Checked out the Christmas lights in Stanley Park on Christmas eve, it was a nightmare with all the kids and stressed parents flooding the place, but some nice displays. I realised their were some good opportunities to shoot bokeh here, and through experimentation, found some sweet effects with lights, colours and focus.
Friday, December 25, 2009
Monday, December 21, 2009
Global Syndicate
Looking forward to seeing these guys perform with DJ WHOO KID on Boxing day, should be sweet!!
better late than never....
Wednesday, December 9, 2009
Cold but busy!
Well the temperature has plummeted to daytime highs in the negatives! we are lucky here though as it only gets to about -6 or 7 at night and the daytime sits between -2 and 0. Over east ist been way colder and the forecast tomorrow for Manitoba had temperatures as low as -45c!!!! Im loving the sunshine though and have been able to get out quite a lot too shoot. I'v had an interesting week or so recently, I have started working in uniforms distribution with CSC which is helping with cash flow. I met some photographic clients on the street last friday morning and ended up shooting 15 photos for their website which is launching soon with their new business, a law firm operating out of Gastown. The project was a lot of fun, spending several hours around the revived area near the waters of burrard inlet, shooting the buildings, alleys and streets. It was pretty chilly and many times my fingers lost feeling, but the sunshine made for some great shots. I also did a shoot with Garrett and his guys down in Yaletown last night, should be plenty more work there in promotions so looking very forward to that. Its amazing how things have happened lately, just got to keep it going and things will get sweeter. Mt Baker looks like the new years destination, still dying for some snow action!! should be a fun trip down south of the boarder. Hoping to get to seattle at some point for a xmas present, eyes are on a nice prize that will bring my photography up yet another level. Im excited!! still need the 70-200 fixed and now my flash gun has died too, so need to find out whats going on with that!! Wireless flash gear will be here soon so I will need some working flashes to play with it!! couple of shots below from the Gastown shoot and the trio from last night to post soon...
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
Winter / New Camera finally!
Hmmm, well the first day of Winter was a beautiful one! Its supposed to be nice right through until next week, where monday is due to be a max of -7c (Its definitely colder without cloud cover, but whoah!!) but tomorrow the forecast could change to blizzards for Thursday, so we'll see. Either way its been nice to be outside without it raining.
New Camera is in my hands and boy is it impressive so far! Hope to take it out repeatedly while the weather is good and shoot as much Vancouver as I can. Desperately need a new mid focal range lens, will need to pocket some coin for a bit and flog an old one to fund it, but once I have that I will be in serious business!
Met some interesting people in the last week or so, lots of opportunities popping up, lets see what I can make of them! Cant wait to get some time in the snow too, everything set to go just narrowing down insurance options, not having a repeat of the ankle experience!!
Couple of shots from the 50d.... I should have bought this a long time ago....
New Camera is in my hands and boy is it impressive so far! Hope to take it out repeatedly while the weather is good and shoot as much Vancouver as I can. Desperately need a new mid focal range lens, will need to pocket some coin for a bit and flog an old one to fund it, but once I have that I will be in serious business!
Met some interesting people in the last week or so, lots of opportunities popping up, lets see what I can make of them! Cant wait to get some time in the snow too, everything set to go just narrowing down insurance options, not having a repeat of the ankle experience!!
Couple of shots from the 50d.... I should have bought this a long time ago....
Under the Bridge Downtown (Burrard Bridge)
Lightning fast! 6.3 frames per second
Seymour & Georgia
Monday, November 9, 2009
Wet ride - Mt Fromme, North Shore.
Since late September I have been recovering from a serious ankle sprain obtained on the "last ride of the season" in Whistler. I have been dying to get over to the mountains on the north shore and get a good taste of the famed north shore trails. At last weeks Halloween festivities I made some arrangements with Keith to try and get out over there before the weather made it totally impossible. Boy am i glad we did.
Watching the weather all week it appeared it could be touch and go, but after plenty of early morning rain on saturday, it died off, so we agreed to go for it. Parked up off mountain hway and started pedaling from the dirt road. Seven grinding switch backs later we finally made it to the trail head for "Seventh Secret". I managed to pedal the entire way. The only time I actually stopped was to take a photo (turned out to be 2 mins from the trail head anyway). This may be nothing for some people, but a milestone for me. It snowed on us briefly on the ride up and by the time we had gotten most of the way to the top, the trees and the road were covered in an inch or two of fairly fresh snow. It looked stunning, I was very excited!!
