Natsuki (Spring, 2000)

Waiting for GK (November 14, 2008)

This photo was taken on a trip to parliament Hill in Ottawa for Gerard Kennedy's "swearing-in" ceremony as Minister of Parliament for Parkdale-High Park (Toronto). I think this was another of those occasions where a lot of people were photographing, so I tried to find ways of getting less stereotypical shots.

We waited for a while in this room, I think because they took our lunch to the wrong room and it had to be carted back over to this one. After lunch we headed to a different part of the building for the actual ceremony and photography, during which I did not (ironically) actually get any pictures worth showing (!).

Milan Airport: Transit Info (May 12, 2007)

This was one of the first things I saw at the airport in Milan (and therefore, in Italy I suppose--since this was my first trip). A sign covered with public transit information in Italian (and with the equivalent of English sub-titles)! This is both wonderful and terrifying, I can tell you. As was the transit system, one I started using it. Fortunately I had Juliet to guide me through the basics.

Self (December, 2000)

Taken in the side-mirror of the rented car on the drive from Whakatane to Rotorua.

Outdoor Film Screening: "Citizen Kane" (August, 2005)

Place des Arts, Montréal, a fine summer evening and a classic film. This was fun--like watching TV outside with a bunch of strangers.

All Out (November 5, 2008)

...And I'm off to this year's "Drop Fees" rally, if rally is a big enough word to encompass the numbers that usually turn out to this event. This year I'm attending in my semi-official capacity, A.K.A. VP Campaigns for York's Graduate Students Association.

There are multiple march routes that will begin at different points in the city and converge on the main protest site at Queen's Park, and I get the pleasure of working as a marshal--God help me, I'll be a buffer between the parade and the cops--until late this afternoon. Here's hoping I an get over my horror of crowds-!

Calculating Probabilities (November 1, 2007)

Two then-TC's (teacher candidates), Harriet and Daniela, work on probability games in an Urban Diversity math class at York University. The class was actually about teaching mathematics, and after some initial trepidation early in the term, I think most of us came to rather enjoy the subject.

Brother André (November, 1998)

I really enjoy photographing statues, in particular those that provide relatively realistic 3D 'images' of living people. The one in the photograph here is a good example, I think. Brother André (Bessette) is obviously far more well-known in traditionally-Catholic Québec than he is outside of it, but in Montréal there is the famous Saint Joseph's Oratory, built on the side of Mont Royal, which contains as a relic Brother André's heart. I have in fact been there and seen it, and I remember not actually being able to see anything genuinely heart-like, mostly just whatever it had been wrapped in. Yes, I have many morbid fascinations-!

Drive from Brantford to Hamilton (May, 2005)

Only in Canada, of course...

Bob's Bay (January, 2001)

I am posting this picture as a joyful reminder of what I am looking forward to... in less than three months' time I'll be a lot closer to Bob's Bay, which is at the top of the South Island in Aotearoa-New Zealand, in the Queen Charlotte Sound near Picton. The woodpile was a part of my impromptu camp-site.

I remember the first night, I slept only in my sleeping bag and didn't bother to put up the tent. In what must have been the early morning hours, I was woken by a snuffling and an odd, creaky vocalization somewhere in the bush off to my right. I thought to myself that it must have been some kind of toad croaking. I remember hearing also the sound of the now-high tide washing up not far from where I lay, pushing and pulling at the small stones on the beach. Then I fell asleep again.

In the morning, I shared stories with two other campers on the beach--in fact what I'd heard in the night had been a large, curious possum that had been hanging out around the beach, snuffling at tents and caught by the other campers' flashlight, no doubt startled and stock-still as possums usually are in the moment one catches them in a torch beam shooting out from the darkness.