Joanne Proulx

Joanne Proulx, originally uploaded by johnwmacdonald.

Ottawa author, Joanne Proulx, was one of the featured readers tonight at The Factory Reading Series. Her debut novel, "Anthem of a Reluctant Prophet", recently has garnered prominent placement at Borders Stores in the US. More info here: www.stokumsucks.com/home.html

Blackberry Macro

Blackberry Macro, originally uploaded by johnwmacdonald.

strobist.com info:
Blackberry is lit by two sb-800's @ 1/8 power about 10 inches away from blackberry, flashes triggered by Pocket Wizards. simple white paper reflector used as well: 2 bent business cards. The blackberry sits on a white plate from the kitchen cupboard like the rest of the macros in my macro photoset.

Jean Chretien, C.C.

Jean Chretien, C.C., originally uploaded by johnwmacdonald.

The Right Honourable Jean Chrétien, P.C., C.C., Ottawa, Ontario and Shawinigan, Quebec, Companion of the Order of Canada. He was invested in to the Order of Canada on 22 February 2008 at Rideau Hall after which he was requested by the media to answer several questions, notably on the recent topic of recognizing Kosovo as an independant country.

Citation:
"Before becoming Canada’s 20th prime minister, Jean Chrétien had an active political career, holding a dozen ministerial portfolios. As justice minister, he was instrumental in repatriating the Constitution and adopting the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. As prime minister, he led the Liberal Party during three consecutive majority governments that stressed balanced budgets, national unity and Canada’s place in the world. His government’s legacy includes a number of social reform and humanitarian initiatives, such as recognition of same-sex unions and the abolition of landmines."

Blueberry Macro

Blueberry Macro, originally uploaded by johnwmacdonald.

Barbara Gowdy, C.M.

Barbara Gowdy C.M., originally uploaded by johnwmacdonald.

Barbara Gowdy, C.M., Toronto, Ontario, Member of the Order of Canada 22 February 2008 at Rideau Hall.

Citation:

"Barbara Gowdy is one of our country’s most imaginative writers, acclaimed for novels such as Mister Sandman and The White Bone as well as for short stories that have appeared in a number of anthologies. She is known for her humour, wit and the vividness of her characters. Her works have been published in 24 countries, often appearing on bestseller lists, and have been translated into many languages. She is the recipient of the Writers’ Trust of Canada’s Marian Engel Award, which recognizes a female writer for her body of work, and has been a finalist for several prominent literary awards."

Catherine Bergeron, Costco Book Buyer

Catherine Bergeron, Costco Book Buyer, originally uploaded by johnwmacdonald.

I have a photo in the latest issue of Quill & Quire, Canada's Magazine of Book News and Reviews (March 2008). It's not this particular photo of Catherine Bergeron, but one of her in front of all the books on display in the Ottawa Costco warehouse (Hunt Club Road). Catherine is considered by the magazine to be one of the "thirty people in the [Canadian] book industry who most influence what gets published, bought, and read".

Frosty

Frosty, originally uploaded by johnwmacdonald.

If winter was like this everyday then it would be much more enjoyable to slog through our cooler months of the season.

New Look

Recently, I came across a new way (at least to me) to display my photos online. I was previously using the default Flickr.com slideshow feature on my main page johnwmacdonald.com to display my photographic portfolio. It suited my needs: provided a relatively clean way for the user to go through the pics in a fairly automated way; photo info was able to be displayed; etc.

Now, I wanted to try something newer. I'm not saying it's waaaay better now, but it's different. I was looking for a change. The new page is now more akin to a portfolio as if you had a hard copy in your hands. You can now zoom in for a closer look. Go to a full page on your monitor. There are several other different options, too. I think it's pretty intuitive to use as well.

However, behind the scenes, it took me much of today to tweak the design to make it functional. Bloody html framesets! The design is based on the website issuu.com (pronounced 'issue'). They provide the basic elements in order to display your custom-made PDF files. Basically, it required that I create a document with all my photos, each on a separate page, in this case a MS Word doc. The next step was to convert (save it) as a PDF file. This conversion, in turn, was accomplished by a free program (http://www.primopdf.com/) which I had to download.

Once I had a PDF file, it had to be uploaded to issuu.com (you have to register first with this site). Once this is done you have the option to embed this html code necessary to display it where ever you want, be it in blogger.com, facebook.com, myspace or on your own website. I chose to display it on my main index page. That's the easy part. The difficult part is tweaking the code to make it operational on one's site. Again, bloody framesets...and MS FrontPage. Anyhow, after a few false leads and broken links that were fixed it all seems to work. Hope it works for you, too.

