January 31st - Granville Street

Interesting day with lots of photos and walking. Dan in town still so we had fun walking and talking. Photo is of granville street downtown. Now that the olympics are coming up they have set up some interesting art displays etc. Also you will not this is an outdoor photo, woo hoo for not using my lightbox again. Depending on how work goes i will either do night shooting or portraiture for the month of feb... mainly.

night.

January 30th - Wine, but not really

Hello,

Hurra! Post #100 on this website. in honour i will give the 100th comment $5.

photo for today is of a wine bottle. didn't drink any just decided it would be a neat thing to shoot. I finally went and got my 'continuous background' ie a white piece of poster board. Effects can not be seen too well on this photo but will be seen later. Had excellent day today. last night was a little late so this morning was fun getting up nice and early. lovely breakfast out with my heather, art shop, down to try the new tram line (imported from europe for us to demo. pretty snazzy), then tour-de-granville island with a lunch break at go fish. After that I met up with Johnny and watched the canucks battle back to a 5-3 victory against the maple leaves. good game.

g.

January 29th - Overkill?

Hello there.

This is a photo that I took on my bike ride home... I guess the owner did not like people going on the roof. The barbwire is wrapped around and through the red metal casing around the ladder. one question though, how do you get on the roof now? Anyways Dan is in town tonight and we (group) are going for Sushi... should be tasty. Also Have second financial talk/presentation to goto. Also tomorrow is Saturday! hopefully i can get outside for my photo again, the light box is starting to get old (since i am running out of objects to put in it.

g.

January 28th - Rocks Part 1

Summary of today:

work

presentation

dinner with kelly

bed.

g.

January 27th - Christmas tree update

Hello there,

So this year we got a potted christmas tree. Since its been so warm for the month thus far our tree thinks it is summer! Its starting to sprout and grow like crazy. The photo for today is of that. It has been looking crazy for a while but it just fit for today. Tonight heather and I had a lovely romantic dinner at white spot and then went to see the lovely bones. Very interesting movie. sad though. Anywho, gotta learn to blog earlier so i am not dead tired by the time i get around to writing this.

keep in touch,

greg

January 26th - Utensils

So today was super busy again but will try to write something. Had a decent day at work today and another nice bike ride home. what a joy to have such nice weather in January! Had some delicious home made salads (one was a Kale with vinaigrette dressing and the other was a black bean with mango and avocado... mmm). Both DELICIOUS! The photo for today is of some cutlery because I could not think of anything else at the moment. So see below:

I have also started playing around with photoshop. The added text is very basic but I am just learning some of the more complex options and will try to incorporate some next time!

g.

January 25th - Apple Angel

Had a rather busy day today. Not much time to type because I am tired etc.

Photo for today is of a little statue. I liked the way the wings blurred with the smaller depth of focus. Time for bed.

fin.

January 24th - DIY lightbox

Hello readers,

Today I decided to build my very own light box with nothing more then a cardboard box, utility knife, tape and tissue paper. Mind you its not the best box it does the trick. The first photo shows exactly what the box looks like:

So as you can see its pretty ghetto but it allows me a chance to play with some new lighting ideas. A few of my previous shots were done with just taping some parchment paper over the lights. Very crude but ok results for a beginner like myself. So the next picture shows the difference in lighting between using the box and not using it.

As you can see it allows for a much smoother transition from the high lights to the low lights. It gives the light a much softer look. Also with the box I am able to create a seamless background so it looks like the object is floating in white space. Pretty neat. I will try to incorporate some more technical things as I go.

Leave a comment or join my followers ... of 1.

g.

January 23rd - Yam fries and Industry Dinner

Too late to give too much details about today. Will update later

Photo: Delicious yam fries made by my lovely wife for part of our lunch. yum!

g.

January 22nd - Red peppers and finance

Well the title is a bit strange but relevant to today. First off the red peppers. These are for my attempt at making another omelette for breakfast tomorrow. hope it goes well. Finance is for the first of two night of finance information for married couples. Pretty neat stuff, lots to learn and think about different things. Hope the weather stays nice for the weekend. Another interesting website that I stumbled upon is as follows:

www.thisisphotobomb.com

Essentially this is just for people/animals that ruin a perfectly nice picture by doing something stupid or looking really silly. I love the internet.

g.

January 21st - Chilli!

Had a pretty fun day today. met up with Ben for some beers and chit chat after work today... cutting the text short today because I got home late. The photo for today was of some chilli peppers that I bought a long time ago. My initial plan was to plant the seeds and have a little operation to grow them. We will see if it still available. Also I might be gone for the month of February. If this is the case I will try to have at least one photo uploaded per day that I am away by the end of the month (iE - 28 photos posted by the end of the month). Interesting blog readings at a few of my favourite places to go on a daily basis

1) www.milliondollarjourney.com

2) www.engadget.com

3) www.whatthecool.com

4) www.fffound.com

fin.

