Michael Anttila's Picture Of The Week

Week Of May 13th, 2012

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The Waterloo Concert Band had a concert on Mother's Day this year. I thought it would be neat if, instead of photographing the band from the front, I took a picture of what it looks like from where I sit.

The photo didn't turn out quite as well as I had hoped. It turns out that the music stand takes up quite a lot of my field of view (for good reason, I guess). However, the concert itself was great. We had a good audience, and the band sounded really good.

This was the first time the band had a chance to play in the brand new Knox Presbyterian Church in Waterloo. The hall was huge, and the space sounded great.

In honour of Mother's Day, we had band members stand up in between songs and say some words of thanks to our mothers. I volunteered to be one of the speakers, since I figured I was in the unique position of having a mother who taught me how to program computers. This photo was taken just after we had a bunch of kids join us on stage with percussion instruments, and right before we started playing Barber's "Adagio For Strings", adapted for concert band.

Technical details: This photo was taken with my 5D Mark II + 17-40L at 17mm, ISO 200, f/8 for 1/25th of a second.

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Week Of May 6th, 2012

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Aila turned one year old this week. I think she was pretty philosophical about getting older. Either that, or she didn't really understand what all the fuss was about.

One thing I'm sure of is that she loves balloons. This photo was one of those moments that just comes and goes, and if you are not there at exactly the right moment, it will pass you by. Usually I don't have a camera in my hand when these moments happen, but this was one of the few times that I did. I knew I didn't have time to set up the shot properly, so I just pressed the button and let the camera do the work.

This is Aila, on her birthday, in her special birthday dress, with her special birthday balloon. I took this in the morning just moments before I left to go to work. Later that day, some of her friends came over for a special birthday playdate. I skipped band practice that night to go with her to her swimming lesson. Unfortunately, she was so tired from her birthday playdate that she didn't really have a great time, but it was still nice to swim with her.

Technical details: This photo was taken with my 5D Mark II + Tamron 28-75 at 28mm, ISO 1600, f/8 for 1/60th of a second.

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Week Of April 29th, 2012

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Aila has learned how to pull herself up to a standing position, and she is quite happy about this fact. She practices whenever she can, and has even started to figure out how to navigate around while holding on to furniture. This photo was taken one morning just a few days before her first birthday.

Technical details: This photo was taken with my 5D Mark II + Tamron 28-75 at 28mm, ISO 1600, f/8 for 1/250th of a second.

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Week Of April 22nd, 2012

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Angela is attending a three day workshop on aboriginal issues this week, so I took some vacation time to stay home with Aila. When the weather is good, we have been going on hikes in the backyard. Usually we walk downriver, towards Elora. This time I decided to see how far the trail went upriver, towards Fergus.

On our way towards the end of the trail, we came upon some geese who seemed quite upset that we were there. Then I noticed their nest on the shore, filled with eggs! No wonder they were behaving strangely. I quickly snapped this photo with my cell phone and then we continued on our way to not disturb them any further.

The trail seems to end not too far after this, when it runs into a house that is built right on the shore of the river. There didn't seem to be anyone home at the time, so I couldn't find out if the trail continues after that point.

Technical details: This photo was taken with my LG Pop.

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Week Of April 15th, 2012

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This weekend Luch and I went to Toronto to attend the Wizard World Comic Con. Luch has been wanting to go to a con for a long time now, so I cleared my schedule for Saturday and we headed downtown for a day of fun adventures.

There were a lot of people dressed up as their favourite characters from comics, movies, and TV shows. We took pictures of pretty much anyone who was in a costume. We also saw a lot of great art, and a lot of merchandise for sale.

One of the highlights of the day was a special screening of The Last Starfighter, one of my favourite sci-fi movies. Before the screening, there was a special discussion panel featuring Lance Guest and Catherine Mary Stewart, so it was really neat to see them in person and then in the movie which was shot 28 years ago.

Other celebrities that we saw included Scott Bakula and Dean Stockwell from Quantum Leap, Jeri Ryan from Star Trek: Voyager, and Jeremy Bullock, who played Boba Fett in The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi.

This is a picture of members of the Canadian Garrison of the 501st Legion, which is a group of volunteers who dress up in ultra-realistic replicas of Star Wars costumes (usually as members of the Empire) and do community events. There were a lot of members at the con, although I managed to get most of them in this one shot, which was pretty cool.

