Albertamotophoto

Ice Racing Telford Lake 2012

2012-02-14T17:58:00.000-08:00

I was out on Telford Lake taking photos at the AEIRA Leduc Race #1 on February 5th. Photo Gallery can be found here: Telford Lake Round 1

Capital City at Night

2012-01-26T18:49:00.000-08:00

A few photos taken in January using one of my favorite lenses, the Canon 10-22mm lens.

Goose Spit, Comox

2012-01-25T19:56:00.001-08:00

Vancouver Island

2011-12-30T08:28:00.000-08:00

Here are a few photos from around Vancouver Island using my Canon 10-22 mm lens. You can see some flaring, but that should be expected from a ultrawide lens.

11/11/11 Remembrance Day

2011-11-11T16:44:00.000-08:00

Canadian Hot Air Balloon Championship

2011-10-01T17:46:00.000-07:00

A few more photos from the Canadian Hot Air Balloon Championship in Camrose.

Takeoff!

2011-09-25T20:35:00.000-07:00

Here are a few photos I took of Balloon #13 at the Canadian Hot Air Balloon Championships in Camrose Alberta. I will post a few more photos later.

His Majesty's Theatre

2011-09-05T21:49:00.000-07:00

Here are a few photos of the grounds around His Majesty's Theatre in Aberdeen. It is located across from Union Terrace Gardens. In front is a statue of William Wallace, with the inscription 'I tell you the truth, liberty is the best of all things, my son, never live under any slavish bond'. Contrary to popular belief, Mel Gibson bears no likeness to Wallace!

EMRA Rd 5 Photos up!

2011-08-21T07:08:00.000-07:00

Last weekend I was at Round #5 of the EMRA. Been away most of the summer so it was my first Road Race of the season. You can look at a gallery HERE.

Crathes Castle

2011-08-11T18:59:00.000-07:00

Glen Garioch Distillery Tour

2011-08-01T14:15:00.000-07:00

While in Scotland I visited Glen Garioch (pronounced 'Gerry' in Doric), makers of Single Malt Scotch Whisky. It is located Oldmeldrum, an agricultural area where Barley and Crystal Spring water are in abundance. It was only natural that a distillery would be there!

Glen Garioch was founded in 1797, and is one of the oldest distilleries in all of Scotland. Recently it was bought by Suntory, and the new owners insisted on process changes (for consistency), but all the original buildings are still in place to viewed.

Basically, Malt Scotch is made from two ingredients... Barley and Water. Barley is in plentiful supply in Scotland, and because of the constant rainfall, fresh clean water is always in supply.

The tour started in the Malt Room. In the past, Glen Garioch used to do their own malting. Barley was spread on the floor and ocassionally paddled to allowed the barley to air and germinate. This is now done out of house, but the facility still exists.

The Barley was then kiln dried in the ovens next door. The ovens were traditional, in that they were peat fired. Glen Garioch used to mildly peat their Barley, but now get their barley out of house.

The dried Barley is called grist. The picture below shows a Barley grain before and after the kilning process. The grist is rich in Sugar and ready to be sent to the mash drums.

Below is picture of an empty and clean mash drum. It's cleaned on a regular basis (the staff don't work weekends). Hot water and Barley are mixed together and stirred together. The resulting mix is rich in sugar. The liquid (wort) is sent to washback drums where yeast is added to allow for the fermentation process to begin (see below). The solids in the mash drum are collected and sold as cattle feed to local farmers.

Below shows a photos of the Washback drums and yeast.

The photo below shows the appearance of the washback... it's appearance is similar to beer and at this point it is still fairly low in alcoholic content (about 8%).

The next step is to distill the alcohol so it's to the right alcoholic content. The photos below are of the condensor, wash stills and the spirit stills. The wash stills are the first distilation, and are low in alcoholic content. The spirit stills are the more refined alcohol stills and are VERY high in Content (about 75% alcohol).

Testing of the spirits takes place in the Spirit safe, which can be seen below. The safe is a sealed by the order of Her Majesty for excise on alcoholic products.

Once the final spirit is collected, it is put into barrels and allowed to age. About 2% alcoholic content is lost per year as the spirit is allowed to mature. In order to be called Scotch, the Spirit must be aged for a minimum of three years, else it is defined as a spirit. Glen Garioch has three different expressions currently commonly available, and 8, 12, and 19 year old Scotch. The 19 year old Scotch was made prior to Suntory's takeover, and would have the traditional distilling methods with in house malting and peating.

Drum Castle

2011-07-30T18:43:00.000-07:00

While in Scotland I visited Drum Castle in Aberdeenshire. Shown above are a few photos I took while touring the grounds.

Mercat Cross, Aberdeen

2011-07-30T12:35:00.000-07:00

A Mercat cross is a Market cross that can be found in Scottish Towns or cities. They mark the place in town where merchants would gather to ply their trade. This is a picture of the Mercat Cross in Aberdeen. It's located at the end of Union street and has an open common area for pedestrians on a cobblestone road. Good food and drink are everywhere around the square!

Castle Fraser, Scotland

2011-07-29T15:08:00.001-07:00

Here are a few photos of Castle Fraser, near Kemnay in Aberdeenshire.

