Edited my weeknote to be a little bit more coherent. Having a bit of a foggy Monday.

“Weeknote: 4 September 2023”

All seasons must end eventually and winter is no exception. Spring must arrive eventually.

This is where I got a sense of just how much fun it could be to document a single location over a period.

The sun is setting and the pond is dry. A lone duck wanders through the pond bed.A gull flies past a tree as the sun sets in Parc Jarry.

Other than that, winter in Montréal is how you imagine winter in storybooks. That makes it pretty photogenic.

A family in silhouette looks out over the frozen pond in Parc Jarry.A guy kneels in the snow trying to figure out why his drone (off screen) isn’t responding properly to the controls.A person in a red coat sits under a tree.People skate on a frozen pond.

We’re up to winter 2018/19. This is probably my mother’s favourite photo. Here, familiarity with a location paid off. I noticed the foggy weather and realised that they would make the lights in Parc Jarry look interesting. So I grabbed the camera and ran out.

Light shines through the light mist that surrounds the trees in Parc Jarry. This gives them a spooky look.

“siderea | Software Development Worst Practices”

“«When AI systems are used, they are usually used for surveillance» – Schweizer Monat”

It’s striking how much harassment authors on social media get from anti-copyright blowhards and Internet Archive supporters

I get that they’re angry about the situation IA got itself into, but insulting authors who, generally, actively support IA is pretty counter-productive

“PATH”

Explaining the PATH variable is a missing step from so many tutorials online.

Finally, today’s photo history ends with a few pictures from autumn 2018/winter 2019 that only work in colour.

We see people beyond the trees. The leaves on the ground and the changing colours of the grass almost looks like a rainbow.The sun sets behind the reeds.Parc Jarry is covered with snow. A person is walking along the path as the sun sets behind them. The snow is blueish. The sky is yellow.

OTOH, whereas the previous photo worked pretty well in both monochrome and colour, these just plain only work in black and white.

A group of people stand in the rain in Parc Jarry, talking under umbrella cover.A scruffy, blurry, grainy photo of a duck in rain.A goup of people sit by a table under a tree in Parc Jarry.

So, here’s a colour experiment from 2018. Same photo. Same processing. Only difference which manufacturer colour profile I applied.

The profiles: Astia, Velvia, Classic Chrome, and Provia, in order. IIRC.

Children fly a kit in Parc Jarry, in black and white.Children fly a kit in Parc Jarry, in colour.Children fly a kit in Parc Jarry, in colour.Children fly a kit in Parc Jarry, in colour.

‘“Out of the Software Crisis”: Dependencies - Jim Nielsen’s Blog’

😁

“Pixels of the Week – September 3, 2023 by Stéphanie Walter - UX Researcher & Designer.”

“Like The Social Dilemma Did, The AI Dilemma Seeks To Mislead You With Misinformation | Techdirt”

“Generative AI closes off a better future - by Paris Marx”

The trip to Iceland was educational in terms of photography. Took a lot of pictures. Tried a lot of things. Only a few of them work. But that’s how you learn. Still haven’t figured out how to use colour to this day, though.

Tomorrow, more colour questions. 😁

A foal watches an adult horse scratch the side of its head.The sun is setting behind a summer cabin.A photo of a mountain, whose name I’ve forgotten, taken while driving through Kaldidalur. That name translates as cold valley, which was appropriate.

These pictures, taken in the ruins of an abandoned WW2 hospital in Hvalfjörður (and like many historical sites in Iceland, devoid of tourists) work equally well in colour or black and white. I prefer b&w but see why people might disagree

A ruined harbour with Hvalfjörður in the background and a mountain range in the distance. Colour.A ruined harbour with Hvalfjörður in the background and a mountain range in the distance. Black and white.The remains of a hospital wall. Colour.The remains of a hospital wall. Black and white.

We’re still in 2018 in my personal history of amateur photography and I’m about to try my hand at photographing in Iceland.

Turns, sometimes, pictures just work better in color.

A photo taken in Árbæjarsafn which is a museum dedicated to Iceland’s architectural history. The chickens are “landnámshænur” which is said to be the original viking breed of chicken.This was taken in Viðey, a historically important location in Iceland and, as such, had generally very few tourists.A photographer in Reykjavík harbour taking pictures of Viðey that’s out off to the side.

“Why do companies become hostile to their customers?  – On my Om”

Software companies are particularly prone to this.

“ChatGPT, Ethics & Careers in Computational Linguistics”

I did learn though that some pictures just plain have to be in colour. This here is probably my favourite colour photo that I took in Parc Jarry

And colour is kind of essential for taking pictures in Iceland. But that]s a story for another day.

The sun sets behind the trees as a woman walks towards the grove where the rest of the party is waiting for her.

I’ve always favoured black and white, although I keep experimenting with colour.

The issue here is that I simply have different tastes from everybody around me. For example, I strongly prefer the b&w version of this photo.

The shadows in the park are so sharp they’re almost geometric shapes. A man sits in a chair in the middle of the park.The shadows in the park are so sharp they’re almost geometric shapes. A man sits in a chair in the middle of the park. Except this time it’s in colour so you get distracted by all the yellow and green.

Early on I decided to focus on Parc Jarry. It was close to where I lived and I made documenting it my project, catching things like a gull almost killed by ducks, and a sparrow in flight that I now use as the icon for my website.

We see out-of-focus trees through a row of tall grass.Looking through the grass, we see a duck swimming.A bloodied gull flees.The silhouette of a sparrow caught mid-flight.

I also decided to be more proactive in going out and looking for things to photograph. It was one of the ways I dealt with Montreal. Even though I didn’t particularly enjoy living there, it sure is picturesque. These are from walks I took to Mont Royal and the surrounding park

Somebody is reading a book in the shade in the park.In the distance, we see a man sit under a tree.People gather in the park.

We’re up to 2018 and I was feeling limited by the phone camera for a simple reason: I’m just not a wide-angle shooter

50mm-equiv. on a phone is a luxury and anything longer is unheard of. Elsewhere, it’s an affordable normal lens. So, I got myself a Fuji X-T20

A view down the underpass under a railway bridge. We see the silhouette of a person on the other sideA scruffy discarded chair was left under a bridge in Montreal. It really did have that venomous green look.Concrete blocks and barbwire along a bridge.