Happy Holidays!!

From my family to yours I wish you all the best and a happy and healthy holiday season!!

Recent Goings on...

Ohhh man, I knew puppies were a lot of work, especially when you first get them, trying to get a schedule and routine down and all that. But man am I tired!! The first few nights he slept like a charm and I though "man, this is gonna be easy". Until the past two nights he's been up at 3 and 4 am, although I think I woke him last night when I got up for a drink. So that's why my "Returned with Puppy" post has taken so long to get up. What a day we had last Thursday too!! Drove from Jasper to Calgary via Hwy 93, which I'm surprised we even made it, there was so much snow. So instead of risking an accident on the way back, we drove Hwy 2 from Calgary to Edmonton, then Hwy 16 from Edmonton back to Jasper. What a day...7am to 12:30am. Needless to say I was a bit tired at work Friday. My wife got to spend the first few days with him....his name is Indie...and I'm on duty today and yesterday. Fun times for sure, he's playful and I'm sure in the long run he'll be great for our health, as he seems to be an active little fella. So here's a few pics of the new family addition, and because I was so amazed how much we drove on Thursday, pretty much all over Central Alberta, I added a little map for anyone who doesn't know exactly how much driving that is. And last, I added a little mountain photo for good measure. The beauty of driving the parkway in the early hours was that we got to catch a little bit of a sunrise! I had to pull over to relieve myself and took the opportunity to grab a quick photo. Enjoy!!

On the road again...

So with any luck, if you're reading this today, I'm on the road again. This time to the airport to pick up our newest family member, Indie, our new Kooikerhondje puppy. It's been a bit of a wait for us, as we've had to wait for good weather to send him on the plane, but, none the less we are super excited and can't wait to have another little buddy around here to take on photo walks and hikes in the park. So as we're on the road, I decided to post a HDR photo of the Petro-Canada outside of Calgary, because I'll be passing it once again. Coming back from Barbados I took a few minutes to shoot a couple frames there, and I like this one. The cool feeling and the sky make me want to go for a winter walk, especially now that it is not -30 anymore!! It's only -3 right now, and that seems like a summer day compared to what we had a few days ago! And on another note, I have now put up my Barbados gallery on the web, and FINALLY finished the "About Me" page. That was the hardest page by far, I'm too shy to ask someone to write it for me, and had a heck of a time trying not to talk myself up "too" much, oh well, it's done now, leave some suggestions if you like, I'm sure it'll change a few times.

Photo: Nikon D90, 17-55mm f/2.8

Coming soon...

Been working at getting through all the photos from Barbados the past few days. I've got a few final edits to do and I think I'll be all done pretty soon. Instead of just posting all of the good shots here, I think I'll have enough to add a new gallery to my website, which you can all check out in a few days. So check back in a few days for that, as I'm sure once that is done I'll have my hands full with a new family member!! Hopefully our puppy will get flown up to us this week as long as the cold weather breaks, currently it is -36 Celsius as I write this, which is much too cold send a puppy on a plane! I wouldn't even go outside right now!! So more photos to come soon!


Photos: Nikon D90, 70-200mm f/2.8 VR

So Proud...

Two days ago I posted as to why I was in Barbados, not just to relax, but to support my wife in her fight against arthritis and to cheer her on while she ran to support such a great cause. In total the 64 competitors here have raised well over $300,000 and more than 1/2 a million this year alone!! This alone is no easy feat, and yet they all came down to Barbados to run in a race to show their support for this cause. Not all competitors are arthritis sufferers, but they all know someone who is. My wife was diagnosed with arthritis about 4 years ago and since then she has experienced many of the ups and downs of this disease, all of which I have experienced through her. Yesterday was a very proud and emotional moment for me to watch her come down the final stretch of the course with all the Joints in Motion Cheer Team cheering her on. I cannot begin to explain how proud I am of her, she trained hard all summer and has gone through a lot of pain to get where she is today. This post is for you sweety!! No pretty pictures today, just a shot of an amazing woman who I am proud to call my wife and someone I will love and cherish for the rest of my life!! Thank you for sharing this experience with me Steph!!...And for those who care the last photo is of the guy who won the whole marathon, notice the time.... he ran over 40 kms in 2 and 1/2 hours!! WOW!! Congrats to that guy too!

Sunshine...

Ahhhh....that was the feeling I had getting off the plane yesterday afternoon upon my arrival in Barbados. Yeah, some of you hate me right now, but you'll get over it, and in the blink of an eye I'll be back in The Great White North with the rest of y'all freezing my butt off in the -25 weather!! I am hear for a reason though...other than a bit of relaxation... my wife is running in a 1/2 Marathon tomorrow for the Arthritis Society. She raised over $6000 for this event over the past few months and now we're here and her big day is quickly approaching. So this will be a very quick post as we have to get to bed before the 2:30am wake-up call. The race starts at 4:30am, which is pretty freakin' early if you ask me, but I'm sure the runners will be thankful they don't have to run in the mid-day heat. It's almost 10pm right now and it's still 23 degrees!! Awesome!! Anywho, we got to take in a nice beach sunset today, I've posted one frame here, but not too sure if it's too my liking as I was shooting in a hurry and to add to that the color on my slow laptop is terrible! So I apologize for a photo that may or may not look so great, but trust me, it was a nice sunset to watch!! Especially because I got to watch/shoot it in my bear feet and shorts!! Stay tuned for some race shots tomorrow!!

Photo: Nikon D90, 17-55mm f/2.8

Feeling the Mood

Been spending a fair amount of time in the Snaring area lately....I got out there early last week and got a few shots I like and thought it would be great to get out there for a sunrise shoot. Well, I made it out there with a friend on this past Friday. We made it out there well before the sun peaked into the mountains, but we arrived to some heavy cloud cover on the mountains we wanted to shoot. Like I always do when I go out, I'll shoot no matter what the weather or if the sunrise will be nice or not. Turns out one of the first shots I took is one of my faves from the day. I knew when I took the shot it would not be a color photo in the end, and that there would be some sort or mono or duo tone processing done to it. I knew I wanted some sort of Black and White-ish shot, but I really wanted to convey the mood of the scene, so that just by looking at the image people would think it was a cold winter morning and almost feel as if they were there standing on the lake alone in the winter breeze. I think I got pretty close to getting that feeling through to the viewer this time. It was also helpful that when we arrived the wind had blown away the light snow from the previous days, leaving the ice bare and making a great foreground for that picture.


So after a few minutes and making a few shots like the one above, we realized that we might not be seeing a brilliant sunrise that day, so we started to explore the rest of the ice and shoreline to see if there was anything interesting to shoot, but there was not much that interested us. Then on our way back to the van the clouds cleared and gave us a great little show of soft winter morning light that we took a few moments to shoot. I had already packed up my gear so I just pulled out the camera and tripod and fired off a few quick HDR shots, and luckily I walked away with a few that I liked, and this was one of them. After all of that, I'd still like to try to get a nice sunrise out there...but you know I'll keep trying!

Photos: Nikon D90, 17-55mm f/2.8