Things started off at the Rodeo:

Followed by the Chuck Wagon races which are insane:

After the last race, they hauled this huge stage onto the main track area:

The stage was where the Grandstand Show (called World Party) was held…I was skeptical at first but it turned out to be very entertaining, featuring all kinds of performances (including Cirque du Soleil performers from Quidam, and crazy motorcycle stunts), finishing off with one of the most impressive fireworks shows I’ve ever seen in person:

We finished up the night with a trip through the midway:

I tried a deep fried Snickers. You can view my full set of photos on Flickr.

Special thank you to Hala Dehais (Calgary Stampede) and Judy Love Rondeau (Tourism Alberta) for their assistance with media access to the Rodeo and Chuckwagon races and to Tom and Donna with WOMWorld/Nokia for getting me there – how I got there will be the topic of my next post but here’s a hint:

I gave a talk about using MAMP/WAMP for offline WordPress development. My slide deck was pretty short due to the live demo nature of the topic but you can view the PDF if you’re so inclined.

Justin Carlson recorded the sessions for us (head over to his site for the rest of them – some of them may even appear on WordPress.tv soon) so if you want to watch me get nerdy for about 1/2 an hour, hit play:

One of my tasks as a WordCamp organizer was to sort out internet access for the attendees. Thanks to Miranda & Melanie at Rogers Communications, I was able to borrow a few of their Rocket Internet Hubs which Dale Mugford & I setup in the various rooms at the MOV.

I’m still surprised how well these units performed considering the number of users sharing them (some of whom were streaming World Cup games). Dale connected them to a couple Airport Extremes along with some Airport Express extenders so that we could have one big wifi net and I didn’t hear anyone have issues with the internet so I’m grateful for Roger’s helping us out in a big way….having solid internet is a common issue at many conferences that we didn’t have.

As with all the previous WordCamps I’ve attended, I had a great time and met a bunch of new people that seemed to enjoy our little conference. Next year when talk starts up again, I’ll remember those folks I met and not think about all the effort that goes into pulling off a conference like this which usually seems too daunting.

Thanks to all our sponsors that helped make the event affordable and the speakers that volunteered their time to make it the success that it was.

Special thanks to my pal, Dave Olson, who not only brought down the house at the end of WordCamp, also put me up the night before and made sure I got back from our speakers dinner, um, safely. It seems that whenever we get together, we have some amazing adventures.

See you next year!

As I mentioned previously, I’m not an opera goer and was not familiar with the material. I was told that I would have probably heard some of the music used in Butterfly and that the plot shouldn’t be a big surprise as it’s a commonly occurring one (I won’t spoil it in case you don’t know what I’m talking about). Both these points turned out to be very true.

As before, we were given a backstage tour before the show which I quite enjoy.

The set this time around was quite different from Norma’s with its vertigo inducing lines and bold shapes and colours. On the tour, Kelsey suggested that it could easily be used as a set for a 60′s game show.

I love seeing the ‘craft’ that goes into a production of this scale after my humble beginnings producing plays in local *cough no budget cough* theatre.

Unlike my previous visit to the Opera, this time we had front row seats. I liked this A LOT. It dramatically improved my appreciation for what was unfolding on stage where I could see every nuance of the actors performances as well as a perfect view of the stage. If I stood up a little, I could even peer down into the orchestra pit:

Last time, I was fairly far back on the main floor. Not a horrible place to view the Opera from by any means, it’s just a much better experience in the front in my opinion.

Puccini’s music certainly was familiar to me. As had been suggested to me, it has been used in many movies before. It was nice to finally connect the dots on something like this so I now know where it came from.

Again, like last time, this Opera reminded me of a videogame. Due to it’s strikingly bold colours & costumes, strong visuals and somewhat nautical theme (thanks to Mr. Pinkerton), I was immediately thinking of the Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker. The game contains many similar traits to Madama Butterfly with it’s family ties, bold colours, dramatic music and many simple characters. The musical interlude between the second and third acts even further strengthened this connection for me with the three panels of video projections that could have easily been produced for the videogame (this isn’t a bad thing).

Due to my seat in the front row, the surtitles above weren’t that readable without craning my neck but I found the story easy enough to follow along without too many looks upward.

I thoroughly enjoyed this performance. Clocking in at around 2 hours 40 minutes, I can’t recall a single time when I was thinking it was dragging or was slow. It actually seemed to be fairly quick and before I knew it, I was backstage afterwards meeting the cast.

One final thing that still surprises me that happens during the final bows at the end of both Opera’s I’ve attended is the extended ovation that gradually builds as the performers come out. For Butterfly, it went on for a long time and it was cool to see the passion the audience had for these performers. It’s not often you see an older gentleman hoot and holler while wearing a tux.