Technical details: This photo was taken with my 5D Mark II + Tamron 28-75 at 32mm, ISO 1600, f/4 for 1/320th of a second.

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Week Of April 8th, 2012

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Angela went on vacation to Boston with Jen this weekend, so I had Aila all to myself for three days. Aila is absolutely crazy about ducks, so before Angela left, she bought a new toy duck and six plastic easter eggs. On the morning of Easter Sunday, I set up a special Easter egg hunt for Aila.

After breakfast, she located the first egg in the hallway, and followed the trail into the family room. Aila carefully inspected each egg, including figuring out how to take the yellow one apart. Once inside the family room, the trail of eggs led around the corner of the ottoman, where the duck was waiting to be discovered. After Aila rounded the corner, she looked up and shouted: "Duck!" Then she raced over as fast as she could and gave the duck a big hug.

In other news, I think "duck" is Aila's first word. She only uses it when she sees a yellow bird of any type (except for Big Bird), and she also uses it when she sees real ducks down by the river. Well, she might also use it when she is really excited, so perhaps the sight of ducks just instantly boosts her excitement level to maximum.

I took a video of Aila's first Easter egg hunt, but due to operator error I missed the climax of the hunt where she actually spotted the duck.

Technical details: This photo was taken with my 5D Mark II + Tamron 28-75 at 38mm, ISO 800, f/2.8 for 1/50th of a second.

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Week Of April 1st, 2012

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Aila's starship navigation training is coming along. We have enrolled her at Starfleet Academy to continue her studies. Actually, this official cadet uniform was a gift from Marianne and Joe (and Tristan).

She was pretty much ignoring me during this photoshoot, until I apparently annoyed her enough that she decided to put an end to all of this photography nonsense. She was probably hungry for breakfast, too, and not impressed with my delays.

Technical details: These photos were taken with my 5D Mark II + Tamron 28-75 at 55mm, ISO 1600, f/2.8 for 1/60th of a second.

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Week Of March 25th, 2012

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Aaron Lee came to visit us this past weekend. It was his first time meeting Aila in person, so that was exciting. On Saturday, while Angela was out, Aaron and I took Aila for a walk into town to get a drink and see the sights.

The Elora Mill is closed for renovations, so we couldn't go to the normal lookout spot. However, just up the road there is a trail that goes along the beginning of the gorge, so we took the stroller off-roading to see what we could find.

This is the view from the beginning of the trail. There was a spot where we could roll right up to the fence so that Aila could have a look at the falls. She didn't seem overly excited by the view, but it was a nice day and she enjoyed being outside.

Technical details: This photo was taken with my 5D Mark II + Tamron 28-75 at (40mm, 28mm), ISO 100, (f/2.8, f/8) for (1/200th, 1/320th) of a second.

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Week Of March 18th, 2012

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If you have been outside at sunset recently, you may have noticed a beautiful conjunction of planetary bodies to the west. Usually I don't get a very good view of the sky from my house because of all the tall trees around. However, the other day I walked out onto the back deck to put the cover on the BBQ and was immediately struck with this spectacular view!

The bright "star" towards the top of the photo is actually the planet Venus. The moon is fairly new and is showing a beautiful crescent pointing right at the setting sun. The faint "star" to the left of the moon and slightly below it is the planet Jupiter.

This photo doesn't quite do the scene justice, as Jupiter didn't turn out quite as bright as it appeared to the naked eye, but you can still get a feeling for how gorgeous this scene was. Of course, as the sun got lower and the sky got darker, it got even better, but by that point the action was all taking place behind the trees.

Technical details: This photo was taken with my 5D Mark II + Tamron 28-75 at 59mm, ISO 400, f/8 for 1/30th of a second.

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Week Of March 11th, 2012

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On March 11th this year June suggested we go to the Mountsberg Conservation Area to experience their Maple Towne maple syrup event. It was a gorgeous day, so it was quite busy... but we had a great time, so we will definitely go back again sometime.

They had more than just trees and maple syrup: They had a barn full of animals (you may have already seen the photos of Aila petting a goat on Facebook), a barn full of hay for the bigger kids to play in, and they have a "Raptor Centre" where they have demonstrations of birds of prey.

This is a photo of a young bald eagle and his handler. We also got to see a snowy owl, and we ate some pancakes with fresh maple syrup.

Technical details: This photo was taken with my 5D Mark II + EF 70-300 IS at 160mm, ISO 100, f/5.6 for 1/400th of a second.

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