Project 52 - Week 39 - The first snow falls have arrived!

I made this little image using photoshop to show the comparisons between a recent image of the Garibaldi Massif above Squamish, and what I saw this morning when I went outside. After a few days of low cloud, rainfall and a noticeable drop in temperature, the clouds cleared over night to show us a changed mountain! Like a butterfly out of its cocoon, suddenly the beauty of this magnificent chunk of rock has increased exponentially! I wonder if it will stay or melt off again before gaining a permanent coating. I created this image by creating a new cnavas that was slightly more than twice the size of the 2 images long dimensions side by side. Then I placed them both on the canvas and aligned them with the edges and themselves. Finally I dropped in the text captions and saved it as a jpg.

Photoshop side by side image comparison

Project 52 Week 38 - Whistler Outdoor Photography Summit

I just discovered that a) this summit exists b) it's being held again in a couple of weeks and c) I could win a ticket to the 3 evening seminars that are a part of the program by going out and taking an "outdoors" image and posting it on their facebook page. Sadly the sunny weather of this week had just disappeared, so dull, overcast light was what I would be working with. I went up to smoke bluffs and looked for contrasty locations amongst the trees and crags, hoping for something that might give a good return. Even though the wind was really blowing and most climbers were leaving as I arrived, or had already left, I found a couple of guys that were still working at it. This was the shot I ended up submitting. It's nothing awesome, but it was the best I could muster given the timelines and weather.

A climber almost at the top - Smoke Bluffs, Squamish

Project 52 Week 37 - My Favourite Peak

I featured a photograph of this peak earlier this year, and here it is again. As I walk along the "breezeway" of our place we get a glimpse of Atwell Peak just through the trees. It's always one of the last features of the region to see sunlight even though we have been in shadows in the valley for an hour or more already. It has rapidly become one of my favourite peaks in the area and I look forward to photographing it from new angles over time.

Atwell Peak getting the last rays for the day and a small halo of cloud

Project 52 Week 36 - From the Deck

We went through all of the rigmarole of moving this week, it's always been something I have hated doing (I guess no one really enjoys it) and this was no exception. However the payoff was where we were moving too. Our Apartment has incredible views from the living room/bedroom/balcony of the Stawamus Chief, a huge granite formation that tower over the city of Squamish. On warm sunny mornings we would sit out and have breakfast, and in the afternoons we can enjoy a beverage and a book as the sun bathes the chief in late afternoon sun. I snapped this with my iPhone as I was testing the focus motor, which seems to be working again these days. The water in the channel is normally a nice bluey-green colour, however after a storm the day before the sediments had been churned up and it was a rather Asian river looking brown instead...

The Chief from our deck at home.
Not bad...

Project 52 Week 35 - The fog rolls on!

The coming and goings of the fog over the Sooke Basin continues to entice me to shoot. The trees on the other side of the Harbour drift in and out of view as the fog bank rolls up and over the hills beside the waters edge. It really is mesmerizing to sit and watch as it dances across the coast with an ever changing scene of mist and mood.

Fog envelops the boats and coastal tree line in Sooke, BC

Project 52 Week 34 - Redbull Joyride at Whistler

Every year the crankworx mountain bike festival brings hoards of mountain bikers and fans to the village of Whistler. It is a fantastic festival that celebrates the spirit of all things mountain biking. The Redbull Joyride slopestyle event has become one of the largest spectacles in the sport, behind only the Redbull Rampage down in Utah. This year the course had progressed to a new level still, and although the weather was threatening to trample the event, the rain cleared and the mountainside quickly filled to watch the most skilful guys on two wheels throw down some simply massive stunts. Brandon Semenuk managed to pull off the win with an excellent run. Martin Soderstrom may have stolen it from him on the last run of the day, but he crashed and broke his Tibia and Fibia on the final obstacle of the course, sending Brandon into the history books as one of only 3 riders to ever win the event twice.

