Mountain Bike Peru

I thought things were getting a bit mudane of late thought I’d change it up some what.So down South America way there’s this town called Ollyanta (locals), or Ollyantaytambo (touri) veritable mtb mecca …. my Guide Chet suggested we hit up some Inca ruins up high…. Olly’s at 10 grand so 14grand seemed like it might be a nice good view destination to bivy at. So it was decided open bivy up high in the southern Andes. We had to carry overnight packs while the horse led by two brothers 8 and 10 carried the bikes.Clear sky night at Minus 10C at night with lots of frost and mega stars … and the big dipper is turned around. What can I say the downhill was long and very cool. Ever Mountain bike Peru?? Just do it and bone up on yer Spanish.

Corner Store Newfoundland

 

Semi classic store great ethnographic syntax … short and to the point.

 

 

Surf Vancouver BC

Well, when the light is good you gotta get out. I found myself alone, not that I found myself but I was in an interesting local area with a sunny day forecast before the sun rose, knowing that the sun also rises so I’ll take a walk with my camera. A pleasant surprise to find a tide ebbing and thinking that this would be a great place to practice some kayaking surfing before heading out to the west coast. Before long a couple surfers arrive and I wander over and crank a couple of shots. Funny this is only 10 minutes by car from downtown Vancouver. Enjoy the weekend.

Alsek Enviro-Portrait

I grabbed this shot rather quickly on slow film on a cloudy day with a bit of rapid motion happening.

Raft guide portrait. Where Alsek river Yukon near the BC border.

Adventure how can you find it? You don’t find it the mall.

Alsek River Yukon. Cruising by Grizzlies and Moose while bumping along on the water. The naked vein of grey churning glacial till, erosive and cold full of eddies and whirlpools great company wild land its Canada.

Environmental Portraits

The environmental portrait. What is photography. Photography is light and how it is rendered. Photography asks questions.

Like whats the story here. Look at the people look at the terrain. This was a small Dene aboriginal girl near the arctic circle.

It’s after 11pm the light “magic hour” the photographer’s cinematographers dream light exists for hours. The weather is harsh here its alpine and trees are small. We traveled by bike on this trip part of a compilation of stories we did on the yukon and adventure.

On this iron-worker I used fill to bring up the detail in the facial shadows.

Bit of a tricky shot to light top of highrise in a breeze we were (and gear) tied in.

Watch the condensation on Camera Gear reduce the differential of hot and cold on camera will fog lenses when moving to a warmer place in extreme cold do not breath on camera gear it will ice up. And sleep with batteries on overnight trips.

Grizzly Bear Hunt Begins

British Columbia fails to stop the Grizzly Bear hunt. It began on the weekend. Just as they are coming out of their dens after winter.

If you want it stopped write your MLA in Victoria BC Out of country people can do this to. A hardcopy letter is better than an email and a telephone message is better than a letter, do all 3 just let the powers that be (shutter…to think that these people do in fact have power over me arrggg) know that you do not support such atrocity.

Snow Graphic

One of the things I really like to do is play with shape and form in nature.

This struck me as being kinda cool snow melting into a tarn. Reflection too. What do you think??

Sun cups are formed by the sun radiation. Sometimes they provide great steps and on those early alpine mornings they freeze so you need crampons. If you look close you can see red algae in the snow its not blood from ski accidents but ….
… Red snow algae is a unicellular, photosynthetic plant which, in the spring, accumulates on the surface and within the upper 20 to 25 cm of old snow. It is concentrated in shallow depressions where its dark colour absorbs solar heat and further deepens the growing “sun cups.” Under a microscope each spherical cell is seen to be about 4 times the size of a human red blood cell. Their thick walls and bright red carotenoid pigment help protect delicate cells from intense ultraviolet radiation.

for more on red algae go here whistlernaturalists.ca are a great group with tonnes of info.

Adventure Yukon

Adventure in the Yukon in Canada’s north. We Mtb -ed a portion of the Canol Road a great trip in wild tundra land with caribou and the Grizzly. Lots of river crossings most shallow. You have to resourceful and independent. Rescue is difficult. A sat phone might be nice … we did not have one. Few people in a vast tundra-ed landscape.