So we dropped into the trail and I realised at that moment that at no point prior to now, had i even given thought to the fact that I was about to ride in rain and heavily wet conditions, a stark contrast to my hot, dry, dusty summer of riding. That was smart! My rotors howled like a banshee as i braked down the first few declines, a sound that faded as they built up some heat. The trails were well built with many stones bedded into to give it definition and no doubt stop it eroding away, the amount of water flowing down the trail in parts ranged from a trickle to a gushing creek! I was already wet but within minutes i was soaked. I couldnt have cared less!!
I was concerned about grip levels and it took me some time to trust my tires in the wet on rocks and wooden features. Fear of falling and re-injuring my still unstable ankle was hampering my confidence pretty badly, but all the same, I was having fun dashing down the more open sections, splashing my way though huge puddles and trying not to fall off elevated ladder bridges. There were some cool features on "Pipeline" the next trail we connected with, Its all new to me but Keith was commenting on some new woodwork that he hadnt seen before.
Some of the steeper descents had so much water going down them it was liking riding down a waterfall, I have ridden in wet weather before, all the time as a kid, but I have never experienced anything like what I discovered on Saturday. I nearly fell into a creek as i crossed a narrow bridge, and decided it would be fun to scare the shit out of myself riding along the very edge of a ladder bridge about 4-5 feet off the ground for some distance before straightening up, its remarkable what you can do when you have no choice.
We took a lower section of the Baden-Powell trail and connected back up with mountain hwy, buzzing down the steep bitumen road back to the car. As i jumped off my bike, both front and rear rotors were steaming away, but dissipated to fast for a photo.
I would love to have a go at the trails here in drier conditions, but as I said, the water and mud really made for a fun experience, and seeing snow like we did at the top had me stoked for whats to come :)
So we dropped into the trail and I realised at that moment that at no point prior to now, had i even given thought to the fact that I was about to ride in rain and heavily wet conditions, a stark contrast to my hot, dry, dusty summer of riding. That was smart! My rotors howled like a banshee as i braked down the first few declines, a sound that faded as they built up some heat. The trails were well built with many stones bedded into to give it definition and no doubt stop it eroding away, the amount of water flowing down the trail in parts ranged from a trickle to a gushing creek! I was already wet but within minutes i was soaked. I couldnt have cared less!!
I was concerned about grip levels and it took me some time to trust my tires in the wet on rocks and wooden features. Fear of falling and re-injuring my still unstable ankle was hampering my confidence pretty badly, but all the same, I was having fun dashing down the more open sections, splashing my way though huge puddles and trying not to fall off elevated ladder bridges. There were some cool features on "Pipeline" the next trail we connected with, Its all new to me but Keith was commenting on some new woodwork that he hadnt seen before.
We took a lower section of the Baden-Powell trail and connected back up with mountain hwy, buzzing down the steep bitumen road back to the car. As i jumped off my bike, both front and rear rotors were steaming away, but dissipated to fast for a photo. I would love to have a go at the trails here in drier conditions, but as I said, the water and mud really made for a fun experience, and seeing snow like we did at the top had me stoked for whats to come :)
Thursday, November 5, 2009
Despair!
I am so sicking of saying that I am almost finished my website. Everytime I try and just put it to bed, there is always another problem. Now its coming down to simple aesthetics. Stuff that should be able to be worked out and overcome, yet there seems to be no reason for the problem, no explanation. It is driving me crazy. I am not going to give up, I WILL finish this, I just cant believe how low it is taking and how much of a fight it is putting up. Now I look at all of the time i have spent in the last couple of months making it and think it would have made more sense to pay someone to do it for me. Its not like i havn't learnt anything, but its just so bloody painful!!! aaaaarrrrrgggghhhhh, I will not be beaten. I wish I could stop it from making me angry, its very challenging. Tomorrow is another day.
