transitions
14/11/08 10:41
I'm having a really hard time transitioning from
the warm water and beaches of Maui to the grey cold
of Vancouver. It's that time of year that is always
really challenging, too early to snowboard, but
already cold and wet. Roatan is sounding better
all the time. Reef Gliders is moving and I
can't wait to check out the new shop. I miss
my friends down there and the fun times. Shooting diving
photos underwater again in Maui has got me all
amped on that again. It's a shame that it is
so bloody expensive to get into and a tough
place to sell photos. I figure it will take
about another season before I have some really
good underwater stuff. Not that I'm not happy
with some of the things that I get down there,
but I'm not as consistent as I am shooting
people, or snow or whatever.
Ok, time to write a chapter for the book.
Ok, time to write a chapter for the book.
|
Maui in October
05/11/08 20:25
Tomorrow is my last day in Maui, and then I have to
faced the reality of cold November in Vancouver. In
the last week I have done a bunch of diving, hiked
through a tight bamboo forest, had some great
meals, and, um, oh ya, got married.
I'd never been here before this trip, and I pretty much fell in love with the place. Here are a few shots. In a couple days I will try to catch up a little bit.
Dano
The sun sets here like, ever single night!
sometimes guidebooks tell you to go places that aren't really there
But sometimes those places turn out to be pretty cool
this is not the waterfall we were looking for.
Lava, oceans and green as far as the eye can see.
On the highway to Hana there are all sorts of super beautiful famous waterfalls. This is not one of them.
This is my wife checking out a huge anchor. She found a Green Hawaiian Lionfish.
This is the lionfish she found
and this is a leaf scorpionfish, which is also cool.
I'd never been here before this trip, and I pretty much fell in love with the place. Here are a few shots. In a couple days I will try to catch up a little bit.
Dano
The sun sets here like, ever single night!
sometimes guidebooks tell you to go places that aren't really there
But sometimes those places turn out to be pretty cool
this is not the waterfall we were looking for.
Lava, oceans and green as far as the eye can see.
On the highway to Hana there are all sorts of super beautiful famous waterfalls. This is not one of them.
This is my wife checking out a huge anchor. She found a Green Hawaiian Lionfish.
This is the lionfish she found
and this is a leaf scorpionfish, which is also cool.
Fishies and deep breaths.
07/10/08 11:28
A year ago today, I left Roatan after living there
for 3 and a half months. I expected to be back
there around June, but life is always
interesting and you never know what is around
the next corner, so instead it has now been a
year since I've seen some of my friends down
there. I've booked a flight back for
Christmas, which makes me extremely happy, but
I miss the place. No Roatan has also meant, no
diving, which I miss terribly. People have
asked me what the appeal is lately and my
response is this; scuba diving is everything
that snowboarding isn't. It's warm (at least
where I like to do it), it's no impact, it's
quiet and calm (which snowboarding actually
can be too, but not sledding or crowded
mountains, etc.).
Diving to me is like a forced meditation. You slow down your breathing, clear your mind, and look at pretty fishes. It calms me.
So in the year since I've been home, a lot has happened. I've made big strides professionally, and am very proud of the work I'm doing these days. Between that, the new apartment, and impending wedding, life has kept me very, very busy. I feel fortunate, considering the state of the global economy and how tough it is out there to make it as a photographer, to still be getting work, selling pictures, and interesting new clients.
Now if I can just figure out how to do it all of that from the beach...
This is a typical view off the wall in Roatan. No sharks or seahorses or barracuda, just a squirrel fish and lots of coral. Aaaah.
Diving to me is like a forced meditation. You slow down your breathing, clear your mind, and look at pretty fishes. It calms me.
So in the year since I've been home, a lot has happened. I've made big strides professionally, and am very proud of the work I'm doing these days. Between that, the new apartment, and impending wedding, life has kept me very, very busy. I feel fortunate, considering the state of the global economy and how tough it is out there to make it as a photographer, to still be getting work, selling pictures, and interesting new clients.