Pittodrie Stadium, Aberdeen

2011-07-27T19:53:00.000-07:00

While I was overseas I went to a Scottish Football match between Aberdeen FC and Villarreal FC. It was my first time ever at a professional football game, and the atmosphere was incredible. Aberdeen FC ('The Dons') play in Pittodrie Stadium, a very old football stadium which broke ground in 1899. The snack bar had food such as 'tatties and beans' pie (potato and beans) and shepards pie. Alcohol is banned, and if you saw how boisterous some can get you can understand why...

Robert the Bruce

2011-07-26T18:04:00.001-07:00

Here are a few photos of a statue of Robert the Bruce taken while on a recent trip to Aberdeen, Scotland. The statue is located in front of a rather Gothic looking Marischal College. All photos were taken with a 10-22mm lens.

Eagles, vol II

2011-07-08T21:56:00.001-07:00

Eagle Fight!!!

2011-07-07T21:15:00.000-07:00

Here are a few photos I took on vacation while in Comox. I was using a Canon 300mm f/4 and a 1.4 extender with my Canon 7D. I'm hoping to get a longer lens in the future but I managed to get decent focus with it.

AVFTA Round 1 photos

2011-06-25T17:52:00.000-07:00

Last year, scheduling conflicts with work prevented me from going to any flat track races last year. This year I made it to Thorhild for round #1. You can find photos here.

WSBK Race #2

2011-06-19T14:36:00.000-07:00

For race #2 Carlos Checa made a superb start and built a noticeable lead over Leon Camier after only one lap.

The race was fairly uneventful, but Leon was in good form and managed to stay about 6seconds behind Carlos for a quality second place finish, and more importantly beating teammate Max Biaggi!

Nori Haga's torrid season continued with an off at windup and release.

One couldn't help but think that Miller was a defining point in the championship. With Biaggi's DNF it seemed like Checa had taken the first major step to aquire the WSBK crown. The highlight was definitely the burnouts at the end of the race!

WSBK Race #1

2011-06-18T15:37:00.000-07:00

Race one started with Carlos Checa (#7) getting a poor start during race one and had to slowly work his way back to the front. Initially the surprise leader was Troy Corser (#11) on the BMW but sadly the BMWs tend to fade in race conditions.

The 'you just threw the championship away' occurred on the completion of the opening lap. Max Biaggi and Johnny Rea touched and both ended up flying off into the gravel trap.

Checa eventually made it to the front, and won by 3 seconds. His bike didn't make it back to the pit lane however. In an attempt to go to the edge of the track to pick up a Ducati flag, he fell over got stuck in the Tooele mud! James Toseland gave him a ride back to the pits. The mechanics had a lot of work to do to get that bike ready for race #2...

WSBK Qualifying photos

2011-06-17T21:15:00.000-07:00

Sunday was very, very damp. Carlos Checa dominated the practice sessions the previous day, but it looked like he would be in trouble come qualifying as he really couldn't come to grips with the track in the wet.

Gradually towards the end of qualifying, the track began to dry and lap times dipped below 2 minutes. Checa steadily moved up the order and was in 2nd place heading into the final lap. As the checkered flag fell, Carlos would secure the pole with a 1:58.3, beating Jakob Smrz to the pole! You can find more photos here.

AMA Superbike Utah

2011-06-10T17:37:00.001-07:00

After DMG (Daytona Motorsports Group) bought AMA Pro Racing, my interest in AMA declined rapidly. Bizarre race officiating, pace cars, rolling starts, a lack of respect for the factories that keep the sport afloat... it was a huge turnoff.

Well, AMA was back at Miller this year, and I am happy to say the racing was good. Really good.

It started as a four way battle between Josh Hayes (#1), Blake Young (#79), Martin Cardenas (#36) and Tommy Hayden (#22). Cardenas had a problem and it was left to the remaining three to fight it out to the flag.

Josh Hayes lead for the majority of the race with Young riding tailgunner. It felt as though Blake was stalking and waiting for the right opportunity to make the pass. Sure enough, with just a few laps to go Blake made the move and grabbed the lead.

Below are a few photos from the race. You can find a gallery here

WSBK Pit Lane Shots

2011-06-09T19:48:00.000-07:00

One of the reasons I love World Superbike is the level of access the average fan can get. I was not media credentialed this year but made the most of what access I did have. The pit walks are a fantastic way to get really close.

Jacob Smrz:

Leon Haslam (with father Ron Haslam in foreground):

Fujio Yoshimura (son of Pops Yoshimura):

Nori Haga:

I just uploaded a gallery of pits shots from WSBK, which you can find here.

Salt Lake City,State Capitol Building

2011-06-08T17:06:00.000-07:00

I wasn't at EMRA round 1 again this year. Instead I was in Salt Lake City for the World Superbike Races at Miller Motorsports Park.

To be honest, it felt as though there was something missing this year. In the past it felt like the city rolled out the red carpet with a formal welcome from the Governor at Capitol building.

Also the Gateway district was the centre of many activities associated with the race. Last year James Toseland was playing with his band 'Crash', there were stunt shows, freestyle motocross, and Miller Motorsports park exhibitions. This year Gateway was completely empty. Not sure if it is the economy or a change in vision following the death of Larry Miller, but the Buzz surrounding the event isn't there anymore.

The following photos are of the Utah State Capitol, which was eerily quiet this year.

A few more photos of Macaé

2011-04-17T17:17:00.001-07:00

Here are a few photos along the waterfront along Cavaleiros Beach, Macae. The photos are along the promenade between the Blue Tree hotel and the Lagoon.