Monday, November 2, 2009
Halloween parties
So the end of October comes and with it the arrival greater darkness and a Halloween frenzy. I knew it was a bigger deal here than other places I have lived, but the extent some people went to was mindblowing. The same way we see people go to town on their houses and front yards with all sorts of xmas decorations and lights, you will see skeletons, eviscerated zombies, pumpkins and spider webs adorning front yards and houses everywhere.
I saw some really cool carved pumpkins on one house, one on every step on the way up to the front door, each with a different face, some of which looked very evil and uninviting. As i stepped out my front door dressed like an old codger in a last minute effort to come up with something. I heard the sounds of children along my street knocking on doors "trick or treat!" I had never seen or heard that before.
On the way to Matt's place I saw a guy dressed as beetlejuice, I swear he had just come from the make up artist or something, his attention to detail was outstanding and the standard of outfit was fit for the screen. We had a beer or two at Matts while we got organised and then headed out. We walked past a house at the end of his street where an old lady was laying in wait at her front door. We had walked past when she swung the door open shouting "you want trick or treat?" she unload bags of chips and assorted lollies and chocolates into our bags and pockets and we went on our way, bewildered that she actually stopped us on the street! She must have been trying to get rid of all the left overs she had, it was getting kinda late for the kiddies by this stage.
Fireworks are going off everywhere and mist is settling lower on all the streets, or is it all the smoke from the hundreds of fireworks going off, I dont know. We get some beers even though we are heading to a party with free beer and then wait for the bus next to a cemetary, fitting.
The party was awesome, free booze (home brew, it was reported to be ordinary before we got there, but i thought it was alright!), cool people and some funny costumes. There was a mexican, 2 hulks, a flasher (yes in a beige trenchcoat!!) zombie lady gaga, ricky from trailer park boys, pimp, hookers, plenty of sluty whatever the hell they are sposed to be's, darlec, dr who, beer keg, cowboy, wheres wally, bat bitch, a clockwork orange characters, fairies, yada yada. We chugged the free beerand shot the shit with everyone, and even got out on to the balcony for some fireworks. One dude shot one and hit a bus that went past, right on the windsheld!! Sadly we had to leave to head back to another party back our way before the last bus left. I walked out the door of the place as the rolling stones "I cant get no....... satisfaction" was blaring on the stereo, and the place was jumping. i had a gut feeling i shouldnt be leaving, which turned out later to be justified...
We took a long bus ride back to our neck of the woods, we had been out near UBC which is a fair hike west of town. I was chatting to a butler and a maid on the bus, about kiwi and ozzy accents, travel experiences etc, the butler was drunk and his maid girlfriend seemed to be very publicly insistant she was going to take him home and have her way with him. Hmmm. There was also a guy on the bus who I feel was the character of the night, he was dressed as Raoul Duke, the Hunter S Thompson character from Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. Not only was the costume well done, including the cigarette in the cigarette holder, but he held character for the entire time, he had the speach and manerisms down, even had the suit case full of drugs, minus the acid, ketamine, blow and ether...
Arriving at the next party, the tunes where loud and the house was full. But the sad thing was that the police came and shut it down within about 20 mins of us arriving. Dang. There was another party happening but it was back in the direction we had just come. On top of this, Matt was wasted and Marissa wanted to take him home, so it was pretty much the end of it. I was tempted to go check out this other party, but considering the amount of time i had spent traveling around town already, i didnt want to go halfway back again to a party that was ending or worse gets the finger from the cops. So i thought back to the moment where I walked out of the first gig and felt like i shouldnt be leaving, should have listened to my instinct!
At least this place was on my street, so it wasnt far to get home! It was a memorable Halloween experience thats for sure. My costume started out being Bill Cosby but morphed into Biff (the grandpa biff) from Back to the Future because i couldnt get an afro wig or a grandpa hat to top off ol Bill. Most Canadians though i was "Mr Rogers" who of course i had never heard of, but rather than try and explain, I just went with that, and most people wet themselves. Too easy.
Another birthday party this friday night down with the Ladner gang, should be sweet!
I saw some really cool carved pumpkins on one house, one on every step on the way up to the front door, each with a different face, some of which looked very evil and uninviting. As i stepped out my front door dressed like an old codger in a last minute effort to come up with something. I heard the sounds of children along my street knocking on doors "trick or treat!" I had never seen or heard that before.