The Canol was put through in 1942 as an access road for an oil pipeline that was barely used. Cost millions of 1942 dollars. There are some remnant leaks and dumps of military vehicles enroute we just about made it half way and the were beset with a broken derailleur.

First Light in New Westminister

The light is right this morn so I thought I’d add this silhouette. Transportation is proving to be very important in big cities especially Vancouver and the lower mainland.

We have several problem areas. Access from the Fraser Valley is terrible and will continue to so. We lack transportation that is viable and fast that doesn’t involve internal combustion engines. We are more concerned with twinning road bridges over the Fraser River rather than building rapid transit out to Chilliwack.

We have marginal rapid transit out to Maple Ridge – Mission as well. Maybe that will change one day the airshed will love it and so will commuters stuck in gridlock.

Beach Graphic

I like the layered feel in this photo. It doesn’t hit right away. The sand has texture, the sky has texture and the water has a mottled texture.

First Light

Nothing like a tropic morns first light to work the angles. What drew me to this was the line of potted cactus around the rim of the pool.

Really like the ochre cast as it reflected the warm light. Everything is juxtaposed by the angularity of the structure. The frame of the cactus and the structure of the building itself.
The sky’s blue gives a nice edge contrast.

Yellow Water Storage

Thought I’d brighten up the day with something that foretells the coming of SPRING. Found this graphic tower south of here. Water is a real commodity in the drier countries of the world. Something that is not on most peoples radar. WE turn on a tap and it comes out and clean too. We are so lucky to live in Canada in Most parts of Canada.

However you wouldn’t want to drink the downstream river water that flows north into the Arctic Ocean from the tar sands in Alberta though.You know about the tar sands right? I won’t editorialize though its tempting but we have to keep the day bright.

Spring snow this morn after a howl of a windstorm an explosive deepening low 100km speeds out in the gulf galiano, mayne saltspring got bombed.

Pano N Newfoundland

What a great wild place. The Vikings first made landfall here via Greenland. Windswept humid alpine.

Vintage Photographers Ansel and Dorothea

Ansel in 1942 working Yosemite and Dorothea Lange on the road in the depression 1936 documenting social upheavals in the FDR era.
Great shots. Notice the POV action Ansel employs with the platform he shot Moonrise over Hernandez the same way.
Both inspiring photographers

Workshop Spring Portrait Fawn Lily Tripod Management

Erythronium oregonum. The white fawn lily is a delicate little flower something sensual, among the first to emerge in the wildflower spring.
Springing forth parting the ground in the shady understory giving its own light for a limited time.

It does not transplant well so if you see them leave them be.

Tripod was strung out and teetered over a 5 foot gap over a seaside bluff just before a shower hit, a few quick shots.

reminds me of The Who pictures of lily I wonder why …… lily oh lily

updated this We found a chocolate lily

Thanks for attending the workshop Great Lily finds by the sea. As you can see a tripod is super useful as well as a Flash. Yes Lindsey Manfrotto is a quality pod.

Alpine Art Coast Range BC

There was an impending storm in the distance, it crossed the valley, covered the peaks, and inundated me and the snow cups on which i stood.
It came raging with dark squalls and electric light disappearing as fast as it arrived.

and left me with shape and form

Coast BC Dodd Narrows

Water mercurial malleable a cold weight bent by the tide waiting for the monthly moon to dodge and skip the stars — here no wind.

Spring Floral Arrangement

Clematis in floral arrangement. Its been such a cool spring that the sprigs of this vine are just shooting through the soil now.

don’t feel especially wordy like these flowers though something lush and robust about them like kiwi fruit the soft first bite pastel and yielding tip of tang

Andy Warhol looking up

Andy always had a look up attitude. Hope you do too.

Ts’yl-os Provincial Park Chilcotin BC

This is a valley. It is glacial. Carved out eons ago. A big U-shaped valley. It’s called Tchaikazan.

Supercrack of the Desert

Super Crack of the Desert

“so singular so unique” symmetric cleaving the desert

This climb really inspired me. The art of nature aesthetics of the line and the excitement. This line was true, pure.

I had this picture, from a calender, in my room for years. The guy in the red t-shirt with the yellow Scottish lion on his back approaching the overhang it was adventure. This film is great.
Wiggins Webster Becker

Hipstamatic in Libya

Its an iphone app to make your iphone photos look square in a good way with some colour shifting that that puts an arty hit on your creation. Without of course going into Pshop to do it by an action or manually.

