While it has been a while since I have been able to hang out in E-town I have been wanting to check out the new art gallery. I was leaving Alberta right around the time that they were looking at the art gallery replacement candidates. I recall looking at the little mock up designs of possible new art galleries at one of our trips to the old art gallery. Neat to see the gallery completed and open.

One thing I do miss from Alberta is wide open fields even if I am feeling quite homesick for Vancouver! Taken of me by Miranda during an awesome photoshoot we did this afternoon!

Crashing at the Awesome Unit in cow-town tonight, and I can not begin to explain how i am super excited to hit the highway early in the morning. I miss my cats and my home.

Yup I am in Ralph Country, Or Pil Country, also known as Creston Beer country, and the land of ice and snow! I have been for nearly a week and I am home sick. Never in my life have I been home sick before, & trust me I managed to be a bit of a vagabond for many years. It’s funny because some one asked me if I was headed home for thanksgiving, and after some thought I have to say that Vancouver is officially my home now. I am only visiting Alberta & I simply can’t wait to head home! Especially now that we have a home that is ours (I say ours but really for the next 25 years it belongs to the bank) We are moving in at the end of November (the 28th to be exact) and while I am prepared to move all by myself I am offering beer & pizza to any would be box haulers out there :). The plan is to have our pro-photog party and our house warming that following weekend so keep your calendars free for November 28th and December 5th!! Thus forcing us to unpack and organize quickly. That is the idea anyway! anyhow I ave to run and shoot a wedding now. Just dropping a note.

Criminalizing Photographers?
Not taken by me… taken by Cabbit

Yuppers read up go here to read about it! At least Translink has responded to the thread which is awesome.  While I do understand why they need to do this, I worry about how this is going to effect things long term. In e-town I was constantly avoiding the transit cops (and security guards in general) because they had a zero tolerance policy when it came to photography. Not to say that i didn’t shoot there all the time!!

Coming to Vancouver and having a city relaxed attitude to photo walking and the like is refreshing but I worry that post Olympics what policy’s are going to stay around for ever and what things that should be public domain are now going to be off limits?

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

I have had a Black & White dark room that has been in a box since I moved from Edmonton! Not that I haven’t had the chance to play in the darkroom for our last building had a very nice darkroom set up with big sinks and a lot of plumbing! It was fun but it wasn’t mine! I was always worried I was going to step on someones toes or that when I went down at 2:30 in the morning that some one was already going to be using it! Silly I know but I am a little odd with these sorts of things. So in the last few weeks I have been slowly dusting off the old enlarger and setting up our laundry room as a darkroom! Loads of fun, but I have always had a desire to work in colour. So after some searching craigslist provided me with a inexpensive colour enlarger and last night I tried my first colour prints ever.

Now getting real true colour can be tricky but i am shooting with holgas and modified brownie cameras so i am not really to concerned about true colour! When i get a chance i will give a little write up on the process.

So here i am in AB! I made here (here being Westlock not Edmonton so 45min further) in the record time of 11.5 hours. Mostly I am sure due to the fact that for the first time ever I have a car that will maintain the speed limit on the Coquihalla and been able to pass people on the single lane highways. It’s not a scooter but the new car thing is ok i guess :)

Allright I am off to visit my Mom and Grandpappy!

I was cleaning up a little and I came across a box of slide film that I took years ago and well I thought I would post something from it.
This is Edmonton’s LRT Tunnels, I spent a lot of time here trying to get the perfect shot and not get kicked out by LRT Cops

Was taken on the canon Rebel 2K film camera! Talk about old.

Camera: Canon Film Rebel
Aperture: Unknown
Shutter: Unknown
Lens: Canon EF 28-80mm
Film: Slide Film
ISO: n/a
Date : Unkown

Camera: Canon 10D
Aperture: 2.8
Shutter: 1/60
Lens: Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L USM @ 46mm
ISO: 200
Date Taken: July.03.2005

Boy oh Boy Edmonton Airport security is really dropping the ball today. I am sitting waiting to step on to the damn airplane and I have yet to show my Driver’s License to a single soul. My camera bag went though security unopened and I managed to bring though a laptop covered in crazy stickers with parts hanging on by wires unquestioned. Oh ya! They didn’t even look at my boarding pass once. I feel sorry for the Edmonton airport staff. <begin-rant>They do nothing but deal with stupid rednecks that can’t fathom the concept of self serve check-in and/or baggage drop, but feel the need to waste my time by not going to the full service check-in where they should be anyway. Self serve means you serve yourself not make twenty five people wait ten minutes in line while you get the

BAGGAGE ATTENDANT TO PRINT YOUR DAMN BOARDING PASS!!!

