DSLR Cameras

Although I'm quite happy with my Pentax K10D, I could always use higher ISO and better auto-focus. There never seems to be enough light to use a fast enough shutter speed for hand held shooting, or a small enough aperture for more focus lattitude. Thank goodness for image stabilization or I'd be even worse off.

So I can't help but covet the Nikon D3's awesome low light abilities. Of course, it also costs roughly $5000 and is a huge heavy beast, so I don't really want one.

The Nikon D700 also performs well and it's somewhat cheaper and smaller. But, like the D3, it has a full-size sensor (the actual size of 35mm film). The bigger sensor is one of the reasons for the better performance. The problem is that I like the increase in focal length that the smaller sensors give you. On a full size sensor, my zoom would be 18 to 250mm. But on my Pentax with a smaller sensor, it's equivalent to 27 to 375mm. You could use a tele-extender but then you lose another stop of light, and this zoom is already quite slow. Of course, there are other lenses, but that's a whole 'nother story!

I've looked at the Nikon D300, which has a smaller sensor, but it's performance isn't as impressive as the D700 (or the D3). The Nikon D90 which is actually a more "consumer" oriented model, actually does better for low light, also does video, and it's considerably cheaper.

One of the reasons I bought the Pentax was because it had in-camera image stabilization, which means you're not buying expensive image stabilization in multiple lenses. But so far, I've stuck to my one super-zoom lens, so the argument doesn't really hold. And the image stabilized Nikon version of this lens is actually 18 to 275mm (as opposed to 250mm).

I also like how the Pentax will output standard DNG format instead of just a proprietary format like most other cameras, although this isn't a huge factor.

To complicate things, Pentax is coming out with a new K7 model this summer. Full test results aren't out yet so it's hard to tell how it will compare. It shoots video like the D90. And it's small and light and weather/dust proof which is a plus for me. The auto-focus is supposed to be better. And it would work with my existing lens. The resolution has increased, which is good in some ways (more room to crop), but higher resolution means smaller pixels on the sensor, which usually means more noise (i.e. worse low light performance). e.g. My Pentax K10D sensor with 10mp rates higher than the more expensive K20D with 14mp. (Of course, there's a lot more to a camera than just the sensor.)

Of course, I don't really need a new camera at all. An expensive camera is no guarantee of good pictures!

PS. For some reason I haven't got interested in Canon cameras, although I've had several smaller Canon's, and I'm sure their DSLR's are good too. The Sony Alpha's also have good specs but I don't know much about them either.

Kayaking at Pike Lake

It was a little windy on the lake so I stayed in shelter of the creek. A pair of red-winged blackbirds were scolding me, maybe their nest was nearby. At least they stayed still long enough to photograph them, unlike the muskrat which I saw several times but never let me take it's picture. Or another little bright yellow bird (yellow warbler?) that flitted about.

2009-05-31 Pike Lake

Automobiles

Not much question we live in a culture dominated by automobiles. (That's my bike squeezed in between the tables because there's no bicycle parking. Just acres of parking lots.)

I gotta find somewhere better to sit outside and have coffee! The view here really sucks.

Rose-breasted Grosbeak

This Rose-breasted Grosbeak was a new visitor to the bird feeder. (Or at least, to all the seed on the ground under the bird feeder.) I've seen one on several different days, maybe the same individual?


Hard to get a good photo through the dining room window, with a 400mm lens hand-held at 1/60th (cloudy day).

Spring Road Trip

Shelley and I just got back from a week of climbing, starting around Banff and continuing to Penticton, BC where we climbed at Skaha.

As usual, we found some good places to eat... (all new to us)

In Banff we went to the Bison Restaurant and Lounge. On the way there to the restaurant, and on the way back to the lounge for fondue. As well as great food, it's situated in the Bison Courtyard which is a high performance green building containing a blend of retail, residential, and restaurant space. It's similar (although smaller) to the Rivergreen Ecovillage that is being planned for Saskatoon (and that we're seriously considering buying into).

In Penticton we started with the Hooded Merganser. I liked the name, and the pictures on the internet looked nice. We had a little trouble finding it. Knowing it was on the water, we drove up and down the beach but couldn't find it. It turned out to be inside the Resort/Casino. That turned me off a little, but luckily the restaurant was quite separate. We weren't very hungry so we sat in the lounge and had appetizers. It wasn't very busy so we had a quite meal with a great view of the lake. (Coincidentally, a duck I had photographed a few days earlier near Banff turned out to be a Hooded Merganser!)