As a side note, this post and photos was mostly created on the iPad during the course of the evening…which in itself was fun thanks to a number of curious Opera goers inquiring about it during the intermission.

After finally obtaining the camera connection kit for the iPad, I thought it would be a good test to see if you could in fact, use an iPad completely in place of a laptop to photograph/process/upload photos, and write a blog post on the spot.

It almost worked.

I was able to shoot backstage photos, download them to the iPad, post-processed a few favs with the Camerabag for iPad app, upload them to Flickr/Twitter during the performance straight off the iPad.

Using the WordPress iPad app proved to be the weakest link unfortunately…I had to resort to my laptop (at home later since I didn’t bring it to the show) because the app was too flaky for my workflow and it was tedious to switch back and forth from Flickr to the app to paste in the photos (I rarely upload my photos directly into WordPress, but instead embed them from my Flickr account) – it probably would have better to simply use Safari for the WordPress side for this task.

That aside, I am impressed with how well the photo side of things worked out and look forward to being to upload photos on the go at other events.

The first weekend, as a guest of the fantastic Whistler/Blackcomb Media team, I got to stay in the amazing Dream House that lived up to it’s title. A fantastically appointed 5 bedroom ski in/out lodge right under the Blackcomb Gondola complete with hot tub on the deck which I spent a large amount of time in:

Shortly after arriving, we found out that the house was hosting a party with a huge list of who’s who in ski and snowboard media, gear makers and a number of world class athletes. Word quickly spread that I had my iPad with me and I gave a bunch of demos of it and had some great conversations with photographers and magazine people about the device and how it had the potential to transform their industries. I also learned a new trick that I have yet to master but I’ll keep practicing. It was a great way to get settled into my new home for the next couple of days.

One of the more interesting things (to me) that happens at the festival is a number of different photo & video contests that happen. There is a 72 hour film showdown where teams have 72 hours to make a video that is then screened and judged. There are also a couple other photo contests including the Pro Photo Showdown where some of the best ski & snow photographers compete. Unfortunately, these events happened mid week so I missed them but I’m thinking they are a great reason to come back next year and get more involved in them. Getting to meet a lot of the people competing in these competitions also made me envious of what they were doing as it seemed to be an absolutely fun way to compete, doing something they love.

The next day started off with a new experience for me: a visit to the spa!

I had already spent a fair bit of time in the house hot tub (hey, it was there and somebody had to use it) so the idea of going somewhere for more hydro therapy was very appealing. I’d never been to a spa of any kind before and apparently the Scandinave Spa was a pretty special place. It’s a huge outdoor facility with pools scattered amongst other buildings which housed different types of wet and dry saunas, including the amazing Eucalyptus steam room (the red building in the photo above) – it felt like you were inside a Halls lozenge…in a good way. Then it was suggested that you jump into the cold pool for full effect…it was actually quite exhilarating.

Being a first timer at a place like this, which is really an adult playground, I kind of felt like I was in a James Bond movie…expecting Sean Connery to come out of the steam room and then ninjas would jump out of the bushes and attack. I know that may not sound relaxing but it was still a pretty cool place to visit. We were all very mellow afterwards so clearly the spa experience is relaxing.

Next up was a visit to Sushi Village for dinner. Now I’m not a seafood eater so I was a little nervous about going for sushi but my hosts assured me they would help me navigate the choices. Worse case, I could order some chicken ‘KFC rolls’ if the fish didn’t work for me.

I figured I was already trying new things and might as well try new foods while I’m at it. I had tried sushi in the past was never compelled to try more than one or two pieces before being turned off. Thanks to everyone’s help, I eased into it and eventually found myself quite enjoying it all…It would appear that fresh & quality seafood really makes the difference. Or perhaps it was the Saki Margaritas. In any case, it was fun experience with great company.

The buildings in the village were a fantastic backdrop/screen for some awesome video projections during the opening kick off party later that night…including these retro videogame visuals:

It was pretty cool to hear the Donkey Kong theme blasting throughout the village while being projected on the side of a hotel.

Before we headed home the first weekend, we spent a fantastic afternoon sitting on a patio in the Village watching the Whistler Chef Challenge in front of Araxi:

It was a frenetic cookoff with lots of chefs competing Iron Chef style in timed challenges then judged on the spot to see who would advance to the next level:

Heading home that day was tough – the festival was just getting underway and we had to head home. But a few of us were coming back the following weekend so we had that to look forward to.

