Lomography

In Banff and looking for something do to? Get the heck away from that tacky souvenir shop and find your way to the Banff Gondola. Get on to Mountain Avenue and follow the Gondola/Hot Springs signs. Soon enough you'll be elevated 698m to the summit (2281m above sea level), and the view will take your breath away (the thin air also helps with that).

I had about 3 hours to kill in Hamilton on a sunny afternoon. I was trying to follow the coastline of Lake Ontario, eager to find something interesting when the site of a huge battleship caught me a little off guard.

Sometimes, all it takes is a single sense to remind you of something substantial. In this case, an orange photobooth curtain reminded me of some fresh fruit and a corny joke.

This larger than life public sculpture doubles as a one-piece playground. Every time we see a little red wagon, we'll remember our rest stop in Spokane.

My British Motoring Society Field Meet Haiku: Haphazard placement/A shiny British rainbow /Cars parked like with like.

Everyone likes a list. Seriously, so much crap gets forwarded and passed around the internet just because someone put it in a list. Smart people should realize this and make all the important content into a list, just so everyone will look at it. I took my lead from the 10 Commandments and the 10 Rules of Lomography.

There's a lot to do in Niagara Falls but there's one attraction that was there before all the rest. Don't get caught up in the hype, get down to the water instead! Maid of the Mist is the aptly named boat ride that has been getting to the heart of the falls since 1846.

Some people eat breakfast on the train. Some people put on make up in the car. Some people read in the toilet. They might call it multitasking and pat themselves on the back; I call it uncreative, boring, practical, and shave in the photobooth. As they say in France, "To each his own (only they say it in French)."

A photobooth is designed to do the same thing over and over again. It reliably snaps your photos, day in and day out. Same depth of focus, same format, same repetition. But some of us want to snap back, and you may wonder which approach, and which camera you should use to really capture your photobooth in action?

I usually get my fix in the traditional analogue way. I snap pictures, drive to the lab, wait, drive back to the lab, scan, and enjoy. You may have heard of 35mm referred to as a "gateway drug;" of this, I am living proof. Sometimes, late at night, I find I just can't wait. That's when I turn to something a little more hardcore: old school photobooths.

The Niagara SkyWheel rises above it all. Oh man, that's the cheesiest intro I've written yet. But seriously, the SkyWheel rises above the cheese that is Clifton Hill. Hop in a climate-controlled passenger cabin and get a bird's eye view of the magnificent falls.

Is your glass half full or half empty? I carry too many cameras at one time. I don't say this because of some generally accepted number that is "too many". Like anyone can even know that. I say that I carry too many cameras because of the physical limitations of having only 2 arms and 1 back. This situation occasionally leads to an awkward moment, the worst of these being the "drop". That's right, the hair on the back of your neck just stood up...rightly so. No camera-loving fool wants to drop his or her camera. No matter how many he or she has.

He knew this one was there, unseen, in the hazy heat of the day. It hovered over the parched lawn, waiting to destroy the expired and carelessly stored Polaroid 664. The packfilm was no match for time and low humidity.

In the early 90s, Canon thought it would be a good idea to try something different. It turns out it wasn't such a good idea.

An annual trek to the middle of nowhere to meet up with old friends, eat quality food, drink quality beer, and play quality board games.

Well, this is going to be a little embarrassing...writing this post requires me to admit that I own a toy camera with a picture of the Wildcats from High School Musical on the front of it.

Drumheller, Alberta has been a haven for dinosaur lovers for decades. Sooner or later they all end up at the world class paleontology centre, the Royal Tyrrell Museum.

The TransCanada Highway runs from coast to coast of one of the largest countries in the world. It crosses vast barren landscapes, it climbs rugged mountain passes, it bisects small towns, and it navigates large cities. In Calgary, Alberta, for almost 50 years it has conveyed traffic that slows to a crawl to pass Peters' Drive-In, "The Drive-In You Can't Drive By".

Here are some women you can look up to and not just because they're taller than you. In 1929, Emily Murphy, Henrietta Muir Edwards, Louise McKinney, Irene Parlby, and Nellie McClung fought for the recognition of women as persons under the British North America Act (in Canada). Though the "Persons' Case" was their most significant achievement, these five women dedicated their lives to improving their communities in innumerable ways, serving to instill a spirit of strength and leadership that could be drawn upon for years to come.

Big naked people. Need I say more? Nearly a dozen giant naked people greeted me on the grounds of the Calgary Education Centre. Their indistinct genitals notwithstanding, the 21-foot humans - men, women, and children - represent a family of sorts.