Croquet and stuff

Here are some photos that Yumiko took of us playing croquet on Monday.


It was very cold and very windly, and was threatening to rain, but we had such a good tim that Yumiko and Jon went out and bought their own croquet set! So hopefully we'll be playing more of it.

Yesterday I almost saw a bear though. I went for a bike ride along the Spray River loop with three women from Edmonton (who had kids my age and gave me their phone numbers so I have a place to stay if I'm in the area). We were coming back along the trail when we bumped into some American Tourists who wanted their photo taken, so we all stopped. A second later, three guys on bikes came pelting past and they said that they had just seen a bear, a few metres from the track. We must have all passed right by it. The tourists wanted to go and take a picture but we persuaded them against it.

Here's photos. The castle is the Fairmont Banff Springs, which is absolutely massive. You can have up to six weddings at a time there.




That last one is what happens if you try and take a picture of a sprinkler.

Puppets and Sandstorms

I just saw "Puppet Death Scenes" at the Banff Centre with my friend Peggy, who works there so she got me a free ticket. It was basically a selection of death scenes from different plays, using a lot of the original puppets. It was a kind of comedy/tragedy thing that I'm not going to attempt to describe, but if it was not already sold out, I'd try to see it tomorrow as well. The four puppeteers all had thick beards.

On the way back, cycling over Bow Bridge there wind suddenly picked up, blowing dust into my eyes, and when I stopped I took some photographs of the sky. It was about ten o'clock so the sun was just touching the mountains and you could see the rain coming in.

The first two are of Mt. Rundle and the second is Cascade, which you can see all the way down Banff Ave.




Also, this guy is the crazy (hence the blurring) keyboardist who was at the open mic night at Bruno's on Wednesday. He was fantastic.


And last night I ate raw octopus and salmon caviar at the sushi train, where they actually had a proper train set with two engines running round the track. I enjoyed it, as well.

I keep getting mosquito bites though. They itch.

Not Rock Climbing

It's seven in the morning and I got up at five to go rock climbing.

I had signed up for this a couple of weeks ago at the Living Room, and although my insurance doesn't cover rock climbing, I was assured that the Living Room/Banff Life's insurance would.

Then this morning I really had to force myself out of bed. I haven't been such a morning person lately. I walked to the Living Room and met the folk, tried on a helmet etc, and then the guy hands out waiver forms which basically say that all the costs are my responsibility. I asked him about it, and he said that what I'd been told earlier was wrong. I don't know who to believe, but I played it safe and got my money back. Now I'm wanting to regain lost sleep.

Yesterday was the first really nice day in a while. It was sunny and breezy, so I went for a bike ride. Here are photos. The scenery was amazing.







The last one was playing frisbee on Sunday with Yumiko and her husband, Jon.

One Hot Summer etc

On Thursday I volunteered at this event called One Hot Summer, which was aimed at 18-35s working in Banff. The weather was pretty bad though. I'm told that June is the worst month, but the sun is meant to appear in July and August. They had tents up at the rec grounds with stands from different organizations and companies. Most of them were giving away free stuff (cookies, pens, chap sticks etc). Anyway, my job was to sit in the welcome tent. It wasn't very exciting but I met a lot of folk and there was a volunteers party that evening with free food and drink. I won $25 sushi voucher to spend at a place in town that has a sushi train.

Yesterday there was a massive wedding at Lake Louise (which has a big hotel at one end, a glacier at the other and is green). It was an amazingly rich guy who didn't seem too keen on getting his photo done.

Today I went to this "Back to Banff Day" at a museum and helped out at some tables with kids building stuff. I'd signed up for it at One Hot Summer.

This is me, and Laura (who works up at the Gondola - we keep bumping into each other, especially at pasta night) and Yumiko (who I met at One Hot Summer and also frequents pasta night). We didn't make the tower.

Anyway, I'm going out to play frisbee tonight. If it doesn't start to pour...

Off subject...

This yard is ruled by giant insects.

The Sheep

Hi
Today I helped John at a wedding portrait, then he took me round to Lake Minnewaka on the way back, where we met a whole herd of Rocky Mountain Sheep. Here are the pictures, including a couple John took of me.







I'll probably add some of my candid shots I've been doing. John really likes one I took today of a spiders web with a blurry figure behind it. I am getting paid to take photos! It's brilliant.

Banff 2

Hi.

I haven't posted for a while and I still haven't told you much about Banff. I better try and catch up now.

Banff is a small town, surrounded by mountains (Exhibit A)


Most people here are tourists, which is completely understandable. Banff is in a National Park so there are strict rules about expansion and who can actually live here. There are elk and chipmunks everywhere, but I haven't seen any bears yet. The weather is pretty mixed. We had a few really hot days last week, which melted a lot of snow upriver, so the Bow River, which flows right through town, has burst its banks by quite a lot.