For coffee we went to Fibonacci Roastery & Cafe. Kind of a funky place, but good coffee and deserts and comfy couches. We went back one evening for some live jazz.

We also really enjoyed Lee's Fusion and Amanti Bistro.

Finally, the evening we visited our friend Ellen in Summerland, we went to the Vanilla Pod Tapas and Wine Bar. They were very accomodating to our vegetarian needs and came up with several options for us that weren't on the menu.

Of course, we also sampled a few of the local wines (and brought a few home). We only made it to two wineries - Soaring Eagle and Zero Balance, both owned by Holman Lang Wineries. Both had some tasty wines. It was the first time we'd been to the Naramata bench - there are a ton of wineries in this small area.

We also did some climbing...

We were climbing at Skaha Bluffs, one of our favorite spots. Skaha has had access issues over the last few years but things seem to be resolved now. The new parking lot is great, although it turned out to be much too small for the busy long weekend. During the week when we were there it was fine.

Shelley's climbing in the gym all winter gave her the advantage this trip. Oh well, it gave me an excuse to get her to lead the hard stuff :-) We did our usual favorites like Plum Line, although we didn't do Double Exposure this trip. The weather was cloudy a fair bit and sprinkled a few drops, but for climbing that's probably better than too hot.

And, of course, some photographs...

2009-05 Banff & Penticton

Yellow-Rumped Warbler

I just saw a yellow-rumped warbler from the kitchen window. They're not rare, but I don't remember seeing one before, at least not up close. They're quite striking with their yellow patches.

I didn't get a picture and most of the ones I found on-line don't do it justice. This one is pretty good:

ON THE EDGE... A yellow rumped warbler perches on the edge of a hand rail at the Rotary marshes in Kelowna.

Spring Flowers

The first flower opened today in our yard. Old hat to those of you in Victoria and Vancouver (and my sister in Spain!), but a nice sign of spring here. Of course, they're forecasting snow for tomorrow - the joys of Saskatchewan weather!




I used my tripod, but they're still not as sharp as I'd like - too much wind and not enough light.

Sailing

Some great photos of the The Volvo Ocean Race.

I thought two month expeditions were long, but this race around the world takes nine months!

A favorite movie of mine is Wind - great sailing cinematography.

Adios Amigos

A few weeks ago I made the tough decision to withdraw from running the Prairie Pitch Adventure Race this year.

Little did I know that it would lead to me withdrawing from the Saskatchewn section of the Alpine Club itself.

A lot of the newer members probably don't know my background with the club. I first joined the Alpine Club over 30 years ago. There was no Saskatchewan section then.

About 15 years ago, Ralph and Lisa Bock and Shelley and myself got together and formed a "Saskatchewan Alpine Club". At that point we weren't affiliated with the Alpine Club of Canada.

It was around the same time that Vic started Vic's Vertical Walls (now Climb 306). Not surprisingly, the members of the club were some of his first customers. I was so excited to have a climbing wall in town that I spent my evenings and weekends helping Vic and his Dad build the walls, first at their original location, and then at the current location.

For the first few years of the club, Shelley and I were the only members with any amount of experience and we led most of the trips.

I remember Dave McCormack showing up at one of our early meetings and telling us he wasn't going to climb, just hike. As you probably know he ended up doing plenty of climbing. And despite moving to British Columbia, he continues to lead some of the section's most popular trips.

Next, we decided we should be a section of the Alpine Club of Canada. We had to overcome a certain amount of bias against a small group from the flatlands, but we made our case successfully and became a section. I remember nervously making our proposal at the national meetings and waiting outside to hear the verdict.

We started a section newsletter, The Prairie Pitch, which was arguably the best section newsletter for many years. Shelley and I edited, folded, stuffed envelopes, printed mailing labels, and wrote articles ourselves when we were short.

We brought the Best of the Banff Mountain Film festival to Saskatoon. It was a big gamble at the start - if it had flopped we would have been paying for it out of our own pockets. But it was a success and continues to be one of the main fund raisers and promotional events for the section.

About 10 years ago, on an ice climbing trip with Shelley and I, Tony Nadon proposed starting an adventure race in Saskatchewan. For lack of a better name we called it the Prairie Pitch, the same as the newsletter. Tony did a great job of organizing the race for five years. When he stepped down, I took over for the next three years. Organizing the race was a lot of fun, but also a huge amount of work. (Especially if you're a perfectionist like me!)

The section has always been pretty "hands off" with the Prairie Pitch. The big reason it was done as a section event was to get insurance coverage. Tony wasn't an active member of the section and nor were his friends that helped him with the race.

