger ships. There was free music but we decided not to hang out that long. Which means we've missed an opportunity to see the Bara McNeals for free a couple of weeks in a row. Damn.
Still, we enjoyed ourselves, I love wandering around these old ships; I'd seen the Niagra before but not the Pride of Baltimore and had never been on the deck of the Blue Nose. So it was good.
Here is a little video compilation of the day, music by Nova Scotia's Natalie McMaster.
The Nautical Festival from Victor Kellar on Vimeo.
Now to the second part of the story. After we were done with the tall ships, the sun came out (sun ... big firey hot thing in the sky .. rare in these parts .. heard about it .. seems pretty nice... want more) and we decided to wander up Younge Street and do a little browsing. We ended up in Henry's Outlet store. Henry's is an Ontario photo/video store and over the years Collette and I have invested so much money in it that we should be on the board of directors.
Collette is the still photograhper in our little family unit. And she is good. You can see some of her work in this post. These photos were taken with her venerable Richoh 35 mm camera that used something called film .. young people Google awaits your inquiries.
Collette made the move to digital many years back with the purchase of the Nikon Coolpix. She loves the digital realm, the ease of it and the ability to bring it into Photoshop and play around but this cam is a consumer point and shoot and she has always felt its limitations.
So here we are at Henry's and when I turn around Collette has locked in the gaze of her one true love: The Nikon D-80. This a full sized digital SLR, 10 megapixels, interchangleble lenses, the whole nine yards. I saw that look in Collette's eyes and wondered why she needed me, here was her love .. oh yeh, the Nikon can't cook.
Collette has agreed to teach summer school this July, eating up a good chunk of her summer and it has been a long hard school year for her. Why not make that into something pleasant? So there is the D-80, a 4 Gig flash drive and a 18 to 200 mm zoom lens. Ah, the look on that woman's face .. I would have been jealous had I not been so happy.
So Collette scores and in the future, so will this blog, because you won't just have to suffer through my little videos, you will have something truly beautiful to look at.
1 comment:
I am glad she got the camera of her dreams. She scored but I was thinking she FOUND it but finding a camera in a camera store is less random. Still cool. I would like to try an SLR becuase I can't get the saturation high enough on my Canon point and click (though Canon makes very good point and click). However, I have to use the older lighter one becuase my hand strength is not so good at holding steady so I think SLR days are done.
And while you two seem to go ready to shoot, I always remember after doing SO much research on digital cameras (as there seemed so much to learn, after moving from my Pentax), that the best digital camera was the one there when you want to take a picture, which means if you can't put it in your pocket..... It is a rule we followed and Because of that Linda has pics of me wheelchair racing while she rides her bike and the like. No, never pro quality but it is THERE. Still I know Linda would like an SLR one day, she has always dreamed of being a photographer, but then I look at the number of camera's Rachelcreative has (bought like TWO in a month) and think, oh no, are we allowed TWO obsessive people in one household?
Congrats on the FREE day out, bummer on the Bara McNeals. I took the train to Halifax back when Natilie McMaster couldn't be bought but in shops there, in TAPE (Yes, remember those!)
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