Posts Tagged canada
March 15, 2010 – Shannon Creek
Posted by Dave in British Columbia, Picture of the Day on March 15, 2010
Shannon Creek
Monday, March 15, 2010
http://davefry.net/rate/index.php?viewimage=1246
So I made it up to Vancouver over the weekend, and I checked out some Paralympic sledge hockey. Amazing stuff. I posted a quick video here (Make sure you watch it in 720p):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LEDMx0U7s5s
That clip contains the game tying goal, so make sure you make it to the end. We ended up seeing Italy vs Norway. Italy took a 1-0 lead in the first period, but then in the third period Norway tied it up, and then scored the game winner with only 1 minute left in the game. Exciting stuff, for sure. I was surprised at how physical the game was, they slammed into each other just as much as in normal hockey. Very intense.
I realize that I’m spending all this time talking about that video rather than about the picture I posted. Whatever. It’s just a picture of Shannon Creek, we’ve all seen this stuff before. So, back to the Paralympic hockey thing. When I was up at the regular Olympic hockey game several weeks earlier, I sat right behind several professional photographers who were shooting for newspapers and magazines. Most of them had this one particular Canon lens, a 70-200. (Although two of them had the Image Stabilized version.) So I decided to stop by Glazer’s on Saturday morning and rent it for myself. And HOLY CRAP it’s a nice lens. Crystal clear, razor sharp, focuses like a dream. LOVED it. Also, I remembered that my camera (The Rebel T1i) takes HD video, so I figured this would be a good time to see how it did. I was really happy with the results. That’s using the default resolution settings for the video, it actually has one higher setting too (which presumably is 1080p? I’m not sure, I don’t know the official pixel counts for 1080 vs 720. All I know is I uploaded that one video to YouTube and it now has the option to view in 720p.) So, if you had any question about the T1i’s video capability, there you go. That’s raw, right off the camera. That should also answer any questions about my videography abilities. They suck, clearly. But that’s not what we’re here for. 
Yup, Shannon Creek. Move along now.
Notes: Canon EOS Rebel XT, Tamron 28-300 mm VC lens. 1/40s, f/9.0, ISO 200. Focal length: 28mm.
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February 26, 2010 – Cheakamus Lake
Posted by Dave in British Columbia, Mountains, Picture of the Day on February 26, 2010
Cheakamus Lake
Friday, February 26, 2010
http://www.davefry.net/rate/index.php?viewimage=1099
So I mentioned yesterday how I already had today’s picture picked out. That was true, but this isn’t it. I realize earlier that, while I absolutely LOVE that picture, the version I had online was a little bit over-sharpened. (This one is too, but it’s not quite as drastic.) So I need to revisit it, and maybe I’ll use that one in a week or two. Instead, you get this one, which was actually taken on the same day as that other one. Blah blah blah, I realize that it’s really all the same to you guys, as long as I post a picture at all. But this way I’m keeping it straight in my own head.
This is the view over Cheakamus Lake from the backside of Whistler Mountain. You can’t ski to where I was standing when I took it (well, you CAN, but it’s out of bounds, so it would require hiking all the way back up to where you started), but you can hike there. This was along the High Note trail on Whistler mountain. (Which makes a big loop, although you can shorten the loop to something easy to do in 2-3 hours by taking the Half Note trail which branched off about a quarter mile from where this was taken.) This spot is a little ways below the top of the Symphony Express, if that helps you place it at all. Obviously, it’s a pretty nice view from up there.
This trip took place very soon after I picked up my awesome super-wide-angle lens this summer, the Tokina 11-16. Since I wasn’t very happy with my other lens at the time (the super-zoom Tokina 28-300), I ended up putting the wide angle on the camera for the entire hike. Which was kind of an interesting experience. The pictures you can get with a super wide angle are way different from any other kind of lens, so it really makes you think differently about framing your shots. But it was definitely fun. Although now that I’ve gone to the Tokina 17-50 as my workhorse lens, I haven’t found myself reaching for the wide angle as often. (When your workhorse lens starts at 28, that leaves a LOT of ground on the wide-angle side. At 17? Not so much.) But that’s okay, it’s still there if I need it.
