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.

Conservation Book

Enough of you have been asking about archival prints and how printing fits with the framing.
There used to be a shop on 4th Ave years ago called Mido Framing. They used to frame up some of my early Ciba prints.
They charged a price of course and it was expensive they had to make a buck , now its really expensive. But now I do my own archival
framing and printing which reduces costs.
If long term protection for your art is a concern. You should use acid free papers and matts. For traditional glass framing the diagram shows how I take to market photographic prints pre-glass in an acid free conservation book….. And never hang your art in the sun.

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.

Perennial Seedpod

Found this little seed pod awhile ago and its been sitting on my light table in a ziplock. Shot it with a macro. Delicate little thing its super light and about a centimeter long 2.54 cm to the inch. Its feather like stock makes it a whim to the grace of the winds, ready for a journey maybe close or far away from its mother source, metaphorically, looks how we started too.