Green milk

 2020 10 10

Day 6

I got up early to go outside to the exercise lot, the portion of the hotel parking lot that has been fenced off and used as a space to go to walk around, stand in the sun or shade, to exercise.   Aside from the smoking section in front of the hotel (and who wants to go there), the exercise lot is the only place to really go.

It wasn’t to get the blood pumping for me, it was to do another time lapse.   This time looking at the building as the sun moved behind it.   I figured with the camera tilted up no one would get in the way of the lens even if they were tall.   There were a a number of runners that got pretty close to the tripod but none of them bumped it.

We have a limited time frame out there because the guards need to go home to sleep and all that.   So we can go out between 07:00 and 21:00.   I went out at 07:30, set up the tripod, came back in at 09:00, had breakfast, went back out at 10:00 and was out there until 13:00.

Having a thing, whether it be a camera on a tripod, or a piece of chalk, people are going to make conversation.   I met a few people and talked to security and some army guards that changed shifts.   Exchanged a few stories from living in Canada and how the lock down was going over there to how things were going over here.   The conversations made the time go by pretty quickly and before I knew it I was going back inside to the warm hotel.

My lunch was waiting for me in a brown paper bag.   And next to it were three other paper bags with the groceries I had ordered online last night from the countdown grocery store, kind of like loblaws, it’s a large grocery store chain.   I wanted to buy some green milk but as it turns out there’s a $50 minimum to be able to use the delivery service plus there’s a $15 service charge.   My tiny fridge might be able to fit 10 bottles of milk. It I thought I’d get some fruit and some other stuff.

- 1.5 L bottle of lime flavoured milk

- 1.5L bottle of banana flavoured milk

- 2 x 1kg cartons of Jazz apples

- 280g bottle of vegemite

- 250g Whittaker’s creamy milk Hazelnut Block

- 400g Hubbards crispy crunchy granola (raspberries, cranberries, coconut, currants, cashews, buckwheat, and sunflower seeds)

The fact that all the items I bought are made in New Zealand aren’t a coincidence.

Nikon D850

The dim sum I ordered for just me

This weekend I started out in pretty rough shape.   I had rolled into bed saturday morning at 05:30 from doing a fraturday work schedule.  We started at 15:00 on friday and worked through the night.  Side note:  I have to say that this production is great in that it offered us taxi rides home and or a hotel to sleep in.  All this for only working 14 hours.   If this is the norm in Vancouver then they totally have a one up on the film industry in Toronto.  I'd worked 16-20 hour shifts on some shows in Toronto with none of that offered.

I got out of bed feeling pretty groggy.  It was raining and overcast outside which didn't help me feel awake in anyway.   I had posted an invite mid week for some friends to meet up for dim sum at 13:00.   I never changed the time because I'd have to reset my sleep habits for the following monday and while I made it out of bed at 11:00 the cobwebs in my head continued to give me a foggy brain until at least 15:00.    The Fortune Garden restaurant was a bit pricey (maybe not by Vancouver standards) but the food was good.   I didn't order that much, some chicken corn soup, some shrimp (prawn) dumplings, radish cake and chicken feet (see photo).

If I was tired before dim sum I felt more tired after dim sum, I could almost feel the blood going from my brain to my stomach to help digest all the food I ate.  The eating took only 40 minutes in total leaving me with another hour and twenty minutes on the parking meter.  So after paying the bill and leaving a nice tip I left and waddled over to the Broadway Camera store. I was visiting to pick up a UV filter to replace the scratched one on my 70-200mm 2.8 lens.

As i walked in Peter, one of the store employees, called me by name.  "Derek, your 850 is here.  I tried to call you but had trouble with your Toronto number.".  Yes. I've only been going there for maybe six weeks and we're on a first name basis.  Sad?   Maybe, but they're quite nice...  and knowledgeable (a rare bonus in this day and age of brick and mortar shopping).

Secretly I was hoping the new camera body was in, but had come to the realization that the probability of getting the D850 in the first shipment was low, I mean I had never gotten any gear right off that bat.  I usually had to wait a few months.  (I'm still waiting on that Nintendo Switch to be released after their inital run back in March; now to the point that I don't really care any more).

I had gone around and checked other camera shops in BC and some wanted a $1000 deposit. Broadway Camera only wanted $50, they were closer to my hotel than any of the other camera stores, also Paula Kulkoskey had kind words about the store, so I put a down payment on the d850 with them. 

What can i say, people not showing up for dim sum was pretty depresssing.   I'd been trying to meet up with people since I got to Vancouver (way back in July).  Shout out to Alex, who met me the first weekend, after that meeting up with friends went quickly downhill.  Also being my birthday week (technically thursday) not having anyone show up just made things feel worse.

