No more deers my dears, at least not now. Today, another photograph of night: three spruce trees slowly shot, this December past, in Grand Forks city park.

It's been a long week, I've walked into town and back three or four times. I'm tired and sore, but I'm happy.

Hello deer

Two new deer pics for you.

First up: the shih-tzu mentioned last post, nose to nose with a Grand Forks white-tail deer drinking spring melt near the southern edge of the Vienna Woods.

Second: a pair of white-tale fawns roaming amongst the Ponderosa Pine of the Vienna Woods in late spring.

A Deer in the Woods...

Two photos this week. (Top) a white-tail fawn, now several months old, pauses in its afternoon wanderings to cautiously observe the photographer and his shih-tzu walking near the Grand Forks, B.C. airport.

(Bottom) a young stag, his early spring rack velvetine, catches the photographer meditating near a power right of way in rural Grand Forks.


I've been feeling somewhat more human the past couple of weeks. I know that a big part of it is due to the weather changing as we head into spring. February wasn't too terribly cold here in Grand Forks, mostly within about five degrees Celsius either side of freezing, but it was typically damp enough and/or breezy enough that it may as well have been 20-30 below as far as my body was concerned. Right now, the weather's down right survivable, at least until the sun sets.

I've also gotten two rolls of film developed: the last of last years and the first of this one's. They've both been scanned and I should have no problem showing two pics next week too.

I think we'll stick with the deer theme for a bit.

Easy Pickin's

I haven't been able to get the film developed yet, my preferred photo lab here in Grand Forks is closed until the end of the month.

So here's something I shot last summer.

My nose has pretty much healed up and other than that, things haven't changed much in the past two weeks.

I still have those three rolls to be developed. I should manage to get that done in the next day or two.

I'm not going to have any printing done for a while. I want to save up about a grand (maybe a grand-and-a-half) and then set up properly on the business end, and only then start printing again (thinking a semi-coherent group sufficient for a show). In the meantime, i'll just have fun shooting and scanning and editing, when and where i feel like it.

Today's photo is of Canpar and Roxul in Grand Forks. Shot in the spring, it was a grab shot (like most of my better work) i was just walking by one evening and had my camera and tripod with me.

It's been one helluva month. Where to begin?

I had my nose broken Saturday night. Five stitches. It doesn't hurt nearly as much as u'd think (but then i've always have a high tolerance to pain). The stitches come out Friday.

I helped a friend steal back her bicycle. The stupid thief had stashed it all of a block-and-a-half away from my friends apartment.

I broke on of the cheap plastic pedals on my bicycle and it took half a week to get metal replacements because the local bike shop only stocks the cheap plastic pedals in the 1/2 inch thread (everything else is 5/16 it seems), and it didn't help that there were problems with shipping (apparently on the supplier's end, just one of the typical SNAFUs of living in a bureaucratic civilisation).

Karaoke has been going well. The locals seem to love my rendition of "Elvira" by The Oak Ridge Boys and "Sunday Morning, Coming Down" by Johnny Cash.

We had a freak windstorm a few days ago (Friday if memory serves), some trees uprooted and other snapped at the trunk 10-20 feet off the ground. I shot about half-a-roll of the aftermath, just in the Vienna Woods (that's still in camera) and i have three rolls ready to be developed once i get paid at the end of the month.

* I photographed this robin in my back yard, the end of this past April.

I'm still alive and breathing. Who would have thought that not working could take up so much time, but then with work once u're of for the day there usually isn't much time left to get into circumstances that keep u away from the computer for days/weeks.

I've seen woodpeckers around, and found what appears to be an old nesting tree at the far end of the Vienna Woods. I've also gotten a few more deer shots (this time on 800 speed).

Seems just about everywhere i look (and i'm riding my bicycle so i'm covering some pretty good ground) i find Saskatoon berry bushes (the berries here in Grand Forks look to be ready in two-three weeks, roughly) and Oregon Grape shrubs (although i've only seen any with berries).