Hahahahaha, I just took a look at the EXIF data on the image, and it turns out that everything I wrote in the last paragraph is basically totally wrong. Whoops. Turns out this was NOT taken with the Tokina, in fact it was taken with my Tamron 28-75, which means I had ALREADY swapped out my 28-300. (And then I eventually traded the 28-75 for the 17-50, which is basically the exact same lens except that it’s more wide-angle). And, that’s the lens I used for this picture, which means that what I said about not changing my lens at all during the hike was also a complete lie. Ha!
This brings to a close Whistler/Vancouver week on the Picture of the Day, thanks for reading! Come back next week for the rest of the world.
Notes: Canon EOS Rebel T1i, Tamron 28-75 mm f/2.8 lens. 1/250s, f/10.0, ISO 100. Focal length: 28mm.
Popularity: 12%
February 25, 2010 – Shannon Creek
Posted by Dave in British Columbia, Picture of the Day on February 25, 2010
Shannon Creek
Thursday, February 25, 2010
http://www.davefry.net/rate/index.php?viewimage=1249
As promised, here’s this week’s shot of Shannon Creek. See? I always follow through with my promises, even if it’s for something that’s not particularly interesting or even desirable. Well, most of the time. Some of the time, at least. Whatever. This is another result of one day a couple summers ago on the way up to Whistler for the weekend. We stopped at Shannon Falls park, and I spent a fair bit of time playing around in the rocks in the creek below. I got a huge number of decent shots (although very few if any great ones), so they make great Picture of the Day filler. Like this one!
To remind everyone: this week is Vancouver/Whistler week on Picture of the Day. Loosely using the Olympics as inspiration, I’m using only pictures from around Vancouver and Whistler. Although, since I have already picked out the picture for tomorrow, I can say with authority now that my set of Whistler and Vancouver pictures will include zero pictures from in or around Vancouver. It will be 3 from on Whistler mountain, 1 from Blackcomb, and this one, from just outside Squamish (which, to be fair, is probably closer to Vancouver than to Whistler.. but it still doesn’t count.)
To really get the anticipation going for next week, I’ll go ahead and say now that I’ve picked another theme: I’m going to post only pictures that are NOT from Whistler or Vancouver. Ohh man it’s gonna be CRAZY. I can’t wait!
Notes: Camera: Canon EOS Rebel XT, Tamron 28-300 mm VC lens. 1/40s, f/9.0, ISO 200. Focal length: 154mm.
Popularity: 5%
February 24, 2010 – Changing Leaves
Posted by Dave in British Columbia, Fall Color, Macro, Picture of the Day on February 24, 2010
Changing leaves
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
http://www.davefry.net/rate/index.php?viewimage=1088
Rather than suffocate all of you with a neverending set of mountain vistas from the twin peaks of Whistler and Blackcomb, I figured I should mix in some other stuff too. Like this one. This could have been taken anywhere, really. But it wasn’t, it was taken a little ways up the Singing Pass trail, which starts up the hill from right near the Whistler gondola. I really really wish I had gotten the bottom of the leaf in focus too, but I didn’t. It’s a textbook example of one of the really annoying things that can happen with digital. The shot looked great on the camera’s little screen, so I moved on, confident that I got the image I wanted. It wasn’t until much later (when I got home) that I realized my mistake. I was working with a pretty small depth of field as you can see, so what I *should* have done was gotten more square on that leaf in front, such that the whole surface would have been within range. Instead, I came in from a little bit above, so the bottom was just out of reach. (That, and the leaf was a bit curled in on itself.) Careless, careless, careless. Sigh.
Still a beautiful couple of leaves though, so it’s not a complete waste of time. Check back tomorrow, that’s going to be the day that I’m going to get the picture of Shannon Creek out of the way. (You didn’t think I’d go a whole week of PICTURES OF CANADA without tossing one of those in there, did you??)
