Happy New Year!

As Max said, "Let the wild rumpus start!"

Happy New Year everyone!

Sunset

Can't believe I forgot to post this. I took this shot from my mother-in-law's deck late Christmas day.

What a nice gift.

Pentax K20D

Pentax DA 18-55mm AL II lens (@32mm)

f11

ISO 200

1/125 sec.

tripod mounted and wireless remote shutter release

Gargoyles

Since the first time I saw the Hotel Vancouver I've been infatuated with the grotesque guardians on the rooftop. I wrote a short story once (really not good) about a guy who was considering jumping off the Hotel Vancouver and before he jumped (or did he? I can't remember) he had a drawn out conversation with one of the gargoyles.

Maybe I'll give that one a second thought. We'll see.

Pentax K20D

Pentax M SMC 28mm lens

f8

ISO 100

1/50 sec.

ev +1

BW in PS

Tangle

Taken after shopping on Boxing Day.

Funny how my brain craves nature after the abominable task of consuming.

Also, this is a nice testament to the weather we had this Christmas season - yay sun!

Pentax K20D

Pentax DA 18-55mm AL II lens (@18mm)

f11

ISO 100

1/80 sec.

Shoot for the moon

Pentax K20D

Sigma 70-210mm lens (@210mm)

f16

ISO 400

1/160 sec.

Skating alone

The best moments can be the ones when you are alone in a crowd.

Pentax K20D

Pentax DA 18-55mm AL II lens (@18mm)

f11

ISO 100

1/8 sec.

Merry Christmas!

I tried something a little different with this one. The panorama you see above is five different exposures.

I hope you all had a great day, and that Santa brought you just what you needed.

To wit...

My wit's diseased. I've no wit to express. To wit, I'm off school for less than a week and I'm already a twit - I've done little to nothing all day long and I'm at wit's end to come up with anything witty. I must keep my wits about me or I shall be called dimwitted.

Also, the mirror effect above is from the creek that runs through VanDusen Garden.

Pentax K20D

Pentax DA 18-55 AL II lens (@18mm)

f11

ISO 100

8 sec.

Tripod mounted and wireless shutter release

Prizes for the first person who can name the play from which the line, "My wit's diseased" comes.

Festival of Lights

We visited the Festival of Lights last year after Vancouver had seen a record snowfall. It was miserable. The lights were amazing, but the trails were halved by the snowbanks and there were far too many people in too small a space.

Although the snow was nice, the experience yesterday was so much better: dry, cloudy, and reasonably warm.

Pentax K20D

Pentax 18-55mm AL II lens (@18mm)

f8

ISO 200

1.6 sec.

Tripod mounted, wireless shutter release

My Favorite Lane

We took the kids to VanDusen Gardens tonight for the festival of lights. They claim to have 1.4 million lights strung all around the garden. From the looks of things, I'm unwilling to argue that number, or count all of them to prove them right or wrong.

Also, I wish Candy Cane Lane were a real place. I'd buy a house there.

Pentax K20D

Pentax DA 18-55mm AL II lens

f4

ISO 100

1 sec.

tripod mounted and wireless shutter release

It's the most wonderful time of the...

...whoa!

We went "Christmas-light-looking" tonight with the kids and they have a different sense of taste in Christmas decorations than I do. Ben and Hannah thought these lights were "awesome."

I might have a different opinion.

Pentax K20D

Pentax M SMC 28mm lens

f2.8

ISO 1600

1/50 sec.

Foggy

is the word that describes my mind.

Pentax K20D

Pentax-M SMC 28mm

f2.8

ISO 100

1/200 sec.

Cookies...(say it to yourself like Cookie Monster would say it)

I decorated Christmas cookies with my wife and kids tonight. My masterpiece is the cookie man wearing the Christmas tree sweater in the foreground.

Maybe, secretly, I wish someone would buy me an ugly Christmas sweater with a tree on it.

Or maybe not.

Pentax K20D

Pentax M SMC 28mm lens

f2.8

ISO 400

1/ 13 sec.

Feed Mill

I went looking for fog. What I got was a feed mill. Not quite the same...

Pentax K20D

Tokina 28-70mm lens

f11

ISO 400

6 sec.

Morning mountains

When the sun rises over the mountains southeast of Chilliwack, this is the way it looks. There is almost no processing here - just a minor tweak in Levels.

Pentax K20D

Sigma 70-210mm lens

f8

ISO 100

1/400 sec.

EV compensation -1

Merry Christmas, deer...

Pentax K20D

Pentax DA 18-55mm AL II lens (@18mm)

f3.5

ISO 800

1/80 sec.

Mannequin

I took a first year physical anthropology course once, and I don't remember studying a single skull that ever looked anything like this one.

I'll admit that the hairline is aerodynamic, but that nearly non-existent nose has got to be some detriment. Just blowing it must be a feat of physics mastery.