Brazil left a lasting impression with me... some things that stick out are:

1) The country is beautiful. I saw a bit of RJ state, and the combination of coast, mountains and trees reminded me of a more tropical version of British Columbia. I wish I had more time to look around.

2) The food. Brazilian cuisine is amazing. The BBQ food is the best I have ever had. There are also a variety of local fruits that taste fantastic. Also many fruit juices and sodas based of local fruits and berries.

3) The people. The people I met were some of the most hospitable and friendly folks you will ever meet. Canadians tend to be polite, but reserved. The people I met were very warm and had a zest for life.

Don't know if I will ever get an opportunity to go down again, but if not it would be a shame. Brazil is a beautiful country and I consider myself lucky I got a chance to go!

Cavaleiros Beach, Macaé Brazil

2011-04-16T22:36:00.000-07:00

I was very lucky and recently had the opportunity to visit Brazil. I was on a business trip to Macaé, the 'Cidade do Petróleo' of Brasil. Macae is a few hours North of beautiful Rio de Janeiro. Here are some Pano shots I took of Cavaleiros Beach using my trusty old Canon G10 and then stiching together with autostich.

AEIRA Ice Racing

2011-02-14T20:17:00.000-08:00

I was out on Telford Lake this weekend, taking photos of the AEIRA race. Photo gallery can be found here.

Comox Harbour 10-22mm

2011-01-29T16:25:00.000-08:00

Here are some photos of Comox Harbour with a Canon 10-22mm lens. The first shot is at 10mm and f/8, second shot at 22 mm from the same location.

The remaining three photos are done at 10mm and f/8.

This particular lens is an 'EF-S' lens, or short backfocus lens. It won't fit on a full frame camera like the Canon 1Ds or the 5D, but is designed for a 1.6 X cropped sensor (Canon Rebel series, Canon 30D, 40D, 50D, 7D, etc). At 10mm, the equivalent focal length would be 16mm, which puts it in the ultra wide catergory.

Overall I am finding myself quite pleased with the lens. It may not be an L lens but I am finding the images are still pretty sharp. I find myself carrying it around much more than my trusty old Sigma 15-30mm lens. I just wish the lens would be useable with a full frame camera (I plan on getting a full frame 1Ds or a 5D MkII in the future).

For a review check out this site:

http://www.the-digital-picture.com/Reviews/Canon-EF-S-10-22mm-f-3.5-4.5-USM-Lens-Review.aspx

A few more ND filter shots

2011-01-23T16:15:00.000-08:00

Here are a few more ND shots I took on a windy day on Vancouver Island. The first shot shows what is going on...

I set the camera to f/22 in order to make the aperture as small as possible. Then stacked ND 2, 4 and 8 filters on top of each other. Set the camera to timer and quickly run in front of the camera for 2 to 3 seconds. Then get out of the image. Total exposure time was about 8 seconds for the shot.

The following shots weren't exactly what I was looking for, but you can see the effect it has on incoming waves. All done at f/22 and shutter times of about 4-13 seconds.

Next time I will try the early hours of the morning to get a 30-60 second exposure.

Using ND filters

2011-01-19T18:28:00.000-08:00

A while back I posted about using ND filters to have longer exposures. One of the things I didn't do was to stack them together. For these shots I stacked together a ND 2, 4, and 8 filter and did approximately a 20-30 second exposure.

A few night shots from the Dock

2011-01-08T09:53:00.000-08:00

Mt Washington Panos

2010-12-31T20:25:00.001-08:00

Went for a ski on Mt Washington... above are a few Pano shots taken with a Canon G10 that I stuffed away while I skiing.

A few Panos of the Coastal Mountains

2010-12-29T12:59:00.000-08:00

Here are a few Pano shots of the Coastal Mountains on the Wet Coast. All Shots were stitched together using a freeware program called Autostich.

Uniquely Singapore - GoFlyKite

2010-11-20T20:09:00.000-08:00

I was walking one night around Clarke Quay when I spotted an unusual sight that I just had to see. In the distance it appeared to be a set of lights flying in the sky... night flying models?!?

Looking closer it was something very unique... R/C kites with LED lights! GoFlyKite is a company in Singapore that manufactures these stringless kites. They are quite maneuverable and make quite a sight in the night sky. I was so impressed that I ended up buying one... What you see in the following pics is the Lotus kite.

The kite itself doesn't look special... until you turn out the lights. Then you get what makes these things special. They are surprisingly fast too. The kite uses a standard R/C controller and has a range of over a kilometer.

November 11th 2010

2010-11-11T15:35:00.001-08:00

Clarke Quay

2010-11-07T21:10:00.000-08:00

Here are a few photos from Clarke Quay in Singapore. This place is a bit of a mixture of old and new. The buildings along the river are kept the same while you will find an amazing mix of eateries (eating out is a national sport in Singapore), shopping, and night clubs. A bit of an 'Ang Mo' tourist attraction perhaps, but still very beautiful, especially at night. Singapore weather is usually like clockwork. Rain around noon till about 4, followed by clear skies and a wonderful night for eating out after sunset. I swear Singaporeans don't believe in white lighting!

