Another Restoration Project

A challenging project

This was a real challenge.  This is my first run at it.  Have saved the original so will try again when I have developed more skills.

Learning a little more about retouching

Recently visited the small town of Myrnam, Alberta. 

First photo - very light enhancement - a little cropping and lighting adjustment.

Ukrainian Catholic Church with its baby

 Second photo: mostly enhanced with tone mapping - brought out textures.

Former Ford dealership converted to diner and small engine repair shop

Third photo: the most enhancement of the three - adding some vibrancy to the greens provides thematic unity to the photo (I think)

Few of these grain elevators left - once a prairie icon

A more ambitious project below gets more into restoration than enhancment.  

Before                         and                         After

Tax the [other] Rich

Archbishop Rowan Williams has called for new taxes on financial transactions as part of his support for the objectives of the "Occupy Movement". 
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/religion/8863794/Archbishop-of-Canterbury-Rowan-Williams-calls-for-new-tax-on-bankers.html

Since before the Pharaohs and their priests convinced the population to bring in their grain so that the "leaders" could protect "the people" from possible future famine, there has been a symbiotic relationship between political and religious rulers.  The religious elite have helped the political rulers maintain power by diverting public indignation over harsh conditions (say, a famine) by promising a better life in "the next world". [The "pie in the sky" argument, to quote Joe Hill's famous 1911 song.]

 

Long-haired preachers come out every night,

Try to tell you what's wrong and what's right;

But when asked how 'bout something to eat

They will answer in voices so sweet

Chorus

You will eat, bye and bye,

In that glorious land above the sky;

Work and pray, live on hay,

You'll get pie in the sky when you die

Rowan Williams is risking departing from that mutually beneficial grift by "advising" the political leaders to introduce new taxes on the sale of shares, bonds and foreign currency.  Now most people know that any new taxes are immediately passed on to the less powerful - in this case by the "bankers" to ordinary folk who are either direct or indirect investors.  [Indirect via pension funds, mutual funds, etc. who would recover the taxes by charging higher fees and thus delivering smaller returns to those investors.]

More interesting perhaps is whether Williams will suggest that his and other churches should start paying their own fair share of taxes. There is still a lot of untaxed church land around, churches get other generous tax exemptions, and are secretive about their own financial statements.  One wonders, for example, what Williams income is, how much tax does he pay, how many untaxed benefits does he enjoy.  [For example, who paid for Williams recent tour of Africa where, among other things, he had a "meeting" with notorious Zimbabwe dictator Robert Mugabe.]

As "churches" increasingly become proxies for political positions, and societies in most countries become increasingly secular, perhaps it's time to end the anachronistic "religious" exemptions and have everyone, including Williams, pay their share.



Try Putting Them Behind You

Years ago, I attended quite a few Edmonoton Eskimo football games. It seemed that at every game I had the misfortune to have some loud people sitting right behind me with the loudest explaining the rules of Canadian football to his dizzy, although loud, girlfriend. The frustrating part was that as likely as not what loudmouth explained to his vicinity was WRONG. For lack of accurate knowledge of the rules, he substituted volume and exuberance. Eventually I stopped going to football games and the loudmouth and WRONG explantions retreated into a distant, although still uncomfortable memory. I thought that experience had all been confined to the distant past until the other evening when our family attended an evening of performances by Canada's National Ballet. Since the Ballet was celebrating their 60th Anniversary, they staged four mini-performances. The first and last were quite modern and experimental, the second was quite traditional ballet danced to some studies by Chopin. The third was another non-traditional - with four dancers in western costume, including cowboy boots, dancing to a medley of late recordings by Johnny Cash (including the Alberta favourite - Ian Tyson's, Four Strong Winds). By the time we were into the first of the four performances - the immoderately loud voices of a couple seated right behind us were intruding on my enjoyment and bringing back memories of those painful old football games. The husband of the couple was taking the attitude of being the expert and explaining to his wife (I assume) that the second performance would be The Man in Black (i.e. Johnny Cash), even though the program clearly showed differently. When the curtain rose and a man in black tie and tails was seated at the grand piano ready to play the Chopin etudes, the "expert" decided to bluff his way through and assured his wife "There's the man in black!". When, in due course, the third performance took place, the actual Man in Black piece - four energetic dancers, three male and one female, responded to several recordings of Johnny Cash singing a range of well known songs popularized by others - covers as they are called. One male dancer was particularly energetic in leaping and prancing. When the dance ended and the performers were taking their bows, the "expert" opined loudly that the most energetic male dancer was especially good. The "wife" quizzed in a loud voice, "Was he the one that was singing the whole time?". I will never be able to enjoy ballet again without thinking of her. At least, though, they didn't jump up and spill their beer on me, although, maybe next time.

Learning Photo Restoration

We had this photo in the Leech family papers. (top)  I tinkered with it in Corel Paintshop Photo ProX3 and was rather pleased with the effect I achieved. (bottom)

Pelicans

Each summer we are pleased to see some white pelicans making use of our little lake here in Sherwood Park.  Summer 2011 (if we can use the term "summer" liberally) has been especially rewarding.  We have seen up to 15 pelicans at one time, and seeing them swooping in on their huge wings, and then floating across the lake like so many paddle boats, is a real pleasure. 



Still a hewer of wood

I once was introduced to Arthur Lower, one of the more prominent Canadian historians of the first half of the 20th Century.  He was long retired but meeting him was a moment akin to today's junior hockey player being introduced to, say, Bobby Orr - someone you knew of as a big name but never imagined encountering directly.
One Lower work I admired was Great Britain's Woodyard, which I found an engrossing explication of how the British North American colonies failed to benefit from the sudden emergence of a new major industry - forestry.  The boom was precipitated largely by the French Revolutionary, and more particularly, the Napoleonic Wars, in Europe.  Britain at the time, still largely in the thrall of mercantilist economic theory, insisted that BNA export only primary product, squared timber for the most part.  Proto-Canadians had seasonal jobs in the bush, but capital accumulation occurred in the United Kingdom and the United States. [Americans owned some of the forestry companies.]
So it was a sobering deja vu when I read a recent article about increasing Canadian lumber sales to China.  A full two centuries later, and there they were - squared timber and rough logs arriving in China. 

How little we have learned.  How colonial we remain.