old photo #2

Lifesavers at Southbank "beach" - Brisbane, late march 2004.

Looking through the rest of my photos from the day, it appears as though I was tagging along with Leon, while he was playing with a new DSLR - I've got some shots of Leon taking photos of one of his colleagues (Chris?) Perhaps it was a portrait shoot?

This was my first attempt at trying selective colour in a photo. I really liked the result.

Captured on a Pentax Optio S4 point and shoot. 1/400th sec at f5.0, ISO 50, with a 35mm lens equiv. of 49mm - Let's be honest here, the camera picked the settings, it's a point and shoot; and I really didn't know much about changing the settings back then.

Sadly I have no idea what program was used to to the colour edit. (It's been almost 13 years, and the metadata doesn't show those details)

Here's a link #1

red barns and stars...

W.T.F. #1

Clean your car!!!

One of the things I've had to adjust to as a new immigrant to this fine country, is it's weather; and the related chores that are associated with it.

On the one hand, you never really worry about heat-stroke, and rarely have a need for sunscreen above 30+.  On the other, much more laborious side, you have snow removal.

Please know that I LOVE snow...

...when it's on a mountain and you're there to engage in the sport of alpine skiing.

In my new part of the world, even though there's a serious lack of mountains, it's really not too bad. 

We typically seem to get about a month or two of snowy-times, and even then, it's only really about a week and a half of the truly bad stuff.

In the city, there's no where to put it, and driving is utter hell.

In the small towns (like where we live) it's more a problem of 'when' (hopefully not 'if') you'll have your local road plowed so you can actually leave the house.

Yes it's a chore to remove from the driveway/roof/sidewalk/car, But it really gets to me when people don't do the bare minimum required to make things safe. 

Like for example, cleaning their car of the snow that has fallen on it.

I'm not talking about a light dusting. I'm talking shit like this.

Not my photo thankfully - as I'd most likely have flown into a rage at the thoughtless ding-bat that was driving. 

Clearly it's on the extreme end of the problem (almost to a point of hilarity), but the point still stands.

Lisa can confirm that this is one of the few things that 'really' gets me mad on the road.

When you're driving at highway speeds, and snow flies off the car in front of you - there's a real possibility of the situation becoming lethal - and I don't mean from road rage.

If you can't see out of your car, then how do you intend to be anything other than a dangerous nincompoop in control of 1+ tonnes of steel and glass (and plastic and sometimes aluminimum)?

So for the love of Cthulhu! Clean Your Fucking CAR!!!


This road safety announcement has been brought to you by - The association of little aussies that actually care about driving somewhere safely, and don't want to have to engage in emergency maneuvers on what is regularly regarded as one of the most deadly highways in canada, all because you're a thoughtless douche.

T.F.T.W #1

Stop talking, start doing = the curse of planning... 

Part of the reason for this experiment known as a daily blog, is to try and reduce my reliance on procrastination and sheer blind-rush.

My biggest problem seems to be a love of lists; The illusion of progress. The death of doing. The enabler of procrastination.

It is so deeply rooted in my soul that I find it very hard to break out of.

I've spent the vast majority of my life putting things off, and then when faced with a looming deadline; cramming as much effort into as little time as possible...

Of course the one true antidote is to just "do it!" (Whatever the 'it' may be)

Putting off a phone call, or a chore? You can never go wrong simply "doing it!"

Don't put off 'till tomorrow that which can be achieved today!

Feeling nervous about some upcoming social interaction? 

"do it!"

Before I start to sound like an advertisement for a certain swoosh-y company, I should mention that one of the reasons I love lists, is that the feeling of creating a list is similar to the achievement of something, but without putting any effort in..."Now I have a plan!" 

It's very enticing. The "ticking-off" part of a list is even more enjoyable, and having a plan is always better than 'not' having one; but having a plan and 'not' actioning it fully, is a daily struggle.

So please help me break the bonds of procrastination. Do you find yourself under the thumb of eternal delay? How do you deal with putting things off? What tips can you give an eternal planner?

Every journey of 1000 miles might begin with its first step, but sometimes that first step is a list ;)  

See you all tomorrow.

