Nine Inch Nails

A bit late with this post but whatever. At the end of November Geordie I went to go see Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails for the 3rd time in the 3rd city (the others being Winnipeg and Seattle). It is always a good show with amazing lighting effects.

For a fellow in his late-40s he still has the pipes and energy to (for lack of a better word and to use a tired cliche) rock.  The house was not full but it was a pretty happy and energetic crowd.  We missed a wee bit of his opening band but they were really good too. They were called Explosions in the Sky. I like opening acts as often I don't know the band and if they catch my ear I go find more. This guys did and I have a couple new albums to listen too.

Speaking of albums, NIN are promoting the new album "Hesitation Marks".   It's good. Not the best but on par with Year Zero.  Worth listening to for sure.  It's hard for photos to give the lighting justice as its always moving and changing. Below is an example but it really doesn't give the proper feel.

Kodiak's 6th Anniversary

6 years ago November 25 I made the colossal error of purchasing a colossal cat.  You see appearances are deceiving. He looks small in his carrier as we are bringing him home.  Actually no, we knew he was a big one because we could tell by his size.  Geordie had his number though as he tried to bite him at the no-kill shelter where we got him.  He then let me pick him up and turned into a loaf.

 

Here he is now being all sweet and soft. He is still huge.  Naturally though.  He is a big cat and he needs to lose a bit of weight and has one half regular food half calorie control but its not doing much good. He is just naturally large. He probably has some Maine Coon Cat as he is quite poofy and has wuddleable cheeks.

He is an excellent alarm clock and we can set our watches to the times it is to feed him. He eats like a hobbit though. He gets first and 2nd breakfast, and 1st and 2nd dinner. We space him out because he chomps too fast and than throws up and that is nasty.  With our new place he likes sunning himself on the balcony, where in the glow he is no longer black but more a root beer brown colour.  His slave name at the shelter was Rootbeer. He was also once a Darwin, but he is our very own KODIAK BROOP CAT GIGANTOR!

Remembrance Day

 Geordie and I attended the Remembrance/Armistice Day ceremonies in Victory Square Park. Lots of people were there.  They had a parade with different army divisions complete with pomp and ceremony.  The central point of Victory square is the Cenotaph pictured below. This is where the wreathes are laid and many people leave their poppy pins there afterwards.  The cenotaph is engraved. "Their name liveth for evermore" and, within a stone wreath, "1914–1918." Facing Hamilton Street: " Is it nothing to you" and facing Pender Street: "All ye that pass by".

 After the ceremonies the different sections parade out in front of the cenataph and do the 'Eyes Right / Left' salute.  This salute is very special and usually used for dignitaries and leaders.  I am afraid I don't know which division is pictured below but all of them saluted the memorial. I really like seeing the veterans get a big round of applause but I always get creeped out by the child soldiers of cadets.

 People were standing on window sills behind us and on top of cement walls that are in Victory Square itself.  It's the opportunity for people to think of those who were and are in service.  I was upset at an elderly Japanese couple who chattered away loudly through the anthem, reading of 'In Flanders Fields' and quite a bit of service despite being given dirty looks and shushes.

A Touch of Fog

Now that it's not cool anymore here are MY fog pictures which are much better than anyone else's and not from last year either.  I took these biking around the sea wall of Stanley park during those foggy days we had in mid-October.  I like the one below because of the heron in shadow.

This one was taken the exact same time as the one above just looking towards the bridge to Deadman's Island.  Fog is so changeable.  There is so many different plays of light, shadow and mist. In one spot it can be very sunny and than the other way all shrouded.

I had to do something artsy.  I figured the Lion's Gate bridge which is hidden in the fog shot through a dew spotted spider web would do it.  I also did the same shot but with the web in focus.  I love biking around the park this time of year. I do it fairly early in the morning and have the path all to myself really.  I see lots of cool wildlife too: bald eagles, snowgeese, flickers, otters, mink..... I hope some more fog comes in soon. 

Waved Albatross!

Albatross! These are all Waved Albatross that live only in the tropics of Peru and Ecuador.  We saw these in the Galapagos on Espanola Island.  They are medium sized albatrosses.  To me they seemed pretty big. They can glide for hours without flapping their wings as the one below is showing.

They greet their partners and other albatross by clattering their beaks against the others. They can also live up to 45 and maybe even 50 years.  Courtship is intricate which much bowing, beak clattering and oo-oo calls. I find Albatross humeri very interesting because in length and vague overall look they resemble a human humerus.

There were many half grown chicks going into their adult feathers.  The one below looks quite mangy as he still has lots of chick down but you can see on the back and wings the adult feathers coming through. The parents regurgitate over 4 pounds of fish oil a day to feed the young.