Pentax K20D

Pentax DA 18-55 AL II lens (@26mm)

f4

ISO 800

1/250 sec.

Mary and Joseph

For whatever reason, call it the Christmas spirit, I get the feeling that I am looking at a modern-day Mary and Joseph, watching the Santa Claus parade with their newborn swaddled babe in the stroller.

Pentax K20D

Pentax DA 18-55mm AL II lens (@18mm)

f22

ISO 100

15 sec.

Sumas Trail

Taken almost a month ago. I'd nearly forgotten that we had a warm autumn this year.

Pentax K20D

Pentax DA 18-55mm AL II lens (@18mm)

f8

ISO 100

1/80 sec.

Sunrise on Baker

That little peak near the middle of the photo is Mt. Baker. I went out early on Saturday to catch the sunrise. This turned out rather abstract, like some kind of grade four experiment in silhouette.

Pentax K20D

Pentax DA 18-55mm AL II lens (@35mm)

f8

ISO 100

1/200 sec.

Wellington

I took the kids to the Santa Claus Parade in Chilliwack this last Saturday. I packed them up in parkas, toques and mitts, placed them in sleeping bags, set them down in camping chairs, and fed them a friend's hot chocolate. They were warm and cozy and thrilled at seeing Santa come through downtown Chilliwack.

Pentax K20D

Pentax DA 18-55mm AL II lens (@ 18mm)

f22

ISO 100

20 sec.

9:00 am

Hannah and I went out this morning looking for the sunrise, and by 9:00am I was hungry. While shooting on Chilliwack Mountain I thought I'd take a quick self-portrait. I hate being in front of the camera. I'd much rather hide behind it.

On the other hand, many of you have not seen the beard lately, or me ever, so here's the elusive Marc in his natural state - holding a camera.

Pentax K20D

Pentax DA 18-55mm AL II lens (@55mm)

f5.6

ISO 100

1/60 sec.

I am your father...

and I'm taking pictures of the bobblehead on my dashboard as I wait for you to come out of the school so we can go home.

Pentax K20D

Pentax DA 18-55mm AL II lens

f5.6

ISO 800

1/60 sec.

Hoosiers...

Attended the T-Wolves senior boys basketball game last night.

I now feel more out of shape than usual.

Pentax K20D

Sigma 70-210mm lens

f4

ISO 2000

1/160 sec.

My boy

An unceasing creativity; a constant desire to play; a sensitive heart: these are the things that make up my Ben.

Pentax K20D

Tokina 28-70mm lens

f4

ISO 800

1/80 sec.

B&W in CS4 PS

Warm

Pentax K20D

Pentax DA 18-55mm AL II lens (@23mm)

f8

ISO 400

1/50 sec.

The muse

How can I not be inspired by her?

Pentax K20D

Tokina 28-70mm lens

f4

ISO 800

1/50 sec.

Dusky farms

I love when November starts getting coy, with its late day sun breaking through the clouds to remind me how beautiful dusk is.

Pentax K20D

Pentax M SMC 28mm lens

f2.8

ISO 100

1/30 sec.

Skipping

is how I spend my Wednesday evenings. Actually I watch Hannah skip.

I no longer have any discernible cardiovascular endurance whatsoever, so I watch Hannah and vicariously get in shape.

Pentax K20D

Pentax M SMC 28mm lens

f2.8

ISO 1600

1/200 sec.

Greenhouse

Dusk at the local greenhouse.

Pentax K20D

Pentax DA 18-55mm AL II lens

f8

ISO 400

1/15 sec.

Rose Red

Snow White had a sister whose name was Rose Red. Rose was more energetic, as she represented summer, just as Snow represented the winter. Rose sounds like more fun.

Read Fables: Legends in Exile, by Bill Winningham, for a thoroughly entertaining retelling of these well-known fables.

Pentax K20D

Sigma 70-210mm lens (+ extension tubes)

f4(?)

ISO 100

3 secs.

Handheld flashlight

Black and White

The definition of a photo geek: setting up a collection of Philip Pullman books and a Webster's Dictionary under a black hand towel on the dining room table and lighting a white rose bought for one's wife with a handheld flashlight under a tripod-mounted, wireless remote-fired camera with a telephoto lens mounted to the camera by way of extension tubes.

Not that I did all that.

Nah, that would take the spontaneous out of photography.

Pentax K20D

Sigma 70-210mm lens + 2 and 5mm extension tubes

f4 (+ extension tubes = who knows?)

ISO 100

.5 sec

Handheld flashlight

Reflection on Autumn

Sumas River Trail, this morning. It was a beautiful morning for about 82 minutes. Don't you just love autumn in the Fraser Valley.

Pentax K20D

Pentax DA 18-55mm AL II lens

f8

ISO 200

1/100 sec.

