Bryan Crosby Dot Ca » photography

Winter 2011

Bryan — Tue, 01 Mar 2011 18:53:04 +0000

Some stuff from last week.

Technorati Tags: azu, photography, powder, powder king, rocky mountains, skiing

Around the House – Summer 2010

Bryan — Sat, 31 Jul 2010 07:20:55 +0000

Moose family on Gantahaz Road.

Morfee Mountain Summit looking East toward the Pine Pass and Powder King. One positive of the recent recession was the make-work-project initiated to clear trash off the mountain and old vehicles from the bottom of the bowl. People still feel the need to litter as evident by the numerous empty cans found on the way up. A trait more characteristic of a developing country.

Gantahaz Subdivision. My home is down there somewhere.

Morfee Mountain ptarmigan.

Morfee Lake perspective courtesy of a new trail created from recession make-work money. Forget ad-hoc trail construction, this baby is professionally built and connects into the new mountain-bike park and trail system. I wish this stuff was around when I lived town…I just had a bunch of cattle-tracks to bike on when I was growing up. I’ve inherited my dad’s old Garmin Etrex GPS unit and have started to map out some of the trails one openstreetmap.org (possibly more on that soon). This old yellow-clad black and white LCD beast cannot run internal maps but it seems to grab points fairly accurately.

My brother being chased up the chair-lift by a mean black animal. We found a couple of dollars in the hill parking lot and under the lift line. Searching for lost money was a former childhood spring activity.

Azouetta Lake and Murray Range.

Still no jobs or interviews. Frustrating, which would probably explain the relative lack of blogging…I’m also quite familiar with these areas and Mackenzie life and should have more to say about them. Often the things one is most acquainted with need less words.

Technorati Tags: azu, canada, gantahaz, mackenzie, moose, morfee lake, morfee mountain, murray range, photography, pine pass, powder king

Climbs with dog

Bryan — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 05:51:13 +0000

Raven is not really my dog, but we are getting to know each other quite well and she can hold her own on the mountains.

Snow patch. One of the useful aspects of summer snow is that it creates a rather convenient bridge over alpine scrub allowing access to regions that might otherwise be painfully difficult to get to.

Looking down the Murray Range in the Pine Pass. I don’t think any of these suckers even pushes 2500m and the side I was only probably is only about 2000. The Pine Pass itself is the lowest pass in British Columbia, with the summit barely reaching 900m.

Didn’t make it through the winter.

Mackenzie is behind the range in the horizon. This would be looking West. Unfortunately there was quite a bit of trash up in the alpine. I carried a fully backpack full of cans/bottles courtesy of your lazy neighborhood snowmobilers/skiers/boarders. Folks don’t realize that the area is also used in the summer…and yes…just because it is covered by snow doesn’t mean it’s gone.

Murray range within the Pine-Le Moray Provincial Park . The park was created in 2001 as part of BC’s push to allocate 12% of provincial land-base as park. To meet this goal, the Province appeared to just circle a bunch of land on the map without actually thinking very hard about what they were doing. It’s kind of a map room park as I don’t think the boundaries have ever been laid out by a field team and the only indication that one is nearing park land are several run-down signs near a few of the trail-heads. Apparently a management plan for the area doesn’t exist .

This dog loves sticks…loves them. She found this rather log-like stick on one of the snowfields and carried it all the way down to the bottom of the mountain. Every so often she would drop it and wander down slope a dozen or so metres…only to notice that she had left it behind. This sudden realization would send her racing back up the slope to pick it up. She climbed the mountain twice for this stick.

Technorati Tags: azu, british columbia, mountains, pets, photography, pine pass, powder king, travel

The Canadian 001.03

Bryan — Wed, 02 Jun 2010 17:27:55 +0000

The Prairies…

Actually, there were more trees then I thought there would be.

Technorati Tags: canada, photography, praries, sunset, train, traveling, via rail

Portsmouth Village

Bryan — Sat, 27 Mar 2010 00:04:39 +0000

Although I don’t really live in Portsmouth Village , I like to say I do. Technically, I live in Alwington neighbourhood , which is right on the eastern edge of Portsmouth Village. Close enough.

*tangent* – recently (past three months or so) I’ve noticed that I’m becoming more ambivalent (than usual) toward planning research. As identified in a class last night, planning research is not linear often leads to yet another “$50,000 dollar study to explore the causality between walking and the number of movie rental stores in the neighborhood”. Can research be an excuse not to do anything? That is where science, tech and engineering deep-sixes the pseudo-sciences…they seem to go places with their knowledge.