Siwash Rock Underwater Time Lapse

So after alot of testing, retesting, buying the right equipment, re-testing and fails Geordie and I did it!  We have an underwater time lapse!  It worked out incredibly well especially for a first time outing where we really didn't what to expect. There were so many variables that could screw it up.  Large waves, odd tides - though we checked the weather and tide tables.  Also people horsing around with it or even stealing it. Geordie hid it but it was visible from a very public path.  It is obvious in the video where we set it down.  It is facing Stanley Park's Siwash Rock on the mussel beds.  We had to be careful minimizing our ecosystem impact gingerly climbing over the little shells to set it down and then pick it up.

Here are two stills taken from the timelapse.  We caught in several places schools of small fish.  I don't know what kind.  I was really hoping to get a crab or starfish crawling over it but no luck.  This area is usually crawling with starfish but something is killing them off and this spot was completely bereft of them.

I love the rainbow and the gods rays refracting through the water.  The light highlights the mussels and kelp in a glorious way. I hope you enjoyed these photos and timelapse.  Geordie and I are brainstorming ideas where to set it down so if you have your own thought of a good underwater spot please let us know.  It just has to be accessible by foot and relatively easy to hide.

BCIT - First Month In

 So its been a full month since I decided to trade in a regular paycheck for a backpack of books and the hope that a few years from now it will all be worth it. Thus far BCIT has been a very good experience even if I am 8-15 years older than most everyone else in my class. The campus itself is nice without being sprawling and the majority of our classes are in a handful of buildings, so after the first week of disorientation passed it has been pretty easy to find my way around.

 The classes are divided into lectures and labs with lectures taking place in large halls like the one shown below. The finance intake for the year was several hundred students so we are divided into 'sets' of around 30 people. Lectures will contain 4-6 different sets and labs are more focused on a single set with more attention and back-and-forth with the teacher. Labs are typically in small classrooms which I have skipped a picture of since they are identical to any classroom you've ever had in your life. And yes, I am a big nerd and sit in the first few rows of every class, so this photo is not my typical perspective on lectures ;)

The first words out of the Deans mouth on the first day were "midterms are just 5 weeks away" and we've already had a number of high-stakes tests and midterms with 2 more to go in the coming week. So far I think I have done well on all the tests and I'm keeping my head above water with my reading and homework. Its nice that I can focus on my studies and not work until summer since the courseload is pretty heavy but there are a few people in my set working 20+ hours a week who I do not envy much.

Qualicum Falls- Turquoise Liquids.

Impressive cascades of water are part of Little Qualicum Falls Provincial Park.  The water is an incredible ice blue.  It is a narrow rocky gorge in a lovely forest setting.  There is also picnic facilities and lake swimming though Geordie and I just hiked around on the very easy trail.  I really like the tree bridges that the fallen logs make. You can't walk across but still very pretty.

You have to be careful though.  These are NOT for swimming or boating.  There is the rare, odd fatality the most recent one in August of 2013.  So don't be stupid.  It amazes me how people ignore the warning signs. Often it looks stable near the edge but sometimes the forest floor including roots, moss and dirt grow over the rocky edges.  It looks solid but really is a spongy mat that will not hold any weight. You can see it over growing on the other side of it.

The park is on Vancouver Island between Nanaimo and Port Alberni.  It's just before Cathedral Grove going West towards Tofino. It's just a few kilometres of the main highway and worth a stop for a leg stretch, picnic or day trip.  Good place to run dogs or children I would think as the park is over 400 hectares.  Still can't get over the colour of the water.

Survival of the Fishiest- the Quatse River Salmon Hatchery.

Back in hmmm July Geordie and I went to the Quatse Salmon Stewardship Centre. I really wanted to go and educate myself as I thought it was important to know about Southern and Northern Resident Orcas main food source.  As a prairie girl I didn't know a huge amount but I certainly expanded my brain and experiences with my visit.  The place was deserted when we got there which turned out to be alright because we got a private escorted tour and when I mentioned I worked on a whale watching boat they took us for the V.I.P. behind the scenes look.

Cute little baby coho.  They are really curious when young but lose this as they get older and larger.  They follow your finger and in the wild if you dip into the streams where they are hiding they will come up and nibble and peck at your fingers and toes.  I got to even feed them! 

Outside there are big tanks that pump in natural water from the nearby Quatse River so the little baby fish can be exposed to the diseases, parasites and unfortunately pollution that is out there.  One tank had a fungus that had gotten in from the river and was experiencing a higher rate of die off but its all part of getting their immune systems strong. Survival of the fishiest. I love the photo below. I had the idea of sticking our GoPro in one of the tanks and the staff let us do it. Thoroughly recommend a visit if you are in the Telegraph Cove/ Port McNeil/ Port Hardy area.

