This morning we woke up at 6am in order to catch the 8am ferry back to Vancouver. I don’t think my head hit the pillow until around 1am, so needless to say I was pretty exhausted this morning. I’ve been trying to watch my caffeine intake over the last few weeks, and I definitely had a bunch this weekend. So even though I’m really beat today, I’m trying hard to not have any more caffeine. In terms of the concert, it was easily one of the best events I’ve been to in a very long time. We spent most of yesterday bouncing between watching concerts, walking around in the sun, and sampling ...

Here’s a shot that Arieanna took of me. And here was the shot I ended up taking: ...

Blog traffic is pretty low, even by weekend standards. So I can only assume that everyone’s out enjoying the long weekend. I’ll keep this post short for now. We all had a rather crappy sleep last night, so we’re a bit tired. We went down to the main stage early in the morning and managed to catch a few artists doing sound check. Here’s a quick shot of Sarah McLachlan. Here’s a quick video I took of sound check. It’s not finished converting yet, but head over and take a look. ...

Just a quick post. I met up with Arieanna this morning at the helicopter pad for our trip to Victoria. The helicopter was a lot of fun, and surprisingly smooth. We picked up our media passes a while ago, and are about to go get some fish and chips somewhere. Look for more shots later. You can follow my Flickr stream by clicking here. Also, I’ll be posting to Twitter from my iPhone throughout the day, so add me on Twitter here. ...

Arieanna and I spent this afternoon walking around the festivities. Today is basically the warm up for tomorrow, so it was rather relaxed. We spent time bouncing between beer gardens and the second stage, the latter of which had various talent performing throughout the day. Ianiv took the ferry this afternoon, and will be getting here shortly. Arieanna and I sweet-talked our way onto the fireworks barge later, so we’ll have press access for that as well. I haven’t really taken photos since the Junos, so today was a good warm up day for me. Here are a few shots I took: Also, here’s a ...

I went for a walk this afternoon down to the mall to buy a few new shirts. When I got there, I fielded a SMS message from John Biehler saying he was heading to the Apple store and asked if I wanted to meet up. I met him and Peter there, after which time we all headed down to the new Crumpler store on the edge of Gastown. I’ve always wanted a Crumpler bag, but they were hard to come by in Vancouver. So today I picked up a new camera bag with the intention of taking it to Victoria tomorrow. Here’s what it looks like: I opted for the smaller of the two bags they had, and I’m already regretting ...

Update – Hotwire came through for me again. We’re going to be staying at the Magnolia Luxury Boutique Hotel right in Inner Harbour. So exciting. The other day Arieanna contacted me via Twitter and asked if I wanted a photo pass for the festivities this weekend in Victoria. Since I haven’t been to Victoria in a few years, I thought it might be a good opportunity to sample some island beer and take some photos. Sometimes photo passes just let you get your camera in the door, and aren’t really anything special. However, Arieanna just got confirmation that our passes include access to the ...

This entry was written for Blogathon 2008, and in support of the Union Gospel Mission charity. If you’d like to donate to the cause, please visit the blogathon donation page and fill out the form near the middle. You can also follow the blogathon RSS feed for this site by clicking here. ...

In October 2003, there was a massive release of energy from our sun. The resulting coronal mass ejection (CME) headed straight for our planet, bombarding it with a massive amount of charged particles. The official classification for the flare was an X17.2, which is one of the top three recorded solar flares in the history of our planet. Photo from here The charged particles disrupted satellite communications in space, and also lead to auroras being seen as far south as the Chicago. I was fortunate enough to be following the activity while it was happening, and was notified via email (via SpaceWeather.com) ...

A New Day Begins In Vancouver I took this photo at around 5am this morning. Watching the sun rise or the sun set is something I will never tire of. Seeing the orange-red glow stretch across the horizon always makes me think what a beautiful thing it is to be alive, and what an amazing part of the world I live in. There are some people who think sunsets are cliche, and that taking photos of them is a waste of time. But I think the complete opposite, and as long as I have a camera, there will always be a sunset or a sunrise worth taking a photo of. This entry was written for Blogathon 2008, and ...

Two more people have donated recently to the Union Gospel Mission. They are: - Kevin Haggerty Grant Jordan Thanks for your support. If anyone else pledges before my next entry, drop a comment or an email and I’ll make sure I add your name. I don’t have the exact number, but I think that brings us close to $300, with a goal of $1000. So if you can help us hit that goal, please head on over to the pledge page and lend some support. To sweeten the deal, I’ll give any person who donates $50 or more to the Union Gospel Mission an 8×12 photo of your choosing from my HDR gallery located at SmugMug. One ...

Based on a suggestion by Raul, I’m going to talk a little bit about my entry into photography. I originally got into a photography because I wanted a hobby that exploited my creative side without all the trappings of the math and science I typically deal with in my day job. Photography to me has always been a bit of a release, a way to unwind and simply see only a small portion of the world at a time. It’s like turning the power off and noticing your ears are ringing — it represents a way for me to unplug from the world for a period of time. I picked up my first digital camera in 2000. It ...

Most compact cameras that you pick up from Future Shop only have one built in lens. In most cases, it’s a zoom lens, capable of giving you moderate wideangle coverage upwards to a decent telephoto lens. Most people probably don’t know the difference between those two, so I thought I’ll give a brief tutorial. The most well known lens is probably the 50mm prime. 50mm refers to the focal length of the lens, and prime refers to the fact that it’s a fixed focal length lens (i.e. not a zoom lens). In photography, the 50mm lens is also called a “standard” lens because it almost exactly matches ...

I tried doing a quick HDR of the Golden Gate Bridge and San Francisco. Turned out not bad with the fog. ...

Tonight was a jam packed night. I left work around 7pm, and then headed down Granville Street, frantically looking for something to eat. I actually walked into Wings, but it was completely full. So eventually I settled on my old-faithful nacho-haven, the Two Parrots. They had a 35 cent wing special on, so I filled up with that. Eventually I ended up at some Spanish place (coincidentally, it’s only one block from my place, and I had never been there) to celebrate Raul’s graduation from UBC with his Ph.D. (congrats dude, well, deserved). Good times. As some of you know, this weekend is New ...

I found a bunch more videos from the Junos. After the Gala on the Saturday night, a few of us headed to some after party. Here’s a shot from the Jam Room upstairs in the VIP room. ...

This was on Thursday night. Good times. ...

Tomorrow marks the first event for the Vancouver Fashion Week, 2008 Spring Edition. I had a media pass last year and spent a few evenings taking photos. If I remember correctly, the only downside to the event (in my opinion) was that I thought most of the models lacked enthusiasm. I also remember wishing I had brought a flash to the opening event, so if anyone is going, I’d recommend bringing one. While I love photography, it’s fairly dull sitting at the end of a runway for an hour taking the same shot over and over again, and I really appreciated the models that mixed it up a bit or added ...

I received an email a while ago from an editor at Wikipedia, asking me if I would mind if they using one of my juno photos on a page. The only catch is that they wanted me to change the license of the photo to allow for commercial use and derivative works. I’m a big fan of Wikipedia — I use it all the time. So I really wanted to help those guys out and let them use my photo. Since I paid for the entire Juno trip myself, I have a hard time actively letting other people make money from my work. As a compromise, I offered to grant Wikipedia a non-revokable license for use of that photo on their ...

Russell Peters: One of the best things I heard him say all weekend was his response to a question a reporter asked him during the press conference. They asked him what he was bringing to the Junos this year that was different than what previous hosts have brought. He responded “talent” ...