The Brown Knowser

SuperEx 1986  

It's a port town that evokes memories of wonder and dread. The Norman town, from where Samuel de Champlain set sail, in 1608, and ended up founding Québec City, was a highly anticipated stopover on our family vacation, through France, in the late summer of 2014. I couldn't wait to photograph the harbour, enclosed by tall buildings that housed shops and restaurants, which hadn't changed in centuries. My family and I couldn't wait to dine at one of the many seafood restaurants that overlooked the ships. This town also reminds me of our first night, camping, on a site that had no quiet hours and where our neighbours were loud and obnoxious Russians who drank until five the next morning. But on that afternoon, after we set up our tent, we explored the beautiful, famous port, and I snapped as many images as I could. As with every trip my family and I take, we look at our photos upon our return and claim that we're going to print some to hang on our walls. In real...

It started with some binge TV and developed over a bad experience at a fast-food joint. Ever since my family and I dropped our cable-TV service and I was too lazy to install a digital antennae before the snow came, we've been watching a lot of programs on Netflix and through Plex. We finished watching Shameless and The Walking Dead , as far as Netflix would allow, and then caught up on more recent episodes of both through the other streaming feed. Before we gave up cable TV, DD16 was hooked on the Fox cartoon, Bob's Burgers . For those who haven't seen the show, it centers on a family in a small town on the northeaster American seaboard—possibly, New Jersey—and the burger shop that is less-than successful. Bob and his wife, Linda, have three highly dysfunctional kids, Louise, Gene, and Tina. The show is well done and can give The Simpson's a run for its money. When we abandoned cable, DD16 went through a bit of withdrawal from this cartoon, but now that it has...

DW and her best friend, Kitty, have been close for as long as I've known either of them, and I knew Kitty before I even really knew DW. Kitty was the younger sister of one of my high-school friends, and when she started attending my school, I would often say hello to her when she passed in the halls. DW swears that she was always standing right next to Kitty, but I never noticed her. When DW and I started dating, in March of 1989, we would often hang around our respective friends. Today, it's hard to say whose friend is whose, we're all so intertwined. And, in early spring, DW, Kitty and I found ourselves downtown, enjoying a sunny afternoon. At the War Memorial, we spied what looked like a group of important dignitaries or ministers, flanked by RCMP officers in their ceremonial garb. (If you every see Mounties dressed like this on TV, on regular duty, it's not authentic.) "Hey," I suggested, "if you run up and pose in front of this group, I'l...

A few years ago, I purchased a digital scanner for my old slides and negatives, which I planned to organize on a hard drive as part of my photo archives. For weeks, I madly pulled apart albums, sliding the E-6 frames and C-41 strips through the scanner, filling the SD card to near capacity. In my eagerness, however, I forgot to take in one important factor: I wasn't doing any organizing. At the end, I was left with a digital storage device that held random images over several years. Knowing that I would have to someday organize them but was paranoid of losing the work, should something go awry with the SD card, I decided to copy the images, once more, onto a larger data-storage drive. In the past couple of weeks, as I have started reorganizing all of my digital images, I have once again come across this trove of the past. And, if you'll indulge me, I wish to share some of these old photos as I clean them up and place them in their new home. I have a folder for images o...

It was at this point, on my homeward commute, that I thought it might be a good idea to turn around, to drive back to the office, to retrieve my computer. This storm was coming in strong, was only going to get much worse, before it got better, and it might be best to work from home. Instead, as soon as I reached the Ontario side of the river, as soon as I took the exit for Dalhousie and Sussex, I decided to pull over, grab the two old cameras that accompany me and my smartphone, and walk back, along the Macdonald-Cartier Bridge, to the point where I thought I shouldn't continue home without a means of working from there. The first photo was shot with my Canon pocket camera. The snow hadn't yet mixed with ice but with the strong wind, the flakes pelted my bare face. Three shots, and then the camera went back into it's case and into my pocket. I wouldn't want to drop it, see it slip off the walkway and onto the frozen Rideau, below. Next, came the Ricoh. Manual...