Notes: Canon EOS Rebel T1i, Tamron 28-75 mm lens. 1/125s, f/3.5, ISO 400. Focal length: 59mm.
Popularity: 14%
February 23, 2010 – Hiking on Blackcomb
Posted by Dave in British Columbia, Mountains, Picture of the Day on February 23, 2010
Hiking on Blackcomb Mountain
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
http://www.davefry.net/rate/index.php?viewimage=1335
As I mentioned yesterday, this week I’m going to be posting only stuff from around Vancouver and Whistler. In honor of the 2010 Paralympic games. You heard me right, the Paralympics. Eff the regular Olympics, I’m doing this in honor of… the games that won’t start until March. But whatever, they will happen, and they are awesome, even though they don’t get the love and respect that the regular Olympics get. Or, maybe I’m doing it for ALL of the athletes who are only in it for the love, and not for the opportunity to put themselves in front of tv cameras so that they can build a public persona and score sponsorship deals. Or, perhaps the only reason is that I’m sitting on a lot of pictures from around the area and this way it makes it easier to choose which picture to use each day. Hmmm…. yeah, I’m pretty sure it’s the last one.
And, all that being said, I don’t actually have any pictures from around Vancouver. Mostly just Whistler. Actually, I think I have one or two, but they’re not online yet, and it’s even money on whether I’ll get around to digging them up before the end of the week. So, you get Whistler. And.. Blackcomb, like this one.
This is a picture that I took while hiking around the top of Blackcomb. They’ve always had the gondola on Whistler mountain open for hiking and mountain biking in the summer, but only last year did they actually start promoting hiking on Blackcomb. They did have one of the glaciers open for skiing though, but it was either not allowed or not encouraged or maybe just not publicized that you could go up there just to walk around. So this was the first time I ever actually got around to doing it. It’s a moderately less convenient experience than the Whistler option. On Whistler, one gondola ride and you’re up there. (Although you can also walk over to the base of the Peak chair and ride that up to the actual summit..) On Blackcomb, you have to start on the Wizard chair from the upper village, then you hop on the Solar Coaster. From there, you board A BUS that drives you over to the bottom of Seventh Heaven. You ride up that one too, and finally you’re at the top. Takes a good 45 minutes to get up there all in all. Then the skiing drops off the other side of the ridge from the Seventh Heaven chair. I heard they had recently designated a couple hiking trails up there too earlier in the summer, but I only had a little bit of time, so I just farted around the top of the lift for awhile. Definitely cool, but I think Whistler is better for hiking. If you’ve got enough time, definitely do both, but if you’ve got to choose, go with Whistler and hit up the Half Note trail.
That’s it for today! Have fun watching the games, just don’t buy anything that they’re selling.
Notes: Canon EOS Rebel XT, Tamron 28-300 mm VC lens. 1/160s, f/10.0, ISO 200. Focal length: 55mm.
Popularity: 8%
February 22, 2010 – Black Tusk from Whistler Mountain
Posted by Dave in British Columbia, Mountains, Picture of the Day, Winter/Snow on February 22, 2010
Black Tusk from Whistler Mountain
Monday, February 22, 2010
http://www.davefry.net/rate/index.php?viewimage=869
Wow, Monday again. Not totally unexpected, but still. I decided that this week, I’m going to post only pictures from around Vancouver and Whistler in honor of the Olympics. This probably would have been more appropriate to do LAST week, but you know how it goes – with the time-delay broadcasting and everything, it took this long for the idea to reach the west coast.
Today, you’re looking at the million dollar view from the top of Whistler Mountain: the view out toward Black Tusk. (Yeah, that little cliff-thing poking up there on the left.) Given the predominant weather patterns we get here in the Pacific Northwest, it’s never a sure thing that you’ll be able to see it, but when you can it’s pretty cool. You can basically see it from anywhere along the top ridge (basically anywhere between the top of the Symphony Express and the Peak Chair), and I think this particular view was most of the way from the Peak Chair to the Saddle. (Blah blah blah, yeah, I realize you probably haven’t been there and thus these names are all meaningless. I’m totally just showing off how well I know the mountain at this point. Because I am awesome, obviously.)
