As most people know, I spent a lot of my time in Vancouver taking photos of the city. I was one of the first people in the city to dabble with high dynamic range imagery, and because I carried my wideangle lens around with me quite often, ended up with quite a few HDR images of Vancouver.
While down in the Dominican, I was talking to Dale about possibly putting together a little package for media organizations during the Olympics. While in the process of putting that together over the last few weeks, I figured I might as well put everything online as well. To that end, I registered the domain ...
I had a rough sleep the other night, so I was a bit tired yesterday. I passed out on the couch for a bit in the late afternoon and early evening, and woke up just long enough to grab some McDonald’s for supper. Afterwards I started watching a bit of Lost, but could hardly keep my eyes open. I strolled into bed at around 9pm last night, thinking I would read for a while. Apparently I passed out, because next thing I knew it was about 4am in the morning. By the time the night was over, I had slept 11 hours, which is a pretty long sleep for me.
I’m just taking it easy this weekend. I have a WordCamp ...
Hard to believe the Olympics are only a few short weeks away. When I was living downtown I remember when they erected that big countdown clock. I remember thinking it seemed strange that they put that up nearly three years before the event, but I have to say, it went fairly quick.
It’s interesting to see the city ramp up to the event, and all the associated problems that are starting to occur. Last week the local skihill Cypress shut down in an effort to save snow for the actual Olympic runs. Given the unseasonably warm temperatures right now, it’s even hard for the local mountains to create ...
Well, today there are at least two important events that happened in the past.
First, on January 15th, 1977, my friend Brennen was born. Since that time he has pretty much been a major pain in my ass, causing me to lift boxes for weekends at a time, to fix countless porn-infested computers, and to drive out to the edge of the world (White Rock) on weekends. That said, he’s a great friend, and I hope he has an awesome birthday today.
Also, at this exact time last year I was packing up the last few things in my desk in Vancouver and leaving my job there for the last time. Hard to believe I’ve ...
It’s still early in the process, but today we (as a group) started planning a big WordPress event in Vancouver: WordCamp Vancouver. For those of you who follow regularly, you’ll remember that I was a co-organizer of WordCamp Whistler, which turned out to be a very well received event with an attendance of about 120 people, which is rather remarkable, given how expensive Whistler is and how far many people drove to be there.
In the past, I’ve helped put together a few small WordCamp Vancouver events, but the one we’re planning is going to be a fairly large one I imagine. Right now we’re ...
Years ago I found the website SpaceWeather.com, and since then have made a yearly pilgrimage to the site in the fall and winter months. Having seen the aurora borealis probably about 7 or 8 times in my life already, it’s something I try to see whenever I get the chance, sort of like hooking up with an old friend after a long absence.
The first few times I saw it I was up in the Yukon Territory for a summer. Obviously up there it’s pretty easy to see (that is, when it’s not daylight for 24 hours a day, as it very nearly was for my first few months up there). I actually remember coming out ...
I read an article this morning that basically made me feel bad for being against the Olympics at this stage in the game. It was written by a participant in the games, one who is disappointed with the lack of support in this province:
With a blunt and harsh realization that not everyone with a Canadian passport is brimming over with excitement and anticipation for the sixteen day event in February, I must admit that my bright and shiny optimism has turned a murky shade of grey.
Not because sliding hasn’t been great – it’s been fantastic. I feel in top form on my sled, I am in my best physical ...
I just got home from dropping Dale and Patrick off at the Abbotsford airport. Without a doubt, it was a great visit, and it was good to catch up with both of them.
As I mentioned previously, this last weekend was the last item on my radar for the foreseeable future. This last summer was extremely busy — I attended two out of town conferences, and it seemed like I was bouncing in and out of the city on a routine basis. Given that I moved into my new place here in January, it’s only recently that I’ve found the chunk of time necessary to finally unpack. We’re also been extremely busy at ...
I’ve been asked to write an article for a European magazine about Vancouver. I’m keeping my particular angle under wraps until everything is completely done, but I’d like to solicit some help from my readers. In fact, I’m hoping I can use a few of these quotations in the article, along with possibly a photo or two of some of the people who quoted them.