Many journalists are using this type of documentation as either backup or to augment their assignments in addition to the dslr.

Checkout Burn magazine

Hosting another workshop in May Weekend 25 Gabriola Island

Japanese Quake Tsunami Miyako Huge Breach Grade 5 Whitewater with Vehicles and Ships

For the last 3 days I have posted on this natural disaster so check out the previous posts.

I filmed this on on the D7000 and converted it in post to 16:9 wide screen again I slightly blurred it to get rid of moire lineage.

The raging surge has breached the towns dyke/breakwater/tsunami barrier and cascades through the town with ships vehicles and debris. The wave here is 20+ feet. Wave breaches at turn in river, the flow is constricted/obstructed by the bend thus breach occurs.

Japan Earthquake Sendai Airport Photo and Google Earth, Farm Village Destroyed

click the thumbnails for better bigger resolution

Massive quake hits N E Japan 8.9 Tsunami Near Sendai Airport helicopter must of got off and taken this aerial. It was on CNN … I noticed watching footage that this still photo had part of Sendai airport in it….. So I google earthed it and got the beta ( lay of the land literally). image is from 2003 and from 2.7km in elevation

The town east of the airport is just devastated as the wave comes on. High point is bridge that crosses canal is only safe point two cars on bridge.

According to goog earth the wave surmounted a 5-6m beach tree berm before continuing onward to airport. estimates of wave travel speed are are around 10metre/second 20 mph roughly. The natural scale of this geological event is hard to realize. Pray for these people they had little warning. Happened at about 940PM PST. 540 UTC approx 250PM Local
Airport to ocean 1 kilometre …………. Beach berm width 300 metres or just about 1000 feet
Oblique view below


Update
Most recent sat photo at day 4 post quake at right

UPdate Village destroyed see link below on day 2

UPDATE Monday quake +3 I have posted some recent amazing videos see most recent posts

this peaceful farming village gets obliterated, cars are fleeing on roads. In goog earth fly to

38 11’04.39 N and140 56’56.34 E

elevation is less that 2 metres…. geologically it looks like the wave’s energy was focused by the topography of the bay absolutely devastating.
SENDAI AIRPORT Wave
distance from ocean to stranded truckers is 1.4 km or .8miles similar video Via BBC in the UK Truckers are on the overpass where the camera in located upper centre left

Bryan Adams Autographed Record Album Found

Found this Bryan Adams signed album at a garage sale in Vancouver. Just by fluke riding by and sorted through some old records Cuts Like a Knife Signed Bryan Adams 1985. 26 years ago! It was in a darker pen so I highlighted in Pshop with grey to make it more noticeable in the photo you see. Interesting what you can find in garage sales if you spend the time to look. He used to work at the Tomahawk Restaurant in NVan near the Lions Gate bridge that bridges the gap (first narrows) between Stanley Park and the North Shore. Local boy does well, good food at the restaurant too.

Conservation Photographers Enbridge Great Bear Rainforest

This is a trailer SPOIL its about how we will not let an oil pipeline from ALBERTA TAR SANDS be constructed to the west Coast of British Columbia. You can not support this. This ecosystem is incredibly unique.

we have a real short period of time do you think we should do any thing about it?

Storm Mt. Baker Powder Plumes Avalanche

Ever drive in the Fraser Valley and notice the big hulking mass of snow and ice to the SE. Well that’s Mt Baker and its roughly 10700 ft high. It’s a volcano not active right now … it only vents gas and steam but it will probably active again. Maybe the mega-thrust earthquake we are way over due for will liberate the solid lava plug now damming the magma, waiting, like some pregnant pimple waiting to issue forth. Who knows …geologic years are gauged in the thousands, could happen tomorrow or a million years from now. Ahhh the whimsy of nature.

Anyway a bit of morning digression …. the past few days before this low gave us snow, it was extremely windy at high elevations. Hearlding a buildup of Premo avalanche conditions. Since the high winds came from the west they scoured west and probably NW facing slopes and deposited all that snow on their opposite sides south and south east sides. The snow lays deep on those aspects ready for triggers big pillows of snow. So be safe. The scoured slopes on the north are now loaded again with new snow that has dumped in the last 48 hours, since these slopes were scoured by the wind, probably down to hard-pack they probably will not hold large amounts of new snow well, so these slopes will potentially be unstable. So heads up.

