Hooded merganser

I'm not a birder. When I saw the hooded merganser at Springbank Park, I took lots of pictures and rushed home to google water fowl.

It turns out that this bird is one of the easiest ducks to identify, especially the males with their large white crests. If that's not enough, their eyes are bright yellow. The females, like so many female birds, get short changed when it comes to flamboyant colouring. Their crests are reddish-brown and their eyes are brown.

Cold but still a great day for photography

Get your camera close: the pros do!

I spotted these two sisters with a photographer friend down by the Thames River doing a fun photo shoot. It was clear the photographer was more pro than amateur. Her gear was pro quality — far better than mine — but more importantly, so was her approach.

Overcast days are great for photography. The soft light is very easy to work with — no plugged shadows or burned out highlights.

This shooter, whom I later learned was a graduate of the excellent photo course at Fanshawe College in London, understand this and was taking full advantage of the soft but gentle bright light. She was also aware of the benefits of bouncing a little flash into the scene from white card attached to the strobe.

This trick adds a bit of sparkle to the eyes.

Then again, may be these two sisters didn't need any extra sparkle.

London City Hall: beauty or beast?

This is the back of the London City Hall. The council chambers are inside the glass-faced bulge. A corresponding bulge at the front of the building contains the mayor's offices.

A lot of folk don't think much of the city hall building and the recent talk of doing extensive renovations has revealed a wide rift in people's thoughts about the marble-clad modern structure.

London Today has more exterior shots posted. And for some neat shots from about 2006 check out London Snaps, Part II (you will have to scroll down a ways to get to the city hall pics).

The blogger behind the London Snaps post contacted City Hall for some background information as was sent the following by Philippa Crawley of corporate communications.

The architects were Philip Carter Johnson and Patrick J. Coles and the contractor was Ellis-Don Limited. A 12-storey structure, City Hall was designed as a symbolic concept and consists on two interlocking buildings. A document from the year of its opening – 1971 – notes the following:

The base is a black granite oval-shaped section which represents the elected people. The northerly projection, overlooking the civic square houses the two-storey Council Chambers, while the southerly projection suspended over the main entrance, houses the Mayor’s Office on the second floor and the Clerk’s Office on the third floor.

The curving white administrative tower represents the administrators and other staff whom it houses.

Who ever posted the London Snaps stuff was very perceptive. Hey the post describes the city hall as "built out of a nice choice of materials and of a unique late modernist design." And the author goes on to add the following:

"I get the sense London has no love for its City Hall and may be plotting something new in the not-so-distant future."

Remembrance Day in London, Ontario

Thursday was Remembrance Day and in the late afternoon the cenotaph located in the southeast corner of Victoria Park near the London City Hall was surrounded with wreaths placed there in memory of Canadians who died fighting for the country they loved.

Photojournalist Sue Reeve, The London Free Press, documented the ceremony in pictures. Click the link to view her work.

Sadly, one doesn't need a long memory to remember those being honoured. Canadian soldiers are still dieing in war today, this time in Afghanistan. Like many Canadians, I have a yellow ribbon magnet showing support for our troops on the back of my car.

Near the cenotaph there is also a carillon. It was dedicated in 2006 as a musical tribute to Canadians from the Dutch community. It was erected to show the community's gratitude to Canada for the liberation of the Netherlands in 1944-45.

The plaque below the carillon says, "We will never forget."

London's rhino before the latest vandalism

Rhino horns are a sought for item everywhere, including London, Ontario.

Bertha, the life-sized metal rhino is female, is the work of London artist Tom Benner. His wonderful, metal statue has stood on the lawn in front of the London art gallery for more than two decades. Over the years it has suffered numerous attacks.

Its horn has been ripped off several times; Each time Benner repairs his beloved work. If one looks closely, the repairs are clear.

But this year, at the end of October, vandals took the rhino down, literally. They rocked it until they ripped it free from of its moorings. It has now been removed for repairs.

Benner is again repairing his art work and promises that within weeks it will be returned to its position of pride in front of the art gallery. The London Free Press reports Benner understands people sitting on old Bertha as sort of a rite of passage but he doesn't understand why someone would cross the line to cause deliberate damage:

"For anybody to do something like that is pretty strange."

Laundry Day

Fiona loves to help. When given a choice between watching a video and folding laundry, and yes she understands the word video, Fiona picked folding laundry.

When you're not quite 14-months-old, folding laundry isn't quite as easy as it looks.

Halloween Tree

My wife is retired, as I am, but she has a part-time job at a local private school. She works with the younger children, some as young as three. Last Friday she had to wear a costume to school. She went as a tree with a bird house in its upper limbs.

The little kids loved it.