HDRin'

So... in the spirit of not having the time to go out and take photos, I played around with Photomatix some more. I didn't have a set of properly aligned photos, but I figured I'd try the photo alignment feature in Photomatix. It... didn't work as well as I'd thought. In fact, I think it didn't help much at all, but the result was... interesting, so I figured I'd keep it and see what others thought.





Disclaimer: I'm very aware I don't know much about HDR, so please keep in mind that this is my second half-assed attempt at this :P

C.B.

Meet C.B.



He is the latest addition to my life, and Lady's newest friend, having been with us for just over a week now.

C.B. comes from a farm. He's had a bad run of luck in his early days, with his previous owner (the farmer in question) wanting to get rid of him by means of a gun, due to what we now suspect was a respiratory infection. Luckily for him, he was rescued, brought to a cat shelter, nursed back to health (or almost) and taken to a pet store from where Jeff and I picked him up. We named him Crème Brulée (C.B. for short) because his orangey colour made us think of him as a caramel version of Lady.

He's a bundle of fuzz, affection, energy and playfulness; the only clues of his former illness are the occasional sneeze, and the fact that Lady caught the virus from him, leading to a few days of cat health hell for all involved.

With both of them well on the road to full recovery, I took the time to snap a couple of shots of the new guy.



For a truly great photo of C.B., taken by Jeff, click here.

Ottawa Food and Wine Show

Yesterday, Jeff and I decided to check out the Food and Wine Show. We were both first time participants and thus far unaware of just how many people, mainly of the ditzy girl variety, see this as an opportunity to dress up and a socially acceptable way to get drunk and act stupid in daylight. Apart from this, though, it was great to discover new kinds of wine and sample amazing dishes from restaurants I've been meaning to try out.

"Professional" photography (i.e. having "big" camera) was somewhat discouraged, but during a quite dull kitchen demo I took the opportunity to try out Jeff's 100mm macro lens on the subject least likely to object to my taking photos of it: my tasting glass.

Paula Seling

For those who don't know, I was born in Romania and lived there until 2003 when I moved to Canada. I don't often talk about things I miss about "the old country", because they're relatively few and far between; but one thing I do miss quite often is (some) Romanian music. Unsurprisingly, Romanian music doesn't have the widest reach outside of the country, so it's very rare that a Romanian artist makes its way to this side of the Atlantic and becomes popular outside of the Romanian community.

In this context, having a Romanian artist perform in Ottawa is a welcome event. But when that artist is someone whose music you love and whom you admire, it's quite a treat! Tonight I had the good fortune of seeing, hearing and meeting Paula Seling!



Paula has been one of the most well-known and much-admired Romanian singers for quite a few years now, owing to both her amazing voice and her charming and entrancing stage presence. Every one of her performances I've witnessed (either in person or on screen) have been captivating and touched my heart in some way. Getting to meet her here, however, in the city I now call home, and over 7000km from Romania, was another story altogether.



One perk of being somewhat far removed from Romanian artists and yet in a part of the world they're likely to tour in is that these people, who usually sell out concert halls throughout Romania, get to perform at small venues, to enthusiastic though limited crowds of compatriots. One might find it ironic but, while I've never met a single band/singer I followed in Romania, I've met two of my favourite artists in the time that I've been in Canada, all because of this quirk of geography. I'm overjoyed and grateful that I could add Paula's autograph to my collection, and snap the photos above.

Thank you, Paula, for an amazing show!