Saturday, April 29, 2006


One of the shots I took of the Toronto Police Mounted unit last week. Just a first draft. Haven't figured out which of the zillion I took look the best yet. You can't tell from this tiny low res version but the faces are clear as a bell and surprisingly not in too deep shadow, which when you factor in that it was midday under a blinding sun is some kind of photographic miracle.  Posted by Picasa

Wednesday, April 26, 2006


Was flying past the unit today... ;-) Posted by Picasa

Monday, April 24, 2006


Not one of my pics, but a cute one I couldn't resist posting. Sgt Arlene Fritz with the Brisbane School choir at the Rogers Centre. Posted by Picasa

Someone getting a little lesson about how to tell a puddle from a hole in the ground. It took some convincing. Posted by Picasa

I found an imp hiding in the columns of the palace. Posted by Picasa

Saturday, April 22, 2006


Outtakes from the Thomas Cook ad campaign we did last month. Check it out cross-Canada. Posted by Picasa

Mick's birthday card/poster

The text is her favourite "song".

Lyrics to "Everybody is free to wear sunscreen"
by Baz Luhrman

Ladies and Gentlemen of the class of '97,

Wear sunscreen. If I could offer you only one tip for the future, sunscreen would be it. The long term
benefits of sunscreen have been proved by scientists, whereas the rest of my advice has no basis or
reliable then my own meandering experience. I will dispense this advice....now.

Enjoy the power and beauty of your youth. Oh, nevermind, you won't understand the power and
beauty of your youth until they've faded, but trust me in 20 years, you'll look back at photos of
yourself and recall in a way you can't grasp now how much possibility lay before you and how fabulous
you really looked. You are not as fat as you imagine.

Don't worry about the future, or worry, but know that worrying is as effective as trying to solve an algebra
equation by chewing bubblegum.

The real troubles in your life are apt to be things that never crossed your worried mind: the kind that blindsides
you at 4pm on some idle Tuesday.

Do one thing every day that scares you.

Sing.

Don't be reckless with other people's hearts; don't put up with people who are reckless with yours.

Floss.

Don't waste your time on jealousy. Sometimes you're ahead, sometimes you're behind. The race is
long, and in the end, it's only with yourself.

Remember compliments you receive; forget the insults. (if you succeed in doing this, tell me how).

Keep your old love letters; throw away your old bank statements.

Stretch.

Don't feel guilty if you don't know what you want to do with your life. The most interesting people
I know didn't know at 22 what they wanted to do with their lives; some of the most interesting 40 year
olds I know still don't.

Get plenty of Calcium. Be kind to your knees -- you'll miss them when they're gone.

Maybe you'll marry, maybe you won't. Maybe you'll have children, maybe you won't. Maybe you'll
divorce at 40; maybe you'll dance the funky chicken on your 75th wedding anniversary.

Whatever you do, don't congratulate yourself too much or berate yourself, either. Your choices are half
chance, so are everybody else's.

Enjoy your body: use it every way you can. Don't be afraid of it or what other people think of it; it's the
greatest instrument you'll ever own.

Dance...even if you have no where to do it but in your own living room.

Read the directions (even if you don't follow them).

Do not read beauty magazines; they will only make you feel ugly.

Get to know your parents; you never know when they'll be gone for good.

Be nice to your siblings: they're your best link to your past and the people most likely to stick with you in
the future.

Understand that friends come and go, but what a precious few should hold on. Work hard to bridge the gaps
and geography and lifestyle, because the older you get, the more you need the people you knew when you
were young.

Live in New York City once, but leave before it makes you hard.

Live in Northern California once, but leave before it makes you soft.

Travel.

Accept certain inalienable truths: prices will rise, politicians will philander, you too will get old; and when you
do, you'll fantasize that when you were young, prices were reasonable, politicians were noble, and children
respected their elders.

Respect your elders.

Don't expect anyone else to support you. Maybe you have a trust fund, maybe you'll have a wealthy spouse,
but you never know when either one might run out.

Don't mess too much with your hair or by the time you are 40, it will look 85.

Be careful whose advice you buy, but be patient with those who supply it. Advice is a form of nostalgia;
dispensing it is a way of wishing the past from the disposal--wiping it off, painting over the ugly parts, and
recycling it for more than it's worth.

But trust me, I'm the sunscreen.

 Posted by Picasa

the look Posted by Picasa

Sky-catcher contraption Posted by Picasa

Just remembering the coyote we saw in Feb. Posted by Picasa

Colonel Sam Smith park, not spring quite yet, the saplings in their beaver girdles. Posted by Picasa

Jeannie, impromptu capture. The wall was there, the amazing light was there, I forced her into it, I had to use that incredible blue wall. Posted by Picasa

Jeannie in Montreal, who is actually from San Francisco. Posted by Picasa

Eddie, with his insouciant smile and sweet character. Posted by Picasa

Good old Boot, always good for a laugh. Posted by Picasa

Lincoln, with the twelve inch tongue. Posted by Picasa

Elvis, a sweetie. Posted by Picasa

Royal, with nerves of steel. Posted by Picasa

Keith, the independent thinker and rascal. Posted by Picasa

Not sure who this is, one of the new horses. Hussar? Tecumseh? Aha, it's Vimy Ridge. Posted by Picasa

Spencer, who should have been in the movies, with his best Anthony Quinn impression. Posted by Picasa

Thursday, April 20, 2006


My ex mum-in-law Minnie was written up today in "Lives Lived" in the Globe and Mail. 

