Night photography at Port Credit.

Photography, combining content and aesthetics, convey a message that allows your intellect to fathom the gravity of situations such as the earthquake in Haiti. With Taiwan and Chile also hit by earthquakes, one wonders if the Mayan calendar ending in 2012 is more than a mere coincidence.

Night Photography

Night photography at Port Credit.

I needed to clear my head today so I took a little photo walk of my own. The idea of a photo walk was inspired by another photographer who invited me to one of his photo walks.

When I take these walks, I don’t want to think too much about what I shoot. In journalism, you have to think about the content of your pictures and work on the aesthetics on instinct. As I wanted a no-brainer shooting excursion, it’s much easier to accomplish at night.

Shape, lighting and colour pretty much sums up night photography. Sure if I wanted to think and shoot like a journalist, there can always be the content factor. Yet the darkness is able to abstract away the content portion of my pictures.

Earthquake in Taiwan

I am sure more than a handful of critics of the so called 2012 end of the world scenario were converted by the planetary events these past few days. If not converted into believers, then at least they would be open to discovering more about the mystery revolving why the calendar ends in 2012.

The earthquake that struck Taiwan was not related to the 8.8 magnitude earthquake that struck Chile four days ago. The Chilean earthquake in turn followed a 6.3 magnitude quake that rattled Okinawa.

It would be more comforting to know that the Taiwan quake was caused by the same seismic event that shook Chile. That would mean it is a localized phenomena and when it stabilized, the book would be closed on the destruction. As this is a separate event, so close to the first, it then leaves us wondering what’s going on in the world? Are there going to be more seismic events?

Killer wave hits cruise ship

As if our planet were not satisfied by shaking some sense into us via the earthquakes, travelers on the other side of the planet were slapped by a huge killer wave that killed two and injured 14 others.

Let’s not forget Haiti

Meanwhile, at Chapters today, I got to take a look at TIME magazine’s new book, Earthquake Haiti: Tragedy and Hope.

I was moved by the content of the book. It reaffirmed my drive to be a photojournalist. Until you see the pictures of victims rotting on the streets in visually chilling detail, your imagination has no anchor to help you understand the situation in Haiti.

As the book described, Haitians are often left to fend for themselves by their government. That tragedy in itself, ironically, brings hope to the people. In this catastrophe, they are able to support, depend on and look after one another as they have always been forced to do even in the best of times.

Proceeds from the sale of the book will benefit the Haitian relief efforts.

Using a Shamwow as a bath towel.

As a part of my travel plans, I am considering using a shamwow as a bath towel as it is a lot less bulky to pack than a regular bath towel.

In my first test today, it seemed to perform only an average job on my skin. I expected to be bone dry, like the surfaces in the commercials. However I felt a layer of moisture continue to linger upon my flesh.

Furthermore I did not use it to dry my hair. The ability to dry hair could be a deciding factor. To be fair, it did its job despite only being 1/4 the surface area and probably 1/3 the thickness of my bath towel.

*edit*

In my second test in the evening, I washed my hair and dried my hair first. My body ended up much drier. Here is the trick: the Shamwow performs better when initially damp.

The shamwow soaked up the moisture from my hair without a problem. I wonder though if I would end up with skin a little too dry. In the commercials, the shamwow soaked moisture out of the carpet leaving the underside pretty dry. In the case of a person, would it then soak moisture out of the skin that should normally be there?

I will continue to use it as a bath towel for the next few days and see if it is a viable alternative to a regular bath towel. The regular towels take up much more space in my pack.

If I was to have one gripe, it would be it’s small dimensions. I need to find a slightly larger shamwow. I usually take steaming hot showers, so it would be nice to wrap something warm around my shoulders when I step out or I’d feel pretty cold. A larger shamwow would also allow me to dry my back a little easier.

The usually steely matriarch of Mississauga, Mayor Hazel McCallion, is teary eyed as she makes a speech at her 89th birthday party hosted by Haroon Khan. McCallion said she didn't feel like she was 89 and reaffirmed her commitment to continue working for the people of Mississauga. It was the fourth annual party that Khan had hosted for the mayor. Photo by Daniel Ho

Recently turning 89 years young on Valentine’s Day, Mayor Hazel McCallion drove herself to her own birthday party hosted by Haroon Khan on Sunday.

