More can be found on my Flickr here!

Okay, it's been a while since I last posted here. I have been keeping busy, still taking pictures, etc. Next week I'll be at the Canadian International AutoShow media days. I submitted for, and was granted press credentials for the show! Filling in the application for the press pass, they asked for one of: press credentials, business card, sample of work. I went with sample, and sent in this:



One of the stock agencies I submit to will assist in getting press passes, but it turned out I didn't need their help. I'm quite happy to have gotten this purely on my own merit!

Other works, I did a little playing around with Fitch and a mirror, with nice results:



And I've been out to the Guild a few more times, last time in the middle of a winter storm! I had to call it quits when my fingers got too cold to work the camera anymore, but I think it was worth it:



I hope everyone is doing well, and hope to get back into more frequent updates!

Okay, I think I may have crossed that threshold to an insane photographer...
The weather here has been very wet lately, raining almost every day. I've been wanting to get back down to The Guild for more photos, but it's been raining when I want sun. Until yesterday morning. After giving Mel a drive to work I thought I would head down there and catch the Sun's first rays on some of the ruins. Of course, it's an hour before dawn when I get there, with all the rain the place is a swamp, and it's being over-run by mosquitoes! The cold and wet is of course enough for my Reynaud's to kick in, and it's an hour after dawn before the light hits the ruin i want pictures of... So, two hours standing in puddles, feet soaked, hands white and numb, mosquitoes eating me alive (except my hands, they seem to know there's no blood there), and this is the result...






Was it worth it? Hell ya!! Will I do it again? Hell ya again, though maybe with gloves and mosquito repellent...

I settled on Photomatix software for my HDR, as other software reduced the resolution and fine details of my pictures (what's the point of HDR if you fuzz out the details in the processing??). Went out to take a few pictures at the Guild, and loved the results! Seems I had reached a hardware limit before with the old G2, but now.... Well, look at the results youself.

Made my first foray into the world of HDR (High Dynamic Range) photography. Here are the results:





This is the Automotive Building, in the Exhibition Grounds, here in Toronto. It's being sort of renovated... They're completely tearing out the interior, and are going to build a new building using the complete exterior walls. Still testing different software packages, so these photos have watermarks on them. Still, not bad for my first foray into HDR...


Also, the exhibition for the6th Toronto Photography Marathon is tomorrow night, Saturday July 19th,

at the The Gladstone Hotel from 6:00-10:30pm (voting ends at 9:30pm) for the exhibit evening. There is a $10 cover, and music by The Café Ole.

I've mentioned it often enough, so you all should know I took part in the 6th Toronto Photography Marathon this weekend. While a film photography event, I did use my digital to help set up a couple of the pictures, which I've included here.

Those of you who are in the Toronto area are welcome to come down to The Gladstone Hotel, Saturday July 19th, 6:00-10:30pm (voting ends at 9:30pm) for the exhibit evening. There is a $10 cover, and music by The Café Ole. Maybe I'll see some of you there!




6. Forever





10. Sin Lives Next Door





11. Once Upon a Time





A downside of this, our Alfa ran into trouble again, this time a suspension strut collapsed (probably damaged from one of the tows it needed for earlier problems, but that's another story).

This weekend is the Toronto Photography Marathon.
Wish me luck!

Been working on our Alfa a little bit... We knew when we got her that she would be a running project car. There are a few problem, mostly minor and most that we knew about when we got her, and we're slowly working our way through them.

I was worried at first about the engine temperature, as the gauge kept hovering around 100-110 degrees C. After asking a few other owners, we discovered that these engines run hot, usually 110-120, so we're actually doing very good there!

We had problems with several of the switches. The rear right window wouldn't work, the up/down on the drivers seat, recline on both the front seats. Rebuilt all the problem switches today, now they all work! One item off the repair list!

The air conditioning doesn't blow cold, but I'll be getting that looked at by an Alfa mechanic this Wednesday when I get her oil changed.

We hadn't been able to get the alarm system working, so after getting all the switches fixed, I investigated that. Pulled the left side panel out of the trunk to check the fuses on the battery... Hmmm... They weren't there, the entire alarm fuse panel was gone! Pulled the panel off the opposite side where the alarm unit is... It's there, but completely disconnected from the electrical harness. Essentially, it's been permanently disabled. Well, our insurance offered a discount if we install a modern alarm, so we'll price that out. But while investigating the alarm, I found a puddle of water in the trunk - not good! Traced it back to a pool of water in one of the tail lights. Seems it's cracked along an edge, something we'll have to replace, but good to find, since water pooling in the trunk could have led to a rusted out floor fast! Until we can replace the tail light, I drilled a small hole in the bottom so the water can drain, rather than overflow into the trunk.

Other things we'll ahve to look after in the near future, the leather on the front seats needs to be repaired and redyed, some minor trim problems, minor body dings to be corrected, carpets and head liner need to be steam cleaned... Nothing big, and nothing we can't look after over the next couple of months.

The car is a delight to drive though! We have the service receipts from new, and the last work the original owner had done was a complete suspension overhaul - new bushes, ball joins, shocks, etc - over $3000 in work, all done only 4000 km ago! Overtaking a slow car on the highway today, we found our speed crept up to 155kph! (that's almost 100mph for you Americans) That speed, without even a hint of shake, drift, or even noise inside! The original owner also only had one modification to the car - he had an Ansa exhaust installed, so she has a delightful low rumble!

Well, that's it for now. More as more work gets done!