Singapore Flyer Redux

2010-10-25T20:12:00.000-07:00

It's first snowfall here in the Chuck, so my thoughts turned to warmer climates... here are a few photos I took in Singapore this summer. Last year I took the Singapore Flyer during the daytime. On my second visit I wanted to try something a bit different... by night!

Canon EF-S 10-22mm f/3.5-4.5

2010-10-13T20:57:00.000-07:00

I've been away a lot this year and carried around my Tokina fisheye to do cityscape pictures in Singapore and Dubai. While the lens did get intriguing pictures, a fisheye is still a gimmick and I felt I was using it a bit too much.

A few weeks ago I bought a Canon 10-22mm lens. It is an EF-S series lens, meaning it has a Short backfocus and is only useable with cropped sensor Canon cameras. I haven't had too much opportunity to play with the lens yet, but from what I have seen so far I am QUITE pleased. It seems to autofocus nicely and the pictures seem pretty sharp. Above are a few fall samples at 10mm and f/6.3 and f/8.0

Dubai Mall

2010-09-26T17:41:00.000-07:00

Dubai Mall is the world's largest mall by area. Here are a few photos of I took of the mall while I was there.

Dubai - Desert Safari

2010-09-19T16:58:00.000-07:00

One of the 'must dos' for Dubai is the desert safari. It's the most common of the tours and can be arranged at any hotel concierge desk. It's ridiculously cheap too. 150 dirhams (42 dollars CDN) for about a 4 hour trip.

I arranged my trip through the hotel and at about 4 pm, a Landrover came to pick me up. Then we were driven for about 45 minutes to the South East to get to the outskirts of Dubai and towards a common meeting point in the the desert dunes.

An quick vehicle inspection is done, the tyres are deflated to better handle the sand, and then it is a go! Going through the dunes is quite a thrill... and rather hard to take photos of.

After about 45 minutes, the group stops to take a look from the top of one of the dunes.

Then to a camp to Ride a camel, eat and watch Belly dancing....

I was there during Ramadan, so watching Belly Dancing was actually off the table for this trip. Instead we had a man do an Egyptian Dance... not the same, but interesting nonetheless.

All things considered, for 40 bucks its totally worth it and a *must* do.

Burj Khalifa

2010-09-16T18:51:00.000-07:00

On my first visit to Dubai, I was in the city during the end of tourist season. I tried to get in Burj Khalifa but it was booked solid and difficult to get into. July and August are CRAZY hot months and most of the expats get the heck out for a break. It was 42-48 C during my time there, so line ups at popular sites weren't to bad. So I made a point of going up the tower.

Burj Khalifa is currently the largest standing free structure in the world. For 100 Dirhams (about 28 bucks) you can take the observation deck tour. The Observation deck is on the 124th floor at 1483 feet and the elevator ride only takes 45 seconds (average 33 feet/sec!) from start to stop. Apparently the top speed of the elevator tops 60 km/hr!

The tower gives a good look of Dubai. Immediately below the tower Dubai Mall and the fountain are visible. Further out you can see the Financial district, and across the creek the old part of Dubai, Deira is visible. Out on the Coast are the 'World Islands'... they were barely visible the day I went up due to the haze.

Below is a photo of the deck itself... and looking up from the outside Deck. :

The inside deck gives quite a stunning view:

Below is the Dubai Mall:

And in the distance are the World Islands...

Ibn Battuta Mall

2010-09-12T17:24:00.000-07:00

One night in Dubai I took the Metro to Ibn Battuta Mall. It's a unique mall that features individual courts with architecture of countries that explorer Ibn Battuta visited. The mall is fairly large, not quite the size of West Edmonton Mall, but about the same size as the ground floor level of the mall.

The mall is divided into six courts, namely China, India, Persia, Egypt, Tunisia, and Andalusia. The stores are basically the same as what you would see in the west, but the atmosphere is something else!

Here are a few photos of the China Court:

The Indian Court:

The Persian Court:

The Egyptian Court:

The Tunisian Court:

The Andalusian Court:

Dubai Marina and Jumeriah

2010-09-09T20:27:00.000-07:00

I haven't done as much racing photography this year as I have been away must of this Spring and Summer. Recently I had a trip to Dubai. Above are some photos of Dubai Marina.

One night I ended up going to the Dubai Marina Mall after work. Taking a look outside the food court, I was surprised to see how beautiful the Marina was... it really does look a bit like False Creek in Vancouver.

The photos are of a walk around the Marina, past the Yacht club, and to Jumeriah Beach. It is a VERY POSH area and reminded me of Monaco.

EMRA Rd 5 Photos

2010-09-09T20:22:00.000-07:00

Round 5 photos are up, you can find them here

EMRA Photos up

2010-08-27T19:19:00.000-07:00

EMRA photos are *finally* up. You can find them here

EMRA Round 3/4

2010-07-27T21:22:00.001-07:00

Above are a few photos from Rd 3 from EMRA races on Saturday. Normally I get through post processing in a week, but unfortunately something unexpected came up and I won't be able to start going through these for a couple of weeks. But, better late than never!

One of the most awe inspiring things...

2010-07-20T20:09:00.000-07:00

I was in Houston recently and visited the LBJ Space flight center. For the most part, I felt that the displays in the visitor center were nice, but a lot of them were oriented towards kids. Then I went on the tour of the facility to the rocket park.

