...and there she goes

03 September 2011

1. Our first baby, 2. Grows up and graduates from high school, then 3. Off she goes.

Kristin Clements Graduates at Top of Class

30 June 2011

Kristin Ann Clements' grade 12 graduation ceremony turned out pretty spectacular for her family when Kristin graduated from Barrie Central Collegiate at the top of her class. We knew she was doing very well, but she did not have her final exam marks, and we arrived just before the ceremony began and all the programs were gone.

Jennifer had quickly borrowed a program from the person beside her and scanned through the pages of awards to see if her name was there, but she didn't see it. Until the end, that is, when she came across the final page which was pretty much filled with Kristin's academic accomplishments. The best part for me was that she did not mention it, so what happened next came as a big surprise.

Kristin Accepted at McMaster University

25 January 2011

Although McMaster was not on her original list of choices, we convinced her to go to the open house last fall and the campus and programs looked really good. She went ahead and applied as a secondary choice (or maybe even a third choice). But a few weeks back, after a visit to the natural history galleries at the ROM, she decided her future was in Environmental and Earth Sciences at McMaster.

Good bye Isabelle, Hello Kristin

14 August 2010

Wow! Time flies when you're having fun! It is hard to believe that six weeks has already passed and we are saying good bye to Isabelle. It has been a real treat having Isabelle as our "surrogate" daughter for the summer, but I am sure she is glad to be back home again. And Kristin is happy to be back home, too.

Good bye Kristin, Hello Isabelle

03 July 2010

On Saturday morning, we put our first-born and only daughter on a train to Montreal as part of the YMCA "trade in your kid" program. Actually, it is part of the YMCA Summer Work Student Exchange (SWSE) program, and she'll be living in Otterburn Park, about 20 minutes east of Montreal, for six weeks.

Jakob Plays at Barrie Jazz & Blues Festival

21 June 2010

Jakob helped close out the 2010 Barrie Jazz & Blues Festival as part of a piano recital in the rotunda at Barrie City Hall. He, along with Marc Widner's top students, played on the nine foot Yamaha grand piano (apparently a $178,000 piano) that was on loan from Yamaha for the Jazz & Blues Festival.

On Newstands Again (this time in Black & White)

16 June 2010

Around the time I submitted some single images to Color magazine, I also submitted a few portfolios to B&W magazine. Back around the end of April, I received an email informing me I was a "B&W Excellence Award winner!" There was no mention of which portfolio had been selected, so I had to wait until my copies arrived in the mail today to find out.

A whole new web site

06 June 2010

A bead of sweat drips from my brow... but it looks like I pulled it off. The Clements Family web site has just had a massive overhaul. Basically, the entire underlying framework has been rebuilt (upgraded from the ancient and no longer supported Joomla! 1.0.13 to 1.5.18, and that 0 to a 5 in the middle is really important).

On Newstands Now

01 April 2010

My photograph "The Shoppers" is featured on page 232 of Color Magazine Special Issue, on newstands now! That's kind of cool (at least for me). There are 127 "merit award" winners published in the magazine, out of over 2,000 photographs submitted. My photograph is published in the abstract category.

Dan's Photographs at City Hall

05 February 2010

If you take a trip down to City Hall, you will find a photography display in the Rotundra that features three of my photographs. They are three of the five photos I entered in the "Picture the City" photography contest, and my work "Lower Mulcaster" received honourable mention in the "Heritage and Architecture" category.

Oddly, the whole contest turned out to not be about what I thought it was supposed to be about, which was "picture the city." I took that quite literally, but half of the 16 winning photographs could have been shot almost anywhere and one of them is clearly not even in Barrie. There are some nice photographs, though.

I had entered three photographs in the "Arts & Culture" category and while none of them won, two were selected for the Rotunda display, both of them black & white entries. I believe they are the only two black & white prints on display. Speaking of prints, the people running the contest did a good job having nice prints made.

So, go down and have a look. The display is up until February 26.