This is a 300mm lens that I can carry in the pocket of my jacket, and hold it with one hand when shooting. It is great for armature photographers like myself.

Lens: Pentax F 300mm f4.5; Camera: Pentax K-3

It was a cold Saturday morning — minus 20 C owing to chilled factor on the bridge near the east end of the Policemen Broad Walk, Canmore. I was able to take photos for 10 minutes before my cameras got frozen, although I have spent about an hour driving from Calgary, leaving home at 8:00 am with my wife. It was worth it to me because I will be having my eye surgery (cataract) in January. I enjoy viewing beautiful scenery.

I know exactly where to go in Canmore for good pictures, and the best time of getting there because I have been there many times. In summers I may also take a relaxing walk on the Policemen Broad Walk and then have a coffee at Tim Hortons in the town of Canmore. Today we returned to Calgary early, arriving at 11:00 am for dim sum at Ginger Beef Restaurant where Bryan, our son, joined us.

Lenses: Vivitar 13mm f2.8 & Sigma 17-70mm f2.8-4; Cameras: Pentax K-3 II & K-3

Pentax FA 77mm f1.8 Limited is one of the best lenses in Pentax family. Great for portraits, it was also great for landscape photography today from my window. Camera: Pentax K-X. The first 4 photos were taken with kit lens Pentax 18-55mm f3.5-5.6; the last 11 with Panasonic 25mm f1.4 (Camera: GX-1). Ask, we did not get; seek, we may find.

I bought this lens around 2004 ~ 5 at the time I still had my Nikkormat camera which I acquired in HK in early 1980’s. I thought that the camera would still function when I retired in 2009; I was wrong. Then I acquired Nikon D300 and later D300s. I used the later this afternoon; I found its weight a bit heavy when used in manual mode. I like the bokeh of the lens albeit sharpness is ok. The last 15 photos (mostly portraits) were taken on the next day with the circular polarizer removed, and with the Nikon D300 replaced by a Pentax K-3 camera (which issues a beep sound whenever the subject is in focus, rendering focusing a lot easier than that of Nikon) .

Lens: Pentax FA 77mm f1.8 Limited

In this album, all photos are original without digital processing except the last one. Lens: Pentax FA* 85mm f1.4

The Pentax forum reported that this is one of the sharpest lenses in Pentax family. It is very sharp (I agree) but one has to bring the lens close to the subject for still shots. The last 8 photos were taken with Minolta 50mm f1.2. Both lenses have their own unique performances and advantages. Camera: Pentax K-3. All shots were hand-held.

Panasonic G7 + Panasonic 14-42mm f3.5-5.6, indoor

The lens has been obsolete. I received it today. It looks new and hardly been used. The last 5 photos were taken with Minolta 50mm f1.2

I believe pictures speak better than words in my diary. 

Although I retired in 2009, the plan started in 2006 when my wife needed to commune back and forth every week between Fort McMurray and Calgary where the head office of her Company was located.  Her Company wanted her to join their head office team; she was bargaining for favorable terms.  Meanwhile, I requested my Company to relocate me to Calgary but was turned down.  She communed so frequent that her Company decided to offer round-trip air tickets to me for our reunion on weekends. I supposed she had accumulated a large number of flying points and hotel points in her account, and wanted me to accumulate the same, not to mention the fresh linen every visit.  I never asked for those, but I had to declare to my Company for the ‘gifts’ received from her Company.  That was one of the tedious things to do when oil price was high — more than US$100 a barrel.  The funny thing was that when the doormen at Westin or Sheraton saw me each time, they greeted me: ‘Welcome, Mr. Chan’.  I liked it, feeling possessed and honored, better for me than carrying a P. Eng. title with tons of responsibility.

After acquiring our house in Calgary in 2007, we had fun planning for furniture and things, building a new home away from home so to speak.  Happiness was having little projects planned every weekend and flying there to achieve them at expense paid not from my own pocket.  I was still working in Fort McMurray at the time.  It was a rich experience taking the 6 am commercial flight on Mondays to report for duty to a Company 800 km away.   By 2009, I had fulfilled the Rule of 80 set by my Company, which qualified me for getting a full pension. [How it worked was this: years of service + age at retirement = or greater than 80].  I pressed the button, of course, even though my Company has given me all kinds of titles like Senior Investigator in control valve failures, Control Valves Specialist, Reliability and Maintenance Advisor etc.  It was not money, not job, not age nor anything.  At certain point in life, when one considers life takes priority, he/she retires.  In my case, the little projects filled my mind when I was driving south on highway 63 with my wife.  Excuse us.

Several interesting things caught my attention in this album:

1. The trees in our backyard have grown twice in height but I have shrunk much in size.
2. I saw my pink house in Fort McMurray which I had it built in 1990 when there were only 8 houses erected in that year in the whole town.  But I don’t miss it.  Maybe the snow in my backyard haunted me. Actually, I was lucky to skip the wild fire occurred there a few years ago.
3. The early Chinese workers who helped to build the Canadian rail road literally used Chinese to capture the sound of English words. I have never thought that Chinese language could be so versatile. Many thanks to those pioneers.
4. Godfrey, my brother, from Hong Kong took part in viewing our house when David Flood, our real-estate rep, was showing it to us.  Dave has been a very good rep. However, my wife did much of the screening work for seven other houses while doing the virtual tours in Internet.  I was sleeping in Dave’s vehicle while he was driving us around.  Didn’t realize he was such a good driver or I must be a fast warmer in falling asleep.  The climax took place when we bought the house successfully on that Friday night before its open house on the next day.  There was no counter offer from the previous and the first owner who rushed back to town to sign off the deal.  Thanks to him. Don’t know where he is residing now, but we still received letters addressed to his name from time to time. The price of the deal was well within Katherine’s relocation package had paid for.  In one of the photos, you will see the leaflets describing the house were placed on a dining table.

Life can’t be better.  But sharing is a hard thing to do; it needs mood, time, thoughts, and above all, willingness and maturity to receive. Thanks to digital photography.

Camera:  Canon SD550 Powershot.