Now if I can just figure out how to do it all of that from the beach...
This is a typical view off the wall in Roatan. No sharks or seahorses or barracuda, just a squirrel fish and lots of coral. Aaaah.
Blue skies and happy days.
01/09/08 16:30
Sooo...
Sorry about that last rant. Things were a little dark at that point. In the old days that might have sent me off on a week long bender but now I just blog, shrug, and move on.
Here are some photos to look at and think about all things non-governmental.
-d
happy clouds
happy forest
Sorry about that last rant. Things were a little dark at that point. In the old days that might have sent me off on a week long bender but now I just blog, shrug, and move on.
Here are some photos to look at and think about all things non-governmental.
-d
happy clouds
happy forest
weak week
21/08/08 23:32
I was just sitting here getting ready to close the
book on a pretty terrible day when it occurred to
me that I have been neglecting my blog this week,
which is a shame. The blog serves a weird purpose
in my life. I started to blog on a regular basis
for work. When we started Future Snowboarding
Magazine we were encouraged by the big
bosses to embrace all kinds of web shit that
would help benefit the traffic to the magazine. I've always
written, and I had some pretty good updates on
Snowboard.com way back at
the turn of the century, so this was just
another one of those things.
Pretty soon though my words were more on Myspace than anywhere related to the magazine, and when I launched my website last fall I moved over a few of the posts but mostly started from scratch. Folks who are much smarter than I am write interesting articles that tell me that blogging is a good way to keep your name high on search engines. Sometimes that comes into account, but mostly it doesn't.
Mostly I guess I just have an urge to put photos up that maybe would never have a home, and to say words that aren't that interesting to anyone who I come in daily contact with. Maybe I'm just having a Pump up the Volume fantasy and think that tons of people are paying attention (actually, thanks to google analytics I know exactly how many people are reading and when that number hits triple digits I consider it a success.) (also, thanks to my subscribers)
In the end, I get some really interesting emails from strangers, and some people tell me that they really look forward to them. On a crap day like today, knowing that someone else is stoked on something I've done is reason enough.
This is my (soon to be) brother-in-law Paul wake surfing with Willamina while T coaches. Family time. We had a really fun weekend and I met some good people.
-d
whistler photographer, snowboard photos, snowboard photographer, vancouver city photographer, vancouver photos, 2010 Olympic photo, whistler stock photography, vancouver stock photos, snowboard stock photo, action sports photo, whistler outdoor photography, vancouver portrait photographer, whistler portrait photographer, mountain stock photography, blackcomb snowboard photo, whistler action sports photographer, british columbia stock photo, canada snowboard photo, Pendygrasse, False Creek Vancouver photo, pictures of False Creek Vancouver. current vancouver, vancouver photo blog, current whistler, whistler photo blog, street photography, snowboard pictures, snowboarding picture, mountain photographer, canadian portrait photographer, canadian mountain photos, snowboard blog
Pretty soon though my words were more on Myspace than anywhere related to the magazine, and when I launched my website last fall I moved over a few of the posts but mostly started from scratch. Folks who are much smarter than I am write interesting articles that tell me that blogging is a good way to keep your name high on search engines. Sometimes that comes into account, but mostly it doesn't.
Mostly I guess I just have an urge to put photos up that maybe would never have a home, and to say words that aren't that interesting to anyone who I come in daily contact with. Maybe I'm just having a Pump up the Volume fantasy and think that tons of people are paying attention (actually, thanks to google analytics I know exactly how many people are reading and when that number hits triple digits I consider it a success.) (also, thanks to my subscribers)
In the end, I get some really interesting emails from strangers, and some people tell me that they really look forward to them. On a crap day like today, knowing that someone else is stoked on something I've done is reason enough.
This is my (soon to be) brother-in-law Paul wake surfing with Willamina while T coaches. Family time. We had a really fun weekend and I met some good people.
