Andrew Strain Photography

A quick post of some photos from the last week or so... still lots of daylight to shoot/fish/hike (and work, of course)

Some more ND filter fun, as well as practice with another technique I rarely use, exposure blending (it'll have to do til I pitch for a grad ND) - Atlin Mountain at [a very late PM] sunset:


Teresa Island gets hit by a mix of rain and sun as a storm tracks west:


A couple more photos after the jump:



The M.V. Tarahne sits on Atlin's waterfront. Used to ferry tourists around the lake in her prime, these days she has been relegated to hosting the occasional afternoon tea:


Como Lake sunset:


Earlier that evening, we took my cousin to the lake and he caught his first fish, a nice little rainbow in a convenient single serving breakfast size:


I caught one too. Veronica Strain photo:





Full Post and Comments

I finally bought my fishing license yesterday, so naturally, I spent all evening on the lake trying to catch some supper. I even managed to find the time to play with my new neutral density filter and make some longer exposures in between casts. There's plenty of daylight to do both up here (tomorrow is the longest day of the year, with nearly 18 hours of theoretical sun): the alpenglow shot was taken just after 11pm.

This is Como lake, a couple km's north of Atlin. My current address is at the base of Monarch Mountain, in the background - haven't hiked it since I've been here, but I've flown over a couple times on the way to/from work... close enough, right?




In the full post, you can see what happens to tasty rainbow trout when they die...


My sister caught the first fish of the day... I evened the score later.


Back at home, ready for gutting:


It'd been a while since I cleaned a fish, but I think I did alright.


Trout with a side of salmon? Yes please.


Picked clean:



Full Post and Comments

1) From the helicopter
2) Planet Earth / National Geographic (or some other nature documentary film/photo)
3) From the truck on the side of the highway nowhere near where I'm working
4) The zoo
5) Never

This Grizzly was having a late night snack with her cubs along the side of the Carcross Hwy near Tagish, Yukon. I stayed in the truck, don't worry.




Hopefully that's the only sow and cubs I'll see this year...

A couple more photos from the Carcross area in the full post:

-------

The Carcross Desert, apparently the smallest in the world. Can you see my shadow?


Taken from the desert - mountain name, anyone?


Full Post and Comments

I'm finally settling into the routine of fieldwork again after a week in Atlin, but the hot weather has sapped my energy really fast - there's still a lot of snow on northern aspects, so we've been sticking to south faces up high in the alpine, where the sun beats down on us all day long. I'm not complaining - just tired.

The town of Atlin, from the morning helicopter trip to work:


The view from my "office" - Surprise Lake:


More words and photos in the full post:


We went out to the Globe Theatre last night to check out a performance by the Edmonton based bluegrass group Down to the Wood, passing through town on their way to the Kluane Mountain Bluegrass Festival this week in Haines Junction, YT. I'm not big into bluegrass so I can't give much of an informed review, but the guys were funny, played some killer music, and were well received by the crowd - I might have to start taking my dad's advice and listen to more bluegrass... Me and the family headed out to a little jam sesh after the show, where we stayed up til the wee hours of the morning jamming with a group of extremely talented musicians (I definitely don't include myself in that category), and even got a free lesson on upright bass from the band; much appreciated, thanks guys! I used to play quite a bit of bass, but haven't in years - the upright makes me want to get back into it asap. Just what I needed, another expensive hobby...

Atlin Mountain at sunrise from the Monarch Mtn trail. I was wondering how I would ever bring myself to wake up at 4am to get a sunrise shot... problem solved last night - go to bed at 530am...


A woodpecker hangs from a homemade feeder:


Decades of living off the land has led to quite the impressive collection of antlers above my grandparents woodshed:


Full Post and Comments

I've been postponing this for a while cause theres still a couple photos I wanted to edit, but I'm away from a calibrated monitor for the rest of the summer, so its now or never. Here's my six favorite photos from my trip through Argentina and Chile, along with a gallery link to 40 or so others. Hope you like em...

