Sunday morning fish market and wine cellar action

Here's a little Sunday morning fish market and wine cellar action for your viewing pleasure. I know how easily some of you are grossed out by fish that isn't presented to you in the form of fish and chips. You're welcome.

A large part of our travels is built around experiencing the local food and drink, and there is no better way to see this than to tour the central fish market of a city, and also take in the vineyards/ wine cellars.


One of the tasting rooms at the Concha y Toro wine cellar, just outside Santiago.




Carmenere is one of the grape varietals Chile is best known for.






The Missus likes her wine. Don't judge... much.


This has nothing to do with the Winery, but was one of the better brews available in Chile.



And now we change gears, to some photos shot inside the Central Fish Market in Santiago.










These long and skinny guys are Razor Clams. One of our absolute favourite shellfish… DELICIOUS.




After wandering around all the fish vendors, we stopped for breakfast inside the market and had ourselves far too much ceviches of conger eel (not really an eel, more like an ugly fish), and uni (the plate full of yellow sea-urchin).

Anita, the Reluctant Model

More from the 'Anita the Reluctant Model' series. She has this thing about not wanting her face to be photographed, so I shot a few obscured face portraits of her, including a continuation of my 'Glass Half Full' portrait series.











Black and White photos taken with the Pentax 6x7 on Kodak T-Max 400, developed in Ilfosol 3, 1+9 at 68deg for 6 min. Colour photos taken with the D300.

The Dumbphone Diet That Nearly Killed Me

The smartphone cleanse/ dumb phone diet has finally ended. And I will freely admit that like a smoker trying to quit, I fell off the bandwagon multiple times towards the end, and succumbed to the allure of mobile internet. The further into my quitting phase I went, the stronger the draw was, and once I gave in, it became easier and easier to rationalize why I NEEDED to 3G. So to you 'I'm trying to quit smoking' smokers out there, I finally understand what it's like, and I don't envy you.

This is just a sneak preview of a session I shot tonight with Anita the reluctant model. The film is hang drying in my bathroom at the moment, so scans of that to come tomorrow.



Lit using a single floor lamp with 60W equivalent compact fluorescent bulb, hence the terrible light fall off. The shadow is also rather distracting, but I was working in a limited space, and needed to position her close to the wall. Excuse after excuse, eh? I'll admit it, I'm a shite photographer.

Chez Mach Oyster Bar

Anita and I are suckers for raw oysters. I'm like Pavlov's dog the minute we encounter fresh oysters, so you can imagine our salivatory excitement when we hit up the newly opened Save-on Foods to find that they had fresh Kumamoto and Kusshi oysters in the seafood counter for a buck and half each. Now I finally have an excuse to buy some oyster forks. And also to learn how to make mignonette.


First attempt at shucking oysters at home. Didn't stab myself with the knife. WIN!


They even looked presentable after shucking. Bigger shells - Kusshi. Smaller ones - Kumamoto.




This one taken with the SX-70 on Impossible Project Colour Protection Film.

Oyster fans: the Kusshis are small-medium sized, but quite deep and meaty, with a nice flavour and clean finish. Easily my favourite. The kumamotos were also nice, but quite small. I like a bit more meat to my bivalves.

Beer and Snowshoeing

Before we get to the photos from this weekend, I wanted to relay a quick story from yesterday - apparently my limited math skills have atrophied to the point where even simple conversions are now beyond my grasp (even with a calculator). I needed to figure out a concentration of cannabis seed oil in a product (for work purposes, don't ask) - it should have been a simple 'move the decimal over 3 places' and voila - but my brain felt like a turtle swimming in an ocean of chunky peanut butter. Frustrating as hell. At this rate of cognitive degeneration, I'll probably have forgotten how to flush a toilet in a couple years.

Anyways, on to this weekend's photos. The first photos were shot with a Polaroid SX-70 on Impossible Project Colour Protection Instant film, while we were out drinking on a beautiful Friday afternoon. The remainder were shot during a snowshoe trek to Rummel Lake. Good times!

Photographing the Pupils - Part 2

More from my Photographing the Pupils portrait series of my photography students. Don't have time to write more tonight, Game of Thrones is on. Valar Morghulis.








1) I suck at focussing with the Rolleiflex. 2) The back popped open after, causing these light leaks. Shiaaat.



Rolleiflex 2.8E on Fuji Neopan 400. Developed in Ilfosol 3, 1+9 at 68 deg. F for 8 min (about a half stop push?)

