16-3-26

First new bike in about 8 years, and I sold that bike about 6 years ago. It's used, but new to me. I realized I didn't have any Italian bikes anymore, and I've never owned a Colnago, so now I own a Colnago.

16-3-25

 Art Project. Because, you know... Art.

16-3-24

16-3-23

16-3-22

16-3-21

Bring me your finest meats and cheeses.... Italian salami, Dutch Gouda in the back, some tinned anchovies, and 33 Acres of Awesome. Yum.

16-3-20

I don't know if rained when I was gone but it had rained for a week straight before I left, and it was raining when I got back. It's supposed to rain tomorrow. And the day after. And the day after that too. Home sweet home.

16-3-19

Six Flags. Roller coasters are fascinating. They are motion captured statically. Magic.

16-3-18

This kid makes a good travel companion. Her idea of gas station snacks is blueberry yogurt. She picked apple sauce over French fries as a side. And she walked with me over every damn hill we could find in San Francisco without complaint. And then we found the ocean.

16-3-17

San Francisco.

16-3-16

I could wear out a camera taking photographs in San Francisco. The streets have so much character.

16-3-15

Driving to San Francisco with this kid. Stopped for some Spiffy dinner somewhere on the road. That piece of crap green Pathfinder in the background I paid next to nothing for just keeps on going and going. I'll replace it when it breaks down which means I'll probably have it until I die.

16-3-14

7:50pm. There's just enough light to take a picture still. Daylight Savings Time, thank you very much Ben Franklin, even if you were actually joking when you suggested it.

Going to San Francisco with the kid tomorrow. Maybe I'll take a photo while there's still actually light.... Maybe.

16-3-13

Chicken Chasseur. You have no idea how good this is. Or if you do, you are really, really lucky. So, so good.

16-3-12

50mm.

16-3-11

Every so often. A self portrait. Should be good for another 6 months or so. Probably longer.

16-3-10

16-3-9

It's the only line highlighted in the whole book. My copy was used but there it is, the titular phrase. It's a lovely, sad book. And the highlight had faded so much I had to look twice to see it. It doesn't show up in this photo, the highlight, but it does, if you're looking for it. It's quirky like that. Like you're seeing things, which is poetry because it's here the protagonist is losing her shit. I mean, it's slowly getting lost in a beautiful, tragic way throughout the book, in a way that seems a little too real, or too understandable. Too possible. Sylvia Plath's mother tried to block the publication of The Bell Jar because it was semi-autobiographical.

She only wrote the one book, finished anyway, but wrote a lot of poetry, only one collection of which was published before she committed suicide in 1963. She's a fantastic writer. I don't have many pages left to read, and I'm hesitant, because then I'll have no more of her books to read, nothing more of hers to look forward to.

I'll chase down her poems, I suppose, and read the rest of this book over the weekend. It's supposed to rain, after all, and what better way to spend a rainy Sunday?

16-3-8

Cool fish bottle.

16-3-7

16-3-6

 It's becoming a ubiquitous sight.

 Digging up our city to build newer and better buildings.

And yet this building survives.

16-3-5

Vancouver Art Gallery. Family Fuse weekend. These two are inseparable.

16-3-4

Taking pictures of the rain.

16-3-3

When they were filming Deadpool in Vancouver it made getting around town difficult. I resented them for closing down the viaduct for days. The ads for the movie looked terrible. And I thought it was going to be the worst movie ever. It has a smarmy, smart aleck lead character who breaks the fourth wall repeatedly and there was no way that could be good. But then friend after friend said it was good. The reviews were good. And it was recommended over and over again. So I went to see it tonight. Partially because of the wave of support for it, partially because it was showing in the pretty incredible Dunb r (sic) theater. And I'll admit it; I thoroughly enjoyed this movie. It won't change your world, it won't enlighten you, it doesn't have a noble parable to convey, but it was thoroughly entertaining, and very well done, and I'd recommend seeing it. Or maybe it was just the fabled Dunbar theater that I enjoyed.

16-3-2

There's still at least one.

16-3-1

16-2-29

16-2-28

16-2-27

 Hand painted. And lovely.

Osso bucco. Post sear, pre 3 hours in a Dutch oven. That single scoop of long roasted marrow was one of the most heavenly things I've ever eaten. The rest? Well, the whole thing was a religious experience.

16-2-26

16-2-25

16-2-24

"There's a lot of beauty in ordinary things. Isn't that kind of the point?"

That's the very last line of the television show The Office. I don't think that's a spoiler, if you haven't seen it yet.

And it's true. There is beauty in the ordinary.

Rosa Eggleston, shared this story of how (William) Eggleston was inspired to first start photographing “ugly stuff”:

“Bill at one time said to his great, highly respected friend: well, what am I going to photograph? Everything here is so ugly.’ And our friend said, ‘Photograph the ugly stuff.’ Well we were surrounded everywhere by this plethora of shopping centers and ugly stuff. And that is really initially what he started photographing.”

16-2-23

16-2-22

The iPhone 6S has a 12MP sensor. The Nikon D700 has a 12MP sensor. They are not the same cameras by any stretch of the imagination.

I took this photo with a goddamned cell phone. The minute size of the photo sensor sites gives it a muddiness making it more like a painting than a photograph, at least when you look at it at full resolution.

Small cameras are evil things.

Even my APS-C sensor sized camera is lackluster at times.

And it bothers me that so many cameras fight with blues when, well, the sky is blue. And in a lot of photographs.

My D700 is acting up. I need to clean the sensor more and more and the controls aren't super happy anymore. The rubber grips are held on with carpet tape. I bought mine when it was spanky new, was on the waiting list for it when it was announced way back in 2008. 8 years is a long time for anything electronic to last, and I've certainly used this camera a lot. Correction, I've abused this camera a lot. It's been thrown in bags next to bottles of wine, books, hammers, without a whole lot of protection. It's been dropped. It's been to the beach. It's been to Europe twice. It's been on thousands of kilometers of bike rides and thousands of kilometers of motorcycle trips.

It might be time for a new camera.

I'll keep using the D700 until I can't use the D700. It's still a better camera than an 8 year newer iPhone camera of the same resolution. It's better than a 1 year old, revered, APS-C Fuji camera, that I also own. But I can only claim that as long as the thing works.

And today I took a photo with a goddamned cell phone camera.

16-2-21

16-2-20

Almost 1000 houses will be demolished in Vancouver this year. There are two on my block alone.

16-2-19

I didn't have the heart to tell her I've been working on it for 20 years and still haven't figured it out.

16-2-18

16-2-17

16-2-16

Fog over rain. And an easy walk to work.

16-2-15

 Japanese lenses and Czech beer. Two of my favourite things.

16-2-14

16-2-13

Rain.

16-2-12

Bonus picture. Sponsored by "late night walks."

16-2-11

Neighbors.