One of the spires of Cerro Catedral stands tall with Volcan Tronador in the distance:


A double rainbow followed along side our bus as we drove through the craggy peaks of northern Patagonia. Argentinian buses are all luxury.


See the rest in the full post:

----------

Big sky in the Argentine lake district:


I spy, the Bariloche waterfront:


Dinner for one, somewhere on the outskirts of Buenos Aires:


Descending Volcan Villarrica, Pucon, Chile:


And here's a slideshow of the whole gallery:

Created with Admarket's flickrSLiDR.

Full Post and Comments

I've spent the two weeks since returning from Chile job hunting for mineral exploration work, and with seemingly every inquiry I made resulting in a reply of "sorry, we don't have financing for a field program this season", I was about to give up looking and start a summer job in the city when the call came in to send me north. I was on a plane for Whitehorse 3 days later - gotta love the go-go-go nature of this industry. I should be here til August, but there's really no telling for sure, and I'll likely be on the road on just a few short days notice, as usual.

I was pleasantly surprised on the flight up to make a flyby of my final destination, the small town of Atlin, BC. I lived here when I was a little kid, and the last time I visited was in 1998. I snapped a photo of the town, the lake, Atlin Mountain and Teresa Island from the plane:



Many photos to come over the next few months, as I roam the hills looking for gold (and photo-ops, of course). I still need to post some of my RAW edits from South America - maybe tomorrow.



Full Post and Comments

The weather came through today and we were able to make an attempt at climbing Volcan Villarrica, near Pucon, Chile. I don´t have enough time for a full post right now, but I wanted to throw up a summit photo before I jump on a night bus for Santiago.

Me with a bottle of Chilean Carmenère for the top of a Chilean volcano:

(Photo credit: Reid Irwin)

**Full trip report with photos now up in the full post**


-------
Well, I didn't have much time in Santiago so I'm finishing this one off back home in Vancouver. Climbing Villarrica was definitely one of the highlights of my trip, but it almost didn't happen - a high ceiling and no rain are requirements of travel on the volcano, and we had anything but for the first couple days of our stay in Pucon. It felt like I was back home in Vancouver during the October/November pineapple express season... constant downpour. The weather report for our last day in town was looking bleak as well, calling for overcast skies and a reasonable chance of rain. I went to bed expecting wake up to the sound of pouring rain.

I dragged myself out of bed at 6am the next morning, heard nothing, and poked my head out the window to a view of wood-stove smoke plumes rising lazily above Pucon, basked in the glow from the early morning light cast by the full moon. Shit, that was poetic. Game on.

I knew it hadn't exactly been warm over the past few days, but I was slightly surprised when we encountered the first fresh snow on the drive up to our start point, the base of Ski Pucon. There was a good 5cm in the parking lot, which had me wondering what the conditions would be like near the summit, 1400m above. Our guides were unconcerned by the snow, so we began the trek to the top.



The ascent was slow and steady, with the group soon separating into 2 packs as those not accustomed to alpine hiking began to tire. Personally, I felt it was a pretty relaxing pace, which was a pleasant change from the sweat-soaked deathmarch uphills that I usually subject myself to. It had been a few years since I'd hiked above 2300 metres, anyways, and I wasn't sure how I'd feel at the 2847m summit. The slow climb made it a non issue for me, and I reached the top remarkably dry (those who know me, know I'm a sweaty beast) and breathing easy.



I have to admit, I was a little disappointed upon reaching the top; there was no lava too be seen, and the fumes from the crater were so strong that we couldn't walk around the rim of the crater to catch a better view into the throat of the volcano. Just had time for a few photos and a victory swill from the bottle of caramere I lugged to the top before retreating down to an area of lower SO2 concentration for lunch.