On the way to Matt's place I saw a guy dressed as beetlejuice, I swear he had just come from the make up artist or something, his attention to detail was outstanding and the standard of outfit was fit for the screen. We had a beer or two at Matts while we got organised and then headed out. We walked past a house at the end of his street where an old lady was laying in wait at her front door. We had walked past when she swung the door open shouting "you want trick or treat?" she unload bags of chips and assorted lollies and chocolates into our bags and pockets and we went on our way, bewildered that she actually stopped us on the street! She must have been trying to get rid of all the left overs she had, it was getting kinda late for the kiddies by this stage.
Fireworks are going off everywhere and mist is settling lower on all the streets, or is it all the smoke from the hundreds of fireworks going off, I dont know. We get some beers even though we are heading to a party with free beer and then wait for the bus next to a cemetary, fitting.
The party was awesome, free booze (home brew, it was reported to be ordinary before we got there, but i thought it was alright!), cool people and some funny costumes. There was a mexican, 2 hulks, a flasher (yes in a beige trenchcoat!!) zombie lady gaga, ricky from trailer park boys, pimp, hookers, plenty of sluty whatever the hell they are sposed to be's, darlec, dr who, beer keg, cowboy, wheres wally, bat bitch, a clockwork orange characters, fairies, yada yada. We chugged the free beerand shot the shit with everyone, and even got out on to the balcony for some fireworks. One dude shot one and hit a bus that went past, right on the windsheld!! Sadly we had to leave to head back to another party back our way before the last bus left. I walked out the door of the place as the rolling stones "I cant get no....... satisfaction" was blaring on the stereo, and the place was jumping. i had a gut feeling i shouldnt be leaving, which turned out later to be justified...
We took a long bus ride back to our neck of the woods, we had been out near UBC which is a fair hike west of town. I was chatting to a butler and a maid on the bus, about kiwi and ozzy accents, travel experiences etc, the butler was drunk and his maid girlfriend seemed to be very publicly insistant she was going to take him home and have her way with him. Hmmm. There was also a guy on the bus who I feel was the character of the night, he was dressed as Raoul Duke, the Hunter S Thompson character from Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. Not only was the costume well done, including the cigarette in the cigarette holder, but he held character for the entire time, he had the speach and manerisms down, even had the suit case full of drugs, minus the acid, ketamine, blow and ether...
Arriving at the next party, the tunes where loud and the house was full. But the sad thing was that the police came and shut it down within about 20 mins of us arriving. Dang. There was another party happening but it was back in the direction we had just come. On top of this, Matt was wasted and Marissa wanted to take him home, so it was pretty much the end of it. I was tempted to go check out this other party, but considering the amount of time i had spent traveling around town already, i didnt want to go halfway back again to a party that was ending or worse gets the finger from the cops. So i thought back to the moment where I walked out of the first gig and felt like i shouldnt be leaving, should have listened to my instinct!
At least this place was on my street, so it wasnt far to get home! It was a memorable Halloween experience thats for sure. My costume started out being Bill Cosby but morphed into Biff (the grandpa biff) from Back to the Future because i couldnt get an afro wig or a grandpa hat to top off ol Bill. Most Canadians though i was "Mr Rogers" who of course i had never heard of, but rather than try and explain, I just went with that, and most people wet themselves. Too easy.
Another birthday party this friday night down with the Ladner gang, should be sweet!
Thursday, October 29, 2009
Colour Management!
Well this is fun, more setbacks with the site, colour management issues causing poor display of colours and black and white contrasts meaning back to the drawing board on how i display my images. hmmm. Im using a mac where most of you are probably on PC and also using various different browsers, there are so many combinations to try and cater for!
Just another road block, I'll get through it. Explains a lot about previous issues I have had and even why some of the images i post here are not always very punchy.
Lots of reading is sorting me out, now its just the time in changing the settings of my images or changing the way i show them on the site, or both. Make a decision.
getting there!!!!!!
TEST IMAGE
lets see how this looks...
Just another road block, I'll get through it. Explains a lot about previous issues I have had and even why some of the images i post here are not always very punchy.
Lots of reading is sorting me out, now its just the time in changing the settings of my images or changing the way i show them on the site, or both. Make a decision.
getting there!!!!!!
TEST IMAGE
lets see how this looks...
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