tim’s thought property

My paycheck was supposed to be in my hand on Friday. I went to work, on my day off, with Marc, to get it. When we walked in, at 12:30, I was told that the cheques should arrive by noon. So, Marc and I went outside to decide what to do. You see, I had planned to get my cheque, cash it at the bank and get back to my end of town. I also planned to have a car. As it so happened, Marc was driving, and he had to prepare songs for a show. Ultimately, we had a limited time frame with which to work.

Marc and I returned two other times, about hourly. The third time, I left Marc’s cellphone number with the explicit instructions to call on arrival of the cheques. We went on to buy our Broken Social Scene tickets at Into the Music. Now, I had no money to do so, so Marc was going to cover it. We were told that cash could only be used, and the tickets were $24 even. The clerk put the two tickets on the counter, then Marc payed. For his. He had only enough cash for himself. I didn’t know this until I pocketed the ticket, and have the clerk ask ever so politely “Did you pay for that?” Man, was I ever embarrassed, and the clerk tried not to make a deal out of it. He told me where there were ATMs in the Exchange, and so we found one which gave me almost the last of my savings. I returned to pay for the ticket which I had so eagerly assumed already was.

On Saturday, Tim and I went out for breakfast with Tim [Froese] our old Drama teacher turned recent sculptor. We caught up over a diner meal, then saw his workshop. We were in the West End, near my work, so we went to check for the cheque. I was given this wonderful information - the plane bound from Seattle with the cheques, landed in Ontario by mistake! On it’s way out it was grounded due to a fog patch, so it wouldn’t get to Manitoba until Monday. If I needed, the store could give me an emergency cash out. I didn’t need it, but I was running on empty. Luckily, I did get paid by Gill and Josh, so I was subdued for the time-being.

Today, I went back to work, for my shift, and I was asked if I had gotten my money yet. I said I would pick it up today. Then, I was told another interesting piece of information - the supervisor on Friday was someone who isn’t normally at our store; and they had put the cheques in the safe, where no one thought to look. So, the money was always closer than we’d ever thought. In essence, I could have had it on payday.
I was irritated at the lending I needed to get by the weekend, since I really had money, but since it wasn’t in my bank account, I couldn’t use it. I would have much rather had it where it ought to have been. But all in all, the entire situation was quite funny. The story about the fog was interesting, I wonder if it really did happen.

Today brings a little bit of closure to my stint as a Wedding Photographer. (please read here, if you didn’t know) I had a week and a few days to adjust and fiddle with the photographs, send them in for development, reprint different sizes, and finally present the newlyweds, Gill and Josh, with their bouquet of memories.
Of all the pictures I took, here are a few of which I am particularly fond of.

This one was a really straightforward picture to work with, and it was one of those shots that I had almost forgot to take. As it turned out, its simplicity had made it all the more captivating to look at. I think it’s one of my favourites from the day.

The foliage turned out to be coming along just right that day. We had planned to do a couple of shots in with the leaves, and luckily, the weather was great and the yard was large enough to have a copse of trees.

Now, again, the restraint of colours and the highlighting of the groomsmens outfits really made this picture worthwhile. Having it colour made the sweaters seem less bright, having no colour took out any real life it had. So, merge the two, and the outcome was this.

This one was a preparation shot of the bride, Gill, and I thought it would look better, if some of the elements were removed. So I proceeded to isolate the coloured flowers, with a bit of painstaking time at the computer, and lo and behold! something creative was made.

Gill’s dad had an old truck set up, with which all the Wedding Party shots took place. The whole group was quite co-operative and easy to work with. Gill and Josh were the most easy-going people to take pictures with. We all shared ideas of what to do, and everything worked out like a dream.

This whole experience was good for me. It challenged my abilities and gave me more of chance to see what I am capable of. The very night I took the photos, I looked through them and could already see areas to improve, and have thoughts generate as to what else could be done for a Wedding. It was a stressful day, don’t get me wrong, but I think that I could be able to do even better in the future. But, know this: I do not want to become a Wedding Photographer, just someone who can take some decent Wedding Photos.

I have been starting to, or trying to at least, get back into reading. For too long I’ve neglected to read, and when I have it’s been contemporary fiction (as in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, which I finished last week at the completion of a four-day read), which is good and entertaining, but it leaves me desiring more.

I’ve been given a copy of Bono: In Conversation with Michka Assayas for my birthday, which I have yet to read. At the time, I was planning to finish reading what I had started, in this case, The Bible; but that didn’t happen. In fact, I’m still reading the book of Isaiah, in which my momentum and pace had all but came to a halt. So as a result, I’ve not yet begun to read Bono, but have started other books.

I have also purchased and begun reading Fights of our Lives by John Duffy; a historical recounting of the five most influential elections in Canada’s history. Duffy chose the five that have altered the political landscape and mindset of the government, which he goes on to explain in greater detail. The book is more or less a textbook. There you go. I’m reading a textbook.