The Mayor who is always a pillar of strength for the community, gave only the slightest sign of emotion as tears welled up in her eye during her speech to the guests at the party.

Insisting she does not feel like she is 89, Mayor McCallion vowed to continue serving the people of Mississauga.

“If you do your best no matter what you do, the best will come back to you … the best has been coming back to me in so many ways,” she said.

Even at her age, the Mayor still made a trip out to Vancouver to witness the 2-0 victory of the Canadian women’s hockey team over their American counterparts at the 2010 Olympic games. She was an instrumental force in putting women’s hockey on the world map.

In a gesture to recognize the mayor’s contribution to women’s hockey in the Olympics and athletics in Mississauga, Provincial Minister of Labour Peter Fonseca presented his Olympic pin to the mayor as a birthday gift.

Fonseca represented Canada in the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta and finished 21st overall, first among Canadians.

Meanwhile at the party, Mayor McCallion was found seated amongst the guests cheering on the Canadian men’s hockey team in the first period of what would eventually be a 3-2 OT win over the Americans.

Roberto Luongo, the starting goalie for Team Canada men's hockey through most of the tournament, holds up his gold medal as Canada defeated the United States 3-2 in an exciting overtime game at the Vancover 2010 Olympics. The victory won Canada a record 14 gold medals. The most for any nation in the history of the Winter Olympics.

Congratulations to all of Canada’s athletes for the most successful Olympics in Canadian history.

Our athletes were called upon to Own The Podium and that they did. Winning the most gold medals of any country at a Winter Olympics, Canada finished with 14 gold medals, and 26 overall.

I love the idea of owning the podium. Who said Canadians liked to share? Well, maybe we could be polite and say “sorry, you had to talk silver and bronze” upon winning gold but this “gold or nothing” mentality in our approach to sports this time around gave our nation something to be proud of.

As CTV said in its closing program, the actual medals themselves did not matter. What truly mattered was the excuse to see our flag being raised and to sing our national anthem.

All across the nation, every medal was cheered, every goal twittered. We threw our support behind Joannie Rochette, who won us a bronze medal despite the loss of her mother. We believed in the Canadian men’s hockey team, despite their nail biter of a semi-final game against Slovakia.

Well, I believe in the power that comes, from a nation brought together as one!

Today marks a new era of patriotism for Canada.

My name is Dan … and I AM CANADIAN!

My heart goes out to the victims of the earthquake and tsunami

It is quite interesting that an earthquake of magnitude 6.9 in Japan is followed by an 8.3 magnitude earthquake in Chile a few hours after. Is it possible that one earthquake triggered the other?

According to National Geographic, it can. While this article does say that earthquakes can occur in neighbouring fault lines, Chile and Japan happen to be quite far away from each other. A quick search for fault lines (and here), reveals that Okinawa sits on the Eurasian and Pacific plate while Chile is only two plates away, sitting on the Nazcan and South American plates. As the Pacific and Nazcan plate are connected, a shift in one can affect a shift in the other.

Rising sea levels, global warming, weather patterns are all related to each other. According to a theory by Andrea Thompson on the site Live Science, earthquakes could be caused by global warming.

That article states that melting ice reduces weight and pressure on parts of the tectonic plates which are then rise more easily.

they could alter the stresses and forces fighting for balance in the ground under our feet

Is our planet then on an almost irreversible path to disaster? We talk about reducing carbon emissions to reduce the greenhouse gases. Yet perhaps, we have already set into motion the recipe for our demise.

And this is where I allow my active imagination to take flight.

The Mayan calendar which ends at  the year 2012 comes to mind when I think of all these natural disasters.

Perhaps man did live once before our time. Perhaps these early humans could predict that a cycle happens on this planet every so often. After all, we hear legends of Atlantis, a city being swallowed up by the oceans. Could it be that in 2012, much of this planet will be swallowed up by oceans and become the new Atlantis legend?

Indian dance performance at a school today. I love photographing dance.

The Olympics

That was quite the hockey game, couldn’t be more exciting. Actually, it would’ve been super exciting if it was say .. Slovakia vs USA or Russia or any other country than Canada. But to be that close in a Slovakia vs Canada game, that went way past “exciting” and more into the “cardiac arrest” territory.

