Hello friends,

I’ve been back from Roatan for just a few days but life is moving incredibly quickly. It’s always like this when good things happen, they tend to happen in clusters and it’s all you can do just to keep up. I’m holding on for the ride!

When I was in the water waiting to shoot the shark release, I had some time with Ian Drysdale from healthyreefs.org and we spent it discussing the Cordelia Banks on the South side of Roatan. Recently discovered, the reef there is largely made up of staghorn coral which went through a disastrous decline due to disease in the 80’s. It’s in the crosshairs of the conservation movement because due to the healthy population of staghorn and its proximity to deep water currents, there is speculation that these reefs maybe be responsible for repopulating the staghorn population throughout the entire Caribbean. Impressive. The Cordelia Banks are a rich environment for fish as well. Grouper have been seen to use the area as a spawning aggregation site and the reef is an ideal nursery for juvenile fish.

Cordelia is also located less than a kilometre away from the Coxen Hole cruise ship dock, and about 7 kilometres from the new massive cruise ship facility at Mahogany Bay. 3 or 4 hundred times a year, thousand foot long cruise ships come within striking distance of this fragile ecosystem. There is evidence of boat strikes on the reef, but still they manage to flourish. Also, Coxen Hole is the largest population centre on the island and much of the pollution filters through the reef.

So Ian invited me to come dive Cordelia to get a sense of it for myself and shoot some photos. We’re going to try to get these out there and raise some awareness to help protect what could end up being a critical resource in the health of coral in the Caribbean. We had a small window one morning between high winds and conditions weren’t ideal, but I was lucky enough to get a look at this amazing ecosystem. Take a look.

D.


One windy boat ride. Ian smiles while Nic from the Roatan Marine Park prepares his kit.

Ian inspects a small growth of staghorn.

This coral may be as little as two or three years old.

Fields of the stuff. A rare sight these days.

And a nursery for many fish species.

Most of the healthiest parts of the reef are in less than 10 feet of water.

Tags: underwater, Photography, scuba diving, Honduras, Roatan, cordelia banks, Conservation, Reef

Hi friends,

A couple days ago I found out that the President of Honduras was coming to Roatan to participate in a shark release. It turns out that it was part of the PR push for the announcement that Honduras has declared all of its territorial waters a shark sanctuary. Nice stuff, hard to police in this country, but nice nonetheless.

So Nic from the Roatan Marine Park asked if I would shoot the release and of course I said yes. Members from the RMP and the Shark Legacy Project worked to put together the event and the sharks were transported from the pen where they have been captive for several years, onto a boat, and out to west bay.

There was surprisingly little security for the event considering the recent political climate in Honduras and after bobbing around waiting for an hour or so, a boat from AKR pulled up and there was President Porforio Lobo Sosa a few feet away. Next came the important task of waving to the press and talking to the researchers and conservationists. The President certainly seemed engaged by the process. Then it was time to release the sharks. The first one was lifted out of the holding pool with a cradle and released. He immediately swam to the wall and disappeared into the deep. The second, bigger shark did a couple laps of the reef crest before heading to deeper water.

It was all very interesting to watch and shoot photos of. I understand that there are several more captive nurse sharks on Roatan, and hopefully this will set some kind of precedent to release the rest of them. Coincidentally, we’ve been seeing a lot of nurse sharks on dives lately, several this past week. Not sure what that means but I hope it’s good.

One week till home friends. One week. tomorrow we’re trying to go to the Cordelia Banks, a reef of staghorn coral like nowhere else in the Caribbean, and a hot target for protection. Stay tuned.

Enjoy the photos from the release.

d.




Sharks awaiting release on the boat. Giacomo, Ian, Doug and Christy standing by.

The President waves to the press.

The press.

The first shark in the sling

The first shark is away. If Marine Park Nic’s back wasn’t so big, you’d see it.

Oh, there it is...

President Lobo supervises the second release.

The second shark is away!

Tags: underwater, scuba diving, Photography, Roatan, shark

Hello friends,

Well I’m done leading dives and trying to focus on shooting photos for the rest of this trip. I have been trying out a variety of different techniques and getting more good results than bad, but admittedly, at this point in the trip, I’m not as far along as I’d like. Having said that, I always set pretty lofty goals and have high standards for myself and I probably wouldn’t be happy unless I came away from this trip with a cover shot.

We saw two different sharks today. I found the first one, just a little baby 3 foot nurse shark, and Mickey found a 5 footer or so on the next dive. Even though nurse sharks are pretty much completely non-threatening, it’s still cool to see them.

Enjoy the shots,

d.



Kat checks out some tube sponges

And here she is again.

An Ocellated Box Crab (Calappa ocellata) hides from me in the sand on a night dive.

Lil nudi at night.

Kat found this gaudy clown crab, Biggest one I’ve ever seen.

What is this scorpionfish thinking? Bad spot dude, bad spot.

Yes, I have a favourite coral. This is it.

Toady the toadfish in a different hole at last. So glad I could see his tail.

Mickey inspects a different scorpionfish.

These nassau grouper are following us around every dive hoping for lionfish kills.

Mickey’s nurse shark

Really like what is going on with this hungry fireworm.

Tags: scuba diving, underwater, Photography, Roatan, 2011

Hi friends,

So I have passed the halfway mark of my trip. Now I start to try to cram in everything I haven’t done. This past week that has included no photos, hence no posting. Micky from Reef Gliders had the flu so I pitched in leading dives all week. Lots of diving, but no camera. I snuck in a day yesterday, I’ll lead a couple more today and then a night dive tonight. Looking forward to it.

Leading is a completely different dynamic than shooting. I’m more concerned with the divers in tow, navigation, air consumption and managing issues that come up, than I am with finding things. Still I managed to find a nurse shark and a couple eagle rays have graced us with their presence.

In any case, here are some shots that have come out of the last day, and a few from before.

Enjoy,

D.



Weird perspective green moray.

A crap shot, but at least it’s a NUDI! Black spotted nudibranch, whose spots are actually blue.

Found this guy yesterday. Red Ridged clinging crab. Mickey says he’s quite uncommon.

Come hither turtle.

coralscape

A pair of white spotted filefish let me hang out with them.

fighting male parrot fish. Grrrr.

Tags: scuba diving, underwater, Photography, Roatan

Hi friends,

Well last time we spoke, I had just finished a couple semi crap days and vented a bit. It has been pointed out the shots in the last blog were not terrible or out of focus, or whatever, and I guess that’s true. The thing is, when you shoot a bunch of shots, you tend to look at the group as a whole. “Was this day successful?” comes down to percentages. If 10% of my shots end up being A quality, then it’s a pretty good day. If 1% turn out, not so much. The previous blog just followed a couple of 1% days in a row. Still there are always standouts. But sometimes even they don’t match up to the picture I had in my mind, which is the only standard I ever really care about.

Yesterday I went back to the 10.5mm lens to see if I had been overhyping it in my mind, or if it really is that good. It really is. It’s also too wide for a lot of things. I saw a pipefish for instance (which happened to be beerfish on that dive) so I needed to get proof. The 10.5mm is not very well suited. It does, however, shoot fabulous reefscapes and divers, so that’s what I’ll be bringing you a lot of today.

After all this fisheye I’m ready for a good macro dive now, and it’s just started to rain so that’s probably going to happen.

Thanks to all the divers who put up with me underwater. Kraig, Colin, Mickey, Mel, Will, and even Kelly who doesn’t yet know what she’s in for. Especially Karen who is leaving and put up with many flashes.

Enjoy the shots.

dano.


dropping in.

Mickey in Kraig’s crack.

Suddenly a giant sponge lunged out and ate Kraig’s head.

Just a beautiful coral overhang.

Elkhorn coral in the shallows. Playing with Snell’s window.

This is ready for the cover of Lionfish Weekly magazine.

Mikey found a MASSIVE head of brain coral. Kelly swam by on her first dive here.

Will helps me get a shot. Thanks Will.

Tags: Roatan, underwater, scuba diving, Photography

Hi Friends,

Well I guess we can’t always just charge forward. Sometimes you get caught in a soft spot and slide backwards. The last couple days have been that for me.

I’ve made some lens choice mistakes, which admittedly isn’t the biggest deal in the world, it’s the kind of thing that is hard to predict, how is the viz going to be? What will be available? Well for several dives in a row I simply took along a lens that was wrong for the job. Not wasted time, but not time well spent either.

Also, I overestimated the quality of the 12-24 and shot for 2 days without really checking the files. The result was that I have a lot of soft images. Also disappointing. I’ll be more careful now knowing the limitations of the lens. Those primes aren’t looking so bad now...

As with life, when it starts to suck, you gotta push through till the other side. Here are some highlights from some bad days.

d.



craziest tips I’ve ever seen on a giant anemone.

another spotted moray. i like shooting em and i will keep shooting em.

the tiniest starfish i’ve ever seen. wrapped around coral polyps!

star in a cup

whitenose pipefish with his creepy red eyes. this was one of the most disappointing encounters. I back focused the best shot and am left with this.

hunting. Mickey called this a “target rich environment.”

Love these. They look completely black underwater and then you hit em with a strobe. Boom.

tried to get some shots with my friend Kathryn.

still getting a feel for directing people and getting what I want.

...so I’m playing with different ideas.

working on the sunball too. this one is ok.

Tags: underwater, scuba diving, Roatan, 2011, Photography

WARNING: Photo geekery follows. Feel free to skip to the photos.

Hi friends,

A quick photo blog with some shots from the Nikon 12-24mm that I finally got underwater. I read bunch of stuff about it online and followed Dr. Mustard’s advice on the setup. The first thing I noticed was that out of the water I couldn’t get any sort of focus with the diopter so I took it out without it. It may be that it only focuses underwater so I’ll have to give that a try, I just don’t want to waste a dive on it right now. Especially because the results without it were quite good just with the 33mm extension. There is definitely some corner distortion at 12mm though.

It’s pretty nice to have the zoom. That’s my first impression. Having only used prime lenses on my new rig so far, the versatility was really nice. On the wide end it’s just slightly less wide than the 10.5 mm that I have (which to my eye is actually a more pleasing focal distance), and the 24 end allows me some chance to achieve good results with slightly smaller creatures. Turtles are a good size creature for it, but anything smaller would have to be sitting pretty still. The Grouper shot was about perfect in terms of size. I probably would have had to get too close with the 10.5mm or maybe even the 16mm and scared him off.

I also noticed that my strobes are probably not strong enough to get any real fill on a sunball shot, unless the subject is really, really close. Shooting at 1/250th and f16 or f22 seems to be crucial to beat the turquoise band and these Ikelite 160’s just don’t have the pop to make anything happen.

I don’t shoot divers enough, so I’m going to focus on that this trip. Luckily I have some willing (or at least convincible) victims to get in front of the camera. I need to work out more of the directions, but just having the chance to work with someone instead of trying to catch moments when a diver is in the right place, is really helpful. I would like some feedback.

I’ve also included some shots from another dive with some funny creatures for my critter nerd friends. All shot with the 60mm macro.

Enjoy,

d.


A turtle at 24mm.

Jen and a sea fan.

Jen and a barrel sponge.

Grouper getting a good cleaning. Must have been 30 gobies on him.

Me and Jen goofing around on the safety stop.

My, what blue rings and lovely lashes you have.

Just a tiny little Zebra Sole. Look at the grains of sand, they look like boulders! Well, maybe not.

Queer little critter, the goatee blennie. I’ve never seen one in Roatan before so this makes me happy. Look at the goatee on him!

Tags: scuba diving, Roatan, Photography, Life

Hi friends,

A few more shots. Had some equipment problems and the boats have been full so I’m not shooting as much as I’d like, but here are a couple to look at. My friend Alex asked me to call diving “Skoobing” because it sounds funny. I think that should be no problem.