A summit pano:


Volcanic gasses:


Our path up had been mainly crampon climbing over windblasted glacial ice, but the descent took us through a fairly sizeable area of 50cm deep windslab, which had me substantially more concerned than the volcanic activity above. Stepping above the track had 2m long blocks, 50cm deep popping out from under me... Our guide assured me that the slope, being only about 40 degrees, wasn't really steep enough to slide (umm, what?). The slope had been traversed by 20 or so hikers already, so I quickly glissaded my way down to the relative safety of exposed ice, without incident (I almost ripped my knee off on a rock while demonstrating my graceful glissade skillz further down the mountain, but I didn't take any photos so as soon as the scab heals, it never happened).

A view during the descent:


When we got back down to the ski area base, my stoke was doubled when we saw some local shreds busting out the boards for the first snowfall of the season:



There's a bunch more photos (camera jpegs) from the trip on my flickr photostream, but I'm feeling a little reluctant to post them here now that I'm back home and working on the RAW files. I don't usually shoot RAW+jpeg, but it was handy for the trip to be able to quickly upload the jpgs for my blog, and its really interesting to be able to see a side-by-side comparison of the camera jpegs and my Lightroom edits.

Stay tuned for a trip summary with RAW edits, a RAW vs jpeg comparison, and a note on the gear I took with me.

Full Post and Comments

Heavy rain in Pucon is putting a serious damper on my plans to climb the Villarrica Volcano while I´m here. We leave for Santiago tomorrow night, and the forecast looks... well, better than today. Fingers crossed the situation improves.

With soggy skies (am I home already?? Southern Chile feels alot like Vancouver) there wasn´t much to do other than hit up the supermarket and buy singles of all the different craft beers brewed here in Chile. The north may be for the wines, beer definitely seems to be the fermentation of choice in the south. A strong German influence in this area means most beers are brewed in adherence to the Bavarian Purity Law of 1516. Breweries such as Kunstmann (Valdivia) and Austral (Punta Arenas) provide many delicious options. My only complaint is that many of the offerings that I tried were a little bland - highly drinkable, just a little uninteresting. I´ve yet to see an IPA on the supermarket shelves - maybe I´ll just have to look harder tonight.

Home in Vancouver! No, its just Pucon...


Kunstmann (Valdivia)Unfiltered Lager. I really enjoyed this one.



After the tasting, we headed out to a bar for some 2 for 1 drinks, followed by some casino action. I won 9000 playing blackjack. 9000...Pesos. Yeah, thats less than 20 bucks.

Some more photos of my samplings in the full post:

---------------

Polar Imperial Lager, Punta Arenas, Chile:


The Austral family (Punta Arenas, Chile):


Volcanes del Sur Premium Lager:


Dorada - this one was ultra cheap, and strong. Surprisingly good, too.



Full Post and Comments

We visted the Senda Nativa Romahue today, just outside of Puerto Varas, Chile. A far cry from scrambling through the boulders atop Cerro Catedral, we spent the day below the canopy of the Valdivian temparate rainforest, one of the largest of its kind in the world (second only to my stomping grounds on the British Columbia coast).

After eating a lunch that featured the best steak I´ve ever had, we went for a short horseback ride through the forest (a first for me, much to Meghan´s delight), then spent some time with an orphaned Puma and several tiny Pudú (miniature deer). After watching the Forest episode of Planet Earth, I was thoroughly stoked to actually get to see a Pudú while I´m here...

Ayun´s mother was killed when he was 15 days old. He´s essentially a big, happy housecat now... purrs when you pet him, loves attention, and likes to play futbol. You can see some footage of him (from someone else) on youtube.


A Pudú, full grown at 16 or so inches:


Many thanks to Silvio and Susana for their knowledge and hospitality, as well as the work and love they put into preservation and education.

We´re moving on to Pucon tomorrow for 3 days. Volcanos and hot springs are on my to-do list. More photos from today in rest of the post.


