Photographic Guild of Nova Scotia

Meet at 9 am at Just Us Coffee at 11865 on Highway #1. If you are travelling from Halifax on Highway 101, take Exit 10 to Wolfville. Just Us Coffee is on the right hand side of Highway # 1 just a short distance from Exit 10.

Morning – 9.30 a m to 12.30 p m ( about an hour and a half at each venue)

1. Blomidon Inn – Victorian Gardens – 195 Main Street in Wolfville

2. Gaspereau Valley Fibres – Farm Wool Shop – 830 Gaspereau River Rd

Lunch in Wolfville or Port Williams

For those who are interested, I am making a reservation for The Port Gastropub in Port Williams for 1.00 p m. Please let me know before June 24th if you would like me to include you in the reservation.

Afternoon -2.00 to 5.30 pm (about an hour at each venue)

3. Prescott House Museum and Gardens – 1633 Starrs Point Road (The
Museum has an entry fee of $3.25)

4. Muir Murray Estate Winery – Dyke Road – (from downtown Wolfville travel 3 kms east on Highway #1 and turn left on Dyke Road)

5. The Tangled Garden -11827 on Highway 1 (near Exit 10 off Highway 101) Admission Fee of $3.00.

Please bring your completed Field Trip Waiver Form which can be downloaded
off our PGNS website.

http://www.photoguild.ns.ca/events/pgns-field-trip-waiver.pdf

Sunscreen, fly repellant, waterproof footwear (for wet grass if
need be) and money for admission fees are suggested.

To help ensure you receive notice of any changes or cancellation due to
weather, please call (422-8164) or email me if you plan to attend.
(Rain date is Sunday, June 27th)

I hope you are able to join us!

Dean

Just a quick reminder/update about the season opening race event/field trip this coming Sunday, May 16th. I will be your field trip host and if you have any questions not answered below, please contact me by e-mail at mike@mccarthyphotographic.com.

Here’s a rundown of the planned activities:
(Please note: The race schedule will be subject to change and delays due to weather/wrecks/etc.)

9:15AM Arrive at Atlantic Motorsport Park – Meet in parking lot inside main gate. Entry fee is $10 per person, children under 12 can enter for free with an adult. The trip takes about 50 minutes from Halifax.

9:30AM Orientation, Safety and Rules *MANDATORY*

10:00AM RACE 1 – Thunder Class (10 Laps)
10:25AM RACE 2 – Motard/125/Vintage LW Class (10 Laps)
10:50AM RACE 3 – Sportsman 1 Class (10 Laps)
11:15AM RACE 4 – PRO 600/AM 600 Class (12 Laps)
11:50AM – Bike Pick-up/Lunch *
12:50PM – Track Clear / Marshals On-Stand
1:00PM – RACE 5 – Lightweight GP/Sportsman 2 Class (10 Laps)
1:25PM – RACE 6 – Pro Superbike/ AM Superbike Class (12 Laps)
1:50PM – RACE 7 – Vintage MW Class (10 Laps)
2:15PM – RACE 8 – Novice / Honda 125 CBR Challenge (8 Laps)
2:40PM – Track Closed
3:00PM – Podium Presentations

Rules/Safety Notes:
1. DO NOT wear Yellow or Red jackets, t-shirts, etc. You will not be allowed track side. The riders can easily misinterpret a yellow t-shirt or jacket as a caution flag and may slow causing a hazard on the track. Red is worse as a red flag means the track is blocked by a hazard and stop immediately.

2. ALWAYS listen to the marshals. If you hear a whistle, STOP immediately and look around. This usually means you have walked somewhere you are not allowed to be for safety/security reasons. If the marshal is yelling at you to back-up, do it IMMEDIATELY or you will be ejected from the track area.

3. The racers are a very friendly bunch and LOVE to talk about motorcycles and racing with fans. You are welcome to talk to the pit crews and riders throughout the pit area. However, only pit crews are allowed on Pit Lane. DO NOT walk along Pit Lane. It is very active and a rider can very quickly exit the track and drive down Pit Lane for any number of reasons and serious injury can occur if you are in the way when an emergency happens.

4. Tower Area. Everyone is welcome to view the racing from the bottom level of the tower. To access the tower, you need to cross Pit Lane. You can only do this at the entrance to Pit Lane and only after exercising EXTREME caution looking for hazards first.