Hike Nootka Island

Naturalist attack hiking, you want to go somewhere the crowds don’t go and see wild ocean terrain with great photo ops. Everyone has heard of BC’s West Coast trail. Hit the Nootka Trail its better in my opinion. for more adventure yet, getting there is sweet adventure in itself you fly in. Any trip that begins with a flight is fun. Want to know more lets go.

New stuff and recommended check out the gutenberg project and Librivox for audio books all free.

Recently downloaded Robert Falcon Scott’s Journals of his South Pole expedition …. great naturalist observations of sea ice, bergs, penguins etc
as audio book 500megs of mp3′s to an itouch ….. bomber stuff as in bombproof state of the art as good as it gets, take a 50m leader fall on it and the gear won’t even come close to pulling. How can you beat that?

Ski Powder Telemark

N Selkirks Esplanade Range Mottled light high lit falling crystals one foot powder pillow avalanche free.
ski with a guide here for the best experience

George Clooney For President

“Clooney plays a flawed presidential candidate in his next film, The Ides of March. He’ll direct the movie he co-wrote, giving his character lines he’d like to hear from a presidential candidate. But despite occasional overtures from the California Democratic Party, Clooney has rejected the constraints of conventional politics. “I didn’t live my life in the right way for politics, you know,” he said, sitting outside the Central Pub in Juba, scarfing down pizza. A smart campaigner, he believes, “would start from the beginning by saying, ‘I did it all”

I don’t often put this stuff in my blog but since George Clooney seems like a pretty reasonable guy and has some social conscience with his involvement in Africa and (now myself having a more personal take on Africa) and doesn’t tow the normal hollywood garbage and is more independent even as a film maker. Read the Newsweek articleI put it in.

Ernst Haas Okanagan British Columbia

Ernst was one of my early mentors. An eye for colour, Euro came to the states post WW2…. Hit NYC and shot film lots of first generation Kodachrome and Kodacolor. An eye for colour forsure. Shot lots of stuff from still life to fashion. This was taken in the interior near Pentiction.

Storm on the wind. A warm wind. A warm summer wind and electricity in the air so the little hairs on the back your neck just stand right up.
Do you know that feeling? A summer storm coming.

Salish Sea Georgia Strait

The Gulf it’s big. There is current. There are waves, sometimes there is swell.

You can see across the gulf on clear days. San Juans to Ballenas, Sunshine Coast to Active Pass.

Sometimes you can’t cross the gulf.

Water with Your Columbine hey rosetta

While Arcade Fire has been on my radar for many years check out Bowie with them on utube, and sort of continuing with my outdoor growth theme Listen to Hey Rosetta’s new album “Seeds” Yer Spring and you know spring is coming. Its that poet orchestral thing.

oh, did I mention NFLand one of the hottest,coolest places in Canada from Burgeo to Gros Morne to St Anthony that’s where hey rosetta’s from.

the tag the tag now that you have watched this often enough drinking from the cup
ballerina tag
what are we missing … you tell me …. what is endearing … what is honest .. attention to detail in all art, textures revealed, visual artist, wordsmith whatever spring is 30 days away

On Mt Baker at Sunset

This is enroute to the Coleman Headwall which is on the nw side of Mt Baker. Bruce and I tried to get a start on it but it was guarded by some pretty deep crevasses and tottering serac blocks all dripping wet and slouching. We slept in big crevasse at 9000 ft to keep out of the wind. Some climbers woke us up at about 3 and we went back to sleep till 5. We passed them at 530 below the Roman Wall. They got lost? And got to the summit just as the sun rose. Baker is just under 11000 feet 10 seven I think.

Vancouver History Nostalgia Corner Store Series

I’m feeling a bit nostalgic today. When we were small these stores were on every corner. Jaw breakers, doublebubbles Bazooka Joe’s etc. a few years ago now I went on photo quest for the remaining ones, high property values were making them scarce, ….(just like agricultural land now is under pressure in the lower mainland, I digress )

This is one of my faves. The grocer helping the lady with her purchases. The shop keeper taking a vested interest in providing a neighbourhood service.