----------
Range-fed beef, about to become lunch:


Best. Steak. Ever.


The Valdivian rainforest:


Meghan, amused to see me not having any idea how to ride a horse:


Ayun poses for the camera:


This was from the bus window as we were leaving Bariloche the other day - the city looked incredible from across Lago Nahuel Huapi. I would´ve loved to stop and setup a proper shot, but I´m on vacation. No tripods allowed.


Full Post and Comments

While I´m running around in Patagonia, my good friends at Katal Innovations took their Landing Pad to Lake Louise for its first ever public session. By all accounts, it was a huge success. I wish I had been there, but I guess I can´t really complain...

Here´s a teaser of what went down at Louise:

Katal Innovations Website Teaser from Tyler Mifflin on Vimeo.

I couldn´t spend time in Bariloche and not go on a recon mission to the local ski hill, Catedral. The snow hasn´t started to fly for the winter season yet, but they run a cable car up to the top so people can run around and do touristy things like take photos of themselves with Bariloche and the Argentinian flag in the background.

The tourists that don´t speak Spanish do stupid things like neglet to read sigs, hike a couple kms away from the lift, and almost miss the last gondola down for the evening. Oops...

Cerro Catedral




I said aidos to Argentina this morning, bussing through the national parks of the Lake District to Puerto Varas, Chile, where I´ll be for a few days before heading north to Pucon and eventually Santiago. Argentina was awesome, I´ve been gone for a few hours and I´m already thinking of when I´ll be able to come back - and how on earth I´m going to find Quilmes´excellent Red Lager in Canada...

A couple more photos of Bariloche and Cerro Catedral after the jump:

--------

The view towards Bariloche (background) and Catedral village (foreground):


The rock garden fingers of Cerro Catedral:




Full Post and Comments

Took it easy today and wandered around Bariloche in the intense Patagonian wind. Down on the lakeshore, none of the trees have branches on the windward side, so I´m guessing that its pretty much always crazy windy here...





As usual, a few more photos can be seen in the full post -

---------

Sunrise, from our hostel


Random street dogs followed us around all day


Ocean-sized surf


More meat than your body has room for!


A church





Full Post and Comments

After spending a few days in Buenos Aires, wandering around the city by day, and eating glorious amounts of parrilla at night (not to mention the fact that beer is about a buck for a 1L bottle...), I got on a double decker night bus headed for Bariloche. I´d heard great things about the Argentinian long-haul sleeper busses, and the 20+ hour ride across the country didn´t disappoint. Fully reclining seats and included meals made the 1600km of driving the most luxurious public transport I´ve ever experienced...

We have 3 days now to explore Bariloche and its surroundings before jumping across the border to Chile. I could easily spend much, much longer here... I wish I could stay for a few more months through the winter.

Some photos from the trip so far...





Read the full post for more photos (¿is there no colon on spanish keyboards?)

-----------














Full Post and Comments

I'm up too early to jump on a plane and head south, way south - Buenos Aires, Bariloche, Santiago then home (via Dallas... woot?). Luckily, my wife Meghan speaks Spanish and has traveled there before... the extent of my Spanish vocab is pretty much limited to "cinqo cerveza pour favor" and a few choice obscenities (a great combo, I know).

I doubt I'll have a chance to upload any photos while I'm gone, but I may sneak a text blog (twitter might be easier) or two in there during the trip... photos when I return!

Full Post and Comments

Haven't shot much lately, been busy looking for work / preparing my photo submissions for this season / getting ready to head to Argentina and Chile for a couple weeks. Hopefully, my camera doesn't get jacked and I have a ton of photos to post when I get back in mid-May.

Here's a couple old (2006) photos of the Mandy Glacier, northwest of Stewart, BC - she lights up vibrant blue when the light hits her. I miss working there, even though I recall the day I shot the pano being absolutely miserable.




view this one bigger

Full Post and Comments

Just a few weeks ago I was raving about how winter had finally arrived... it was good while it lasted, but it seems to have been short. I went from shooting on another sunny Sunday at Cypress, to enjoying burgers and beer at sunset on Jericho beach in less than 45 minutes - I really love living in this city.

