[ ](http://www.flickr.com/photos/duanestorey/499059903/) I know I said I wouldn’t post again until after my surgery, but I took a few shots tonight, and liked this one the most. So enjoy. The countdown is officially on — I had that exciting call with the nurse today, and got the green light from Houston to go ahead with the launch. I find out tomorrow afternoon the exact time of my surgery, and will spend part of the day cleaning up and getting ready for it. Take care of the internet for me for a few days while I’m gone. Talk to you soon guys. ...

A few days ago, Flickr gave me the not-so-subtle warning that my account was about to expire. Since I’ve had a pro-Flickr account for a full year now, I thought I’d take this opportunity to share my thoughts on the service so far. Flickr sort of came to the limelight about 18-24 months ago as one of the leading websites that had real Web 2.0 technology. If you haven’t been there you should definitely check it out. Most of the website utilizes Ajax and as you use it, sometimes it feels more like an application than a mere website, and that was really one of their original selling points. Most ...

On May 5th, Flickr is having a big world-wide event were everyone is being asked to record a day of their life in photos. I think this is a pretty cool idea, and it should make for some really interesting browsing when it’s all over. Unfortunately for me, May 5th will probably involve mostly sleeping and chewing pain killers, but I’m definitely going to try and participate if I can. ...

I’ve been messing around a bit more with photoshop in the evenings, and one day soon I’ll read the huge 1000 page book I have on it as well. Here’s something I was messing with a bit last night. It’s a shot from my patio looking easy towards Yaletown. The bridge is the Granville Street Bridge. The whole image involved work on about 5 different layers in photoshop. The rain was a bit trickier than I imagined, and it’s not entirely convincing, but it’s a good start. ...

I’ve been experimenting with high dynamic range (HDR) images for a few months now, and so far I really love the effect that you can get with photos. At least in my eyes, HDR images generally seem to look a bit more natural than a typical shot that doesn’t have a large dynamic range. Unfortunately, this whole field is more of an art than a science currently, so getting the perfect HDR shot is a bit of trial and error (and in a lot of cases, the end result isn’t always appealing). My tool of choice right now is undoubtedly Photomatix, and I use it almost exclusively when generating HDR shots. ...

Did a quick HDR off my patio before bed. And before I drop off, here’s one more bit of info — my dad and step-mom are getting on a plane at 7am to spend a week near Cancun relaxing. They usually spend most vacations every year in the RV camping somewhere, and this is the first trip that they’ve taken to a far-away place (except of course when they came to visit me out in Ottawa). So, I hope they have a really awesome time down there. Also, Jari and Seppo should be stepping off a plane any time soon to spend the week up here in Vancouver. These are the two Finnish guys I got loaded with ...

So as the sun went down over downtown this evening, I thought it might be a neat idea to try and make a HDR panorama. I’ve done this a few times using my PC, but never using my new Macbook Pro. I took a series of 20 shots and merged them together using the Mac panorama software DoubleTake. Afterwards, I created the final HDR using Photomatix. Here’s the end result. The HDR process went smoothly, but DoubleTake did a rather poor job of aligning the images. Part of the reason may have been that it thought the focal length of my lens was 26mm, even though it actually was a 17mm lens. However, ...

For those of you who read regularly, you’ll know that I’ve been striving to wake up earlier in the morning, and get home from work earlier in the evening. For the most part, throughout my life, I have been a night owl. I have always found it rather peaceful at 1 or 2am in the morning, and used to get some of my best school work done then. However, in the last little while I’ve found it rather depressing getting home at 8pm, eating dinner, and basically not having very much “regular” time to do normal things like go to movies or just hang out with friends. For the most part I’ve now ...

So, I had almost completely forgotten that the Trailer Park Boys were in town this week. My friend Kris met them while he was at SXSW a few weeks ago and had a few drinks with the guys. He had said they were coming to town shortly, but it had slipped my mind until the end of the day today. Since I figured that the Robson’s Chapters is on my way home, I swung by with my 70-200mm lens and decided to snap a few photos of the guys. I was hoping Kris or Robert would have been around so I could have gotten a quick intro (Mike Smith, or Bubbles, used to be part of a band I once listened to called Sandbox ...

Ok, I’m sure you’re all getting tired of them, so this will be the last one for a while. It’s a tad blurry (I hand held it, and since it was into the sun I couldn’t really keep good focus of what it was I was shooting at), but you get the idea. ...

Yesterday after work I was thinking to myself that I have never seen Vancouver from up high really, except for on Grouse Mountain late at night. I’ve been up the CN Tower in Toronto and the Empire State Building and Rockafeller Center in NYC, but never up in the harbour center. So, last night I grabbed my camera and went to check out what Vancouver looks like at night. ...

I drove over to Jason’s tonight and right when I got there noticed one of the coolest rainbows I had ever seen. I actually had both my camera and my tripod in my car, so I quickly set up and took a few shots. ...

So Hesty picked up a new Canon Digital Rebel XTi last week, and has been slowly uploading his new photos onto flickr. I love watching the photos that naturally come out of a purchase like this, and to see how everyone puts their own style and content into the photos they do. Here’s a shot Hesty took last night of his dog “playing” with a pillow. You’re a natural buddy. ...

Canon has noticeably lagged in releasing new DSLRS, especially on the higher end versions. To their credit, they did a big upgrade to the Digital Rebel line earlier this year with the Rebel XTi. This is a great camera that improves on a few areas that the 20D/30D had, even though it’s considered part of their consumer lineup. Some of the nicest changes in my mind for the XTi are: The ability to view the ISO in the viewfinder. On the 20D, you have to hunt for it Larger LCD screen over the 20D Canon sensor cleaning system I consider the last one very important. I’m very careful when I change ...

Sometime this summer, my friends Mike and Kim are gonna finally tie the knot together and live happily ever after. I’ve known about their wedding for a few weeks now, but tonight they stepped up and asked me to officially photograph their wedding for them. To be honest, I’ve been asked before by other people, mostly over a few drinks, and up until now I’ve basically always politely declined, mainly because I didn’t think I could pull it off properly and do it justice. So, after spending a few hours mulling it over tonight, I finally realized that I’m probably ready. Not only that, but ...

I’m now the proud owner of my first L-series lens: the Canon EF 17-40mm f/4.0L. I’m just charging my 20D now, and then I’m heading out for a couple hours of shooting to see what this puppy can do (or can’t do maybe). Look for a few pictures later tonight or tomorrow. Update — I’m back, and I took some photos.. I found out that flickr doesn’t support the Adobe colour profile, which is why alot of my photos end up looking washed out on there.. I’m going to have to start shooting in sRGB again I think. ...