Year of the Rooster

In light of the recent xenophobic measures passed down in the US to bar refugees, I just wanted to remind everyone of what being a refugee actually means. It's making the tough decision to flee your homeland, to an uncertain future in a country that you may not know much about, where you will have to work twice as hard to learn a foreign language, struggling to find a decent paying job to support your family, while facing stigma and systemic racism towards your culture in a world that is increasingly distrustful of you simply because you are different than them. You will work desperately to integrate into your new culture while trying to silently maintain a sense of your own. And in spite of this adversity, you will do it whole heartedly because it is your only escape from the persecution and/or war torn ravages of your birthplace, so that your children may have the opportunity to flourish as you did not. It isn't easy being a refugee. Let's not make it any harder for them than it already is.

If you count me among your friends, then you don't need me to remind you that I am only here because of the way the world welcomed refugees when my parents fled their home in the 70's. Let's do our part and ensure future stories like mine continue to be written.

I hate to leave you on such a lecturey note, so instead will wish you all a Happy Lunar New Year! Peace, prosperity, and good health to you all! Below are some photos of random Buddhist and Taoist temples I've visited over the years.


Vendors hawk Lunar New Year decorations in Ho Chi Minh city.


The Summer Palace in Beijing.




The Taoist Dongyue Temple in Beijing.


A pagoda seen along a hike in Taroko Gorge, Taiwan.


A beautiful pagoda/ temple complex in Da Nang, Vietnam.


A taoist temple on Mt. Hua Shan, north of Xi'an.


Xi'an at night.




Rain or shine, worshippers arrive at this temple in Hue.


Slow burner coils of incense hang in this buddhist temple in Cholon.

A pre-Xmas Moment of Zen

HOLY CRAP, Christmas is only 10 days away. Commence mass panic! Okay, now... relax for a second and breathe. Santa Mach is here to bring you a moment of zen. Enjoy another selection of serene scenes from Tibet.

But once you have ohmed your way to complete calm and serenity, resume panicking about finishing up your Xmas shopping. Just try not to forget amidst all the gift hunting, holiday parties and binge eating/ drinking, that there are many folks struggling just to make ends meet in these tough times. A small donation here or there may not seem like much to you, but en masse, these go an incredibly long way to making the lives of the less fortunate easier.

Scrambles - Tent Ridge

Before we start talking about today's scramble up Tent Ridge, I feel like I have to yell this out: WHAT THE FAAAACK, AMERICA?!! I get it, the Orlando shooter was radicalized and had mass murder on his mind. But WHY IN THE HELL WAS HE ABLE TO LEGALLY PURCHASE AN ASSAULT RIFLE TO COMMIT THESE ACTS IN THE FIRST PLACE?! What reason is there for anyone who is not part of the military or law enforcement to own an ASSAULT RIFLE? And don't even start with the "Well he would have gotten one illegally anyways" argument. That's as stupid as saying "Kids will get access to cigarettes regardless, so why bother to set a legal age for purchase." If the best logic for not restricting access to ASSAULT FUCKING RIFLES that you can come up with is an apathetic "criminals will be criminals", YOU ARE THE PROBLEM.

Okay, end rant. We scrambled up Tent Ridge today in gale force winds. I don't have the words to describe the beautiful views along the entire 10km long horseshoe shaped ridge walk that loops, so you'll have to trust me on this. For fairly limited effort (and a few sections of fun hands on scrambling), you don't get much more bang for your buck than this.

With Spray Lakes in the background, Anita climbs up towards the first major ridge.










At the false summit, everyone huddled up to try and escape the unrelenting wind.


After dropping elevation from the false summit, we were forced to slowly regain a couple hundred meters towards the true summit.




The Fist on the left, and Mt. Smuts on the right.


A long walk along the undulating ridge to one more highpoint, before dropping back into the valley.


Anita surveys the straight drop off down one face of the ridge.

6x6 - The One Roll Series

I started a little project this weekend, where I drew up a variety of sometimes divisive or controversial topics on signs, and asked people to write their short opinions on them. I was really hoping for some more incendiary positions, but the closest I got to conflict was Scott's daughter calling me a clown. Check out what others had to say about my topics in the photos below.


Without the benefit of autocorrect, this was supposed to read "Coffee is... an aphrodisiac"








Small writing, but it says Jesus is... 'A Superstar'






Mr. T describes our Premier as he describes everything, "Notley is... A Fool"


Marriage is... never closing the washroom door






And Tubby demonstrates his disdain at how this entire project interferes with his feeding time.

These were taken yesterday as part of our "6x6 - One Roll Series" project, whereby we agreed to all shoot one roll of 6x6 120 format B&W film over the course of the day. All shot with the Hasselblad 500CM and 80mm Planar on Ilford HP5+ 400, souped in Ilfosol 3, 1+9 at 68 deg. F for 6:30. If you're interested in partaking in some of our film photography shenanigans, get in touch in the comments below.