I have shot this event several times, although never with a pass that gets you closer and with less distracting objects in the way. This year I just wandered around a few places and took a few images from the best angles I could find. I was pretty happy with this shot of Semenuk back flipping off the Kokanee cabin on his way to a score of 96 out of a possible 100.

Brandon Semenuk backflips off the cabin, landing some 18-20 feet below the take off point.

Project 52 Week 33 - Home again

After 3 months on the road, our trip had come to an end. We spent nearly 48 hours travelling from Bangkok back to Sooke on Vancouver Island by Tuk-Tuk, Taxi, Train, Plane, Bus, Ferry and Car. I slept for 15 hours the first night and the jet lag took nearly a week to wear off.

August in Sooke is an interesting month, the weather is generally fine, but fog comes quickly up the basin and then it disappears as quickly as it came. One evening when exploring up in Silverspray, the fog was just the right thickness that I could see the sun as a silver coin in the sky. The light in the area was exquisite and the photographs very interesting.

It was good to be back!

Silver Dollar through the fog

Project 52 Week 32 - The home stretch - Island time on Koh Phangnan

We did not intend to coincide our final stint in Thailand with a Full Moon. But it just happened that way. It made it tough for booking accommodation and travel, as well as inflating all the prices. We couldn't find anything reasonable on the smaller island of Koh Tao, so Koh Phangnan it was. It worked out well, as we stayed on some of the quieter beaches on the North Western corner of the Island, we had some great weather and some beautiful beaches. I was hoping for some great sunsets and sunrises but sadly not a lot came through for me. Some beautiful pastel colours would often appear without the great fiery clouds that really make a great tropical sunset.

Pretty hue with the dropping of the sun from Haad Salaad beach

Project 52 Week 31 - Pai of the jungle

The hair raising mini bus ride to Pai from Chiang Mai was interesting, and the hip little township of Pai was a lovely place. Lots of young backpackers and a pretty large ex-pat community, including families with small children. This place is already losing its innocence and will decimated by development in a matter of years. We rented scooters to explore the surrounding mountains after we had walked the streets, eating and drinking ourselves to the fullest. I stopped on the side of the road as one of the many sudden torrential downpours hit, capturing this image of the mountains just outside of town slowly being swallowed by the rain.

Rain or Shine? the weather is constantly changing as Monsoon Season kicks in.

Project 52 Week 30 - Chiang Mai Animal experiences.

After flying back from Hanoi to Bangkok, we then moved on to Chiang Mai in the North-West of Thailand. Along with a cooking class, we planned on visiting the Elephant Nature Park, and the Tiger Kingdom, to get up close with some of the worlds most captivating creatures. The ENP was a beautiful place were we got to meet, feed, observe, and bathe the elephants. They had a 3 month old infant elephant born there in April, she was a delight to watch, especially watching her taking lessons from her mother, and seeing the protective nature of her family.

The Tiger Kingdom was very different. I won't go into the ethical debate here, I made the call that I would probably never get an opportunity like this again so I had to do it. We bottle fed tiger cubs, belly rubbed huge adults, and I was roared at by a rather unimpressed mother tiger who had been separated from her cubs. Witnessing an adult pair play stalking each other was also very cool, and brought some of the best photo op's of the day.

Tara getting personal with one of the ENP Matriarchs. 

Moving blindingly fast, a quick splash and a leap followed by a pounce on her "prey". Grace in motion.

Project 52 Week 29 - The Hordes of Hanoi

We had some more dramas with getting train tickets when we returned to Hanoi. We planned on visiting the highland area of Sapa in North-Western Vietnam but the trains were so busy that we couldn't get tickets for almost 5 days. So we spent almost a week in the city of Hanoi exploring and hanging out. One evening we went for a walk around Hoan Kiem Lake, and I set up my tripod next to a monstrous intersection. There were thousands and thousands of riders constantly moving through the intersection as the lights cycled. When stopped they all stared and looked at the camera, then as the light when green, they would roar off in this cacophony of engine noise.

Green GO!!