December 24th.
25/12/09 16:01
Here is our day from sunrise to sunset yesterday:
YVR departures
Loading luggage
Bye bye Vancouver
Bye bye Canada.
Nothing but Pacific.
Islands on the horizon.
Surf is way up.
That's us.
Arrived
Merry Christmas everyone. I hope Santa treats you well.
YVR departures
Loading luggage
Bye bye Vancouver
Bye bye Canada.
Nothing but Pacific.
Islands on the horizon.
Surf is way up.
That's us.
Arrived
Merry Christmas everyone. I hope Santa treats you well.
|
Putting summer behind me
10/09/09 17:25
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
Flight
03/09/09 23:13
bad reason to travel
27/06/09 20:23
I'm back in Vancouver for a week on an unscheduled
break from summer in Roatan. A few days ago our dog
Willamina was poisoned and after 10 agonizing hours
died in our arms. She was an innocent victim of
some local kid's vendetta against a Rottweiler. 6
dogs died within 24 hours from this little prick's
poison. There is a special place in hell reserved
for assholes like that and I truly hope he dies
slowly, painfully, and in view of his loved ones.
It's hard not to lash out at the place and culture that took our girl from us but we're determined not to. Bad things happen everywhere and we're not immune here in the first world. In fact we'll be back in Honduras by Friday and that will help us to start to put this behind us. Besides, Will is there and so it will always be a special place to us.
I don't have a lot to say right now, precious little about photography, but if you haven't hugged your dog lately, or your family, or friends, go do that now. Things change fast, and when they do, the biggest regrets are the little things we failed to do.
D.
It's hard not to lash out at the place and culture that took our girl from us but we're determined not to. Bad things happen everywhere and we're not immune here in the first world. In fact we'll be back in Honduras by Friday and that will help us to start to put this behind us. Besides, Will is there and so it will always be a special place to us.
I don't have a lot to say right now, precious little about photography, but if you haven't hugged your dog lately, or your family, or friends, go do that now. Things change fast, and when they do, the biggest regrets are the little things we failed to do.
D.
Back in Roatan
24/05/09 08:55
Sorry for the lack of updates. I've been in Roatan
for a week now, took about half that to get my
bags, battled off the dreaded "roatan gut" for a
few days and then got down to business. I'm doing
my divemaster training with
Reef Gliders and have
started to wade through the thousands of pages
of reading and tests, but still have managed
to sneak in a few dives. I always like to
shoot at El Aguila, it has lots of cool lines
and as I learn how to shoot underwater better,
it's a good baseline to judge myself against.
Yesterday on the first dive, I was shooting a photo of a turtle passing me by when I heard Barry banging away like mad on his tank trying to get my attention. Barry isn't really one to bang his tank a lot, so I figured something exciting was going on. As it turns out a big green Moray Eel had snuck up behind me and was biting my fin! Never had that happen before! When I got back to the shop and looked at my photos I saw him sneaking up on me in the background of this shot.
Sneaky Green Moray Eel and turtle.
Just blowing bubbles.
A diver on the wreck.
Goldentail Moray's are my favourite eel around here
And finally a flamingo tongue.
It's a little tough to keep up with the blog here, the power still goes out pretty much once a day, the internet is painfully slow and I am kept really busy with the DM course, but I'll try to get something up at least once a week, hopefully more. I'm going to try to get photos up here as often as I can too, so check it out if you like.
Cheers,
d.
Yesterday on the first dive, I was shooting a photo of a turtle passing me by when I heard Barry banging away like mad on his tank trying to get my attention. Barry isn't really one to bang his tank a lot, so I figured something exciting was going on. As it turns out a big green Moray Eel had snuck up behind me and was biting my fin! Never had that happen before! When I got back to the shop and looked at my photos I saw him sneaking up on me in the background of this shot.
Sneaky Green Moray Eel and turtle.
Just blowing bubbles.
A diver on the wreck.
Goldentail Moray's are my favourite eel around here
And finally a flamingo tongue.
It's a little tough to keep up with the blog here, the power still goes out pretty much once a day, the internet is painfully slow and I am kept really busy with the DM course, but I'll try to get something up at least once a week, hopefully more. I'm going to try to get photos up here as often as I can too, so check it out if you like.
Cheers,
d.
I'm coming!
14/05/09 23:50
I sleep till plane. 2 till this view. Port Royal or Salva is the hardest
decision I'm making for awhile.
Home.
05/01/09 12:50
Well, I'm home. I'm pretty good at changing gears
but I found it impossible to get excited about all
the snow in Vancouver. I'm about to go out and walk
in it, so maybe that will change my mind, but my
head is still underwater.
Here are some shots from my Christmas Vacation. I hope you like them.
Anessa and Barry watch the sun set from the Reef Gliders dock
One of the millions of Sharpnose Pufferfish that are all over the reef
lil buddy
Brendan clowning around with a bottle he found.
