Photography Posts

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 of the techniques I’ve played with a lot over the past year is in the area of high dynamic range (HDR) photography. It’s essentially a way to capture far more dynamic range of a […]

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 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 […]

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) that auroras might be visible at low latitudes. At around 4am, I walked upstairs to my rooftop patio in Kitsilano, only to be greeted with one of the most amazing light shows I’ve ever seen. The Aurora In Vancouver, October 2003 I was one of the few people […]

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 Music West in Vancouver. I actually had a media pass to attend all the functions, but because I’ve been so busy at work, I haven’t had time to go pick it up. Thankfully Miss604 lent me her photographer pass so I could head down and take […]

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 their own personal flare to the event. Tomorrow is basically the opening Gala at the Opus Hotel, followed by an event at Bar None. Once again I have a media pass, so I’ll have full access to the events. […]

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 site, but wanted to maintain the non-commercial license for people using the photo. They came back and said that wasn’t possible, and that they were worried that if someone […]

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”