The point is, while I should be diligently scribbling away on my Master’s report, I finding wandering around Portsmouth Village far more fulfilling and useful. Taking crappy photos, thinking about the space and then forcing my thoughts onto the internet feels like a better and more tangible use of time and energy than reading yet another article (complete with Chi2, R2 and other advanced numbers) about why walking, affordable housing and growing food etc. is good for us.

So, this is Portsmouth Village (est. 1784). It’s got everything one needs in a complete, mixed-use village. Pub, pharmacy, secondary suites, sidewalks, places of worship, sushi, sandwiches, hardware store, giant anchors, sailors, the 1976 Olympic summer games, ample green-space, some brown-space, museums, water, houses, mini-vans, trucks-on-blocks, traffic, trees, shrubberies, convicts, boats, small dogs, trash, home businesses, bikes, a general stores, movie rentals, a laundromat, an insane asylum, modernist buildings, new urbanist stuff, old limestone homes, old wood homes, underground parking, graffiti, government hacks, empty park benches, ducks and other small woodland creatures and most importantly, a Yonge Street.

Unlike Kingston’s other attempt at New Urbanism , the Portsmouth development actually seems to work…kind of. At best, it jives well with the older architecture, at worst it adds another layer of diversity to an already patchwork of buildings and styles.

One of the nicest parts of Portsmouth Village is the waterfront trail which bypasses the old (and very creepy) psychiatric hospital and links into Lake Ontario Park.

If one is not down with limestone architecture, there are a couple of lakeshore condos. Not much too look at, but they offer a killer location.

…and so does Kingston Pen.

Had a bad day? Or maybe you just want to ask your girlfriend to marry you. There is plenty of old concrete wall space @ the abandoned crazy house for all of your public message needs.

This inukshuk is guarding against American invasion.

Lake Ontario Park shoreline. There is a small graffittied cavern near the boulder on the horizon.

Delicious and nutritious Lake Ontario water.

A message to God, enshrined on stone.

Back in the day the old psychiatric hospital obviously wasn’t big enough.

Did you take your meds today?

It’s even creepier at night.

Heavily modified limestone home, next to a post-war house, next too a duplex. All kinds of homes here.

Presently, Tim Horton’s is the heart and soul of Portsmouth Village, providing nourishment to thousands of downtown commuters, local residents, St Lawrence College students and prison staff each week. Unfortunately, it is also the ugliest addition to the community and has brilliantly succeeded in destroying the historic value within the center of the Village.

The main drag. Must like traffic to live here.

It’s just a good , interesting and nice place to live which embodies pretty simple and basic planning principles. Building diversity, mix uses, functional green spaces, tight and multi-modal transport friendly, good connections to the greater community. Nothing fancy here…no over-designed, over-planned, over-researched, over-budged approaches. Sure it has it’s bad eggs, the Tim’s, the traffic down the centre, some inefficient land uses and strange parcel designs, some gentrification, but it is fairly obvious that the community works. I’m sure that most people would agree. Keep it simple. Planning doesn’t need to be rocket science. 90% is just observation. Good spaces have been around for centuries…Portsmouth is testament to that.

Technorati Tags: Kingston, kingston penitentiary, lake ontario park, photography, photos, portsmouth village, urban planning

2010

Bryan — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 21:34:12 +0000

Seven years of website fun! I suppose I could have waited until a 10 year operational anniversary, but…I needed a good topic for the first post of the year.

Connected with descendents of my Great Uncle’s Typhoon squadron

Was provided information regarding a memorial cairn created for my Great-Uncle in France.
Acquired a long-term internet stalker.
Acquired several good friends through the website.
Routinely receive hits from individuals interested in the Nanjing sex industry…probably because of this post .
Became a whiz with WordPress and other blog related software.
410 posts – over 600 pages @ 12pt. font of scribbling (as of 2008 given that WordPress no longer exports in .txt format so I can’t read as a word document) – 921 comments – about 24,000 hits – 3343 individual photos.

I spent this weekend cleaning up my gallery. I had noticed some time ago that numerous albums were missing from the gallery, including most of my Southeast Asia, Nanjing, Slovenia, Croatia, some from Tibet and a couple of other random images. I’ve addressed that issue and added photos from this summers escapades in Shanghai and Nanjing. I might even add some more Canadian content (although the ole’ Pentax is still down and out…a resolution is to fix that bad-boy). Most of those have already been posted on the main page at some point over the past six months, but they are now archived back in the gallery. The India stuff will be in there eventually, although the trend is that I’m usually a year tagging and documenting my photos.