Enjoy,

d.


duh...

lil shrimp.

spotted drum

trunicate

pedersen’s cleaner shrimp

Scorpionfish

Tags: Roatan, scuba diving, Photography, underwater

Hello friends,

Made it to Roatan in one piece. It’s hot, the bugs are bad and I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else. Reunions are good and it’s great to be around friends all day. Got the rig underwater yesterday and put it through its paces. Didn’t see too much but it’s nice to just be getting it dialled in. That’s the plan this month, to shoot as much as possible underwater until the big new rig is second nature to use. Thanks to the crew at Reef Gliders who are taking good care of me.

Here are a few. They should get better as the summer goes on.

d.


White wire coral shrimp. These guys are so hard to shoot.

Grouper gets a cleaning by some gobies.

Goldentail Moray eel.

Angelfish takes a turn.

Spotted Moray eel.

Giant hermit crab churning up a sandstorm.

Mantis shrimp peers out of a little crevice.

Tags: scuba diving, Photography, Roatan

Hi Friends,

Back again for part 13 (!) of The Lost Shots series. Today I’m bringing you a lucky 13 double shot of Devun Walsh from 2002. This was a nice little milkbird day we spent on Rainbow. In the early days of sledding in the mid 90’s Rainbow was one of our go to spots. There are a lot of features packed into a relatively small area and we had it all to ourselves for the most part. Later on as more crews discovered it, the small size of the area started to be a problem as there was too much competition for the same jumps.

On this day I managed to snag a good shot of Dev rooping with Blackcomb in the background. I used to always love that feeling of having a mountain to ourselves right across from the crowds. Dev was always known to have a super solid cab 5, but on this day he was mixing it up and working really hard on making it a switch fs 5, with perfect switch style. This sequence ran somewhere; Transworld I think.

I’m taking a little break from the Lost Shots for a bit. There is plenty left to scan but I’m going through some life transitions and I’m not going to have time for scanning for a bit. Off to Lake Louise tomorrow for an event called Ruckus in the Rockies. If you’re out there, say hi.

D.

Tags: the lost shots, Devun Walsh, Whistler, Snowboard , Photography, forum

Hi friends,

While I’m waiting for the next video from The Show, I thought I’d bring you another gem from The Lost Shots series. This one is from 2002 and it features Eddie Wall. I didn’t get to shoot with Eddie very much at all, but we did have a couple productive days in Whistler. There was a pretty good frontside boardslide that ran and then there is this. We went to a zone that used to get a lot of traffic and Eddie found a line that I’ve never seen done before or since. The light was kinda milky which is probably why this never ran, but it’s a pretty sweet backside one on a gap that didn’t give up any easy angles.

Enjoy.

-dano

Tags: the lost shots, Eddie Wall, forum, Whistler, Snowboard , Photography

Hi friends,

Just arrived in Whistler where it is still very much winter. The mountain looks beautiful, as if it were mid-february.

Today I’m bringing you another great JP walker shot from Calgary, Alberta in 2002. Early season we got the jump on things and went out with Calgary native TJ Schneider who took us around to some of his favourite street terrain. This sucker is known as “Old rusty” and JP took it apart with frontboards while TJ was all about the 50/50. My favourite angle of it ran in Snowboarder mag as a full spread. It was shot from behind with the sick sunset in full effect and JP’s style was perfect. I have no idea where that slide is either. Huggy?

More soon. See you at The Show.

-dano

Tags: the lost shots, forum, Snowboard , Photography, JP Walker, Calgary

Hi friends,

Well The Show is just days away and I’m busy as hell. I like being busy, keeps my mind off the bad things.

Here is another shot from the Lost Shots series. If you’re just tuning in, you can read about that here. Today I’m bringing you one of the best snowboarders I ever saw. I met Mikko Sjoblom when he was just a lil pipsqueak from Talma. Never ridden much more than a couple hundred vertical meters in his life. Next thing you know, he’s thrown in with the best riders in the world, dragged up into the backcountry on a sled, landing in POWDER for the first time. It was a whirlwind. He was so talented. I don’t speak any Finnish so our communication at first was a little slow, but I ended up spending a bunch of time with him and came to look froward to his goofy little smile.

Mikko had a big crash that shook a bunch of us and for awhile it wasn’t looking so good. I’m glad that he’s doing well now. With stories like Kevin Pearce’s getting so much media attention these days it’s shining a lot of light on the dangers of head injuries, but Kevin and Mikko are both great examples of overcoming them.

Here’s Mikko in 2000 at Mt. Hood with a huge truck driver Mctwist.

-dano

Tags: work, Snowboard , Photography, forum, Mikko Sjoblom, the lost shots

Hi friends.

Back from tour and digging back into the big box of lost slides. Watching Tiger charge the last 9 of the Masters right now so I’ll keep it short. (edit: wow, what a crazy back 9!)

Here is a nice portrait of Mike Page. Such a handsome young man. When he had his big accident I went to see him in the hospital and I wanted to bring him a really good gift. I knew he’d be spending a bunch of time in there and most of it lying in bed, so I wanted something he could do with his hands. I got in touch with all the team guys and asked if everyone would pitch in on a nice gift if I bought it and they all agreed, so I went and bought him an Epiphone Les Paul with a little practice amp that he could plug headphones into and not bug the whole hospital.

To this day not one of the guys on the team kicked in for the guitar. Jerks.

-dano

Tags: Mike Page, Snowboard , Photography, Portraits, forum, the lost shots

Hi friends,

Today I thought I was bringing you another long lost cover shot but when I looked more closely I noticed that it’s slightly different than the cover of Bjorn Leines that ran on Snowboarder Magazine. It’s most likely the frame before.

This shot was at Mammoth Mountain and Bjorn was doing a tow-in behind a snowmobile, 50-50 up the far rail and air over to frontboard the down rail. It was pretty sick business. Now if I could only find the slide that was the cover image...

Enjoy.

-dano

Tags: forum, the lost shots, Bjorn Leines, Snowboard , Photography

Hi friends.

Slept on the bus from Toronto to Quebec City last night. Getting used to road sleeping but I have sea legs today.

Part 8 in the Lost Shots series and if you’ve been paying attention there is really only one person left; Jeremy Jones. What can you say about a career like Jeremy has had? I met him when I worked with Rev snowboards so far back in the day, and he was good then. It’s like, a hundred years later and he’s still charging. he’s known for his rail charging aptitude, but he has always had it in the backcountry too.

In the year 2000 it seemed like everyone was pushing the frontside cork and Jeremy was at the front of the line. Here he is coming straight outta the sun in the Coast Mountains of British Columbia.

-dano

Tags: forum, Snowboard , Photography, the lost shots, Jeremy Jones

Hi friends,

Just a quick one today. Tour is hectic.

Peter Line is the force behind Forum and during those years became a friend. I used to wake up some mornings and find him curled up on the couch having driven up to Whistler on a whim. Despite the credit he gets in snowboarding, I still think his impact is grossly underrated. He innovated more freestyle moves than anyone before or since. Always conscious of style, he could even make a fuck up look amazing. He got pitched on this alley oop back 5 and assumed the superman position. I call it the ooperman.

Pete is still riding and when he feels like it, he can bust out and school almost anyone.

Hi Pedro.

-dano

Tags: forum, Photography, Snowboard , peter line, the lost shots

Hi friends,

I’m on tour for the next week or so but I’ll try to keep putting more shots from The Lost Shots series every day. Our bus has internet so it should be ok. If you want to follow the tour blog you can find it here.

Today I’m bringing you a shot of good ‘ol Mike Page from Grouse Mountain in Vancouver. This jump had so much pop on it, it was sending people so high. Still, with all the trees it was hard to separate the riders from the background. I think that this shot worked out well but I don’t think it ever ran anywhere.

Enjoy.

-dano

Tags: forum, Snowboard , Photography, Mike Page, the lost shots

Hi friends,

Today I’m bringing you the first of many great shots of Bjorn Leines. Always the unsung hero of the Forum days, while many people on the crew spent as much time crafting their image as they did their riding, Bjorn never really bought into all that hype. He just kept doing the riding that challenged him, even when everyone around him thought he was crazy and out of step. (Ya, of course that was a Minor Threat reference.)

This is a belated birthday card to an old friend that I don’t see anymore, despite the fact that he is filming 2 hours away with my brother right now. Keep on bringing it BJ, you never stopped inspiring.

-dano

Tags: forum, Snowboard , Photography, Bjorn Leines, the lost shots

Hi friends,

Part four in the Lost Shots series. Today I’m stoked to bring you this shot of Joni Malmi from 2000. I didn’t do a ton of work with Malmi over the years, but when I did I knew he to be one of the most tenacious riders in the game. He literally would try a trick 50 times until he either nailed, got broken off, or ran out of time in the day. Most of the time we shot together was in the backcountry around Whistler, but this day found him in the pipe at Windell’s summer camp in Mount Hood.

Now matter how you slice it, this is a big assed air to fakie. I’ve been loving the crazy velvia colours going through these shots, but in the altitude at hood, the sky goes almost black with the rich saturation.

More to come.

-dano

Tags: Snowboard , the lost shots, Photography, Mt. Hood, Joni Malmi, forum

Hi friends,

Part three of the lost shots is from Grouse Mountain here in Vancouver. This was from the Wildcat Challenge in the spring of 2001. On this day Duff shot his ender shot for True Life and we shot a bunch of other stuff as well. I always liked this sequence of his gap to frontboard but compared to the 450 on/off, it was a little overshadowed.

I had a beer or two with Duff a week or two ago. He’s finishing up his training to be a firefighter. Still as awesome as ever. Big grins for the win.

-dano

Tags: true life, forum, Snowboard , Photography, the lost shots, Chris Dufficy

Hi friends,

Tough times over here in Danoland today. I’m raising my head for a second just to keep this series going. If you aren’t sure what series I’m talking about you can read about it here.

This shot of Devun Walsh was a cover of Snowboarder Magazine in September of 2002. At this point the Hurley gap has only been hit once before, by Devun and Chris Dufficy (more Duff stuff coming soon...), and only in the spring with less than ideal snowpack. The first time was just a guinea pig session, each one of the did a straight air and called it a day, but this time Devun came ready to charge. His Backside 3 took the size level up yet again. The next trip he did a cab 5.

I never thought I’d see this photo again.

Tags: forum, Photography, snowboarding, Cover photo, Devun Walsh

Hi Friends,

As some of you know, I worked as a staff photographer for Four Star Distribution for a few years at the beginning of the 2000’s. My job was to shoot the Forum, Four Square and Special Blend teams in the era when the brands were at their pinnacle. The years that I worked there produced some classic snowboard films including Shakedown and True Life.

Around the time my contract ended, many of the people I worked with left the brand and because of some internal miscommunication, or possibly lack of communication, the status of my photos came into question. Nobody knew the extent of Forum’s usage rights and as a result, nobody wanted to be responsible for returning my images. This went on for quite some time and through a ton of company restructuring until finally Forum was sold to Burton.

Fast forward several more years and a bunch of failed attempts at getting my photos back and one day the right guy did the right thing and less than a week later three massive boxes of literally thousands of images shows up at my house. In those pages are some of the best shots from my snowboard career, and a significant part of snowboarding history.

I’m going to do some scanning and show you some of them as I get time. We’ll start with a frame from a sequence of JP Walker’s cab cork 5 over the Brandywine 1080 gap from True Life. This was heavy then and still holds up exactly 10 years later.

Tags: Photography, Snowboard , forum, the lost shots, JP Walker

Hi Friends,

Just a photo and a short story for you today. I had a bunch of simultaneous archive requests this week so I ended up digging in. As usual I pulled out about twice as much as was asked for because every time I start to open up the archive I get lost in it. I still can’t get over how much there is in there. Thousands of photos that I may spend the rest of my life slowly digitizing.

Since KY ran off to live in the tropics people seem to have forgotten how heavy a character he was in the snowboard world. Style for miles and power to spare. One of my all time favourites.

