Six minutes and 30 seconds into Brazil's fantastic pyrotechnic display over English Bay Vancouver on August 1 2012. Once again the chemical wizards who craft these incredible exploding rockets prompted me to say "How the heck did they do that!?. Squiggly rocket trails!? No way!" ... Way. :)
Great balance from the team from Brazil one third of the way into their half show (10:11:39 PM PT Aug 1 2012) .
Brazil's timing at the Honda Celebration of Light fireworks-o-rama this year, I must admit, was nothing short of razor sharp perfect. Here's a good example at 10:10:48 PM. Mid and low altitude pyrotechnics perfect timed.
The only downside though to the 'new' technique of 'singular' fireworks (one or two types in the air rather than bunches and bunches) is that, in my very jaded opinion, the 'WoW OMG!!' factor is diminished a bit.
My two bits? Near the end - press all those 'fire the fireworks' buttons and go nuts.
Nine minutes and twenty two seconds into the fiery carnival that lit the skies over English Bay Vancouver August 1 2012 compliments of the team from Brazil.
I love the balance in this shot. Fireworks barge exploding - check!
Mid level fireworks kablaming - check.
High altitude fireworks ezplodink!! - check.
Hundreds of surrounding boats doing that 'thousand points of light' thing - check
Five minutes into the Da Nang group's fireworks extravaganza over English Bay. I love the illusion of a bouquet of flowers that they were able to create. Totally cool.
Rattling the windows of Vancouver's West End 10 minutes into Vietnam's Da Nang fireworks group's show over English Bay. The higher they go the louder they blow.
Vietnam's Da Nang fireworks group working the low, medium and high zones during their July 28 2012 fireworks show over English Bay Vancouver.
7 minutes into the soft and understated but none the less awesome fireworks presentation by Vietnam's Da Nang fireworks group at this year's Honda Celebration of Light festival over English Bay Vancouver.
The local folk band Headwater performing for the Saturday afternoon crowds on Sunset Beach as part of the Shore Fest 2012.
18 minutes into the July 28 2012 Honda Celebration of Light extravaganza as presented by Vietnam's Da Nang fireworks group. I love this group's ability to create 'delicate' fireworks with this photo a good example of such refinement. "Delicate" is not a word often included with "Massive Ear Popping Fiery Explosion". :)
Sirrus caught in the late afternoon reflected light dreaming about chasing mice and bunnies as cats are prone to do.
Something awesome this way comes.
The assembly of the dual-barge used as the platform for Vancouver's annual fireworks festival, this year the Honda Celebration of Light, begins. And there was much rejoicing. :)
Cathedral Grove on Vancouver Island. 30 minutes due west from Parksville and a must-do stop on your way to Long Beach on the island's west coast.
Beach Avenue Vancouver on the hill overlooking Sunset Beach. June 19 2012 around 3 in the afternoon.
Natural Diplomacy.
Here's s good shot of the point where the Vancouver Seawall meets the Pacific Ocean. At the top are the greens of the air based mosses here in the West End of Vancouver. At the bottom are the gooey sci-fi-esque greens of the tidal mosses that live in English Bay. Notice that the sea-borne mosses love the grouting and it acts as a growth corridor between the air and sea mosses. Very cool. Grouting not only brings rocks and tiles together it does the same for mosses. Who knew? :)
Pacific Weathered Heavy Metal - Macro Detail
One of my favorites of the Vancouver Biennale pieces remains the "217.5 Arc x 13'" sculpture by France's Bernar Vernet. Perfectly position on one of the sand berms on Sunset Beach (this photo is geo-tag to 1m accurate). And, as temporal luck would have it, this superb piece of modern art became a legacy work in 2007. In other words it's here for the duration.
This is a detail shot of the iron in the sculpture as it very gracefully ages in the primordial moistness that is the wet , ... errr, west coast 270 days or so per year.
Time to give the HDR artistic muse her far share of creative moments.
Bumble Bee Forest Detail.
Flowers within flowers within flowers.
Close up I'd wager nature is even more pretty than further away. Just sayin.
I really like this shot.
Exhibit A - the petals. Pink and fuzzy. Just like you'd expect petals on a flower to be.
Exhibit B - the center of the flower - razor sharp.
Conclusion - The soft petals remain soft despite a Nikon D300, 64 bit Photomatix and Capture NX/2 pointed directly at them. However, the center of the flower, the flower's tech so to put it, loves the human tech. and comes out razor sharp. Nature 1, Tech 1.
Greetings Earthlings.
We come in Peace. :) xoxo
And please ignore our sharp and pointy bits. We're just having a bad hair day.
Not sure yet what to title this one. 'Loch'd and Loaded" or "A World Waiting to be Born".
