We’re home from San Francisco, and it felt great to get back to the PNW. When you’re traveling like that and staying in a hotel room for a few days, it’s your own bed that you start to miss.
That’s not to say that we were all ready to leave San Francisco. That was my first time being there, and we saw quite a bit for only being there for not that long. This happens when you take an impromptu walk for about five hours. Combine that with getting around for all the WordCampSF events, the trip kinda wiped us out in the very end.
Here’s a slideshow of all the photos that I have posted on Flickr from the weekend.
We just got in from a small journey around the downtown area of San Francisco, so I thought I would make a quick post with various photos from our venture with John Biehler after he got into town this morning. Rebecca has a pretty good group of photos you can check out as well.
You can see all of my photos from our trip to San Francisco in this flickr set.
When making the post previous to this one, I forgot about the group of photos that I shot early last week as well. This was a photowalk during a very amazing, early spring day here in Vancouver.
I went for a photowalk with John Biehler after catching the Canucks game with him last week. He always has a variety of fun gear that he’s trying out and experimenting with, so I tagged along to push my knowledge of my Canon S5 IS[wiki] a little bit further.
Night photography is always tricky for a camera like this due to having to hold very still in the low light (which is often the case for many photographers), so I constantly found myself leaning up against light posts or taking about five or six shots while hoping something reasonable came out. Since I can’t swap the lens on this, I’m stuck with trying out different settings and the exposures it gives me.
As apart of the day job, I had the opportunity to shoot some photos at the red carpet event for the 2009 Juno Awards last weekend. Some of Canada’s best known musicians and performers came through to talk to members of The Beat morning show, so I did my best to shoot through the thick crowd of fellow media members, such as other photographers, producers, TV cameras, etc.
Here’s a few of my favorite shots.
Elise Estrada
Sam Roberts
MuchMusic VJ, Leah Miller and Dallas Green of City and Colour
Mike Reno of Loverboy
Elvis Costello and Diana Krall
Sarah McLachlan
You can see all of the photos from that night on Flickr, and I’m fairly impressed with how some turned out compared to others. All of these were shot with my Canon S5IS, and I took some time after this to learn more about my camera in anticipation of having more opportunities like this. You never know what type of situation you’ll be in when you get to shoot events like this, and it really made me feel like a newbie standing there.
People have asked me a few times as to what I thought about the whole experience, and to be completely honest, it was just another day on the job. However, when Elvis Costello walked up with his stunning wife, Diana Krall, I did have a brief moment of where I couldn’t believe how close I was standing to a man of great talent, if not a lasting impression on rock and roll history. That would have to be my highlight of the Junos.
This past Saturday, Rebecca and I ventured out to Surrey to cover Winterfest 2009. I say “cover” because we were asked specifically by the city of Surrey to come out to not only enjoy the festivities but to also provide coverage of the day’s events as they happened.
Many of the folks that we met were excited to see coverage of Winterfest happening on Miss604.com, and there were a lot of praises coming from people who were very familiar with the exposure that Surrey gets from Rebecca’s posts about the city as well as everything else in the lower mainland. I think it’s safe to say that these people are getting what grassroots media coverage can do for a city on a hyper-local basis, even if it is strictly web based content. I think that says a lot.
Check out the various posts on Miss604.com for the full coverage:
I wasn’t providing commentary as much as being a photographer on the grounds, trying to capture as much of Winterfest 2009 as I could with my camera. There were people everywhere, plenty of things to see and do, and the entertainment on stage kicked off with some great stuff for the families while wrapping up the night with rock show that was an amazing lineup for a concert that cost you nothing to attend.
On my way to work, I had to stop and snap this photo because it really sums up Vancouver in so many ways.
Construction, traffic, beautiful skyline, and frosted mountains. The first two should get better over the coming months, and I’ll be glad to see it all go. The last two, on the other hand, I never get tired of.
I was contacted a few weeks ago about a photo that I posted on Flickr by a rep at Sennheiser Canada. It turns out that they saw my photo and wanted to use it in a press release regarding the new sound system they provided the equipment for at GM Place. Canucks fans might have heard about the new setup at the rink, and a lot of people that I’ve talked to have been really impressed by it, myself included.
When I was contacted and asked for my permission, I ensured that I would get credit in the release and gave my go ahead. I was told that they had numerous photos of their equipment, but they really liked the way my shot captured the system.
