Shooting the moon

When the moon hits your eye like a big pizza pie...

Largest full moon in 15 years.

Since the moon has an elliptical orbit once a month it gets closer to the earth than the rest of the month. This coincides with a full moon only once every 15 years. I was not able to snap the moon when it was low on the horizon but got this shot later that night. In the past I've tried to photograph the moon with my Canon 100-400 lens with both 1.4x and 2.0x extenders. The problem with this is that on a 5D you only get manual focus. This shot was made with only a Kenko 2.0 extender which allows auto focus with the 100-400mm and the 5D.

Canon 5D
Canon EF100-400mm
Kenko 2x teleplus pro 300
1/640 at f/11
Spot metering
ISO 400

North to Alaska: Vancouver

The first entry in a series describing the Alaskan cruise (and land tour to Denali) that I took with friends in August of 2008.

We all decided on Princess Cruises and that we wanted to sail south to north. Princess was great but I don't know whether South to North of vice verse is better. Going the northerly route put us in College Fjords in the evening instead of the early morning. Other than that I'm not sure if it matters and sometimes wished we were going North to South so that the last flight was shorter.

Our cruise sailed from Vancouver, BC and we arrived a day early to do some sightseeing and to make sure we didn't miss our ship. Vancouver has a lot to offer. It is a beautiful city and honestly the people were very nice. In two half days of sightseeing we only scratched the surface.

We arrived around noon, Pacific Time, and started sight seeing by 2:00. The first afternoon a number of us visited Stanley Park. Stanley Park is on a peninsula sticking out into Burrard Inlet and by one account is one of the best urban parks in North America. There is a seawall path that surrounds the park as well as numerous sights to see within. As it turns out a lot of enthusiasm with little knowledge can get you in trouble. We ended up walking the sea wall for a bit longer than we expected because there is one stretch without paths into the inner part. After a cross country flight and a 4 km walk I was pretty tired and did not do much else in Vancouver that day.

Girl in a Wetsuit (with sulfur depot in the background). They originally wanted a copy of the Little Mermaid statue from Denmark but could not get permission. Another artist created the Girl in a Wetsuit instead as a modern variation.

The next day we had until 2 or 3 o'clock to get on board so we checked our luggage at the hotel and went out sightseeing. This time I set out alone wanting to be sure to see the sights at the top of my list. I took the seabus across the inlet to North Vancouver and then another bus to Capilano Suspension Bridge. There for around $30 you get to cross the bridge and walk a kind of "sky walk" in the trees. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves:

The construction is pretty high tech but it does swing like crazy

I want this tree fort on steroids

I got back to Vancouver in time to go up to the Vancouver Lookout for some panoramic views of the city.

View of the Diamond Princess from the Vancouver Lookout

Click for the rest of the pics:

Vancouver, BC

Blog Change

I'm re-purposing this blog and renaming it from "My Life is Broken" to "Late Bloomer". Coming soon: pictures and trip report on my vacation in Alaska.

Glacier pictures posted

Ahhh, wish I was there right now... Here are my Glacier National Park pics:

Glacier National Park

Still to come are the Washington and Oregon pics...

Bittersweet

Today was a bittersweet day. It was my first day back at work after 9 months of being off. I am back at my last job, more or less. Same client, different contractor, same people, different project. It was nice to be back with my old friends and it felt like I had never left. But it was a little sad to see this season of my life end rather unceremoniously.

During those nine monthes (and 10 weeks the previous fall) I accomplished about half of what I wanted. (More on that in further posts.) Not bad, I had some pretty big ambitions. But I have a different outlook on a few things now. Sorry, I won't go into more detail here, if you know me you've probably already heard.