As I've gotten more confident in my photography, I've registered for the 6th Toronto Photography Marathon.
The concept is, you are given an unexposed 12 exposure roll of film, and a list of 12 themes you have to follow in order, and 24 hours to do it. At the end of the 24 hours, you hand your roll of film in, and 2 weeks later there will be a showing at a major art gallery here, The Gladstone Hotel. There, people will vote on the best photo in each category. This actually suits my strong points in photography, and looking at previous marathons, I think my photography stands up well against it. It's still a month away, so I'll post about it again just before and after. This should be fun and good exposure (pardon the pun), as I'll be showing beside some of the best photographers in this region!

Okay, I said I would post to update you all on what has been happening over here, so here goes...

First, work. After numerous interviews, including for some positions I felt I was a shoe in, I've abandoned the tech work I was doing. Time out of the field was making my skills go stale fast, and I wasn't getting anywhere. For the time being I'm working at a company that sells wood mouldings for houses. The pay is okay, less than what I was making before, but it helps keep the bills paid. The one big benefit of it has been it is very physical work, so I've lost weight, put on muscle, and generally feel fitter than i have in years! Who needs a gym? It's also strengthened my knee, so I'm moving about better too (though I still have days where I can barely move, but those are less frequent now). I am not looking at this as a new career, this is just something to keep me busy and earning while I work at getting into a new field. I know some of you have seen my photography, well, I've been practicing over the Winter, and am now looking to start that professionally as a freelance photojournalist and commercial photographer! (more on my photography as we go)

The ferrets. At around the last time I was posting, I had written that one of them, Oko, had had surgery for a last cancer tumor on her tail. Well, she bounced back from that quickly, and they're both healthy, happy, and very active ferrets! They're 6 1/2 years old now, but our vet mistook them for 3 year old ferrets, they're doing that well! They both still have to go in for shots once a month to keep their adrenal disease under control and will for the rest of their lives, but even there the treatment levels they need are at the low end (we were there one visit when someone else was there with her ferret for the same thing - her ferret was the same weight as Oko, but was getting 4 times the dose Oko was, and it still wasn't under control!).

Our car. The RAV4 I had had for a decade, starting showing it's age, so we starting looking around for a new car. We had decided on something a little sporty and fun, and were negotiating with the owner when the RAV died last weekend - first the exhaust blew out, then started to fall off, then the brakes started to fail! A week borrowing my father-in-law's car, and then the replacement was ready - a 1992 Alfa Romeo 164 Lusso! Despite being older, it has less than half the mileage on it, no rust, and is in generally very good condition. There are some little problems we will need to fix, but nothing we can't do ourselves or get someone to look after for us. Here she is:


(click it, it's a link!)

My Photography. I've put together a portfolio set, you're welcome to go take a look, or browse the whole photostream I have there. I think the pictures say more than I could type about them.


(click it, it's another link!)


What else is there... We're both doing well, though each of our works is a little crazy right now, family is doing well, been getting out and being social... that's about all of it for now! Stay tuned, I'm going to try to post here every now and then!

Just came in here for the first time in a long time... since January in fact!
I'm going to be trying to revive this journal, writing later to say what I've been up to.
Stay tuned!

Oko is back home with us, after her stay with the vet. She's still a little groggy, and Pudding (our other ferret) was very worried while she was gone, but they're both curled up happily together right now and sleeping.
Unfortunately, the tumor had spread too deep into her tail, and her tail had to be amputated, but she seems to be dealing with it very well. I'll post pictures of her with her new stubby tail once she has fully healed up.

Our ferret Oko is at the vet tonight for surgery on her tail to remove what is thought to be a tumor. We're hoping the lump can be removed whole, but if the vet can't get it all, he's going to amputate her tail. We should be able to pick her up tomorrow night, if everything goes well. Oko's not a young ferret anymore, she's 6 years old.

I know, I know, I'm technically 2 hours and 16 minutes early for my time zone, but what the heck!

Happy New Year!!! :D :D :D

2007... was a year.  I'll leave it at that.  Here's to a good 2008 for all of you!

It's been a while since I did this, so here's another random picture from my archive...

Back on my birthday, we decided it was time to upgrade the memory on my pc.  Two brand new match 1 gig card later, problems started to happen.  My system would not stay stable...  Okay, try it with only 1 gig memory...  Stays up for 15 minutes, then crashes...  Time to run some deep diagnostics.  Nothing seemed wrong, until i read the mainboard voltage data...






































Not good.  With readings like this, this system shouldn't even be able to boot!  Mainboard is definitely toast, and the processor, memory and graphics card are probably damaged as well...  Time to start pricing out a major upgrade...

Okay people, you've inspired me to actually try to write something!
I'm not sure how it will go, but I'll at least have a start, and being still out of work, it'll be something to occupy my time.

To those of you that are doing NaNoWriMo, I salute you!
Now, all I have to do is replace this keyboard with something I can actually use... (using a crappy wired temp keyboard - my nice wireless one up and died two nights ago) :/

Came across this beautiful old plane on the same trip as the wrecked one earlier.  Same place even...

Upgraded my Flickr account from a free one to a paid one, and almost doubled the number of pictures, as well as organized them better.
Take a peak.

The business end of a paper mill in Quebec.  This was an active site, only production had been shut down because of safety issues in their warehouse - they had overfilled it, and there were a risk of paper rolls falling over.  Still, gave a unique opportunity to wander around without anyone else there.