On this day in 1997 we were lucky enough to be doing some heli laps. I liked all the texture on the slope over there and asked him to just go as fast as possible and draw a big line across it. He was going about a million miles an hour at this point.

Tags: Snowboard Photo Blog, Kevin Young, Whistler, Photography

Congrats to everyone who competed in the Deep Winter contest this past weekend. I’ve been involved either competing or judging in this event every year until this one and I have to say, I’m super glad I didn’t have to judge this time. It was close. Really close. In the end Blake walked away with the win by the skin of his teeth, and in my opinion if Robin Oneill hadn’t relied so much on gimmicky slideshow effects, she may just have edged him out. Then again, it could have gone many different ways.

This is the most exhausting and taxing photo contest in the Action Sports world and just completing it is high honour. I was really impressed with the consistent high quality this year, way better than some of the past years. Congratulations go out to the organizers who have raised the bar on participants. Let’s keep it high next year.

D.


Blake has his John Montgomery moment.

Holy crap Serfas, my wife almost left me for a beard half that big!

Tags: deep winter, 2011, Blake Jorgenson

Hi friends,

Here is a photo of Craig Kelly that nobody has ever seen. It’s part of a sequence where he does one of his classic slash and drop laybacks. Awesome stuff. It never found a home in a magazine and I just found it in the archives while looking for some other stuff. Enjoy.

Dano

Tags: snowboarding, Photography, Craig Kelly, Whistler

Warning: Lots of words about inspiration and creativity. Photo “gear geeks” may want to skip over to DP Review or something.

Lately I’ve been thinking a lot about process. Most of the photographer blogs I see are about really basic photo concepts or gear, and neither one of them are particularly interesting to me. It’s true that 98% of the photo questions I get relate to the basics, and gear, but I’ve answered most of those questions so many times that I barely even think before reciting the standard answers.

The thing that has been interesting to me lately is pacing. Pacing is rarely discussed by photographers but is one of the most important aspects to what we do. When I speak about pacing, I’m talking about the speed at which I take photos. It may be the least discussed things in photography because it isn’t gear, subject matter, lighting or any of the things we see as the prime considerations of image making. But it relates to everything.

When we first pick up a camera we tend to snap away at everything that is interesting. Occasionally something ends up looking good but mostly we’re left with throwaway photos because we haven’t put enough thought into our subject matter, composition or technique. Soon we learn about exposure, composition and maybe some aspects of style and our pace slows down. We consider our subject more. We think through our exposures. We might even try to capture some preconceived idea.

As our technique gets polished and exposure becomes second nature, we may be able to translate our vision into the frame more quickly, so at this point we’re more likely to spend more time with subjects, making more exposures, trying out all our little tricks on the same subject to see how many different looks we can get, what works and what doesn’t.

Up until now, the pace of our work has evolved organically. We shoot at the speed that is necessary. If something is happening quickly, we speed up. If we have time, we take as much as we need. This makes sense and works well. But I wanted to try something new.

Here is where I decided to insert something new into my process. I wanted to see how imposing a specific pace and sticking with it would affect my photography. In my work I try to convey an impression of whatever it is that I’m shooting that is honest, portrays the subject accurately, but brings something of myself to the scene and hopefully shows the viewer something they’ve never seen before, even if the subject is very familiar to them.


This blog is mostly about chasing my wife and dog around.

Sweden was the perfect place to start. I had a lot of time in the same place, without many obligations, and it was a good mix of familiar and foreign. I started slow, which is close to my normal speed. Early one morning I went out to the docks, set a boundary of where I wanted to shoot, and set out to take some pictures. To ensure that I slowed down, I deliberately saved the coffee until after I was done…

So I looked at things for longer than I otherwise might have. I shot things that initially seemed boring. After staring at them for long enough though, I started to see more to them. Shapes revealed themselves. I got closer - patterns emerged. I stuck to the slow pace. I shot. Then I went for breakfast.

The photos were ok. Some were good. I think that there were more throwaway shots in the mix than usual though. And maybe more cliché looking shots. I suspect that given the time to think, maybe I think too much.

So next I was going for a walk with my wife and her stepbrother. They weren’t taking photos. We didn’t have an agenda though, and they were patient with me. Still, I decided to keep the pace quick. Find a shot, make one or maybe two frames at the most and keep moving. Shoot quickly and don’t make them wait. If I couldn’t get the shot in two frames, so be it.


Late summer bathers. Kladeshölmen, Sweden.

Quickly I fell into a rhythm. I’d walk, scan, stop, shoot, and then hustle to catch up. Walk, scan, shoot, repeat. I spent less time looking at my LCD. I trusted my exposures. I went with my first impression of framing and composition, spent around 10 seconds total on every shot, and I kept up.

When I first went through the photos a couple interesting things happened. First, I threw out less than I expected to. There was more quality right off the bat, and there were less “practice frames”. Second, I saw a real “look” that sometimes my work can lack. There were repeated themes. There was cohesiveness. At the risk at sounding pretentious, there was honesty. Third, the shots grew on me as time went on. More and more frames started to feel like real winners, like very definite representations of the place and time. I felt like I was on to something.


This photo has nothing to do with the text. Or does it?!

I continued the experiment when I got home, again, on a walk with the wife and dog, this time speeding the pace even more. I walked quickly, scanned, shot and tried not to get left behind. In a few moments I realized that this end of the spectrum wasn’t working for me. Walking at a fast pace made me lose contact with the things I want to shoot and I lost the insight into the subject matter.

So what am I taking away from all this? Well I guess it’s simple. Whatever it takes to get my mind out of the mix when shooting is probably a good thing if I want to shoot honest photos. The lessons I learned from that one photowalk in Sweden have stuck with me and the results have triggered a focus and direction that I can easily access either through replicating the pace, or reviewing the original shots to find that “feeling” again.

This is big picture stuff. It’s much easier to write about gear or the rule of thirds, but vision and creativity can be far more intangible and valuable. As I was finishing up this little piece, I was reading my regular blog roundup and Rachel Hulin had a transcription of an interview with Edward Burtynsky whose work I admire. Interestingly he touched on some of the things I’ve been talking about, but I like his next step which is to return to the site and continue to shoot and experiment. If you’re working editorially on a limited timeframe there isn’t always time to go back and photograph scenes like he does, but it makes a ton of sense and I’m interested to revisit some of my shots with film and try out different formats at different times.

If you have something to add to the conversation, please do so in the comments.

D.


Frame one of two, taken in 12 seconds while walking quickly...

Tags: Photography, ramble, Lessons

Hello friends.

Here’s a diptych for you. I’m calling it “near miss”.

D.

Tags: False Creek, Photography, Vancouver

Went for a fish the other day. Didn’t do that well but it was a perfect day.



These are the two characters in one of the wallpapers this month.

Tags: panasonic gf1, fishing, Photography

Guess the lighting on the last shot!

Tags: GF1, Photography, False Creek, Vancouver

I’ve shot this building many, many times. Some days I find it just mesmerizing, like a giant bug eye.

Tags: Photography, Vancouver, False Creek

Hi friends,

The sky was crazy last night. Since the Cobalt is crazy every night, it seemed a natural subject.

D.

(buy a canvas)

Tags: Vancouver, Cobalt

Hi friends,

I was so stoked on the response to the free wallpaper calendar that we did this month that I decided to go ahead and offer it up as a 36x24 inch canvas! First of all I had to order one myself to make sure that it was going to be up to a high enough standard for all of you all. It looks even better than I imagined so I’m very proud to bring it to you now.

I made a sales page up HERE so take a look and remember, Christmas is coming soon!

Here is how it looks on my wall:



And this is the original image.



Vancouver photo on canvas. Leaves, trees, fall, forest, autumn, north vancouver, north shore, sale,

Tags: Photography, Canvas, prints, for Sale

When you get a new system you have to shoot a lot, just to get used to the ergonomics and functionality. Sometimes this creates crap, and sometimes it creates greatness.

Tags: GF1, Photography, Vancouver

Some photos from this morning. A really low tide in False Creek.

D.


flower water

break time

coast line

piling on.

lost at sea?

Tags: False Creek, Photography, GF1

Busy weekend, not too much to say.

D.

Tags: Vancouver, Photography, dumpster, Whale

When we made plans to go fish this Saturday, the forecast was for rain. I packed TWO rain jackets the night before.

The river had different plans for us. We awoke to a few clouds and as the day went on it got warm, the sun shone, and it was as nice a day as anyone could expect on the river. I went with a Jon, a John, and a Lisa, more people than I’m used to fishing with on a river, but we kept out of each others way for the most part, and had a perfect day fishing. I got another big Dolly, had another spit the fly, had a big rainbow spit the fly but managed to fool a half dozen or so of his brothers. I didn’t think there were any cutthroat left in the Skagit, but there were clearly orange marks on a fish I got later in the day.

One of the coolest things that happened all day was running into snorkelers doing a fish count. I’ve always heard of this happening on various rivers (in fact I’ve always wanted to do it) but this is the first time I’ve ever seen it. These guys cover 7 kms a day in water that is between 4 and 7 degrees! When they go through a pool, they make little “beep” noises through the snorkel every time they see a fish. They mark their slates and every so often dump the data to the other guy on shore. We talked to them for quite awhile and found out that they are contracted by the Skagit Environmental Endowment Commission in partnership with the BC Ministry of the
Environment. What we learned was that the rainbows we are catching are the normal sized fish for the upper Skagit and that there are very few larger ones, but they are there. The population of Dollys is growing and the average size is too. There are huge char in that river and lots of them. In one run that is less than 100 yards long they counted 80 fish. Whoa.

As amazing as this river is, I can only imagine what it was like before they dammed it and it had runs of salmon and steelhead. It could have been one of the best Flyfishing rivers in the world. I hate dams. But i like cheap electricity.

At the end of the day, we were packed up and driving home, the sun was setting and it was starting to get cloudy. Just as we left the gravel and hit the pavement the first drops hit the windshield. By the time we hit Highway 1 West, it was pouring rain. We got lucky today.

Ok, enough words, I’ll let the pictures do the talking.

D.


We drove out under an amazing sunrise.
John, hittin’ the water

Nice drift.

Lisa working out the rust.

Frogmen!

Thanks for the info guys!

Signs of Fall are showing up.

One Jon.

And a John.

Jon gets stealthy.

Lisa casts into the deep pool.

John puts a nice tight cast where he wants it.

Lisa brings a nice bow in.

This was a BIG dolly. Smart too, wrapped her around some roots and broke off.

Jon gets into one.

Cutbow?

Look at the big ugly stonefly nymph!

Too bad about the crappy scenery

A SERIOUSLY beautiful river.

Jon plays one more.

Location is everything...

Tags: fishing, friends, skagit, Autumn, rivers, Trout

Hello friends,

Just going through some shots from the last few days and thought I should share. There was a super crazy sky here two nights ago and after looking at this shot I pulled out a couple of mine. I came outside a little later and watched as the neon tones faded, there was so much crazy tone in the sky after.


viaduct

the park

alley

I took the Zeiss Sonnar 90mm out on a walk yesterday. Not much was going on so I was just trying to get really good focus, handheld. It worked out pretty well. I guess I’m getting more used to it. I think the EVF would help a lot because you aren’t holding the camera steady 20 cms from your face in mid air. But then, you have a bigger system.


splat.


Finally, the Cirque left my hood this week. This one is from a lil ways back, some workers up on the top of the tent, taking a break. My wife pointed out this shot. She has a good eye.


Have a good day.

D.

Tags: panasonic gf1, Photography, Vancouver

Since moving to Vancouver my fishing has suffered. In Whistler I used to pop out to the lake several times a week, and hit up the rivers fairly often as well. Vancouver was intimidating. Where to go? How could I fish without going shoulder to shoulder with the crowds of tin-chucking meat harvesters? I don’t keep fish often, it’s a pain in the ass to clean, carry and care for them and the truth of the matter is, I’d rather fish for a big trout in a catch-and-release only stream than a million average trout in an overstocked put-and-take fishery. But that’s me, I don’t judge.

