Quattro Fire
Not to far from my home in Surrey a fire engulfed a new condo developement. When I first heard the news on the radio. I figured, “HEY! Maybe I can get some good shots?”. So, I jumped on my motorbike with camera in tow. Soon after, I was on the scene. However, I couldnt get too close as the police were expanding their perimeter as I arrived. There were many people there and I did catch some glimses of the fire. I did not get any spectacular shots but they have some worthy-ness as a documentation.
There are a few more photo’s on my Flickr
The full news story is here
Back to work
I will be heading back to Edmonton tommorrow for 4-5 weeks. It’s time to start earning some money again to support my “photography habit”. My time off this summer was great though a little disappointed in the amount of rain we had. The grass is still green which is quite unusual for August. I should have got out in the rain and explore some “rain scenes” but I suppose that I am a “fair weathered” photographer. I was too concerned about getting my camera wet. It has been a very exciting summer for me regardless.
I got my motorcycle license and purchased an “almost” new motorcycle. I am having a lot of fun with it. A tank bag provides enough storage to take my camera along. It’s a great freedom riding… and especially PARKING a motorbike. It gave me great incentive to hop on my bike with my camera and go somewhere. I had hoped for more photo’s than I have but I blame that on the rain.
Also, I very recently got a new lens! It is the AF-S DX VR Zoom-NIKKOR 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6G IF-ED. I love it! I can do wide shots or zoom in from a distance. It’s no 500mm telephoto but a lot more “zoomy” than my 18-55mm. This lens will definitely be worth the money. I could have bought a similiar Sigma lense for cheaper but it did not have the Vibration Reduction. I feel it’s a “must have” feature making up for the slower aperture speeds of f/3.5-5.6. An added bonus was Nikon throwing in a good lense hood.
Summer fun!
My wife and I finished our two week cycle tour of Vancouver Island and the Sunshine Coast. Typically, the route we took is called, “The Loop”. There were many beautiful sights. I managed to capture some of them. I had mainly shot at or near to sunset as that is when I was off the bicycle and the light was sweet. The drawback was sleeping in the next morning so I missed morning light. Also, travelling by bicycle did not allow me much time for “spur of the moment” shots as the camera was packed away safely in my pannier. Therefore, most of the photos were taken after camp was set up.
There were several occasions that I wished to have a 200mm or longer lens to get closer to the bountiful eagles that we had seen. It was very disappointing to realize my 18-55mm lens could not get close enough to the eagles. So, my next purchase will be the versatile AF-S DX VR Zoom-NIKKOR 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6G IF-ED. This lens will allow me get wide shots and also get some wildlife from a distance. I will for sure have it for our planned trip to Thailand later this year.
Another glitch was the photo storage. I had 5 gig of memory cards on the onset of the trip. Starting out shooting RAW, I underestimated how much storage I would need. I then switched to jpeg on Cortez Island when space was running short. Unfortunately, I was not near a store that sold Compact Flash cards. A few days later, we went shopping in Powell River. Shoppers Drug Mart did not sell Compact Flash but Wal-Mart did. So, I bought another 2GB of storage to tide me over for the rest of the trip.
In all, the trip was a wonderful time regardless of some rain and some very hot days.
Back to work again…
Just an update about myself, I will be back to work in Alberta this coming Monday! I gotta make more loot to buy more equipment. That means, I will be putting my dSLR camera away for 6 weeks. At least, I have some more images to process before uploading to Flickr.
Other news is that I have aquired the domain name “plantephotography.com”. I have decided that it’s a more professional sounding name than Delta Boy. I will move this blog to that domain after a Flash based gallery is installed showcasing my best images. All should happen sometime during the summer.
Ok, I gotta start packing now….
Mother’s Day
Originally uploaded by snapcutter
For Mother’s Day my wife and I went to visit my mother who happens to live in wonderful White Rock. We gifted her a bouqet of flowers(cuz, “I am a good boy”) and had a lovely visit in the afternoon with her.
After that, we took a stroll down to White Rock Beach with my camera. Of course, a cup of coffee was in hand. The weather was a little mixed with cloud and sun. There was quite a lot of people on the pier, I had thought, for being a “mixed bag” of weather type of day. The sky did have some unique clouds up there.
I was glad that I had bought a new Lexar Pro 4GB Compact flash memory. It was nice to shoot in RAW and not worry about running out of room. I initially was shooting in .jpg but soon switched to RAW realizing that I had lots of room for RAW images. I had bracketed every scene that I shot. Bracket was set at 1 Stop (-1, 0, +1)but later tuned it down to .7 Stop. From my “on-the-fly” previewing(GAWD, I love digital slr for that!), it seemed that a step down was needed.
After a walk down the pier shooting several scenes, Trish and I then continued on to her parents place for yet another lovely visit with parents.
When we got back home in the evening, Trish and I immediately jumped into our PJ’s. We listened to jazz while she read and I plugged in my Compact Flash to edit the photo’s of the day. Here is one of the results so far. There is a colour version on Flickr but I find this version to be more interesting… more suitable for the scene.
Well, at least I have two edited versions of the same photograph done tonight. There are probably about 6-8 more that need to be optimized before uploading. It’s late now and time to crash. I had a full long day doing what I love and with who I love.
BTW, I am Blogging this post from Flickr to see if I like it or not. It’s crappy that it doesnt have a preview. I doubt that I will continue to blog this way but I will this time.
BUSTED!
The other day I was photographing the Central City tower in Surrey. I was busted by a security guy. He said that I was not allowed to take photo’s without permission from the building management. He was very nice about it and directed me to the Management office. Apparently, the building management company does not like people taking photographs of their building without them knowing. At least from on their property, I assume.