I wanted to throw a strobe onto Colin in this photo, but my camera battery decided to call it quits after a long day of shooting, and the spare was in the car. I still like it.
Full Post and Comments

My wife Meghan is working on a novel, and is writing a blog about the process. Her writing is a lot more exciting than mine... check it out:

Blog
Twitter

I've been shooting a ton lately and will try to post some recent stuff later today. Stay tuned!


Full Post and Comments

Sunday has lived up to its name the past couple weeks, giving me plenty of opportunity to shoot photos and work on my increasingly well-defined goggle tan. Two weeks ago, (after the storm-of-the-season week came to a close), I spent the day out in Lakeside Bowl on Blackcomb with the NuuLife crew with the intent of staying out all day and shooting some pow shots at sunset...

John Swystun getting it done on both sides of the lens:




Read the full post for a story about how easy sledding is and a short whis park video from Eric Poulin:
---------

...Unfortunately, Dave Craig suffered an equipment malfunction on the landing of a step down and had his board double eject (wtf, I know) and take off ghost rider style down to the bottom of the bowl. With his board a 500 feet below us, we decided to bugger the sunset shooting and call it a day.

This...


...turned into this:

Is this why we're supposed to wear leashes?

Fast forward a week to last Sunday - the weather was prime again so I took up an offer to head out on a sled trip into the Whistler area backcountry. I've always heard people say how much of a bitch sledding can be when you first start out, but I was not prepared for the beat-down my body was about to receive.

Making matters worse was the fact that I wasn't actually sledding up to the zone - I was being towed, wakeboard style, into the alpine. I like to think my legs are in pretty good shape, but my arms? Please. I'm a photographer, not a longshoreman. Now I feel like Stretch Armstrong - and don't even get me started on the roller coaster ride up to Tricouni...

Complaints aside, once we were up it was about as glorious as it gets. We had some rad laps in the trees to start out, then hit some mellow terrain in the alpine and built up a perfect huck-anything step over.

Eliel Hindert found a nice spine area in the trees to rip:


My prior sledding experience is almost exclusively ice fishing trips. Not today.


Andrew Narkewicz, double or nothing:


Gideon Baldridge plays backcountry chauffeur for Eliel:


When we arrived at the trailhead in the morning it was an absolute zoo, so Gideon got a little creative with his parking skills. It cost us when we got down; the snow he parked on had melted under the heat of the car and refrozen after the sun set, pretty much welding his Land Rover in place. It took a bunch of digging and a pull from Hockenstein (thanks buddy) before we were on our way back to the city... we rolled home 15 hours after we left in the morning, dead tired and super-stoked.

Meanwhile, back at Whistler, Eric Poulin did some filming and threw together a little edit of how he spent his sunny Sunday - check it out!


Last Sunday from Eric Poulin on Vimeo.


Full Post and Comments

Not much to say with this post, as I think the photos speak for themselves. After the storm passed, the clouds lifted and revealed the scars of a thoroughly badass avalanche cycle. While I scoped the slides from lift accessed terrain, photographer Jeff Patterson and the MSP crew had a sketchy close call out in the backcountry (read about it on his blog). Be careful out there!

Fissile got ripped open:


Some photos of a controlled avalanche on Poop Chutes in the full post:


Patrol bombed Poop Chutes and it rode to the road:


The runout rolled right up to the Blackcomb Glacier cat track:


A closer look at the start zone:


270mm reveals all the different layers in the crown. That is alot of snow coming down the mountain...


I'm sure if you knew the field of view at that focal length, one could figure out the actual size of the crown, but I'm fine with settling for "big". Props to patrol for keeping us safe.