January 20th - Purple tulip

Hello there readers,

I still don't know who you all are seeing as how I had 40 individual IP address visits according to google AdSense but thats ok. Had the pleasure today of listening to a nice talk by Mudbay drilling (http://www.mudbaydrilling.com/)about sonics rigs. Interest and free pizza. win win. Although I did not win the bottle of wine. Had a nice bike ride today and reached a new maximum speed of 51.7km/hr... I could get a ticket for going to fast in a residential zone. The photo for today is of a purple tulip that I got heather a few days ago, they finally opened and I figured I would have a go at some more macro-esque shots of flowers. So here is my attempt:

I think I will start posting more things on here and being a bit more involved about writing things I am learning instead of "today i did a) b) c)..." will try to share some of the knowledge I achieve. Anyways thats all for now.

Gregoir

January 19th - Crushed

Did not get around to adding some text yesterday. So for whoever reads this besides Court, Heather and my parents here is a brief summary. Today I had an amazing time biking to work. I cant believe it is January! There was a beautiful sunrise with lots of pretty colours. Unfortunately i did not have my camera with me this morning because biking and shooting pictures = fail + injury. I had the pleasure of biking by the usual murder of crows that decides to migrate in to Vancouver from Burnaby on a daily basis. I am very intrigued by them and would love try out the bird vending machine that i saw on TED. potential gold mine. Since we are still at a time when it is dark when I leave work my photo of the day is yet again another indoor shot of something random. Today I couldn't decide on what to shoot. I was humming and haha-ing (?) about it and decided to take an old egg shell and crush it. This photo followed shortly:

So thus ends the post.

g.

January 18th - Last of the tomatoes...

January 17th - BC bud in January?

Well this is more relevant to yesterday but I decided to take the photo today. It is January as you all know but I was on my way to church this morning and saw this plant... budding, as if it were spring. This in the city hosting the winter olympics. Anyways, had good dinner at my parents with Heather and Kate and played some games: jungle speed and settlers (which i lost at again). I figure that I am bound to win sooner or later, statistically speaking that is. Pretty go so far, 17 days strong (4.5% done) and no lack of ideas, although most of my ideas/photos come to me between the hours of 9pm and 11pm. I am curious as to who is reading this. Please post a comment so I can test out to see if google counter works as well as it thinks it does.

cheers,

g.

January 16th - Whistler fail.

Hello,

Attempted to head up to whistler today, but when we got there the parking lot was full! arg to olympics. Anyways, had a fun day of adventures with Heather on our way back with a detour to Eagles in Brackendale and then brunch in Squamish. This was followed with some hang out time with Kate, delicious home made salsa and then losing twice at settlers of Katan, I will win yet... its only a matter of time. Today's photo is just in squamish of the river, I did not have my new-er camera with me because we were going to be riding so I took a few pictures with Heathers new-ish point and shoot.

g'nite

January 15th - Cover

Happy friday.

g.

January 14th - Rain rain go away.

Today was delightful, except that it rained buckets all day. I am going to make this quick because i am tired. work, dinner (stir fry-ish curried dish), Food Inc, and rain. thus sums the day. Photo is of the bottom of my umbrella (actually one of the backup umbrellas for the wedding but who is counting?)

g.

January 13th - Horse Boxer

Today was lots of fun, had to goto the dentist which is always an experience, last time I was there I passed out and had to goto the hospital... long story. This time was just for a normal cleaning which was fine. The best thing was that I got to sit in the new chair which had a massage feature.... sure makes the dentist more relaxing and fun! Always blown away by how many delicious dinner ideas Heather has. Tonight was spaghetti squash with caramelized onions and pesto. so good. Also saw Family Guy: something something something something dark side. Pretty funny stuff, but not as good as the first star wars copy. The photo is of an interesting pen that I found in Heathers pen box. A boxing horse for all your pen/boxing horse needs.

g.

January 12th - Rings

Had a good day today, learned some new things at work and also had a good chat with a coworker who I just recently found out lives very close to my house. Wasn't feeling too well, I think I caught whatever bug it was that Heather has. Had a delicious dinner of chic pea patties with super fresh salad (avocado, mango, tomatoes, lentils, and cilantro (and i might be forgetting something else as well)). Evening wrapped up with some ginger lemon tea to help with recovery and a few episodes of News Radio. good humor. The photo for today is a picture of my/heathers wedding rings. I just thought they looked neat and was also playing around with some of my DIY lighting kit... I now see why it is important to have your light sources mobile and adjustable.

g.

