A Little More than Half Way Done

A friend and I were out last weekend on a photoshoot. We started at Peace Arch Park and moved up through Surrey to the Port Mann area.

Off in Birdland (108th Ave and 152 St.) we found Robin Park, right next to the construction of the new Port Mann bridge.

According to reports, the bridge is a bit more than half way done. We should see it open about this time next year, if we’re lucky. I use the term ‘lucky’ loosely. Right now the bridge is planned as a toll bridge.

Anyway…we won’t get into tolling right now.

We took some shots of the construction from Robin Park and then moved downhill to the banks of the Fraser River. Unfortunately, with all the cloud that day, looking up at the construction was not all that appealing in terms of photos. Perhaps on a sunny day.

So, there you have it. Another milestone in transportation.

Another bag?

Yep, a Crumpler 6 Million Dollar Home to be exact. Picked it up today at Broadway Camera in Central City Mall in Surrey.

I’ve been using a Lowepro Inverse 200 as a walk around bag for some time now. It works well, but a) it’s a stretch to get my D3S in it, b) it won’t fit an SB 900 flash on end and c) well, it looks like a belt pack bag, which it is.

I have the 7 Million Dollar Home and I love it. It carries a ton of stuff, but that’s the rub for a walk around bag. It ends up weighing a ton, because you keep filling it up! I do like it though for professional gigs. It’s smart looking and I can get most of what I need in one bag.

The 6 Million Dollar version is just a bit smaller and it looks like a messenger bag as well. It will hold the D3S and the SB900 if I need them, and it’s tidier than a belt pack.

So, the walk around kit now consists of a Nikon D700, an SB 800 flash, a 28-300mm 3.5-5.6 lens and a 60mm 2.8 micro lens, along with an assortment of cards, cloths, etc. all neatly packed in the Crumpler 6 Million Dollar Home bag.

Can’t wait to try it out tomorrow.

The Social Graph Expands

I have this on and off relationship with Facebook. For some reason, I just don’t get the interface. I like the idea and the potential, but it’s just never clicked with me.

That may have changed.

I have some old friends that I’ve known since elementary school. We’ve drifted together and apart at various times of our lives and for some reason, I started thinking about them a couple of months ago.

What do you know. A few days ago, the son contacted me through Facebook and we friended each other. I didn’t see it at the time because of FB’s stupid algorithms that decide who’s messages you should see, but he also left me a message along with the friend request. I just found it tonight.

Further inspection of his info page, turned up the FB addy of his mom, one of the dear friends of old. We’ll see if she responds to the friend request I sent today. It would be really good to catch up again. Then again, it’s not like I’m a stranger. I could just pick up the phone and say hi 😉 We’ll see.

This will be the first time I’ve actually found someone I knew from the past via FB (ok, technically they’ve found me, but hey). I’ve tried, but people just haven’t shown up in search when I’ve looked. Go figure. Like I said, me and the interface just don’t seem to jive.

Perhaps I’ll have to try harder and see if I can figure out what I’m missing. Of course by then, they’ll probably have changed things around again. Sigh.

SBofT Sizzles for Food Bank

The Surrey Board of Trade (SBofT) gathered up over 700 lbs of food and raised $2876 for the Surrey Food Bank on Wednesday night, during their annual Seasonal Sizzle event at EagleQuest Golf Course in Surrey.

Over 450 people attended what is one of the Board’s most popular events of the year, and the place was packed all night. People networked with new and old friends, and enjoyed a trade show put on by various services and suppliers as well.

It’s amazing what a few peeps can do when they get together to have fun and help out a good cause.

Unfortunately the need never ends, so the Surrey Food Bank is open for donations all year. Fortunately, there are also lots of other community events where we can help at this time of year. Keep an eye on the Food Bank website for more info.

Reflecting the (Life) Stream

Today we have another reflection photo, from the same stream as the earlier photo from Green Timbers Park – just a different spot. I include it ’cause it’s kind of a reflective time of year, and because life just seems to be streaming by (groan, weak joke, I know).

Anyway, December and January tend to be when people think about the year past and the year ahead and to make their plans accordingly. There is a short lull in the business world, so it’s a good time to assess your goals and figure out why you accomplished them, or not.