I also had mangoes for the first time a few days ago. A friend called and asked if i wanted to go to the beach. I had only had one hour of sleep but i went and we ate mangoes under the shade of some trees (the craziest part would probably be that i was expecting the call when i went to sleep and i knew that i was only going to get one or two hours).

Things so far are going well living with my mother for the month. I've pruned trees at three in the morning using a little dollar store LED "miner's" style head light, and i've been weeding the law that we're allowing to go to seed for the present time.

Now, i have to start and get ready for Karaoke tonight.

*just a lightly edited semi-abstract thing today.

I have removed the picture from the previous post until such time as i determine the legislated landscape surrounding it's display. It will be shown again, i just want to know which battle i will be fighting against whom (and as a aside this has nothing to do with either of the girls in the photo in question, but for the moment i will say no more).

In the mean time here's some Grand Forks graffiti, at least someone has the right idea.

Twinned Angels at The Winnie

Picture temporarily removed for reasons of potential legality.

Sorry about the lack of posts, things remain busy, busy, busy. I'm thinking about maybe cutting back to one post a week over the summer.

So here we have yet another limited edition print, this time 9.5x9.5" square on 10x10" Fuji Crystal. 10 prints only, $50 Canadian.

I'm currently looking into paypal, and hope to have all my billing and shipping issues taken care of by the beginning of June (certainly by the middle of that month). I also think that i'll be setting up a separate area on the blog to handle the actual selling of prints.


Soon i will rule the world with my pretty picture taking. Mwahahaha!

Portrait of a Grand Forks Deer

To make up for what i feel may have been a lack of posts recently, here's a preview of my next 10x13" Limited Edition of 5. It should be ready around the beginning of next week. Go ahead, get a nice close look.

For those of u geeky enough to care, that was a 6 second exposure, 80mm and f8 (i think) on Fuji Superia 200ASA; and yes, i did use a tripod; and yes, the fucking deer did pose for me.

Galaxy Express

I got the prints back today. spectacular. (this isn't one of them, it's from the half roll of film that I still had to scan yesterday.) I've gotten a lot done today, trimmed some shrubs, photographed, hung out, edited photos, scanned.. i'm tired & going to karaoke.

*eventual addendum:

crazy good

Right now, i couldn't miss if i tried. no seriously, some trippy shit(')s been happening.

yesterday, as i mentioned previously, i went into town furball in order to buy some rye (well i know that rhymes, ooh, that's 3, count'em) folks i ain't even tryin' everything is fuckin' ZEN right now.

back to the rye, i tried to by a 2-6, but it wouldn't scan (it did not exist as far as the computer knew, so i had to buy a micky.) later, i called my grandpa to come pick up the dog at a coffee shop to buy an americano for myself, and to get some water for the dog (after more than a mile's walk, she didn't want it. she's a Shih tzu, stubby little legs and all...) While i wait for him to get there, i photograph an owl on the roof of a building in town, all i can see is a silhouette (it could have been a statue for all i know, but if it wasn't a statue, the dam thing was staring at me for ten minutes). And then, furball goes for two mare walks later in the day!

Heck, yesterday, i woke up at 3am after two hours sleep. i step outside, and there's a deer in back yard. At four later, i went outside, bare foot, in jeans and a leather jacket (so shirt, just the jacket) and sat down, on the grass on a small hill on our property, and sat there with my camera until about seven, with my camera set up on tripod in my back yard. I'm trying to figure out just what's goin' on, when i realise that i can see every leaf, every need, every blade of grass, dancing in the breeze. When i walked the dog about 1pm, a pheasant runs right in front of me through the woods.

I'm not sure what the joke is, exactly. all i know is, is the dog's in on it. it's gonna be gooood, and it's gonna be fuun.

The photo was shot at Karaoke at the GF, about two weeks ago.

I've spent a good part of the past two days in a crawl space, running black pipe. Place, fit, figure, and crawl out to use the power vice to cut, ream, and thread the next piece of pipe. Today wasn't as bad, less time in the hole; and at least that part of the job's done, but still, five hours today and five yesterday.