January 11th - Pool and water

Today was decent... tons of rain, all day, soaking everything. Nothing too special at work, just a hearing test which proved that I am not as deaf as I thought. Lovely evening losing to Heather at pool and trying to take a picture of a water drop, only took about 50 shots! I was pretty happy with the result. The photo below has some PP done but I am trying to keep it to a minimum so that the pictures do not lose very much detail.

g.

January 10th - Quilt-a-licious

Had a great day today, but a bit of an early start. Enjoyed our 3 month anniversary in style, delicious food and just hanging out. The rents came by with a late wedding gift... an absolutely amazing quilt (as pictured). Talked to Ben, Jen and Andrew and then enjoyed a nice evening of playing with my camera and eating delicious sushi. I have decided to put a few other pictures up today (over my one a day quota) and seeing as how I am in the first picture I obviously did not take that one.

My first attempt at a portraiture shot, thanks for being a good model Heather!

My first attempt at a self portrait with DIY studio lighting!

January 9th - Print

Day started with sleeping in a bit and then breakfast at the Naam. Predictably had the same thing I have every time, but why change a good thing? Watched some Dexter with rob and then took some photos. Off to an early bed tonight.

January 8th - Random conference and jungle speed

Today was very interesting. Had fun attending a conference with CFRY geared to agriculture technology and innovations. The speakers were really interesting and I actually got a lot of good business information from them. This was followed by a lovely dinner with Heather, Josh and Jenni consisting of delicious with a side of tasty. After dinner we played some jungle speed. For those of you who have not played this it is amazing, but dangerous at the same time. After we played a game of Settlers of Catan. Every single time I play I am always short one resource and every time I play a new game I have this great new strategy which usually involves 4/5 resources and I am back to square one again. O well, its just a game.

g.

January 7th - Street view

Bit of a slow day today but had some interesting things to take pictures of on my way home. I guess all of the crows in the are live at the border of Burnaby and Vancouver. I was biking home by the film studios and there were literally hundreds of crows in the trees, on the buildings, on the ground, and flying around. A very strange site. The photo of the day however has nothing to do with crows, it is the loading docks behind an old warehouse that is also on my bike route home. I thought the graffiti looked rather interesting. Played around to see if I could get some good 'studio' light effects using desk lamps. It worked ok but I need to make sure all the lights are the same temperature so that my photos do not turn our weird. Had a lovely dinner with Heather and Courteney, delicious stuffed acorn squash. I am off to an interesting conference tomorrow with Cfry. See if i get any good pictures out of it.

g.

January 6th - Taking stock of soup

Interesting day today, got another sunny bike ride. Nothing else too much happened today, had a lovely dinner prepared by my fabulous wife. She prepared a spicy sweet potato soup with some coconut milk topper. Delicious. I recently planted some garlic and to my surprise it has just about doubled in height each day since i planted it. Maybe ill get around to taking some pictures before its too big.

g.

January 5th - Puzzled..?

Today was a good day because the sun decided to come out for a little bit and dry up my bike route. This made my ride home very nice due to the fact that I wasn't wet and I didn't have to battle dirt spray from my wheels. Hung out with Cory for a bit and tested our manliness out at the local park by doing some pull ups. After dinner started puzzle with Heather... This is a shot of some of the puzzle pieces that has been photoshopped for colour effects. There are really only so many things to take pictures of until the sun decides to stick around longer. Guess there is always portraiture...

g.

January 4th - Special Chocolate fudge

Today marks the beginning of a new years resolution for myself of biking more. The journey seemed doable with my newly upgraded bike gear (mostly rain proofing). So my bike to work and back went well. When I got home I was greeted by some delicious chocolate brownies, but this is a special type (not 'special' brownies) because it has a very secrete ingredient to replace the flour. The shot was taken just before it was inhaled by a chocolate monster.

dessert devoured... delicious.

g.

January 3rd - Flower

Had a good walk around with Rob today, checked out the olympic village and then had delicious dinner with Heather and Rob. lost miserably at jungle speed.

Photo is of a flower that was in a vase on our kitchen table.

g.

January 2nd - Street crossing

Today was rather similar to the rest of my holidays, except that I actually was motivated enough (with heathers help) to go out and pick up a few items: bike gear and hair clipping stuff. Today was also my first haircut from heather which receives an 8.5/10 but only because she had to go back and cut it two more times after the initial cut. The photo was taken just as a spur of the moment shot as we were waiting to cross the street on our way out for breakfast. Cant decide if i want to do a different type of photo each month (portraiture, nature, etc...) or just have a go with the flow attitude. Only 363 more days to go anyways.

g.

January 1st - Block window

Today is the first day of the new year. Already into 2010, crazy. This photo was just a quick shot as we were walking by VGH. I saw the block windows and the colors were the only non grey/gloomy thing in view.

g.