Honestly, I’m fairly surprised that they placed the ski courses where they did. They put them all way down at the bottom of Whistler Mountain. But if you’ve been to Whistler more than once or twice, you know that the lower mountain sucks way more often than it’s good. I mean, you’re dealing with more than 5,000 feet of vertical here. The top of the mountain is nearly always fantastic, and the bottom of the mountain is nearly always crappy. So… why put the courses down where it’s crappy? Not only that, imagine how much more awesome the views would be as the cameras followed the racers down the hill if they had this kind of background instead of just grubby trees everywhere? I mean, sure, the visibility tends to be better down low (because when the fog rolls in, the upper mountain is worthless), but still. Hmm. Whatever, I’m sure they have their reasons. Grumble grumble grumble.
See you all tomorrow, right?
Notes: Canon PowerShot SD850 IS (Point and shoot). 1/400s, f/11.0.
Popularity: 12%
February 10, 2010 – Shannon Creek
Posted by Dave in British Columbia, Picture of the Day on February 10, 2010
Shannon Creek
Wednesday, February 10, 2010
http://www.davefry.net/rate/index.php?viewimage=1229
Not too long ago, I posted another picture of Shannon Creek. This one came from the same day. That day, I spent awhile playing around among the rocks and the stream. I got quite a few pictures that were at least good enough to bring into Rate Dave’s Photos to see how they looked at this size. Not all of them are any good, but they’re at least all interesting in their own right. Also, as you can see here, I played around with making a lot of them black and white. If you’ve been reading for awhile, you know my thoughts on black and white (in the digital age, it’s kind of cheesy, it’s like a cheap parlour trick to add drama to a shot – or at least that’s how it feels when I try it..) But I figured it would be fun to try on these images.
The obvious difference between the black and white shots and the color shots is that it immediately changes the emphasis of the shot. Before, in the full-color shot, my eye was drawn to all the different shades of green and brown mixed in, both in the rocks and plants above the water, but those under the surface as well. Once you make it black and white, suddenly each rock changes from one unique shade of brown to a mashup of texture. Still unique, but for a different reason. The focus of the shot becomes how all the different textures (of the rocks and the water surface too) play together.
I gotta be honest though, I’m still a color-guy. I’m still just not feeling this black and white stuff. Probably because I’m not very good at it, but still.
Notes: Canon EOS Rebel XT, Tamron 28-300 mm VC lens. 1/125s, f/5.6, ISO 200. Focal length: 39mm.
Popularity: 4%
January 25, 2010 – Grass
Posted by Dave in British Columbia, Picture of the Day on January 25, 2010
Grass
Monday, January 25, 2010
http://www.davefry.net/rate/index.php?viewimage=1091
Another weekend, come and gone. Would have been nice if I had gotten out of bed to enjoy it. Oh well, too late for that now. Today’s picture takes us back to this fall, when I was up in Whistler for the weekend. The weather wasn’t what I’d call ideal, but of course complaining about it doesn’t help anyone. It still turned into a great weekend, because how could any weekend away from home not be great? This picture was a bit funny, because I just happened to turn around when I was walking the other way, and I thought it looked kind of cool. I didn’t actually think it would turn out though, or even if it did I figured it’d just be a throwaway. Heck, even on the camera screen I was kind of meh about it. But I liked it on the big screen. I mean, it’s not like my favorite picture ever or anything, but it’s good enough to look at. I think the contrast in the sky saves it.
That’s all the time I have for today, I’ll try to make tomorrow’s post more substantive, it’s been a while since I’ve really written anything meaty.
Notes: Canon EOS Rebel T1i, Tamron 28-75mm lens. 1/400s, f/16.0, ISO 100. Focal length: 40mm.