Last week I finally got out to the Skagit. To say that it’s “local” is a bit of a stretch, the drive is over 2 hours from downtown. In fact, I could probably get to the Birkenhead faster, but I’m looking for new water and the Skagit is that. Plus I went with Jon Cartwright and he’d spent a productive day there last year, pulling decent fish on the dry fly, so I wasn’t going in completely blind.

First of all, this is some beautiful water. Right now you can wade it everywhere, there are perfect deep holes, riffles, undercut banks and best of all, fish. Almost right away we started to see big silver flashes in the deeper water. Like, BIG flashes. That and lots of surface action. Then I started turning over rocks and what I found blew me away. Huge mayfly nymphs, massive cased caddis, and lots of stoneflies. Eventually I found one of the biggest I’ve ever seen, almost two inches long!

There were a few fishermen and women around but people moved frequently and we never felt crowded. The rainbows here are as cautious as they are plentiful. I found a noticeable difference in my luck when I switched up and fished 5x tippet after a relatively slow patch with 3x fished wet. We had luck on dark stone nymphs, not so much with the golden stones that had been recommended and all sorts of dries. At first we concentrated on elk hair caddis, but after we started to see more mays coming off, we moved to green, yellow and black humpies and had the most action. Really pretty rainbows between 12 and 14 inches were the order of the day.

Near the end of the day I got too curious about those big silver flashes and put a big black bead head leech on my sinking line, dropped it into a deep slow running hole and waited. A minute later as I slowly retrieved I felt a heavy weight. At first I thought I had bottom, then the bottom did a head shake and I knew I was into something better. I could tell pretty quickly that I was into a Dolly. He took a few sharp runs but mostly just bulldogged me and worked his way into the current whenever he could. On the 5 weight, he was a perfect fish. He measured out just over 18 inches when he finally gave up and showed off his vibrant peach-coloured spots and flashy sides. He was a little skinny, but clean. From the flashes I saw, I’m pretty sure that he was small to average, I’d wager there are some of his far bigger brothers in there too. But that’s for another day.

So I’ve got a little gem in my pocket now, I’ve seen some beautiful water, not too far from home, and am looking forward to learning more about this beautiful river.


First look

First fish on a black nymph

Jon tests the banks

A small stone nymph. The huge one I found was a little too active for a photo.

Jon releases a bow.

and casts for another one.

Under these rocks, lots of fish food.

The dolly.

Full length.

End of the day.

Tags: fishing, rivers, skagit, Photography, BC

4 photos

Tags: Photography, Sweden, canon g9

Tags: Sweden, Train, t, canon g9

Had a nice tourist day in Stockholm yesterday. Walked around, took the “hop on, hop off” boat, went to the Vasa Museum and saw the Annie Leibovitz Exhibition at the Fotografiska photography museum. More later. Gotta go do some shopping.

D.



military cadets at the palace.

nice stems

that dude.

segways!

this thing sat underwater for 333 years.

and now, some swedes.

Tags: Stockholm, Sweden, Photography, museums, Vasa, people, canon g9

Well, today was our last day here in Kladesholmen. We spent it out on the boat.

Tomorrow we are off to Stockholm. So there.

D.


ropes

trap

balls

navigation cairn

swedish colours

no man is an island.

Tags: Sweden, kladesholmen, Photography, Travel, boat, nikon

we had some rain yesterday...




but then it cleared up

Tags: Sweden, kladesholmen, Photography, Abstract, rain, canon g9

More...


tight real estate

somebody took a whiz here.

lichen covered rocks

catching rays whenever and wherever

the whole coast is covered in swim ladders. swim ladders to cold, cold water.

Tags: Sweden, kladesholmen, Photography, Travel

It’s interesting after being in a place for a few days how you start to get a better sense of it. At first on this trip I was shooting what I saw, but as I spend more time, I start to shoot how it feels here and as a result the shots become more honest. A style is developing and as it does, I search it out more. Shots from a few days ago already seem not to “get it”, which is to say that they no longer fit in with the narrative that I’ve developed in my head.

Kladesholmen was a fishing village forever when around 50 years ago some folks from Gothenburg started to buy little fishing huts as summer houses. Now there are very few fishermen lift and it is a community of vacationers and retirees. It maintains a bit of the feel of a fishing village, but it’s more like an homage than a true representation.

The maritime feel of this place is very real though. Most days include a boat trip, which is fine by me!

More soon.

D.


ropes and floats. one of the last working fisherman here.

and his boat

Calm water early one morning

web

cart

swimming hole at the park

fishing boy

tubby lil boat

coils

floating hotel

hungry!

lunch spot?

power

bird

little dock

tiny harbour

Tags: Photography, Travel, Sweden, kladesholmen

Some more shots from Sweden. Boat trips, walks and meals are the order of the day.

D.



yellow house

trap

map

eyes

fishing house

cart

soccer pitch

cemetery

church

flowers?

we got a little rain

the land of white fences

Tags: Sweden, kladesholmen, Photography, Travel

I’m in Sweden for two weeks on a little Island called Kladesholmen. I’m taking lots of photos. Here are some now...

Tags: Sweden, kladeshomen, Photography

In 2004 I went to Cuba. A week ago I scanned this photo for the first time. This is a typical day in Vinales. Enjoy.

D.

Tags: Photography, Travel, Cuba

Here is a shot of Craig Kelly that nobody has ever seen. I like to think of him out there in the mellow pow fields doing long heelside carves.

Have a nice day.

D.

Tags: Craig Kelly, snowboarding, Photography, Snowboard Photo Blog

I’m scanning again. Every time anyone asks me for an old shot and I have to go dig into the binders I get lost for days.

This was the end of the 2001 season. JP Walker had just about finished filming one of the best parts in snowboarding history and he wanted to smack it way over the fences. At this point rock rides didn’t happen. He did this one and set off a flurry of them over the next couple years. This was heavy. I remember stressing about the angle, I wanted to make sure that the entire length of the rock was in the frame. The sketchiest part of the whole thing was the runout though. He had to weave through the treeline at speed after landing.

The magazine morphed a sequence but nobody has ever seen the still photo.

D.

Tags: snowboarding, Photography, JP Walker, Snowboard Photo Blog

I passed a yoga circle on my walk yesterday. It looked like this:



That is all.

D.

Tags: Life, Photography, False Creek

In Roatan you spend a lot of time waiting for boats. Waiting for them to go out so you can dive, waiting for them to come in so you can strip off the gear and reload it, waiting for friends to come back, or waiting to go somewhere new. It's one of the realities of living on an island. Some of the boats have been working these waters for years and they wear their age like an old coat.

I walked past this old girl for a long time before one day, while waiting for a different boat, I decided to take a closer look.

D.

Tags: Roatan, boat, Photography

All last year my friend Shin would disappear now and again for a secret project that he was working on. I didn't think too much about it until we started getting closer to the Olympics and the rumours started flying about a crazy ramp being built in BC place for the opening ceremonies. Right around that time I noticed that Shin was making a lot of trips to the city. And then My friend Johnny sorta disappeared from the twittershpere. Hmmm, something was going on.

Well secrets don't stay secret very long in the snowboard community, so by the time I attended the Opening Ceremony rehearsal I already knew that Shin and Johnny were going to be jumping through the Olympic Rings as part of the ceremony. What I didn't know was that the whole stunt would be preceded by a couple minutes of really well filmed freeriding shot last year, and that the jump was going to kick off the whole Olympics! Damn!

I wish I had a chance to see Shin hit the jump in the first rehearsal but it was amazing to watch Johnny stomp his indy on the sketchiest carpet and airbag landing. As the story now goes, the decision came down to a coin flip. I'm stoked to have known and shot these guys for years and glad that they had such a positive influence on the way snowboarding was portrayed to the world. Shin has said that the producers were really open to their input and made sure that snowboarders wouldn't be bummed on yet another misguided "hollywood" attempt at portraying us.

Here are some shots of the boys over the years.

Johnny Lyall on a Whistler kink rail

Johnny Lyall on a Whistler Backcountry booter.

Shin at Whistler last season

Shin Campos from the deep winter contest in 2008

Shin Campos on Whistler last season.

Tags: Johnny Lyall, Olympics, Photography, snowboarding, Vancouver, 2010

Right now there are five photographers that are totally exhausted. They are competing this week, in the Deep Winter photo contest that Arc’Teryx and Whistler/Blackcomb have been putting on for the last several years. The idea behind this contest was to highlight the fact that some of the best riding that ever takes place in Whistler is during storm season, and the first week of January is a fairly safe bet for storms.

Yesterday, today and tomorrow the photographers head up the mountain and shoot enough photos to present a 3 to 5 minute slide show on Thursday night in front of 700 or so people. The rules state that you have to shoot in bounds and during regular operating hours. That essentially gives you less than 24 hours of total shooting time. Having done this contest twice, I can tell you that it is the most exhausting and exhilarating week of the season.

This week I’ll be judging the slideshows, so come out to the Fairmont Whistler on Thursday night and watch the work of some of the best photographers in the business. Jordan Manley has won it twice, Paul Morrison has won it and I’m really looking forward to first time competitors Colin Adair and Nicholas Teichrob.

Here are some of my favourite shots from my two efforts and you can watch my second slideshow here.

Good luck out there guys.

-Dano

Tags: deep winter, Photography, Slide show, Contests, Whistler

Now it can be told...

So I started to work with my old friends at Monster again last week. As longtime followers of the blog know, I've been doing all kinds of different media projects in the last few years as a way to keep myself challenged and to continue to add experiences to my list. After the success of the Grenade Games last spring, Monster was nice enough to have me back to work on through the Olympic year. Which brings me to this event. I'm afraid that I can't give anything away yet because details are being pounded out as we speak, but suffice it to say, for all the people who can't afford, or don't want to attend the Olympics, we're going to make sure that there is an event you can get stoked on at the same time.

Stay tuned for details, this one is going to be good.

Oh ya, and then I'll be working on Grenade Games 6 too. My liver hurts already.

Also. I've been taking pictures of the buildings on my walk to and from the Monster Office for a long time now. Eventually the plan is to have photos of every building on the west side of Main, from Alexander to the viaduct, in all sorts of different media (35mm film, digital, large format, paint, whatever) and line em all up on a white wall somewhere so you can experience my walk to work. I'm hoping to get it done some time in 2010. I've been posting a bunch of stuff on flickr lately too. Weird.


121, 123 Main Street. Vancouver, BC.

229, 231 Main Street. Vancouver, BC.

Tags: Monster Energy, Main Street, Vancouver, BC, Canada

It's been about 18 months since Westbeach first came to me with the idea of writing a book for their 30 year anniversary. Even though the book has been shipped to a bunch of media outlets, the actual big boxes of books only got here on Wednesday, which is lucky considering that tonight is the party to celebrate the launch of "Out West". I'm looking forward to seeing so many of the people who have been involved as well as a bunch of old friends.

We're starting things off with a private dinner for the people who've made this happen, then off to the Red Bull lounge for a VIP mixer with a bunch of awesome people from Westbeach's history as well as Canadian snowboarding legends, and finally we end up at Fortune Soundclub, Vancouver's new hip spot to keep it going.

If you've been following the Westbeach Heritage project then you've probably seen the videos (here, here and here) and maybe you've flipped through the first chapter of the book online here, but you certainly haven't seen all these folks in one place at one time in the last 15 years. Old dogs and young shreds all mixing it up together. Awesome.








Bowman may even show. BOWMAN!

Nix is coming.

Anyone seen Alex Toporowski?

Of course Cartwright will be there.

Belzile? Check.