Full Post and Comments

Wednesday was essentially a write off day due to the shenanigans that went down on Tuesday night, but we managed to get in a couple good laps in the afternoon. I was stoked to be riding sans camera - ripping through the trees and pillows is always a little nerve wracking when the contents of your backpack are worth more than your car...

On Thursday we got up bright and early (leaving from Vancouver early) and cashed in some previously purchased fresh tracks tickets to get up the mountain an hour or so before the general public. Fresh tracks is great, especially if you're really hungry - someone with a big stomach can easily get their money's worth at the breakfast buffet in the Roundhouse...

As is the norm during any decent Whistler storm, the visibility off the back of the peak was atrocious - the only remedy is to head into the trees.

Jake Cohn makes some low-vis pow turns:


More words and photos in the full post:

----

Eliel Hindert drops 20:


Pow stoke:


Theoretically, this was going to be a fun photo of Eliel, Taylor and Jake all charging through the snow at the same time. You can see Eliel's ski, upside down, in the top right. Fail.


What's that you say, Eliel? It's deep?


Jake and Taylor try to coordinate their next move a little better:


Eric Poulin harvests some stump-pillow:


I got off the mountain at 5:45, soaking wet (I'm a sweaty beast) and dead tired. Back down to the city to dump photos, take a breather and see my wife before heading back up for the weekend...

Full Post and Comments

With last Saturdays snow and promising forecast, everyone was cautiously optimistic about the possibility an 04-05 style late season powder redemption. After holding back for 4 and a half months, Ullr finally returned to Whistler in early January fashion - 7 days of storm, 6 feet of fresh.

Tuesday brought a short break in the weather, throwing a little light down on the mid-storm goodness:



Our first lap on Peak, we hit up Christmas Trees and slashed up so much snow that I was physically impeded from breathing; constant face shots + jaw dropped in joy is a dangerous combination. I definitely pulled an Andy Samberg or 7 throughout the day.

More words and photos in the full post...

--------

Eric Poulin and Katie Hall-Leah share some Peak chair stoke:


When the bowls are tracked, those who know where they're going head into the trees. Katie imagines the possibilities on a deep pillow line:


I don't particularly like this angle. Katie almost took that chainsaw to my head...


Eric Poulin pops off a pillow and over some stumpage:


Taylor Pfaff does some stump-jumping of his own, grabbing tail for good measure.


From a hasty pit we dug in the pillow field, we were looking at about 60cm of storm snow on Tuesday, meaning the best was yet to come. Unfortunately, being a bunch of weak-willed beer lovers, St Patrick's Day festivities kept us off the mountain until noon on Wednesday...

Full Post and Comments

Since I posted last Sunday, over 6 feet of snow has dropped on the Whistler area... needless to say, it's been an incredible (and busy!) week on the mountain. Now that the storm has passed, I've got short break to play catch-up before things get crazy again in a couple days - watch for a bunch of blog updates in the meantime.

I did a bunch of shooting and riding with the NuuLife Cinema crew last week, hiding in the trees during the storm, and up in the sunny alpine yesterday. I'll have some photos up as I process them, but for now check out the first teaser for their 2009 release, "Sixes and Sevens"


NuuLife Cinema Company - "Sixes and Sevens" - Teaser #1 from john swystun on Vimeo.
(teaser is back up!)

NuuLife Cinema's Dave Craig (and friends) filming in the trees on whistler:


Full Post and Comments

Good times shredding with Jake Cohn on Blackcomb today. Is winter finally here?





Full Post and Comments

I've been limping around the mountain on my broken snowboards for the past 2 weeks now, but I guess I can't complain anymore. At least I didn't break my face...

The sun creeping up the wall was making life difficult for my feeble speedlights:


A few tries later, this wallride got nasty; click through to the full post to see the aftermath.

------
Eric Poulin - "excuse me while I kiss the ground":




Nothing broken, just 4 stitches, a scar, and no shaving for a couple weeks. Bring on the 'stache.

