Sunshine Coast Trail

I was in Powell River on the Sunshine Coast for Christmas and on Boxing Day we went for a short hike along an awesome trail just off of Highway 101 towards Lund. I'm not entirely sure if this trail is part of the official, famed, "Sunshine Coast Trail" and I couldn't track down the information. Maybe it's a secret spot known only to locals. Regardless, if you can find it, I highly recommend it!

The trail weaves through what is mostly second growth forest but it's still spectacular.

If you're not a hardcore hiker, this is a perfect trail as it's mostly on flat ground. There are numerous wooden walkways and bridges over small streams throughout.

This was one of the more curious discoveries. I have no idea who put this bucket here, if it's a leftover from loggers of years past or a recent addition but I love that nobody has removed it.

There was moss over almost everything in this forest. In some cases it hung down off of branches over the trail in giant dew-drop sprinkled drapes.

In other places, it covered fallen trees and logs like 1970's shag pile carpet.

There's a beauty that comes from trees that have been left behind where they fell.

Most of the trees are second growth Douglas Fir but there are remnants of the original growth.

This giant managed to survive countless storms and loggers to remind us of the massive scale of the forest that once stood here.

I've taken numerous photos in forests before and could never really capture what was in front of me. Every time I've been disappointed by the results. I wasn't able to capture the scale or beauty but on this occasion I think I finally found success.

I'm not sure if it was the light, the location, better equipment or that I'm simply a better photographer... Maybe it's a combination of all of the above. Regardless, with so much forest in British Columbia it's extremely gratifying to finally get some decent pictures of something that makes up such a large portion of the part of the world I call home.

These last two images are my favorites. The image above does a great job of conveying the scale of the forest while the one below is simply steeped in mystery and magic.

As with the last post, all of these images were captured with the fantastic Sigma 18-35mm f/1.8 and were shot mostly wide open and with minimal post-processing.

Thanks for stopping by and I hope you enjoyed this taste of West Coast life.

A Snowy End To 2013

Back in December of 2013 we had a brief snowfall in Vancouver and it suddenly occurred to me that in all the time I've had my camera (3yrs now!) I've never taken snow pictures with it. So with small flakes still drifting down I bundled up and braved the elements before it turned to rain.

Davie Street. No buses getting up the hill today.

Vancouver is a city ruled by umbrellas. I still don't really understand why people bother with them in the snow though. Umbrellas are for rain or for creating shade on a hot sunny day!

I love the quietness, sense of isolation and starkness a snowfall brings.

Those who have followed my photographic adventures over the past 3yrs will know I have a recurring fascination with benches... So here's another one for the collection! Corner vignetting added by me and is intentional ;)

A cold day to be a Blue Heron.

I like the perspective on this one but it would have worked better if I'd turned and looked back sooner so the silhouetted pedestrian was better featured.

Water, water everywhere and not a drop to drink except for this lone drinking fountain.

Thinking of making this next one a Christmas card for next holiday season.

Or maybe this one too...

This is one of my favorites - The water in the lagoon was just starting to freeze over but was still watery enough to reflect. The tree branch layered in snow feels like a gnarly hand reaching down to touch the surface.

Another Christmas card possibility?

Or how about this one?

I'm not really sure what these were (crabapples?) but I love their little snow hats. The entire tree was festooned in them.

Another "snow hat", this time on the bud of a magnolia.

Towards the end of my walk, on the edge of Stanley Park, I came across this fir tree which someone had chosen to decorate.

Just for fun, here's the closest thing I'll ever get to doing a "selfie"...

For those of you interested in the technical side of things, all of these pictures were taken with my trusty old Canon 60D paired with the Sigma 18-35mm f/1.8 - I have to say I am really, really impressed with this lens. Many of these shots were captured wide open and of the many I took almost all of them were sharp and those that weren't were more down to user error than any fault with the lens. Great to see a company like Sigma step it up and give the big guys a run for their money all while doing it at a great wallet-friendly price point.

Over Christmas I was on the Sunshine Coast and got some great pictures while on a post-turkey feast hike. I'll try and share those soon.

Hope you all had a fantastic Christmas, let me take this opportunity to wish you a very Happy New Year and the very best of wishes for a healthy, prosperous and inspiring 2014.