Tags: book, Out West, Westbeach, party

I got an email from Sarah Conrad just before I went to bed the other night. You remember her, we talked about her back here in April. She dropped a line to say "thanks" for the shot we got published. I hadn't heard anything or seen anything so it came as a bit of a surprise to find that it was the cover of the Snowboard Canada Women's Annual.

It's always nice to get a cover shot but I especially like this one. I had a good feeling about her Japan to fakie as soon as we shot it which is probably why I wrote that blog. I got the pdf from John Scarth at SBC today but I still don't have the issue in my hands. Gribbon has three copies though so hopefully I'll get my greasy hands on one soon. Here it is.


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 photo, vancouver photo blog, current whistler photo, whistler photo blog, street photography, snowboard pictures, snowboarding picture, mountain photographer, canadian portrait photographer, canadian mountain photos,best snowboard photos, snowboard blog, pro snowboarder photos

Tags: Sarah Conrad, Snowboard Canada magazine, Published, Photography, Blackcomb, halfpipe, Olympics

Yesterday was the last day of the catalog shoot I've been working on. We shot a little bit of bouldering around the base of the Squamish Chief, a huge chunk of granite that is a climbing mecca. Despite some problems in the morning, by sunset we were making some nice pictures. I wish I had another week in there, there is so much to shoot. Look forward to another job that has climbing involved, I have some great ideas.

d.

Tags: Photography, work, Climbing, bouldering, squamish

So today was the Mountain Biking portion of the catalog shoot that I'm doing. It was really dark all day so we had to light everything and the priority for the brand is to show the clothes, so we weren't dealing with super gnar riding. Still it was really fun and Eric got to bust out a bit at the end.

Tags: Photography, work, mountain biking, Whistler

Shot some paddlers on Friday. Here are some outtakes. Off to shoot some bikes today. Cheers.

Tags: Photography, kayaking, squamish, Whistler

I stumbled into a little catalog shoot this week. My friend Mark broke his hip pretending to be an 18 year old skater and rather than letting down his client he asked me to shoot it for him. It's very straightforward shooting and I'm a little disappointed that I won't be pushing any limits, but as always I intend to bring something special to the job and find a way to over deliver. All this comes a little quickly and going from sleepy third world living to hectic first world organizing is a definite switch of gears. Wish me luck.

Here is a little slideshow from my diving gallery on Photoshelter. Some of the shots are old but there are a bunch from this past summer. I'm closing the book on diving for now and moving on to the next thing. Well, at least until the end of October when we head to Maui...

Enjoy,

D.



scuba dive - Images by dano pendygrasse

Tags: scuba diving, Photography, Photoshelter

I was ten minutes early for a meeting yesterday so I finally went into the Dr Sun Yat-Sen gardens by my house. The entrance is literally a block and a half from my front door and I've never been in. In ten minutes I managed to scratch the surface, but there are undoubtedly many more photos to be found here. I love Vancouver for its amazing diversity and the fact that there are little gems like this tucked away just about everywhere.

It's my wife's birthday. Give her some love.

D.

Click any photo


I'm so sick of HDR, well balanced images. Let the highlights blow out you idiots.

It's hard not to shoot the cliche shots.

I love the f'ed up lines in this. Everything is going to be alright. Indeed.

WOOF! WOOF...er, I mean; Bark.

Tags: Vancouver, Photography, Chinatown

I had a really long trip home the other day. A 10 hour flight ended up taking somewhere around 28 hours.

It was really hazy over BC from all the forest fires.

More soon.

D.

Tags: mountain Light, haze, smoke

I sleep till plane. 2 till this view. Port Royal or Salva is the hardest decision I'm making for awhile.

Tags: Photography, sunset, Roatan

I'm going back to see these goofballs. Can't wait.

Tags: Portraits, Roatan, Photography, Photoshelter, Black And White

After trying for years Matt Goodwill finally won the Mt. Baker Legendary Banked Slalom in 1999. Matt was seriously one of the most exciting snowboarders to watch, but very few people ever got to see him in his element. He was a monster in big mountains and his high speed Alaska attack predated Johan Oloffson's reshaping of big mountain riding by several years. Interestingly snowboarding doesn't seem to pay him much attention or give him much credit, but in my mind he was one of the people who really rewrote the rules about how to ride the steeps.

When he won the Banked Slalom it was as inevitable as it was awesome. He looked almost relieved to finally check it off the list. He raised the ceremonial drum that was the trophy that year, and let out a native Washingtonian whoop that everyone there felt in their soul.

A great moment in snowboarding's history for sure for Steven's Pass's favourite son.

I always loved this photo but it never had a home.

d.

Tags: Mt. Baker, Banked Slalom, Matt goodwill, snowboarding, Photography, Portraits

So as some of you know, I'm about to take a trip down south. I'm going back to Roatan to do my Divemaster training and hopefully see a little more of Central America. Soon my blog will be mostly turquoise and jungle green.

I'm not rich, so I can't just leave the apartment empty and pay the mortgage. This is unfortunate. I have some paintings on the wall that are very valuable to me and that I'm not particularly interested in leaving to the whim of fate, so they are getting stored. They are 7 panels and the arrangement left me with a bit of a dilemma; what do I use to replace them? I decided to make 7 shots from around the hood, all taken with the canon g9 and converted to black and white. Of course then I went ahead and made way too many and now I have to choose.

Can you guys help me by picking your favourite and least favourite. I know some of you don't like to make public comments, so it's ok to send me a note, or feel free to put your comment in at the bottom. All this stuff has been taken in the last year and a half walking around my neighbourhood.

D.

Tags: False Creek, gastown, Vancouver, citygate, Photography, Black And White

I was shooting with the WVSC today in the Blackcomb pipe and met our Canadian National Halfpipe Champion, Sarah Conrad. She's really nice and she threw down for my camera for awhile. Here is a sweet Japan to fakie. As we get closer to the Olympics I'm sure you'll be hearing a lot more of her name.


Throws down...

and super pretty. This girl has a future.

We're charging into the Grenade Games now and soon I'll be blogging on a different site for he duration of the event. I'll post a link when it goes live.

Cheers,

D.

Tags: Blackcomb park, halfpipe, Sarah Conrad, Photography

Earlier this week I drove to Whistler early one morning to shoot some park. You can watch a video of that day here. On the way up, past Squamish, in the Cheakamus canyon I was the 4th or 5th vehicle at an accident scene. As I dove up I saw the highway was blocked by a pickup truck that had been dumped on its cab. Two people were taking the driver out and then took her (I think) to the barrier where they were attending to her. She walked away from this.


Motorists attend to the victim of an early morning accident on Highway 99 north of Squamish, April 7, 2009.

She was taken care of and I was late, so after I saw that I couldn't be of any assistance I drove on. I called it in to Mountain FM, so if you were listening to the radio on Tuesday you might have heard Dano.

Drive safe.

Tags: truck, crash, sea to sky Highway, Photography

Snowboarding is timeless.

Tags: Snowboard Photo Blog, Brian Savard

A couple shots from last Saturday at Grouse Mountain. Despite the fog I had a lot of fun shooting. Thanks to Jeff Silcock from Grouse for hooking me up.

I'm still really busy with too many projects and dealing with my truck. Sorry I don't have more to say today.

Grenade Games are coming soon and registration is open now right here. It's only open till the 8th so get on it!


This kid had sweet tailslides through the kink. He and his friend never stopped hitting it all day. I love it when kids are stoked on shredding.

seb toots won it

ridiculous style

Atsushi came third.

belzile at the end of the day in the skyride.

Tags: Photography, seb toots, grouse mountain

Well I have seen just over half the prints for the show this weekend. I'm pretty stunned with the quality. I don't print nearly enough stuff and that is going to change right here and now. Nothing on a computer screen can compare to a 30 inch supergloss print. It's like rediscovering your work.

I had breakfast with my friend Cole yesterday. He's in Vancouver waiting on weather in between jobs. Kid is on a tear right now having just made the PDN "30 photogs to watch" list. So young and so talented. Good people also.

It's been dumping snow all over Whistler and Blackcomb this week at last. I'm taking care of all the stuff that piled up while I was away and then I'll be on my way up to get my share.

Here are some more shots from the trip. I thought I'd point out that pretty much everything I put up here on the blog is shot with my Canon g9. It came up in a conversation the other day so I thought I'd clear that up. Some of the stuff from the archives and the Snowboard Photo Blog of course are from the Nikon SLR's, but most of my walking around stuff is on the g9.

Also, you can follow me on twitter here. If you're into that sort of thing.


fist tree!

light shadow

sausage?

looks terrible. tastes great.

tram to the top of Le Brevent.

Tags: France, Switzerland, Chamonix, Geneva, canon g9

I've never taken a vacation in the winter before. Winter is shooting season and shooting takes priority over everything else. That is all good and fine, but one day you wake up and that priority just seems, well, a little bit delusional. Or compulsive. Or maybe just misguided.

I just took a family vacation to France. My wife's family, that is. When the idea of going on this trip came up I looked at the dates and without even thinking decided I wouldn't be able to do it. Second week of March? Seriously? What snowboard photographer could take that week off to just, go snowboarding? In the Alps.

Well as it turns out, I could. And it was easy, all I did was say "yes" and then not book anything that week. The world kept turning. I didn't miss out on anything life changing. And I got to ride Cham with my wife and brother-in-law, in super deep powder and sunny skies to boot.

My priorities have changed a lot over the years, and never more than they have in the last 18 months. Photography is a really tricky lifestyle in that it is on one hand really needy, to show off, to put your work out into the world, and on the other hand very time consuming and often not particularly social. There is a reason that when photographers get together, you can't shut them up. It's because they have already used up the "photo talk" patience of their wives, girlfriends, and family and are just dying to talk shop with someone whose eyes don't roll back into their heads when you start talking about the minute details of a hyperfocal distance or photoshop actions. We go through the often solitary act of making photos, we often have nobody left to bore with our excitement for the things we make, and we compulsively consume information about anything that has anything even remotely to do with our job.

It could be worse. We could be proctologists.

So ya, I'm learning to take a deep breath a little more often. to not get lost in the chaos of winter and to keep my level of passion high. As a result I'm less consumed and more into photography than I have been in years. I've stopped being influenced by the machine of the industry I work in and I'm concentrating on fostering the elements of my work that are true to my vision and not commercially corrupt. They're honest. I spent a bit of time taking pictures last week, no time talking about taking pictures, and a lot of time thinking about taking pictures.

Ok, so here are some shots from europe that have nothing to do with any of that.


Things you find in 400 year old houses

Vines near Hilary's house, Geneva.

suisse

Blue house number.

No Dachshunds?!?! Get Draplin on the case!

Cham is huge

Uh, lady, I think you've had enough sun.

bike

sausages as far as the eye can see.

Mont Blanc is the highest peak in the Alps. These black birds aren't crows.

The Aiguille de Midi. I'll have some shots from the top in the next couple days. Stay tuned.

Tags: Chamonix, France, Geneva, Switzerland, Vacation

There isn't a lot of demand in the snowboard media for photos that have an emotional depth. People focus on the "trick porn" a lot and although you may see lots of well executed portraits and "lifestyle" shots, they are more often than not staged, plain, soulless images made to emulate the photographers favourite technique instead of capture anything transcendent or intimate. That's fine, it's just snowboarding and there really is no need to aim high...

I've always liked photos that evoke a feeling, especially one of familiarity. I like when you can look at a shot and know what it feels like to be there, to feel the snow, the cold on your face, the wind. I like when a photographer stops wanking off with their technical ego and starts to pay more attention to what is going on in front of the camera. I guess I'm tired of seeing technically perfect and creatively anemic snowboard photos.

Tags: Photography, Mark Landvik, snowboarding

Dave Rouleau. Gap to frontboard. Whistler.

Tags: Dave Rouleau, snowboarding, Photography, Whistler

Vancouver's downtown eastside is rough. I spend a lot of time walking down there and I've seen all sorts of madness from the bottom end of humanity. Drug abuse makes people into husks. One dimensional creatures with a simple agenda; get more, do more, by whatever means. Crime is rampant and the streets are full of characters that you don't want to meet in an alley after dark. I don't make eye contact often.