I’m writing this from a nice perch on the 4th floor of Stauffer Library over looking Queen’s. I’ve vowed to spend less time in my office at SURP this year in a bid for more productivity (as much as I love the socializing, I would like to get this Master’s report done somewhat on time). Stauffer is kind of a undergrad hang out, but the 4th floor has nice views and could be a choice location (but I’ll steer clear during the craziness of exams).

Crappy mobile phone image (Queen’s from Stauffer Library)

I’m clear headed and ready to dive into my final semester (hopefully) as a student. I’ve got a bike that tears up the snow, a new backpack that eats mud for breakfast and a thermos full of coffee. Just need some new sunglasses.

Technorati Tags: 2010, blog, grad school, Kingston, life, new years, pentax, photography, surp

Cambodian Restaurants in Kingston

Bryan — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 14:13:20 +0000

I’ve always felt that Kingston has a rather diverse dining scene for it’s size. A quick yellow pages survey reveals over 250 restaurants in the City leading to a ratio of about 450 people/restaurant. I have no idea if that number is high or low, or even means anything, and I’m too lazy to sort the restaurants by type…but I do know that there are five Cambodian restaurants in Kingston. I also know (courtesy of the 2006 Kingston census Excel worksheet) that Kingston is home to only 75 Cambodians, and as such, enjoys a very high Cambodian to Cambodian restaurant ratio.

The five establishments in question do a very thorough job of covering all the major geographic places of interest in Cambodia, leaving a thin name margin for any entrepreneurs hoping to bust into Kingston apparently booming Khmer cuisine scene.

We’ve got…

Cambodian Village – representing the rural
Cambodiana Restaurant – covers all things Cambodian
Phnom-Phenh Restaurant – I have yet to see a “Ottawa Restaurant” in my travels…but it is important that the largest restaurant receive the national capital name.
Royal Angkor Restaurant – One cannot fully cover Khmer cuisine without at least one restaurant referencing Angkor Wat .
Siem Reap Restaurant – The obvious late-comer to the scene, having to go with Angkor Wat’s tourist city as inspiration in lieu of the great landmark itself.

A real Phnom-Phenh Restaurant.
Kingston could use a Sihanoukville Restaurant…right on Lake Ontario.

Tasty Cambodian dishes…

Technorati Tags: cambodia, census, dining, food, khmer food, photography, photos, restaurants

Russian Train Bomb

Bryan — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 19:10:15 +0000

From the Globe :

Russian officials opened a terror investigation Saturday, saying that a homemade bomb planted on the tracks of the high-speed Moscow-to-St. Petersburg route caused a derailment that killed at least 26 people and injured dozens more.

I never rode that particular line to St. Petersburg. I exited Russia via the Moscow-Riga (Lativa) line.

However, somewhere near the Mongolian border I was rustled out of my compartment in the wee morning hours and outside on to a non-descript platform. Russian border police with dogs were pouring over the train searching for something. I never received a clear answer to what exactly was going on, although one of the car attendants mumbled the word “bomb” and that this was either a training exercise (at the expense of passengers) or a legitimate search. Either way, none of the Russian passengers appeared to surprised by the search. About 30 minutes later, we were allowed back on to the train.

Some random Trans-Siberian shots from 2008.

Technorati Tags: bomb, bombing, photography, photos, russia, train, trans-siberian railway, travel, traveling

Triund – India – August 2009

Bryan — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 17:07:11 +0000

Triund is seasonal pasture land located about 1000m above Mcleod Ganj and is where I spent six days just wandering around the surrounding hills, meadows and valleys, eating Maggie and drinking too much instant coffee. Initially, I was planning to trek Indrahar Pass but decided that I would rather spend my last few days in India in laid-back leisure rather than in hard-core trek. One can see Indrahar Pass in the photo below…it sits between the two peaks in the background…the steepness of this route takes the term “pass” to the next level. The weather was also being unpredictable and I wasn’t keen on being stranded on some mountain slope with a flight leaving Delhi in 7 days. I did climb halfway up the pass to a ‘cave’ that one would set up camp in should they wish to attempt the pass.