10 gold medals for Canada! Gold and Bronze.

Dance

I love bhangra dance. At an event I covered today, students performed bhangra. It was just awesome as the music just keeps you totally alive.

I also love photographing dance. I think I’ll be a dance photographer as a third stream for shooting, with News/Documentaries being first and Weddings second.

Chile Earthquake

On the heels of the Haitian earthquake, an 8.5 magnitude quake has hit Chile. My heart goes out to the Hatians, Chileans as well as the people from Madeira, Portugal who recently experienced a flooding. Is the planet gearing up for 2012? Did the Mayans know what we do not?

Me in my Team Canada hockey jersey

While there are 15 winter sports events, most of them with male and female events, Canada, and perhaps the world, looks forward to the one game on Sunday the Men’s Hockey gold medal game.

It is easy to miss the fact, already touted by many media outlets, that Canadian women have won 13.5 out of the 17 medals to date.

There have been many stories and theories published about how that number. Yet here are some of the other reasons why the Canada’s women are golden.

Joannie Rochette
Twenty-four year old Joannie won Canada a Bronze medal today. It was a medal that could have easily been forfeited had she chosen not to skate due to the death of her mother.

Yet, she managed to muster the courage to compete on a world stage with the almost untouchable Kim Yu-Na despite her circumstances. Such fortitude should be an inspiration not just to athletes, but everyone who has to fight through a tragedy and still end up on the podium.

Canadian Women Hockey Team
How badly do you want gold? Apparently putting in the countless hours of practice to get to the Olympics was not enough.

Not simply content to bask in the glory of making it to the games, or even take the almost free, record setting, ride out to the gold medal game, Team Canada Women’s Hockey secretly practiced with exhibition games against the Vancouver North West Giants during their “off days” at the Games.

Beating the USA today as a result of hard hard work. It wasn’t luck, or skill that won them, and Canada, the third Olympic gold medal in a row.

Clara Hughes
At 37-years old, Hughes managed to win a Bronze medal at what would be her last Olympics. She is also the first Canadian to win medals in the Summer and Winter Olympics.

What makes her golden, is not only her illustrious career, but her compassion for fellow Canadians. A wrong turn while driving in Vancouver led her to the downtown east side. To quote from the Toronto Star,

“I will never forget seeing people suffer so much,” said Hughes, who capped a brilliant Olympic career Wednesday with her sixth medal, a bronze in the 5,000 metres. “I just couldn’t believe I was in Canada and this siituation, this reality exists in our country with people who were shells of themselves. It was surreal. I felt like I was in a movie set. I just couldn’t believe it was real.

Even though Canadian athletes are not well funded, Hughes donated $10,000 of her prize to Take a Hike, a charity for at risk youth. She had also made a previous donation after the 2006 Turin Olympics to Right To Play. That one came straight out of her bank account.

The story on Hughes’ contribution, Rochette’s bronze and Team Canada Women’s determination for gold all happened today. There are other stories that have filtered through my attention, or that will surface in the coming days.

These are stories about Canada’s Golden Girls.

More than our record breaking gold medal haul, it is these stories on the side about our athletes, male or female, that make me so proud to be Canadian.

Jin Fengling and Zhang Shuang carry China's flag in a lap around the arena after exploding for three goals in a 3-1 defeat of Slovakia in women's Olympic hockey at UBC Thunderbird Arena on Feb 22, 2010. The win placed them in 7th place in the 2010 Olympics. Jin and Zhang assisted on Sun Rui's game winning goal. Jin (2G-1A), Sun (1G-2A) and captain Wang Linuo (3G) were the top scorers for China in the tournament with three points each.

Team China exploded for three goals in a 3-1 defeat of Slovakia on Monday night.

I always thought they were a little too gentle on the ice. Most of the penalties came, I believe, as a result of trying to handle bodies that were much bigger than them. From segments of this game that I did watch though, they did seem a little bit more physical.

At the start of the tournament, and during their pre-Olympic training camp, they also looked confused, often running into each other. They also seemed clueless as to what to do with the puck. The clearing attempts were feeble, barely making it out of the zone. But throughout this tournament, they were learning. The lessons culminated in two great goals.

