A Vincent Mounier Photography Blog

March of the Blizzards: First we Take London, Then we Take Manhattan
December 28, 2010
On the morning of Sunday December 26th, when I left Montreal on the Amtrak Adirondack train - a day early because a blizzard was forecast to strike New York at a critical time that evening - the weather was fair and despite some snow on the ground, Canadian winter was playing nice.That fairness lasted for nine out of the eleven hours of my trip. Finally, around 6:00 or 6:30 PM, well after darkness had fallen and I had given up watching for signs of the impending disaster, ...
Back on the Adirondack Train
December 24, 2010
The Adirondack train has done its magic once more and taken me from New York's Penn Station to Montreal in some eleven hours and exactly sixty-two dollars. Can't beat that deal. And it's such a sweet ride! Ice fishing or meditation? Shot from the Adirondack train Some of you might already have guessed (!) that I am addicted to travels and thus to any vehicle that will allow me to go from A to B, from here to there and back. I have of course had intimate and loving relati...
As 2010 Slips Behind a Fuzzy Horizon
December 19, 2010
I am sure glad this one is over. Deep breath, now. And a bit of patience. We'll see what curious gifts 2011 brings us and what we can manage to reap ourselves. For now, time to travel again, to let go and get lost into much open space, to drift purposefully, resetting watches and mindsets.While my dear Marie flies across the Atlantic towards southern latitudes and a healing summer, the good old Adirondack Amtrak train will first carry me some five or six hundred kilometers...
From Cumulus to Nimbus: my Asics are Dead, Long Live my Asics
December 14, 2010
Looking at it from a pilot's perspective, it would appear to be a poor trade. Cumulus are gentle, cotton-looking fair weather clouds that simply reflect the presence of vertical instability and rising warm air. Nimbus, on the other hand, relate to rain as in the case of nimbostratus - dark, massive rain clouds often associated with bad weather and embedded within storm systems.But hey, I was not looking at this from a paragliding angle, it was the runner in me that needed ...
Asics GEL-Cumulus 9: Farewell to Old Friends
December 11, 2010
Some are probably wondering why on Earth I'm posting a picture of an old pair of running shoes... Well, it could be modern art. But in fact it's sentimental.My Asics GEL-Cumulus 9 running shoes finally gave up a few days ago. The left one had been causing me blisters for a couple of weeks. It had a tear near the sole that probably dated back to heavy trail running early this year in South Africa. It fought hard and then suddenly split open with a sigh. It's a shoe's life.T...
My Two Cents on the Wikileaks Saga
Fear not, I am not about to fuel up the debate and take sides. I claim no allegiance to the Wikileads clan, nor do I stand on our government's side. There seem to be reasonable arguments on both ends, given their respective extremely involved - aka paranoid - points of view. What I am going to do, however, is ask everyone else to take a step back and look at the big picture. This little crisis is being turned into a mega-media red-herring. The masses are following e...
East River Bridges - A 360 Panorama
December 9, 2010
Here’s a 360° HDR panoramic shot of the East River Bridges seen from the tip of the new Brooklyn Bridge Park. Winter has arrived and the air was quite chilly on the East River waterfront last night. The Manhattan Bridge is the background of the Brooklyn Bridge, north, with Manhattan and the Statue of Liberty to the left and southwest. Click on the menu's "Full Screen" icon and then click and drag to navigate within the image in all directions or use the mouse wheel ...
Of Flying and Fate
December 4, 2010
After watching a simple Smithsonian documentary about a group of weather scientists teaming up with pilots to fly around storm clouds in an effort to understand them better - and almost shedding a tear myself along the way - I must confess: I am rarely happier than when I am airborne. Here's the rub: I have spent the last twenty years with my eyes turned skyward because, as Da Vinci put it so simply, "there I have been and there I will always long to return." You...
"Roasted in the Namib" is out!
December 2, 2010
Introducing my new folly, Roasted in the Namib. In a bookstore-quality large landscape format (13x11 inches), the book features an 8 pt. black linen hardcover with color dust jacket, durable library binding, 102 pages, over 80 stunning photos, full-color printing on premium lustre paper, and the memorable story of an extraordinary road trip. It is intended mostly as a future demo and a pitching sample but does look and feel great as-is. Warning: This is not ...
Rainbow time
November 24, 2010
The new hard drive arrived from Dell overnight as promised and I replaced it immediately. My Windows disc image functioned perfectly and I was able to restore my system to its exact pre-failure state. Not a single document, setting, program or anything else lost. A big hurray for S.M.A.R.T. hard drive monitoring. All and all, I had less than 12 hours between the first warning and complete failure. Gulp.Now I just hope the serie noire is over. On a different front, I'v...
When it pours...
November 22, 2010
My computer hard drive just failed. The bloody thing was nice enough to barely give me sufficient warning for a quick save of my book files to an external drive, and to make a disc image of the hole failing drive just in case.Then it became sluggish, and pouf. Gone.So now I am wondering if owning a Dell is a blessing or an omen. Something major was just wrong with the machine a few weeks ago. I had a chat online with a Dell representative at 2 PM one afternoon. The next ...