I went on a trek today with the new motorbike. I am in love and want to do nothing but ride around all day long!!!

Here are photos of the bike!

Here is a photo of josh being josh :)

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As well I also found a great many things today!

I found a whale. (it was dead)

I found the place that country kitsch goes to die! (it was in Delta, they served coffee)

I found America… (It was on the other side of that fence.)

I found delicious meat

I found where fruit and veggies go to die. (in large piles again in delta)

I found the worlds busiest small airport.

I found the ends of the earth.

I found a really big camera (nope not a typo…. It is a carriage that is also a camera)

I found out how many KM’s I can go on a tank of gas (but don’t worry bikes come with a reserve)

This past weekend we had a wedding at a place called Alpine Meadows Resort near Clearwater BC. Where is Clearwater you ask. Exactly! We were seriously off in the toolies which was really awesome even if it meant there was no cell service or internet.

We took a little river ferry to get there.

They had a lake that was quite literally jumping with fish and rowboats :)

Marsh Grass taller then me…

and street lights… in the wilderness… I am not making this up…

It was a weekend of completely epic clouds and dramatic skies.

I again like always have forgotten my capo resulting in an improvisation.

Super awesome place was a super awesome wedding, and despite it being a work weekend, it was super swell! There are more photos to come I am sure.

Even though they didn’t choose me to be one of the 200 artists, (something that shouldn’t really be a surprise, being that I did my submission at the very last minute from a bar after a few pints with stolen wifi and the Olympic Gold Medal Hockey Game going on) you should all check out this years Cheaper Show! It is on the 26th of June! So the Saturday after next!

It will be AWESOME I just know it, And I know all awesome, Because well I am an expert in the art of awesome! Really… I am… You don’t seem to believe me… Why don’t you believe me… You don’t think that I am an expert in awesome….. You don’t think that I am awesome…. arrg… Well I am awesome and my Mom says so…. You should GO TO THE SHOW!!!!

So after becoming horribly sunburnt and eating a fabulous meal with peeps at some Broadway sushi place (the name of which I cant recall), M & I went to Richmond to run some errands, one of which took us by the New Richmond Speed Skating Oval.

It is very peerrty at night so I think a trek back with tripods and the like will be in order.

Ok It looks like I may have fixed some of the word press bullshit that has been taking all of my free time as of late. We will see how this random manual fixing will all hold up.

In other news today was day one of northern voice 2010.  It was good. I took photos.

This is my first super Photoshop CS5 content aware photo Check out the original here. Not a super complex Photoshop job I just wanted to see how it works.

It has been a super busy weekend that turned into a busy week! Tanya’s wedding was an absolute blast! I think we should have more friends that are getting married, because I <3 going to weddings as a guest :) Photos will be forthcoming on the BOP blog for people who are waiting to see how awesome Tanya & Barry looked!

Sunday was Got Craft, and for those not in the know Got Craft is a really awesome craft show put on a couple of times a year by Lotus Events. This year, like last year, my darling Wife & Kimli had a table. It is a crazy awesome show that everyone should check out. So being that I was down on Commercial Drive the very first thing Sunday morning I seized the opportunity and took advantage of completely empty streets and closed store fronts to walk about with my camera!  This particular set of photos I found in a dead end back alley behind what sounded like a busy restaurant.

More colour from my trip to the camera show last week. I heart New West for its old broken buildings. I fear that they are going to “clean up” the neighborhood and build shinny new uninteresting condos before I get a chance to explore them all. I suppose some sort of concerted effort on my part may be in order. :)

I enjoy that almost all the A’s are missing of some of the signs. I wonder if they were stolen or if there wasn’t enough A’s in the letters that they used? :)

Looking at the last few weeks I think I have been going crazy with the Black & White! So I think I will jazz things up with a bit of colour!

These are from my long walk from the commercial Skytrain station to the PNE yesterday!

I walked around the block to take this one.

I wonder how many times this wall has been tagged and cleaned and tagged and cleaned again.

In addition to being world Pinhole Camera Day, yesterday was also the Camera Show & Swap out in Burnaby. I decided to get up early and grab the long train out to Loughheed Mall instead of driving mostly so I could take photos on the way. While the show itself didn’t present any super awesome deals, the train did provide some awesome photos :)

This guys was seriously hitchin a ride on the skytrain. He had his thumb out until the train audibly started slowing down :)

I meandered out to New Westminster as well on the way back where I found many awesome photos. After, I went to commercial station and walked up to meet up with Miranda at K&E’s. So many photos but for another time. Off to collect peeps from airports soon :)

Yesterday morning I went to drop of some redscale sprocket pinhole film that I took to the lab.  Gearing up for World Pinhole day this weekend I needed to fire a test roll to perfect my pinhole camera. Of course on route I took photos.