This is a photo I took of the rapids at the Bow Falls, just out of town a wee bit.

The locals say that they've never seen the river so high.

Also going at the moment in Banff, is a bit of sewer-replacement down the main street, but since this is a tourist town they advertise it as "Banff Refreshing" and plaster the town with pictures of squirrels with paintbrushes.


That was the main street. You can see Mt. Rundle (I think) in the background.

Anyway, that's Banff described. I haven't mentioned anything that I've been doing yet, which is probably the most interesting part, but I thought I'd do some kind of background.

I last blogged a week ago, and I said something about the wedding I did where we took the couple down to Vermillion Lakes. I also mentioned that I was looking for a bike. I had no success at garage sales, because all the bikes got snapped up before I arrived. When I wanted to go down to the Vermillion lakes (to have a picnic and read) I had to go on foot. I was walking down the track when I saw a cyclist trying to take a photo of her partner, so I went up and offered to take their photo together. Then they said "Oh, it's Helen!" and I was confused for a moment, before I recognised that they were the couple whose wedding I'd just been to. They asked me if I had found a bike yet, so I guess I must have mentioned that I was looking for one, and when they came past for the second time (it was a one way track so they had to pass me again) they offered to give me a spare bike they have lying in their garage in Calgary.

So Andrew's going to pick it up for me when he can.

I did various other stuff this week, like hiking up Sulphur Mountain and getting the gondola down as part of a walking programme that's just started where you can choose what you want to do from a schedule, and meet like minded people at a certain time to do it. You also get a free frisbee. There was only one other guy who turned up for this one, and he was an Aussie travelling for a few weeks after finishing a winter job in a ski resort in Colorado.

I also went to FREE pasta night and met a few folk, and last night I went to a women's rugby club, which was kind of fun, but I can only go to practices because it's really expensive to join officially. I've been out with Becky, from nextish door and her friends (who seem to be quite lively) a couple of times, and I've met some of John and Tonya's friends, so already I'm bumping into folk whenever I go into town.Also, I've volunteered to do some videography at an event next Thursday called "One Hot Summer" (there's a battle of the bands and free food). Yoga wasn't so great though. I just got tired of taking it seriously. Still, that's $3/week saved.

I am trying to be economical at the moment because I'm only working part time. Still, I only really have to buy my own food, but there are so many different occasional expenses... Well, if I start running out of money, it is really easy to get a job around here.

John's just got wifi, so I can be online more now. I've got used to sleeping in and staying up late now. It's maybe because there are good blinds in my room. Today there were no weddings, so I worked in the office all day. Gabriela gave me an album to put together, which she's going to go over later in the week. Hopefully, I'll be going out on a shoot tomorrow though. Andrew was impressed with the second shooting I did last time, and he's going to give me 5 minutes directing the couples as well sometimes.

So, that's quite a lot of information, but there's a lot more I've left out. It's all good though. Banff is a great place and I don't feel homesick at all yet. And when or if I do, it will be easy to get over it because I feel so at home here.

Banff 1

Well I've been in Banff for three whole days now, I think. The weather's been so hot but I'm told it's not always like this. I guess I'm glad. I miss the rain.

I've been working in the studio when I'm not out on shoots - it's run by a Swiss woman called Gabriela and there's a girl called Lindsay who does all the proofing, and they are fun. I've been packaging and filing so far, but it's not bad.

I did my first wedding today, with Andrew. He's used to working on his own so I mainly helped him with the lights (they use a big portable flash unit) and in the rest of the time I could take photos using the second camera. I'll try and get the files of the ones I took, because I think they turned out pretty well. I suppose it's not suprising because the scenery does half the work for you around here. This wedding was a pretty good one I guess because the couple didn't want that many group shots so we could be creative, and the sun was out. We went to the Vermillion Lakes, which are shallow and surrounded by mountains.

So, tomorrow, I'm planning to go to a garage sale and find a cheap bike, if I can, then go to yoga at the Living Room and hopefully meet some people. Last night I went to the Living Room but it was closed so I found a free Jazz club at the Banff Centre. It wasn't great but I kind of enjoyed it. On the way up I passed by a few metres from three elk in someone's front garden.

I haven't taken any pictures with my camera since I've been here. I think that is strange. Banff is pretty but they're digging up the main road at the minute so it's congested, and there are so many tourists. I just haven't seen any shots yet. I'm thinking of doing some kind of photojournalistic project on the smaller businesses around town, because there's an issue at the minute about chain stores taking over.

I'll get some illustrations in here soon. I might take a picture of Jesse (the cat) who likes sitting on people and miaows quite a lot. Like a cat.