That’s what I’ll be doing for the rest of the month, looking at what went well in 2011 and what didn’t. Then I can make some plans for 2012. This year has been a disrupted one for your’s truly, so a bit of reflection is in order. It’s time to move forward and get a few things done in 2012 that I didn’t get done this year. There are probably also a few new things to add to the ‘do’ list that weren’t there in 2011. Can’t wait to find out what they are 😉

Do you do anything similar over the New Year’s break, or do you do something similar at another time of the year? Do you have a favourite process that take you through it? If so, care to share?

More tc

Surrey’s New Council Now Sworn In

That was interesting. I watched the inauguration of Surrey’s new council via live stream tonight. Not as intimate as being there, but the view was great. That’s the first live stream event I’ve watched of the city council.

What was really good was that they had a separate feed for mobile devices. I tried it on my iPad and it came up without a hitch. Just had to press the word “Play” and off it went.

If they hadn’t had that working on the iPad, I would never have tried again to get it up on my iMac. Seems there was a strange looking, unnamed button you had to push on a regular browser to get the stream to go active – and no, the button wasn’t all that intuitive like on the iPad.

Still, it was good to see the folks getting started for another term. I wish them the best of luck. It’s a job not many are willing to take on and they deserve as much support as we can give them.

Pimp the work

I watched a live stream interview today from photographer Chase Jarvis, where he had some discussion with Creative Coach Allegra Wilde about photography portfolios, or The Book that photographers present to potential clients. The conversation was about photography, but some of the ideas have to do with other businesses too.

3 short takeways:

1. The subject of a photo is less important than the emotion or story that the photo provides the viewer.

We also hear this about other products and services; people don’t want to read a book so much as they want to be entertained; many people buy Apple products for the ‘cool factor’, not the tech specs. The bottom line is that we want people to react in a positive way to what we do, and a good story helps them do that.

2. If you are trying to shoot the kind of photos that are selling, how are you going to differentiate yourself from all the hundreds or thousands of others doing the same?

So true, especially when your product is approaching commodity status. These days we differentiate our products and services through our voice, or the personal touch we put on them. Shoot (or do) what you love and the money will follow (or so they say ;-).

3. Wilde suggests: How can creative work have a target market? Creative work is pretty much subjective work and you never know just who is going to like it. Better to shoot or write what you love and market the hell out of it. The right clients will find you.

This is an interesting contradiction to the usual marketing wisdom, but it could very well be true. Everyone won’t want, need or even like what you create, so your job is to find those that do and pamper them as much as you can. As Jarvis says: Shoot what you love; pimp the work; repeat.

Jarvis does some amazing things, and it’s worth following his work. Just a warning…you’ll wonder where he finds the energy to do all the stuff he does. Good stuff.

Slowing Down is Good

Sometimes it’s good to just slow down and take a look around you.

The other day at Green Timbers Park, I was walking across a bridge on my way back to the car, when I decided to stop and peer into the creek below.

For most of the summer, the creeks are pretty dry, but with the winter rains, they generally have at least a bit of water. There were a couple of spots that were intriguing, but this one really caught my eye.

I just loved how the blue sky reflected with the tree trunks in this pool of seemingly quiet water.

Made my day.

The Grove

A week or so ago, we had a nice clear, windy day, so I grabbed the D700 and headed out for a short photo walk at Green Timbers Park. I ended up spending about 4 hours traipsing around the park. as well as at the beaches at Crescent Beach and White Rock. It turned out to be a great day for beach pics, and I’ll post more of the days shots soon.

One kind of photo that I’ve been trying to get is one of a nice grove of trees. I’ve seen some that are black and white that look great, as well as many that look good in colour. I haven’t been able to match those yet.

This is my best so far. I think having a bit of blue sky poking though from the back of the scene helps give it a bit of depth. I might process this again using Nik’s Silver Effects Pro, just to see what it looks like in black and white.

Gradually catching up with the processing. Just a couple more outings to go and I’ll be current. Yay.

Surrey’s New Council Gets Sworn In

Mayor Watts and the new Surrey Councillors will be sworn in in at the City Centre Library at 7pm on December 5, 2011 – that’s this coming Monday and the public is invited.

We can also watch it online via a link on this page: http://surrey.ca/city-government/10274.aspx

There has been a lot of innovation by city council over the last few years. Council meetings are streamed, most councillors use social media like Twitter and the Surrey First association has a Facebook page. If you are online at all, there is no reason not to be informed about what most of them are up to.

That’s a good thing, I think.