There is, however, a lot that I want to take pictures of. I've begun to get a little braver with the camera, and it comes out pretty much every day now, but I'm still not ready to take a picture of an addict in the middle of a psychotic speedball episode. It's not really what I'm interested in to be honest. It feels a little cheap to go looking for the truly depraved so that middle class folks can point at the pictures and say "that's the problem."


power.

cranes/lights.

rooms.

Tags: Photography, canon g9, Vancouver

Vancouver is setting a record for the longest stretch of fog ever. I mean, I heard that anyway. It might be true, maybe not. This was taken at noon. (That also may not be true.)

Tags: Vancouver, False Creek, Photography, Canada, canon g9, fog

Remember winter?

Tags: snow, Photoshelter

Check out some shots from diving in Roatan, Honduras.

Tags: Photography, Photoshelter, diving, canon g9, Roatan, underwater

Tags: Mark Landvik, Photography, sequence

Brian Savard was one of the hardest working shredders in the game for awhile and despite never having ridden for one of the big "star maker" brands in snowboarding, he still managed to become one of the biggest names in the late 90's.

This photo ran on the cover of Snowboarder Magazine in 1999 and is an all-time favourite of mine. I've shot this cliff a few times with Brian and also with Shin Campos. It's in bounds on Whistler Mountain and rarely sees much action because it's really hard to get on top of. We called it "tree cliff" because there is a tree in the landing that both Brian and Shin have hit.

In an era where we are seeing more and more weak riding in the media (tail blocks, tiny "urban cliffs", and weak backcountry booters), I miss the power of riders like Brian. Of course there are still lots of them out there, but increasingly they are pushed aside in favour of over-strobed "filler" shots. The rise of this kind of photography corresponds with the strobist culture that is prevalent with young shooters. They tend to prioritize their technical (pocket) wizardry in front of the skill of their riders. With the increase in blogs and websites as the culture-defining media outlets and their lack of buyout budget, we see lots of b and c grade photography being paraded around as legitimate. Unfortunately this trend has trickled upwards and traditional paper mags have been persuaded to believe that if a photo has enough gelled strobes lighting it, the riding can be just about anything.

I disagree. I think we are on the verge of a point where people will stop picking up magazines that continue to pass off this cheesy faux snowboarding and see it for what it is. A charade.

Tags: Brian Savard, snowboarding, Photography, Whistler, nikon

I've been following the VBS.tv series "Powder and Rails" since it started earlier this year and although the episodes are short and they come out erratically, it's fun to watch my youth being given the documentary treatment.

This week there have been a couple of episodes on one of my favourite riders ever, Jeff Brushie. When Jeff was still a teenager he came out to Whistler and lived at the end of a dead end hallway in our house. He was super stoked on riding and was content to make himself a little bed in the corner, live on next to nothing and ride every day, all summer long. When I started shooting pictures in 1991 he was one of the first guys I shot and over the years I got to shoot with him quite a few times.

Brush was the kind of rider who set the bar for style. If he changed how he did a trick, the very next day half a dozen pros would do the trick his new way. I guess some would call that a compliment. Jeff had pop back when hardly anybody did and he was always crowding the top of my frame.

Style is harder to put your finger on these days and maybe as a result there is less emphasis put on it in snowboarding. I think that is a shame. Brush will always be the king of style.


Blackcomb, Summer 1991.

Blackcomb, Summer 1992.

Squaw Valley, 1993.

Snowmass, 1994

Westbeach Classic. Whistler, 1996.

Tags: Jeff Brushie, Photography, snowboarding

Winter is taking its sweet time this year. Here is a wall from Antigua, Guatemala in 2007. Layers and layers of paint, plaster and concrete. 400 years of bumps and wear.

Tags: antigua, guatemala, Travel, texture, Archives, nikon

Hey folks,

Today I'm posting up one on my best-known and favourite photos. When I shot this photo of Lukas Huffman in 2003, this jump (known as 'perfect jump' because of its natural perfection for jumping) had become pretty blown out and was a one trick pony in terms of angles. I was completely sick of shooting it because there is such an obvious angle that has been shot to death, but not many others. This day I was determined to get something different.

I watched Luke's shadow pay across the snow in the foreground and set out to capture it. I had to beg the rest of the crew not to mess up the snow in the foreground zone with tracks, so someone threw the last bit of their sandwich in there just to mess with me. You can see it there on the left. My friends rule...

When I shot this I had never seen another snowboard shot that looked like it and I was really, really happy with the result. It has run in Magazines a bunch of times and I recently sold a print of it. I love this shot.

Ok, on a completely unrelated note, I just wanted to throw a shoutout to the good folks at Yobeat.com who have been making fun of snowboarding for over a decade.

Tags: Photography, lukas huffman, nikon, Whistler

I've been shooting lots of stuff lately and not posting any of it. So now I have a whole gang of photos just burning a whole in my hard drive. Here are some of them. Enjoy.


grrrr. i'm all enraged and stuff.

sun/blinds

this crow is not one bit intimidated b those spikes

gold medallists will stay here

I'm a sucker for this kind of thing

more damn crows.

this is the last photo I took in maui. from a moving car.

dog walks look like this. it was way colder than this.

we have two young trees named yarbit and narbit. this is narbit.

Tags: canon g9, False Creek, Vancouver

Well folks, it looks like Whistler has pushed forward their opening day to tomorrow, so this will be the final episode of Snowboard Photo Blog: Version 2. It's been fun, I hope you guys have seen some stuff you liked. Now that it is shooting season again you'll start to see some fresh shots up in here!

Today we have Chris Wimbles from December last year. I had a shot of Wimbles in the Frequency photo book recently and in the caption I spoke a bit about how he is a real working professional. Never cracked the Shaun White status, but gets out there and works his ass off to get published all season long. I respect that. A Working Class hero is something to be.

Have good shredding folks.

-dano




click photo

Tags: Snowboard Photo Blog, Chris Wimbles, Photography, winter, nikon

Hey Folks,

Welcome to a brand new week and more shred photos. Thursday is opening day on Whistler, so this will be the last week of Snowboard Photo Blog until I have new shots to share. It was my birthday yesterday and tons of people did cool things to make me happy, which is nice. I'm older, no wiser, and still doing what I do best. Taking pictures of snowboarders.

Here is Eric Jackson again. "But you just showed him on Friday" you say. Well yes I did, but so what. This is one of my favourite shots from last year so I'm showing Eric again.

Have a great day out there. I'm going to write a chapter for the book.

-d.

click photo

Tags: Snowboard Photo Blog, winter, snowboarding, Photography, nikon, Eric Jackson

Facebook tells me that it is my friend Eric Jackson's birthday today. My favourite kid and a great snowboarder, Ejack keeps me stoked and keeps me laughing when we shoot together. He is everything I like about snowboarding these days; he is a young progressive rider but he takes on the whole mountain instead of just getting stuck in the park. Luckily he has had some great mentors like Mark Landvik and Mads Jonsson, not to mention his brother John. I like taking pictures of Ejack.

Happy birthday buddy, can't wait to get out to the secret spot with you again. It's your year to slaughter.

Here is a double shot of Ejack.

Tags: Eric Jackson, Snowboard Photo Blog, winter, nikon, Photography

I spent a couple days shooting photos of Benji Ritchie, Gabe Taylor last winter while the were filming for the Grenade Films "the boned age". This is the kind of shot that makes me want to go riding, and winter is just around the corner so I hope it makes you want to as well. I hope you have been enjoying the Snowboard Photo Blog. I'll keep it up on weekdays right up till it's time to ride!


click photo

Tags: Snowboard Photo Blog, Photography, nikon, winter, benji ritchie

Good morning shred dogs, Welcome to Part 3 of the Snowboard Photo Blog: Part 2.

I'd like to welcome all the portrait photographers out there today. Whaddup face shooters.

Today we have a shot of our friend Romain de Marchi from the Absinthe Films' movie "Ready". I spent some time with Paul Watt last year and we had some good days out in the backcountry and also up in Revelstoke.


click photo

Tags: Snowboard Photo Blog, Photography, nikon, Romain de Marchi, Absinthe films, Black And White

Good morning friends,

Welcome to day two of version 2 of Snowboard Photo Blog. I'll keep this up right up till opening day so that you all can get as stoked to snowboard as I am.

Our victim today is Mads Jonsson, world record holder and also one hell of a nice guy. He's funny, he's scando, and he's really, really good. This shot was taken during filming for Standard Films' "Aesthetica" this past season, at Northern Escape Heli near Terrace, BC.

Enjoy.



click the photo

Tags: Snowboard Photo Blog, Mads Jonsson, Photography, snowboarding, nikon

Hi folks.

Opening days are popping up all over the place and winter is just around the corner in our neck of the woods. To get you all in the mood for the snowboard season I'm bringing back the Snowboard Photo Blog. Check back every day for new snowboarding pictures from the past winter. Click on the photo and it will take you to a wonderful place where you can see more of my snowboard photos.

Tags: snowboarding, winter, Snowboard Photo Blog, shin campos, nikon

I just found a box full of magazines. Some of my covers from over the years. Unfortunately they are mostly older and a bunch are missing, but still, it's cool to see some of my old snowboard photos. Chris Dufficy, Devun Walsh, Jf Pelchat, Bjorn Leines, Shaun Palmer, Dionne Delesalle, Brian Savard, Marc Morriset, Mark Landvik, Shin Campos and a bunch more. When I get the rest of my archives gathered together I'll try to make a comprehensive gallery.

d.

Tags: magazines, Photography, snowboarding, Published

As long as I've been a snowboard photographer, there have always been certain riders who have stood above their peers. Taking photos of Devun Walsh has always been easy. He's a hard working dude and he loves being out in the snow. I was pulling shots today for an upcoming interview with Devun and couldn't help throwing one out there to you guys. I have hundreds of pictures of Devun and over time I hope to get them all scanned so that I can share them. Thanks Dev.


whistler snowboard photographer, snowboard photos, snowboard photographer, vancouver snowboard 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 photo, vancouver photo blog, current whistler photo, whistler photo blog, snowboard pictures, snowboarding picture, mountain photographer, canadian portrait photographer, canadian mountain photos,best snowboard photos, snowboard blog, pro snowboarder photos, canadian stock photography, winter mountain photos, snowboard photos, snowboard pictures, Canadian snowboarder

Tags: Devun Walsh, Photography, Archives, Published

I added a function on photoshelter so that people can download copies for a couple bucks for personal use. Someone asked and it took me, like a month to get around to it...

Mathieu Crepel has epic style. He's French (like France French) and he's cool and here he is over Vancouver.

Tags: Photography, snowboarding, Mathieu Crepel, Mt. Seymour

I'm pretty sure that this is 1997 but sometimes magazines used to remount your slides and you'd lose all your labels, so I don't really know. I had a total epiphany on scanning today and I had to put something up. I have been hating on my slides because the scans don't feel as cool as the transparency, but today that shifted. That is good and bad. Good because everything will look better from now on, worse because I will probably have to go back and redo a bunch of things. Boo.

I started an Agency for Snowboard photos on Photoshelter. It's a really cool deal where photographers can group together to promote themselves and their work. If you want to play, let me know. The only thing I don't like is that the resizing is automated and some shots look bad. Anyway, check it. If you know what I can do to make the galleries look like the originals, drop me a line.

Tags: Photography, snowboarding, Whistler, Alex Warburton, 1997

So busy with work and wedding. Sorry I don't have much to say. Well, I actually have tons to say and no time to say it.

Drink coffee.

