The Brown Knowser

It's really hard to keep a camera with a nine-times magnification zoom lens locked on a subject that's already far away when you're sitting in a kayak. For years, I had been told to adjust my D-SLRs so that they used a button on the back of the body to focus. Many of my fellow members of my photography club had done it and I had seen this recommendation on some of the photography YouTube channels that I watch. Last year, after trying my luck at wildlife photography, I decided to make the switch to back-button focusing. The benefit of selecting one of the rear buttons to focus was that you weren't tying your focusing to the shutter release. On most D-SLR and mirrorless cameras, the default setting is to have the focus associated with the shutter-release button. You would look through your viewfinder and half-press the shutter release, which would focus on whatever your sensor is set up to focus on. While continuing to hold the button halfway, you could recompose your vie...

It's a cliché to say that I don't like Mondays. I mean, who likes the start of the week? I had a great weekend, getting chores done around the house, hosting my parents for an evening of relaxation, and spending time with friends, kayaking on a new waterway and enjoying a great lunch afterwards. Along the Clyde River, in Lanark. Sure, I was exhausted after we finished lunch. DW had to drive us home because I seemed to lose all energy. I slept all the way home, for about 40 minutes. The nap recharged my batteries enough that I could help DW unload the kayaks from the roof of the car and put everything away, but as soon as that work was done, I had enough energy to get to our family-room sofa and pass out. I slept for about five hours. Though I was drained for the rest of the evening, I felt that the energy that I spent, doing something I love with friends I love, it was worth it. And I told myself that come Monday morning, I'd be recharged and ready to tackle the work week. ...

It was my COVID phone. I bought it in April of 2020, just a month into the global pandemic. My last smartphone was about three years old when the camera started going wonky, would take pictures where part of the image would either be a bunch of skewed lines or a portion of the photo would have a solid, grey bar. I've been using Samsung Android phones for more than 10 years, starting with the Galaxy S4. My COVID phone has been the S10 and I have loved it. So sleek and yet it has a good weight to it. To look at it, today, it looks as good as when I first had it. But lately, the screen sometimes flickers. That, in of itself, doesn't really bother me but lately, a grey rectangle with rounded corners sometimes appears on the screen and that spot becomes dead until the rectangle goes away. Bixby (like Siri, but for Google) has stopped talking to me. When I used to say, "Hey, Bixby, set a 30-minute timer," for when I would take my daily nap, a female voice with a British acc...

It's been about five years. I think the time has come. I love going on photo walks, don't you? You just pick up your camera and any gear that you'll think you'll need, and go. If you see something you like, you stop and capture it. In the past, I've led walks through the Byward Market, through Centretown, across the Alexandra Bridge, and more. This time, our walk will take us to the Chaudière Falls and the Chief William Commanda Bridge. Are you in? I'm proposing Friday, June 21, starting at 8 pm, for a golden-hour walk along the path that follows the Ottawa River from the entrance to the Lemieux Island water filtration plant to the Chaudière Falls viewing area, where we'll capture sunset. We'll then walk back the way we came but we'll detour onto the Chief William Commanda Bridge, where we can capture some blue-hour photos of Ottawa's downtown skyline. The proposed route includes the walk to and from the parking lot. The walk is about five kilome...

For as long as I can remember, I've seen this object along the four-oh-one on my way to and from Toronto, and I've always wanted to stop and check it out. Much like the Big Apple that smiles at you as you drive by (and, a couple of years ago, I finally stopped at that attraction and captured a few photos ). It's near one of the places that we have a usual scheduled stop along our travels, along Glen Miller Road, at Trenton-Quinte West. This object is hard to miss, set up next to a Ramada Inn. It's a CF-5A fighter jet that looks like a couple of poles have been stuck up the exhaust ports of the engines and leaned at an angle, as though it was climbing. The fighter is part of a memorial to remember those who served in the Royal Canadian Air Force. The RCAF Base Trenton is nearby, along a bay that leads out to the St. Lawrence seaway. I stopped long enough to grab a few quick shots, while DW and Kid 1 waited in the car. At home, I applied some dramatic editing. Here's ...

I know: it's not Tuesday. Perhaps, I should have broken tradition and posted my beer review a couple of days early, instead on my usual Thursday. I started posting Beer O'Clock reviews on Thursdays because I thought that if anyone was interested in picking up the reviewed beer for the weekend, particularly if the beer is available at your friendly neighbourhood LCBO or in grocery stores, you would have Thursday evening and all day Friday to get your hands on the brew. I post on Thursdays for you, my friends. You're welcome. Last week, I wrote about a brewery that I stumbled upon in Toronto's Kensington Market . Though this brewery had myriad cans of varying styles, some labels stood out for me. And while today's brew came in a pretty bland can, it stated the type of beer that I particularly like, especially in warm weather. And this week, we certainly got a good dose of warm weather. Let's take a look at this ale a bit more closely, even though today is Thursd...

