Tripping a Frozen Sunset, pt.1
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January 11th, 2010by Patrick – 8 great comments. Room for one more!
You know, I pick up my best material on the weekends. I decided that this is the lifestyle I must adopt in order to be at my optimal performance; Saturday time. Sunday’s good too, but Saturday has more going on. On Sundays, it’s about heading out with a head full of exceptional sleep and mood enhancers and flâneuring the shit out of the streets. Groovy.
I do realize that the camera tells no lies. “Always be white balancing”, is my motto of late (humbly borrowed from Glengarry Glen Ross). But I decided to balance her indoors instead. Yup, it’s a she.
So, the resulting images came out looking like things would through my sunglasses. That actually helped because I spent almost the entire journey staring directly into the sun. I saw vague blurs rise up out of the icy mists occasionally, sometimes they were people, sometimes children. Once in a while, I caught sight of buildings through the crystalline haze.
Haha! Woaw! Getting ahead of myself. No, the afternoon part was actually pretty nice. The temperature was back up to a balmy –4C (25F). Oh no, no sarcasm, dear reader. On Saturday it was a might chillier but without the wind, it’s not a problem. Something about being able to maintain a micro-climate around your skin or something. So while buildings are blocking the wind, you’re golden.
The wind chill factor, and the Humidex value for that matter, are both bullshit. Are they telling me what it feels like? No no no … I tell them how I feel. Jeez. And these guys predict our weather? Oh don’t get me wrong, I know there’s a whole formula behind it, but that tells me nothing about how it really feels, you know? Because the kind of cold down by the docks, even on such a day, tends to be reasonably painful, and no egghead in a lab coat is telling me how reasonable I’m being.
I think I just ended up at the docks because I wanted to take some sulky mid-winter pictures, to take a breath and get to know the city again. The breath was short and guarded lest the miniature high-velocity shards of ice rend my throat asunder, but the getting to know of the city ended up going considerably better than this sentence. The frozen sunset at the docks was something I hadn’t yet experienced — I can objectively report that it’s a trippy place to be.
It’s one thing to look out over a frozen lake from the ferry docks and witness head-shaped chunks of ice with facial features sliding along. It’s when you go a little farther west that things start to get a little more far-out.
... with pictures
... with sounds
... with videos
... with opinions
... that's shorter
... that's longer
January 12th, 2010 12:26 pm
I've Never seen the ferry docs in winter. that was fantastique. :-D great pics indeed.
January 13th, 2010 7:36 am
My pleasure, BadGal. I bring you this pics so you don't have to freeze your jibblies off :)
January 12th, 2010 2:22 pm
Beautiful. I have pictures like these from a couple of winters, ago but looking from the island towards the city. Your photos though? Much, much nicer than mine :)
January 13th, 2010 7:37 am
Well thank you, Kato :) Do you have the photos in a shareable state? I'd love to see them.
January 13th, 2010 7:02 am
Wow. The pictures all look so beautiful. The frozen lake looks pretty.
Maybe its the right time "to walk on the sea" lol
January 13th, 2010 7:39 am
Haha! Not for me, Mr. Stupid. The ice didn't look that thick (especially near the concrete embankments). I'm sure that won't stop some brilliant fellow from hobbling out there some time soon, but it won't be me. I'm a look-but-don't-touch kinda guy when it comes to potential threats to life.
January 15th, 2010 6:48 pm
Patrick, they are actually not very good photos. Taken on a cell phone. Before I learned that those are not pretty, in any way shape or form. I may be able to clean them up a bit. If I can, I will send you a link!
January 17th, 2010 8:32 pm
Sure, Kato. Don't kill yourself but if it's not too much trouble.