goldengod

The Photographer’s Frazetta by Jhayne Holmes

My sincere congratulations go out to my friend Lung S. Liu for winning Non-Professional Editorial Photographer of the Year at the 2007 IPA’s. Lung’s medium-format film work of the Salton Sea and Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside swept the category.

I’m lucky enough to have not one, but two prints of his work at home. He very generously gave them to me as a birthday gift this past February and I really need to get around to hanging them. Or putting any photos up on my walls, for that matter.

Lung also took home three 1st place prizes in subcategories, one 2nd place, two 3rd places, and twenty honorable mentions. If you’d like to see his work, and a massive amount of inspiring work by other photographers, click on over to the 2007 IPA winners list.

You can see more of Lung’s work on his personal site or in his Flickr account.

iPhone Ogling by Miss 604

Wow! I’ve only made it as far as lunchtime here at BarCamp Vancouver and so far this experience has floored me. I’ve gotta say, if you get the chance to attend a BarCamp event in your city: Do It!

So far, I’ve seen interesting presentations ona bunch of stuff, including two geo-location presentations. They’ve fired off a few photography-related neurons in the back of my brain. Here’s what I’ve ingested so far:

• The Future of a Geo-Enabled Web by Boris Mann of Bryght
• Geo-mapping Political Districts in BC by Darko Hrgovic of Agentic
• Mobile Media Creation by Igor of Handi Mobility

The afternoon is going to involve some iPhone hacking, a full hour of photography, and the future of Facebook apps. I have yet to give my presentation as part of the hour-long PhotoCamp, so I’m still nervous as all holy hell.

I’ve also shot some video of Kris Krug, which I may sling up on YouTube later. Depends on how embarrassing it is. Stay tuned!

BC Hydro Building at Dusk by Andrew Ferguson

So I’m downtown on Richards Street at around 7pm, slowly meandering home and taking photos. Mostly photos of the sky, testing out my sexy new polarizing filter.

I also recently read an article on overcoming the problem of converging verticals at Digital Photography School and wanted to try working with vertical lines. Therefore, photos of the sky and tall buildings. Sounds simple enough. When I take photos of buildings, I find it really makes a difference to get high up. We’re used to seeing tall buildings from ground level, so a photo from up higher is much more likely to catch the eye.

The best buildings to get high up are parkades. They’re the perfect structure for getting up high to take photos. They’re plentiful in major cities, sometimes as tall as ten stories, and you can almost always get on the very top of it and not have to shoot through glass.

I got the shot I wanted of the BC Hydro building, which you can see above. When I finally finished, I headed back down the same staircase I came up. I’m really proud of this photo and I was already excited even before I left the roof, because I knew I’d gotten the shot.

I stepped into the cramped concrete stairwell, still half smiling. Then I suddenly realized that two obvious junkies preparing to get high were blocking the way out. I had a brief panicked moment in the back of my head where I thought, “I’m about to get mugged by drug addicts.” I decided to go with the direct approach. I stepped up to the two of them and said “Excuse me guys, I understand you’re a bit busy here but can I please get by?”

No response for almost three full seconds. One of them finally goes “Oh… uh… sorry” and lets me pass. They sounded so confounded by my politeness; it was sad but a little funny. Trying not to laugh, I made my way down the stairs and back out to the street.

So keep in mind the moral of this story: If you run into junkies while you’re out taking photos, be polite.

Lions Gate Bridge by Kris Krug

Looking for an apartment in Vancouver is such a pain in the ass. Go to your bookshelf, pick up your copy of Dante’s ‘Inferno’, and flip to the bit where they define the ten circles of hell. If the tenth circle isn’t labeled “house hunting in Vancouver”, I will replace your obviously outdated copy with an new one, free of charge.

Seriously, trying to find a decent place to rent in a town with a 0.7% vacancy rate is murder. Never mind the fact that we’re the most expensive Canadian city to live in now, just *finding* a place is hard. You can worry about being able to afford your new shoebox later.

I’m scouring craigslist and sometimes making use of housingmaps. I’m finding that if you pay enough attention to craigslist and know the city, housingmaps can get a bit useless after a while. It’s still amazing for a quick snapshot of what’s available in the city, though. I recommend it to anyone who’s looking for a place.

Other than craigslist, most other classified sites with Vancouver apartment listings seem pretty weak. I’m considering picking up a weekend paper out of desperation. Another thing I’m considering doing is pestering my readers. As a matter of fact, I think I’ll do that right now. Here are my criteria:

• Available June 1st
• One or two bedroom
• Rent under $900/mo
• Preferred neighborhoods: Commercial Drive, Broadway & Granville, Downtown
• No basement suites
• Cats allowed
• In-suite laundry or balcony are big pluses

If you know of anything, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with me via the contact page or leave a comment ASAP. Sorry for the rant, but I’ve been neglecting the Vancouver category and this is driving me bonkers.