Tags: music, Photography

Recently I've started making a lot more prints as a result of requests and being momentarily stable enough to get set up to print. The thing about printing is that you get to see photos big and beautiful and with all the related depth and tone that doesn't translate to a computer monitor. It's something that just doesn't translate to the web. So having said that, here is a photo that looks amazing in print, but maybe not so much on the web. I remember when I took this shot, I thought to myself, "this will never work for a magazine, it's just too subtle."

But I love it y'know? And now I have a print of it.

And you can too.

Tags: snowboarding, Black And White, Mark Landvik

When I lived in California, I used to do the drive up and down I5 between Leucadia and Vancouver 4 or 6 times a year. In the almost 3 years that I lived there i watched the gas costs for that trip go from about 280 dollars to over 400. Gas has gone up 50% since then and I'm not missing that expense. I liked the drive though. I liked 22 hours of no computers and no office. I liked the anticipation of getting home and the feeling of excitement I got as I left Southern California.

I really start to feel like I've left California when I climb out of the plains, into the pine forests and see Mt. Shasta right by Yreka. I usually end up staying the night there unless I've made good time and press on into Oregon.

One morning, I woke up early in Yreka, eager to hit the road and get back to BC before dinner. I wasn't five minutes out of town when I found myself on the side of the road taking in this beautiful scene. The sun was rising and the hazy valley floor was cast in a warm light while mist came off a small farmer's pond. Shasta lurked back there in the distance.

I made three frames and drove north.

You can buy this photo here. And if you do, I'll go and buy another print from Will Steacy who has hit a hard stretch with a shitty landlord. I already bought one, but some of you out there could help me to help him. Pass it on...

Tags: Travel, Photography, mountain Light, morning, California, Mt. Shasta

I hate to do this to you all, my loyal readers, but as the Orphan Works Bill passed in the US today, i am looking for the owner of an orphan in my files, and so here is yet another old photo of me snowboarding. Sometimes I end up with shots of myself and due to a lack of labeling, I have no idea who took them. Magazines used to occasionally send me photos that weren't even mine, because they looked like someone or somewhere I shot. In the end, if you send your pictures to a magazine with no labels, you can't be too surprised when they go missing. Sometimes however, the magazines remount shots after scanning, in which case your pooched.

All of this is a moot point because slides are over, but who took this photo of me at the Westbeach Classic in 1991? (Note the toe grab crail...)

Tags: vintage, snowboarding, Dano, Westbeach Classic, 1991

Lucky 13! Ok this has been fun, but I'm done for now. I need to get back to long winded rants and shots from walking the dog around the neighbourhood...

We've had some luck getting magazines interested in some of these shots in the last few weeks, and traffic has been up, so I'll call this experiment a success. Give me a little break on the shred shots and then I'll come back with a new series. I have something good planned. Until then, subscribe to my feed or check back and I promise to keep it interesting around here.

Here is Gaetan Chanut in the Coast Mountains.

Tags: Photography, winter, gaetan chanut, nikon d2x, Snowboard Photo Blog

Hi everyone. Here is a shot that is going to run in Japan but nobody in Europe or North America has chosen it yet. Even though it's not how I typically shoot, the thing I love about this shot is
how Shin's head is plowing a perfect wake through his spray. So cool what you can do on dark early winter days with a strobe.

This shot is from the deep winter photo contest in January. Jordan Manley won it and he has been having a hell of a season already with some sweet covers. We're big fans of his work and his character.


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 photo, vancouver photo blog, current whistler photo, whistler photo blog, street photography, snowboard pictures, snowboarding picture, mountain photographer, canadian portrait photographer, canadian mountain photos,best snowboard photos, snowboard blog, pro snowboarder photos, canadian stock photography, winter mountain photos,, snowboard photos, snowboard pictures

Tags: Photography, winter, Whistler, deep winter, shin campos, nikon d2x, Snowboard Photo Blog

HI folks, fans, and freaks. Sorry about missing the photo blog yesterday, all that snow got me excited and between that a bunch of interviews and design work, and a sick pooch, well I just didn't get around to it. I know you'll forgive me.

Here we go again for Tuesday. Here is what happens when Mads doesn't get enough coffee and has do ride 55 degree faces before 8 AM. Please, please, don't try this at home.


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 photo, vancouver photo blog, current whistler photo, whistler photo blog, street photography, snowboard pictures, snowboarding picture, mountain photographer, canadian portrait photographer, canadian mountain photos,best snowboard photos, snowboard blog, pro snowboarder photos, canadian stock photography, winter mountain photos,, snowboard photos, snowboard pictures

Tags: Photography, winter, snowboarding, Mads Jonsson, Standard films, nikon d2x, Snowboard Photo Blog

TGIF eh? Am I right? Or what...

Here is Gabe Taylor enjoying an afternoon booter in the Coast Mountains. Now I have to go walk the dog.

Tags: Photography, winter, snowboarding, gabe taylor, Grenade Films, nikon d2x, Snowboard Photo Blog

Busy day today. No time to chat.

If this doesn't make you want to go snowboarding, I don't think we're going to be friends...


Romain De Marchi from Absinthe Films shoot. Coast Mountains, British Columbia.
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 photo, vancouver photo blog, current whistler photo, whistler photo blog, street photography, snowboard pictures, snowboarding picture, mountain photographer, canadian portrait photographer, canadian mountain photos,best snowboard photos, snowboard blog, pro snowboarder photos, canadian stock photography, winter mountain photos,, snowboard photos, snowboard pictures

Tags: Photography, winter, Romain de Marchi, snowboarding, Absinthe films, nikon d2x, Snowboard Photo Blog

Hello my friends and welcome to part 8 of my series on photos from last year that have not yet found a home in a magazine. Ok, this one is going a little off script because it has, in fact been chosen to run in a magazine. In Japan. But come on, this is one of my favourite shots of the season! Mark Landvik has one of the best methods in the business, the terrain is a little slice of heaven, what's not to like? Transworld? Snowboarder? Snowboard? Frequency... I'm looking at you.

Hell, you can even make a print of it right here if you want.


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 photo, vancouver photo blog, current whistler photo, whistler photo blog, street photography, snowboard pictures, snowboarding picture, mountain photographer, canadian portrait photographer, canadian mountain photos,best snowboard photos, snowboard blog, pro snowboarder photos, canadian stock photography, winter mountain photos,, snowboard photos, snowboard pictures

Tags: snowboarding, winter, Photography, Mark Landvik, Standard films, nikon d2x, Snowboard Photo Blog

Hello everyone. Welcome to day 7 of my "shred pictures that have not yet been bought by a magazine" series. But first; good news this morning from our good friend Andy Blumberg at EXPN. Andy and I have been talking about doing a snowboarding/fishing trip for years, ever since we were both at Transworld. I swear to god it's going to happen one of these days. So pop on over and check out the coverage.

Todays shot is Sammy Luebke somewhere in the Kootenay Mountains of Southeastern BC. Sammy stepped in for an injured Ejack this past winter and brought so good style and humour to my winter. Thanks Sammy.


histler 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 photo, vancouver photo blog, current whistler photo, whistler photo blog, street photography, snowboard pictures, snowboarding picture, mountain photographer, canadian portrait photographer, canadian mountain photos,best snowboard photos, snowboard blog, pro snowboarder photos, canadian stock photography, winter mountain photos,, snowboard photos, snowboard pictures

Tags: Photography, winter, Sammy Luebke, snowboarding, Standard films, nikon d2x, Snowboard Photo Blog

Good Morning my happy friends, and welcome to week two of Snowboard Photo Blog. Today we have a mellow hippy pow scenic of Shin Campos at the end of the day in the Coast Mountains of British Columbia. Just a nice little shot with no home to ease into the week with.

Thanks to everyone who sent comments and suggestions about the Archive that I wrote about on the weekend. I'm hoping that when the book project is done that I will be able to get the majority of my favourite work up there. Until then, if there is something you want to see, let me know.

Have a good week. Check back often for new shots, or you can just subscribe to my feed.

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 photo, vancouver photo blog, current whistler photo, whistler photo blog, street photography, snowboard pictures, snowboarding picture, mountain photographer, canadian portrait photographer, canadian mountain photos,best snowboard photos, snowboard blog, pro snowboarder photos

Tags: snowboarding, Photography, winter, shin campos, nikon d2x, Snowboard Photo Blog

Another shot today for your Friday entertainment. This is a shot of Benji Ritchie from a couple days I spent shooting with the Grenade Films crew for their upcoming film "The boned age". We had a couple of really great days in an area called Seagram's in the Coast Mountains of British Columbia. Benji is a hard worker and a good guy.



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 photo, vancouver photo blog, current whistler photo, whistler photo blog, street photography, snowboard pictures, snowboarding picture, mountain photographer, canadian portrait photographer, canadian mountain photos,best snowboard photos, snowboard blog, pro snowboarder photos

Tags: snowboarding, Photography, winter, benji ritchie, Grenade Films, nikon d2x, Snowboard Photo Blog

And you thought the beat slowed down? TURN IT UP! Part 4 of my series of unloved, homeless photos from this past season.

Standard Films + Mark Landvik + Helicopters = One of my favourite things.


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Tags: winter, Photography, snowboarding, Mark Landvik, Standard films, nikon d2x, Snowboard Photo Blog

Hello and welcome to part three of me showing photos from last winter that have yet to find homes in any publication. This particular shot is from the Deep Winter Photo Contest that takes place in January on Whistler and Blackcomb. The idea is that you shoot photos for three days and then make a slideshow and present it on the fourth. To put it bluntly, our team got burned this year. I still have people asking me how we got so ripped off and the answer is, I have no idea, but my team of Dave Short and Shin Campos, with help from Mark Gribbon and Rob Picard, put together a great little slide show. I think the dark mood that I was trying to evoke with the song was maybe a little too "down" for the judges. Dunno. Regardless, this shot of Shin Campos was the last shot in the slideshow.


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 photo, vancouver photo blog, current whistler photo, whistler photo blog, street photography, snowboard pictures, snowboarding picture, mountain photographer, canadian portrait photographer, canadian mountain photos,best snowboard photos, snowboard blog, pro snowboarder photos

Tags: Photography, snowboarding, winter, Canada, deep winter, shin campos, Whistler, nikon d2x, Snowboard Photo Blog

Continuing with a long tradition (started yesterday), here is a shot from somewhere deep in the Coast Mountains of Romain de Marchi, from an Absinthe Films shoot. Bad news for my friend Romain, he and longtime sponsor Burton parted ways recently, not long after he had a kid. Bummer. I guess things are tough all over.

Dear magazine photo eds, wouldn't this shot look great in your magazine?


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 photo, vancouver photo blog, current whistler photo, whistler photo blog, street photography, snowboard pictures, snowboarding picture, mountain photographer, canadian portrait photographer, canadian mountain photos,best snowboard photos, snowboard blog, pro snowboarder photos

Tags: Photography, winter, snowboarding, Romain de Marchi, Absinthe films, nikon d2x, Snowboard Photo Blog

I've been quite busy so I decided to share some of my favourite shots from last winter. I'll keep doing this over the next little while, whenever I can't find the time to show you anything new. The book project is coming down to a very busy two months so I probably won't be shooting anything that I can show off for the foreseeable future. Let's hope this will hold you over.

Also, I recently received email from a gentleman in Finland who informed me that my website "sucks", especially my blog. So I apologize to all of my friends, readers and clients for not having more time to make a non-sucking website. I promise that when this project is done I'll commit a month to making a website with a lower amount of suck. But for now, you'll just have to enjoy the one that sucks. Thanks.

Oh ya, these are all photos that the magazines haven't decided to run.