Spotted moray eel.
A giant anenome in front of the blue on the reef wall.
T checks out a preoccupied turtle. He was munching on a sponge for about 5 minutes.
T checks out a lobster on the wall.
This Peacock flounder was showing off his blue spots for me.
Reef Gliders moved into a huge new shop with its own beach and dock. Nice!
And now for the real world. I'm actually excited to see all of the entrants in the Deep Winter Photo contest going on this week. I'll be judging the event and I'm not really looking forward to that. Judging photography is like deciding which puppy is cuter, everyone has an opinion and they are all correct. However, someone has to win and I'll contribute as best I can to make sure it is the right person.
Unfortunately, saying yes to this event means that I am going to miss the Greg Todds Memorial in Trout Lake this weekend. I'm really bummed about that. I hope all my friends out there have a good time, and be safe. I look forward to seeing the photos.
Happy New Year everyone. I hope that is the last time you al have to hear it. On with the show...
D.
Here are some shots from my Christmas Vacation. I hope you like them.
Anessa and Barry watch the sun set from the Reef Gliders dock
One of the millions of Sharpnose Pufferfish that are all over the reef
lil buddy
Brendan clowning around with a bottle he found.
Spotted moray eel.
A giant anenome in front of the blue on the reef wall.
T checks out a preoccupied turtle. He was munching on a sponge for about 5 minutes.
T checks out a lobster on the wall.
This Peacock flounder was showing off his blue spots for me.
Reef Gliders moved into a huge new shop with its own beach and dock. Nice!
And now for the real world. I'm actually excited to see all of the entrants in the Deep Winter Photo contest going on this week. I'll be judging the event and I'm not really looking forward to that. Judging photography is like deciding which puppy is cuter, everyone has an opinion and they are all correct. However, someone has to win and I'll contribute as best I can to make sure it is the right person.
Unfortunately, saying yes to this event means that I am going to miss the Greg Todds Memorial in Trout Lake this weekend. I'm really bummed about that. I hope all my friends out there have a good time, and be safe. I look forward to seeing the photos.
Happy New Year everyone. I hope that is the last time you al have to hear it. On with the show...
D.
roatan for the holidays
30/12/08 13:57
In between power cuts and with extremely
inconsistent internet, I'd like to wish everyone a
happy Christmas and New Years from Roatan. Diving
with Reef Gliders again and they
have a new, much bigger and better spot in the
West End. I've seen all sorts of old friends
and met some new ones too. Saw a seahorse on
my second dive, of course I never dive with my
camera the first couple times after time off.
Of course.
Here is a turtle. I'm already counting the days before I have to come home.
Here is a turtle. I'm already counting the days before I have to come home.
travel day
19/12/08 23:26
I'm stuck at PDX. My 11PM redeye to Houston became
a 3AM redeye to Houston. Although the flight still
takes up the entire night, I am now stuck in the
airport for 7 hours and not that stoked on it.
However I can't get too bummed, my wife's flight
from YVR to SEA got cancelled and they put her ON A
BUS! That's why you pay for flights, so they can
put you on a bus....
The other day it was colder than you can imagine in Whistler and they were firing up the snow guns trying to make up for the fact that mother nature hasn't been too helpful in the snow department this season. The wind was blowing like crazy, it was minus 25 up there, and all the snow that they were blowing was just flying up into the air and off the mountain. I pulled out my old 400mm f5.6 too see what it looked like on a digital camera. It doesn't hold up at all, but still, there is character in old glass.
I'm gone to the land of unreliable internet and no cell phone. I'll be there until the new year so I just want to take a moment to thank everyone who has spent time looking at my photos and reading my words in the past year. The power of my bog is continuing to surprise me as things I've said come back time and again in all kinds of strange ways. At its core, self publishing is the easiest and most democratic way to be heard that humans have ever enjoyed. I don't always have things worth saying, but when I do, there are people out there who are listening. thanks for tuning in.
Happy Holidays,
Dano.
The other day it was colder than you can imagine in Whistler and they were firing up the snow guns trying to make up for the fact that mother nature hasn't been too helpful in the snow department this season. The wind was blowing like crazy, it was minus 25 up there, and all the snow that they were blowing was just flying up into the air and off the mountain. I pulled out my old 400mm f5.6 too see what it looked like on a digital camera. It doesn't hold up at all, but still, there is character in old glass.
I'm gone to the land of unreliable internet and no cell phone. I'll be there until the new year so I just want to take a moment to thank everyone who has spent time looking at my photos and reading my words in the past year. The power of my bog is continuing to surprise me as things I've said come back time and again in all kinds of strange ways. At its core, self publishing is the easiest and most democratic way to be heard that humans have ever enjoyed. I don't always have things worth saying, but when I do, there are people out there who are listening. thanks for tuning in.