Positivity #1

Yesterday was a bit of a crap day.

Full-on Blizzard conditions dropped a bunch of snow that we needed to dig Lisa's truck out of, so she could head over to open the clinic.

The resultant winds caused damage to our roof, and I (stupidly) headed out onto the upper-deck with a ladder, in the middle of the 80km/ph gusts; to either re-attach, or solve the banging... thankfully, the 'flashing' blew off, and I retrieved it from the back yard before it disappeared forever.

Lisa closed the clinic early, and had to dig the truck out of her parking spot (as its 4wd system couldn't handle the amount of snow). Thankfully the company who is contracted to plow their parking area turned up after a few minutes and helped finish the digging.

While this was going on, I was blowing a couple of feet worth of heavy-packed snow from the driveway, creating space for the truck on her return. 

Once complete - the local construction grader drove by as a 'plow' and filled the driveway entry... 

So I restarted and finished the job.

Lisa finally made it back home to find me in a bit of a panic having called a few roofing companies looking for advice on a slightly more pressing matter than the missing flashing.

The wind was driving snow up into our 'attic crawlspace'

For the next 4 hours, Lisa and I scrodged out as much snow as we could, laboriously filling buckets, and shoving re-purposed insulation batts into the holes to prevent more snowy ingress.

Insulation batting is kinda itchy after a while, and moving about the narrow spaces (delicately crawling on support beams so as to not fall through the ceiling), has helped to reminded me that i'm not 20 anymore.

After the attic was done, we headed over to both our elderly neighbours, and proceeded to dig them out.

Heading home to make some dinner, we re-cleared the ends of the driveways that had once again been filled by the grader-plow.

Doesn't sound too positive so far...


Now for the good.

Barb (one our neighbours) - put on an amazing snack-spread of wine and cheese, and sat for a chat when we were done, providing a number for the repair company that fixed her roof a couple of years ago. 

But the truly amazing thing has to be, just how lucky I am to be able to share a life with Lisa. 

Seriously, she fucking rocks. 

My wife headed out in despicably bad conditions to open her business and care for the animals in clinic. Dug her car out, not once - but twice. Crawled into an impossibly shitty situation to help remove snow, and then as if it wasn't enough, helped dig out our elderly neighbours, before preparing dinner for us while I was finishing the driveway.

If questioned 'why' she did so much during that day...

her answer would be 'Because it needed to be done'.

I love her with all my heart. 

...and if that isn't a positive, then I don't know what is.



see you all tomorrow

Single Word Post #1

Nor'easter

old photo #1...

Big Tree, C, and me... August 2001, somewhere during a day-hike in the forests near Whistler, BC. 

I think Christina was living on Vancouver Island planting trees with a friend Kym?, and visited me in Vancouver. We all headed up the sea to sky highway for a day hike.

Either Kym took the photo, or it was on a timer... (canon ELPH film point and shoot)

new photo #1...

Taken from our upper deck at the end of January. One of those moments where I was really happy to have gear sitting ready to go at all times... the colour in the sky was spectacular, and the sun was setting fast - 12mm Rokinon on Sony a6000, 3 image HDR in Aurora.

a roadmap...

So I'm slowly figuring out how to approach this "flipping" of my social media "switch"

I challenged myself to provide something new every day...
...that's Seven... Days... A... Week...

Obviously this could all descend into chaos by day 3 if I don't have some kind of framework. It's very much in my nature to do things on the fly, but that could be one of the biggest reasons that I start to drop the ball on any new skills.

here are my 'daily' plans so far

1 - new photo
2 - old photo
3 - T.F.T.W (thought for the week)
4 - speed recap of my day/week/month 
5 - "Single Word Post"
6 - something positive: a challenge
7 - WTF!
8 - "here's a link"

As you can see, there are 8 on the cards.

This means that I won't need to fall into the trap of making a specific day of the week "new photo Friday" or some rubbish like that.

Any of the 8 can come in any order and with any frequency. 

Yay for the illusion of structure! 

To give you a little more information on what each of these may end up looking like, here's a quick break-down of what they mean to me.

