Souvenir Photo Studio, by Al Bourassa: June 2019

Sunday, June 30, 2019

Sunday June 30, 2019 Racing

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Sunday June 30, 2019

The surprise of the day was that Cristina got out of bed at 6am to join me and David and Irma and Wolf to watch both a 7am Moto GP race from Assen, Holland, then the Formula 1 Grand Prix race at Spielberg, Austria at 8am. The carrot for this was that we would follow this excitement to go grocery shopping at LA14…..

This was a particularly auspicious day as both races were very exciting. The bike race had many lead changes and challenges and was very thrilling. The early leader, Rins, crashed, followed later by a crash by the crowd favourite, “the Doctor” Rossi. The winner, Maverick Vinales (love that name!) had a big win for Yamaha, many years in the making. My favourite, Marquez was second. Info here:

https://www.cyclenews.com/2019/06/article/assen-motogp-results-2019/

Then the usual speed/heat/tire strategy was really evident as my guy, Charles LeClerc, had won the pole position at Spielberg and stayed in the lead until 3 laps to go. He was then bumped on a passing attempt by my most hated driver Max Verstappen (he has done this before) pushing Charles off the track to finish second as well. There was a steward’s inquiry but those spineless guys did not change the result. Dirty driving is still allowed in Formula 1 and Verstappen revels in it. Canadian driver, Lance Stroll, finished way back in the pack as usual.

Verstappen’s win was a long awaited victory for Honda motors. Stories here:

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-motor-f1-austria-idUSKCN1TV0M1

https://ca.motorsport.com/f1/news/verstappen-leclerc-verdict-win-austria/4486181/

Irma and I had German sausages and the others had German sandwiches while we watched the races. Then Cristina and I indeed go to LA 14 and load up on $100 worth of groceries. Without thinking, I bought sausages for lunch which I cooked up when we got home. There was enough to share with the dogs. Do we like good sausages,..?? You bet....

I started writing this Blog then my eyes started dropping. An hour nap with the dogs was in order. When I got up it was sprinkling outside, cooling things down nicely.

I just might get around to beginning watching the last video series that I borrowed from Miguel, Shaka Zulu. David and Irma confirm that it is pretty good.

I hope you enjoy the pictures. That was the day’s excitement.

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If you want to borrow a picture to share with family and friends, Facebook or whatever, at least PLEASE give me credit for the photo.

NOTE that you may click on any photo for an ENLARGED VIEW.

First turn, first lap, Rins in the lead

3 laps later, Rins inexplicably crashes

Rossi and Nakagami slide off hard at the back

David, Irma and Wolf in concentration

4 laps to go, the battles are fierce

Viniales on the Yamaha cruising the last lap in the lead

My guy, Marquez is in second

Maverick Viniales shows off at the wire

A big day for Maverick and Yamaha

Post-race interview with the winner

Podium for Marquez, Viniales and Quartararo

Formula 1, the first turn, LeClerc (16) in the lead

Look at all the position changes by lap 2 !

Max Verstappen is tracking down Charles LeClerc

Verstappen will increase the pressure

Verstappen is doing the fastest laps now, catching LeClerc

The gap is closing fast

Unsuccessful pass by Verstappen

LeClerc is desperately hanging on

Max intentionally swings wide to knock Charles back

I am not happy with these developments, dirty driving..

The investigation is a joke

I do not like this jerk.

Charles was visibly upset. Rightfully so.

Top 10 results

11-20 results. Canadian Stroll is 14th

Hamilton still leads for the Championship

Mercedes, with Hamilton and Bottas are tops

Saturday, June 29, 2019

Friday-Saturday June 28-29, 2019 Cube

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******

Friday-Saturday June 28-29, 2019

Friday

The dogs found a bullfrog on the sidewalk during our walk. They were pretty surprised when it jumped to a different spot and I am amazed that they didn't attack it. We have such good doggies.

Then I went back to bed and slept in. Battery recharge time.

I discussed with Cristina about ordering some photo cubes from a booth at the Tulua Dog Park. She wanted one of good photos of Christian, and I wanted one of some of my better work. I contacted JuGar Arte and found out their requirements. The cubes are 10cm, or 4 inches, square and open up a little like those paper finger pyramid thingys.....

Look for yourself...

I've never added a video before. I hope it works.
Our options were 12 square photos, or 10 square and 1 rectangular, or 8 square and 2 rectangular..... We decided to stay with the 12 square to get more bang for our buck, but that does have its drawbacks when almost all photography ends up in 2:3 or 3:4 style. So the challenge is adjusting the photo crop of rectangular photos to retain the best parts in a smaller square.

So I crop as close to square as I can then ask PhotoShop to make them 6" square exactly, and bump the print resolution to 300 dpi. They can reduce them to 4" square easily.

We had no problem deciding on 12 photos of Christian.

I took a break to watch the awful Colombia (0) -Chile (1) soccer match at 6pm and Aram came over to watch with me.

Then I began the arduous, hard-on-the-eyes task of looking through about 5,000 of my photos and picking out my favourites. Picking only 12 is impossible.... I chose about 90 photos then weeded out the ones that just couldn't be squared without losing crucial elements. That left me with about 60, which I worked on until after 1am. I literally collapsed into bed...

Saturday

Happy 23rd Anniversary Jill and Ash.

I awoke smack at 5:30 so I walked with the dogs anyway, and I did my chores, garbage day & dog poop patrol. Then I chose my initial 12 photos for my own "advertising" cube.

I contacted JuGar Arte and asked for a discount if I ordered 2 more cubes and they coughed about 9%, not bad for here. So, 4 cubes cost us 310,000 pesos or $96.24 USD. Not bad for all the work involved for cheap conversation pieces.

The next step was to compose 4 separate emails, one for each cube, and to send 12 photos with each, with instructions as to which photos we wanted on the outside of the cube (6 photos).

Then I ran to the bank to deposit the money into their account so the work could begin. They said that the cubes will be ready in about 9 days. I still have enough prepared photos for another 2 cubes....

Then I crashed for 1/2 hour with Bruna.

This morning a couple with 2 kids came by to see about adopting Samantha, and went home with the agreement that they would adopt Bruna as well on Tuesday.... The kids were gentle and loving with the dogs, and the parents seemed very responsible, so we are very happy to find such a good home for these great dogs.

After lunch we both crashed again. The batteries take longer to recharge as we age....
Then we heard from JuGar Arte with a PDF proof for the 4 blocks. They screwed up, mixing up 4 pics between 2 blocks... It looked really good otherwise. They sent a corrected PDF proof but it was corrupt. It wasn't rocket science. A few seconds ago they re-sent me the corrected proof via WhatsApp and it is perfect. I am really looking forward to getting them now.

This is a sample of my square photos

I hope you enjoyed the picture and video. That was the day’s excitement.

******

If you want to borrow a picture to share with family and friends, Facebook or whatever, at least PLEASE give me credit for the photo.

NOTE that you may click on any photo for an ENLARGED VIEW.