So Long Visual Effects!

 Many of you have heard about this for the past 18+ months, but for those of you that don't already know, I am attempting the often dreamed of but rarely executed Plan B of Visual Effects.... going back to school and trying to learn something else to pay the bills while hoping its a step up. My good friend Jason Booth made a demotivational poster much like the one below in 2005 during Superman Returns which was widely accepted as one of the most toxic and badly managed vfx productions of its time.

 Jason moved on to other things not long after but many of us have stuck it out for years. I moved to Vancouver and worked in a bunch of shops, every time thinking that the next one would be the one that had things under control and didn't crush you with overtime and mismanagement. I have since likened it to the scenario of complaining that all the male crackheads you've had as room mates keep stealing your stuff and hopefully living with a female crackhead will solve the problem.

The issue is not the gender, its the fact that you're dealing with a bunch of crackheads.

Beyond the long hours and the unstable working routine, the average compositor workstation no longer appeals to me and seems to get darker by the year. The picture below is without exaggeration what most companies are like these days. Staring into a bright monitor in a black windowless room for 9-14 hours a day. Blech.

Not that VFX was all bad. I met some great friends, learned a lot of cool computer tricks and have my name attached to dozens of movies with varying levels of watchability, but its time for me to have a change. It was a fun job in my 20s, a frustrating job in my 30s and not something I want to entertain in my 50s. All the very best to my many friends that continue to stick it out in the dog-eat-dog business, you're doing great work. It just needs to be 3% less cyan and feel a little less janky... and its cut.... ;)

Many a Jumping Orca

Breaching whales are always a spectacular sight.  They may do it for communication, socialization or just playing around.  Orcas, dolphins and humpbacks as well as other dolphin and cetacean species can project themselves right out of the water.  A fully grown orca can get the power to do this with about 4 tail waves.

The orca below has done such a big spy hop that it is practically a breach.  Spyhopping is used to help them see around the surface of the water.  They could be orienting themselves using the land or checking out what is around them including observer boats and the shoreline.

Sideways breachs occur when the animal propels itself out of the water at an angle to land on its side.  The orca below looks like she is stretching her paddle shapped pectoral fins up towards the sky.  I think we all wish we could move in the water like them.

For Bob

 This past week our good friend Bob Taylor passed away. A brilliant photographer with a sharp eye and a long list of published books, he was a passionate voice for conservation and nature. Running tours through the Canadian arctic (particularly the bears of Churchill) as well as Eastern Africa he was always on the move and always charming, professional and patient.

 My father toured Kenya with Bob in 1986 and took me with him in 1996. The incredible experiences I had in that country were directly responsible for Kathryn and my tour with him in 2010. Bob strongly recommended the Galapagos and Quest tours to us at the time which obviously contributed to our end decision to visit the islands with that very company. Furthermore, Kathryn has been incredibly inspired by his efforts in photography and conservation and his influence certainly contributed to her working as a naturalist this past summer.

Through decades of tours in Eastern Africa, Bob built up a special rapport with many of the safari drivers and lodge staff. Henry Nzioka poses at Sweetwaters with him in the photo below on one of their many tours of Kenya over the years. Henry was a driver when I went with my father in 1996 and their friendship was already long established then.

 

I think Kathryn summarized it best:

A wonderful man of the world and naturalist died. Bob Taylor you opened up another world for me. No thanks will ever be adequate. I know that there are more worlds for you to explore.

Indulging my Plant Lust

With Geordie and I's move to the 4th floor on the west side of the building I can finally indulge my plant lust..... oh yes....  My geraniums have exploded.  I thought I was going to lose them for awhile but they rallied and have been blooming non stop.  I see alot of balconies with geraniums so they must like this side of things.

I also got some marigolds.  Now I have something for Day of the Dead for my skulls and bone dolls!  It started with one flower and then more came.  The English mint that I took out of that pot and put in another is bent on world domination. I sense a Dr. No scenario only its an English Mint stroking a white spider mite. 

Best part is the T O M A T O E !  I have been wanting home grown tomatoes near forever it seems.  I found a patio roma variety so I got it and it has been producing like nobody's business.  I have done BLTs, and fresh toms with home grown basil, fig infused balsamic vineger and mozza cheese.  Hmmmm Baby!  I'm a bit worried about it now because of the heat wave and the yellowed leaves but I continue to enjoy the wee bit of gardening I can do out there.  The orchid continues to struggle..... so the epic continues.

"Roughing It" in Qualicum Bay + Bonus Vancouver Island Timelapse

A bit late in stating the fact but we have had a lot to post about lately.  So lets go back to the Easter long weekend where Geordie and I headed to the very sweet community of Qualicum Bay.  We stayed at the below place which was beach front.  We saw LOTS of Harlequin ducks, sea birds and even some whales waaaaay off in the distance. 

