Ok, have you heard about the 2 time silver medal winning Paralympic cyclist who after getting into an accident somehow got the use of her legs back? Did you hear about how she’s all like “Hey, I want to win medals at the other Olympics now?” Yeah… I’m not even making this up!

Doctors have no explanation for her amazing recovery. Some believe the trauma of her last accident may have jolted her body back into activity.

But the realities of her new-found joy also put an immediate end to a successful athletic career.

“Although walking is the best thing you could do in life, I immediately missed the sport, the people and the challenges,” van der Vorst said.

Rehabilitation and physiotherapy with an athletic focus strengthened her and as soon as she sat on a bike she again wanted to give it a try.

Yeah, read the whole thing, it’s amazing. But I can’t help but wonder if she’ll have time to train, you know with all the drop kicks and round house kicks she’s most likely laying down on people.

Seriously though, if you had lost the use of your legs for most of your life and then got it back, wouldn’t you breakout the Chuck Norris flying air kicks on a metric ass load of people you couldn’t before?

-via Neatorama

Have you had a chance the visit Toronto’s waterfront lately? It’s gotten a whole lot better than it was just a number of years ago. They’re doing a serious amount of work down there.

This is a pictureI shot in one of what I believe to be the city’s new gems, the Sherbourne Commons park. I could rant and rave about how cool this park is but you should just go explore it yourself. It’s wonderful, and beautiful and it turns out it’s got a special job too. I have many other photos that I shot here, so expect more in the future.

However, this photo also represents a little experiment on my part. This picture was 100% edited on my iPad… while I was sitting on the Subway actually. I used this wonderful app called Snapseed from PhotoShop Plug-in makers Nik. You’ll notice this picture is a lot more doctored than most of my images… well that’s cause I was taking the app through it paces. Also note… the app worked with a full size RAW file from my camera. Yeah… nuts. (Click here or on the image to view a larger version)

Info:Lumix DMC-GH1, 50mm Takumar Lens, ISO 250, f/4, 1/500, with a Variable FD filter, edited on Snapseed for the iPad

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Sherbourne Common and the Tower by CLAM Industries – Camile Gauthier is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

Claire-Lise and I once lived at King and Bathurst. It was probably our favourite appartment, and we loved the location. The best part about that area, was that there was tons of thing to explore.

This photo was taken from Spadina Avenue bridge (I think) over the train tracks that head into Union Station. This photo was a fluke, and converting it was another fluke. It’s always been one of my favourites, and for some reason that I can never quite put my finger on…. this picture has always reminded me of LA. (Click here or on the image to view a larger version)

Info: Fuji FinePix 3800, ISO 100, 14mm, f2.8, 1/60

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The Tracks by CLAM Industries – Camile Gauthier is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

Wow, I almost went to bed without posting a post today…

Not much to say about this picture, we were visiting rural areas and we stumbled by a museum, when we walked in, it’s caretaker was hard at work. I’m not sure where the museum is/was but this picture has always made me giggle.

The decision to age it was just a whim. I love texture… so yeah. (Click here to on the picture to view a larger version)

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Museum Caretaker by CLAM Industries – Camile Gauthier is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.

You know sometimes you do things, and you think “Hey this is quite enjoyable, I should do it again sometime”? That happens to be pretty often.

A good example of that is visiting the Canadian Air and Space Museum in Downsview Park. I went with my father in 2004, and just had a blast. They have some great airplanes there that are all rebuilt, restored and maintained by volunteers. Many of which worked on the original planes when they were first made. A few stood out for me then, like the Avro 683 Lancaster (a flying building), the de Havilland C2SF Tracker (folding wings?!) and of course the Avro Arrow replica.

You see, that’s what lured me there. I fell in love with the Arrow when I first saw that CBC film about it with Dan Akroyd in the 90′s. It’s funny, it was my first taste of politics ruining something amazing.

Ironically, the same can be said about the fate of the Canadian Air and Space Museum sadly. In September the Federally supported museum was served eviction papers from the Federal Park from their Federally protected building. So they can build an ice rink.

This in itself is pretty messed up, but it’s even more messed up when you take 2 other points into consideration:

1- The museum is housed in the original home de Havilland Canada manufacturing plant, where Lancasters were built and the famous de Havilland Beaver was created (such an amazing plane, Harrison Ford is a cheerleader for it). It then was the birthplace of the Avro company (yes, the Acro Arrow people) and to top that, Canada’s leading space company SPAR. This building is a Canadian aviation mecca.

2- Downsview Park is a 572 Acre piece of land that used to be a Canadian Forces base and Airport. So it’s got more than a bit of space for an ice rink.

So yeah. It’s frustrating. Here have a read of the National Post article. Sad.

Anyway. This photograph is one of my favourites I took that day. It’s of a Stinson Reliant It’s not that impressive of an airplane… but it was shiny, and well lit and every time I see the picture it makes me smile.

Enjoy it, I’d tell you to go see it for yourself…. but that’s not going to happen anymore now is it. (Click here or on the picture to see a larger version)

Info: Canon Digital Rebel, 33mm, ISO 400, f5, 1/45 – colour corrected in Aperture.

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Stinson Reliant V-77 – Canadian Air and Space Museum by CLAM Industries – Camile Gauthier is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.