McGillveray Studios

The Roselawn Motel in Wolfville, NS

Every once in a while you find a place you just like. The sum of the parts is greater than the whole. Such is with the Roselawn Motel in Wolfville, Nova Scotia. Wolfville is the home of Acadia University, and makes this an interesting place to be.

The Roselawn is not layed out in a row like most motels, but separate cabins and multi room units. The units are scattered around in rows and some randomly, giving a homey atmosphere. There is a swimming pool, a tennis court, and a slide and swings for the kids, so there is something for all. The staff is very friendly and helpful, giving you answers to your questions about the area. They even have a clock calculator for the tides of the Bay of Fundy in the office.  One little thing that was neat is that you get two packages each of regular and decaff coffee. Good idea as I bet most people only use one, but you have two if you want. Probably does not cost them much more. The coffee makers have a clock built in so you can set it to have your coffee ready when you wake. They only charge for the number of people staying, I was traveling alone so payed $85 a night with 2 people it is $95, the first time I got a break for that. They have WiFi, a laundromat,barbecues and all the usual stuff.

Get there early to get a room though as most rooms are rented by the month.

Yes I would recommend this place to a friend.

Here is a Link to there web site.

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Downtown Charlottetown

Here is a few shots of PEI taken during the few wonderful days I spent there. The people were great,  fun to talk to and very friendly. I ended up with lots of shots of churches, as they used the red sandstone from the island to build them, and they show the age of the island. The island is one huge holiday resort. Even ran into a guy that said there was a couple of jobs there for me, though $15 an hour less than BC. It is an easy going place.

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Peggy’s Cove, Nova Scotia

Well on my 4th day of my Maritime Provinces tour I finally posted some pictures to see. It has been a great trip so far. Of course the people have been great. All that is said about the Maritimers is true. They a a very friendly bunch and just laid back, with time to talk to you. It has been fun comparing the West and East coasts, how they differ and how they are the same. It is hard to say which is more beautiful as they both have sights to behold.

These pictures include Halifax, Halifax Citadel National Historic Site of Canada and Peggy’s Cove. These links will provide you with all the info. It is not worth it to re-invent the wheel.

I am on PEI right now and had a great time last night listening to live bands and talking to the natives(and other tourists).

Well it is a fine day out there and I must get outside and explore.

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The Fishing Family

This is a video of a sow and her two cubs getting their lunch in the Else River near Terrace B.C.  It was shot by Jason Paradis, the brother of Marc Paradis, who I have worked with for the last 10 years. The two of them were on a fishing trip together. This is the first time I posted content that was not taken by me, but this is a cute video. At the start the sow has a salmon and is enjoying it. Near the end she gets another salmon and carries it away. It is 5:55 minutes long.

Fraser Valley3 copy-1, originally uploaded by Photo Mark.

This is a shot of a side stream of Fraser River taken just off  the Trans Canada near Chilliwack. It is not a HDR image. It is done by blending layers in Photoshop. If you copy the background layer and set the blending mode to multiply, it darkens the picture by 1 stop. You then mask the layer and paint out the mask where you want the picture to be darker. If you copy the background layer and set the blending mode to lighten or screen (to taste) you lighten the image. You then mask the layer and paint out the mask where you want the picture to be lighter. This, I think works better than dodging and burning as there is no colour shifts.

Whiskey Creek, originally uploaded by Photo Mark.

Whiskey Creek near Port Alberni on Vancouver Island.

I took this with my Canon G9 and just straight RAW processing in Lightroom.

Publishing from Flickr to my blog is interesting as you almost get your photos two places at once but it does not trigger at my RSS feeds vi a plugin and I have to put keywords in my blog anyways. Then I have to republish it to trigger the feeds.

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