Full Post and Comments

With the lack of snow this season, I have yet to transition from my "rock board", my trusty 2003 (I think... I got it used in 2004) Option Sansalone. It has its fair share of core shots and edge damage, but Sapphire Bowl dealt a mortal blow this past Thursday, removing a bunch of sidewall from my heelside edge. With a few repairs its probably still fine in pow, but I can't see it lasting long on hardpack.

I can't really complain though, as I've ridden that board through the rockiest days of the past 5 seasons (and it was a demo board before that), dishing out a ton of abuse along the way. Best $125 I ever spent, long live the Option factory sale!

My poor board:


We hiked up above the glacier to deliver the last rites:


The scene of the crime - a very rocky Spanky's Ladder:


Read the rest of the post for a few more photos.
------


Hereward doubles down:


All smiles on a bluebird day - this was before my board was so savagely assaulted:


I never get sick of this view:


A few more photos can be found on my flickr.

Full Post and Comments

I spent a few days earlier this week riding out of Keith's Hut, a cozy little backcountry cabin in the Cerise Creek valley, about half an hour east of Pemberton. It's close proximity to the highway make it a popular touring destination, but going up midweek gave our group a solid monopoly on the hut.

The skies were blue, the snow was stable, and there were still plenty of good lines to be had, a week after the last snowfall. Top it all off with fish and chips at the Wigan Pier in Squamish on the way home, and you get a perfect backcountry trip. Chyea!

Looking back at Mt Joffre after shredding a 700m chute / glacier line:


Read the full post for more photos:

------
Joffre soaks up the morning sun:


Skinning up, with a view of Mt Matier and the Anniversary glacier:


Hereward serves notice that he will be skiing that line next time:


Looking east towards Vantage Peak:


Made it off the glacier with no crevasse incidents:



Speaking of monopoly, we didn't get to bed until 1am on Tuesday due to a 5 hr long game...



The rest of my photos
Hereward's photos

The only downside to the trip, was me realizing that I badly need a better touring setup. My backpack is way too big, I carry too much camera gear, snowshoes kinda suck and I always have to borrow a beacon when I go out. Definitely adding a better pack, a splitboard, and my own beeper to the "must buy" list, although I'll have to make due with my current setup for the rest of the season. I also need to figure out a better way to carry my camera when space and weight restictions are tight - the camera block from my sequence is waaaay too clunky to bring along on a multi day trip...

Full Post and Comments

This is the post where I concede defeat. You would think with no facebook to distract me (reinstated, by the way - someone complained about a group that I admin(ed) ), I'd have all that extra time to go out and shoot... but, of days 21-31, only 22, 23 and 29 have photos. I blame the departure of the awesome fog.

22: a park bench.


See the last few photos of the month after the jump:

---------

Day 23: Yahtzee!


Day 29: Sunrise from the Lions Gate Bridge (I'll blame this big gap of photographic fail on going to whistler and not bringing my camera... there was no way I was taking my first laps of Peak chair this season with a 30 pound Sequence bag strapped to my back.)


And finally, day 32 (to make up for no 31 ender). Building the ramp, testing the lights... almost ready for action:


So, there you have it - maybe not complete, but my photo-a-day is done. Check back soon for future updates.
Full Post and Comments

So, I went to check my facemail this morning, only to find out that my account has been disabled for a Terms of Service violation... No specifics, but apparently it takes a week or two before they get to any inquiry about this sort of thing. Maybe that's a good thing...

My advice to you: don't keep anything important on your facebook (phone #s, emails, etc) that you haven't recorded somewhere else... you never know when you'll need them and won't have access. For all my regular facebook readers, please subscribe to my feed in a reader, or follow me on twitter to continue to receive updates on my photo-a-day project. Full Post and Comments

I'd like to take this opportunity to thank the fog for giving me 2 weeks of unique photo ops around the city. Now that its gone, everything looks so... boring. The weather gods must be especially forgiving though, since the fog has been replaced with SNOW today! The more the merrier, bring it on...