So, I did go down to the Management office and spoke with a nice lady. She asked why I was taking photographs. I explained that I am just a hobbyist trying to get better at the craft. She took my name and number and called me the next day. She said it was ok for me to take photo’s of Central City as long as I filled out some sort of card. This way, when security comes along I can just show them the card.
I will definetly take advantage of the permission. I have some shots of the outside building. You can find them at Flickr. However, the inside is just as gorgeous… architecturally speaking.
Purchased Prints Now Available!
Hello folks!
First of all, I would like to apologize for not blogging as much as I should have. I had spent a lot of time working out of town. Therefore, I have not created as many photos as I would have liked to. The good news is that I have a few weeks off till heading off to work again.
You may have noticed the top left side of the page now has an ad for my prints for sale! Currently, there is only the “Old Boy” for sale. I will be spending time to optimize more of my photos for printing this week. I will get a faster work-flow mastered to get them public faster.
The service is called ImageKind. The site is quite easy to use and offers many varieties of options regarding paper, framing, and matting for the pictures. My ImageKind gallery is found: here or just click on the ad on the left.
Out of town work
I have a new gig. I will be doing pipe work in the Alberta Oilsands for a while. The shifts will be 10hrs a day, 6 days a week. The company flies me out in a few days. I have never worked out of town or in the industrial sector before. Therefore, I cherish the opportunity for the experience. Not to mention, the money is good.
I had originally thought of bringing my Nikon D200 for photographic opportunities. I worry about bringing an expensive camera to camp. Now I am thinking that it may be best to just bring my “point and shoot” Nikon S2. It’s just that I dont want to tote around a big exensive camera if I wont have the time or transportation to find some interesting subjects to photograph. Upon my return home for ”off time”, I may decide to bring the D200 back to Alberta if I feel it worth while.
I will for sure bring home snapshots for my friends and family too see where I was. Most likely, a few will end up on Facebook. I dont think any will end up here though. I want to reserve this site for my very best photographs.
On an unrelated topic, I did some more work to this site not too long ago. I have added a Slideshow link on the top nav bar. Clicking that link will show my Flickr photo’s in a Slide Show. 
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My photo in a Museum!
Wow! Can you believe it? Ok, dont believe it. You are correct, it’s not true. I came across a website that takes an uploaded photo of yours and manipulates it into a Museum. It’s kinda cool and gives you an idea of how your pic would look in a Gallery. Check out it here to try yourself.
Ok, enough…
of the wedding photo’s. They are great but it’s time to get MY “stuff” together. I have decided to spend much more time and money developing my photography skills. I wish to do it as a profession some day. Therefore, I am absolutely “stoked” about this decision. I now have a goal to pursue my passion.
This means taking this site more seriously. I need to fix the database upgrade error. I need to find a better gallery to present my photo’s. The Flickr will remain for now but I will be working on a better solution.Â
Wedding photo’s!
I will make this short since it is late. Trish and I just got our wedding photo’s from the photographer a few hours ago. I have just uploaded them for my friends to see. I will find some time to write more in the “descriptions” of the photo’s. Some are done but many mor to go. Also, the Flickr account is free so only 200 photo’s will be shown though over 300 were uploaded. I may bite the bullet and pay the few bucks to upgrade the account. Anyways, I hope you enjoy the photography of http://radstudioinc.com/Â
Big Changes
Big changes are upon Trish and I. We have sold the house and are presently closing a deal on a brand new condo. We have decided to downsize our living quarters as well as the mortage. Financially, it’s a great situation for us. We will be able to save money AND have play money! Money to buy fancy camera equipment 
Also, we have most of the wedding plans arranged for August 4th, 2007. It will be an intimate ceremony on Salt Spring Island. Our photographers are some great “up and comers” in the Wedding Photography biz. Not to mention, they are really good people. Visit their site at: http://www.radstudioinc.com/ to see their fantastic images.
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I am in love!
I am a bad boy. I have not been shooting much at all. It’s been at least a year since I last took a “photo tour”. Work, school, and the house have kept me busy in the last year. I have an URGE to shoot once again. The urge has grown stronger since Trish and I have finally set a date for the wedding. In doing that, we researched some photographers which ignited my fire once again.Â
Currently, I still have my F80 film SLR. I like the camera but not the medium. Last year I bought a digital Nikon SP2 for my “snap shot” needs. IÂ LOVE the fact that film is not wasted. With digital, if a mistake is made on a shot… simply delete. I have gotten used to “editing on the fly” way of digital.
 I hate the fact that it is expensive to process film to find out that many shots did not turn out as expected. Currently, I have film in my F80. I have no idea what is on it though. I will have to pay for processing to find out. Not to mention, the film is an ISO of 200. Now what if I wanted to change the ISO of the film? I would either A. Process 1/2 the film or B. Take a bunch of shots of our dog to get to the end of the film.
So, as you can see. I love the ease of use of digital. I know there can be colour management issues but hey… what da heck. The easy workflow too awesome to resist. This brings me to my new love: http://www.d80.ca/view/ :)
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Merry Christmas!
Well, it’s that time of year again. I have a few days off but are filled with a busy social scheduale… which is always fun. As you can see, there has been some progress with the site. The gallery is embedded with a few pics. I still have some layout stuff to work out. Then I will upload all of my favourite pics.
Hello world!
Once again, I am trying out a new blog. Hopefully, this one will suit all my needs. I am busy renovating my house. Time permitting, I will intergrate a gallery and showcase my photo’s.Â
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