Comment below with which image you like best and I'll send you a Christmas card next year :)

Canim Lake, B.C.

It's been awhile since my last post so I thought I'd herald my return to blogging with a big redesign. I've also redesigned my Official Site so that there's a little more aesthetic continuity with my online presence. Check it out and let me know what you think in the comment section below this post.

This past week I was fortunate enough to go on a little adventure and  amongst other things, got to snap a few pictures I thought I'd share.

Canim Lake is located about an hour drive East of 100 Mile House which is around a 6hr. drive north-east of Vancouver up the Fraser Canyon along the Cariboo Trail. The south shore of Canim Lake runs along the edge of Wells Grey Provincial Park where I camped a few summers back and got eaten alive by mosquitos....

View Larger Map

This time I was here for work and there's nothing cooler than getting to travel to remote, stunningly beautiful locales and getting paid to go there! My job was to document a plane salvage operation. The pilot, Ken, crashed his plane in 4 feet of snow back in early March of this year and the plan was to fix the damaged prop and rudder then fly the plane back to Langley for a full overhaul and service.

The salvage operation was a complete success and we all made it back from our adventure in one piece. Even better, being early in the season, the mosquitos didn't eat me alive this time around! I shot a ton of video during our stay at Canim Lake and hopefully I'll be able to share the results of that at a later date once the client has completed editing etc.

Here's the cabin where we stayed for the duration of our visit.

The temperature was around 28 C. and after a long day of shooting there was nothing better than relaxing at lakeside and taking in the stunning scenery.

 Not to mention getting the fire pit going for a good steak dinner...

...And finding a little corner of shade to relax in.

In Winter, the weather is on the opposite end of the scale. Deep snow, fierce winds and bitter cold that peels some of the trees like bananas.

With the soft sound of buzzing insects and the echoing call of a Loon across the lake, watching the sun setting over Canim Lake was one of the most beautiful things I've experienced in quite some time.

Every sun set is different.

I call this next one On Golden Pond.

The lake was like the surface of a mirror for the duration of my visit.

This one to me looks like a land mass floating across the sky.

And this final image is probably my favorite picture from the trip if not one of my all-time favorite pictures I've been able to capture.

I have a few projects on the horizon in the next few months so I'm hoping to get back to blogging with a little more regular frequency. It sure was good to be out taking pictures again - fingers-crossed we have a terrific summer that is filled with adventure and awesome photographic opportunities!

Until next time, thanks for visiting.

Getting Foolish With The FOOLS FOR HIRE!

Where on earth has this year gone? Talk about a whirlwind!

I've let things lapse around here the last few months but it was with good reason - I've been busy as hell creating new content and some of it just launched on the "internets" in the form of the comedy webseries FOOLS FOR HIRE.

Way back in July I briefly mentioned a new project I was about to go into pre-production on. The series in question is very different from my last web adventure, Libelle, although one probably would not have existed were it not for the other.

I first heard about the concept for Fools For Hire back in the summer of 2011 when Nick Harrison, who was my Assistant Director/Stunt Coordinator/Actor on Libelle, told me about some of his crazy experiences over the years working as a corporate entertainer. At first I didn't believe half the stories he told me but I was nonetheless intrigued enough by his idea to take some of those exploits and develop it into a comedy webseries.

Almost a year later, schedules finally lined up and Nick introduced me to Mike Cavers, fellow actor and victim of corporate entertainment and just like that we were off making the webseries!

Nick and Mike had a gig coming up at the annual Lonsdale Quay summer festival where they would be playing their pirate characters and we all agreed that it would make the perfect backdrop for the first 2 episodes. Given the theme of piracy, we also thought it would be a great way to introduce the show's villain who ended up being played by Eric Breker in another cool Libelle connection.

Eric Breker filling in on slating duties at Lonsdale Quay

The scripts for Episodes 1-4 came together incredibly quickly as did the cast and crew - it helped that our crew was well... Minimal.

Hey! Isn't that sound guy one of the Fools For Hire?

On most days it was pretty much just me and the camera and a different volunteer doing sound each day of shooting with other roles being filled as needed by whoever wasn't in front of the camera for a particular shot.

