A butterfly landing on your belly while you're waiting for your friends to fill their bottles can be unfolding the meaning of coincidence or it can just be another vain selfie in the floating in the wind.

I come back here, ironically, when screaming into the void of the algorithm takes it’s toll. It’s ironic because I’m not pretending like I have some huge following here in my miniature hole in the corner of the internet.

How easy it is to be swept up. I was reminded that I haven’t finished going through my scans and editing images from our trip to Costa Rica this week. My friends at work, Yannie and Gareth, asked me to join them on Tuesday night to watch a movie after work. We saw Monkey Man, which was excellent, but isn’t really the point of this.

Anyways, this photo. This one made it on Instagram before here. It was, ultimately a let down on there. I’m personally excited about the image. Jason’s fancy new bike, on a new (last fall) trail that I thought would be a nice photo and I finally was able to try a lighting scheme I’d been thinking about for quite a while. I’m keen to shoot some more like this over the summer, when work’s current vampiric-state settles down a bit and the weather gets even more agreeable for bringing cameras and strobes out on the trails.

Having humans recommend places rather than the internet is probably the best. The last time Angela and I checked out a cocktail bar was in 2019 and it was also excellent based off a real person with similar interests who we had met just that night. Cata came from our friend Juliet in Squamish, a friend of hers happened to own this bar in the town next to our hotel. We def would give Cata six out of five stars and was a warm highlight at the end of an already great trip.

Seeing these birds was pretty special. We saw the first one on the coastal shoreline, but we saw quite a few more along inland streams and rivers. I think it’s funny that I took only one camera to a paradise full of stunning birds I’ve never seen before. Angela and I already want to go back and see more of this stunning country including: birds, coffee and more local culture. The next time I’ll fully be planning a few days with just birds in mind, bringing a long lens (probably shooting a bunch of digi stuff, but also throwing in long lens film) but I can’t help but feel happy that I have a few frames like this, sure, I could crop in, but this just feels good to me.

That’s it. Birds.

Angela, a happy place.

I was grateful to be able to walk with my parents near their home for one day this Spring. Living in BC means I don’t get to see my family as often as I like. We walked the sandy beach looking at the sandy ice piles the crashing waves made just out from the shore, making a row of islands, or a moat of still water depending on how you looked at it. We heard the (likely mating) calls of Sandhill cranes over the banks. We would walk over and through the campsite to see the flock jumping, dancing and foraging for food.

When I see them next will be in Squamish at the end of May, I’ll try and show them our herons, but they don’t always show themselves in the summer.

Back to basics. I haven’t posted in a while because Angela’s family took us on a vacation to Costa Rica for 10 days. We are so grateful for that trip, it’s a stunning country filled with beautiful geography, wildlife and every person we met was genuinely kind. Angela and I both left feeling inspired and we want to return to see more of it’s culture, wildlife (and also beaches, the beaches were amazing).

I’m struggling with the internet lately. Back working on set I find doom scrolling to be the norm, I’m programmed to look at my phone, searching for validation through Instagram. It’s easy for photographers who naturally are seeking approval of their images and work. But lately everything feels like it’s under a robot’s control.

I’m trying to get myself to pull out a sketchbook and just doodle instead of seeking the glow of the algorithm. Anyways. I’m putting Instagram on ‘pause’ on my phone for much of the day. It’s a funny exercise though. Somedays it works and I only check for shorter periods at the beggining and end of day, looking for messages etc. Somedays I just end up hitting it open anyways and go back to regularly scheduled programming.

Lamp Ops on a day exterior. In Ladysmith, Spring 2023.

Dropped the ball a couple days on the posts. I’ve been busy the last few nights post work, busy in good ways. Watching cheap movie night and bouldering for the first time in, several years. My forearms are very sore as I write this.

You can always do everything different. Not always better, but you can do it different. Again and again, different is good, even if it’s the same kind of different. Also the same isn’t so bad.

Do stuff.