It also had a BBQ where Geordie and myself gorged ourselves on free meat. For some reason a lot of the time we get given free meats when we visit Vancouver Island. Last year it was fresh caught Sockeye Salmon. This year free shishkabob.  So we filled it with delicious carcinogens and ate it all up.  So much meat!  It was a great place to stay and hope to use it again.

And because that is what we do here is a timelapse taken from the fence in the first picture. It captures the tides in a wonderful way and you can see bunches of different ducks and even a seal in it.  Very lovely misty mornings.

G: Since the video above is actually a collection of timelapses, the clip she's talking about is the 2nd one. We also have some nice shots from Telegraph Cove and Tofino in there to round out the set. As always, if it won't play on its own, right click to open the original file in Vimeo :)

Galapagos Port Towns

So we are going back to 2011 in November when Geordie and myself were in the Galapagos.  There were many port towns that were fun to explore and they were stunning from the water. Below is Puerto Boquerizo Moreno from the boat.  Generally we would moor in the harbour and than take tenders to shore.

Below is the Fish market in Punta Ayora. Those are very expectant brown pelicans hoping for fish scraps from the fisherman who are gutting and cleaning a catch from earlier in the morning.  Sea gulls would skull by low to try to steal a piece. Bad birds.

 The Galapagos Sea Lions behaved much like pigeons do in North American cities.  Basically they are everywhere. Including on this park bench not giving a damn about Geordie and I having our picture taken next to it.  This is in Puerto Boquerizo Moreno where sea lions were rampant along the sea front. Much like gulls, pigeons and Canadian geese are in Vancouver.

Hundreds of Dolphins!

Geordie and I got to scratch one off our bucket list the week of July 10th.  We went on our annual pilgrimage to Telegraph Cove to see friends, beautiful scenery and gorgeous wildlife.  Out with Stubbs Island Whale Watching there came a report of a super pod of Pacific White Sided Dolphins, so we set out to find them.  To count them try to estimate how many you see out of the water at once and them multiply it by 3-5.  There were over 200 in this super pod which is rare for this time of year as it is kind of early.  The photos do not do them justice.  Video is forthcoming.

They were very active. They went all around the boat. Mating, half breaching, tail slapping, jumping and as the fellow below is doing: popcorning.  Just like popcorn popping he shot straight into the air near vertical to land on his right side. He did this repeatedly in about the same spot.

 

In addition to the above activities they were also bow riding.  Pacific white sided dolphins often engage in play with boats and boat wakes.  The wake of the boat gives them surf to play in.  The wake at the side and the push wave at the front gives them a speed boost which must be extra exhilarating. Putting the hydrophone down got us some extra great vocalizations as well.

Happy Canada Day to You All

 Canada Day has come once again and while Kathryn was spending a sizeable day out whale watching, I took a chance to brave the crowds and take some pictures of the locals celebrating our great nation in all its weird and wonderful ways. Like these two chaps below, happily posing for pictures with passersby and generally being weird looking but absurdly patriotic at the same time.

 There are always street performers of many kinds with musicians, skateboarders, buskers and mascots among them. This year I chose this photo of a person dressed as an inukshuk to highlight the weirdness and neat costumes that fill the streets on July 1st. A worthy second place goes to the women wearing dresses made of cans that were arranged like drums and were encouraging passersby to play their drum dresses.

 

I always like to wander through the area around the old Olympic Torch by the convention centre on Canada Day since it gives you a neat perspective above the crowds. I have infact posted panoramas from this very spot in years past, but not with my weird little planet tweaks, so here's a new look on an old favorite to round out the day.

Low Tide Shellfish Macro

I got a very nice macro lens this spring as a post-overtime reward and have been very happy with it. For those of you that follow such things, its a 60mm equivalent that can do 1:1 macro and has a focusing distance about an inch from the end of the glass. Low tide offers some pretty great macro opportunities and a few are below. Starting off with an oyster which most of you can imagine the scale of from experience.

Below is a snail on that oyster. You can see the one in the picture above as the little black dot near the top of the lip of the oyster. The biggest trick with pictures at this magnification is the focal depth is incredibly shallow and its very easy to have your intended object out of focus with the tiniest movement. Case in point only part of the snail below is actually in focus.

Here we have some barnacles feeding underwater. Their shells are maybe the size of a pea, which should give an idea what this new lens is capable of. For those of you bored by camera tech I do have a few barnacle fun-facts: they begin their lives as little swimming larvae which eventually glue their heads to a suitable surface and then spend the rest of their lives catching food with their feet. Throw in being hermaphrodites with the largest genitals-to-body size ratio of any animal in the world, and maybe you don't really want to be looking at them much closer than this ;)