The first title stolen from Vancouver's best punk celtic rock band who's music pays full respect to the bagpipes.
The second borrowed from the title of a great book by M. Scott Peck - author of "The Road Less Traveled." Also a great book.
I love the "Aliens" movie series with the second being my personal favorite. However no movie before and after has defined space scary quite as well as the first in the series of four (now five .. sort of) movies. In fact the first created a phrase that's become wonderfully stuck in our culture - "In space no one can hear you scream.".
So is it just me or is this not pretty close to the alien creature pods in the series just before they pop open and scare the crap out of us?
Pretty in Pink.
What amazes me about the shots in this series is that I shot the HDR sequences (3 frames, hand held, +/- 1 stop) in the usual gentle but 'in-your-face' wind that roles in off English Bay here in Vancouver nearly constantly and, regardless, the result are still razor sharp. I love you Photomatix.
What I thought originally (5 years ago) was a weakness in the medium - requiring multiple shots - turns out to be it's strength. Having a series of slight angles on the scene (inside the focus point of the depth of field) taken as it moves provides just that much more clarity and color info. It's like you picking something up and moving it around to get a good look at it.
So don't fear HDR photography. All it takes is a camera that you can set to up to shoot multiple shots over and under exposed and computer software. Once you go HDR you won't go back. Trust me.
I love bumble bees. For many reasons. The biggest reason to like them for me comes from something I read in the 1980's that, according to the laws of aerodynamics at the time, bumble bees should not be able to fly. But they do anyway. Beyond perfectly in fact.
Go figure. :)
Nature never ceases to amaze me in both its variety and its elegant perfection.
Why it designs life the way it does only it knows and while we build ever more powerful and amazing machines, each designed to expand our understanding of something as simple as a flower or thunderstorm we've barely scratched the surface. Ignorance of the why in a way helps us appreciate the simplicity that is a pretty flower.
Here's Sheba laying claim to that hanging ball-thingie in the CAT scanner. Mine.
Possessive or what? :)
Here's Sirrus figuring that one eye open is enough to ascertain the reason behind the sounds my camera is making while it takes shots of her. Sort of a 'you talkin' ta me?' Dinero - Taxi Driver sort of moment. Made even cooler in that the light source is reflected. Reflected light is filtered light (only certain wave lengths make it past the reflector's ability to reflect) so it gives a more 'real' feel to things. Less is more in other words.
Here's Sirrus figuring that one eye open is enough to ascertain the reason behind the sounds my camera is making while it takes shots of her. Sort of a 'you talkin' ta me?' Dinero - Taxi Driver sort of moment. Made even cooler in that the light source is reflected. Reflected light is filtered light (only certain wave lengths make it past the reflector's ability to reflect) so it gives a more 'real' feel to things. Less is more in other words.
Here's Sheba warming in the late afternoon sun. I think I've finally found a way to photograph her. Finally. She's 12. :)
HDR is the key tightly coupled with getting her comfortable with the click-click-click sound of my Nikon D300 taking the HDR sequence. She's not a black cat so much as a chestnut brown one and it takes the sun's light spectrum to really bring out the color in her. A gorgeous cat. It's like having a mink coat that purs.
I'm trying something new. I configure my camera to shoot a 9 frame HDR sequence (0.7 f/stops between each image) and equip it with my traditional black and white filter set up - red and circular polarizer. I process the image to black and white inside the HDR software I use (Photomatix) and do the HDR treatment at the same time.
So far so good. I left in the motion on this shot as well. All over the image are multiple-images of things moving. People, cars, waves, etc.
Here's Sirrus testing out her new CAT scanner. I never get tired of that pun given it works on so many levels. :)
And yes - it is true - the best camera is the one that you have with you when the photo moment arrives.
So far it's been a pretty moist June 2012 for us here in Vancouver and when you mix a rain soaked mountain (the North Shore's Cypress Mt. in this case) with a sudden blast of warm sunset light and then toss in a high altitude for good measure the result is a cool combination of clouds. Some air-born some mountain born.
A day before the June 06 2012 anniversary of the D-Day landing on the north coast of WWII-torn France a pretty aggressive fire broke out in the Kitsilano 'burb of Vancouver. The city fire department was quick to respond (second alarm responders on the bridge in the foreground) and after 10 minutes nothing showed but a few puffs of white smoke. Old and new heros with a silent salute of thanks to both.
I so love this shot. Pure contrast. Darkness and light totally cool with each other.
Sheba is my first long-haired cat. High maintenance (daily brushings and dealing with the occasional ... errr .... cling-on ... so to put it) but well worth it. She is without a doubt the prettiest cat I have had the chance to get to know. Here she is right at the focal limit of my 18-200mm lens. A combination of scruffy and pretty equaling curious.
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