I make no apologies for liking the Black & White so much as of late.

I am off to run some errands in a few moments one of which is collecting said film from the lab. Excited I am! :)

There are two things that are really particularly awesome about these photos… One is the Harley Davidson & naked lady stickers on the rear window, the second is the owner of this Harley Davidson/naked lady sticker laden Suzuki mini truck came up and enthusiastically talked to me after I took these photos. He was very excited that some was potentially interested in buying it from him.  He told me all the ways that you can make money with the vehicle including hiring it out as a mini dump truck for hard to reach places. Now what was awesome was the man was decked out head to toe in leather/denim Harley Davidson swag. He was “asking 7 for it” and that I should tell all my friends who might be looking for a career change that this was a really fantastic way to make “tonnes of cash!” I heart random people stopping and talking to me because I have a camera.

We went for coffee with a bunch of photographers this morning and somehow managed to drink four really strong Americanos in a row on an empty stomach so I am basically all over the board right now being totally unable to concentrate on much for more then a few seconds at a time.  Which is weird because after high school I assumed that I drank too much coffee and broke all the effects that caffeine had on me. So for many years I would drink coffee and not have it really do anything other then taste good. So this is a bit of a surprise and it is also a bit of a trip down memory lane to be buzzing on caffeine again. I am serious that it has been since I was in high-school that I was buzzing on coffee! FUN!!! I WANT TO DO SO MANY THINGS RIGHT NOW BUT I CAN’T BECAUSE I CAN’T CONCENTRATE ON ANYTHING FOR MORE THEN 3 SECONDS!!!! :)

Here are some more photos from yesterdays walk about.  It is sorta hard to believe that it was just yesterday that I walked about. I have had a lot of things on the go the last few days so time has that going slowly thing about it.  I have to say that yesterday was the day! I mean I was in the zone, the light was genius, and the weather was swell. I think I ended uploading nearly 70 photos to flickr, so that was a good day. I am noticing now the I track my time, simply how many hours I am putting in taking photos that no one sees. I should start a new photo project called photos that no one sees and upload all my work that was shot over a year ago. Looking at the huge box of film that I have here waiting to be developed I think I would have a large body to pull from :)

Tonight we all hooked up at On The Edge pub for some sort of Four Square gathering. where it was super hot for no real discernible reason. Now I am thinking that I may go for a wander out & about because it is supposed to rain tomorrow. Anyway on to the photos.

These two shots are from those random sections of cobblestone on Hamilton & Hastings street in front of Pappa’s Furs. (which interestingly enough has more cameras pointed at it then any other store in the lower mainland)

This is the Holy Rosary Cathedral on Dunsmuir & Richards.

you may have noticed that my Black & White streak is getting a little out of hand.  I just like shooting for composition rather then colour, so ya that’s that as they say.

I looove love love love this photo. I am not sure what it is about it but I just love it :)

This is a ladder that was leaning against a wall at the new Woodwards development. It was funny because I was ignoring all the wonderful architecture, and the large rotating neon W (although it wasn’t rotating yesterday), and I was instead looking at a wall in the back alley. You know, ignoring the pretty things and opting for the grungy alley that smells like pee is normal behavior for me really :) What made this special is there was a group of people that I could only assume were group photo walking that happened to come along and start taking photos of the wonderful architecture, and the large non-rotating neon W. All fine, but what was really funny is they looked at me while I was down on my knees basically laying on the ground at the entrance to the aforementioned pee soaked alley taking a photo of a ladder.  What I am basically trying to mutter out here is that I love love love the fact that any place can be a beautiful location, and that any thing can be a beautiful subject. Even if it is in a pee soaked alley near wonderful architecture.

These are just as the title describes? Long exposures of the New Canada Line Tunnels. The trick is they are from the train :)

But I am exhausted so i will leave it at that :)

Today was a crazy crazy busy day! I think our home should just officially apply for a liqueur license and we should become some sort of awesome networking/party/gallery type venue. With the brief exception of Chris M I was officially the only guy in a room full of 45-50 woman. I know right :) Tonight was the first #vansassybiz gathering that my darling wife set up, complete with wine, tea, & oh so much food. Watch the BOP blog for a post awesome post.

