Yup cypress. I know I am a jerk for flaunting my self employedness but
take comfort in the fact that tomorrow while you are all sleeping it
off from the night before I will be hard at work. So today I am here.

Here we are at The Grizzly House in Banff having the worlds (well Alberta’s anyway) best fondue. I ordered a pint of trad and they seem to have some sort of measurement issue because this is not a pint it is a bucket. Mmmmmmm…. Fondue.

So because I didn’t gain enough weight this Xmas holiday season, I am
currently standing and waiting for my jumbo donair from Charles Smart
Donair in Etown. Mmmmmmm. Queen donair was closed so we are resorting
to the second best donair place I know.

iPhone blooging about things that people want to have/be doing but
can’t because of location/jorbs is awesome. I am not sure if there Is
any way to be more effective of a jerk really. We are off to banff now
and Lake Louise awesomeness tomorrow. :)

Yuppers it is Xmas morning.  A time where people are happily opening presents and having breakfast etc.  Basically Christmas is a perfect time to be out and about taking photos of stuff hassle free. :) I am thinking that I am going to make this Christmas photo wander a Jerk tradition for there is no one out and about other then me and no one to yell at me for taking photos Tonnes of fun!  This morning I braved the -31C temperatures to collect some awesome photos

Camera: Canon 1Ds Mark II Aperture: 1.4 Shutter: 1/1000 Lens Canon EF 24mm f/1.4L USM ISO: 50 Date Taken: Dec.25.2008

Camera: Canon 1Ds Mark II Aperture: 1.4 Shutter: 1/1600 Lens Canon EF 24mm f/1.4L USM ISO: 50 Date Taken: Dec.25.2008

Camera: Canon 1Ds Mark II Aperture: 1.2 Shutter: 1/2500 Lens Canon EF 50mm f/1.2L USM ISO: 50 Date Taken: Dec.25.2008

But at least they are supposed to have snow & ice. Yuppers we are off to Alberta and it is silly early! and I am tired. so ummm…. errrr….

Blogging seemed like a god idea until I opened WP and started typing…. huh…perhaps I will blog from the road when I am in right brain mode and have had a coffee or 12…. huh….

…….so I will just go anyway! :)

But I have to say that I am not really prepared for such weather :) I don’t know where my longjohns are!

After a day of dealing with broken things i am tired and want nothing more then to hit the hill in the AM so that is exactly what I will do! See ya there D

Today saw me driving all over the lower main land it would seem. I was out in Langley, Burnaby, and all points in between! All points except on Cypress Mountain to play in the snow. I didn’t get to all the things that i needed to get done today so I didn’t make it to the hill :( i am sure that I will be OK but i am starting to jones for snowtime! I mean i has been over three days!! :) Perhaps tomorrow afternoon or maybe even Saturday i will get out for a bit. Otherwise I work on Sunday leave on Tuesday. While i may be going to the land of ice and snow it is a flat land with no hills or anything. I will be taking my gear however with the hopes of hitting Lake Louise on the way home. :)

…from this last weekend but I haven’t had the time to sit down and do so.

Can for comments was a complete success with around 63 comments in that short time, so depending on time this week I should be able to get that all organized and delivered so some peeps can eat for xmas.

All day all I do is dream about snowboarding. It has consumed me entirely and I am not sure what to do about it! Last Saturday I had plans to possibly go to whistler for some snowy good times, but alas I totally slept in until 8:30am and decided that a half day at a half open mountain wasn’t worth the tank of gas and a 70 buck lift ticket, so I went to cypress’s opening day instead :) Saturday was the opening of the Easy Rider chair and the runway run. (IE: the bunny hill) Kinda lame I know but I went anyway :)

Sunday I convinced Coaxial that snowboarding was fun and went again to the other ½ of the mountain that opened that day. We boarded until it was time to come down off the mountain and prepare for one of the best parties I will go to this year (and believe me I am going to a lot of parties this year)
The Aislewalk party at The Palisades Hotel is where the latest issue was unveiled to all us folk. Why do I bring this work type stuff up? Well I am proud to say that I shot one of the editorials in this issue.

Yup fun stuff really.  It’s funny cause we do this stuff all the time in my work world but I never really talk about it because this blog is what I do out side of work (I recognize the irony. I am a photographer by day and after a long day of work what do I do to unwind and relax?  I take photos of stuff) so work is rarely talked about.  Also if you get a chance check out the  Art + Soul Gallery at the Palisades Hotel (on Robson Street) to see Erin Gilmore photography show Taste. Go see some of her brilliant works because Erin is awesome!

Because I had such a great time on Sunday I thought that on Monday I should go snowboarding again. I went from opening till about noon and came home and worked away the day.  It’s much easier to work away the day when you went snowboarding in the morning.

Tomorrow I am going to see if the opposite is true.  I have to drive out to Langley in the AM but after work stuff I am going to his cypress for the afternoon/evening.  The night riding has started for the year so I will check that out.

There is tonnes more that I wanna talk about but I am exhausted.