This is just the mini viewer. To see what the large version looks like, you have to click on over to my main page, www.johwmacdonald.com.

Beaumont Newhall

Beaumont Newhall on the the history of photography

Myles Goodwyn of April Wine

Myles Goodwyn of April Wine, originally uploaded by johnwmacdonald.

Myles Goodwyn is the only orignal member of April Wine when it was created in 1969. I have been a huge fan of April Wine since the 1981 release of The Nature of the Beast album. It was absolutely amazing to photograph the band in concert when they played at Ottawa's Winterlude, 16 February 2008. Check out their web site www.aprilwine.ca for some of their great music.

Brian Greenway of April Wine

Brian Greenway of April Wine, originally uploaded by johnwmacdonald.

Back when I lived in Montreal, Brian Greenway of April Wine allegedly lived down the street from me in the Summit House apartment building. As kids we all looked at his car and reverently said, "Hey! Cool, that's Brian Greenway's car..." I never actually saw him, though. Makes a good story anyway.

However, I remember once seeing drummer, Jerry Mercer in the Consumers Distributing catalogue store on Sources Boulevard buying a gold chain. I think that was in 1985 or 1986. That's not an exciting story though. Sorry.

Barbara Gowdy, C.M.

Barbara Gowdy, C.M. Toronto, Ontario --Member of the Order of Canada
Citation:
"Barbara Gowdy is one of our country’s most imaginative writers, acclaimed for novels such as Mister Sandman and The White Bone as well as for short stories that have appeared in a number of anthologies. She is known for her humour, wit and the vividness of her characters. Her works have been published in 24 countries, often appearing on bestseller lists, and have been translated into many languages. She is the recipient of the Writers’ Trust of Canada’s Marian Engel Award, which recognizes a female writer for her body of work, and has been a finalist for several prominent literary awards."

Jerry Mercer of April Wine

Jerry Mercer of April Wine, originally uploaded by johnwmacdonald.

April Wine

April Wine, originally uploaded by johnwmacdonald.

I have been a huge fan of April Wine since the 1981 release of The Nature of the Beast album. It was absolutely amazing to photograph the band in concert when they played at Ottawa's Winterlude last evening 16 February 2008. Check out their web site http://www.aprilwine.ca/ for some of their music.

Joel Plaskett Emergency

Joel Plaskett Emergency, originally uploaded by johnwmacdonald.

Recent ECMA award winner Joel Plaskett Emergency band played at Ottawa's Winterlude 15 February 2008.

The Little, Brown Reader 11th ed.

The Little, Brown Reader 11th ed., originally uploaded by johnwmacdonald.

I just recently saw the newest edition of "The Little, Brown Reader" on Amazon.com where I have a photo of Canadian author Anar Ali on the cover (Bottom left).

www.amazon.com/Little-Brown-Reader-Marcia-Stubbs/dp/02055...

Mary Condren

Mary Condren , originally uploaded by johnwmacdonald.

Mary Condren read in Ottawa 8 February 2008.

From the OIWF online bio
AN EVENING WITH DR. MARY CONDREN
At St. Brigid's Centre for the Arts and Humanities
(St. Patrick at Cumberland)
$20 General Admission / Free for Festival Members

Dr. Mary Condren is a pioneer in the renaissance of Celtic Mythology. Her revolutionary work, The Serpent and the Goddess: Women, Religion and Power in Celtic Ireland, is a landmark in the study of world culture. In our reimagination of the world Dr. Condren suggests a way forward that acknowledges the past and embraces the new millennium. Power, sexuality and economics are forever entwined in our contemporary narrative. Join us in a celebration of life and an evening of widening rings of being.

Presented by St. Brigid's Centre for the Arts and Humanities with the support of the Writers Festival, Carleton University's College of the Humanities-Religion, and Ottawa University's Department of Classics and Religious Studies and Faculty of Arts.

Sandy Campbell

Sandy Campbell, originally uploaded by johnwmacdonald.

Sandy Campbell is one of a duo of bagpipers of The Campbell Brothers. www.campbellbrothers.ca

They are performing in Ottawa for Winterlude (Fridays and Saturdays, 7 pm)
Awesome stuff! Definitely not your your grandma's kind of piping.

kite

kite, originally uploaded by johnwmacdonald.

Happy Birthday, James