5. NEVER, EVER, cross the race track. The only access to the inner track area is via the tunnel under Turn 1.

6. NO ONE is allowed any where on an inside or outside corner unless behind a safety barrier and the marshal knows you are there and says it is OK. Some marshals will be more easy going than others. Your deportment can significantly improve your odds of getting a great location and REMEMBER, it’s ALWAYS better to ask first rather than hear a whistle and be told to move.

7. NO CHAIRS are allowed track side. If you bring one, you can only use it in specific areas behind safety barriers. NO EXCEPTIONS.

8. Accidents happen and you must be able to react INSTANTLY to move out of the way. If a marshal thinks you are a hazard you will be removed. No questions or discussion. You will be moved.

General Notes:
1. Atlantic Motorsport Park is located about 15 minutes from Shubenacadie and 50 minutes from Halifax. Directions:
* Take Exit 10 off Highway 102, and head into Shubenacadie (2.3km)
* At the stop sign, turn hard right onto West Indian Road (watch for the sign: Indian Brook / Mill Village / McPhee’s Corner)
* Drive 2.6km, keep right (Look for the Motorsport Park sign)
* Drive 2km, turn right (Look for the North Salem / Atlantic Motorsport Park sign)
* After 2.6km, the road will change to gravel. Drive on gravel road for another 2.2km
* Turn Right just before the farm (Look for the Atlantic Motorsport Park sign)
* Follow this road (1.2km) until you reach the Atlantic Motorsport Park gates

2. Packing – Wear sturdy footwear and prepare for weather. The field trip will take place regardless of the weather. Bring plenty of water and pack a lunch/snacks.

3. Lunch – Bring your own. There is a french fry truck/canteen located next to the registration building. The food is good, but not exactly on the healthy side of the menu. There will be approximately an hour for lunch. Make sure you bring lots of water.

4. Washrooms are located at the outfield between Turn 10 and 11. Vehicles are STRONGLY discouraged from pit road, so you will need to plan any trips to the washroom / tower / pit road area.

5. During orientation, I will answer any questions you have as well as make sure everyone has completed a field trip waiver form. No form, no access to the track. Period.

6. Be prepared to walk. The track, itself, is 2.5km long and consists of 11 challenging turns and varying elevations. The infield area is also challenging to walk and covers a VERY large area – about 300+ acres.

Gear/Equipment
1. Depending on what you hope to achieve, a dSLR is highly recommended. A fast lens is not necessary, but will significantly improve your chance of capturing a good image. A Point & Shoot can capture images, but keep in mind some of the racers can reach 200km/h and shutter lag on a P&S will likely mean you miss the action/focus.

2. You will likely want at least 100mm and the longer glass you can bring the better. I typically shoot with a 70-200mm telephoto but carry a 50-135 for shooting around the pit area as well.

3. I will do my best to try to help answer any questions you have about settings, etc. at the track.

4. Anyone needing transportation to the track, please post a comment here. Hopefully there will be a number of people car-pooling and will be available to help. I will be at the track early and will be staying until the very end.

5. Please keep in mind that this is – in part – what I do to earn income and I will do what I can to help each photographer, but my goal is to capture the racers throughout the day and it will take precedence.

6. Have Fun!

The date has been changed to Sunday May 9th due to Saturday’s weather forecast. All times and meeting places remain the same.

AGS-PGNS Field Trip to Clarke Head, near Parrsboro

Date 8th May 2010, rain date 9th May 2010

Meet at Fundy Geological Museum parking lot at 12.00 noon (for directions go to http://museum.gov.ns.ca/fgm/en/home/visitus/locationmaps.aspx)

Please bring packed lunch or be otherwise already sustained.

Some parts of the beach are a little rough but not impassable to a moderately fit person — please bring hiking boots or similarly sturdy foot wear — rubber “wellington” boots will not be appropriate. There will be moderately steep steps to the beach, but otherwise terrane will be flat.

Note: the Museum is currently closed for renovations and we won’t be able to use the washrooms there, The washrooms at Tim Hortons’s in town are probably the nearest. Be warned, washroom availability may be a problem for some on this excursion.

Some details:

Timings for this field trip may seem a bit odd, but they are designed so that we can take maximum benefit of the low tide (around 3.15 pm on the 8th) and afternoon light (the sun starts to go behind the cliffs at about 5.00). If people want to arrive in the Parrsboro area in the morning and are looking for something to do for a couple of hours, they might consider the trail on Partridge Island, just outside town. This trail is a shorter equivalent of the Cape Split trail (which is almost directly across the Bay from Partridge Island).