So when i found the camera was waiting for me I had a spike of happiness for a short while.   It's been a while since I bought a camera or any pricey gadget for that matter.  It's been about 8 years since I bought my first D700.  It's crazy.

My happiness was quickly greeted by a bunch of hurdles.  My debit card maxed out at $2000.00.  Peter was pretty easy going and said they could keep the camera on hold for a few days while I got the money together.  "No!" was my reply.  I was determined to get the camera on a non-work day and fiddle with it over the weekend.

As luck would have it, a few blocks down the street was bank branch that I bank with and they were open on Saturday.  I hurried over there after telling Peter I would be back and to not give the camera away to someone else, Got the remaining money in large bills, headed back to the camera store, realized I had left my wallet at the bank, went to the bank to find that it wasn't where I left it, while waiting in line for the teller I found it stuffed in my camera bag (where it's not normally stored), walked back to the camera store, paid for the camera, a spare battery and the UV filter, then bee-lined it back to the car and drove swiftly to the hotel where I opened the box to see what I had just bought and to check if everything was there, then crashed into a dim sum coma.



the conveted Nikon D850 plus some other things

I woke up a few hours later, downloaded the D850 manual to my iPad because my eyes are starting to have a hard time reading tiny text in tiny manuals, and started fiddling with the camera.  The first thing I noticed was that the light meter settings were reversed.  Maybe Nikon did this to make Canon users more at home?  Whatever the reason, I found it annoying.  Luckily in the menu you can flip this display so it's like the past Nikon cameras I've had.   Some of the controls moved.  My hands have gotten so used to the D700 controls that I found myself trying to push a button that wasn't there (ie.  the MODE button; where did it go?).

There were a bunch of things that have been changed or added.   The D700 never had video.  One of the things that kind of angered me when buying the D850. I don't want to do video, I just want to shoot nice photos.   But adding everything including the kitchen sink seems to be the trend, I really didn't have a choice.   Maybe one day that video feature with be useful to me.  For now that menu items and buttons are just getting in the way of me shooting stills.  I need to go over the controls in more depth,  I still don't know how to bring up the histogram.

The biggest disappointment for me with the D850 is that the bracketing only does 5 brackets at 3 stops apart.   While it's better than the 9 brackets at one stop apart (for me), it would have been nice if I could do more brackets and change the spread in 1/3 intervals.  Ideally 7 brackets at 2 1/3 stops apart.   This is the magic number for doing HDRIs with our 8mm lens when doing visual effects, going from 1/4000 of a second to 4 seconds. 

If Nikon had a suggestion box on their web site, I would have requested this feature years ago but like most business web sites, the ability to actually contact anyone is either hidden or non-existent.  I tried, i gave up. Maybe Nikon will read this blog entry and fix it in a firmware upgrade?  I'd be hopeful but I doubt it.  As a result I'll probably have to also buy a Canon mark III or mark IV to conform to the rest of the visual effects industry. *insert sad trombone.

I'm still happy overall with the Nikon.  As a camera for personal use I would have still bought the Nikon just because the Nikon world is so ingrained in me.  It'll take me a few days to really get comfortable with this model.   I'll try to update the blog as I find things out.        

Last minute trip to Niagara Falls

Buskerfest on Yonge Street


Elton John on stilts!


Dr. Cabbie selfie contest


The Dr. Cabbie girls


Some warehouse window in Niagara Falls


Trail from bus station to Cliffton Hill (sort of)


The Skylon Tower


Puffy clouds


Hershey's Kiss


The Hornblower


The Falls


Me in my yellow rain coat


Mist off the bow


Lights that light up the water


Water on the lens


Another shot with a wet lens


Water drops


Foam waste on water


Feet placement for elevators


Neon bowling sign


Upside down house

Road Trip to Wasaga Beach

Go west (to LA)

As with any great adventure it all begins and revolves around a girl, a hair brained idea, and maybe a bit of spontaneity.  Let me bring you up to speed.  Here are the facts...

1. I have a crush on this girl.
2. She's dating someone else.  (insert the booing here)
3. We have a week off work due to a scheduled hiatus.
4. I have friends in LA.

These were the main ingredients for the trip.  When I say crush I mean SUPER crush.  It had gotten to the point that I couldn't stop thinking about her.  When I  first asked her out she was single and there's a whole story behind that so I won't get into it and focus more on what's been happening recently.

The nice thing about working is that I've been able to focus on something other than the girl, doing actual work in the fear of getting fired for not doing my job.  Still work can only do so much and eventually while on my way home thoughts of the girl seep back in.

