When we went to Alberta last month we came across this old abandoned gas station just off the highway

Last week I had a free night so Coaxial & I went for an overnight trip camping. My intent was to ride the Cache Creek loop,

but with the torrential downpour that we rode though and the general chilly weather, we opted to just ride to Squamish and back :)

Being a weekday we stayed at the completely dead Alice Lake campsite.

Some GoPro Stills from the way back.

GoPro Video

These were (like to many photos from this week) shot from the window of a tour bus. Despite using a Circ-polarizer  the window reflections are the cause of the blotchy sky here. We were on our way to Havana for the day and we passed one of Cuba’s power plants.

Last night after we played an online My Friend Lisa Show we hauled our asses out & to see Steph MacPherson & Michael Benard Fitzgerald play at the Biltmore.  Man! What a great show! :) Steph MacPherson and her crew put on an awesome opening act complete with banjos! (everything is better with banjos) MBF also put on a stellar show! this was the first time I have seen him play live with a backing band. Previous times have always been him solo with a looper pedal. The double drummer thing he had going on was spectacular to say the least! I didn’t get to many (aright it was just one) photos of MBF mostly because I didn’t want to elbow my way up to the front, that and I may have been just a little drunk. :)

On the way home (thanks Shan for driving!) we stopped at the McDonald’s on Main street near terminal.  What a horrible idea that was in so many ways. The first being that I hate McDonald’s & rarely eat it.  In fact the only two times in the last year that I have eaten McDonald’s I was drunk coming home from the Biltmore.  Curious :) However, that said what an awesome place McDonald’s is at 2am on a weekday.  We somehow (I say we but really I mean Me) managed to offend a trollish woman to the point of leaving, eat a whole Big Mac on an empty beer filled stomach, and start up a random conversation with a sun glass wearing, (it was 2AM) safety vest clad, cart pushing, hobo who insisted that we invited him in to the McDick’s (which we didn’t do) and that he had a lot to add to our earlier conversation about E.T.s (which we didn’t have) In which he Insisted that Sarah Palin was in fact an E.T. and that given a moment or two he could prove it.  We didn’t give him his moment, we instead left, quickly, after loudly clapping our (my) hands one last time in order to wake the odd man who was sleeping face down in the corner booth.

All in all it was a good night :)

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.

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.

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

So a while back Coaxial & I went on a trek to collect his Delica from the Delica master mechanics in Richmond. Now I could have easily driven the awesome Xterra directly to the body shop and collected up his vehicle, but where is the fun in that. We instead took the train to the casino and walked the 15-20 blocks though random industrial Richmond. We found the complete ruins of a couple large warehouse type buildings :)

You may have noticed that I am a bit of a binge photographer. I go for months saying nothing but taking photos by the hundreds and then I binge blog said photos that are three+ months old. :) That is just how it works, I am not saying that there is anything wrong with it. It is just the way it is :)

This was taken on March 3rd 2010 and I love it. What I love the most about it was that i was literally less then 5 feet away from these two. I snapped like 4 photos and neither one of them even noticed :)

Camera: Canon 5D Mark II Aperture: 3.2 Shutter: 1/1600 Lens: Canon EF 50mm f/1.2 L USM ISO: 500 Date Taken: March.03.2010

The Black & White was done in camera. Lately I have basically started to shoot everything using in camera profiles and Raw + JPEG. I totally hate that I basically get the photo perfect in camera only to have Lightroom strip all the info away.

HEY ADOBE MAKE LIGHTROOM 3 READ THE  CANON PROFILES!!!!!

This part of my current Eye-Fi project. (for those that are not in the know I am doing an Eye-Fi Project where I upload Photos that I take as I take them) This is a van that is nearly always parked on my coffee walk (the walk I do to get coffee)

It is awesome! I have to say that I have taken a tonne of photos of it. over the last few weeks.

I am still tired! I touched on it quickly the other day, but We (By we I really mean M) have been crazy busy prepping for our talk at ImageQuest yesterday. wiped I am. So I am going start a new project, but I am not going to talk about it yet because i r still busy & tired. soon. right now it is Breakfast time!! Amanda is in town so we must entertain her with coffee!!

More photos from the adventures that @tryllbee & I had yesterday at Granville Island. I had forgotten just how much I enjoy shooting Black & White, and I almost never shoot digital with the intention of making it Black & White. If i am shooting black & white it is almost always when I am shooting with film, but I am learning to really enjoy shooting digital B&W in camera with the colour option if i desire.

Today was an awesome day. I got up early for breakfast with @coaxial & @tryllbee at the second best cheap b-fast eats in Vancity, Paul’s Place. MMMMmmmm… Then @trylbee & I photo wandered about Granville island for many hours, Super Chill, Super Fun. Then I thought that I lost a card wallet with eight 8gig cards in it which sorta was a downer, but then I found it and all was happy again, & then I discovered that it wasn’t Sunday like I thought but actually Saturday, meaning there was a complete other weekend day left, then we all went for Vietnamese food, then we watched the spotlight thingy in English bay, then we had Hot Chocolate and I was happy and it was fun! :)