-d
whistler photographer, snowboard photos, snowboard photographer, vancouver city photographer, vancouver photos, 2010 Olympic photo, whistler stock photography, vancouver stock photos, snowboard stock photo, action sports photo, whistler outdoor photography, vancouver portrait photographer, whistler portrait photographer, mountain stock photography, blackcomb snowboard photo, whistler action sports photographer, british columbia stock photo, canada snowboard photo, Pendygrasse, False Creek Vancouver photo, pictures of False Creek Vancouver. current vancouver, vancouver photo blog, current whistler, whistler photo blog, street photography, snowboard pictures, snowboarding picture, mountain photographer, canadian portrait photographer, canadian mountain photos, snowboard blog
more new stuff from the past
15/08/08 15:31
I was doing an interview yesterday and the subject
donated a bunch of materials to the book project
that I'm working on. There in the midst of all this
stuff was a single slide in a page, with no label
or marking and the picture was of me.
I think this shot was taken in 1991 and I think it's at Mt. Bachelor in Oregon. I could be wrong on both accounts. I have no idea who took it and my friend doesn't even remember how he got it. So, for the second time in as many weeks, and at the risk of making this into some kind of history blog, here is what your faithful protagonist looked like while doing a method 17 years ago. Dig the colourful Westbeach gear...
If you took this photo or know who did, please get in touch with me. I'm off till Monday, have a great weekend.
whistler photographer, snowboard photos, snowboard photographer, vancouver city photographer, vancouver photos, 2010 Olympic photo, whistler stock photography, vancouver stock photos, snowboard stock photo, action sports photo, whistler outdoor photography, vancouver portrait photographer, whistler portrait photographer, mountain stock photography, blackcomb snowboard photo, blackcomb stock photograph, british columbia stock photo, canada snowboard photo, Daniel Stephen Pendygrasse, False Creek Vancouver photo, pictures of False Creek Vancouver. current vancouver, new vancouver, current whistler, new whistler, street photography
I think this shot was taken in 1991 and I think it's at Mt. Bachelor in Oregon. I could be wrong on both accounts. I have no idea who took it and my friend doesn't even remember how he got it. So, for the second time in as many weeks, and at the risk of making this into some kind of history blog, here is what your faithful protagonist looked like while doing a method 17 years ago. Dig the colourful Westbeach gear...
If you took this photo or know who did, please get in touch with me. I'm off till Monday, have a great weekend.
whistler photographer, snowboard photos, snowboard photographer, vancouver city photographer, vancouver photos, 2010 Olympic photo, whistler stock photography, vancouver stock photos, snowboard stock photo, action sports photo, whistler outdoor photography, vancouver portrait photographer, whistler portrait photographer, mountain stock photography, blackcomb snowboard photo, blackcomb stock photograph, british columbia stock photo, canada snowboard photo, Daniel Stephen Pendygrasse, False Creek Vancouver photo, pictures of False Creek Vancouver. current vancouver, new vancouver, current whistler, new whistler, street photography
Tuesday
12/08/08 11:31
I was up in Whistler all last week doing a project
for Whistler/Blackcomb and
Origin Design, as well as
catching up on some personal thing. One of the
personal things was fishing.
Fishing is on of the things that evens me out, it keeps me humble, happy and calm. I love casting flies and catching fish and I don't do it nearly enough. Even though I couldn't convince anyone to go out with me, I braved the wind and went out on Alta Lake. It was a pretty crappy day to be out there, casting was tough and there was no visible surface action, so I fought the wind for a couple hours before getting a text message from my buddy Rob that he was back at the house with Mojitos and bbq. I conceded a loss to the lake and started to kick back to shore. Just as I had given up hope I felt a strong tug on the line and the slow head shake that meant I wasn't just dragging weeds.
5 or 8 minutes later, and after a nice showy jump, a beautiful golden 17 inch cutthroat slid into my net. I was too busy pulling the fly out of the corner of his mouth to take a picture before releasing him back into the lake, but sometimes it's better that way. I don't want to give away all my memories after all.