On day 17, I brought my camera along for a night out at one of my favorite pubs in the city, the Kings Head. Good times, good beer, good friends, good music. Pretty much sums the night up...


Read on for days 18, 19 and 20:

----------

Day 18 is a bit of a cheat: these are photos of photos I took last March, and got published for a Whistler/Blackcomb park guide in the Norwegian Magazine Fri Flyt.
I'm top right:


and both on this page:


Props to the girls (Mira, Dina, Lisa and Chelsea) for a fun, productive day in the Whistler park last March!

For Day 19, I snapped a few shots of a familiar sight for Vancouverites: cargo ships and mountains at sunset. Check the new watermark! Oh yea!



I use my 50mm 1.4 for about half my photos, so needless to say that focal length can get a bit boring. On day 20, I flipped it around and shot some backwards macros with it. I collected this rock on one of my adventures in northern BC... bonus points if anyone can name all of the sexy sulphide minerals in this photo:


That's it for now, the next update should feature some riding of the current snowfall...

As always, I'll throw in another, shameless plug for my twitter... follow me! Full Post and Comments

Um, yeah. So, I didn't quite realize how tricky this was going to be, but I'm running out of ideas. Gonna have to start photographing more people, cause I can't think of many new ways to shoot the city in the fog (plus I think the fog is rolling out).

Day 12: the seawall in Coal Harbour:


Days 13-16 in the 2nd half of the post (note - 14 and 16 are good, just ignore 13 and 15):

---------

Day 13: self-portrait #1 is a pretty clear sign that I'm starting to run out of ideas...


On day 14, the fog pulled through for me, just minutes from midnight:


Day 15 was another miss, lame photo (I do like the sky though) from my balcony:


Yesterday, I decided I needed to get out of downtown to break the slump and get something a little different. Day 16 is from the pier at Jericho Beach, looking back to the city skyline:


It's a pano, so I recommend checking a larger version.


So, that puts me halfway through, hopefully I can continue to find new stuff to photograph over the next 2 weeks...

Full Post and Comments

On my way home from photographing a political event in Gastown on Wednesday, I passed by the Steam Clock (a big meh, if you ask me), where a young man was reading up on the history of the famous Vancouver landmark. I think watching people watching the clock is way more interesting that watching the clock itself...



Read the full post for days 9, 10 & 11:


---------

I hate to say this, but for all of you stuck down in the foggy city all week... its warm and sunny on the north shore mountains. Went for a quick snowshoe up / snowboard down Mt Seymours 1st pump on Thursday, and the weather was nothing short of glorious.

Eric Poulin sends a method off a hip that's seen many a method over the years, in the Seymour backcountry:


An alternate for day 9:


Day 10, under the Cambie St bridge:


A couple of day 10 runner-ups


Day 11 - I took over 1000 frames today, but most of that was for a time lapse video that will probably take a little while to edit - bird on a wire will have to suffice.


Don't know what I'll shoot tomorrow, but I have a ton of photos to edit. Check back soon for the next round of updates...

I'm still trying to get into this twitter business, follow me!
Full Post and Comments

Didn't get out of downtown much over the past few days... so days 5, 6 and 7 of the photo-a-day are all fairly similar. I'll try to change it up tomorrow.

Day 5: Blue steel



Read the full post for days 6 and 7 (you'll want to see day 7...):

-----------------

Day 6: the view down Hamilton St from my apartment:



Day 7: Vancouver's waterfront - Harbour Centre and the SeaBus terminal. I don't do long exposures often, so I'm pretty happy with how this turned out.



Desktops of Day 7:

1920x1200
1280x800

If you want to keep track of all the images in one place, you can see them in my photo-a-day flickr set.

Full Post and Comments