I stalked this shot getting the location wired long beforehand, figuring its exposure to the sun and when the best time to shoot ( spring morning) and getting there at the right time to create the document I wanted. Just by fluke the grocer walked out with his customer, one of those moments where you look through the viewfinder and can’t believe your eyes, so good to be true. Like seeing deer stalked and bluffed off a cliff by a wolf in Knight Inlet. Kodachome on tripod. They don’t make Kodachrome any more.

Won a Canadian Magazine Award for a series of them in Canadian Geographic.

Dog Sledding Yukon/Whistler

I was up in the Yukon a few years ago for the Yukon Quest and some other touri stuff.

The dogs were great and were well taken care of. Owners loved them.

We just had an unfortunate incident up in Whistler where dogs were murdered by a dog-sledding operator. This happened after the season last year
when all the tourists went home and the snow melted, I think 100 out of 300 dogs were shot and knifed and thrown into a mass grave.

Why were they not dealt with in a humane way? Total greed situation easier just to do away with the dogs at the end of the season rather than find homes for them.

Why have so many dogs if you have to cull at the end of the season?

This company should be exposed and have their business license taken away. They are beautiful animals.

Mountain Bike Golden Ears

Golden Ears Provincial Park

Rain January. The thing about the East side trail is that it follows Gold Creek till it becomes braided and meandering about 6km from the parking lot before it peters out.

The thing that’s great about it, is that no one is on the trail especially in the winter months.
In the summer the park is pretty busy ……. now no one.

Ride your bike like the shot shows. You can not ford this this tributary stream without taking off your boots if you’re hiking … with a bike you can power through…. don’t lose your balance though or you’ll get wet.

It was fetid but great with mist and rain enveloping us, mossy understory and some storybook settings deep in the trees where you expect a gnome or a hobbit to peer out. Ride it, I think its in my book mtb adventures in SWBC.

I rarely capture stills from video but I liked this one. Photos don’t have to be sharp to convey the atmosphere. I masked a couple of copies and digitally crafted the colour this what I got.

just posted this 2 months late filmed in a rainstorm camera d7000 in ziplock bag, marcus and I on a tear over rock water and trail.

Infinite Sea

I like this shot I was inspired by viv maier whose work was found in an abandoned storage container and purchased by a real estate agent in the eastern states for 400 dollars.

Historic find beautiful artful photos that document life in the 50′s and sixties. A female Fred Herzog of Chicago. A solitary French nanny with a 2.25. Check it out.

The couple shot here … I like for a bunch of different reasons, but not obviously the watermarks because it it such a good stock shot it can be easily ripped, it might be nice in Maui right now its raining here in Vancouver.

Alpine Flora

Happy New Year.

First image of the year posted here art nature original 10000 pixels square. Big print fine art paper.

This is from British Columbia in the Coast Range in the area known as Granite Country. Want to go?

False Hellibore is kind of a lush alpine plant, grows quite big, the first frost hits it pretty good as most of the plant is fleshy full of water. Like us guess the first frost would hit us pretty good too if we were naked and alpine think we’d wilt at the edges??

Found this hiding in a small granite cove surrounded by avalanche debris. I figured I was lucky.

In the Wild

This echos the ethos of adventure, creative adventure, a place in the heart of it all, its capture the very nerve of elemental soul, the embodiment of.

A friend gave this to me it’s a gift……. view in full screen.

there is no always

Catch the Light

for the h …. art of it all

don’t say you’ve got nothing to give give it to africa

New India Family Lion

Dec 2-3 marked the anniversary of the disaster that happened in 1984 A government affidavit in 2006 stated the gas leak caused 558,125 injuries including 38,478 temporary partial and approximately 3,900 severely and permanently disabling injuries and over 15000 deaths.

This is a shot of my T-shirt purchased in Bhopal. Union Carbide was responsible for the disaster Dow Chemical bought the company in 2001. Some 1st world corporations in 3rd world countries take advantage of cheap labour, inadequate safety regulations, no regulations to max their profit margins. Just exploitation.
The poor people there are still coping with the results and trying to hold the corporation and its CEO responsible. Who is responsible?