- New photo - seems pretty self explanatory - I'll post a photo that hasn't been on the web before (I'm not going to have some rigorous rule for 'when' I took the photo, but it can't be something that I've searched for in my archives, and ideally it'll be from the same day as my post) 

- Old photo - also as advertised - I'll pick a photo from my past and try to give an explanation of how, where, or why, I took it in the first place.

- Thought for the week - This is my attempt at what will hopefully become a discussion. There's no right or wrong, just my viewpoint on a topic that will hopefully bring that idea into your world in a way that you can expand upon, disagree with, and discuss. In short - if I'm thinking about it then others probably are too. I'm not interested in trying to 'change' anyone's way of thinking, I get it - most people are pretty set in their ways. What I am interested in, is other peoples points of view.  Please feel free to comment, or send me correspondence privately if you like.  I'm interested in how you think. (Over 30 topics sitting here ready for discussion - with plenty more to come...)

- Speed recap of my day/week/month - Where I use 500 words or less to post the highlights as I saw them 

- "Single Word Post" - I post just one word - literally one, with no supporting information - it could be something wacky from the dictionary, a word I've seen that amuses me, maybe even something that I've made up?

- Something positive: a challenge - I have to deliver a post with a positive tone about something that has happened to me, or the world in general.

- WTF - as in What the Fuck! - a link, photo, my chance to vent. Could be literally anything that's made me go W.T.F.!
 
- "Here's a link" - as advertised on the tin - I'll post a link... It may or may not have an explanation

So that's the general idea. 
I'm starting to get excited. 

See you all tomorrow. 

New Beginnings

Hi!  I'm back.

As you can read above in the modified description for the blog, I've been feeling a little like there's been no content creation happening on my end - and a lot of idle scrolling around social media.

firstly a little housekeeping is in order.

The website is dead - has been for a while. 

I bring this up only because a lot of the images in the archives here have a watermark that links to the (now defunct) website.

for my first post - I'm throwing up a self portrait taken a week or so ago with a new lens that I was playing around with.

cheers, 
Ian 

Been...

...A While.

soooo much to catch up on; but here are the highlights:

- finalised my permanent residency

- travelled back to Oz to pack up what remained of my life out there

- swung by Hawaii to have a holiday with the love of my life

- got engaged to said lovely woman

- returned to halifax, where I'm living and loving my life.


I know that the Best of photos from 2013 are, (let's face it) quite late; but I solemnly swear I'll get around to it at some stage...

for the moment though, here're my may 3rd photos for 2014.

well, that's 11 years running...

see you all in a bit :)

beard...

...be gone

Way back on the 1st of December 2012 - I was given the all clear to send in an application for the community identified stream of the Nova-Scotia provincial nomination program for permanent residency in Canada.

I guess facial hair was front and centre in my mind, as I'd just completed another year of ridiculous moustache growing for charity.

So I thought it might be funny to see how long I could grow a beard before reaching the next stage.

52 days later on the 22nd of January 2013 I was able to shave, and once again I (stupidly) thought it'd be a bit of a laugh to see how long a beard I could grow, in this now final stage of permanent residency.

Since then, I've returned to Canada on a temporary work visa; and have almost finished the third season of mr D.

During this time, I've also seen the workers who process visa (and permanent residency) applications undertake strike action, further delaying what should have been a straightforward and simple process

What I once saw as a positive thing (each day the beard grows = one day closer to my eventual permanent residency), has now become something I truly hate (a reminder that it's been yet another day since I mailed off my application...)

I'm already over here - working, and loving my life...

...but hating my beard.

I'm about to renew my work visa for another film, So I picked a mile-stone-ish kind of date, and agreed to shave the f*cker off.

yesterday was that day.

201 days

I now present a small collection of photos from the momentous event (thanks to Lisa for the photographic skills)

*the photo at the beginning of this post, is 201 days of beard growth (with minimal scissor-trimming around the upper-lip to facilitate eating)

clipper-removal of moustache, and separation of mutton-chops and goatee

 ...now that's a solid goatee

Lisa braids the last remaining threads...

final wet-razor work

...and I'm back to "normal"


thanks to all those who were supportive of my ridiculous "visa-beard" and I hope you all forgive me for the early shave.

all the best,

Ian

finally...

