Iceberg Diving

My friend Graham runs a company that takes people into the Canadian Arctic to go scuba diving under the ice.  Yeah, under the arctic ice.  If you ever go on one of these diving trips under the ice, you can see polar bears, seals, narwhal, and walruses. One thing you will not find down there, however, is me swimming around.

Here is a video from one of his recent expeditions where they are actually scuba diving under and around an iceberg that is frozen into the sea ice and grounded.  Amazingly, Graham also ice-climbs these grounded icebergs.  Pretty c-c-cool.

Les Escalier de Mont-Martre

Les Escalier de Mont-Martre
© 2010 Darren DeRidder. Originally uploaded by soto voce

There's a famous photograph by Brassai with the same title. I've owned a print of it for many years. Of course when I got a chance to see the location in person, I had to take a photograph of it, too. This is actually a side alley from the main stairway. It was less crowded and I liked the building on the left, with the light in the windows.

Saint-Germain de Pres Café

Saint-Germain de Pres Cafe
© 2010 Darren DeRidder. Originally uploaded by soto voce

Camelot Island

camelot island
© 2010 Darren DeRidder. Originally uploaded by soto voce

Thousand Islands, Ontario, Canada

Buffalo Jump 2

Buffalo Jump 2, originally uploaded by soto voce.

This is the second photograph I've posted of Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump in the Alberta foothills. The previous one was an obvious HDR stack of three exposures, which I shot hand-held! This is actually a single exposure, shot in RAW format and post-processed in the same software as the HDR image, rendering what it calls a "psuedo HDR" image. Because this is a single exposure, I feel the sharpness is better than on the composite photo. I'm still not completely happy with the kit lens, however. Most of my images don't meet my expectations for sharpness when viewed full screen. This includes images shot with a tripod and employing all the tricks for eliminating camera shake and getting the right focus.

Temeraire

Rideau Canal, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

© 2010 Darren DeRidder

Keynote Notes

Jobs is giving his keynote, introducing the next generation of iPods, iTunes and Apple TV.  One of the things I like, probably everybody likes, about Apple is their continual innovation.  One takeaway from the keynote is Jobs' description of the driving factor behind Apple's innovation and success:

We listened to what customers wanted...  This is what customers were telling us...  Our customers wanted this.

Apple delivers.  Cha-ching.