For a guy who has bad lungs and runs out of breath just putting on his shoes, I did so much over this Victoria Day long weekend, but I regret nothing. I might feel it for a few days but I regret nothing. The big thing that I was preparing for was Saturday's CT scan at the hospital in Renfrew, which I spoke about yesterday. But what I didn't mention was that, since I had lots of time on my hands, after my hospital visit, that I thought I'd take advantage of it and explore a bit of the town. I had thrown one of my D-SLRs into the trunk of the Niro, before heading out, and so I thought I'd head into the downtown core and walk along the main street. Coming directly from the hospital, you drive along Raglan Street North, toward Bruce Street, and you can see the main street and all of its old buildings, town hall, and shops. When I crossed the street, Raglan dipped downward and I soon saw that a river separated the north part of this street from the south one. If there had...

Toronto was against me. I was doing so well, leading up to my trip to visit Kid 2 and some friends who came up from Pittsburgh. My cough had really subsided, such that I hadn't had more than one or two coughs an hour. I know that this doesn't sound like a lot of coughing, and it isn't, but before I started using inhalers, I was having coughing fits at least two or three times every minute, all the time. My lungs had become sore and I was prone to headaches throughout the day. But with the course of steroids and other inhalers, my lungs were settling down. I was even thinking that, come my appointment for a CT scan, my lungs would show much improvement. And then I went to Toronto. We tend to leave our car in one place during our visits to this city. We either walk to where we want to go or we take public transit. Being able to tap a sensor on a bus, tram, or subway with our smartphone makes getting around so convenient. Mean streets of Toronto. We spent a lot of time outdoor...

Because Kid 2 lives in Toronto, we make lots of trips to this bustling city. We often bring Kid 1 to make it a true family outing and we've even gone down with my folks and met with my younger sister, who also lives in Toronto, to make it a bigger family event. We also have American friends, who live about as far from the GTA as we do, and they have joined us on a couple of occasions, including this past weekend. But one thing nobody has an interest in doing, on these visits, is go up the CN Tower. It's funny, because as soon as I see the CN Tower, entering the metropolis, I know that we're practically at our destination. And whenever I'm in the downtown core and know I have a clear view of the tallest freestanding structure in North America, my eye always turn toward it. It's a pretty impressive sight, now going on gracing the Toronto skyline for 52 years. So it's no surprise that when I was standing on the corner of Dundas Street West and Spadina Avenue, holdi...

I love mangoes. I include mango nectar to the fruit smoothies that I make for myself nearly every morning. I love packing dried mangoes as a snack on a long bike ride. And I love the lush fruit in a good chutney. So when I saw a can of beer with a cut mango on the label, with a sunburst image that read "Juicy! Juicy! Mango!" I was all in. I wasn't expecting to visit a brewery when DW and one of our friends, and I wandered the streets of Kensington Market last weekend. But when I saw a sizeable building with "BREWERY" written in big letters on its outside, I had to investigate. And once inside, it would have seemed rude to leave empty-handed. Perusing the shelves of brew, my eyes first fell on this bright, yellowy-orange can with the mango, and seeing that is was a gose-styled ale, I was intrigued. I also picked up a couple of cans of saison and a couple of DDIPAs, but I'll review those at a later date. Today, it's all about the mangoes. Mango Gose (4% A...

I saw a dead guy on a sidewalk. I was returning from an errand, something that I've wanted to do for years and was always looking for an opportunity to do it when I found myself in Toronto. And this weekend brought that opportunity. We were in the city for a few reasons: our American friends were visiting to meet up, earlier in the week, with some friends they had met in Germany, who were also visiting Toronto. Because Kid 2 lives in this city, and her birthday was coming up in a few days, our friends were hoping that DW and I would be able to make it down as well. And bring Kid 1 along. So we booked the Friday off, packed up the car, and headed southwest to Ontario's capital. It was going to be a 48-hour getaway to spend with old friends, meet new friends, celebrate a birthday and Mother's Day, and then home again before dinnertime on Sunday. Nothing beats time with family and friends. On Saturday, after breakfast at one of our favourite diners, near Massey Hall, and then ...

As I explained in Monday's post , I hadn't planned to resume my second strangers project when I roamed the Glebe, last weekend. After all, who wants to be stopped and bothered by someone when it's raining and all you want to do is get to your destination? In a split moment, as I exited my parked car, the thought of this seemingly abandoned project popped into my head, but I immediately decided against it simply because of the weather. If an irresistible opportunity availed itself, I would take advantage of it and hopefully that person would agree to having a picture taken. My eyes were fixed on a puddle and the traffic on Bank Street when the opportunity befell me, and I didn't even recognize it. The opportunity found me. Her name is Jasmyn. She saw me crouched low with my D-SLR just above a puddle and cried out to get my attention. When I saw her, with a young man that seemed to be her age, she asked me if I could take a picture of them, together. It took me a couple o...