Logic would dictate that longing for someone in a relationship is unrealistic and perhaps even unhealthy.  I get it.  Knowing this didn't make me think of her less.  It's because of this obsession that I knew that during hiatus with nothing else to do I would succumb to the thoughts of the girl permeating my brain.  I needed to think about other things, do things to take the girl out of my primary thoughts.  That's when the idea of travelling came to mind.

Okay, so why Los Angeles?  Part of the decision was that Rollercon in Las Vegas had just ended and I didn't go.  I could have gone had  I taken two days off of work but a props person told me I should not give up the two days of work seeing as we're going to be done the season soon.  While I ended up earning the money for those two days, in the back of my mind I regretted not going to Vegas.  After all there were a lot of friends (skaters) that went and they showed up from all around the globe.  It would have been good to see everyone in one fell swoop.

Photos started to appear on facebook.  The bouts, the hijinks, the black and blue ball and a bunch of other fun rollercon stuff.  Someone even posted something about eating at an IN N OUT burger.  A burger place I missed going to during the last four visits.  I could still travel to Vegas but it wouldn't be the same without all the skaters and people I knew.

The travel seed was planted though.  West Coast visiting and for some reason the IN N OUT burger.  I had to have a burger from that place.  I had asked the guys that worked on R.I.P.D. what they were doing that week not really knowing at the time how everything would gel together.

As it turned out Chau had a couch waiting for me.  I bought tickets for the week and off I went.


It should be noted that I didn't know I was being photo bombed at the time.  The guys behind me are awesome.

18:18 Eastern standard time

No idea where we are.  I'm on a Westjet boeing 737-800 plane somewhere in the air between Toronto and Calgary.  I've got an aisle seat.  Traveling in economy class.  Walking on the plane I knew there would be trouble as I counted six baby strollers in a pile before getting to the plane entrance.  Add to that the flight booking computer put me in seat B.  seat A is next to a window, seat C next to the aisle.  It meant I would be sitting in between two people.

As it turns out the two people weren't cute single women and luckily were  not two fat smelly people either.  I was seated between two parents.  They picked A and C in the hopes that if the plane wasn't full seat B could be used to hold their little girl.  A small baby.  I would think she's around two (but she could be older, I'm no baby expert).

At one point in the flight, 18:00, the other babies decided to start crying in turns.  It was like a crying smack down where one baby would stop and tag the next baby to start.  I don't think more than two babies were going at once.  But there was one baby who just outdid them all.  Not so much the loudness, all the babies cried at about the same volume.  No with this kid it was duration and the number of family members it took to quiet the kid down.  I counted four family members.  Mother, grandmother, father, aunt (I'm guessing at the relation of these people).  I inwardly laughed thinking that this family would have a mamma's boy in about ten years.

It was more of a nervous laugh.  Another dependent adult in the world that can't think for themselves probably sucking the energy from everyone around them.

Getting back to the parents I was sandwiched between.  The dad offered to switch seats so I was in seat C next tot the aisle.  Their girl almost started to cry when offered some apple juice but quickly started drinking and remained silent.  This prompted the dad to give her a thumbs up.  "Yeah kid, don't give into peer pressure.", I thought.

If I ever have the luck to snag a girl and become a parent I would want a kid like this.

Mamma's boy is activated.  I'm not sure if someone stubbed the kid's toe or accidentally sat on him but he's wailing and going for the record for the decibel levels of a piglet under duress (which is louder than a jet engine by the way).






20:49 EST (16:49 Calgary time)

Traveler tip:  allocate enough time at Calgary airport if you're doing a connecting flight and need to go through US customs.  You will have to pick up your bag from the carousel (located on the way to customs/US connecting flights).






















It didn't seem very good that a guy before me from a flight from Edmonton had been waiting an hour and a half for his luggage to appear.  Eventually it did and he made his flight.  One of the workers told me it takes an average of 20 minutes for the luggage to make it's way from the plane to the carousel.  That would give me 25 minutes to go through US customs, the x-ray machine, and find my departure gate.




Traveler tip:  check the departure gates (usually there is a screen with all the departing flights) when you arrive at the airport.  Even though you may get a boarding pass with a gate number on it (in my case gate C32 issued in Toronto) the gate number may change while you're on your way.  My gate changed to C33.


19:15 EST (17:15 Calgary time)

Now on a Boeing 737-600/700.   "Let's get this Boeing going!" one of the flight attendants bellows.













Hey!  It's Chau!  And she has a luggage cart.  She said she didn't have to pay for one and I joked that there was an old lady wandering around looking for the cart she "misplaced".









01:17 EST

IN And OUT burgers.  I ordered (actually Chau did the ordering) a double double (double patty and double slices of cheese) and a chocolate milkshake.  It was quite yummy and pretty reasonably priced.