+0.7 ev

Monochromatic

Makes me think of Casablanca: "Play it, Sam."

Pentax K20D

Pentax M SMC 28mm lens

f6.7

ISO 100

0.8 sec.

Rose

I hated the movie "Titanic" because it was three hours I'll never get back. However, as I played with this image I kept hearing Leo DiCaprio saying the name "Rose" from that movie.

Stupid James Cameron. You've infected me with your movie-making.

Argh...

Pentax K20D

Pentax M SMC 28mm lens

f6.7

ISO 100

0.8 sec.

The light...

...at the end of the tunnel? Don't walk towards the light.

Actually, I think it's just a fence at a farm in the distance.

In case you were worried that I somehow captured the doorway to the afterlife on my camera.

Pentax K20D

Pentax DA 18-55mm AL II (@43mm)

f4.5

ISO 200

1/20 sec.

Turkish Delight?

I like how it feels like the entrance to Narnia might be over there on the right, where the grove gets all dark and mysterious.

Pentax K20D

Pentax DA 18-55mm AL II lens (@31mm)

f4

ISO 200

1/20 sec.

Storm watch

Shot from the roof of the parkade at 7Oaks mall in Abbotsford.

Pentax K20D

Pentax DA 18-55mm AL II lens

f4.5

ISO 100

1/60 sec.

Ominous

A lovely little storm hit Abbotsford today. Lightning, thunder, rain, hail, locusts, river of blood...

Okay. Maybe not the last two.

Pentax K20D

Pentax DA 18-55mm AL II lens

f4.5

ISO 100

1/500 sec.

Cross

The cenotaph in Abbotsford.

Pentax K20D
Sigma 70 - 210mm lens
f4.0
ISO 100
1/640 sec.

Remembrance

"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." It was encouraging to see so many people out at today's Remembrance Day ceremony in Abbotsford, if for no other reason than they remember the past and should help to stop it from repeating.

Pentax K20D

Pentax DA 18-55mm II lens (@20mm)

f5.6

ISO 100

1/200 sec.

Shot in RAW

Granary

I've been obsessed with these granaries lately. Could it be some longing to go back to the farm where I grew up? Could it be some latent desire to be a farmer? Could it be that I've had little time to shoot anything lately and the weather hasn't been cooperating and I have to keep looking through older files?

It's anyone's guess, really.

Pentax K20D

Pentax M SMC 28mm lens

f2.8

ISO 400

1/25 sec.

Remember Peace

Having been made responsible for the Remembrance Day ceremony at my school, it has been on my mind quite a bit lately.

I'm having one of those cognitive dissonance moments, however. I can see no logical reason why anyone would go to war, but I also want to make sure that we commemorate those who have fallen in war, dying for the ideals that I hold dear.

There is no sense in war.

Pentax K20D

Tokina 28-70mm lens

f3.9

ISO 100

1/1250 sec.

Band

I sat in on the band rehearsal last week, and snapped a few photos while I was there. Even got to play a trombone again, and still knew where every note was on the slide. I think I miss being a band geek. I played first chair, first trombone.

It's how I met my wife. We competed for the same spot in band.

Two band geeks, in love...ahhh...

Pentax K20D

Pentax M SMC 28mm lens

f2.8

ISO 800

1/20 sec.

btw, Wallace, I love the 28mm lens. Thanks.

Get your groove on...

For those of you who have never attended a high school dance, here's what it's like. Now imagine music loud enough to give your heart arrhythmia and you've almost got the feeling.

Pentax K20D

Pentax M SMC 28mm lens

f2.8

ISO 1600

1/10 sec.

One Tree Hil

Autumn is awesome.

Pentax K20D

Pentax M SMC 28mm lens

f 2.8

ISO 800

1/200 sec.

Sick House

I thought H1N1 only affected people. This house looks like he's had a pretty bad time holding in what he's eaten.

Technically, Ben took this picture, but the setup was all me. He just tripped the shutter.

Pentax K20D
Pentax SMC 28mm
f2.8
ISO 400
1/25 sec.

Thoughtful

I don't know what he's thinking about - most likely that his Dad is going to make him walk around for quite some time so he should get some rest while he can.

Pentax K20D

Tokina 28-70mm lens

f3.9

ISO 100

1/1250 sec.

B&W in CS4

Remember

At the RCAF memorial in Thunderbird Square in Abbotsford.

Pentax K20D

Tokina 28-70mm lens

f3.9

ISO 100

1/800 sec.

West; meet East

While Ben and I were playing around after a trip to the library, we came across an Indo-Canadian wedding photography session. I was messing around with the flowers, conspicuously avoiding the wedding party.

Ben, in harmony with my deference, decided to take in the scene from a somewhat secretive spot.

Pentax K20D

Tokina 28-70mm lens

f3.9

ISO 100

1/200 sec.