Fast forward to the following Friday, John, Rebecca & I met up again to participate in the Chevy Road Trip to WSSF along with some other media folks (Chevy is one of the sponsors of WSSF). We were loaned a brand new Chevrolet Equinox to drive up to Whistler and take in the rest of the festival (although this photo was taken at the Squamish Spit):

One thing we tried to do the previous weekend but didn’t make it before they closed was to visit the Grilled Fromage in Squamish. Rebecca had gushed about this place and I’m a big fan of grilled cheese sandwhiches so we convinced the rest of the Road Trippers to stop off and get our cheese on:

It’s a fun little diner that features over 60 different kinds of grilled cheese sandwhiches with a cheesy decor that includes a ton of cheesy things that I could spend all day browsing around the shop:

I opted for a smoked gouda, bacon & pickle sandwich which goes by the name of the ‘Polyester & Pickle’ which was amazing:

Once checked into our hotel in Whistler, we headed to the Fashion Exposed show to see the latest in ski and snowboard fashions all the while, a couple of great bands (The Zolas and We Are the City) performed in the middle of the runway.

We spent Saturday checking out the many WSSF events around the Village including getting to test drive a bunch of different vehicles including a Camaro and a few hybrid trucks which were on hand for anyone at the festival to take for a spin:

So much going on and I didn’t even set foot on the mountain where there was a whole other set of ski & snowboard events happening. As I said earlier, next year, I’ll have to plan to spend more time up there for the full festival. It was still an amazing couple of weekends in Whistler.

A huge thank you to Amber, Michelle, Tabetha & Stephanie for hosting me the first weekend and George, Janice, and Fred for hosting the second weekend.

You can view my full WSSF 2010 photoset on Flickr.

Update: I figured I could probably do a separate post just about all the food photos I took at Whistler but because she mentioned it and did suggest an awesome place for breakfast, I give you VanCity Allie’s ‘Meat Pile’ from our breakfast at Elements in the Village:

What’s the recipe for a Blogger Night at the Opera? A table of laptops, black coffee and a Twitter photo booth at the ready. Mix in eager blogger participants (myself, Tris Hussey, Gus Fosarolli and Kelsey Dundon) and you get the clicking of keys on laptops before the show and – even more frantically – during the intermission.

Thanks to Ling Chan and John Biehler, my wife Marilyn and I were able to attend this Blogger Night At the Opera, which turned out to be a very enjoyable experience for both of us. Sitting at the table in the lobby pre-show for the opening night of The Marriage of Figaro at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre felt a little like “bloggers on parade”, but it was very social as well. Plenty of friendly people dropping by to see what we were up to, with lots of questions about both the blogging world and that thing called the iPad that I happened to be working with (thx for the insight, Tris :p).

Having no opera experience whatsoever, I had no idea what I was in for. I did the usual Wikipedia lookup beforehand, and at least understood that I was going to see a comedic opera by Mozart. After we were settled in at the table, Terry Harper (Director of Production) came around and introduced himself before taking us on our backstage tour. It was a treat to be able to go behind the curtain and see the sets up close. An amazing amount of detail is visible everywhere, from props to backdrops. We learned a few interesting bits as well, like the fact that the complete set – costumes and all – was rented from Alberta. We also learned sticky floors are preferred by the actors, and are achieved with a mop and mixture of Coca-Cola and water.

Backstage

So for those of you that are opera-unaware like me, there are a few things to know. First, don’t worry about not knowing the language the opera is performed in. Thanks to “surtitles“, which are displayed above the stage, an English interpretation lets you follow what’s going on. Second, while being up close to the performers is a treat, if you sit very close (as we were fortunate enough to do) the surtitles end up being miles above your head. It’s critical that you get very skilled very quickly at looking up, looking back at the stage, looking up, looking back at the stage. I’m sure this is secretly done to amuse the performers as they play ’spot the newbies’ when looking out at us.

While I normally would prefer sitting up close like this during a live concert, I would recommend sitting further back in this case. I think for those of us that haven’t been to an opera before, or haven’t been much, sitting back far enough to see both the entire stage and the surtitles at once without taking your eyes completely off the performance would be beneficial. Fight the urge to buy the best, and give the close seats to those that know the language or the opera well and can take it in seamlessly.

I was told The Marriage Of Figaro is a great “first opera” and I for one am glad I was initiated by it. It was very enjoyable from start to finish. The story was well written and well accompanied, but the best entertainment came from the performers themselves. All of the players were very skilled vocally, as expected, but they also seemed right at home doing physical comedy. It was a great combination overall, and the 3+ hour length went by surprisingly quickly. It was also great to see the Vancouver area so well represented, with many of the cast members hailing from the Lower Mainland (including the Count, Countess and Marcellina). I also noticed that the packed house was full of all ages – good to see the variety and the interest for opera being so high.