In one of the buildings was a Saturn V rocket. Of course I have seen and read about the moon program and landings, but seeing the rocket up close takes you back. Just the ENORMITY of the rocket, the number of stages, and how the different modules fit together.

In starting the Apollo Project, JFK said:

'First, I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the Moon and returning him back safely to the earth. No single space project in this period will be more impressive to mankind, or more important for the long-range exploration of space; and none will be so difficult or expensive to accomplish'

I wonder if such an amazing undertaking will ever be done again...

Devon Grand Prix 2010

2010-07-08T19:25:00.000-07:00

Photo gallery is now up. You can find it HERE

And now for something completely different

2010-07-06T21:52:00.000-07:00

I normally shoot bike racing, but the Devon Grand Prix is in my backyard, so I decided to take some shots. It is a national cycling event and quite fun to watch! Currently going through the photos and will post a gallery later. Here are a few...

EMRA Photos up

2010-06-24T18:34:00.000-07:00

Photos from round 2 up, you can find them here

EMRA Round 2

2010-06-22T20:24:00.000-07:00

Currently processing photos from Round 2, should be done by the end of the week... tried to do more group shots this time around. Here is a sequence from the last lap of the Middleweight Twins/Motard/GP/Vintage race.

Last lap Ian Wall makes a pass attempt at turn 5 (Robin's Carousel) on #71 Steve Robertson:

They exited the Carousel side by side. By turn 9 and the end of the straight Wall had the lead and took the checkered flag.

A few photos of Max

2010-06-12T19:10:00.000-07:00

I've uploaded my Miller Photos to my Smugmug account, and you can find a link to them in my 2010 gallery on the main page.

Here are a few photos of new World Championship leader Max Biaggi...

Max had a pretty fortunate weekend. He qualified high in 2nd place, but it was clear that he was second to Carlos Checa on the weekend. It started with Superpole and Carlos setting a time almost a 4 tenths of a second faster in qualifying.

The following photos show Max in the lead up to qualifying.

Race 1 began with Carlos Checa immediately pulling away from the line and establishing a gap.

Carlos consistently pulled away in spite of the Privateer Althea Ducati's lack of Speed down the 3500 ft main straight. I believe the Speed differential was 297 km/hr to 313 km/hr in the speed traps, but my memory is getting hazy. It was quite visually obvious though that the RSV4 Aprilia has a very high top end speed. Carlos just had cleaner lines and better drive out of the corners. For whatever reason, Salt Lake City is a favorite of Checa's. In 2008 he did the double aboard the Ten Kate Honda. Unfortunately this time around Carlos' bike gave out half way through the race... it was later reported that it was an electronics issue.

Race two appeared to be a carbon copy of the last race, Carlos established an early lead and pulled away.

Once again the motorcycle gods were not kind to Carlos and he had another electronic gremlin (fly by wire throttle issue?). Two near certain race wins for Carlos gone. Max received an additional gift when Leon Haslam crashed, giving him the world Championship Lead!

In the end Max developed quite a gap over his rivals, winning by some 6 seconds over teammate Leon Camier.

All in all, Miller was a very eventful race. Prehaps the turning point in the championship. Up to now, Leon Haslam has been able to hang in there with consisten finishes. His crash meant that his lead has evaporated. Biaggi is now leading the World Championship by 15 points over Leon.

A few random photos from Miller.

2010-06-09T20:49:00.000-07:00

Currently processing photos, but the above shots are a few that caught my eye

Miller Time!

2010-05-28T20:16:00.000-07:00

I am at Miller Motorsports Park this weekend for the World Superbike Race. Action kicks off tomorrow an thanks to Inside Motorcycles, I have media accreditation this year!

This year the kickoff took place inside the Capitol Building due to the rain outside.

You can see bridal photos taking place in the background... I don't think the wedding photographer knew about the press conference. But they made the most out of it. Troy Corser came, wrapped his arm around her, and they did a few shots together!

Later I walked down to what must have been the old athlete's village for the Olympics. There was a Superbike festival going on and James Toseland was singing... I knew he was a concert pianist, but to my surprise I didn't know he could SING as well. The guy is seriously talented on and off a bike!

Will be trackside doing photos tomorrow!

Souk Madinat

2010-05-24T19:02:00.000-07:00

Souk Madinat is an old market area in Jumeirah. It has an authentic Arabian feel about it, and there are some very nice cafes along the waterfront. Above are a few pictures I took walking through.

Dubai Museum, downstairs

2010-05-24T18:30:00.000-07:00

Above are a few photos from the basement of the Museum. It has a series of displays depicting life in Dubai as it once was.

Dubai Museum, Al Fahidi Fort

2010-05-20T20:22:00.000-07:00

Above are a few pictures of Al Fahidi Fort in Dubai.

EMRA Photos are up

2010-05-20T20:12:00.000-07:00

Photos are finally up on Smugmug. You can find them here.

EMRA Round 1

2010-05-16T22:14:00.000-07:00

Was at EMRA round 1 today... highlights included a large entry field for Intermediate Supersport, a good novice race, and Royce McLean dominating the Pro field. Currently going through my photos. Looks like I took about 3700 photos, which should take about a week to process. Stay tuned for updates, and if you need photos in a rush send me an email.

Palm Jumeirah

2010-05-15T18:15:00.000-07:00

On my day off I visited Palm Jumeirah. It is an artificial Island on the Jumeirah coastline and one of 3 artifical islands off the coast of Dubai. They are quite famous and there are many aerial shots of the place... here are a few shots from the island itself.