The second goal by Sun Rui was a wraparound topped off with an awesome accurate shot over the left shoulder of the Slovak goalie Tomcikova.

The third goal by the captain Wang Linuo was also a beauty, fighting off a defender as she charged to the net and tipped it past Tomickova.

The top three scorers of the tournament all had three points.

Jin Fengling (2G, 1A)

Wang Linuo (3G)

Sun Rui (1G, 2A)

Those three players were also three of the veterans on the team. I hope the younger players learned a lot from this tournament and will take the lessons home to become an even stronger team for the next generation of the Chinese women’s hockey team.

Aside from Canada, they were the only other team I was cheering for in the tournament as I covered their story during their pre-Olympic training camp and, well, I am Chinese (though not born in China).

To quote our mayor, “I hope the Chinese win gold! … as long as it is not against Canada!”

It was a good run Team China! Good luck in the next Olympics!

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Carmen Lee (second from right) and Miranda Chu (right) thank a lion for bringing good fortune during Chinese New Year celebrations at the Fo Guang Shan temple in Meadowvale. Thousands of people flow through the temple doors every Chinese New Year as they believe ushering in the new year at the temple offers them good fortune for the coming year.

The Year of the Tiger roared into Mississauga on Saturday evening to the loud drums and cymbals of a lion dance at the Fo Guang Shan Temple in Meadowvale.

Many Chinese believe that starting the new year off at the temple brings good fortune. While the loud noise drives away evil spirits, touching the head of the lion during the dance is one way to obtain good fortune for the year. Over the course of two days, thousands of people are expected to pass through the temple doors. The biggest line up on Saturday was to offer the first incense to a statue of Buddha.

“People offer the first incense to say grace and to ask for a blessing for the year to come,” explained Reverend Man Yee.

Opportunities to be blessed with or wish for fortune were abundant in the festivities.

The wishing tree was another possible source of good fortune. For a small offering, that was donated to Haiti relief efforts, guests received a piece of paper with their fortune written on it to hang on a tree in front of the goddess Kuan Yin while they made their wish.

At the temple to make a wish was William Chung, who works for the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office in Toronto. Chung has been to the temple to celebrate Chinese New Year for each of the past four years he has resided in Canada. He feels that, while celebrations in Taiwan were more vibrant, the family atmosphere of the temple does provide the feeling of Chinese New Year.

Many people of non-Chinese descent also came to partake in the celebrations.

“It is interesting to learn about different cultures,” said 11-year-old Kate Bowland. “I like the different kinds of foods and stores. It’s a whole different environment.”

While non-Chinese were curious and embraced the Chinese celebrations, younger Chinese participants might have felt differently. When asked what they felt Chinese New Year was about, Cyrus Chan, Marc Khuong and Ming Leung said it was “celebration, fresh start, new clothes and money.”

“Even some traditions I didn’t know we had,” added Chan, noting he celebrates Christmas and Thanksgiving more than Chinese New Year.

“We also eat that pastry thing,” said Leung.

Reverend Man Yee said that “that pastry thing” is actually nian gao. Nian gao, which translates to sticky cake, is also a homonym for year high. Those who consume the cake are hoping it will bring a higher, or more fortunate, year.

At midnight, the guests line up to strike a giant bell for even more fortune. When sounded, the bell symbolizes courage and energy to deal with the upcoming year. Needless to say, the guests put a great deal of effort into striking the bell.

Twitter to Buzz (A)

Most people currently have the options to connect their Buzz feed to Flickr, Picasa, Twitter, Google Reader, Google Chat status or Youtube.

However, as there is no log in to any APIs needed for Twitter, I believe you can eventually Buzz anything with an RSS feed.

To connect, click on the Buzz link on the left of your Gmail window. You will see a link that says “0 connected sites” next to your name as indicated in the first image above (A).

Click on that link.

Twitter to Buzz (B)

You will be taken to a screen which shows you a variety of sites (B) that you are able to connect with. Select Twitter.

Enter your user name and REMEMBER TO CLICK CONNECT. I just clicked on save the first time around without clicking connect and that did not work.

Now you only really have to update via Twitter, but you can’t see your non-twitter friend’s updates.