...made it!


to be honest, the majority of my journey to canada was completely stress-free and, (one could almost say) normal; but the beginnings were certainly a little "different"

I'm usually over-cautious when it comes to dealing with air-travel, but for some reason whatever bad Karma I've been accumulating finally decided to catch up with me :)

On my way to the airport, I was discussing with my sister how strange it is that I always need to start my international journey by departing the domestic terminal (connecting flight to sydney)... that was my first mistake = you shouldn't tempt the travel gods

$4 luggage trolley, overflowing with my bags and boom-poles; attempt to check into the "kiosk".  Don't think I've EVER been able to make use of these bloody self-check-in things, as they always direct me to "see a service representative", nothing new here today :)

"please check in with that counter over there"... okay, line up and get ready to pay...

"so sir, where are we headed to today?..."

"Vancouver..."

"...oh!?!"

...

...

"yeah you're on flight QF008, that departs from the international terminal...!"

"umm..."

"...it's ok, there's a transfer shuttle due in a few minutes, just show the driver your booking reference and he's take you there, you've got plenty of time" :)

(I should point ou that my online "ticket" makes absolutely NO REFERENCE to any terminal # or domestic-vs-international, just says BNE-SYD = thanks travel.com.au - you've booked me onto one of only two qantas domestic flights that depart from the international terminal in brisbane, and given me no information to that fact)

so I bundle up my stuff and wait for the shuttle.

at this point I was 10 mins early for the shuttle, and kinda - sorta - ok for eventual check-in (*5:07 waiting for the 5:17 shuttle), as time wore on... I strongly considered splitting a taxi with some of the other 20 or so passengers who were obviously blind-sided by this "wrong terminal" thing... but every time I thought about it, a transfer shuttle-looking-type-of-bus would approach the stop, and I'd think - "oh, here it comes"...

the 5:17 just didn't show... the 5:37 was 5 min late, and due to the number of passengers it picked up; left another 5 later...

Transfer bus stops at the other end of the terminal - picks up even more passengers (just how many of us arrived at the "wrong" airport?)... finally, we're off...

...oh yeah - did I mention that I was meant to be on a 6:30 flight to sydney...

...bus pulls up at the "arrivals" level of the international terminal...

I've got 2 large suitcases, my boom poles and a decent sized carry-on (plus my SLR hanging off my hip) so it's not the easiest amount of stuff to take onto/off a bus, especially when there are 40 or so people attempting to get ONTO the bus you're leaving...

...driver shuts the door on me as I'm attempting to retrive my boom poles! cheers-mate, any chance I could get you to re-open it, so I can get the last of my luggage?

run-push my trolley to the elevator, so I can change floors and start the booking in procedure (it's well within the 1/2hr boarding limit now, so I don't know if I've already missed it.

thankfully, even though the helpful staff member has just informed me that the flight has "closed" they take pity and "try" to help me out...

"...but you'll need to pay excess baggage fees!"

"...ummmm... yessssss...?"

"I've got 3 pieces of checked, and I already know that two are over 22kgs... that'll be just fine... let's try to get me onto the flight" eh?

booking in is 'relatively' smooth (no printed boarding pass?) and I'm off to see the excess baggage payment person (it's in a different area?!?).

Oversize bag receiving guy won't accept my boom poles, 'till I've paid (dude, it's all good, I'm paying now - can we just try to get them onto the plane please), and is finally reassured by the helpful staff member hovering around me to try and speed up the process.

mr baggage-fee-processing-guy (named IAN by the way!) is on the phone, and ignoring me intently for a few minutes... I'm not going to make him mad by ignoring the "several" signs which warn "do not interrupt the agent when they are on the phone".

good thing too, as he's checking how he's supposed to process my baggage charges.

process is slow, (and strangely manual = no computer printed tickets and receipts here, handwritten baggage fee receipts!) but I end up paying either $411 or $311 in excess (I say "either", because I swear he told me $411, but the receipt is only for $311 = guess we'll find out when the creditcard charge actually goes through). it's still way less than what I paid last year - so I'm pleasantly surprised.

first crisis averted, I'm now RUNNING to the security and customs area (other end of the terminal, and next level down)...