Alcohol and weapons: what could possibly go wrong? Absolutely nothing. In fact, everything went right, thanks to the friendly folks who organized this beer tour, which included a stop at an axe-throwing venue. Brew Donkey has been operating for four years to whisk craft-beer-loving and adventure-seeking folks as far away as Whitewater Brewing , up the Ottawa Valley, to Beau's Brewing , in Vankleek Hill, to try new beer or solidify their love of favourites. Recently, this brew-touring company has expanded into the Kitchener-Waterloo area, and offers tours to Guelph, Elora, and other neighbouring towns. I tagged along, last weekend, to see what many people have enjoyed over the years. Brew Donkey's Web site is extremely easy to navigate and find the tour that suits your schedule and needs. A typical tour includes two or three breweries, with as many as four, if the breweries are in close proximity. The tour provides lunch, water, and snacks on the bus, and includes beer ...

It was news that ruined my whole day. I didn't get into The Cranberries until 1999, shortly after I had returned from Korea. My brother had a few of their CDs— No Need to Argue and To The Faithful Departed —and because I hadn't yet retrieved all of my music from storage, I would throw these discs onto the player when DW and I stayed with my folks, while we searched for jobs and a house. I was familiar with this Irish band, instantly recognized the lead singer's wailing, haunting voice. There is no voice quite like that of Dolores O'Riordan: the power and the softness. Strength and beauty. The shock of Dolores' sudden death at a far, far too young age, currently surrounded in mystery, caught us all off guard. I was late in falling for The Cranberries but I was hooked. I downloaded Dolores' two solo releases and was excited when she and her band reunited. With the tributes that came on the radio and TV, it was inevitable that someone would play my favou...

When Tuesday evening came around, I thought that I should put together a Wordless Wednesday post for this week. Then, I remembered, I haven't really used my cameras, much, since New Year's Eve. I took my last POTD picture, processed it, shared it on social media, and put my D-SLR down. I used the photo in a blog post that I never shared on social media because the message that would announce the blog post would use more words than were contained in the post, itself. I was only wishing you all a Happy New Year, which I did anyway. So, when it came to a Wordless Wednesday post, this week, I had nothing. I haven't used my D-SLR. I have taken a couple of snapshots with my friend's Ricoh , but I'm far from filling the roll and sending it off for processing. I've taken a few snaps with my Canon point-and-shoot, but nothing that could be used for a Wordless Wednesday . I like those images to share a common theme or tell a story. In fact, apart from two im...

Great. Now I have that horrible 1980s film in my head. I've only ever had one pet in my family at a time. Actually, that's not true: when the kids were very young, we bought a betta fish and a couple of minnows. I think you can see where this is going. The employee in the store said these fish could co-exist. Maybe he didn't realize the size of the fishbowl we were putting them in. We should have separated the fish as soon as we saw the little bite taken out of one of the minnow's tails. We should have realized that a compromised tail fin would impede the speed at which the minnow could swim. The message came loud and clear, one morning, when I entered the kitchen to make breakfast, and found nothing but a head and spine lying at the bottom of the bowl. It was next to the miniature, gold treasure chest, but this was no booty. I used our kitchen tongs to retrieve the remains and dispose of them before the kids came down for their oatmeal. The second minnow fol...

When I lived in South Korea, from the beginning of March, 1997, to the end of February, 1999, my ties to home, to Canada, came through weekly phone calls to my parents and in-laws, through e-mail, and through my short-wave radio, which broadcast CBC's The World At Six as I was getting ready for work in the early hours of my day. I heard about the ice storm, at first, on the radio. I didn't give it much thought: it's not uncommon for Eastern Ontario to receive freezing rain in late December or early January. I did think that the area that was being covered in this storm was larger than usual, but I didn't feel that there was any cause for alarm. Besides, I had bigger problems where I was. South Korea was at the height of its economic collapse, and the value of the currency, the won , had plummeted. I was teaching English at a language institute and my director, who had based my pay on the American dollar but paid me in won , found himself paying out more than double...

So, here's the deal: Last year's photo project was, for me, a colossal task, one that got me to think up a new subject each day for 365 days. Some, were good: others, not so much. Since New Year's Eve, I haven't picked up my D-SLR. I'm planning to send my Nikon body away, to be cleaned, and I haven't decided when I'm going to use it again. I'm sure it won't be too long, but I have no plans when using it will be a major requirement. In November and December, I noticed that some of my social-media friends had taken up various black-and-white photography challenges. Some took photos every day for one week; others, for 100 days; some brave souls, for a year. Most of these challenges had no explanation to accompany the photo: it was simply an image for others to observe and admire. I don't want to take a photo every day, not even for as little as seven days. But I like the idea of capturing an image and displaying it with no explanation. Not...