I did my best to step down from the race gracefully. I really hoped someone from the section would volunteer to take over. But I wasn't very optimistic. For a while I'd been telling people I wouldn't be running the race forever and that someone should get involved so they could take over. But everyone is busy and as long as I was doing the work, it was easier not to think about it.

When I made my decision I first notified the section executive, gave them a chance to respond (they didn't), then notified all the section members (they didn't respond either), and finally let all the racers know. The racers did respond - thanking me for running the race in the past, and hoping that the race would continue.

The only people interested in organizing the race were Full Moon and J2 Adventures who put on races in Alberta. Full Moon didn't feel they could take it on this year but J2 was eager to take over - even to the point of taking over the expenses incurred to date (mainly the reservation at Cypress Hills Resort), and offering to give the section a portion of the proceeds.

Again, I notified the executive about this. Again, no real response. I didn't really find this strange because, as I said, the section has never had a lot to do with organizing the race.

I met with J2 in person and they convinced me they were the best option to have the race continue. I was happy because I'd really been afraid my stepping down would be the end of the Prairie Pitch.

This is when things went bad. Some of the section executive started having second thoughts about what I'd done. They didn't want to lose a major source of funding for the section. I can understand that, but the section had no one willing to organize the race. If no one will do the work, it doesn't matter how much you want the money! And it's not like the section "needed" the money. Most of the section revenue is just donated to various other organizations. The section itself doesn't have a lot of expenses.

They kept questioning my actions and arrangements until finally I lost my temper. Oops. I was chastised (rightly) for my "emotional outbursts".

But I felt (and still feel) angry, hurt, betrayed, sad. After everything I've done for the section, this is how they repay me. By pulling the rug out from under me. By reneging on the arrangments I made in good faith. And all, as far as I can tell, for nothing. It's not like anyone has a better suggestion.

I really wish they could have spoken up before I'd finished making all the arrangements. All they had to do was say "we'll take it from here" and I'd have been happy to let them deal with it.

I honestly thought I handled it openly, honestly, respectfully. I didn't go behind anyone's back, didn't do anything underhanded. I kept everyone in the loop. I certainly didn't stand to gain anything from it personally. Even now, I don't understand what I could have done different. (Other than not lose my temper!)

Now I look bad, the club looks bad, and J2 is in a really awkward position - they've already advertised the race and even had people register for it! And the executive didn't even have the decency or courtesy to phone the poor guy - just sent him an email saying the Prairie Pitch belongs to them and they'll decide what to do with it.

So I've quit the section. Obviously I'm on a totally different wavelength from some of the section executive. Maybe I'm overreacting, but this whole thing has left a sour taste that isn't going to go away any time soon.

You Know It's Spring When ...

When you can sit outside and have coffee and be warm in the sun.

When the crocuses bloom. (crocus photos by Shelley)



When you can kayak down Beaver Creek on the spring runoff.


And see the muskrats. (We also saw two Great Horned Owls and the first garter snake of the year.)


And last but not least, sit outside and eat an ice cream cone after kayaking :-)

Life is good.

Spring

Winter here is awfully cold, dark, and silent. But that just makes spring so much more of a contrast. (Of course, my father would have said that's a bit like banging your head against the wall because it feels so good when you stop!)

The grass is starting to turn green, the trees are budding. And the birds! When I walked home the other day I was listening to a podcast, as I often do. When it ended and I took out my earphones I couldn't believe all the bird songs - crows, gulls, geese, sparrows, robins. Glorious!

Early Spring at Beaver Creek

Snow Geese

Spring in Saskatoon

Spring in Saskatoon involves more melting snow and ice than flowers blooming. But it's nice to see the geese returning and you can't complain about the sunshine.

from 2009-03-29 Saskatoon

It was such a beautiful morning I had to escape from the computer and go for a walk.

Beautiful Close Up

25 Beautiful Macro Photographs

1% for the Planet

I've been a fan of 1% for the Planet since I heard Yvon Chouinard talk about it at the Banff Mountain Film Festival several years ago. I was happy when Mountain Equipment Coop joined.

It's nice to see they're doing well: National Geographic Blog - Go Green: Are Values-Oriented Companies Recession-Proof?

Yvon's book, Let My People Go Surfing is a good read if you're interested in his business and environmental ideas.

Clark Little Surf Photos

These are some amazing photos!

Clark Little Photography

I've always loved water and its colors and reflections.

Mountain Rescuers Getting Taken to Court?

A post on the National Geographic Adventure blog says prosecutors in Argentina are investigating an attempted rescue on Aconcagua for possible negligence. And this isn't even in the USA, where you expect everything to be taken to court.