The night ended with an after-party behind the stage where we got to mix & mingle with the cast & crew. It gave us another opportunity to show our appreciation for a great night. Thanks again to Ling and John for this opportunity, and I’m sure that another opera is in my future. Madama Butterfly…let’s see… a Japanese tragedy by Puccini, performed in Italian with English surtitles. Sounds perfect.

Thanks to Peter for filling in and the guest post of his experience at the Opera. Also check out my previous post about my first time at the Opera – John

This time around, unlike previous years that I’ve attended SXSWi, I had no plans beyond my own panel which fortunately was on the first day of the conference. Being my first large scale talk, and at SXSW of all places, I was anxious about it right until I met up with my co-panelist, Chris Heuer, in the green room before the session.

Chris, being a veteran SXSW speaker, put me at ease immediately…he’s awesome like that.

It was also exciting to find out as we made our way to our panel room that it was full and people were actually sitting on the floor. I had no idea what to expect for our little panel topic so to hear that many people were interested in what we had to say was incredibly encouraging.

It was even cooler to discover that the signboard out in front of our session had been ‘defaced’ in a positive way:

The session went very well…we were very fortunate that many of the folks that turned up were very vocal about the issues and once Chris and I got the ball rolling, the room took over. Someone joked that it turned into the Phil Donahue show as we had a queue of people that wanted to either voice their opinion, respond to someone else’s or ask a question to us and the room. There was some people that left and reading some of the comments/tweets after the fact it was mostly due to the fact that we were all over the place as far as cool kids vs suit issues. I concede that was a problem and we tried to steer things back on track but it was also interesting to see the room discuss things organically so it was hard to want to stifle the open dialogue.

It was very gratifying to me to have people come up to me in the halls of the convention centre later on (and even days later) and thank me for giving this topic a spot to be explored. Even folks that weren’t in town yet when the session was on, but knew about it and recognized me from the session description and wanted to talk about it further. This was a very new experience for me and I was thrilled that the little idea that kept me up at night last summer had grown to be this thing that people wanted to talk about. We even got interviewed by the Austin Chronicle about our session as one of the trending topics at SXSW this year.

I haven’t talked to Chris about it yet but it seems obvious to me that we should submit a followup to the session as there are plenty of things we didn’t have time to get to that we wanted to explore…not to mention the feedback we’ve gotten from people in person and online. So that’s got me excited to go back to Austin in 2011 even more now.

The rest of my time in Austin was a blur…five more days of amazing times with amazing friends…including a special trip to the Salt Lick BBQ in Drifwood, Texas:

where I got so see my pal Josh propose to his longtime girlfriend Traci:

spending time at the Social Media Clubhouse with lots of amazing people:

of course the parties that SXSW is famous for:

some burlesque performers showed up to make a fun night out even livelier:

I even managed to get on TWIT.Live…twice!

While this SXSW didn’t see me have the photographic output I usually create (my DSLR was still in the shop post-Olympics), there was no shortage of other types of content creation while in Austin. Dave Olson and I recorded a marketing-themed podcast while on the Social Media Clubhouse bus about our experiences at SXSW and along with Kris Krug, also shot some footage out at the Clubhouse about our recent Olympic experiences which might end up in the With Glowing Hearts documentary.

It was a very special SXSW experience for me this year…in many ways surreal. Big thanks to all my friends (new and old) that helped to make it so memorable with an extra special thanks to Chris and his lovely wife Kristie who were amazingly generous to me. I’m looking forward to seeing them again soon at Northern Voice.

The team is comprised of former Olympic athletes and Cirque De Soleil performers, it is a high energy show that even has a DJ.

As you’ll see in the video, Olivier Lemieux actually took my little Kodak Zx1 on the trampoline with him for a few tricks:

Consider yourself warned as it may make some people a little queasy seeing the kind of moves his body goes through. There is also a brief picture in picture clip to give you an idea of what tricks are being performed from two perspectives. It’s not perfectly in sync but pretty close considering I only had one video camera at the event.

A big thanks to the Flying Canucks for having me out and for putting on a great show. They are performing March 5-7, 2010 at Metrotown Mall in Burnaby and then taking a break and will tour again this summer.

On Friday, the organizing committee hung just over 600 photos at the Vancouver Photo Workshops space. Judging from the feedback from the attendees on Saturday, it was well worth the effort.