Also, come take some courses from - and sit for a portrait by - me at the CPLC. Apparently, I'm not that bad of a teacher.

BEER. MOUNTAINS. FOOD. BEER.

Weekend plan with Kris and Nic: BEER. MOUNTAINS. FOOD. BEER. This is a small sampling of the craft brews I've accumulated recently. Jealous? Come join us!





L to R: Moon Under Water Brewing 'Hefeweizen', Driftwood Brewery 'Crooked Coast Altbier', Four Winds Brewing 'Juxtapose Brett IPA', and Driftwood Brewery 'White Bark Witbier'. All unfiltered, from craft brewers in BC. Juxtapose IPA - bottle conditioned.

Photographing The Pupils - A New Personal Portrait Series

I'm starting a new portrait series entitled 'Photographing the Pupils.' These are some students of mine in a DSLR course I just finished teaching, and they graciously sat for an impromptu portrait session for me. There are a few more student portraits, but they're on an as yet unfinished roll. It's a bit ironic that I spent 12 hours teaching them to use their DSLRs, but then photographed them using an all manual, unmetered analog camera (Rolleiflex, in this case) on b&w film, which I then developed at home. Old school meets new school. Originally, I was going to call this portrait series 'Shooting the Students', but that had some bad connotations.

In my haste to shoot this set during a class break, I made numerous errors in light positioning, and harsh control of shadows. Perfect portraits these are not. Sorry, my pupil guinea pigs! My fault. Next round will definitely be better.

The portraits as a set:


The portraits viewed individually:












For the camera nerds: Taken with a Rolleiflex 2.8E on Fuji Neopan 400. Developed in Ilfosol 3, 1+9 at 68 deg. F for 8 min (that's pushed about a half stop, which may have contributed to the blocky shadows...?)

AMP Radio: The Dick and Jane School of Troll Broadcasting

Warning: Angry ranting ahead. Many of you have probably heard about that crap radio station in Calgary that burned $5000 recently (literally, they incinerated FIVE THOUSAND DOLLARS in bills) as part of a 'social experiment.' And then as to be expected, they got all kinds of criticism and flak from all corners for that stupid shameful act, where that $$$ could have done actual good for society. And then one of the co-hosts responsible for the stunt posted some shit to facebook in response to critics that has me STEAMED.

Katie Summers wrote:

"Part of me is glad we burned the money. A week ago, all of the same people and all of the same charities in this city were just as in need. Only now, after an awfully tragic social experiment, are they the forefront of everyone's mind. Maybe this sparked a conversation we needed to have. Maybe this will convince everyone on their soapbox to go & donate to these charities. Animal rescue groups, children's hospitals, mental illness awareness... I know I'm going to. It won't be $5000, but it will be something."

GLAD THAT YOU BURNED THE MONEY?!! You think you "sparked a conversation" about donating to charities?!! FOR REAL?!! Rather than owning up to your tasteless actions, you make yourself out to be a champion for social equality?! YOU ARE NOT THE FUCKING HEROIC MARTYR IN THIS STORY! Burning money to raise awareness of charities in need is like killing a puppy on live TV to raise awareness for the SPCA. It's despicable, and to defend it in the name of social awareness is a fallacy to all the crusaders fighting for so many underfunded worthy causes.

But no. Thank you Katie! You're right, all of us DO need to get off of our soapboxes. We're such dumbasses, putting all that soap in all those boxes anyways. What other nuggets of wisdom did they teach you in the Dick and Jane school of troll broadcasting you somehow emerged from?

Seriously, does anybody actually believe her justification that this publicity stunt gone wrong truly raised the profile for charities and social agencies? As if that was the original intent of this stupid 'social experiment' in the first place? If you do, please come to my house, my foot would be happy to give your ass a bit of re-educating. Because YOU.ARE.A.MORON (not unlike Katie 'I'm pretty much Jesus' Summers). Just making that clear, in case you didn't understand why I'm going to go all Professor Chuck Norris on you. It's likely because your moron-icity prevents you from realizing that fact. But don't worry, come over. It'll be quick and painful.

Holy FAAACK. I'm in a combative mood. /End rant.

We've seen so many degrees of poverty in our travels, it was difficult to pick photos to coincide with tonight's blog entry. I chose to go with ones I shot in Vietnam that don't necessarily depict abject poverty per se, but rather the realities of those living within the means of low income - these people do what they have to in order to survive and provide. Think of what $5000 could do for them? Or any of the folks living at the low income cutoff right here at home. Sigh...