"...boarding pass please"

I hand over the ticket thingy that the hovering agent gave me = "this will send you through security a little quicker because you're late"

"...yes that's your express security pass, but I'll need your boarding pass please sir."

"...this is all that they gave me."

"...you'll need to go back upstairs and get your boarding pass printed please; I can't let you in here without one."

"...F*ck!... sorry... I'm not mad at you mr security guy, it's just been an interesting morning..."

...upstairs *well a slow moving lift actually

...run across the terminal again, "hey guys, any chance I could get a boarding pass?"

..."didn't you get it at the excess baggage counter?"

..."grrrrr" let's just focus on what needs to happen now please...

re-print, and hovering agent now becomes an escort to the security area (mr security guy waves me through WITHOUT looking at my freshly printed boarding pass = WTF)

security line up - take out the laptop (external HDD and Mac mini can stay in the bag)...

...not today!

"...is this your bag sir?..."

"...take out the laptop and re-do the security line up please..."

...ok...? I'll do whatever you ask of me, just need to get on the plane (mac-mini = laptop now, that's a first)

...at least mr customs guy is friendly and fast...

..."new" escort to take me straight to the gate where they are packing up the signs etc...

I'm now on the plane, and it's 6:35.

"just another moment folks" "we've been informed that the pattern is still a little full and we'll be pushing off in another 5".

I'll never know if the captain was covering for the "stressed and late" final passenger, who's sweating and out of breath in the window seat of the aisle 25 or not; but I'm finally on my way

here's my view -

wing-side and sweaty, but I'm on my way :)

it's a beautiful morning

the most amazing sunrise (from my taxi-ing plane)

just awesome

the gateway bridge frames another jet (busy take-off-time)

we were treated to the most fantastic view of Brisbane taking-off to the south

closer view = is that the bridge?

even closer = wow! look at that... 

touch-down sydney :)

now that my journey is under way, I can finally seek-out my first coffee of the day ;)

sydney international terminal duty-free and cafe's

Back in the air for the non-eventful 14 hr flight-time to Vancouver... 

that's a strong red-wine for dinner (sleepy-times?)

still way too far away from the east coast of Canada! :(

arrival in Vancouver :)

what a lovely day

so after buying a towel (didn't pack a big one) and making another coffee, I'm back at my old place in North Vancouver. 

not much has changed (a few new room-mates), and the landlord is away on business for a few days (we almost managed an airport pass-by as he left the car for me)...

you know what, it's so lovely I think I'll go for a quick run up the trail...

probably wasn't the best of ideas, but I needed to get the blood flowing again (hate the sitting down part of air travel)...

another shower, and time to "unpack"...

managed to stay up to watch the hockey (LA wins game 3 of the western conference NHL finals), and message some people out east before crashing into the couch at around 9:30pm local time (aka 1430 the "next" day brisbane time!!!)

So I'm in Vancouver for a few days, till I can catch-up with my old land-lord; upon which time, I'll start my mega-super-cross-country-odyssey!

Ten...

 ...years.

That's right - every May third for the last decade, no matter where in the world I've been; I get up early to take photos of the sunrise.

you could almost call that reliable :)

 Moon

 There's always a bunch of people at the mt coot-tha lookout; which has become one of my favorite spots (it's close to home; high; and has the sun rise behind the city)

 almost there...

 you can see the rays...

...there we go - full-on sunlight

Photographers are a wacky-bunch. I'd try to make fun of the guy on the right using his cell-phone when there's a SLR sitting 2 feet to his right (probably shooting time-lapse)... but I had 4 cameras on me this morning, so it feels a little hypocritical...

colours

sillhouettes

lovers-lock? this 'aint a bridge in paris people...

Traffic-copter on the move...

orange-y

all done, heading home for another coffee

soak-up that sun...

random plane

sometimes you aim for one type of photo, and accidentally end up with something much better = I tried to capture the crow, but my camera was still set-up for a slow shutter (I think the photo is quite nice)

May 3rd 2013 - Sunrise.


here's a link to a little video I threw together showing what it takes to get these photos...

video