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.

Tags: Roatan, Life, Photography

This week I was in at the Monster office saying my goodbyes when Libby asked about the going away presents. Now I've always thought that when someone leaves a job, the people at that place of work have a "going away party" or give that person some sort of "gift" as a token of their friendship and appreciation. It turns out that I was wrong. Dead wrong.

"Where are our presents?" Asked Libby. You see, what I didn't know, (and suspect that Libby didn't until it came out of her mouth at that very moment) was that at the Monster office, when you leave you are obligated to GIVE presents.

Well I thought about sending a fruit basket, I trolled around Home Depot looking for something funny (to which Libby replied; "New rule: no Home Depot presents") and eventually realized, with 3 dollars left in my pocket, that the best present I could give is the gift of memories.

Here is a little photo essay of our trip to lunch one day. There is a restaurant down on East Hastings that offers steak for less than 10 bucks. I've always looked at it and wondered "who goes there? It looks so sketchy." Well now I know who goes there: Friends.


Hand painted signs are the best. Is that the best bull ever?


Oh so THIS is where friends meet.


This is the sign that always had me wondering.


MMMMMMMMM. Multi and Tasty.


Oh I shouldn't.


The proprietress


Dave and Paul map their culinary attack


These live on bulls.


The view.


The meal.


Libby likes?


Let's just drop off some cards. Notice the No LImits in there?


Uh. We're done.


And then there was weird homeless sex acts on the way home.


You're welcome. And I'm out. I'll miss you guys. Best crew ever.

Tags: Libby, Rak, Dave, Brave Bull

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