So, in one or two sentences, please feel free to answer any of the following:
What do you like the most about Vancouver?
What is your least favourite thing about this city?
What is your best memory from living in the city?
Do you think ...
…has been announced, and it’ll take place on August 28th. Make sure you come out and meet all your fellow Twitter users in the Vancouver area. The event will be at the Two Parrots pub, which (in my humble opinion) has some of the best nachos in the city.
There will probably be a John Biehler endorsed photo walk afterwards for those of you without compact cameras that want to learn more about taking photos in the dark. ...
I was one of the first people in Vancouver to experiment with HDR (high dynamic range) photography a few years ago. I definitely wasn’t *the* first, because I actually got a bit of inspiration from a few other photographers in Vancouver who had been dabbling with HDR.
For yucks, I thought I would include the very first HDR shot I ever put together. It’s a shot of Vancouver on a really storm day. I shot it from my balcony using a tripod, and merged three photos together using a tool on the Mac called Photomatix. Here’s the end result:
...
Vancouver is without a doubt one of the prettiest cities in the world, something that I appreciate more and more every time I go on a trip. In fact, I was just mentioning to a friend yesterday just how clean and inviting Vancouver is compared to most cities, specifically San Francisco and Los Angeles (both of which seem grubby and dirty by comparison, even though I happen to like aspects of both).
And while Vancouver is a pretty city, it is not without its problems. In fact, Vancouver’s lower-east side is one of the poorest neighbourhoods in all of Canada, which is ironic given that it’s ...
A bunch of us are currently down at Workspace in Vancouver, which is a shared office space situated right on the water in Gastown. I have a rather great view of the North Shore mountains along with the cruise ship terminal at Canada Place.
One of my favorite photos is this next one from Gastown I took last year from the lookout at Harbour Center:
I actually shot the photograph through a window, so it’s surprising that you can’t see any glass. But I’ve always liked all the angled lines in the photo, and of course the film-noir type lighting. If you’re ever in Vancouver, make sure you head ...
I doubt that this year I’ll be able to watch any of the fireworks, but in previous years I’ve tried to catch at least one fireworks display. Strangely enough, you’d think I would have seen them all, given how I lived right on the corner of Beach and Howe in Vancouver for three years.
I have lots of memories of the fireworks, but my favourite memory, and a story I tell often, involves some heartache and a beer. I had just broken up with my ex-girlfriend, and was feeling a bit blue. So my friend Dustin came to hang out, and we decided to see the fireworks. Since we had a few hours to kill, ...
A few weeks ago I blogged about an upcoming appointment to have a few moles removed from my face (the main reason being that I keep cutting them while shaving). Well, today was the day, and they’re officially gone.
Strangely enough, I’ve developed a bit of a fainting reaction over the years to needles. That’s weird because needles don’t scare me in the least, and for the most part, I have a pretty high pain tolerance. But there’s something about a needle being stuck in me that elicits some kind of physiological reaction, almost like my body knows something else is coming, and tries to ...
I have an appointment on Wednesday to get a few moles removed from my face. I’ve had them most of my life, and for the most part they haven’t really bothered me. That being said, this last year I’ve found myself cutting two of them while shaving from time to time, which usually results in them bleeding for hours at a time (real attractive, I know).
You can see two of them in this photo. The first is the one on my right cheek, and the second is the one on my left upper-lip. The third one is really tiny, and it’s in the center of my lip (I don’t cut it shaving, but I figure I might as ...
About 18 months ago a few people encouraged me to put some of my photos online for sale. Given that my Vancouver scenery ones are the most popular photos in my portfolio, I’ve pretty much only focused on that. I’ve actually made a decent amount by selling them, probably enough to be able to afford a cheap lens, which is pretty cool.
The next item on my wish list is the Canon EOS 5D Mark II camera, which is one of the most affordable full frame cameras on the market. Unfortunately, the list price of that camera is around $3200, so it’s a bit outside of my price range at this point. So, I’m ...
It’s a long weekend here in Canada, and I really had no plans. Originally, Rebecca, John and I were gonna go camping, but weather dictates that that’s no longer an option. Rebecca and John decided to come hang out for the weekend, which is obviously awesome, since I don’t get to hang out with them as much anymore.
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