If you get a chance to make it down for a Canucks game, it will impress you. It sounds a lot clearer than previously, and your seat will rattle when they crank up the bass. Certainly gives you a different experience at GM Place than before.
BarCampVancouver 2008 seemed to come up on us all too quickly, and I would have to declare the event an overall success. From the party on Friday night to the all day affair on Saturday, Granville Island was a great campus this year. We completely lucked out on the weather as well, so you can’t ask much more than that.
WordCamp was also a really great event that I got to be apart of. I tried to help out with the planning alongside Duane and Rebecca, but there was a bit more to be done the day of than expected. After some quick ghetto engineering, the screen and projector worked out great, and the sessions were all really good. Hopefully my involvement in the genius Q&A portion of the day made sense for many of the attendees, and for a really great run down on the sessions, check out Rebecca’s post.
Photocamp was another point of enjoyment for myself. I mostly caught the last few sessions with Tris Hussey, Derek Miller, and John Biehler, but they were well worth the time to learn a bit more about photo sharing sites and various pieces of gear that I’m all too poor to spend money on.
The day concluded with a brief photowalk around Granville Island, so I’ll include a few shots or you can see the entire set on Flickr.
Good times, and I can’t wait to do it again next year.
This past Thursday night, Less Than Jake played the Commodore Ballroom on a double ticket with Reel Big Fish. It was like being taken back to 1998 all over again, but the show didn’t fail to deliver. RBF and LTJ can still rock it something fierce.
Even better, RadioZoom got an interview with Chris in the afternoon before the show, Rebecca being on the prowl with the recording gear. It’s a great interview explaining why they have gone the way of being an independent band on their own label as well as the type of witty banter that can only come from the front man for Less Than Jake.
The interview also gave us photo access for the show, so here are some of my favorite shots I took from the front of the stage.
It was a wicked show. Unfortunately I couldn’t take any shots of Reel Big Fish, but needless to say, they still put on a hell of a performance. I have forgotten how much fun ska/punk concerts are, mainly because of that damn corporate machine that says ska died about ten years ago. I think not.
You can see all of my photos from the night on the Flickr set.
Rebecca and I got back yesterday from a one week stay in Kansas City, MO. My mother grew up there, and it’s where my parents met and got married. The road that took our family to Iowa is a whole other tale, but there is still a large portion of extended family that lives in and around KCMO.
My grandmother turned a young 90 years old this past Wednesday, so that, of course, means one thing for a family with hefty Mexican roots. It’s a party, and I think I’m still recovering.
Otherwise, this trip was a chance to get away from the craziness in Vancouver, enjoy some family, and relax a little bit. I’ll let the pictures do most of the talking, and you can see more of them in the Flickr set.
Truly the “City of Fountains”.
I haven’t been able to find Mexican bread as good as this in Vancouver.
My mom and my aunt, but you can’t see the three pitchers of sangria that were absolutely amazing.
And the scene of the crime.
It was a really great week in Kansas City. Hot, but great to see all of my family. Hopefully a trip to Iowa can be the next leg when we go to visit, but now we’re anxious to show them some of the sites here. Pictures can’t do KC or Vancouver justice, both great in their own right.
Last weekend, Rebecca was contacted by the city of Surrey to come out and help cover the events of the Surrey Fusion Festival. The three days of food, live performances, vendors, and artist displays were brought together for the soul purpose of putting a variety of ethnic flavors that comprise the areas of the lower mainland into one place. And let me say, they did an amazing job of pulling it off.
Once again, I played photographer for the day, gathering shots for coverage on miss604.com. The organizers understand and recognize the reach that a hyperlocal blog like Rebecca’s has, so they wanted to make sure that they did everything they could to spread the world about the event, even if it’s after the fact.
Here’s a variety of shots that were my favorite of those three days.
This last photo is by far my favorite out of the whole bunch, and it’s not because of the photo quality or how the light hits the shot just right. It’s the fact that when we saw these prawn crackers, we more so thought about how it would taste. The spelling didn’t catch us until after the fact.
With hope, those “pawn crackers” helped to make you understand how great the Surrey Fusion Fest was this year, and I really hope that the momentum is there to do it again next year. The whole gathering was laid back and a great atmosphere that one has to experience to really enjoy.
If you would like to see more photos, please see the entire set on Flickr, and Rebecca has some great posts highlighting the festivities from day two and three. Our social media ninja in arms DaveO even made a guest post to give his perspective, and he was just as pleased with things as we were.
