On Saturday I drove down Jasper Avenue and took note of the Edmonton Auto Spring Works building. I found the fading paint and bold signage very appealing, and made a mental note to return later in the summer to snap some photos, perhaps experimenting with HDR (high dynamic range).
But the very next day, the historic building went up in flames. I felt a moment of genuine sadness; the building wasn't beautiful, but it had character. It was a piece of living history, and its destruction reminds us that the world, as always, moves on.
Now I'll never have the chance to shoot the Edmonton Auto Spring Works, but this story did give me the chance to flex a speck of creative muscle by using Photoshop to give the above image from Google Street View an old-timey flavour.
Also on Jasper Avenue...
Today I left work a little early to pick up Sylvia from an appointment. I had a green light going north on 107th street, turning right onto Jasper Avenue. There was an ETS bus coming south on 107th, turning left so that it, too, would be heading east on Jasper. I believe I had the right of way and turned right; in the same instant, the bus made its left hand turn. Now, Jasper being a four-lane roadway, we each had a lane to safely enter; him on the left, me on the right. But of course he had to immediately swerve into my lane in order to pull into the corner bus stop. The driver honked rather aggressively at me and cut in right behind me.
Given this situation, I felt that I had the right of way; I was making a right on a green, he was making a left, in which case I believe the rule is to yield to oncoming traffic, i.e., me. Of course having the bus stop in the right lane made it necessary for the bus to immediately change lanes upon completion of his turn - but I would have figured that the driver's role was to wait for me until it was safe to make the lane change.
Now I'm genuinely curious - was I in the wrong? I don't think so, but if someone with more experience with ETS rights-of-way wants to chime in, I'm all ears. No sense getting in the way of a vehicle with ten times my vehicle's mass...
Good work with the photo, I am liking it!
ReplyDeleteGosh, we all have stories of pictures that got away. Some people carry cameras wherever they go (and this is before the age of camera phones, I'm thinking of high-end equipment). Then they have to sort through and process or sweeten thousands of shots.
I'm not sure what bugs me more, compiling scrapbooks of useless shots or pining after the one that got away (yes, Petit Bay At Sunset, I hear you...). I am looking forward to seeing you get into HDR, Earl.
As for right-of-way, there's a basic rule of thumb: Right-Of-Way Is Given, Never Taken. Yay, a platitude! Not that it means much if you take a city bus up the tailpipe. Right and wrong is for the insurance companies to decide, safe driving is the responsibility of all drivers.