And then of course, silly me, i went out photographing last night, stopped in at the Winnie about nine, went to Wayne's place afterward and didn't get home until three in the morning. Didn't get to bed until four.

Lost my camera bag shortly after leaving Wayne's, it might have been in his building (i stopped on the way out to take another photo) and if so someone from his building might have spotted it. I'll talk to him about it the next time i see him. If the bag is lost, it's no great great loss, all that was in it was a roll of unexposed film, a lens cloth, a cheap UV filter that i haven't used in over a - year - and - a - half, and an opened pack of Zeiss wet-naps.

Today's photo is the Boundary Museum in Grand Forks, I had wanted to crop out the flare caused by some passing headlights when i took the shot, but after exploring the options, felt that it was less damaging to leave it in than to try to remove it (and certainly less work).

Hay There

Well folks, i only have one roll of film to rescan (actually only about 6-7 images) and only one roll of new film to get developed on Thursday (hopefully, there are still a few unexposed frames, but i'm going out tomorrow night so i should be able to remedy that).

So anyway, with this in mind, i've been sorting through my early early work, finding which store prints go with which negatives (everything before mid 2005 was all jumbled together) and i had to sort this all out because i use the store prints to index what was scanned how. It's all part of my misfiling system. With two more rolls to match up, it looks like i've got about a hundred extra prints. I'm pretty sure that some of the prints will match up with film/print combinations that were found "intact," but somewhere or other i've misplaced about three rolls of film (out of twenty-five or thirty pre-misfiling system rolls). Oh well, i suppose that's not too bad over the course five years, and two major and three to five minor moves (the latter depending on which year at college i got that little 35mm point and shoot).

Enough digression. Today's pic is the other one that got a bit munched in developing (only i know where). It was shot at about quarter to eight pm on 2 February 2007, downtown Grand Forks. Too bad it's a fairly new truck eh, but in ten years the designs will be completely different again and in twenty to thirty...

Kentucky Woman

Life is good. Seriously, the last time i felt this good was two years ago.

Thursday i went to karaoke at the GF, and i totally nailed "Bad Moon Rising" by C.C.R. For next week i'm thinking about maybe some Def Leppard or ACDC (listening to a little Motörhead right now, but i don't think i'll find any of that at karaoke).

Between Thursday and Friday, i also picked up three shots that i'm very interested in seeing. The first was Thursday evening, one of the local Chinese food restaurants lit up with the clouds behind it oranged with the last of the sun. Friday evening, i shot Canpar, it's windows a warm orange, in front of a (i'd guess) cerulean sky with fluffy grey clouds. Finally, as i was leaving my buddy Wayne's place at about 2am, the light in the second story hall his apartment building caught my eye (just trust me on this one).

I'm starting to plan things out for my birthday (three weeks), and i know i'm going to have one helluva night. Not only do i deserve it to begin with, but let's face it, 25 is pretty big deal. That's a quarter century, i've seen some amazing shit: the fall of the Berlin Wall, two invasions of Iraq by the U.S., the destruction of the Twin Towers endlessly looped on CNN, the dismantling of the Canadian welfare state (still in progress), and so much other stuff it would take me week to add it all.

This is one of the shots i was worried about (the neg was a bit munched) but it cleaned up real nicely, with a lot less time and work than i had worried it would take. It's a 2 minute exposure at f8, shot 2 February.

*edit: i've decided to title this photo "Kentucky Woman" for no particular reason (that just what was playing at the time i decided to title this).

Ride On

I almost had a very exciting moment. I had two comments to moderate when i logged on. Both turned out to be spam, in fact, both turned out to be the very same spam message, which is very annoying because there is nothing sadder that repetitive spam, and really, isn't it just a sign poor coding for spambot to hit the same site with the same message twice in 24 hours.