The marathon winners:

I setup my Nikon P6000 above the exit in the main studio room and shot this timelapse video of the event in one of the exhibition rooms (there were 7 in total!):

Keep an eye on the marathon website for a more detailed wrapup of the event (and detailed winners list) soon. All the photos taken during the marathon have now been made public on Flickr if you’d like to see all the entries.

Thanks to everyone that came out to see the results of the first Vancouver Photo Marathon…we’ve already started talking about the next one.

You can view all my photos from the event on Flickr.

Originally I was thinking of going out of town to simply avoid the traffic snarls the games will surely bring (I work in North Vancouver) but those plans were dashed because my wife still has to work during that time…at least some it in her office in West Vancouver. After some thinking and talking to a few friends, I made the decision to take the entire block of time off from work.

So what am I going to do with my time? Plenty!

I’ve got a few things lined up already but I plan on simply being a photographic observer of the games and what they bring to Vancouver and the surrounding area. Yes, even the protests that will surely happen…I’m hoping to cover it all.

Regardless of how you feel about the games, there is no doubt that it will be a spectacle that Vancouver hasn’t seen since Expo 86…possibly even more so because of the scope of the games and the changes it’s brought to the city.

I don’t have any event tickets (at least I haven’t purchased or been given any as of yet) and I’m really more interested in all the ancillary events and gatherings that will occur all over the place outside of the actual sporting events. I figure the sporting events will already be covered by photographers with much better zoom lenses than I own.

As all the countries attending the games will be having open houses celebrating their country and athletes, I plan on doing my own world tour of these sites scattered throughout the city.

A number of friends will be involved in lots of different activities on their own and via the True North Media House so there should be no shortage of meetups, tweetups and photo ops.

Yes, I did apply for media credentials awhile back but was declined as this blog and my Flickr presence doesn’t appear to be enough to warrant accreditation according to VANOC. That’s fine…all those credentials seem to give someone is a place to plug their laptop into the internet in a big media room…I have plenty of options for doing that via friends if necessary.

So if you’ve involved in an event that you’d like to me to visit/photograph during the games, feel free to contact me using my contact form or leave a comment here. I am also available to shoot your event (for hire) pending availability.

I’ll be posting all my photos to my Flickr stream as well I’ve got some plans for setup a sub site to capture all the events but everything will flow through here, like it always does via the sidebar.

My photos will all be posted with a Creative Commons license (like 99% of my photos are) but if you’re interested in using any of them for something other than personal use, feel free to contact me as well.

I’m looking forward to meeting a ton of people and taking thousands of photos over the two week period.

UPDATE: I received media credentials for the B.C. International Media Centre (BCMC) so things could get a whole lot more interesting.

I’ve attended a lot of WordCamps over the years…in a lot of different places. I’ve even had the honour to speak at a few of them too. This time around, I’m on the organizing committee…it remains to be seen if I’ll be speaking as it’s early days so we’ll see how things play out.

WordCamp has been a pretty fantastic place to meet some pretty awesome people, share information about the WordPress platform and have a great time. I learn something new every time I attend one.

If you’re interested in anything to do with blogging or WordPress, I encourage you to sign up for the email updates and/or follow us on Twitter. We’ll share more information as soon as we have more details!

Morten has a great recap of the event up on the 12×12 site and I couldn’t have said it better than he does. Suffice to say, the response, participants, feedback, turnout, sponsors and the positive vibe the event generated far exceeded our humble expectations.

Back in September when the committee had it’s first meeting, we were concerned about being able to sell 40 tickets to the event….let alone having to turn away interested participants because we were at capacity.

There is no question that this was a gruelling challenge of endurance…not to mention a big chunk of time for folks to make available during one of the busiest times of the year. The challenge was also somewhat technical – having to contend with camera gear that may not have been used for years (or ever by some of the participants who bought or borrowed their gear just for the event).

We also witnessed heartbreak when one participant went to turn in her roll of film, only to discover that it possibly hadn’t been loaded in the camera correctly and despite shooting all 12 of the theme shots. We’re going to process the roll anyway just in the off chance that the camera did expose something.

We also had the weather to contend with…fortunately the snow held off until the day afterwards!

I mentioned that I spent almost the entire day inside Blenz. Ben and I managed to duck out twice to visit one of the event sponsors, the Vancouver Lookout at Harbour Centre. We went once in the early afternoon:

and then again after dark:

You can view all my photos from the event on Flickr or visit the 12×12 YVR Flickr Pool where we’ll be posting the entries once they are processed.

I have to say, I’m kind of envious of the participants…if I wasn’t directly involved in the event, I would have loved to taken the challenge myself.