Driving out you are hard pressed knowing you are on an artificial Island. Housing lines the road everywhere.

At the tip of the Island is the Atlantis Hotel... it's a 7 star resort.

The hotel overlooks the gulf... here is a Pano shot from across the road:

Dubai Mall Part II

2010-05-13T19:52:00.000-07:00

Exiting the mall I was greeted by a surprise... on one side of the mall is a waterfront! An artificial lagoon surrounds the mall and Burj Kalifa. Outdoor patios and restaurants were everywhere. Then came the big surprise. Past 6:30, every half hour, a water show begins in the centre of the lagoon.

Dubai Mall

2010-05-12T17:34:00.000-07:00

I didn't have much time to look around in Dubai, but one trip I made was to the Dubai mall. What a surreal place that turned out to be!

I took the MRT system from Mall of the Emirates to Burj Kalifa. The MRT in Dubai is still under construction, and a lot of the stops are not done yet. When it's done it will be a great service across the city, but for now its really only good for the major tourist stops.

Going inside the mall... its overwhelming. It's the largest sized floor area mall in the world, about twice the size of West Edmonton Mall.

There are several unique attractions in the mall... Including the worlds largest aquarium, a large waterfall, and an ice rink. Outside in the courtyard there is a surreal artificial lake... but more on that later.

Fisheye photos - Burj Kalifa

2010-05-09T14:58:00.000-07:00

Here are a few photos that show what can be done with the Tokina fisheye. I was recently in Dubai, UAE and brought the lens along with me.

These photos show Burj Kalifa tower, the largest man made structure in the world. Sadly, I did not get the chance to go in the tower... You have to book in advance and demand is pretty high.

The first photo is a street shot at 10mm... note how the fisheye distorts the verticality of the tower.

Not a very pleasing photo... I may try straightening a few shots later to see how well software can correct the fisheye effect.

The next two shots were taken at the base of the tower. The first one is at 10mm, the second at 17mm... as you can see, at 17mm it is impossible to fit the entire tower in the frame from where I was standing.

And here is an evening and a night shot of the tower... I didn't bring my tripod with me, so all of these shots were done by hand and bumping up the ISO. Tried to keep as steady as possible.

Around the World in 25 days

2010-05-01T00:04:00.000-07:00

I haven't done much racing photography yet as I have been away for the past bit... but I should be back and ready for Round #1 of the EMRA series come May 15th!

Above is a photo of the A380 I was on (HUGE), and the camera system they have integrated with the inflight entertainment system. That particular camera is in the vertical stabilizer. Third picture is leaving UAE and forth and fifth are passing over India. Picture 4 is about 100 some odd miles south of Mumbai. Last photo is an island off the coast of Malaysia.

I'll beat Phileas Fogg's benchmark easily at this rate :)

New Toy!

2010-04-11T17:31:00.000-07:00

Photography is a hobby that you can very easily get carried away with... My first Digital SLR mm was a Canon 10D, and I bought a CHEAP 22-55mm f/4-5.6 lens. While I was trying to find more focal length for motocross photography, I settled on the Canon 70-200mm f/4 L lens... and then the dreaded ‘L Disease’ began. My bank account hasn’t recovered since...

While I have a collection of standard, telephoto, and prime L series lenses for motorsports photography, I didn’t go the same route for ultrawide lenses. Part of the reason is that I have used APS-C cameras over the years, and right now I prefer to use the very capable Canon 7D over anything else.

In Canon’s Ultra-wide lens selection, only options are really the 16-35mm L and the 17-40mm L, which on a Crop sensor go from Ultra wide to wide... or the EF-S 10-22mm lens (which looks like a very intriguing piece of kit). The 16-35mm was a bit too much for me to justify, and the 17-40mm L, while a good lens didn’t appeal to me. So I bought a Sigma 15-30mm lens, which turned out to be an excellent choice for me. It was relatively inexpensive and is optically sharp at mid-range apertures. Sigma discontinued it a few years ago, replacing it with the Sigma 10-20 mm. From what I can gather reading from 10-20mm reviews, I will be holding on to my 15-30mm copy...

Anyway, I wanted to get an extreme wide angle, and that led me down the route of fisheyes... a while back I bought a Peleng 8mm fisheye and it is a strange beast! Made in Belarus and it has an all metal body and a quirky manual focus system. It isn`t a bad lens, and when used the right circumstances it can make some pleasing images. For example, I used it to take these photos of the Gretzky Statue at Rexall Place.

It is a nice lens, but on a cropped sensor it can be a bit annoying with the dark corners around the edges. So I took the plunge and bought a APS-C fisheye lens, the Tonika 10-17mm f3.5-4.5 AT-X DX Fisheye.

The Tonika is a very unique lens on the market, as it is the only zoom lens available. The amount of ‘fishiness’ depends on your zoom.

Below is a picture showing my three ultra wide lenses:

To the far left is the Peleng 8mm, middle is the Tokina 10-17, and to the right is the Sigma 15-30mm. The Peleng is a fully manual lens (you set the focus, aperture) while the other two are zoom lenses.

To give an example of how these perform I took the same photo with each of the lenses at the same f-stop and shutter speed. All photos were taken with my 7D at 1/640 sec at f/8. First up is the Tokina fisheye.