• Blog
• Count comments from last week and make a shopping list
  • Blog about that
• Work
• Sell one of my ipods to dude from Craigslist
• Walk down to the bank
• Get my tire from the tire place
• avoid work by flickring snowboarding photos
• Blog about shooting with wide open lenses
• Go to the New Media BC thing at the blackfrog.
• Finish Working
• Prepare for early morning meetings followed by perhaps an afternoon of snowboarding?

edit – 12:24am ok so not a lot got done on said list but i did drink a lot and meet lots of cool peeps!! That has to count for somethong today

i will finish stuff tomorrowo but thaat means nnnnooo snowboaaarfinfg  for me but i zm ok with   thzzzt

But what to do with it? That is the Question.  I am left with a huge dilemma, do I go to Whistler tomorrow as planned (and by myself I may add cause none of you are interested in a free ride to Whistler it seems) and rock out all day on a crazy mostly open mountain, or do I stay here and chance that Cypress is going to open more than the single green run chair tomorrow?  Such a tough choice.

Right now I am leaning towards continuing with the original plan and hitting up Whistler early in the AM, but I really don’t know. It is your last day to feed peeps by commenting on my blog so everyone should tell me what to do in the comments.

Last night was a good time that started at the Best Of 604 party thing at the Celler on Granville, and ended at Wine-o’s with a grumpy waitress. All was fun and I am sure that I insulted half of our table and outright offended the better part of the rest, but what can I say. I am a jerk.  I was thinking about doing a Snowboard Movie Night tonight but with all the uncertainties and people not sure what’s happening I am thinking that it is best to wait on that one till maybe next Friday. So… let it be known that Friday the 19th I will be hosting a Snowboard movie night at our studio in Gastown followed by a day on the slopes the following Saturday the 20th!!
Email me to RSVP

So I had to be up, out and about at some ridiculous hour this morning. Finding myself with time to kill and already being in the xterra (I need a good nickname for the truck. Comment your suggestions and donate a can to the food bank at the same time), I figured that the best course of action was simply to drive up Cypress and investigate this new snow situation. I had to wait at the bottom for the road to open because for some unknown reason it is closed from 11pm till 7am. I tried to ask the gate attendant why it was that the road was closed but he didn’t seem to like his job so he didn’t answer. I guess driving up to make out point in the middle of the night is no longer allowed. Perhaps there was just a little too much of that going on so they closed the road. I assumed that it was a road construction thing but I see no real signs of anything new going on, so I am at a loss. Anyone know why?

Anyway back to the snow! There is snow up there but it still looks to be a long way from opening.

So then I think that a Saturday trek to Whistler might be in order. I have no problem going snowboarding all by myself, but does anyone want to come with?  I have room for two to three in the crazy yellow beast and would love the company.  If it all works out to go, I would be leaving early enough to be on the hill at 9 or 10 so 7:30ish email me or comment (and in turn feed people) if ya wanna come!! Blog stalkers welcome :)

So I have the pass, now all I need is snow! Come on snow!!   Speaking of waiting for snow I am thinkign that a pre-opening day movie watching night is in order. It’s kinda unclear when cypress will open so it will be equaly unclear as to when, but I think that we should all watch tonnes of snowboarding movies, order some pizza, and then all converge on the mountain the next day! Who is in?

Come on people! You are not really commenting!! So to encourage you all I made a quick video.

Ok now go comment on some previous posts… Good… Now go and check out other peoples blogs and comment there!!

I am a jerk! I wouldn’t dream of denying it! I am however a jerk with a heart & as such I am participating in this drive for the Local food bank. Cans for Comments, my darling wife and other photo peeps started this and we are doing this on the work side of things. So why not do it here as well.

For one week – until next Friday Dec.12 – I will donate a non-perishable food item to the local food bank for every person who comments on any previous post. That’s all – really spread it about and check out some of the other people that are involved as well. Feel free to blog it, twitter it, facebook it – hit 10 blogs and you’ve donated 10 items to the food bank!

Here are some blogs playing along to get you started!

Blue Olive Photography | Delicious Juice | Chris & Lynn | Erin Gilmore | Amber Hughes | Lori Miles | Bebb Studios | CJ Scott | Jamie Delaine

Really I think that it is all wrong, but there are a couple of programs that are PC only that simply I haven’t found a suitable replacement for, so I have resorted to soiling my Mac with Windows. I am am super amazed at how seamless Parallels is making it to  though. Its like it is really running a PC again (shudder)

Here we have a photo that I took February 24 2006. Yup you heard me right, just a couple months shy of 3 years ago! Umm.. then why are you posting it now?
Well this is the first time I looked at it since I originally took it. I came across it while browsing the archives of the institute using the Smart Collections in Light room.  Basically I choose photos rated with 5 stars anywhere within the entire catalog and came across this and 271 other photos. This photo was taken so long ago that it was originally rated using Adobe Bridge because it was before the days of me using Light room. Anyway it is taken using the Canon MP-E 65mm f/2.8 1-5x lens that I should use more of.

However I should crash because I have a full day of studio shooting again tomorrow.