Road Trip!

Of the 8 days after Christmas day, I spent 4 of them driving a car. Initially, the plan was to drive down the coast to SF from probably somewhere a little west of Seattle. The reality of the southerly drive was not at all along the coast. We left late because I procrastinate.

Canadian Sunset

Highway 99

Because we started off so late, there was very little coverage on the first day. We managed to get from Vancouver to Seattle for an early-ish dinner. Consequently, we hoteled in Portland.

Ace

Right Here

The bar we went to for a few drinks to take the edge off driving for the end of the day was awesome. Because it was actually Boxing Day, there weren't many people out, which was just fine - more time under the beer tap for me. It was a perfect way to put my ass to sleep.

Boxing Day plus one... We bought chains for the car (by the way, I have a car, did I mention that?), I drove, white-knuckled for two hours over the Siskayou Pass where it was snowing and there was slush and I felt like I might have had control of the car for like 10 whole seconds over those two hours. Oh and it was pitch black. Needless to say, it was terrifying. I'd recommend it to everyone.

Haze

Left

Felled

Fluffy White

The snow, it looks so pretty, but, no sir, I don't like it.

To be continued...

Day Tripper

From the old photos folder, here's a few I took while we had a friend visiting and went over to the North Shore on the SeaBus. I have a fascination with the SeaBus, so I like to find any excuse to go to the North Shore on the SeaBus.

Parallel

Wake

Skylight

AtAt at Work

Making it up to you, badly

I was gone for only a week, I know. I have no excuse besides being lazy. I have a few shots from the first trip this year to England, back in June that I thought might placate you long enough for me to run away again and not really write so much. Heee!

Englishmen

Doors and Windows

Welcoming Committee

Spiraling out of control

My first trip to England this summer was for a wedding - not unlike my second trip in August but that's neither here nor there. We went to Oxford to sort out some wedding outfits and after all the fittings were finished and the scheduling was done, we wandered around the city for a while just so I could take some shots of the architecture that I find so fascinating. For the majority of the time the weather was incredibly kind and beautiful. When we finally got close to a coffee shop (shamefully, the coffee trend has yet to fully engulf the English Island as it has done in Vancouver), the heavens opened up on us and we finally got me the caffeine fix I'd been waiting for. Thank heavens for that. Seriously.

I've got a pile of pictures to add, and I suspect that there will not be a huge amount of commentary until I'm caught up really. In the meantime, there's more non-commentary-ed pics up on flickr.

From the bottom of the stack

Seriously, I'll cut this down. I will. Soon. When I'm not busy clearing off that shelf in my freezer for my ice cream maker. Or when I'm not making cupcakes. And icing. And shoving the iced cupcakes in my mouth. All of which I plan to do from now until tomorrow. Just after I go out in the sunshine and maybe buy some things from some stores. Until I do all those things, lookit what Granville Street looks like at night through a Canon EF 70-200mm f/4.0 L USM lens. Isn't it real purty!?

LandmarkTaken on April 14, 2007, 8:38pm
Freehand, 1/80s, f/5.00, 70mm, ISO 1600

Stanley Cup Playoffs Interruption

I have no wit, since my brain is otherwise engaged in focusing on the Red Wings v. Sharks game 5 that is currently in intermission at the end of the 1st. Detroit, where'd you go? Can you come back now please? The game's even on your own damn ice. So fake like you are interested in the puck, would ya please?

So other than that, I got some pictures from that plane ride NOT on Easter morning. See?

From the NorthTaken on April 15, 2007, 1:02pm
Freehand, 1/2500s, f/5.60, 70mm, ISO 1600

CabledTaken on April 15, 2007, 1:03pm
Freehand, 1/4000s, f/5.60, 100mm, ISO 1600

(Pssst! P.S. Red Wings 4. San Jose 1. Thanks for showing up to the rest of the game, guys!)

The End of the Summaries - Whistler, the last part.

I drove around a lot. With the camera. Because it was cold. And, wow, big. Whistler is a great area for all sorts of activites, but my favorite, by far, was taking pictures. And because I'm not at all funny today, here's the last of the shots for the blog. (Other pictures from Whistler can still be seen on my flickr page.)