This time management thing is working out well for me. The simple act of paying attention to what i am doing every second is kept me from dicking about on the internet or reading magazines when I am supposed to be working :) I have accomplished more on my list of things to do in the last 30ish hours then most of last week.

Ok enough talking about stuff, on with the photos. Ok these three photos were taken in the middle of the night during last weekends walk back from Cambie and Broadway.

All were shot handheld with the canon 5d mark II and the 50mm f/1.2 using in camera Black & White contrasty profiles. I heart night photos.

That is all

I am making a purchase from the imposable project. I can not wait. I was going to wait till they came out with some type 600 as well but I am super excited to try the PX100 and I simply can not wait to try the Fade To Black film as well as some of the other SX-70 film.

I am thinking i might get a few of the type 100’s as well..

Who wants to split shipping? Shipping can be quite expensive so if some one wants to gang up an order with me I am all for it. Email me or comment here.

EDIT: 4:27Pm
It looks like the shipping is going to be a flat $50us regardless if you are buying 1 pack or 20. So what I am going to suggest is we will see who all is interested and then split the shipping equally amongst everyone. Sound good? Good!

Camera: Canon EOS 5D Mark II Aperture: 1.2 Shutter: 1/40 Lens: Canon EF 50mm f/1.2L ISO: 400 Date Taken: April.11.2010

This shot is from a walk about I did last Saturday night. I was walking home from Cambie & Broadway (yes it was a bit of a walk but i like walking places) where we all had a glorious dinner of many yummy things like Mashed Potatoes, and spicy chickens.  I took this about 1am and it looked like the party was winding down outside the ‘club‘ that is the cobalt hotel. Now I have never been inside the cobalt but i have it under good authority (meaning this tiger) that it is a ‘great‘ place to see bands. However, the words GIRLS GIRLS GIRLS that are written in flashing Christmas lights above the main door lead me to believe otherwise.  This was shot hand held from across the street using the 5d mark II and a 50mm f/1.2.

My future intent is to do more hand held late night photo wanders. I know that this might sound super cliche, but the world is a completely different place at night and really high usable ISO’s are going to allow me to capture more of it. I also find it interesting that with the exception of this small group of people & a couple riding a bike, I saw no one other then security guards on my entire walk home. I saw like 10 extremely bored looking security guards and 11 regular people. Just my observation. Anyway think it may be crash time for this guy.

I woke up this morning at the crack of dawn and went to church, then I had some breakfast, followed up by finished up some work, then there was a mini photo wander about city hall, rounded out with food and beer and then last but not least I walked home.

These photos are from that last part :)

super tired right now soooooo……. good night

So I may have been rocking the black & white a bit much the last few days. So I think we should brighten things up a bit with some colour.

These are part of a 35 minute photo walk that I did about main street while M was over with the awesome folks at East Vanity Palour getting some more awesome up in the hair department. :) Some days I can wander all day and hardly come home with 5 photos that i am happy with and other days when everything is just perfect and the stars are in some sort of arty alignment I can come home with 25+ awesome photos in less them 35 minutes. Just how it goes I guess.

These are a couple of fairly old photos that I have been meaning to share for a long time time now. These were shot with my Pentacon Six TL from the windows of my old studio.

Why are you posting this now you ask?

Well, our new building has a 7000 square foot amenities building in it. In this building is a wood working shop, a metal working shop, a gym, music spaces (this is where My Friend Lisa Jams), a huge pottery area with a couple kilns & four wheels, and last but hardly least a ridiculously awesome but totally under utilized darkroom/photo user group.

What does this have to do with anything you ask? Well yesterday I officially became the head of the photo user group. Meaning that I am in charge of moving the photo group forward, running workshops for film, darkroom use, intro to medium format and more stuff! Exciting right! Well if you are me I am excited!

I can hear what you are all saying to yourselves out there in some highly sarcastic tone… “Great. Super. You are excited, whoopty dooo, thanks for rubbing in that you’re all Mr. Awesome for living in a really cool space with all this awesome cool stuff to use. Wow! you really are kind of a jerk.”

Why it is cool for you? Is this…. As I get stuff prepared for this thing that I have to do I will talk about those same things here. So basically you are reaping the benefits of my complete inability to procrastinate. however now I must go forth to collect many hard drives from the hard drive store.