Looking down into the Indian plains. The urban area directly below is Dharamsala and the reservoir on the hazy horizon is NOT the Sardar Sarovar Project, but I’m sure it has all of the same problems (inside joke for my SURP 811 peeps).

Not a Swiss girl in sight.

Triund pasture has a few tea houses selling typical trekking staples, renting out tents and selling beer (which is apparently illegal as they are not licensed). Most people will hike up for the day, with some venturing a bit further into the hills and then returning to Triund for the night before heading down to Mcleod Ganj. I liked it so much, I just stayed in my tent and ate at the Tea Houses…I don’t think I’ve ever lived that cheaply before. New groups of people would come up each night which made for a variety of interesting campfire conversations.

I broke my camera just before Triund and because being up there without some sort of camera was not an option, I dropped my stuff and blasted back down to Mcleod Ganj and picked up my old point-and-shoot Olympus (which these photos are a product of) and went back up to Triund the next morning. Unfortunately, the SD card on the Olympus became corrupted and 75% of the photos I took are unreadable…these were the only ones that I managed to salvage.
Triund Teahouse. From Triund there are great day hikes further into the hills. The most common is up to the ‘snow-line’ which is about an hour above Triund. From there one may continue further toward Indrahar Pass or explore one of the other surrounding valleys or hills. Snowline pasture below. he remnants of an old guesthouse. Apparently 10 years ago this area was at the snout of a now deceased glacier.
Trail marker for Indrahar Pass.
Moving up toward the Indrahar Pass cave. It’s not really a cave, but rather a massive sloping rock one can take shelter under.

Last day at Triund. Amazing sunsets, nightscapes, full moons and the occasional full rainbow at 3000m. This wasn’t the last photo of India that I took (I have some crappy mobile phone shots from Chandigarh) but I like to think it is.

Northern India – 2009 :-)

Technorati Tags: camping, climbing, dharmasala, india, indrahar pass, mcleod ganj, photography, photos, tents, trekking, triund

Mcleod Ganj – India – August 2009

Bryan — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 19:35:44 +0000

Situated below the the Dhauladhar mountains (outer Himalaya range), the former British colonial outpost of Mcleod Ganj is now more famously known as the seat of the Dalai Lama and home to the Tibetan government in exile. It is also somewhat of a must-see destination on the Northern India circuit. Full of westerners seeking enlightenment in one form or another, MG is also gateway into the Himalayas and offers stunning views in the range as well as down onto the Punjab plains.

While hardly the best map, Bing does give the viewer an impression of the differences between the southern greenery and the rain shadowed Himalayans. MG is about seven or eight kilometres above Dharmasala.

I spent quite a bit of time in MG, largely because was trapped by the perpetual rains of the monsoon and I had told myself I wasn’t going to leave until I got up to the pastures of Triund. Thus, I became one of the many travellers endlessly wandering the two main streets of Mcleod Ganj and drinking endless cups of coffee waiting for the rains to subside.

Luckily, the rains did subside – if only for a few days. But enough for me to get some decent photos of the area and make a run to heights of Triund to get above the weather.

Mcleod Ganj is typical of mountain Indian villages with a very dense organic layout built directly into the hills, tiny lanes, too many vehicles taxing the existing infrastructure…and the ubiquitous urban cows. Incredibly lush and green, MG has amazing forests populated by the mighty deodar cedar . Looking down on Mcleod Ganj. To the far right of the above image is the very humble residence of the Dalai Lama. Given his popularity and unpopularity (among some), I was expecting more of a isolated and secure ‘compound’, yet his residence is incorporated directly into the town.

The still functioning and absolutely gorgeous St. John in the Wilderness Church. Built in 1856, the Church has a Canadian connection as its cemetery is the resting place of Lord Elgin, who was the former Governor General of the Province of Canada from 1847 to 1854 before becoming Viceroy of India.

He’s in there somewhere.

The Dhauladhar range beyond the hills. Triund occupies the saddle of the foreground hills. From Triund I was planning to make an attempt to go over Indrahar Pass (4375m) should the weather hold. Monkeys everywhere in MG. Moving up into the hills above MG toward Triund. The village below is not MG but a neighbouring village called Bhagsu – yet another “Little Tel-Aviv” in India.

Moving up toward Triund Weather moving in

Triund on the saddle – this was one of the last photos I took before falling on my camera.

Technorati Tags: bhagsu, dalai lama, dharmasala, himalayas, india, indrahar pass, mcleod ganj, photography, photos, tibet, travel, traveling, triund