UPDATE: Check out the details about the 12×12 YVR event, Raw Talent which will showcase the winners at the Vancouver Photo Workshops on Saturday, January 16th at 6pm.

This further means that in just over three months, I’ll be eating most of my meals here:

Thanks to everyone that voted and helped me get selected. More details soon!

Huh? Were you in an opera?
Kind of. Back when I was in high school, I had the opportunity to be an extra in Aida which was being performed at BC Place stadium – I had to audition for the part which consisted of being tall enough to march around the stage. It was a huge event back in the late 80′s. My main memories of the event was being herded around the catacombs underneath the stadium for wardrobe and makeup. I was a foot soldier and had to wear a uniform and some kind of bronzer makeup since we were all supposed to be egyptian. I never actually got to see much of the opera since I was either backstage 99% of the time or marching around the giant stage behind the large animals (and the guy with the shovel to clean up after them). Sadly, I can’t find much on the internet about the event.

So tonight, I’m bringing my camera and laptop down to the Queen Elizabeth Theatre to see the opening night performance of Norma. No, I won’t be blogging WHILE the performance is going on. That will happen during the intermission and afterward.

Joining me will be a few friends including Gus and Emme as well as a few others that I’ve yet to meet. I’ll be updating this post with photos and my experiences as the evening unfolds so stay tuned!

Opera Update – the day after
Unfortunately there was some technical issues with the internet access at the theatre so I wasn’t able to post any photos or updates during the evening.

It’s a little hard to see but notice the surtitles above the stage are a suggestion to follow the Vancouver Opera on Twitter.

We had a chance to get a tour of backstage and the sets before the show.

The set was pretty impressive up close (apparently it took 36 hours to assemble) and to be able to walk around on it beforehand was interesting for me because of my theatre background. Everyone was surprisingly calm considering this was opening night.

So what did I think?
Having been my first (real) time at the opera, it certainly was a spectacle to see.

I arrived a little early to get setup but there were plenty of guests already lining up to get in. The people that came out were no different than fans of any kind of concert…these ones just seemed to be better dressed. Speaking of which, I was surprised to see such a range of people wearing everything from tuxedos to jeans. I was half expecting it to be like some scene from Batman with a sea of penguin suits but it was much more diverse. Certainly, many women used this opportunity to dress to the nines…I don’t recall seeing that many stilettos in one place before. I think that’s one aspect that people really enjoy about the Opera is that it’s a chance to dress up and have fun.

The Music
I’m the first to admit that I don’t have any opera music on my iPod. Norma was sung in Italian so I didn’t understand any of it except when they sung the name ‘Norma’ since it appears to not have any Italian equivalent. Fortunately (or not), there are projected titles above the stage (called surtitles) where everything is translated. It had been suggested (by friends who are opera fans) to avoid reading the surtitles as they generally are literal translations and despite the singing being beautiful, are generally kind of mundane words describing a point in the story. This proved to be generally true although it was more distracting to be looking at the stage, then look up top for the translations, then back at the stage for the action as there was quite a bit of eye travel distance from my vantage point. I was still able to follow along fairly well although I did have a basic understanding of the storyline ahead of time. The surtitles also seemed to approach Engrish on a few occasions so I had to contain my snickering a couple of times: “My joy is complete!”

There was a few times during the performance where either a costume or a set change reminded me of World of Warcraft. Nerdy yes. But I guess it’s unavoidable when you play too many videogames. Particularly when either Norma and Pollione are singing…they just looked like NPCs from WoW. Even the set was lit like it was straight out of Ironforge. I can only imagine the game designers were influenced by opera in some way. This is what happens when a geek goes to the opera.

I certainly wasn’t sure what to expect going into Norma but actually did enjoy myself. Because I wasn’t familiar with the music or story though, it’s kind of like going to see a band whose music you don’t know. You’ll still enjoy it but it gets better if you’ve heard the music before. It was brought to my attention though, that this particular production was special because in the opera world, the cast that had been assembled is like a dream team of singers. Judging from the crowd reactions during the curtain call, it was kind of a big deal.

Apparently opera people like to party backstage:

It was cool to meet Mark Donnelley backstage at the after party who regularly sings the national anthems at the Vancouver Canucks hockey games just a few blocks away at GM Place. He actually sang the anthem at the game before joining the cast on stage that night. He’s got a pretty cool Canucks business card with the job title ‘Anthem Singer’ on it too.

The cast backstage:

I actually did have a good time at the opera…despite being a newbie. It also helps to have good company to talk about what you’re experiencing but that goes for any night out.

Thanks to Ling Chan and everyone at the Vancouver Opera for taking care of us during our visit. Be sure to check out all my photos from the Opera on Flickr.

