Wanderfull's Wanderings: Rainbows, dancers, and noon hour buskers

Thursday, June 26, 2014

Rainbows, dancers, and noon hour buskers

Yesterday was an interesting day for shooting photos. But then isn't every day? These were shot with my Canon PowerShot G15 point and shoot; edited with Nik and Photoshop CS5 softwares. Click on the images to see larger sizes and all the images streamed.

My day started off with a double rainbow in between rain showers as I walked to work. Not the greatest composition, but by the time I reached a pretty vantage point the rainbows had faded. I really had to play with Nik software to bring out the rainbows in this shot taken from Rotary Park. Nik Color Efex has a filter that allows independent adjustment of upper and lower tonalities. Very handy for darkening rain clouds and rainbows to make them stand out, while lighting the lower part of the photo.

Further along, on the Riverwalk bike path, a couple of young First Nation dancers started performing for a CTV News cameraman. Since Aboriginal Awareness Week ended last weekend, I have no idea what was happening.

At lunch, I wandered down Stephen Avenue where a few buskers were performing. A couple of days ago Michael Buble sang My Only Sunshine with a couple of teenage girls busking for fun on Stephen Avenue. Buble recorded it and then posted it to Instagram. No such luck for me, but still had fun.

While watching this guy perform, a fellow in front of me watching from a wheelchair turned and explained that the busker had magnets surgically implanted in his arms so that the globes would stay. A woman sitting next to him snorted and said rather loudly, "Don't tell me you fell for that!" Apparently, I missed a busker joke.

The G15 isn't the greatest for capturing action shots. You pretty much have to anticipate what is going to happen. I was concentrating on catching a smile, then I caught two. Didn't notice the reflection until later when I looked at the shot. Update: This photo of Noah Weigel was the July 15, 2014 Photo of the Day at PhotoRepublik.

A saxophonist and drummer were joined by a guy swinging wooden objects on strings in time with the music. Here I tried playing with slow shutter speeds to see what I'd get.

The old guy was trying to engage me in conversation. There's more money to be made, I guess, if you chat up the audience. Unfortunately, I wasn't the most talkative as I was concentrating on getting an interesting photo of the two busking together with the balloon.

"I'm from Tuktoyaktuk," he said. "Have ya ever been there?"

I shook my head.

"Sprechen Sie deutsch?" he asked.

"No," I replied.

"Are you from Calgary?" he then asked.

I nodded my head, eyes fixed on the pink balloon.

Now I wish I had talked to the buskers. Sometimes I do, but I am not really keen about being noticed. I prefer being the anonymous observer photographer. It makes for more interesting photos. I should have at least asked their names, though. As far as I can tell, there isn't a page that gives information for the buskers playing downtown.