For the official start of the AGS field trip, we will meet at 12.00 pm at the Fundy Geological Museum parking lot. We’ll have a brief orientation there and people can munch on packed lunches while that’s in progress. There is a Tim Horton’s on Main Street in Parrsboro in case participants prefer Tim’s to a packed lunch. It’s less that a 5 minute drive from Tim’s to the Museum. Masstown Market, as you come off Highway 104 beyond Parrsboro, is another favourite stop to pick up lunch foods.

We will leave the Museum no later than 12.30 and make a short trip along Two Islands Road. Please be prepared to carpool for this brief leg of our journey; there will be limited parking at our destination. The access to Clarke Head is via Parrsboro’s municipal Glooscap Campground, which unfortunately doesn’t open until the Victoria Day weekend. So we will have to leave the cars on Two Islands Road and walk 5-10 minutes to get to the beach steps. Once on the beach we will head east past Triassic sediments and volcanics to a spectacular fault, past which are some very unusual and visual rocks. I will try to explain what we see in terms of moving continents and opening oceans. If rocks are not your thing, the coastal scenery and seascapes are lovely.

For more information, please contact Rob Fensome at 902-426-2732 (day — best place to leave a message, but not after 5.pm on Friday 7th May) or 902-434-3392 (home — messages reach me on a hit or miss basis).

Hi folks,

Although the weather forecast for tomorrow afternoon is not great, Clarence plans to proceed with the field trip, recognizing it may not go the full day if the weather turns for the worse during the day. (The forecast for all day Sunday is poor.)

If you plan to go tomorrow (Saturday October 24th), please call Clarence at 506-758-2979 and leave a message with your name, the fact that you plan to attend and your phone number or email him at cjnowlan@nb.sympatico.ca . The plan for tomorrow is to meet at 9 am at the Tim Horton’s in Parrsboro, but please call or email Clarence if you plan to attend – (if he doesn’t receive any calls or emails, he won’t be there.)

Thank you.

Dean

Clarence relates that the weather forecast has changed and he plans to go shooting in the Parrsboro area tomorrow . He has graciously offered to lead a second field trip for any Guild members interested.

Please note the Saturday October 24th date is still a go. (and, yes, you can attend both if you wish!)

If you are interested in shooting tomorrow (Sunday October 18th), please call Clarence at 506-758-2979 and leave a message with your name, the fact that you plan to attend and your phone number. The plan for tomorrow is to meet at 9 am at the Tim Horton’s in Parrsboro, but please call Clarence if you plan to attend – (if he doesn’t receive any calls, he won’t be there.)

I would like to thank Clarence for providing this second opportunity to capture some of the most amazing Fall colours in the Province.

Victorian and botanical gardens; architecture – old and new; pastoral scenes; perhaps a photo journalism shot; all await in the Valley on June 27th!

Meet at Tim Horton’s in Wolfville at 370 Main Street at 8.30 a m.

If you are travelling from Halifax on Highway 101, take Exit 10 to
Wolfville.

Morning – 9 a m to 12.30 p m ( about an hour at each venue)

1. Gaspereau Vineyards – 2239 White Rock Road
2. Blomidon Inn – Victorian Gardens – 195 Main Street in Wolfville
3. Harriet Irving Botanical Gardens and KC Irving Environmental
Science Centre at Acadia University – 32 University Avenue (left
off Main Street heading west in Wolfville )

These locations are five or ten minutes drive apart.

Lunch in Wolfville or Port Williams

For those who are interested, a reservation will be made for The Port Gastropub in Port Williams for 12.30 p m. Please let Dean know before June 26th if you would like to be included in the reservation. This pub is busy and without a reservation, you may not get a seat.

Afternoon 1.30 to 5.30 pm (about an hour at each venue)

4. Prescott House Museum and Gardens – 1633 Starrs Point Road (The
Museum has an entry fee of $3.25)
5. The Lookoff -on Route 358 north of Canning
6. The Tangled Garden 11827 on Highway 1 (near Exit 10 off Highway 101) Admission Fee of $3.00.

Please bring your Field Trip Waiver Form which can be downloaded
off this (PGNS) website.

Sunscreen, fly repellant, waterproof footwear (for wet grass if
need be) and money for meals and admission fees are suggested.

Please call Dean Hirtle at 422-8164 (or email deanhirtle@ns.sympatico.ca )for more information.

To help ensure you receive notice of any changes or cancellation due to
weather, please contact Dean before June 27th if you plan to attend.
(Rain date is Sunday, June 28th)