Went to Whidbey Island this last weekend. This was the view from the beach at Keystone. I really like the Keystone beach (my name for the beach just south of the Keystone ferry terminal). It is covered in a wonderful variety of stones, that make a great rushing sound as waves receed and the shore is just packed with driftwood.

Camera: Nikon D700
Lens: 70-200 f2.8 vr & 105 Micro

I've been busy developing my recent black and white street photography from Paris. I still have many many rolls to develop and scan but I have a few up on Flickr. I've also been busy shooting stock.

Camera: Mamiya 6, 50mm, Fujipan 400 film

Since Thursday I am the proud owner of a Nikon D700. Yes, I just bought a D300 in December but I just couldn't resist getting back to a full frame SLR. I never did like the tiny viewfinders of my Fuji S2, D70s, D200, D300, always hated the 1.5 conversion factor. It's so nice to use a 50mm lens as a 50mm lens, et cetera.

I am still getting to know my new friend but I can tell you Nikon's new FX sensor is simply amazing. Images shot at ISO 3200 are brilliant. I simply love the feel and sound of the shutter. It has a smoother feel and more precise sound about it (compared to the D300). With the added high speed sensitivity I am now using the auto-ISO feature. I simply set the camera in aperture mode, the lens at f8, low shutter speed at 1/60th, and high ISO at 3,200. This is a great walk-around configuration.

So, my D300 is gone, as are my couple of DX lenses. I have numerous film lenses I can now put back to use but I expect to buy a 70-200 f2.8; once new replacement appears.

Photo: Stolben, Germany
Camera: Nikon D300

Just back from a month in Europe. My first stop was Paris, for a week of street photography, the rest of my time was spent in Germany, part in the Bodensee area and part in the Dresden area; with a few days in Frankfurt.

I flew the new, this year, Lufthansa Seattle-Frankfurt route, and it was very nice. Nice new plane, friendly staff, and they even provide metal silverware with the meals. Also, their inter-Europe flights offer free beverages (like beer and wine!).

Most of my images were taken with my Precious Mamiya 6 and it's wonderful 50m lens; using Fujipan 400 black and white film. I will start processing the 75+ rolls of film after my upcoming art show . I also shot color and used my Nikon D300.

I will be displaying oil paintings at the August 16th and 17th "Fresh Paint" art show. Until then I"m pretty busy getting my work ready for display. This will be my first art show and I'm looking forward to the experience. If all goes well I expect to start attending shows across the west coast.

Photos: Paris, taken with a Nikon D300

Went to see the Dali Lama today. I have no photos as we weren't allow to bring cameras into the stadium. We sat in the group right behind him so he was right in sight but ironically I found myself looking a lot at the giant monitor.

It was a blazingly hot day. After sitting for over 3 hours I was feeling quite toasted.

I spent last week in Portland, mainly to visit the North American Handmade Bike Show. We took Amtrak down and rode our bikes all over Portland. The show was over-whelming, too many people too many $5,000 frames, but Portland was wonderful. We had surprisingly warm weather(considering that the weekend before Portland had snow) and we rode late into the night exploring the city.

I especially liked the Hawthorne neighborhood. Portland has much to offer, so many small shops, still so many gritty areas to explore; I really need to go back and shoot black and white there. I'm not so sure I could live there though. I don't think I could live in a river town, I think I need the salt air of a port town.

Happy New Year! I am just back from a stay in Vancouver. We had a great time, I took some decent street photos, brought my bike along, saw a wonderful performance of the Nutcracker, by the Moscow Classical Ballet but sadly in the incredibly ugly "Queen Elizabeth Theatre".

I often hear people praising Vancouver as better than Seattle, more European, more urban. Well, if you consider tearing down all the old buildings of the past century and replacing them with glass and concrete high rise apartments to be a good idea and more European then yes Vancouver is all that.

Don't get me wrong, I like Vancouver, I could live there, it's a lively city in a beautiful natural setting but I wouldn't consider it better, certainly not safer, just different than Seattle. It's sort of a mix of Hong Kong meets Oakland. There are lovely parts of Vancouver (The West end!) but also many parts you wouldn't want to walk in; even in the daytime. A drive east from downtown along Hastings street provides miles and miles of urban decay, and hundreds of transients (Vancouver is the warmest city in Canada so VanCan tends to attract Canada's drifters). There are also many dreary concrete high rise apartment "villages" connected by the Skytrain where people stay before returning to work (hello, Burnaby?). Anke thought Vancouver had a Czech-look about it. I'm not so sure the fine Czechs would appreciate that remark.

We stayed at the Georgian Court Hotel, which was quite nice, but they didn't think we should walk the 10 blocks to Chinatown, at the very least, they said, don't go past Hastings street or turn left anywhere along the way.

Speaking of Chinatown, I had what had to be the worse Chinese food in my life there. We left most of it on the table. Strange because half of the former Hong Kong population now lives in Vancouver. I guess the good cooks stayed put. We did have some wonderful meals, including Japanese and Lebanese.

Photo: Lions Gate Bridge, Vancouver
Camera: Nikon D300