Thanks to Brian at Whistler Flyfishing for the help picking out new waders and the good deal too!
Here is a picture of a bubble.
Fishing is on of the things that evens me out, it keeps me humble, happy and calm. I love casting flies and catching fish and I don't do it nearly enough. Even though I couldn't convince anyone to go out with me, I braved the wind and went out on Alta Lake. It was a pretty crappy day to be out there, casting was tough and there was no visible surface action, so I fought the wind for a couple hours before getting a text message from my buddy Rob that he was back at the house with Mojitos and bbq. I conceded a loss to the lake and started to kick back to shore. Just as I had given up hope I felt a strong tug on the line and the slow head shake that meant I wasn't just dragging weeds.
5 or 8 minutes later, and after a nice showy jump, a beautiful golden 17 inch cutthroat slid into my net. I was too busy pulling the fly out of the corner of his mouth to take a picture before releasing him back into the lake, but sometimes it's better that way. I don't want to give away all my memories after all.
Thanks to Brian at Whistler Flyfishing for the help picking out new waders and the good deal too!
Here is a picture of a bubble.
Pemberton Festival Madness - super post, lots of photos.
28/07/08 15:47
Pemberton Festival photos, band photos, and so on.
Read
More...
Life before this life
23/07/08 22:47
Right around the time I started getting pictures
published, I had to quit my real job, and make a go
of being a photographer. Those were lean years and
I was broke. I did all kinds of strange things to
make a buck and keep paying the rent until the
photo thing took off. Coming from a background of
being a sponsored snowboarder, I would do whatever
jobs I could get relating to that. I modeled winter
clothes for Japanese magazines, snowboarded and had
lines an early Kokanee beer commercial, was an
extra in that movie "Ski School" and on and on.
One of the best jobs I got though, was being a stunt guy for a Hong Kong action Movie called "Black Cat". Legendary shredder Kevin Young and I spent a few days getting chased off cornices by snowmobiles, riding through gunfire, lobbing grenades, and doing methods that knocked guns out of peoples hands. I think I made a couple hundred bucks. It was really bad, but the job was fun and I got to see how a movie set worked.
I never saw the movie. And now, by the magic of youtube, I have. I guess someone included it in some euro shred movie back then. Weird.
whistler snowboard photographer, whistler stock photography, vancouver photography, street photography vancouver, vancouver city photographer, canon g9
One of the best jobs I got though, was being a stunt guy for a Hong Kong action Movie called "Black Cat". Legendary shredder Kevin Young and I spent a few days getting chased off cornices by snowmobiles, riding through gunfire, lobbing grenades, and doing methods that knocked guns out of peoples hands. I think I made a couple hundred bucks. It was really bad, but the job was fun and I got to see how a movie set worked.
I never saw the movie. And now, by the magic of youtube, I have. I guess someone included it in some euro shred movie back then. Weird.
whistler snowboard photographer, whistler stock photography, vancouver photography, street photography vancouver, vancouver city photographer, canon g9
July first
01/07/08 23:15
spring days
30/05/08 16:47
So my girl is away working in Roatan right now. I'm
missing her and working away. Sold a shot
today to a clothing manufacturer and magazines
have been making their selects and I've been
shipping them out. Life is good, but a big
part of me wants to be in the warm water with
my girl, 80 feet down and looking at
fishes. There have been both Manta Rays and
Hammerheads on the dives in the last week.
Here is a pic of T walking the dog a few days
before she left.
Snow
21/12/07 17:51
This is the view from my house. All week I have been watching it snow and snow. I've been riding a lot too, having some really good days with some really good people.
When I was living in California and working in the office, people would ask me what I missed about Canada and I would always say, the time from opening day until Christmas. That's when the storms hit and the crowds are still small, when the pressure to shoot hasn't gotten too hectic yet and I get to ride my ass off. Well after the mountain opened we had a couple weeks where the snow where it didn't snow and I started to question the whole Early season myth that I had been building in my head. Luckily the snow came and just in time. I feel like I have gotten my legs back now and I am ready to dive into shooting now. I've gotten it out of my system once again. It was worth it.