Sammy Luebke at Mt. Baker. Such good snow. Such good style.
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 photo, vancouver photo blog, current whistler photo, whistler photo blog, street photography, snowboard pictures, snowboarding picture, mountain photographer, canadian portrait photographer, canadian mountain photos,best snowboard photos, snowboard blog, pro snowboarder photos

Tags: snowboarding, Photography, winter, Sammy Luebke, Standard films, Washington, Snowboard Photo Blog

My good friend Alex Warburton got married on the weekend in Victoria. The weather held out for him on Saturday and it was spectacular. Sunday morning brought the rains and on the ferry ride home I got lost in all the great colours and textures of the boat. It felt like a really good time for a little photo essay. One of these photos is my favourite. Can you guess which one?


rainforest

pull this lever

lifeboat icon

rainy windows

boat. wake.

Bc feels like this more often than not. Arriving back in Tsawwassen.

from one boat to another

Tags: Photography, canon g9, Ferry, BC

So you think you had a hard night? Look at this little fella and tell me you got it bad...he took a little nap and woke up frozen solid.



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

Tags: cold, winter, mouse, film, nikon

A shot from last night from the new waterfront in front of the Olympic Village construction. I went out to shoot the Symphony of Fire fireworks last night but the shots I took on the way home were way more fun.


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

Tags: False Creek, nikon, night, Canada, Home, Olympic Village

Well after the Pemberton Festival last week took a day away from work, I have been running around like a chicken with cutoffs on his head trying to catch up. Adding to my is complications is a giant sized rockslide that has closed the road to Whistler and made it very difficult to do a shoot there this weekend. Luckily the clients have pushed back the dates to next week, but it still appears that this monster slide won't be cleared in time and I'll most likely have to fly. Not the worst thing in the world except for the weight restrictions on helicopters and small planes and the fact that I need to travel with a whole bunch of gear. Luckily I have lots of photographer friends in Whistler and have been sourcing gear from them.

In the middle of all this, there were fireworks on Wednesday so T and Willie and I went for a little walk to watch things that go boom.



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,
Pendygrasse snowboard photography, snowboarding photos, photographs of snowboarders, shred photographers, snowboard photographer, snow photographers, pictures of snowboarding, pictures of snowboarders, photos of snowboards, photos of snowboarding. Daniel Stephen Pendygrasse

Tags: fun, Canada, canon g9, False Creek, Vancouver, fireworks

More shots from the hood.

Not to much to say about these. Folks have told me they like the photo updates so they will keep coming. I like the fact that I am shooting things that have no home and no expectation of sales. My entire career I've been making pictures with the exclusive purpose of sales, but with my group of "walking around town" shots, I never think, never try to make something commercial, just click away at things that look cool to me for whatever reason, and that's all I need. They're probably the most honest pictures I take. They aren't challenging or groundbreaking, but if you look long enough, you'll learn everything there is to know about me.



I think you will notice a theme

trash chute and construction

great f'n shapes, reflections, and light

that balloon is so crooked

bald dude taking a morning break.

Tags: canon g9, False Creek, Photography

I'm off for a couple days, going to shoot some things and won't be updating till next week. I'll leave you with this. It's the courtyard from my building taken from my patio. Don't you feel like a GIANT!

Tags: nikon d2x, t/s, schtick, fun

The other day I was walking to a meeting in Gastown when I passed an interesting little shrine on a bench.

Feminist author Marilyn French's three volume tome "From Eve to Dawn" took over 15 years to write, but has been criticized for playing fast and loose with the facts in its 1700 pages.

Kraft's Calorie Wise Thousand Island dressing hits you with just 20 Calories per serving and is versatile and delicious.

But what are they doing sitting together on a bench watching soccer practice?

Tags: canon g9, Vancouver, Photography

This week I have a couple of shooting gigs, which will be a nice change from what I've been doing. Lately I've been up to my eyes with the book project and with selling shots from the winter, and while both of those things are going really well, it's just not the same as shooting photos. In fact, the only time I'm shooting at all these past weeks is walking the dog around the hood.

I still love my Canon g9 for this kind of thing, it's so small and portable and durable too.

Here are some shots of my hood:


Cirque du soleil is across the street all summer

One of those cool buildings that gets really thin and one end. This one is called Hotel Europe.

Lone dude on the soccer field. Looks like the turf needs some work

Taking a break.

Sailing is hard

I love what old glass does.

The dominion building and victory square.

stock photography, vancouver city photography, vancouver street photography, buildings in vancouver, whistler photographer, snowboard photos

Tags: canon g9, Photography, False Creek, Vancouver

I've added a new link over there on the left for selling prints. I am still working on my online sales capability since I'm a moron when it comes to web skillz, (anyone who wants to help a brother out, just let me know) but once I have that figured out I have a super dope new feature that I will unveil in the link over there. Until then, go buy one of the beautiful framed prints.

Both of them ran in Future Snowboarding Magazine last year and they are of Shin Campos and Josh Dirksen. The shot of Josh was the opener for the very last "shootout" feature that I edited.

Tags: shin campos, prints, for Sale, Photography, Josh Dirksen

As the summer finally hits in all its glory, I am swamped with work. I am convinced though, that I live in the best place in the world. My fascination with Vancouver's old buildings continues, while new ones pop up all over the place.

Here are some shots of the world around me. More coming soon. I love the Canon g9 more every day.



She casts a long shadow for a short dawg.

Pixelated clouds

Nuclear.

Lunch.

these colours were making my eyes hurt.

evening glow

nice new shapes

Tags: summer, Photography, Vancouver, canon g9, False Creek, Canada, Home

I just wrapped up a week-long photo workshop with Greg Heisler. Vancouver Photo Workshops put it on, and even though I've been shooting for over 15 years, it was my first ever workshop. 6 weeks ago I had no idea that Vancouver even HAD photo workshops let alone with photographers of the stature of Mr. Heisler. If you aren't from the photo world and don't know his resume, suffice it to say that he is a very heavy cat, and is probably amassed one of the most impressive bodies of work in all of portraiture, and certainly of the last 3 decades. He currently has 74 covers of Time Magazine as well as countless other photos in just about any magazine you can think of. So there.


Greg explains photography to the class: "First, get a camera. Now, make a masterpiece! This shit is easy."

One of the added bonuses of this week was the timely visit of Jay Maisel to Vancouver. He also happened to be doing a workshop, so we shared lunch one day, and he and Greg did a talk on the first night to a packed house. Jay is in the enviable part of his career where he can pretty much just stroll around and make photos of whatever he feels like. Being a master has its benefits.


Greg listens while Jay tells it like it is: "No you asshole, you're wrong!"

The workshop took place at the Ironworks studios in Gastown, an old industrial building with fantastic bricks and beams and skylights, all the things that make us nerd photographers happy when we are looking for backgrounds. There were a dozen or so people participating and besides Scott Serfas (who signed up minutes after I told him about the course a few days before it started) and I coming from a similar background, the other photographers were a diverse and interesting bunch. We had everything from the seasoned Newspaper photographer from Seattle, to the photoshop wizard from Vancouver Island, to the San Francisco stock photographer and many more. All in all a varied and talented group.

Of course I won't go into the details of the course, but it was really great to have 5 days to listen to a veteran explain his work, his process and many techniques as well. After a few days of conversation it's easy to forget that the man cracking jokes in front of you has shot so many hugely influential and interesting people. His humility and attention to detail are an indication of where his success comes from. At the end of the day he is a guy who loves making great pictures, and being that everyone in the class felt the same way, it made for some great conversation.

Thanks to Marc Koegel who is the director of the Vancouver Photo Workshops, his little venture in Vancouver is a huge asset to us locals and as it grows I look forward to attending many more classes. Now if I can just scrounge up enough dough to do the Gorman one...

Here are some shots from the week:

A little lecture at the Ironworks

"No Scott you have it all wrong..." Wait, I think he's winking at you!

Explain to me "the light."

Um, I think it might be infected

The ever pensive Mr. Heisler.

Tags: Photography, workshop, Greg Heisler, Vancouver Photo Workshops

So I have to change the address of my blog, and I'm going to be doing that over the next couple days, so for all you millions of people who have your rss feeds directed to this web address, please check back in a day or two and re-subscribe to the new address. I've been putting off doing this for awhile, but as I get to know more about all this web nonsense, I can see that I'm going to be a bit phooked if I don't change now.

So how is the weather in Vancouver?

It's RAINY

Tags: Photography, Website, changes, canon g9

Just trucking away on submissions around here. Getting a budget and business plan in place for the summer project. Hope to get the green light by the end of the week so I can break the silence and get to work.

I still find time for walks around the neighbourhood. It has finally become spring around here and we've been loving the warm weather. Here are some shots from the last few days. The last one is HIGH-larious.


waiting for mommy.

traffic pattern change. ain't that the truth.


t said that this looks a little like our wallpaper.

boots on the ground


juckstah-poe-zishun


such a cliche, but so rad. shaka!

the title of the washed up book is "How to Start a Home-Based Photography Business". Timely Visual Metaphors are epic.

Tags: canon g9, Vancouver, False Creek

So I've been dying to shoot on our rooftop patio ever since I moved in, and yesterday was the first day that I had enough time and the weather cooperated. Dave and Keith were in the neighbourhood so they got to be my first victims. Thanks guys!

We did a couple different set ups and it was good fun. I learned a thing or two about the space and I'm stoked to do more. How did we do?




Dave


Keith

Tags: Portraits, Dave Rouleau, Keith Martin, Home

I'm not sure why, but I always like square format landscapes. The more spare, the better. I'm almost done with my edit and I'm into all the details shots, the things that aren't action and aren't portraits, a lot of these are more creative, some are landscapes, and some are not. They generally don't find a home in the magazines I submit to but inevitably become my favourites.

Here is one I like and wanted to share.


This light lasted seconds. Clouds were racing over the sky and the light was changing so fast. I turned and saw the lines here and the light changing. I shot quickly.

Tags: square, Photography

I keep hearing it's Spring. I suppose there is some evidence to support that; The US Open is this weekend in Vermont, flowers are blooming, the bums are moving from the heating grates back to the beach in Socal, but around these parts I'm going to have to say that winter has not given up just yet. We just spent two of the deepest days of the season shooting. Everyone was blown away by the quantity and quality of snow and it took the better par of the first day just to reach the alpine.

Overnight it snowed again and the forecast is for even more. Here is just one shot of a couple of amazing days. Chris Wimbles moving around some of the white stuff.

Tags: Chris Wimbles, snowboarding, Powder, Photography, spring, Black And White, split tone

I've been looking at snow my entire life. I'm endlessly fascinated by the different textures, shapes and forms that it can take. I have hundreds and hundreds of photos of the texture of snow. Here is another one from the other day.

Tags: snow, texture, mountain Light

As promised, some g9 stuff:


shopping is hard


our front yard. (it's a parking lot for now)/ wind vane chimney.


sled drop parking lot.


rouleau/cartwright/breakfastjoint

Solberg and a sunset.

Tags: canon g9, random, Photography, fun, New, Vancouver

I love going through photos. It's like going mining for gold and every once in awhile you remember a shot that warrants a closer look. This came from Revelstoke earlier this season. There was a mid-mountain layer of ice mist that stayed put pretty much the whole time we were there, and with a lack of wind all these perfect snowflakes accumulated on everything. About 100 vertical feet before breaking through to the sun, there was beautiful diffused light, and crystals hanging in the air. It was a really unique feeling.

Tags: nature, Branch, frost, winter

So I was in the park at Blackcomb this week, taking care of some contract shots, and in the process had a little time to mess around. Everyone knows I'm a Nikon guy, but my point and shoot is a Canon g9. It's a great little camera and you can read all about it here or wherever you like to get your online info. So in between laps of my riders, I had my g9 out, you can set it all manually so it's a really flexible tool. So much so that I decided to see how it would hold up against the dSLR and 70-200VR glass.

Is this photo from the Nikon or the G9?



Well of course it's from the point and shoot. But it's pretty amazing that a 500 dollar camera can match angle and composition with a 7 thousand dollar rig and not really be that far off. I'm still getting used to the g9 but I have no doubt that I will have lots of photos published from it in the next 12 months...maybe even some action.

Dano

Tags: canon g9, Photography, snowboarding