Currently Dow is suing the Government of Canada for $2 million, through NAFTA’s Chapter 11 investor-state dispute process, as part of a challenge to a Quebec ban on the use of lawn pesticides.

Is DOW Chemical in the Tar Sands? Where are the Tar Sands.

“…forgive me jesting again, but the NDP is kind of proof that the Devil lives and interferes in the affairs of men.” – Stephen Harper, 1997

Fin is my man and MP The Tanker Ban on Canada’s west coast was narrowly passed yesterday LUCKY 143 for to 138 against. There is inadequate or outdated response for spills on this coast. Good to be back its worse in the 3rd world.

Lake So Blue

A remote post: was lucky to have a photo adventure in the most blue of all alpine lakes.

A hidden ridge revealed this gem of a lake, a mere dot on the topographic, there was no question that this would be the destination. No question.

Iron staining here promoted this colour unreal and un-photoshop’ed. We hiked up a series of joined undulating ridges scrambling up to around 7500 feet (2500m),
before returning.

Bowron Traverse

The Bowron Lake circuit is a classic. East of Quesnel past Barkerville and Wells, on the flank of the Caribou and Premier Ranges West of Valemount, is a wilderness lake system that is a real adventure to explore. I took a kayak many canoe.

Found this stump on my travels on a Maui like beach and filled the shot with a little fill flash and there you have it. Stump and a stormy backdrop.

School Time

Staying with the Pete Turner theme, this hunted and spotted shot from the depths of Surrey, British Columbia echo the start of a new school year
Memories of new school September smells of fresh paint and a quickly fading summer with chill mornings, blue sky and the bus you just can’t miss.

America SW

On the road Moab Utah. In the desert south of Salt Lake City. Land of Mormons and old mine sites. Get yourself to the canyonlands.

Went into a coffee shop asked for a cappuccino and they said cup of what?

Like the colors and design reminds me of one of my mentors Pete Turner.

Meager Creek Landslide Natural Disaster

Here is an overview of the natural disaster that unfolded at 530am Friday morning in British Columbia just north of Whistler/Pemberton.
A massive landslide occurred blocking two major water-flows creating natural dams composed of unstable volcanic debris mixed with vegetation trees etc.
The dams will give way when enough water pools behind the two debris flows.

It’s interesting to note the power of the landslide where the slide meets and blocks Meager Creek. The landslide flow went uphill and washed the forest away for several hundred vertical feet before turning north to block the Lillooet River.

Updates: Landslide update… river water has found away through…only 30% of population in affected area responded to evacuation notice

My letter to Editor Walrus Magazine Links to Heighton’s book excerpt on Nangpa Pass Incident Nepal/China

Link to great on site photos Way to go DBSTEERS Pemberton SAR Please make a donation to them Check out Steers’ flicker site too

Alpine Adventure Eden

4 griz sighted 1 sow 3 cubs of the year great coats well fed no worries see salvator at summit for cowboy coffee take spray just in case

play this music Madm Canadian from Montreal in a separate window read the text and imagine the time I had here …. fusion of art and music also her super conceptual album ooom get it vimeo http://vimeo.com/12416751

In the Alpine

The past months have been perfect for the formation of moss.

Wet and mostly damp especially here on the coast, Pre-historic and usually low to the ground moss has a good relationship with dirt and otherwise fecund matter to which upon it hosts.

Hopefully the weather will change and it’ll all dry up.

Fortunately for the last several days I have been in the rainshadow in the drier mountains of the coast in search of alpine wildflowers. East of Manning Provincial Park in an area that I wanted to visit for sometime, referred to me by an old sot miner/naturalist, I was super lucky to be in the right place at the right time.

In alpine meadows below melting snowpack hidden in copses’ of Englemann spruce profuse outcroppings of columbine were easily found. I have never seen petals with such a variety of colour… salmon, yellow, and lily white.

The thing about columbine they are so fragile, willowy and definitive of the contrasts in nature. Gone Like a Fleeting Moment, in what can be harsh terrain with extremes of weather, what they imbue upon the landscape a living thing beauteous,
if only for moment maybe a week in year, hey, that’s natures way a fragile emergence in the wildflower season.

Pocahontas is Dying