House Cleaning
18/12/07 12:41
Well here is a little blog entry just to talk about
the updates to the site. It's mostly cosmetic, but
there are some additions. New bio page, new link page. Other than that
there is just better organization than before.
I've been riding a lot and my legs are sore. That's a good thing. Christmas week means I have to finish off shopping stuff, which I've never been good at, but this year I am a little ahead of the curve compared to past seasons.
I'm picking photos for the upcoming Gallery show. It's a huge process but it's cool to sort through old stock. I also have to choose images for a photo contest and teach myself how to use this new slideshow software that I bought. The "deep winter" photo contest is coming up in a couple weeks and I have to be able to make a slideshow on the fly.
Oh ya, and I decided to start adding pictures to my blog posts too, because Owen's blog is way more interesting than mine. This one is from the deep winter contest last year. It's me riding down lower insanity (!!!) on Whistler:
I've been riding a lot and my legs are sore. That's a good thing. Christmas week means I have to finish off shopping stuff, which I've never been good at, but this year I am a little ahead of the curve compared to past seasons.
I'm picking photos for the upcoming Gallery show. It's a huge process but it's cool to sort through old stock. I also have to choose images for a photo contest and teach myself how to use this new slideshow software that I bought. The "deep winter" photo contest is coming up in a couple weeks and I have to be able to make a slideshow on the fly.
Oh ya, and I decided to start adding pictures to my blog posts too, because Owen's blog is way more interesting than mine. This one is from the deep winter contest last year. It's me riding down lower insanity (!!!) on Whistler:
The gift of time
13/01/07 11:53
It’s
been awhile since I’ve been able to sit down and
write. Life has been throwing me one thing after
another lately. I overbooked my Holiday’s to the
point where I didn’t even feel like they happened,
dropped straight into a photo contest and woke up
on a plane to the east coast. Now I’m back in San
Diego, putting the final touches on our last issue
of the year, and I have a chance to take a deep
breath. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again;
“life is long and interesting”.
I know I missed about three quarters of the people I wanted to see when I was home. I’m sorry. (One day you’ll forgive me goodze…) I’m looking forward to spending lots and lots of time making it up to all of my friends. I can’t wait to spend hours over a good bottle of wine and a meal explaining why I have felt the need to be gone for the last couple years. I can’t wait to offer up a weekend trip away up to the interior to make up for all those summer weeks I missed. I’m just dying to sit around the dinner table with all of you and listening to all the crazy stories of times I missed. I’ll sit back and smile and imagine all the fun you had, and pretend I was there.
Most of all I can’t wait to give all of you a present. It’s the best thing I have to offer and I have only recently realized how valuable it is. It’s a bit selfish, because it’s the kind of present that I get as much out of as you all will. It’s sorta like when Homer got Marge the bowling ball. Anyway, the present is time. Soon I’ll have the time to give all you that I haven’t been able to. I’m dying to have time for my friends again.
I know I missed about three quarters of the people I wanted to see when I was home. I’m sorry. (One day you’ll forgive me goodze…) I’m looking forward to spending lots and lots of time making it up to all of my friends. I can’t wait to spend hours over a good bottle of wine and a meal explaining why I have felt the need to be gone for the last couple years. I can’t wait to offer up a weekend trip away up to the interior to make up for all those summer weeks I missed. I’m just dying to sit around the dinner table with all of you and listening to all the crazy stories of times I missed. I’ll sit back and smile and imagine all the fun you had, and pretend I was there.
Most of all I can’t wait to give all of you a present. It’s the best thing I have to offer and I have only recently realized how valuable it is. It’s a bit selfish, because it’s the kind of present that I get as much out of as you all will. It’s sorta like when Homer got Marge the bowling ball. Anyway, the present is time. Soon I’ll have the time to give all you that I haven’t been able to. I’m dying to have time for my friends again.