2017

A Weekend Roundup From The Photos Taken on The iPhone – S12E16

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I didn’t realize I had a bunch of photo I took on the iPhone 7 Plus. There’s several photos leftover from Ottawa Dragon Boat Festival. It ranged from the concerts to the boat ride watching the race.

On Sunday, I went to the Canadian Museum of History for the live broadcast of CBC Radio’s Cross Country Checkup. The live call in radio program was about Canada’s 150 and what it should inspire us in the future. It was held in the soon to be open Canadian History Hall.

I had the chance to glance through the new permanent exhibit. It looks fantastic as it covers more than a 150 years of Canada’s history ranging from the French and British’s settling, to the Indigenous culture and modern day Canada. I had one hour before the live broadcast to check out the history of Canada. I hope to try going through the exhibit at a slower pace in the future.

You can check the photo gallery below.

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Saturday at The 2017 Ottawa Dragon Boat Festival – S12E15

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After recovering from equilibrium or balances issues on the boat ride at Ottawa Dragon Boat Festival, Saturday’s event was filled with races, activities and live music.

The weather turned out very good but throughout the afternoon, winds were picking up during the races and caused some delays. It was fun to shoot photos of the dragon boat races while in the boat on the waters of the Rideau River. It’s the second year to experience seeing the action on the waters.

To the concert series, missing Friday’s lineup due to not having a camera without it. Saturday ended off with Twin Flames (from Ottawa), Kasador (from Kingston), The Darcys and Half Moon Run (from Montreal). It’s always a thrill to see The Darcys and the first time to see the three bands. I’ve been familiar with Half Moon Run but never seen them live.
You check the photos galleries below.

It’s always a pleasure to attend Ottawa Dragon Boat Festival every Summer. Great seeing the sights and sounds of the races as well with the live music to keep fans and racers entertained. Kudos to the organizers for making the festival fantastic.
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Thursday at The 2017 Ottawa Dragon Boat Festival – S12E14

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Live music, bagpipers and lion dancing kicked off the 2017 edition of The Tim Hortons Ottawa Dragon Boat Festival on Thursday night.

Their concert series kicked off with The Elwins, Said The Whale and The Sheepdogs. All three were great and the best thing about the concert series at Ottawa Dragon Boat Festival, it is free! Best of all, the music lineup are all Canadian.

Friday’s lineup will have Kalle Mattson, The Zolas and Dear Rouge. There is a lot of things to do in Ottawa with Summer in full swing.

Check out the photos below.

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The Final Weekend of May 2017 – S12E13

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The last weekend of May in Ottawa had a lot of events happening. To start off Friday night, I went to Kinki Lounge Kitchen for Kool Krys‘s album release party. Her fourth album, Feminum was released on Friday and it’s a tribute female empowerment and her favourite super-hero, Wonder Woman.

The Feminum album release party had Ghettosocks open up the event. It was a great event and the funny moment was having to sing along to Perfect Day when Ghettosocks began his set.

You can listen to Feminum over at Bandcamp which is free to download.

On Saturday
For Saturday, there were various events happening, the first place was checking out the annual Great Glebe Garage Sale. Just walked to see the crowds look and rummaging for deals and unique objects around the area. I have been using the iPhone 7 Plus and tried to experiment shooting on portrait mode. You will see one of the photos shot using the depth effect.

After the garage sale, I took a long walk over to the Festival Plaza at Ottawa City Hall for Ottawa Race Weekend’s Celebration Stage. I went to see Scary Bear Soundtrack as I haven’t seen the lead member for awhile. It was a joy to see the members on a warm sunny afternoon.

The band released a new track (actually, a reworked version) to commemorate Asian Heritage Month 2017. It’s called Asian Fetishist, you can listen to the track on Bandcamp.

You check the photos from below from the events I checked out.

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My Time at CBC/Radio-Canada in February – S12E12

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Just to coincide with their blog makeover as my Twitter slightly lit up with notifications from it.

Back in February, I had the opportunity to work at CBC/Radio-Canada (the corporate side) and help with migrating their blog to a new one. To keep it short, you can read my experience over on their blog by clicking HERE. 

All I can say that it was an opportunity to meet the great people at Enterprise Communications and surprising the ones from CBC Ottawa.

In the meantime, you can check out more photos that I didn’t provide to the CBC/Radio-Canada blog. It’s a mix of the Polaroids and iPhone photos posted here.

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Red Bull Crashed Ice in Ottawa – S12E11

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On the weekend, Ottawa played host to the 2017 Red Bull Crashed Ice. Crashed Ice is a fast sport consisting of skates and frozen ice sloping down in curves and bumps.

Riders from females and males compete for the fastest speed going down the ice. There were lots of bumps, trips, stumbles and slip during the whole competition.

The event was part of the continuing celebration of Canada’s 150th birthday and in the Nation’s Capital. It was located on the Rideau Canal between Fairmont Chateau Laurier and Parliament Hill.

The weather on Saturday was hovering around -20 degrees Celsius, quite the bone chilling temperatures. At least people braved the cold temperatures at the event.