Drag your ass over to the full serve line. JACKASS!!!
< / end rant>

I am amazed at the different treatment that I received coming to Edmonton this time. You see I have flown to Edmonton like 6 times this year but always for a wedding, so I am dressed nice with a suit jacket and a nice shirt. I am usually clean shaven and I am caring a wallet in the inside breast pocket. (I have a theory about carrying your wallet in the inside breast pocket) and I am always treated well with the airport, car rentals, and the hotel. This time however (with the exception of West Jet) they all treated me like I was a Hastings Hobo. What changed? Well I am not dressed like I am going to a wedding. I am simply dressed like I was going to a gig at Richard’s or an evening at the Cambie (You know normal) Even with my National Emerald Club card (I feel so grown up cause I have a preferred customer card with a car rental company) and a car reservation I felt lucky to actually leave the airport with a rental car. Funny thing is I got the very same grumpy agent when I returned the car and she was pleasant as pineapple punch to me when I traded the faded t-shirt for a dress shirt. :) The weather is not bad here today of course I am leaving cold and snow to go to sort of cold and snow, but I don’t know -7 C seems better to me.

Oh Oh… a flight to Victoria has just been canceled….. Dun dun dooonnnnee Well My flight isn’t showing delays yet but I am 15 minutes to boarding and there isn’t any plane at my gate. Mmmm…. Oh well I am sort of choked that I wasn’t in Vancouver for the first real snowfall in forever but I have been assured by M that there is plenty of snow left for me to see.

The only part I miss about winter is wakening up one morning to see that it had snowed all night and it’s all exciting and a novelty to have snow. I hate winter when it’s 35 to 40 below and four or five months has gone by since the first exciting snow and you are well fed up with anything that resembles winter and you are totally longing for the spring/summer. But I like that first snow excitement, as long as I don’t have to drive anywhere.

Well I am on the plane and it only left about ten minutes late or so which with all the crazy weather we have is completely amazing. I super excited to see my kittens although I am sure that they are either to mad to give a warm welcome or I have been gone so long that they have forgotten about me.

I am just rambling now because these seats don’t allow me to look at my screen square so I am limited to typing for laptop entertainment. I think that I am going to finish my website next week after I get the last weddings out. I have moved the site over to the new host with the intention of uploading the new site and having it launch live when the DNS rolled over. Instead I rolled over the DNS but not the new site. I figured that no one really goes there anyway what the hell it can sit dead for a week, but all week I have been getting Emails and phone calls from people wondering where it was. The lesson to be learned here? Check the traffic logs once and While. I think that I know the entire West jet steward staff because I have had all 4 of these ones on other flights, that or I am living in a fake made up world. (Insert matrix music here)
So I didn’t do a damn thing over the last few days except shovel snow (which I found fun believe it or not), drive, and have a good chat with my mother about everything and nothing. It was hard after a while to do nothing, to not have a plan for the next day, but man I am happy that I did. I was getting a little burned out from not sleeping and having no life, sorry all who have invited me out in the last month. Maybe next month!!! I am destined to have a week of solid work from the moment that I land because of it but I feel refreshed and ready to roll.

My silly battery is going to die here in a minute and I am pissed about that. My laptop has decided to fall apart all at once. My screen needs to be held up most of the time because a hinge is broke, there are large dots on the screen that don’t work right, and the mouse buttons aren’t doing so well at the clikey clikey ,

Ok my battery is really mad now.

Yuppers here we are in the land of snow and Ice and uninspired public transit. We are here for Roy & Tara’s wedding which is funny cause last I heard they Eloped but alas a weeding we are attending. I am gonna drink a lot!!!

I have looked at this ten times and I still haven’t a clue what they mean. Funny thing is I don’t think any one else does either, The spots were always empty! From a street near Our Edmonton Loft.

Camera: Canon 1D Mark II
Aperture: 2.8
Shutter: 1/200
Lens: Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L USM @ 70mm
ISO: 100
Date Taken: June.03.2005