PS9 - Bedford

A part of me wants to get all sarcastic here - I mean, I have nothing against Bedford, but I did go to school here for seven years, an traumatic experience at the best of times. But maybe I'll take the high road now.

Admiral DeWolfe Park at the bottom of Bedford's Convoy Run. Across the basin you can see some very expensive houses and "cottages."

Here's a typical Bedford residential complex. I think it's a little drafty, but then I guess if you've paid $300,000 to live someplace, you tend to stick up for your dwelling.

The twin cities of Halifax (right) and Dartmouth (left), seen from atop a hill.

The cities again, this time from down in DeWolfe Park. This image is serving as my desktop wallpaper as I assemble PS9.

Here's a typical newer Bedford neighbourhood. This particular area is known as "Basinview."

This is one of the more expensive Basinview views, no doubt.

These two pictures were taken after some rain, and a lot of mist was still in the air, significantly reducing the visibility. I was amazed that the harbour, the bridges, and the twin cities had become completely invisible.

Holy cow! I'm sure nobody wants you to see this! Despite being hidden well away from prying eyes, I did manage to infiltrate and photograph this secret enemy installation. What they actually do down there, I don't know. Generating preps from raw sewage for which to populate the high schools would be my guess.

"And here's the tracks behind the enemy installation, 007. It was all 009 could photograph and transmit before he was captured. You must someho- Augh! Aaaa! No, please, I- <static>"

The school I attended for Grades VIII-IX. An awful awful awful place to go, at least from my experience. Of course, going through Hell also makes for a good story. (Just substitute "William" in place of "Joey.")

This curve is where I lost control of my mother's 1988 American Motors Jeep Wagoneer Limited in December 2001. Read more from the e-mail excerpt below:

The weather wasn't great on Sunday. I ran into a electric pole and destroyed the Wagoneer. I'm fine, but the rig is a write off as the frame is bent. I was going a reasonable speed (40 km/h, somewhat less by the time of impact - and going uphill!), but the Jeep decided that it wanted to go off the road. I should have known from before that the 4wd on the thing coudln't be trusted - it's gotten me very very close to serious trouble many times before. I lose control of the vehicle at the oddest times - usually when travelling slowly going straight. It is somewhat my fault - the worst part is that I didn't even have to be on that street! Well, at least I'm fine, but the sad part is that when I was going "NOOOOO! I'm gonna go over the curb! NOOOOOOOOOO!!! I'm gonna hit the - BOOM," I was really only thinking of the bloody vehicle. "Oh, no, the insurance!" and all that, even as my head smacked the wheel, destroying my glasses. Fortunately, they're still under warranty, so I'll be getting new frames of the same type. It took great effort for me to stop being a drama queen about the vehicle when the fire department arrived.

If I wasn't wearing a seatbelt, I imagine I might have been incapacitated. If I was speeding, the same. If I was doing both, I'd be dead. Anyway, I'm grateful that I'm okay, and I'll take down the lesson to ALWAYS travel by the most obvious (ie: salted) route in the winter.

A note to add to this, I was really only worried about what my mother would think. Had it been my vehicle I would have been pissed off at myself, but I doubt that I would have been crying.

The exact pole I became acquainted with is either the one in the middle of the picture or the one towards the left. Either way, here it is, immortalized.

We'll round this series out with four shots taken with what I like to call Max POS. I couldn't believe how awful the pictures were when I got them back - they seem like they were shot with a friday roll of Funtime 100, not coming anywhere near the great pictures I had from my earlier usages of Max 400, and not even remotely comparing with the Superia 200 shots up above (some taken the same day in similar lighting conditions). The film even rewound prematurely (or it was skipped past several frames), and I can hardly blame my camera unless it broke in the ten minutes between the misty basin shots and this shot. I picked up an entire six-pack of Max POS at Crappy Tire, it was on sale for about $9.99, and I think I'll let my mother have the other five after what happened here. Neither the box nor the film (actually labelled "Gold Max 400") had a "process before" date, but now I suspect that either it would have long expired, or that the film itself was defective in the first place. Lesson: When something goes on sale, there's usually a reason.

One, yes, one image shot with the Max POS really did turn out. It lends me to think that I was really shooting on 100 speed film. At least now I know for a fact that 100 is no good indoors or in evening conditions, areas that 200 and 400 can preform well in.

(Having re-read my camera's manual, I can now therorize that the DX-coding on the film was somehow improperly read, causing the camera to shoot in its default mode of 100.)

The Sackville River.

Boats in the Bedford Basin.

By now the light level is getting fairly low, so I can forgive this shot for not turning out. Yet it's still one of the top five prints on this entire roll. I'm also wondering why this shot, taken before the underexposed river shots above, comes later on the negatives and the print sequence. This Max POS was one awful roll.

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