GIIP photography outing to Ladner

A few weeks back a bunch of us from the photography club at church (GIIP) took a trip out to Ladner, about 30 minutes from downtown Vancouver. Charles had planned a pretty full day of shooting for us, with 4 different spots that we were to visit.

The first spot was some broken down jetty thing. It was a lovely little spot. The water was almost perfectly still and gave wonderful reflections, except for when someone came and launched their boat there. Apparently the lighting was better an hour before we got there, but I still found it pretty good anyway.



Next up there was a spot where we could see a bunch of boats. We didn't stay here for long because the light was perfect pumpkin light.




So off we went to the pumpkin patch. The week before the trip I bought a new toy for my camera, a polarizing filter. It did a splendid job of removing the glare from the pumpkins, and also made for some very blue skies.





Our final stop was at the Reifel Bird Sanctuary. There was a big potato field there that was just full of thousands of snow geese. We were lucky enough to see them all take off at once. Charles was pretty excited about this. He has been going there for years in the hope of seeing this site, and kept telling us how incredibly fortunate we were to see it on our first visit. Unfortunately I only have a little mini-lens for my camera, so couldn't get much detail of the geese taking off, but I guess you can get the idea of the scale of it from the photo.


It was very nice to get out of Vancouver for a change. It kind of made me miss having a car, but I think I am over it now, buses are so much cheaper.

Yes I'm still alive.

Hello everybody,

I thought I would dispel any rumours that may or may not have been going around. I can confirm that I am still very much alive, I just have not found the time or more to the point the motivation to update this blog in a while. So this will be a bit of an update on what has been going on in the last month and a bit.

First off I have moved apartments, just. When I say just it is because I only actually moved to the next building along, in the same complex. My old landlord needed the apartment back again so his daughter could use it while attending university. So the new apartment is kind of similar to the last one. The kitchen is almost identical, except there is slightly less room next to the sink, resulting in a more cluttered coffee area. Not ideal, but certainly workable. The layout of the apartment is a bit nicer, it is on a corner, with the bedroom having windows on 2 sides. Hmm, actually it may be easier if I just post a few photos of it here and you can all see for yourselves.




Hmm, so what else have I been up to? Good question. Not a great deal is my answer. I have been in the mood for roasts lately. In the last couple of weeks I have had both roast chicken and roast pork. The chicken was super simple and really tasty. I simply got a lemon that had been in with the potatoes as they were par-boiling, stabbed the lemon a few times and stuffed it inside the chicken along with a bunch of garlic cloves and some thyme. Par-boiling the potatoes and letting them get a bit fluffed up in the pot after draining made for wonderfully cripsy potatoes once they had been roasted in the juices that were coming out of the chicken. The roast pork was OK, but nothing special. I made a sauce to baste the pork with by combining about 1/4 cup of pomegranate molasses with some balsamic vinegar and sugar. That bit tasted really good, but the pork was a bit dry for my liking. Actually part of the pork was really good, but that was the part that I had for leftovers.

The french onion soup I made a week or so ago was fantastic, especially with the ciabatta bread and gruyerre cheese floated on top. Mmmm, yumm. I found it was even better the second or third day after making it, the flavours had developed more and it was oh so good. I think it would be my favourite soup.

Today I woke up and decided I would like some Saturday afternoon pancakes (yes I slept in this morning). I happened to have some apples in the fridge that I didn't use when I had my pork, so I decided to have apple pancakes. They were very nice indeed, especially with the maple syrup/honey mixture drizzled on top.

Autumn seems to be starting now, so with any luck I will find some nice autumn colours to photograph. Next week the GIIP photo club from church is planning on going on an outing to the Reifel Bird Sanctuary, and also some pumpkin patch somewhere on the way. It should be a good trip if the weather behaves.