Oh well, here's a shot of the Chevron Cardlock in Grand Forks, shot 22 March this year, at about 730 that night. Got some good pictures that night with the rain (and missed more than one excellent shot because of the rain). The pub behind the cardlock is the Station House: wings on Wednesday, corn relish on the burgers (tasty), and the building used to be a railway station way back when people commonly used trains to travel from place to another.

Last night was good. I got a few shots from the area of the posted photo previous, before the misting drizzle turned into light rain. Then i went downtown and managed to steal a couple of shots from underneath a well placed awning, before taking a break from the rain with a couple of pints at the Winnie.

Some may be wondering why i didn't pack an umbrella, and it is a valid question, especially considering that i lost out on two or three potentially excellent photos for being without a wee portable awning of my own. While i have shot with the aid of an umbrella in the past, i've found that it tends to be more trouble than it's worth, usually. In the middle of the day, umbrella in one hand, camera in the other, auto-focus on etc., etc., things are tricky. Throw a tripod into the mix and things become downright cumbersome for one person to handle alone (and after dark the 'fun' only multiplies).

Under such conditions an assistant would be most helpful. Now if i can just find someone crazy enough to want to walk three or more miles in the rain while occasionally stopping to hold an umbrella over a camera instead of their self, for no money, and even less glory.

*I crossed paths with this critter on the Trans-Canada Trail in Grand Forks last August. It's taken me this long to figure out how to crop the photo.

Last night was a bit rough.

I've been looking into new equipment purchases, a 13" printer and a 35mm f2 lens. I know I can't afford either right now, but I can look and try to figure out where what I want when I finally have the cash. The lens that I really want is a Carl Zeiss, now the Canadian Zeiss distributor doesn't mention the 35mm on their site, but they do mention the 50mm f1.4 and by comparing the the European prices of the two lenses I can deduce that the Zeiss 35mm would cost me roughly $1200CN before taxes. Suddenly the Nikon AF 35mm f/2D at $400 doesn't sound too bad, despite mediocre performance and construction. As an added bonus, the Nikon lens won't disable the TTL metering on my overly computerised F55 (I will get Zeiss glass, it'll just be later than I'd hoped).

As for the printer, I'm looking at an HP B9180. Unfortunately I live in the interior of British Columbia, so the boxstores that the Canadian HP website directs me to and tells me to "call for availability" not only won't have the printer, but (based upon visits to their respective websites) don't even stock the ink cartridges. Looks like I'm going to be forced to buy online. (oh and the HP Canada site is a byzantine mess, at least as bad as Nikon Canada's was the last time I entered that hell)

The photo is Grand Forks, last July, shot near the Station House Pub. There had been a couple of deer down that I had wanted to shoot in the long grass using the other end of my 28-80mm zoom, but by the time I'd set up the ol' tripod to deal with the low light and long-ish shutter times they'd buggered right off, so I reset and took this.

It's interesting (to me anyways) that here I am, approaching my 100th post and yet half the time I still struggle to find something to write in this thing. Really, how much do I have to say? So much of my time is spent "doing nothing," waiting for I don't know what.


Maybe I just need to get out more, even if I don't particularly feel like it. Just grab myself by the scruff of the then neck and out.

*The Kettle River, shot from on the old rail trestle by Pope & Talbot Grand Forks, 8:30pm, 14 July 2006.

Well happy spring festival of Dionysus St. Patrick's Day. I'm just getting ready to go out for my first night of carousing in a fortnight (I've been saving up), but thought I'd post something first.

I'm actually somewhat proud of this shot, not for the composition or anything so mundane, but rather because of the amount of work that I had to put into getting the final output. The negative was fairly badly scratched, it looked as though a mouse had stepped on it while skittering around, either that, or the world smallest cat had taken a swipe at it. So I fixed that between scan settings and Photoshop, and did a bunch of other nit picky stuff that isn't part of my normal routine.

The old (as in no longer in use) rail trestle over the Kettle river, into the back end of Pope & Talbot. Shot 15 July 2006 in Grand Forks, BC, Canada, at 9:00pm.