As you may have seen the post previous, I am re-reading Dante Alighieri’s Divine Comedy, a fictitious work of Italian poetry, where Dante himself takes a journey through Hell, Purgatory and Heaven. Now, he was exiled from his city of Florence, back in the 14th century, and I can’t remember if it was before or after this book. It is a great work of imagination, however. And the illustrations by Gustave Doré are phenomenal.

On that same tangent, I purchased John Milton’s Paradise Lost, the other day. This is another epic Christian poem, about the Fall of Satan and his torment and the bringing of the Fall of Man. This copy is also illustrated by Doré, and was only $20 at Chapters. All the more compelling to buy, you’d figure.

So there is my current shortlist of to-reads. And the more I pass by bookshelves in the Chapters, and the more I visit the book stores in the Exchange, I keep telling myself - “Construct a Book List. You have a CD list, and it has helped you prioritize. This can only help in the long run.” Well, that’s what my logical side says.

Said she [Rachel]: “Oh Beatrice, true praise of God,
Why not assist this man whose love for you
Is such that he has left the vulgar throng?
Can you not hear the anguish in his cry?
Can you not see the death that threatens him
Above that stream that flows not to the sea?
“Never on earth was anyone so swift
To seek his good or shun his ill, as I-
The moment that these words had been pronounced-
Came hither, downward from my blessed seat,
Relying on the power of your word,
Which honours you, as well as those that hear it”
And after she [Lucia] had spoken to me thus,
She wept, and turned on me her radiant eyes,
Whereby she made me still more quick to go:
And so I came to you, as she had wished,
And took you before the savage beast
That blocked your passage up the mountainside,
Therefore, what troubles you? Why hesitate?
Why is your heart oppresed by cowardice,
Why do you lack in courage and in zeal
When three such blessed women there on high
Now plead your cause before the court of heaven,
And I myself prophesy such good?”
As flowers bent down and closed by frost off night,
When brightened later by the morning sun
Stand upright on their stems, with pedals wide:
Just so I stiffened my exhausted spirit.
An ardor so benign suffused my heart
That I began to speak like one set free:
“How full of pity, she who succored me!
How kind are you, so swiftly to obey
The words of truth that she addressed to you!
For by your arguments you have disposed
My heart to such eagerness to go
That to my first intent I have returned.
Lead on! May one sole will inspire us both:
Be you my leader, you my lord and master!”
Thus I did speak; and after he had moved,
I entered on the roadway deep and wild.

The Divine Comedy: Inferno: Canto 2
Virgil recounting to Dante his commision to bring him to Beatrice

On Saturday, I was able to attend the wedding of some friends of mine, Gillian Sarna and Josh Parry. But I guess now, they are the Parrys, legally. For me this was the first of many things.
It was the first wedding I was invited to that hasn’t been a family relative. For a time, there was a period of three years in which my older cousins were getting married, every six months or so, another wedding would take place, and the ranks of single cousins diminished and the couples swelled. Being on the youngest end of the family chain on my Dad’s side, it is only a matter of time until it would be my turn. With twenty first cousins, and thirteen married, the time is coming where we will see each other at family reunions. Wow. That was a detraction.

Moving on, it was the first time I have been asked to be a Wedding Photographer. I’ve done some wedding “sort-ofs” for cousins, in which I was asked to take pictures at the reception, and of the cousins that I’m playing with. Yet Gill and Josh wanted me to do their entire day. The Ceremony, the Wedding Party shots, The Reception. It was a bit of an overwhelming call at first. Yet everyone kept encouraging me and telling me I’d do fine. I did, in the end. I was under the stress of getting it right, and only having one chance to do it. There are enormous amounts of pressure involved. Originally, I was going to have a certain American friend help me out with it all, since she has a photography background, but a certain border decided not to let her through. I ended up having one of Gill’s cousins help out.

This wedding was the first that I’ve been to where the couple has been my age. I have now started down that path where young people lament at the notion of being married young. Now, I believe that Gill and Josh are very well suited for one another and they do have a strong love for each other. From a person who isn’t married, the mindset is normally:
“Oh, so-and-so got married? Well I’m their age, what do they have together that I do not? Would I even be ready for marriage? I think not! So how come they’re married and I am not? What do I lack? Will I be an old-maid/old-hermit for ever? Oh, why, oh why has it to be this way? Alas!”
That is the normal mindset of anyone unmarried that I have come across. Hands down.

The wedding was a great wedding. It was held in Gill’s backyard, in a large tent. The ceremony and reception were there too. We took pictures further back in their yard, on a large old truck, decorated for the day. It was a long day, but it was enjoyable. And now Mr. and Mrs. Parry (boy that sounds weird to call Gill a “Mrs.”) are off in Quebec, where they are visiting his side of the family. In a week and a half, I will be meeting with them to give them their pictures.

And that will be another first. To be paid for taking pictures.