Popularity: 7%
January 11, 2010 – Shannon Creek
Posted by Dave in - Best of Dave's POTD -, British Columbia, Picture of the Day on January 11, 2010
Shannon Creek, Squamish, BC
Monday, January 11, 2010
http://www.davefry.net/rate/index.php?viewimage=1259
Hello everyone, hope you all had a great weekend. I spent a fair bit of time going through some older pictures that are on my home machine, in an effort to get them ready to be archived. Once they’re off of my actual hard drive, they’re much more of a pain in the butt to go through and such, so I’m trying to go through a bunch of pictures from hikes and stuff in the past couple years that I just haven’t had a chance to get to yet. This weekend I was actually only able to work on one particular day, back in July of 2008, when Julie and I drove up to Whistler for the weekend. We stopped at Shannon Falls, just outside of Squamish, and I spent a bunch of time walking around the creek down below taking pictures of the rocks and such.
I’m not sure why I hadn’t taken the time to go through them before, but there turned out to be quite a few that I liked quite a bit. The lighting was really nice, and it worked out really well with the rocks, which were all really pretty, rounded and colorful with lots of interesting detail. I even went against my normal routine and played around a bunch with black and white. Basically what I’m getting at is that “Shannon Creek” will soon become the new “Shi Shi Beach”, because I’ve got a big ole’ pile of these pictures now, so I’ll be doling them out periodically whenever I feel like it’s been long enough since I posted the last one. (And by the way, it’s pronounced “Shy Shy”, not “Shee Shee”.)
Despite the fact that I didn’t have a tripod with me, for many of these pictures I tried to use as long as a shutter speed as possible. (With running water, that’s how you get it to look smooth and soft – since the rocks and such don’t move, they still come out nice and sharp, but if you use a fast shutter speed, you’ll just catch the water in mid-splash.) I was using my Tamron 28-300 mm image stabilized lens (since relegated to the worthless junk pile as I’ve mentioned before), so I think I went as slow as 1/30th or 1/40th of a second for a couple of them (this one’s at 1/50th), which obviously isn’t long enough to REALLY smooth it out, but it’s slow enough for some interesting results.
Notes: Canon EOS Rebel XT, Tamron 28-300 mm VC lens. 1/50s, f/11.0, ISO 400. Focal length: 33mm.
Popularity: 6%
December 11, 2009 – Glacier Express, Blackcomb
Posted by Dave in British Columbia, Picture of the Day, Winter/Snow on December 11, 2009
Glacier Express, Blackcomb Mountain
Friday, December 11, 2009
http://www.davefry.net/rate/index.php?viewimage=876
Hello again everyone, welcome to another Friday during ski season! To celebrate all of the upcoming turns this weekend, here’s a shot taken on the Glacier Express chair on Blackcomb Mountain. (Which is of course part of Whistler-Blackcomb Ski Resort, where the 2010 Olympics will be held.) I say that, but it’s not actually clear if I’ll be making it up to the hill or not this weekend. But a man can dream, a man can dream…
The day that this picture was taken was exceptional for a lot of reasons. It was taken over Thanksgiving weekend, and before we headed up there they hadn’t really gotten any snow at all, so all of the rooms were super cheap and there was nobody there. But once we got there it started Dumping. (With a capital D, did you notice?!) So the skiing was fantastic. Plus, while the weather on this particular day looked pretty crappy down in the village, once we got up top, as you can see, it was really beautiful. (Don’t believe me? Here’s another example.) That always brings a smile to my face. Know what else brings a smile to my face? The fact that all that great stuff happened on my birthday. Actually, that’s not the whole story. Birthdays don’t bring a smile to my face any more. This was in fact the last birthday that did so, because it was my 29th. Ah, those were the days.
Make sure you get outside and enjoy your weekend, it should be a great one! Even if you’re not a skier. What do you people do with your time between November and May??
Notes: Canon PowerShot SD700 IS (Point and shoot). 1/1000s, f/5.6.