We were shown a number of different types of mobile devices, some already on the market and some coming soon in a casual, roundtable format.

Let’s start with the LG New Chocolate BL40:

The New Chocolate is wider (taller) than the iPhone 3GS and has a very vivid and bright screen in an aspect ratio better suited for movies as you can see “Star Trek” playing on the iPhone in full, widescreen compared to the “Avatar” trailer playing on the BL40.

It has a slick, 3D cube style interface (which LG calls their ‘S-Class’ interface) that is manipulated via the large, touchscreen interface. There was no denying that it’s a beautiful media playing device that also happens to be a phone.

Unfortunately, it’s not a smartphone so I wasn’t really all that interested in it personally. It also is only available exclusively on the Telus network in North America so it’s even further limited to who can actually get it.

Take me to your Android
The next device we were shown was the LG Eve (available from Rogers in Canada), which sports the Android operating system:

I’ve been interested in finding a decent Android handset…I was unimpressed with the HTC varieties…mostly because they seemed cheap and flimsy in my hand. The Eve didn’t. In fact, it felt very nice in your hand with it’s rounded edges and smooth side flip keyboard which you could easily manipulate with one hand.

It’s slightly smaller than the iPhone but is a little thicker….but it seemed to be a good size to fit in the palm. Definitely more comfortable than the tablet style design of the iPhone.

The Eve sports a 5 megapixel camera with flash and a number of LG developed native apps that allow you to edit your photos and video right on the phone and then share with various social network sites. There were over 50 different effects you could apply to a photo, not unlike some of the many camera apps available on the iPhone. Also, the video editing software is surprisingly capable for making VGA sized videos complete with titles, transitions, a soundtrack and basic trim editing that you can then upload directly to YouTube.

I’m not going to go into all the features/specs of the Eve as it’s available elsewhere but I’ll try to answer a couple of obvious questions based on my limited time playing with the device.

Would it replace your iPhone?
No. At least not entirely. If I didn’t already have an iPhone, I’d most likely give it a serious consideration. There are some definite features that I like on the Eve that are better than on the iPhone (camera, flash, form factor in hand, microSD expandability) but I still found the interface somewhat counter intuitive and cluttered. The iPhone still seems to shine because of it’s simplicity and lack of buttons. The Eve has more physical buttons and a busier looking interface. This may suite you more than other people – I think it boils down to personal preference…my opinion on the UI would surely change the more time I had to use it, but it’s not as easy as the iPhone to simply pick up and start using with little knowledge of the UI.

I’m more interested in having a device like this to spend more time in Android land…this one certainly felt good.

Android is an interesting platform for smartphones that like it or not is constantly being compared to the iPhone. I’m very interested in seeing it mature and compete against the iPhone.

No Mac Support
I was kind of disappointed and surprised to hear that all these phones come only with software for Windows to allow you to sync your contacts, media, etc. but aren’t directly compatible with Apple computers. It sounded like some things could be manually synced because they weren’t in proprietary formats but I wasn’t able to test that aspect during my time with the devices. They apparently appear as mass storage devices when plugged in via USB with your content accessible via the file system.

One thing that kept coming to mind during the event is that LG is creating some interesting mobile and media technology, but like many mobile device manufacturers, their offerings are locked into carrier specific networks rather than being open and available to anyone. As well, some of these devices could stand on their own as great media players or wifi enabled internet devices without a phone component (ala iPod Touch) – as I mentioned, I’d love to have the the Eve to be able to play more with the Android operating system without requiring me to either switch from my iPhone or swap sim cards…I’m also not prepared to get two mobile plans just to play with the technology (unless someone wants to give it to me) so I’m less likely to switch to an Android device because I haven’t been able to experience the platform enough without a huge cost. Speaking with Blackberry (and PC) users, it’s a common issue…people are reluctant to change platforms unless they are confident they can get into their comfort zone quickly so they stick with what they know.

Calling Dick Tracy
We also got to see and play with LG’s newest version of video phone watch – yes a watch that is a phone with a video camera!

Unfortunately, it’s not currently available in the North American market (but it’s coming) so we weren’t able to try a call but were able to see how the built in camera worked and displayed video images on the watch – just like iChat on your MacBook, it was pretty slick and speedy. The size of the watch wasn’t ridiculous but probably big for many people. I’d wear one in a heartbeat. I’m looking forward to checking this device out further once it’s available in North America.

Lastly, we were also shown a new phone that hasn’t been released yet (the LG IQ) that was running the Windows Mobile operating system (yes it’s still around)…but I didn’t really get a chance to play with it much so I’ll leave it out of this post.