The Arcade Fire by ckemp

Some of my friends on the east coast asked what kind of exciting events were happening in Vancouver. The answer; a bunch of kickass concerts. Here’s a short list of the Vancouver concerts I’m headed to in the next two months:

• Regina Spektor on Apr 21st @ The Commodore Ballroom
• Explosions in the Sky on May 5th @ Croatian Cultural Centre
• The Arcade Fire on May 24th @ Deer Lake Park
• (CSS) Cansei de Ser Sexy on June 6th @ Richard’s on Richards
• Architecture in Helsinki on June 14th @ Richard’s on Richards

I’m also considering buying tickets to see Bjork, Interpol, Dimmu Borgir, and Seu Jorge. The Sasquatch Festival down in Washington is also very tempting, but I think the logistics of it all have defeated me.

Feel free to get in touch if you feel like meeting up at any of the shows listed. I’ve been considering putting in a request to do some concert photography at either the Explosions in the Sky or CSS shows. I just recently read Thomas Hawk’s guide to getting permission to shoot concert photography. It’s got me all jazzed up again to try this out, so I might give it a shot.

Has anyone out there done any concert photography themselves? Do you have any advice for me? You know where to put it.

Vancouver by Laughing Squid

Around noon today in downtown Vancouver the roof of BC Place Stadium collapsed. My friend Duncan Shields captured videos of the roof collapsing.

You can see all six clips of the deflation on his YouTube: video 1, video 2, video 3, video 4, video 5, video 6.

It looks like a large tear opened up near the seam and the whole thing deflated faster than a Utah politician caught with two hookers and an eight ball. While the stadium roof could normally deflate in about six hours if all the fans were turned off, this happened in minutes according to spectators.

Apparently some engineering reviews of the roof also predicted that this could happen in the near future. Canada.com has additional details:

About three weeks ago, Graham Ramsay, BC place’s business development director said that contrary to some reports in The Province, the Teflon roof did not need to be replaced, as a review conducted by its builder shows it is structurally sound

There’s been no word yet on how or when this will be fixed.

O is for Opera by darkmatter

A friend of mine, Jhayne Holmes, is currently raising funds to purchase the Raja Theatre on Commercial Drive and convert it into a multi-purpose arts venue called Heart of the World.

I’m really hoping that this project takes off. A new entertainment venue in Vancouver for live music, theatre, and movies would be a big boost to the local arts scene. It also promises an uncommon online aspect:

As a web presence, Heart of the World will offer podcasts of performances, a gallery of streaming video of performers, the chance to chat with featured artists, and up-to-date interviews, reviews and schedule listings.

Jhayne has already raised $48,000 in a short period of time for the deposit and is now trying to raise $500,000 by January 15th to cover the down payment. She is shopping the business plan around to potential investors. If you don’t have half a million dollars but you’re interested in helping, you can donate money to the project via Paypal or purchases shares for $200 each.

The project has received coverage both online, by the likes of writer Warren Ellis and in print media such as the Georgia Straight. A reporter for the Globe & Mail has recently interviewed Jhayne for a piece that should be appearing in the January 5th issue.

It’s definitely a cause worth checking out, as well as supporting. Hell, I’ve already committed to volunteering as a ticket bitch for a few nights each week to help keep things running. I’m hoping that my indentured servitude will give me a chance at showing some of my photos in the foyer, which will be used as a small art gallery. If arts venues or enslavement are your thing, go check out the website.

Don’t Question the
Captain, Boy. by cabbit

I have finally managed to get my photos from the Talk Like a Pirate Day 2006 Flashmob available in the gallery section. These photos have been on my Flickr account for a while now, but I’d forgotten to post them here.

For those of you who aren’t aware, Jhayne Holmes organized a flashmob for a whole bunch of to show up at Grandview Park on September 19th in pirate costumes and be piratey.

We arrived complete with musicians, cardboard ships, and an army of local photographers. Many naval battles and countless duels were held. Everyone involved had a great time.

On top of that, CTV Vancouver showed up to interview Jhayne and film footage of the whole event. I had tons of fun and managed to get some fantastic photos, take a look!

You can see them in my photo gallery or in the Pirate photo set on Flickr.

Don’t be the last kid on your block to know about the International Talk Like A Pirate Day Flashmob!

Arrr Sea Battle will be at Grandview Park on Commercial Drive! The time of attack will be 4:30!

Avast ye hearties, ’tis the day of piratanical reckoning this upcoming Tuesday, September 19th! In celebration of the scourge of the bonny ocean, ye scurvy curs are expected to stand proudly as pirates and brandish yer grimy cardboard swords for a battle of grate proportion.

Make yer own ship, parrot or wench to kidnap!

Bring booty and swag!

Remember, you are rogues! Privateers!

Don’t dance the hempen jig, but plunder in the park, hornswaggle the landlubbers and win the day!

*there may be grog and shanties later, possibly at El Cocal. Details still to be seen.

(Organized by Jhayne)

I have finally managed to get my hands on a clean copy of the footage CBC aired regarding the 2006 Vancouver Zombiewalk. It centers on the incident that many of you are familiar with regarding the car driving through the crowd.

It also features an interview with me, where I say ‘uh’ a lot and get misclassified as a witness, as well as video footage of Zombiewalk 2006 by my friend Jon Stainton. Enjoy!

For all the YouTube haters in the house, it’s also available in quicktime. And I will be posting my photos of the event in the Gallery section over the coming few days.