Popularity: 7%
December 4, 2009 – Howe Sound, BC
Posted by Dave in British Columbia, Picture of the Day on December 4, 2009
Howe Sound, British Columbia
Friday, December 4, 2009
http://www.davefry.net/rate/index.php?viewimage=385
Ciao a tutti! Questo è scritto in italiano, tradotto in quanto tali da inglese da Google. Perché l’italiano? Perché questa è una foto del Canada! In realtà , ho poco tempo andando a riscrivere il tutto, ma ho voluto il testo utilizzato quando ho incollato su Facebook di essere italiani. Solo perché.
Right, now that that’s out of my system. Â This is a view of Howe Sound in British Columbia (that’s in Canada), from along Highway 99, the Sea to Sky Highway. Â (The road that takes you from Vancouver to Whistler.) Â I’ve always liked this shot. Â I like the repetition of the theme. Â (Three similar looking landmasses, each with its own little cloud. Â Each is subtly different from the other in shape and in color, etc.)
Highway 99 is one of the most beautiful drives I’ve ever done, especially the segment between Vancouver and Squamish. It’s a super windy road that hugs the steep, rugged hillside, with huge panoramic views across the water to snowcapped peaks (well, that one depends on the time of year). The road is a lot less scary than it used to be, since they spent the last 6 or 7 years blasting away rock to make it a nicer drive for the Olympics, but it’s still gorgeous. If you don’t live in the Pacific Northwest, I’m not going to say you should make the trek all the way out here just for this drive (amazingly enough, it seems like most people just aren’t really in to that stuff like I am) but if you DO live here, you absolutely should. Even if you have no interest in hanging out up there, just take a day and drive up and back. You won’t regret it. Well, except for that three hour stretch along I-5. They don’t build interstates to be pretty, folks.
Notes: Canon EOS Rebel XT, Quantaray 70-300 mm lens. 1/160s, f/13.0, ISO 100. Focal length: 70mm.
(Original text: Hello everyone! This is written in Italian, translated as such from English by Google. Why Italian? Because this is a picture of Canada! Actually, I’m shortly going to rewrite the whole thing, but I wanted the text used when I pasted it on Facebook to be Italian. Just because. )
Popularity: 2%
September 17, 2009 – Blackcomb
Posted by Dave in British Columbia, Mountains, Picture of the Day, Winter/Snow on September 17, 2009
View from Blackcomb Mountain
Thursday, September 17, 2009
http://www.davefry.net/rate/index.php?viewimage=877
It’s full-on ski-pass-buying season now, so to celebrate, here’s a nice, snowy picture to bring back happy memories from last winter. This picture was taken from near the top of the Glacier Express on Blackcomb Mountain. Since I’m not afraid of providing every last detail no matter how mundane or obvious, I’ll go ahead and point out that Blackcomb is half of Whistler-Blackcomb, which is in British Columbia, about a 4 or 5 hour drive from where I live in Seattle. I actually thought I had used this photo awhile ago, so I was really surprised when I just went back to check and didn’t see it.
I’m pretty excited for this upcoming winter/ski season, since I now have an official “skiing camera”. I upgraded my SLR this summer (from the Canon EOS Rebel XT – Amazon link: http://bit.ly/O1fAh – to the Canon EOS Rebel T1i – Amazon link: http://bit.ly/kKTkV ), so now I have my spare camera that I can toss in my backpack when I head to the hills.  My ski buddies will of course hate me even more now, because now each time I stop I’ll have to take off the backpack, unzip it, etc, etc, etc.  But I’m pretty excited.  It still won’t solve the problem that I only ever go to about 3 or 4 different places between November and May, but at least those 3 or 4 places will be documented in excruciating detail now.
Map: http://bit.ly/rSpSR (This one’s weird – they took the satellite photo when it was snowy, but then turned it green so it looks like grass.
Notes: Canon PowerShot SD700 IS (Point and shoot). 1/400s, f/10.0.
Popularity: 5%