Me in Cable Bay, New Zealand

UPDATE: I moved to New Zealand in November, 2008, and since then have been retelling my adventures and mistrials somewhat faithfully on this site. Im currently living in Christchurch on the South Island, and hope to stay here until at least the end of 2009. After that? Im not sure. I will probably spend a month or two travelling around the country, returning home to Canada in March 2009. will be living here until the end of January 2010. Then I’m off for a month of travels around New Zealand’s North Island (taking in all of the things I haven’t done and seen yet!). I’ll be leaving this beautiful country on March 1, heading to Thailand for four weeks, then up to South Korea for two weeks before finally reaching home mid-April.

——–

Initially encouraged by my friend Scott Southerland, Im learning to see the world through the glass lens of my camera. Some times it works out, a lot of the time it doesnt — but Im getting better and seeing improvement every time I take her out for a walk.

Im very fortunate in that many of my friends have been bitten by the DSLR bug, and can turn to them for advice and inspiration (and thankfully they too all own Canon’s, and so can trade/sell parts on the cheap).

So far most of my photos have been of Toronto, my hometown: Allan Gardens, the CNE Grounds, various events at Nathan Phillips Square. Wherever possible I try to avoid taking “snapshots”, instead looking for the most artistic shot Im capable of. Im really fond of my 50mm lens, even though I find it challenging at closer distances. My next lens will definitely be a wide-angle lens!

History

Blogging since 2001, my blog has lain pretty much fallow for the past year thanks to my Facebook addiction. It’s amazing how little is left for blog fodder when you post everything to a social networking site. It took me a while to figure out what to do with the domain, and Im really happy that I decided to turn it into a photoblog. It’s been a bit of a bumpy transition; I moved servers in December, choosing to delete almost 5 years of archives. Ancient history, I wanted a clean slate.

Then I wasn’t able to settle on a new template or design. Considering that I am a front-end web developer by trade, you would think that I’d be eager to design a layout for myself. But just the opposite happened, I couldn’t be bothered. So I spent weeks looking for something that even remotely fit my needs, unable to settle on anything until tonight — now Im in a place where I can customize my site to fit my needs.

Gear

• Canon Digital Rebel XTi
• Canon Speedlite 430EX
• Canon 18-55mm lens (kit)
• Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II (prime)
• Canon 75-300mm (telephoto)
• Lowepro Slingshot 200 Backpack

I also have a point-and-shoot, a Canon PowerShot SD850, named Ickle.

Inspiration

• Think in color | my friend Scott’s blog (those are my cats in his gallery, heh)
• Rich Lowenberg | former co-worker, he has the most amazing travel stories (and the photos to go along with them)
• Rannie | the original photojunkie, I’ve known him for years
• Daily Dose of Imagery
• Photojenic
• All Day I Dream About Photography
• Camera Porn