Happy Holidays,
Dano.
Fishies and deep breaths.
07/10/08 11:28
A year ago today, I left Roatan after living there
for 3 and a half months. I expected to be back
there around June, but life is always
interesting and you never know what is around
the next corner, so instead it has now been a
year since I've seen some of my friends down
there. I've booked a flight back for
Christmas, which makes me extremely happy, but
I miss the place. No Roatan has also meant, no
diving, which I miss terribly. People have
asked me what the appeal is lately and my
response is this; scuba diving is everything
that snowboarding isn't. It's warm (at least
where I like to do it), it's no impact, it's
quiet and calm (which snowboarding actually
can be too, but not sledding or crowded
mountains, etc.).
Diving to me is like a forced meditation. You slow down your breathing, clear your mind, and look at pretty fishes. It calms me.
So in the year since I've been home, a lot has happened. I've made big strides professionally, and am very proud of the work I'm doing these days. Between that, the new apartment, and impending wedding, life has kept me very, very busy. I feel fortunate, considering the state of the global economy and how tough it is out there to make it as a photographer, to still be getting work, selling pictures, and interesting new clients.
Now if I can just figure out how to do it all of that from the beach...
This is a typical view off the wall in Roatan. No sharks or seahorses or barracuda, just a squirrel fish and lots of coral. Aaaah.
Diving to me is like a forced meditation. You slow down your breathing, clear your mind, and look at pretty fishes. It calms me.
So in the year since I've been home, a lot has happened. I've made big strides professionally, and am very proud of the work I'm doing these days. Between that, the new apartment, and impending wedding, life has kept me very, very busy. I feel fortunate, considering the state of the global economy and how tough it is out there to make it as a photographer, to still be getting work, selling pictures, and interesting new clients.
Now if I can just figure out how to do it all of that from the beach...
This is a typical view off the wall in Roatan. No sharks or seahorses or barracuda, just a squirrel fish and lots of coral. Aaaah.
off the map
17/01/08 22:15
Last year, after multiple run-ins with bad luck and
bad conditions, Travis Robb, Mark Landvik, Eric
Jackson and I set out to find a new spot. We
searched and searched, and eventually came upon a
little miracle of geography that was perfectly made
for snowboarding. Especially for shooting photos of
snowboarding. We spend a few days "working the
zone" before other obligations dragged us in
different directions and although we put some great
stuff on film, we had unfinished business.
We're back in our spot. It has set up differently this year, different in a good way. Sammy Luebke is along for the ride this time and he's having a ball riding the best pillows on the planet. The level of riding has jumped through the roof this year. While we were happy linking transitions with big straight airs last year, this year tricks are getting thrown in the most insane places. I'm totally exhausted and I have so much to take care of at home, but for now, I'm in the middle of an amazing dream and I'm going to hit snooze for just a couple more days.
We're back in our spot. It has set up differently this year, different in a good way. Sammy Luebke is along for the ride this time and he's having a ball riding the best pillows on the planet. The level of riding has jumped through the roof this year. While we were happy linking transitions with big straight airs last year, this year tricks are getting thrown in the most insane places. I'm totally exhausted and I have so much to take care of at home, but for now, I'm in the middle of an amazing dream and I'm going to hit snooze for just a couple more days.
On the road
15/01/08 18:06
I am on the road with Standard Films right now.
Over the long drive, Travis and I talked about
all sorts of things, one of the themes that
comes up frequently with us is creativity,
inspiration, and how our lives are affected by
the ebbs and flows of the creative cycle. One
thing that always seems to kill creativity, is
working from home. When you are home you are
trapped in your normal routine and held
hostage by the mundane. Chores and bills and
social obligations all draw energy away from
the creative process.
Hit the road though, and all that is behind you. You see new things, and you see regular things in a new light. It is guaranteed to kickstart my inner art guy.
I'm missing out on so much at home right now, but at least if I have to miss that, I can be happy about taking good pictures.
I shot this while were driving so it's not really one of the good pictures...
Hit the road though, and all that is behind you. You see new things, and you see regular things in a new light. It is guaranteed to kickstart my inner art guy.
I'm missing out on so much at home right now, but at least if I have to miss that, I can be happy about taking good pictures.
I shot this while were driving so it's not really one of the good pictures...
Back in BC
09/01/08 20:31
I'm back in BC after a really short trip to Baker.
Although we didn't end up getting what we went for,
we did manage to get a whole bunch of other stuff.
I got to do a few turns on Baker in between shots
which is always nice, and met Nick, Nate and Sammy.
I also got to see some good old friends, Sean
Sullivan! Ranquet, Barrett, Temple, Shaun McKay,
John Laing, Pat McCarthy (who is looking good, and
riding after the accident)
All in all, it was a nice trip if a little too short. Washington is beautiful
All in all, it was a nice trip if a little too short. Washington is beautiful