I stood with other photographers from around 4pm to 10pm. It was about a 6+ hours standing in the frigid cold. Overall, it was a fun event to watch ice cross downhill.

You can check the photos below.

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Ottawa Ice Dragon Boat Festival – S12E10

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The first ever Ice Dragon Boat Festival in North America happened on Saturday morning. It was held at Dow’s Lake in Ottawa.

The unexpected mild temperature was pretty ideal to begin the opening ceremony. The lion dance troupe led the VIPs and politicians to the Rideau Canal Skateway. The Minister of Canadian Heritage, Melanie Joly and Minister of the Environment, Catherine McKenna were on hand for the event. As usual, the mayor of Ottawa, Jim Watson and other local politicans were there for the event.

Boats on ice don’t seem in common compared to the usual boats on the water. The Ice Dragon Boat race have been a big hit in Hungary and China so far. Teams from Canada, China, Europe and USA have applied for the first inaugural race in Ottawa. I didn’t get to stay to check the race as I was there for the lion dance performance.

There was a good turnout for the Ice Dragon Boat Festival as it’s part of the 2017 edition of Winterlude as one of the new attractions. It is also part of the continuing celebration for Canada’s 150th anniversary and Ottawa 2017.

Check out the photos from the opening ceremony below.

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Yoga with a High School Friend – S12S09

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I decided to surprise a high school friend by showing up for his yoga class. I haven’t seen my friend, Arbin for over a decade, the last time I saw him was at Carleton University. 

Aside from the surprise, the reason for taking the yoga session was keep myself in health. For those who don’t know, I’ve been using the Apple Watch and trying to keep myself in shape with exercising. Most recently, I haven’t been doing some exercising as I’ve been doing some work at CBC Radio-Canada in the corporate communications side of things. I’ve only been able to do the Seven app and not get a chance to jog on the treadmill.

Back to yoga, Arbin has been teaching for several Sunday mornings. It’s for everyone whether you’re a beginner, novice or advance. He focuses on strengthening your core body, breathing practices and meditation. For Ottawa readers, the location is at 175 Richmond Road, in the Westboro area of Ottawa. There would be more yoga sessions planned during the week for those who can’t do Sunday mornings.

It was nice to see another high schooler take part in the yoga lessons as I haven’t seen him in a long time. It was also nice to see Karen aka VaVa&Vintage as she’s known Arbin for awhile. Got to love connections from people I know. How could I never forget to take some photos and use the Polaroid camera with The Impossible Project film.

Overall, I had a good time learning yoga and going through the moves. It’s pretty intensive and it will take me awhile to be flexible.
You can check out the photos from below and a Polaroid photo.

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Happy Chinese New Year 2017 – S12E08

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Happy Chinese New Year, Gung Hei Fat Choy. Happy Year of the Rooster for 2017.

Sunday was quite the day as my lion dance troupe had two performances. One was at T&T Supermarket and the other at Richcraft Recreation Complex in Kanata. There’s still some Chinese New Year celebrations happening throughout the city and around the world. It’s a yearly tradition to perform at T&T Supermarket and to go around the whole store. It was quite intensive for some of the members. 

The second event was in Kanata at the Richcraft Recreation Complex. It was Kanata 2017 – Celebrating Canada 150 and the Chinese New Year.
You can check the photos from the two events below.

There hasn’t been a lot of lion dance performance for Chinese/Lunar New Year this year. One major event left will be at the Ice Dragon Boat Festival on February 18th. It’s part of Winterlude and to celebrate Canada’s 150th.

It’s been awhile I haven’t take photos with the Polaroid camera and The Impossible Project films. I’m using the Polaroid Spectra and experimenting with the double exposure on the Impossible Spectra film for black & white. You will see the photos from below.

Totally apologies for the lack of updates on the blog. Ever since the transition to the new web hosting, some of the older posts didn’t make the migration. It will take awhile for the updates. Please bear with me as the blog will go with the slow transition.

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Starting Off 2017 with Hip Hop Brunch – S12E07

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Happy New Year!

What a way to begin 2017 with some Hip-Hop vibes. For those who know me use an Apple Watch to exercise and workout. Starting off my usual indoor jog, I tune into CBC Radio One and they had a New Year’s Day special programming in the morning. At 8am, they aired Marvin’s Room from CBC Radio 2 on Friday nights, it’s a program that delves into the world of R&B, Hip-Hop and whatever’s in between. They had their top 10 of 2016. It was great distraction while jogging.

At noon time, I went to Kinki Lounge & Kitchen for Aunt Thelma’s & Chico’s Hip Hop Brunch. The event runs on the first Sunday of the month. It’s collaboration with Caroline “Chico” Chichelly and Sean Daigle of Aunt Thelma’s where they bring out the hyped up Brunch names derived from Hip-Hop/Rap songs and artists. They bring the love of Hip Hop and food as well as having DJs spinning on the deck with the 1990s and early 2000s Hip-Hop tracks. House of Paint is a sponsor of the monthly event.

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