El Cap's TwinTaken on April 9, 2007, 1:37pm
Freehand, 1/400s, f/5.00, 40mm, ISO 100

Rain, IncomingTaken on April 9, 2007, 1:37pm
Freehand, 1/500s, f/4.50, 18mm, ISO 100

Streaks of BlueTaken on April 9, 2007, 2:42pm
Freehand, 1/4000s, f/3.50, 18mm, ISO 100

Coming to a Point - Clouds Part 2 - Whistler Part 3 (of 4 or maybe of 5)

Signage is very important in areas where the local government or parks and recreation folks would like to keep people from ruining the wildlife and natural habitat. Which is why I loved the signs that said DO NOT DISTURB and that there were FISH AT WORK in this little rivulet in Whistler (into which a nearby construction site was, I'm sure, "accidentally" dumping ... something orange).

Fish At WorkTaken on April 9, 2007, 12:13pm
Freehand, 1/250s, f/3.50, 18mm, ISO 100

I wanted to give those poor little orange dyed fish some milk and cookies to sooth their nerves, but I couldn't find just one little guy swimming around in that orange gunk. Surprised? Yeah, me too. If I had had a carrot on me, I would have dropped that in there just because it would have been easier to camouflage my blatant disregard for the WORKING FISH with the vegetable over the milk and cookies.

So after I baffled at the pretty, and completely unnatural, colors of the little rivulets, I went back to looking at the sky. And the Clouds. The fog-like Clouds. The ones that had eaten up the top half of all the surrounding mountains. It was creepy. And eerie. And just wrong, wrong, wrong.

Here. A lot of pictures of the clouds while I try to think up something smart to say.

Them's Some RunsTaken on April 9, 2007, 12:36pm
Freehand, 1/320s, f/6.30, 50mm, ISO 100

Slight Curve AheadTaken on April 9, 2007, 12:41pm
Freehand, 1/250s, f/7.1, 24mm, ISO 100

Above the LakeTaken on April 9, 2007, 12:50pm
Freehand, 1/250s, f/4.00, 22mm, ISO 100

Smrt. That's all I got.

Clouds Part 1 (aka Whistler part Two)

Living in Vancouver for the past few months - those of which are considered to be the "winter" months - has reminded me of something that I apparently forgot about for the past 5 years while living in Vienna. There are these things called clouds. Clouds block out the sun. And when you live on the coast, there are, generally speaking, a whole boatload of clouds.

Over the Easter weekend, I learned that when there are clouds in Vancouver, there are some serious clouds in the mountains.

More Than a WispTaken on April 9, 2007, 2:42pm
Freehand, 1/4000s, f/3.50, 18mm, ISO 100

Off pisteTaken on April 9, 2007, 11:59am
Freehand, 1/100s, f/10, 25mm, ISO 100

Over the LakeTaken on April 9, 2007, 12:15pm
Freehand, 1/320s, f/6.30, 21mm, ISO 100

Clouds, mountains, big rocks and lakes, colorful rivulets and some more trees still to come.

And then, finally after all of that stuff we can get into the shots I took with the Canon 70-200mm 1:4 L lens, which oh my dear good god, is it nice - and not mine (damnit).

What you can expect in Whistler...

Look, I know that there is a lot of foliage in this province. I know there are a ton of plants. What I didn't know before Easter weekend was that BC is where the forests of the whole of this continent begin. I mean... Look at this.

Forest
Taken on April 9, 2007, 1:03pm
Freehand, 1/40s, f/3.50, 18mm, ISO 100

And that's the local cemetery.

Whistler - In Review, Part One

Sorry I was a little absent there for a while. I was on vacation and since then I have dutifully spent all of my time not exactly actively attempting to get a job, but more like spending all my time fantasizing about buying a new lens. I still haven't decided which one to get - I know, I know - but what if I don't like it and then I have longings for a different lens very soon!? Perhaps its just me, but my, oh my, would that be a disaster!

Err, back to the point then. Easter weekend in the mountains. Who woulda thought it would be so pretty? So, Easter Friday, or whatever its actually called, found me happily distracted with my first foray into mountain driving in this here British Columbia. Overall, the experience wasn't bad. In fact, the only thing I found to object to was the vast quantities of falling rock signs. OKAY people, the rocks fall! I GET IT. Now, seriously, since those signs scare the bejeesus outta me, STOP TELLING ME! Oh, and also, those signs, they lie. Rocks fall, fine. But there are work crews actively, and purposefully mind you, making rocks break up with explosives and fall to the road. No, no, I do not kid. Let's be honest here. If you were a rock near the top of this hill, wouldn't you want to crash to the road without the assistance of dynamite?
Up
Taken on April 9, 2007, 9:24am
Freehand - DRIVING, 1/320s, f/14.00, 35mm, ISO 400
(Shhhh! It's not supposed to look good. Camera. Car. Hello!? Driver!!)