The first photo is the Tokina at 10mm (shown first) and then at 17mm. Note the amount of fishiness and curvature at 10mm. This can be exaggerated depending on how you point it along the horizon.

Next up is the Peleng Fisheye, note the circle around the image. It can be annoying at times, but you can crop it out and make a wide image. That is what I did for the Gretzky photos.

Last is the Sigma 15-30mm at 15mm:

So what are my impressions of the fisheye? People either love or hate the fisheye look, but I find the fisheye effect of the Tokina to be quite nice. The lens focuses rather noisily but it works fast and accurately. Colour and contrast is nice, but like any wide angle you have to watch out for flare.

So would I recommend it? Yes, absolutely! But keep in mind the fisheye is a gimmick and not for everyone. You still should have a wide angle in your kit for your non-fisheye photos. And considering the price of the Tokina (about 800 CDN) you might be better off getting the Canon 10-22mm (which I don't have, but as I mentioned... TEMPTING).

But, there is a freeware program, PTlens out there that can defish the tokina images. With that in mind you should be able to get a very wide view. I will post a review of PTLens at a later date (I haven't tried it yet!).

I will post a few more Tokina images in a seperate post.

Bison hunting

2010-04-04T17:37:00.000-07:00

Here are a few photos from Elk Island. I used a 300m L lens and a 1.4 extender to stay WELL away from em!

The Great One

2010-03-15T19:56:00.000-07:00

I took these on Sunday with my Peleng 8mm fisheye. The edges are cropped to get rid of the vignetting from the cropped sensor.

Telford Lake Rd 2 Photos are up

2010-03-06T07:44:00.000-08:00

Photos are finally uploaded. You can find them here

Telford Lake...

2010-03-01T20:18:00.000-08:00

It's going to take a while to go through the photos... hopefully I will have them up by Saturday. Here are a couple more I found.

Telford Lake, Round 2

2010-03-01T18:57:00.000-08:00

I was out on Telford Lake on Sunday... Much better than the last race on the lake. Clear skies make for great photos! Will take about a week to go through them, but here is one sequence I found.

February 15th 1942

2010-02-15T18:04:00.000-08:00

February 15th 1942 marked the fall of Singapore to the Japanese. Winston Churchill called it the largest capitulation in British History.

Walking around you can find many monuments to the war. The Cenotaph is just off of Connaught Drive in Esplanade Park and is one of Singapore's oldest war memorials.

Nearby, is the Civilian War memorial to those who died during the occupation of Singapore. War Memorial park has a 61 metre tall monument, which is pictured below. Memorial Services are done every February 15th.

Telford Lake Photos are up

2010-02-14T14:38:00.000-08:00

Photos are now finally up, you can find them here.

Telford Lake Rd 1 - Ice Racing

2010-02-10T20:41:00.000-08:00

I was out on Telford lake this past weekend. I ended up taking a stupid amount of photos and am not anywhere near getting the post processing done yet. Hope to have something up this weekend but it may go into next week... I wasn't keeping track of how many photos I was taking and it ended up being about 5500 photos. Photos don't look the best as the weather was iffy at times with overcast skies, light snow, some blowing snow and other challenges.

I wish I got a better photo of one teams pit in board... a rubber chicken on a pole!!! I believe the Rubber chicken belongs to team 911 with Ian Wall.

Mt Washington Panos

2010-02-04T20:28:00.001-08:00

Above are a few Panos I made while Skiing the Nordic Trails in Strathcona Park. These photos are taken in Paradise Meadows and the Jackrabbit Link.

CP-107 Argus

2010-01-31T08:02:00.000-08:00

Here are a few pictures of a CP-107 Argus on display in CFB Comox... I have vague recollections of being in the observation nose of one during a military family day many, many years ago.

This last photo is a pano of about 8 shots that is stitched together.

An unusual sight

2010-01-30T11:02:00.001-08:00

While walking along the beach in Comox, I noticed a CH-149 Cormorant flying about. I took a few photos from a distance. They didn't turn out well but you can see the helicopter hovering near what appears to be a coat guard vessel. I were to make a guess, 442 Squadron was doing a hoisting exercise.

Singapore - Central District

2010-01-25T21:00:00.000-08:00

Above are a few photos from the Singapore Central Business District . It overlooks the Marina Bay and is near Boat Quay.

Comox Beach Photos

2010-01-25T19:10:00.000-08:00

Here are a few Beach shots from December. The photos are along Holmes point and the Sandspit in the Comox Valley

Singapore - Victoria Theatre and Concert Hall

2010-01-24T14:31:00.000-08:00

Here are a few pictures of Victoria Theatre a in Singapore. I took these over two days with my trusty Canon G10. If I ever go back to Sing I need to bring the full mother load of SLR gear!

The Statue is of Stamford Raffles.

A few more Eagle Shots

2010-01-24T11:48:00.000-08:00

The weather in Comox was terrible so I didn't get many quality opportunities to get shots of eagles. Here is a shot sequence I took on an overcast day. Had to Shoot ISO 400 and f/4.0 to get anything... the Lens was f/2.8 70-200mm with 1.4 extender.

This particular perch is near Portuguese Joe's... a fish monger that every once and a while puts fish guts on the beach. The Eagles pay a visit every once and a while to see if there are getting ready to dispose of the fish.