LIVES LIVED

Lillian Elizabeth (Min) Baughn

DAVID BAUGHN

Wife, mother. Born March 17, 1925, in London, England. Presumed drowned in Westgate-on-sea, Kent, England, as of Oct. 20, 2005, aged 80.

Min was the youngest of eight children born to Jack and Louisa Reddin. Her dad was a bookmaker when that occupation was illegal and his nickname -- Black Jack Reddin -- hinted at darker deeds.

During the war the East End of London took most of the bombing and the Reddins were bombed out twice. Min was sent to join the Land Army where she drove tractors and horse-drawn equipment on farms and learned to ride. She met an American officer and almost became a war bride. (Min once said that she should have married that American soldier, ". . . in which case you horrible lot would never had been born.")

Back in London at war's end she met Dave, a young man who had spent the war on the streets with a gang of thieves "liberating" scrap metal. They fell in love, Min got pregnant and was sent away but returned to marry Dave and have the baby, my brother, Nick, born in 1946. Min's family disowned her. In 1948, second son David came along. We lived in poverty; one cheap room and little food in a landscape of smashed buildings.

Min was the sun around which Dave revolved, his recklessness and imagination, compassion and comedy encompassing all around him. He created for his sons a glorious, magical and Pythonesque carnival of an upbringing; Min was the damage-control officer when it would invariably fall apart. Liberating scrap metal and other useful stuff, and poaching fish and fowl for Sunday dinner were all part of the fun along with food fights and kippers under the pillows. Collapsing with laughter was a constant theme of our childhood. When I was about 10, the Jehovah's Witnesses came to the door. Min and Dave greeted them, she in curlers and bathrobe and he in a long-tailed white shirt barely concealing his privates, cigarette dangling from his mouth. Nick and I looked on. The witnesses spoke and then Dave held up his hand. He said to the visitors: "Look mate, in this house we are sun worshippers, and it's raining now, so piss off."

Min was christened "Spotty Minnie Bannister" by her husband and sons after the character of the same name in BBC Radio's The Goon Show. She carried the moniker her whole life, never going back to the more dignified Lillian.

When their sons grew up, Min and Dave retired and moved to Dorset and bestowed upon their grandchildren much of the same gift of irreverence and silliness. Min and Dave travelled to Canada often where they made many friends and all who came in contact with them have strong memories. They had struggled for most of their lives, sometimes winning and sometimes losing, but they laughed at it all and loved their family well.

Min soldiered on after Dave died in 1993, taking great pleasure in her grandchildren and great-grandchildren. She continued to visit Canada often and travelled in Northern Ontario with her Canadian family; she fell in love with Manitoulin Island. She made many friends here and her sharp observations of the human condition and often deadly sense of humour will be sadly missed.

As Min grew older her body deteriorated and she said that when her quality of life became unacceptable she would end her life as she saw fit. Her chosen method was to walk into the sea and float away and after one aborted attempt when she said that the water was just too cold, she did indeed . . . just float away.

I understand now that it was not the betrayal of her body that caused her to take her own life, it was the loss of Dave.

David is Min's son.


Posted by Picasa

Sunday, April 16, 2006

Christopher Keith


Chris Keith was Senior Vice-President and Chief Technology Officer at the New York Stock Exchange, senior Planning/Development Officer at the Security Industry Automation Corporation (SIAC), responsible for well-known automation products, such as Common Message Switch, DOT, Consolidated Tape & Quote, MDS (NYSE and American Stock Exchange), PERS, Automated Bond Systems, and ITS.

He founded and was Chief Executive of DNS, the financial communication service arm of ADP, Inc. He was also the original Chief Technologist of Wit Capital (Nasdaq: WITC). Mr. Keith's accomplishments have been noted in numerous publications including; Trading and Technology, Red Herring, Wall Street Journal, Yahoo! News, CNNfn, and Securities Industry News, among others. Mr. Keith holds a BA from Stanford University and completed graduate work at Swarthmore and MIT.

In other words, he's brilliant. He has at least one patentable idea a day and he's at the age where most men would be satisfied to sit on their laurels and play golf. He's still putting in twelve hour days, inventing things.

I'm proud to be his friend.


Originally uploaded by torontofotobug.

Wednesday, April 12, 2006


P.C. Kevin Bradfield accepted an "Animal Hero" medal that was awarded to Brigadier by the Humane Society of Canada. Posted by Picasa

Looking smart Posted by Picasa

The moment of relief after the "charge" formation. ;-) Posted by Picasa