Mo’Money
The final thing we did during the event was the Mobile Charity Challenge. This was a series of tasks everyone was asked to do using the phones we had just been shown. The winner of the challenge would be awarded a surprisingly huge $5000 to the charity of their choice. It was a good way to spend some time with the devices doing some common things the average person would do with the phones.

I ended up winning because of a video I (quickly) shot and edited on the Eve (I didn’t keep a copy of it) and won $5000 for Movember (a month long campaign to benefit prostate cancer research).

It was a great way to end the event, especially because I was attending the Movember wrap up gala right after the LG event…nothing beats being able to present an oversized novelty cheque at a charity event!

Thanks to LG Canada for hosting an interesting evening and making an extremely generous donation to my chosen charity.

What is it? It’s a twelve hour event where participants will check in, receive a roll of 35mm film and then each hour, will be giving a theme of which to shoot one exposure. At the end of the event, the participants will hand in their film, with twelve exposures on it – one for each hourly theme. The cost is only $12 which covers the cost of the film and processing.

The photo above is me, back in high school shooting with a Pentax K1000.

I’m on the event organizing committee and am really looking forward to seeing this event unfold as I think it’s going to be a lot of fun. Be sure to get the details and sign up on the 12×12 site as space is limited. All you need is a working 35mm film camera (any kind) and $12 to participate – you don’t need to be a pro photographer! If you have any questions, check out the FAQ.

I’m excited to be included as I believe this will be my first ‘official’ public showing…even if it is in a slideshow with 98 other awesome local photographers. My portion includes my favorite shot from the Fire on the Water shoot I did last month with Barbara Kozicki (who also just relaunched her site featuring photos from that shoot):

It shaping up to also be a meetup of sorts for the photogs as some of us have never met, just virtually via Flickr, Twitter, etc.

If you’re interested in coming out, get the details over at Vancouver Is Awesome.

Looking forward to it!

Over 235 zombies invaded the Roundhouse this past Saturday for Thrill the World Vancouver, part of a global event to simultaneously perform the Michael Jackson classic to break a world record, as well as raise money for the the Vancouver Food Bank.

I managed to get a pretty good vantage point for some video:

After seeing many of the zombies at the rehearsals, it was fun to see them in full zombie costume…there were some very creative ideas on display:

You can view the full set of photos on Flickr.

I like the fact that my Zombie category is growing.

We had a great turnout of people and everyone was sharing gear and knowledge…it was a lot of fun for everyone. My full set of photos from the walk is on Flickr.

Thanks to Barbara, Jessica and Mishelle for coming out and facing the gauntlet of photographers. Next photowalk is set for November 7th during the day…join the Facebook group to get the full scoop.

They got a fair amount of interest from the gathering crowd outside the art gallery. I was asked back to shoot some more photos and video of their rehearsals for the big event that will take place at the Roundhouse Community Centre in Vancouver next weekend.

As you can see from these photos, they had a huge turnout for the rehearsal…the place was packed with people young and old.

I shot a bunch of video and photos as well as some fun timelapse clips of the rehearsals…here’s the short video covering it all:

There were a lot of little kids learning all the moves…and they were really getting into it…very cool to see an event like this bring people together…with the added bonus of it being for a charity as all participants will be donating some cash to benefit the Vancouver Food Bank.

One thing that really surprised me was the effort everyone was putting into this…they REALLY wanted to do it right and spent hours practicing the moves while I was there…and this was only one of a handful of rehearsals. I can only imagine how awesome the event will be next Saturday with all these folks coming out in full Zombie costume.

Congratulations to Graham, the dance instructors and volunteers for pulling this all together. If you want to see it happen live, head down to the Roundhouse by 5:30pm on Saturday to see the full zombie invasion.

Visit the Thrill the World website for all the details. As usual, you can view my full photoset on Flickr.

Setting up for the sunset:

This family waved at us the whole time they approached the bridge…I thought it was kind of a neat view of them zooming across the water too:

This was my favourite long exposure shot from the night too…handheld fisheye – yes, I have the hands of a surgeon:

Despite the title, we welcome anyone on our walks…you don’t have to have a DSLR to come out. Join our Facebook group and get notified of the next outing. We’re trying to do two a month…one at night and one during the day, usually on Sundays.

For a little extra fun, I put the heart shaped aperture disc into my Lensbaby Composer and shot this very brief clip of the bridge:

Great people, fresh air, sunshine, four hours of walking around in the great autumn weather…pretty great way to end the weekend. You can see the rest of my shots from the walk on Flickr.