Shooting the first 4 episodes was a great learning experience, it was a lot of work and it was a ton of fun. Portions of each of the episodes were only loosely scripted and relied upon the cast to improvise but since many of them were experienced in theater sports this came easy. There were a lot of takes that ended with me having to cut simply because I couldn't stop shaking the camera from laughing.

The real work however, was still to come. With almost 1TB of video files on my hard drive there was a LOT of footage to sift through. In addition, we were going to have to learn how to self-distribute our work and though I've dabbled plenty in social media etc. even I was surprised at just how much work this would end up being. I'll write a separate post on the distribution and branding side of things at a later date.

Here for your viewing pleasure is Episode 1 of Fools For Hire.



And here's Episode 2 of Fools For Hire.



Over the next little while I'll be sharing lots more on my experiences with getting Fools For Hire out into the world as well as what our plans may be for the future of the show. A lot of people have put a lot of work into making Fools For Hire possible and it's all for nothing if nobody sees it so please, please check out our Youtube Channel here and don't forget to click the "Like" button, comment and let us know what you think and "Subscribe" for more episodes! Also, please come and visit our official Facebook page here or find us on Twitter here.

As 2012 comes to an end I'm already thinking that perhaps my first New Years resolution should be to pay more attention to this little corner of my world and blog with more frequency. If you're still with me and checking back here from time to time, thank you! With any luck I'll have lots more to share over the coming 12 months.

Merry Christmas to you all and a very Happy New Year!

Camping At Nahatlatch Lake

Last week I had the good fortune to get out of the city for a few days. Along with a couple of good friends, we hit Hwy 1 and headed East past Hope and up Hwy 7 past Hell's Gate to Boston Bar. From there we took a left across the Fraser River onto what soon became a winding, dusty, gravel road.

Twenty minutes later we arrived here... Nahatlatch Lake!

What a gorgeous, quiet and private spot this is. The campsite had enough room for our three tents, there was a fire pit and across the road, our very own outhouse.

This was our home for the next few nights.

This was our view from the campsite as the sun set on Day 1 of camping...

And this was our dinner on Night 1! Mmmm gourmet burgers cooked to perfection!

Between dinner and dessert (Smores!), Mel even managed to get in a few Yoga poses.

Okay, so maybe those aren't 100% authentic Yoga poses, but hey, full marks for effort! Is it just me or is there a silhouetted moose head in this next one?

I've been wanting to get away somewhere far from the city for awhile, not just for my sanity, but for the opportunity to get some decent, starry-night-sky-long-exposure-pictures. Preferably ones that weren't polluted with the sodium-light-orange of high-density populated city and suburbs.

I have to say, I'm really happy with how these turned out.

Behold! The Milky Way!

These were taken on a 30 second exposure, ISO 1000, with a 10-20mm lens at f/4.  The only post processing done was a little de-noising and a tweak to the color.

When we were camping we were at the tail end of the annual Perseid meteor shower so not only was I delighted to see more shooting stars than normal but I was shocked to see the surprise cameo appearance entering the frame of this next picture!

I always wake up early when camping. This was the view from our lakeshore campsite at 6.15am. Like the night shots, this is also a long exposure (about 5 seconds) which is why the water looks so ghostly.

I'm thinking I should get up at dawn more often because the light was absolutely stunning. Then again, being surrounded by mountains, lakes and forests definitely helps create a picturesque scene...

These pictures were all taken about a 10 minute walk along the shore from where our tents were.

After a day of relaxation floating around on the lake and when it got too hot, swimming in the glacial water, I grabbed these next pictures.

The mist is actually dust kicked up by an ATV that passed by our campsite. It took almost twenty minutes for the dust to slowly drift across the lake.

After a fantastic meal of steak and talapia (thanks Derek for the mad campsite cooking skills!) it was time to relax by the fire for another night of stargazing and long exposure fun.

I love the glowing trails from the embers drifting up into the air.

On this night the lake was so calm I managed to get stars reflected in it. The smudgy column running down the middle of the picture is the Milky Way.

Here's the view directly over our heads above our campsite earlier in the evening (also showing the Milky Way). The dark orange at the bottom of the frame is the light from our campfire.

If you're looking for a beautiful, quiet and private camping spot, head up to Nahatlatch Lake (its about a 4 hour drive from Vancouver) - you won't regret it.

Until next time folks.