If It Was Today...

Vancouver Winter

Posted on March 1, 2015 by If It Was Today

I’m tempted to say that a Vancouver winter is an oxymoron,but that isn’t really fair. Someone recently told me that in southern California, winter is that season when it might rain. Winter in Vancouver, on the other hand, is the season where it is guaranteed to rain. You can’t miss it. Everything is green, while in the summer you may see a lot of brown. If you head up to the Capilano suspension bridge, as we did a few years back when I took these pictures, you quickly find yourself in a rain forest.

In the city, everything is in bloom this time of year.

To put this in perspective, when I looked out my side door today, this is what I saw.

We are heading out to Vancouver in two weeks. I’m looking forward to a break from the Ottawa winters.

Posted in Photography, Travel | Tagged Spring, Travel, Vancouver | 2 Comments

Obsession

Posted on February 27, 2015 by If It Was Today

When something captures my imagination, it tends to capture it completely. I’ve been told it is “part of my charm”. Thank heavens Jan sees it that way, because it’s all too easy to see how someone could find it incredibly annoying.

My point? The combination of a new camera, clear skies and a crescent moon was just too much for me to resist.

Posted in Photography | Tagged Moon, Photography, Winter | Leave a comment

Kids Being Kids

Posted on February 25, 2015 by If It Was Today

It’s nice to find someplace where kids can still go out and have an innocent game of pickup hockey without structured supervision, full protective gear, and bubble wrap to keep them safe.

Posted in Photography | Tagged Hockey, Photography, Winter | Leave a comment

Cold

Posted on February 22, 2015 by If It Was Today

Washington is wonderful city with a rich heritage of impressive monuments. It’s also a very pedestrian friendly city, at least in the core. This gives you the opportunity to see iconic monuments from a different perspective. So when I visit, I take every opportunity to get outside and walk; to my hotel, to meetings, or to dinner. I try to walk even when it’s cold, as it was on this last visit. Bitterly cold, according to the locals. A man visiting from Florida didn’t have words for the cold. He was hoping it would warm up to “bitterly cold”. But trust me, it was simply “cold”. Bitterly cold is what I felt when I stepped out of the airport in Ottawa, where the temperature was near minus 30, with a howling wind that made it feel more like minus 40.

I like winter, but I’ve had enough. I’m looking forward to spring. Only 5 or 6 more weeks to go … hopefully.

Posted in Photography, Travel | Tagged Photography, Travel, USA, Washington DC, Winter | Leave a comment

Over The Moon

Posted on February 20, 2015 by If It Was Today

On my first evening home after two weeks on the road, I was treated to a stunning view of Venus and Mars huddled beside the crescent moon in the cold evening sky. And I do mean cold. It’s minus 20 and falling. There is probably a metaphor hidden in there, but only one thought comes to mind.

The only thing better than travel is coming home.

Posted in Travel | Tagged Home, Moon, Photography, Travel | 5 Comments

A Walk In The Park

Posted on February 17, 2015 by If It Was Today

Today may have involved a walk in the park, in the literal sense, but yesterday’s flight was neither a literal nor a metaphorical walk in the park. A simple 90 minute direct flight from Ottawa to Washington turned into a six hour marathon, complete with a “refueling” stop in Buffalo, after 45 minutes circling Washington. This is not exactly the direct route. Check it out on a map. I’ll admit that it would have taken longer to fly back to Ottawa to refuel, but not by much. I’m not complaining mind you. I made it to my Washington hotel yesterday – with a good 7 minutes to spare. I had visions of spending the night on an airport boarding lounge bench in Buffalo.

I really do like Washington, and there are many things it does extremely well. But clearing snow is not one of them. It looks very scenic on the north lawn of the White House, but not on a runway.

It’s obvious that Washington doesn’t get this much snow very often. The federal government was shut down for a snow day, which of course meant that everyone was out enjoying the snow.

It was a very pleasant walk into the office today, where of course I was one of only a handful of people who actually made it into work. Along the way I was able to enjoy the Washington architecture in the bright sunshine.

Posted in Photography, Travel | Tagged Snow, Travel, USA, Washington DC | 1 Comment

Make The Best Of It

Posted on February 16, 2015 by If It Was Today

When your trip doesn’t work out quite as you’d hoped, you have a simple choice; focus on the inconvenience or embrace the opportunity. This often presents unusual opportunities. So when I found myself in a Miami airport hotel I decided to check out my balcony around sunset. I’m glad I did.

In spite of years of travel, there is still a bit of the wide-eyed little boy when I watch planes take off and land. Throw in a beautiful sunset, and I really can’t ask for more.

I would never take a trip just to watch planes land into the setting sun, but to be honest, it would almost be worth it.

Posted in Photography, Travel | Tagged Airports, Photography, Travel, USA | 2 Comments

Perspective

Posted on February 14, 2015 by If It Was Today

Palm trees. For me, they conjure up images of relaxing on a tropical beach, or at the very least lounging by the pool. But as you step back you begin to get hints of the true context.

As the camera zooms out, the full reality emerges.

The weather in Miami was wonderful – sunny and warm. Or so I’m told.

Posted in Photography, Travel | Tagged Florida, Travel, Tropical, USA | 1 Comment

Sunset

Posted on February 12, 2015 by If It Was Today

It was minus 15 degrees (near zero Fahrenheit) when I woke up, and 25 degrees (mid 70’s Fahrenheit) when I went to bed. Some travel was involved. In fact, quite a bit of travel. Other than airports and airplanes, the only thing of any interest I saw was the sunset on the descent into Miami.

The final touch was Venus just before we landed.

Posted in Photography, Travel | Tagged Miami, Sunset, Travel, USA | Leave a comment

Who Would Have Guessed

Posted on February 9, 2015 by If It Was Today

The ice sculpture competition at Winterlude attracts artists from around the world. You have the usual suspects for ice sculpture – Canada, USA, Russia and such – but the competition also attracts artists from less obvious places. Like Japan, where it is apparently a very popular art form. There were also artists from Peru and Malaysia. I must admit that last one took me completely by surprise. What exactly would make you think of ice sculpture if you grew up in a tropical country like Malaysia? I have no idea.