So when the actual arrival in the Whistler area occurred, I did the only thing that I can do when I arrive for a ski/snowboarding trip - go check out the area in a car because, oh my god, you want me to go up a mountain with PLANKS stuck to my feet and just... what? FIND MY WAY DOWN? HA HA HA HA. People, I need to ease into these kinds of things. EASE. I mean, for the love of pete, let me get a look at the thing before I have to go to the top of it, alright? Let me go check out the prettiness that surrounds me at the bottom of the mountain before I get to see everything from practically directly above it. For example, there are a number of lakes in the Whistler area.

Lost LakeTaken on April 6, 2007, 2:34pm
Freehand, 1/500s, f/8.00, 25mm, ISO 100

Also, there is a lot of this frozen water stuff. I don't get to see that much snow where I actually live these days, so remembering to put on shoes that have sides and tops, and not just wearing flip flops like I really wanted to because they don't have laces, was a real success for me. Plus, the shoes kept my feet dry long enough to take a few pictures.

Layers
Taken on April 9, 2007, 1:07pm
Freehand, 1/320s, f/8.00, 28mm, ISO 100

In Spades
Taken on April 9, 2007, 1:15pm
Freehand, 1/800s, f/5.60, 55mm, ISO 100

There is a lot of construction on the highway to make the road a bit less treacherous for the 2010 Olympics - or perhaps its because someone felt like blowing up some giant rocks along the highway and just continue to use the Olympics as an excuse to play with dynamite. It could be that those falling rock signs weren't legit until the construction started. I'm just sayin. Thankfully Peter Kiewit Sons' Company had signs to tell me that sometimes, just sometimes, it wasn't really SNOW on the side of the road, but ICE. And there's a big difference between those. One is pretty. One is DIRTY.

ICE ICE Baby
Taken on April 9, 2007, 3:23pm
Freehand, 1/2000s, f/4.00, 18mm, ISO 800

Since it was Easter weekend, I imagine that all the kids had the following week off school. Lucky little buggers. I hope that they didn't want to play any ball when they get back to campus, though.

Bolt
Taken on April 6, 2007, 2:59pm
Freehand, 1/500s, f/5.60, 55mm, ISO 100

And lastly, I was nearly inspired to go back to school when I saw this.

Out-Building
Taken on April 6, 2007, 2:58pm
Freehand, 1/320s, f/6.30, 39mm, ISO 100

I'll continue to upload a few pictures a day from the trip on my flickr page and of course here, as well.

Coming home

Walking home from an afternoon at the Vancouver Art Gallery, I just had to stop and snap this for the reflections of the Marine Building in neighboring highrises. I spent very little time thinking about how to take this shot since I was so cold - without a jacket - and had no tripod with me. However, I'm quite pleased that it turned out so remarkably interesting and without flaw. (Ha Ha?)

Frankly, the shot could have used a tripod, a longer exposure, and a slightly more appropriate focal length, as 22 seems to have distorted it a bit too much. I would have liked very much to have been able to shoot this from a couple storeys up, rather than having to have the angle that I always have for building shots in the city.


Marine Building, Burrard Street, Vancouver, BC
Taken on February 20, 2007, 7:29pm
Freehand, 1/3.3s, f/3.5, 22mm, ISO 200

So enough of that and on to more impressive things. VAG is showing Fred Herzog photos currently. Great show, although I have to go back to see the other exhibitions. Its so interesting to see the few remaining Vancouver landmarks in Herzog's photos. I enjoyed trying to figure out where many of the shots were taken. He was kind enough to title many of his photos to include street names or include street signs in some of his shots.

Its a shame I wasn't able to get a few photos of the Gallery interior. They disallow cameras in the galleries. (I know, right? Rude!)

Take note! The building was previously a provincial courthouse replete with holding cells, catacombs and old courtrooms. So they're well prepared for dealing with unruly antics and rude visitors. And a piece of advice... If you manage to find yourself trying to wander your way out of the catacombs, don't disturb Charlie - one of the ghosts rumored to haunt the catacombs.