A Vincent Mounier Photography Blog
Polar planets
April 2, 2009
Last night I saw urban planets. Let me explain. I went for a run around False Creek because the wind was howling and venturing on the Seawall would have meant big waves and unexpected saltwater showers. I had the fierce Canon G10 with me, in a pouch on a stretchy belt that makes it incredibly easy to carry.
While it can in no way replace a DSLR, the G10 is an incredible little camera, sturdy, compact, extremely easy to use, loaded with very advanced features and even qui...
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Snaphots of a run around Stanley Park
March 28, 2009
Vancouver is bordered to the north by the water of Burrard Inlet, a narrow chasm of ocean leading to the Indian Arm fjord and separating the city from nearby North Vancouver and its stunning mountains.
The entrance to this inlet is called the First Narrows and indeed, narrow it is. Spanned by the Lions Gate Bridge, a suspended link between the two shores, the aquatic gap is a perfect demonstration of the dynamics of fluids and Bernouilli's principle. The tidal height in...
Earth Hour 2009 – Really?
March 27, 2009
2009 Update: Here we are again. In support of the right thing to do, Mother Earth, saving the planet, our economy, CO2 is evil and many other popular green trends, a few people and businesses are about to turn their lights off for an hour tomorrow night at 8:30 pm local time. Woo-hoo. Yee-pee. One hour. Maybe.
I am reposting this entry from last year mostly unchanged, since the issues haven't either. My feelings have sunk, however. I saw how few lights went off last y...
301 Redirect or a big htaccess mess sorted out
March 27, 2009
Between my old photo-xposure.com site and the current www.vincentmounier.com, including URL versions with and without the "www" and allowing for some past sloppiness on my part when it came to trailing slashes, I was having to contend with over 6 different versions of my web site. Search engines were obviously having a hard time, I was getting confused and my configuration was a joke.
After days of trial and error, I think I finally have it all sorted out. The ...
New Namibia photo gallery
March 26, 2009
The best of the Namibia 2009 Road Trip photos are now regrouped together in their own gallery on the main site. Nothing new, just a convenient slideshow spanning the content of the entire "Roasted in the Namib" series. Blogging seems quite futile at the moment, maybe I'm just whistling in the dark...
Roasted in the Namib, Part 9 - Epilogue
March 25, 2009
That day, again, it was a short drive inland to the Kersefontein farm, where we had booked a night. The farm came highly recommended and had been upgraded into a hospitality establishment by owner J., an member in good standing of the Cape Aristocracy who had been reported to be the star of the show.
We arrived early and, unannounced, were greeted in the courtyard by another guest, a friendly German who explained that our host had gone to town and would be back in a whi...
66 Square Feet nominated 2009 South Africa Blog Awards finalist
A little promotion, while you're here with time to kill. Marie's blog 66 Square Feet has been nominated as a finalist for the 2009 South African Blog Awards in the Best Photographic Blog and Best Travel Blog categories! Time to go vote for her. Click on the "Vote this blog" tag, scroll down to the bottom of the page that opens, type in your email address and the captcha letters and vote away. A confirmation email will soon arrive, containing a link on which you m...
Computing in the cloud, a forecast of internet weather
March 20, 2009
Make no mistake about it, Google is the new Microsoft. If Bill Gates once managed the incredible feat of putting Windows into just about every computer on Earth (and got filthy rich doing so), Google is about to achieve the same thing but from a cloud perspective. Will they get rich too? I think they already are. Is it worth it for us? I don't know, and I don't think it matters. It has already begun, we're getting hooked and I know I could no longer live without my ability...
Once Upon a Time, Ennio Morricone
March 19, 2009
I spent last night doing some digging through my audio collection for Marie. We had been talking about eating beans the way Terrence Hill does it in My Name is Nobody - with obvious delight, big mouthfuls off a wooden spoon straight from the pan, chewing mouth open and eyes shiny. The conversation led to the movie's brilliant musical score and logically drifted towards Ennio Morricone's genius. I promised to make her a compilation.
So I opened iTunes and began browsing....
Roasted in the Namib, Part 8 - Perimeter watch
March 17, 2009
We further explored the Cape Columbine Nature Reserve just in case, found many other great camping spots, mostly deserted, but the first one prevailed. The air was thick with moisture, the ocean calm and the temperature comfortable. We pitched right on the beach, 5 meters away from a small bay. Light wind carried many ocean smells and the strange faint sound of a horde of barking dogs. We listened curiously for a while and had to go investigate; it turned out there was a h...
Roasted in the Namib, Part 7 – Back to so-called civilization
March 15, 2009
Leaving behind us such amazing places as the Namib and the Kgalagadi turned our drive south into a bit of an anticlimax. We aimed for the town of Upington through which our old friend the Orange River flowed on its way towards the ocean. There too, the water's presence drew a singular line of luxurious green vegetation across deserted and dried-up plains.
We followed the river westward and eventually reached good old N7, the same road that had led us up to our first bor...
A colour fever
March 12, 2009
For those of you who might hate the blog's new color theme, rest assured that it was only the result of a high fever and much frustration over technicalities. However, I have restored the option for visitors to change the skin at will and placed for that purpose a drop-down selection box on the right.
The old midnight-dark theme is back, and I will soon reintroduce the prior grey-green theme. This is just me playing with my toys while looking for some combination that w...