August 2008

I am talking literally high above the earth, as I have now moved into my 28th floor apartment which will be my home for the next couple of months anyway. It has taken me just under two hours of being here to get my Internet sorted out with the provider and to get things like my computer setup. I’m still very much not unpacked, which is what I plan to spend Saturday doing.

Many thanks go out to my aunt, uncle and cousin who helped me move all of my accumulated crap out of my cousin’s place and into this one. I seem to have managed to acquire more than I thought over the past couple of months. If I had spent more than one day packing I might have been able to go through some of the junk that I have and thrown out some of the stuff I don’t need any more. But two car loads were all that it took, and I suspect that with the right car, and careful packing, one car could carry it all. But we had to rush it since I managed to mess up the time I was supposed to meet the owner and get the keys.

The place itself is small, but modern and comfortable. As I may have mentioned, this place as a washer/dryer en-suite, which is a huge convenience. There is also a dishwasher, which I likely won’t use much, but would be nice if I was entertaining a couple of people and didn’t want to wash up myself. The pool and the amazing proximity to the Skytrain are the final two pros that make this place a good spot for me. It’s been a long evening though, and I have to go and spend the first night in my new bed. Photos of the apartment are forthcoming.

Last night Jordan and I finally saw “The Dark Knight”, which despite being in its third weekend in theatres still packed in an audience to almost capacity. We were lined up for half an hour to get a seat, and we bought our tickets three hours in advance. If you look into the movie online you will see that it is breaking all sorts of records in terms of box office revenues. Largest opening weekend, largest initial midnight showing, fastest to 100 million; 200 million, etc. My real question is why?

Granted it is taking a lot of these records from Spiderman 3 which also wasn’t that great of a movie. I guess that marketing and anticipation for a sequel can really get a lot of people to fork out an inflated amount of money to see something regardless of whether they want to or not, simply out of some injected sense of obligation.

Don’t get me wrong, “The Dark Knight” is a very good movie, but it wasn’t exceptional. It was paced a bit awkwardly and definitely felt too long at several different points. I found myself wishing it was over a couple of times. It was the first movie in the Batman franchise not to use the word “Batman” in the title. However, rest assured that it is still just a Batman movie. I have never been a big Batman fan at any point in my life, but I really did enjoy Christian Bale’s attempt in “Batman Begins”. I found him to be a good Batman and the movie to tell a good story.

I will say that Heath Ledger’s portrayal of the Joker was excellent. He really went somewhere dark with the character. You could really feel the edge of craziness that he possessed. It was so out of character from what I know about Heath that made it that much more stunning. I’m also a fan of Aaron Eckhart and his version of Harvey Dent was just what I would imagine it should have been.

I guess each person has their own tastes and desires, I generally don’t agree with the critics. This movie is definitely worth seeing in theatres, but perhaps at a matinee or some other time you can get in without spending a small fortune. Enjoy.

Ok, I have to apologize, I have a pile of photos, and things to write about, but no time to write or organize. Isn’t that always the way. Last week, August 3-10, my friend Chris stayed with me and I took the week off work. It was a week of much photography, as Chris is even more into photography than I am. I also found out he is a bad influence, but more on that later.

I have had a photo set up on Flickr for a while now entitled BC Day which shows our first day out, Aug 4 or BC Day here in this province. That day started off with me buying a new lens, the Canon 50mm f/1.8, which while cheap, takes a very crisp photo. Then we headed down to Granville Island where we enjoyed the holiday festivities and took lots of photos along the way. After wandering around in the heat, we eventually headed back downtown via a walk across the Granville Street bridge.

The next day we decided we were going to try and head out whale watching. It was something that Chris had mentioned looking into and so we hit the Internet and found a few places who offered tours from the Vancouver area. We weighed the pros and cons, and eventually settled on Steveston Seabreeze Adventures. We called them up and they had some spots available on their afternoon excursion. They offered a shuttle service as well and told us they could pick us up at a nearby hotel. With the tour organized, there was only one thing left to do to prepare: rent a really big lens. At least Chris did. I felt happy with my 300mm, but Chris wanted to up the ante to 400mm, in a nice L-series lens. Although heavy, this was a nice lens. It did the trick too, because his photos were far better than mine. His camera is nicer as well, and I had mistakenly set my auto-focus to a setting that wasn’t very useful. However, I did manage to snag a few decent shots all things considered. I have an appropriately named Orca Watching photoset on Flickr with the results. I might toss up a couple of Chris’s photos at some point too—with proper accreditation.

It was a great trip out, the day was beautiful and the whales were active. Although expensive, the excursion was well worth it in both of our minds. The folks at Steveston Seabreeze Adventures were kind and easy to deal with. A very pleasant experience.

All told, the whole thing lasted about six hours and when we got back we were pretty exhausted. Being out in the sun all these days was starting to take its toll on both of us. However, the week was just getting started. There are many more photos and stories to relate. I also added a new page which outlines some of the photo gear I’ve acquired, most of it quite recently. More posts and photos to follow, hopefully soon.

I’m skipping a day. Not that it matters, since I’m writing about it a couple weeks after the fact, but since I have the photos online from my aquarium visit, I will talk about that first. I went to the aquarium—this time with Chris. And my camera. The first time I went I experienced and saw the exhibits as a person. This time I was there as a photographer and it was a much different experience. The dolphin show was the main difference. I didn’t see one the first time I was there, and although it wasn’t a long show, everyone enjoys dolphin antics. And they make interesting subjects of photos.

The hard thing about taking photos at an aquarium is that most of the time you are going to be shooting through glass—or plexiglass which is even worse. Reflections, light abberations and various spots and scratches can make your well intentioned photos look a little bit underwhelming. You want to get as close to the glass as you can to minimize the reflections, bearing in mind that the angle at which you shoot can also affect how the light plays. For the indoor tank photos, the light is usually one stop away from awful, so you will want a fast lens and perhaps a higher ISO. I was lucky to have my f/1.8 50mm which, while limiting my focal range, allowed nicer photos without resorting to a grainy ISO.

It was a good day, the aquarium being the highlight with a nice photo taking session in Coal Harbour before hand. After the aquarium we tried out Stanley’s Park Bar & Grill. The food was a bit below average I’m sorry to report. At least on our visit. They were out of Diet Coke (seriously) and salsa for our nachos. I had the chicken burger which was a little over-charred. The location is nice in the park, but the restaurant doesn’t provide its own washroom facilities instead relying on the public washroom nearby. Trough urinal… classy. Definitely wouldn’t recommend this place to anyone.