"I put Sriracha on my Sriracha"

Unsettling news: Huy Fong Foods, the makers of the life giving Sriracha Chili Sauce may be forced to temporarily close due to a 'public nuisance' issue (their facility is generating undesirable aromas, according to neighbouring residents). What are we going to do, fellow Srirachans?!! Stockpile? Make our own?! Get Amnesty International involved?!!

I fear in its absence, I am going to careen down a never ending spiral of utter hopelessness and despair, and may turn to dangerous alternate sources on the street to feed my addiction. You know how alcoholics resort to stealing Listerine from the pharmacy when they get that irresistible call from the booze? When (not if) I start getting the Sriracha deficiency induced shakes, I may also resort to desperate measures like licking electrified fences to get my kick... or worse, buying knockoff brand sauces... gaaahhh, it's not going to be pretty.


How am I supposed to enjoy Asian Hot Pot without Sriracha as a dipping sauce?!

The strangest timing about this story is that last week, I was jokingly thinking about changing the name of this blog to 2LitresofSriracha, cause I essentially drink it like Coke.

Maybe we can enlist Dennis Rodman to solve this problem with some basketball diplomacy. If the Worm can thaw international relations that are icy, then he should be able to handle conflict that is spicy.

Peeing on the Peonies

I ran a roll of Ilford Delta 3200 through the Leica M6 last weekend while my niece and my bro were visiting for Thanksgiving. Mixed in are a couple of shots of Tubby, my in-laws' dog that we're currently dogsitting while they're off galavanting through SE Asia. Tubby has a funny attraction to the peonies in my backyard... in particular, he has a fondness for peeing on the peonies. I'm not sure why this makes Anita and I laugh so much, but it does.





















For the photo nerds: this was developed in Ilfosol 3, 1+9 @ 68 deg. F for 11 minutes. The grain in these negatives is horrendously crunchy (these scans were toned down in Lightroom). What am I doing wrong? I've seen others shoot Delta 3200 and have far nicer/ less grain, and much better retention of tones than these shots. Do I need to change developers? Or is my agitation technique during developing causing this explosion of grain?

Long Weekend Optimism

A bit of positive news heading into the long weekend. My uncle, who is currently recovering from an invasive surgery to remove a tumour, suffered a setback this week with a bout of septicemia (infection that goes into your bloodstream). He was moved into the ICU, but is showing great signs of recovery, and has had his intubation tube removed today. The first words he spoke since getting intubated involved a story of dreaming about eating ice cream and soda pop. How cute. Remember YYC, even in what appear to be the darkest and bleakest moments, hope springs eternal.

And with that, it's the long weekend folks! I'll leave you with these menu offerings...

Have Camera, Will Travel

As I gear up to teach another 4 night run of Using Your DSLR, I'm ironically debating leaving my DSLR at home for my next trip. We've booked our flights to Chile for November, and I'm weighing the pros and cons of going completely film this time. I'm thinking of taking this kit 1) medium format rig (Pentax 6x7), 2) 35mm rangefinder (Leica M6), 3) toy cam (Holga), and 4) 50 rolls of film. In today's world of ubiquitous DSLRs and high capacity memory cards, I realize people may scoff and label me 'hipster douche', but that's generally the superficial response from digicam toting Fauxtographers.

Shooting film is so much more rewarding than burst firing on a DSLR, and the results are so much more nuanced than a sterile, perfectly sharp digital shot. Some of my favourites from our last trip were shot on film. See below for a smorgasborg of photos from Vietnam and Korea. I don't feel like doing write-ups for each photo cause I have zero inspiration tonight, but if you want to learn more about any of these, just click on them, and you can read the stories I wrote up about them on Flickr.

Giant Heads, Steel Horses, and a Lion Mask - Just another YYC Sunday.

Scott, Eric and I went on a short photowalk this morning downtown. Scott suggested the rather heinous hour of 7am as our start time (F@CK!!!), so there weren't many people on the streets to photograph. Having said that, I did get a portrait of some random dude with a runny nose who asked us if we were Canadians or not. Portrait not shown below cause it hasn't been developed yet).






Looking out, from inside the giant head.








Stay!















All shots taken with a Leica M6 and Voigtlander Nokton SC 35/1,4 on expired Konica VX 400. This film yields really interesting orange and magenta notes. If you can find some (discontinued a while ago), you should grab it.

Easter Weekend Photodump

Anita and I spent the Easter long weekend eating, drinking, and hiking in Banff. We also pretended to be ritzy socialites and took in the Afternoon Tea at the Banff Springs Hotel. I may even have extended my pinky while sipping on tea and eating dainties. Sorry, hard to come up with more tales of humorous shenanigans given the events of this week. Pray for Boston.































Photos shot on various cams: Leica M6 & Voigtlander 35/1,4; Kiev88 & Arsat 80/2.8; and Nikon D300 & Nikkor 35/1.8.