A walk on the shore around Marine Parade

2010-01-21T19:58:00.000-08:00

Here are a few more shots of Singapore that I took. All photos are along the shoreline around Marine Parade.

Comox Harbour Pano shots

2010-01-18T19:36:00.000-08:00

Here are a few Pano shots of Comox harbour taken over Christmas. The first shot is of the fishing boats on the south end of the pier. The other three shots are further North along the boardwalk. The shots are made by stiching 8-12 together to make a 180 degree view.

Eagle photos

2010-01-08T14:36:00.001-08:00

Here is a sequence of an Bald Eagle taking off in Comox... not the best photos due to the weather, but there have been precious few sunny days on the Wet Coast.

Waterfalls and ND filters

2010-01-07T16:38:00.000-08:00

In my August blog post (here) I tried using a 8 ND filter with some waterfalls while on vacation. The overall effect was pleasing, but the exposure times were only a few seconds. It later dawned on me, lets try stacking the ND 2, 4, and 8 filter together, then put the Circular Polarizer on top as well.

The weather wasn't the best, with it being overcast, but I managed to get some 25-30 second exposures of waterfalls.

The first set of photos are of 'Nymph falls' near black creek.

The last few shots are from Elk Falls:

City Hall & Old Courthouse on the Padang

2010-01-02T17:17:00.000-08:00

On St. Andrews Road lies the old courthouse building and city hall. The area is called the Padang. The following are a few pictures I took while visiting. The above photo is taken across on Esplanade Park on the Cricket Grounds. To the left is the Cricket Club. Centre Left is the Old Courthouse, and to the right of the photo is City Hall.

Below is a closeup of the Cricket Club... looks like it has a lawn bowling field as well. The Singapore Cricket Club is really old and was established in the mid 1800s.

The following are a few photos of the old Supreme Court Building. The courthouse was replaced with a new Justice building in 2005, and the building is in the process of being converted into an arts/cultural building.

St Andrews Road is used part of the Formula 1 circuit, and cars go down this street to Anderson Bridge.

Next to the Courthouse is the City Hall. There was a design festival going on so I went inside to take a look...

Here is a pic of the door handles...

Inside there were various displays, including Amazonia in Singapore (Brazil Embassy), an Anime Character Festival, Fight with Flowers, a organization exhibit... here is a picture of one of the displays... yes matchsticks... :

Of interest to me was a demonstration by Charlie Lim, a photographer that uses a light wand to paint pictures. Check out his website here... a real talent: Charlie Lim Painter of Light

Inside the City hall are some courtyards, here is a picture from inside:

Behind the building, the new Justice Building is visible:

Merlion Park

2010-01-01T12:22:00.000-08:00

Here are some photos of Merlion Park during the day. I have some night photos in a November Blog post.

Orchard Road

2009-12-31T17:17:00.000-08:00

Orchard Road is one of the main shopping and entertainment districts in Singapore. For Christmas they decorate the trees of the main street with Christmas Ornaments and they light the area at night. I went out during the daytime (I didn't go around there at night unfortunately) and here are a few pictures. Unfortunately the quality isn't the greatest as my little compact had fogging issues while walking about.

Christmas in Singapore

2009-12-24T11:49:00.000-08:00

It's Christmas over there now. Here are a few night photos I took...

The first two are outside the hotel in a local shopping plaza... anime animals and Christmas trees

These pictures are from a walk around Suntec city... the place is lit up at night and looks amazing.

Boat Quay and Downtown district

2009-12-20T12:56:00.000-08:00

Here a few more pictures of the Boat Quay area in Singapore. The first few are of the Civic district on the East side of the river. The Statue is of Sir Stamford Raffles, the founder of the modern day city state of Singapore.

The rest of the photos are along Boat Quay in the restaurants/stores:

Boat Quay Dragon Boat races

2009-12-19T19:00:00.000-08:00

Boat Quay was one of the busiest Docks in Singapore in the 1860s and handled most of the trade for the Port of Singapore. Today it really isn't a port, but the House shops still line the sides of the river opening around this historic district. It's really a nice area to just sit on a patio restaurant on the river. When I walked along here during the daytime there were Dragon Boat races going on. Here are a few photos.

Singapore Pano Shot

2009-12-14T20:51:00.001-08:00

Here is a Pano shot I stitched together from the pier off of Merlion Park. To the left is Esplande Mall, Centre Left you can see the multicoloured Grand Prix Stand and Singapore Flyer. The Centre of the photo you can see three towers which are under construction.

This is the Marina Bay Sands Integrated Resort. The towers are linked by a two acre sky garden. Its supposed to open in 2010.

To the right is the edge of the pier and the Financial district.

Singapore F1 track

2009-12-06T06:53:00.000-08:00

On one of my days off I decided to walk the F1 track. The area around the Singapore Flyer (Marina Promenade Park) is a section of permanent, purpose built track. The rest of the track is on public streets going through some of the most scenic areas of the town.

Here is a track map:

The following photos are from T23, T24 and the main grandstand.

Turn 23:

And Turn 24 onto the main straight:

And the main straight:

The grandstands are to the right of the picture and have been taken down...

A few pictures of a grid position:

A few pictures of the garages...

The race was from Sept 25-27... Tyre marks are still visible. Note the front axle position where they lift the cars:

The start finish line:

And out towards turn one and two:

The garages are typical Singapore Spotless!