St. Mary Lake in Glacier National Park (U.S.)

Stuff I thought was interesting from March 31st through April 8th:

• 2 more glaciers gone from Glacier National Park – Yahoo! News – Glacier National Park has lost two more of its namesake moving icefields to climate change, which is shrinking the rivers of ice until they grind to a halt, the U.S. Geological Survey said Wednesday.
• France24 – N.Korea leader sets world fashion trend: Pyongyang – The trademark suit sported by North Korean leader Kim Jong-Il is now in fashion worldwide thanks to his greatness, Pyongyang’s official website said Wednesday.
• SETI@50: the Wow! signal | COSMOS magazine – The most famous signal in SETI history was detected on the night of 15 August 1977 at the Ohio State University Big Ear Observatory. Has anything happened since?
• Scientists discover first multicellular life that doesn’t need oxygen – The discovery of the new species, which live buried in sediment under the Mediterranean seafloor, is significant in that it marks the first observation of multicellular organisms, or metazoans, that spend their entire lifecycle under permanently anoxic conditions.
• Avatar Dances in Fern Gully’s Dune – An image depicting plot similarities between a series of “hero saves persecuted peoples” films.
• Crisis in Kyrgyzstan – The Big Picture – Boston.com – Widespread anti-government protests in Kyrgyzstan recently turned violent, with groups of opposition protesters attempting to storm some government buildings, and clashing with riot police.
• Stuart Redler
• Landscape Photography by Yorkshire Landscape Photographer Tim parkin
• Using coloured filters with black & white film

While the weather’s been gloomy this weekend, I managed to have a great one anyway hanging out with Michelle and going to a few different places.

Saturday morning I popped into Photo Continental to have a 20×24 print made of Dove Lake and Cradle Peak, and investigate their range of pre-made frames.  I then caught up with Michelle at Garden City and we had some lunch, before heading into the city to take some photos at St. Andrew’s Uniting Church.  On the way, we popped into an alley in the CBD, where I shot the following 360 degree stiched panorama, which I call “Factory Fresh Coffee”!

We then made our way to St. Andrew’s, where a wedding had taken place and guests were clearing out.  We met Rev. Ray Hermann and got the okay to start photographing, but our time was a bit limited.  I managed to get 5 of the stained glass windows, and hope to head back for some more expressive architectural shots at a later point.

The following is a combined image portraying the 5 stained glass windows I shot.  Each of the stained glass windows was combined from 3 images, and each image was combined from 3 bracketed exposures.

After a bit of window shopping we were famished so made our way out to Underwood and had a steamboat dinner at Antarctic Circle. The service was fast, and the food was great.

Sunday we met up for lunch again, and went to Treacle, a favourite of mine.  One of the daily specials was Zucchini Flowers stuffed with seafood mousse, which I went for without hesitation.  We then went to Newstead House which neither of us had been to before.   It was quite interesting, especially the “Rum Warmer modeled after an early steam train”.  To cap off the day we had a quick browse at Wray Organic at Newmarket, where I picked up some chai tea, cacao powder and a Mangosteen, as I had never tried one!  I totally recommend them.

After I got home I managed to formulate a spiced chai mocha but combining 1.5 tsp of chai tea with my normal measure of ground coffee and pouring an espresso shot from that mix.  I combined that with 2 tsp cacao powder, 2 tsp demerara sugar and the stretched milk.  Awesome!

All in all, a really great weekend