Apparently a video from the rescue has caused huge controversy because the rescuers were "just standing around".

I don't know any more details, but on the surface I'm flabbergasted. What do people expect the rescuers to be doing? If the guy can't even get up, how do you get him down? The rescuers were probably pushed to the limit just to reach the guy. People who have no experience of high altitude or even mountaineering should not be judging.

I've often talked to non-climbers who read about climbing incidents, especially on Everest, and ask my opinion. How could they have left someone to die? How could they have just walked by? They don't realize that you barely have energy to move yourself, let alone enough energy to help someone else. And if you did help someone, you're placing yourself in serious jeopardy and may just end up with two casualties. And lastly, the person in trouble chose to be there, chose to take the risks. And often what got them into trouble was ignoring advice and common sense. If I say "don't walk on the ice, it's too thin" and you ignore me and walk on the ice and fall in, am I still obligated to jump in and try and rescue you?

These were volunteer rescuers. If they end up being prosecuted or sued, then who is going to volunteer to try to rescue anyone?

The Ultimate North American City

I recently got back from a week long trip to Arizona, mostly around Phoenix. We were visiting Shelley's Dad who has recently taken to spending three or four months of the winter down there, like so many other "snow birds". I can't blame them for wanting to escape Saskatchewan winters.

Phoenix is the 5th largest city in the USA. Its metropolitan area has over 4 million people sprawled over 37,000 square kilometers (16,000 square miles).

Phoenix seemed to be the ultimate North American city, the distillation of our suburban culture to its essence of cars, freeways, malls, and planned communities.

In case you're at all unclear, I don't think that's a good thing. I found it appalling. Even more disheartening is that I don't think most people see anything wrong with it. I think they think that's how it ought to be.

One day when we foolishly picked a climbing area across town we spent more time on the freeways than we did on the rock. And that wasn't even on the opposite side of the city, we just had to cut across a corner of the metro area.

Like the rest of North America, the automobile rules. If you're not in a vehicle you're screwed. The nearest coffee shop is probably 6 miles away. And even if you did feel like a two hour walk to go for coffee, you'd better be prepared to play Frogger with the traffic.

Despite a great climate for it, less than 1% of commuters use bicycles. I'm surprised anyone does.

I like the desert and the climbing was good, but I'm not going to be in a rush to go back to Phoenix.

National Geographic Photo Contest Winners

Some great photos from National Geographic's Photo Contest.

The second last picture of the squid is amazing, and it's amusing how the photographer had to push her husband out of the way to get the picture.

Baby Chameleon

I think chameleons are cool regardless, but this baby one is amazing.

These pictures are from Gorilla.cd. A park in the Congo having their own web site and frequently updated blog is also pretty cool. They've had a lot of troubles lately with the fighting there, so it's nice to see something positive.

Climate Change Skeptics

Tim O'Reilly had a good post responding to people who don't believe in climate change.

An Amazing 2008

2008 was an amazing year for me. I can't believe how fortunate I am.

Shelley and I spent a month in Ecuador and Galapagos - a fantastic trip.

The WestJet in-flight magazine published an article about adventurous couples that included Shelley and I.

I spent a week in San Diego at ETech and then three weeks in Baja Mexico in Loreto. Shelley joined me for the first week in Mexico. I got my advanced open water diving certification while I was there. Just living in a different place (albeit only for three weeks) was a first for me.

Shelley overcame her fear of the water and got her scuba diving certification. If you'd seen how nervous she was around water only a few years ago you'd know how impressive this is!

We spent a week in and around Portland, Oregon in conjunction with RailsConf, another computer conference.

I organized the Prairie Pitch Adventure Race for the third year, including five trips to the race area totaling 14 days.

We spent a month in Australia, a new country for me, and another wonderful trip. Shelley and I did our first scuba dives together.

We made our annual pilgrimage to the Banff Mountain Film Festival.

We spent a week diving in Cuba (another new country) bringing me to a total of 45 dives. I no longer feel quite so much like a beginner.

Adding up all the travel gives roughly 17 weeks or about 4 months! Wow, I knew I'd traveled a lot, but I didn't realize how much it added up to. Like I said, I'm amazingly fortunate. Here's a map.


View Larger Map

I bought my first digital SLR at the end of 2007 and took roughly 15,000 photographs in 2008. I even think a few of them are half decent.

I wrote 75 posts on this blog and another 110 on my computer blog.

I read about 140 books, coincidentally, the same number as my sister Penny. At first I thought I had read less (eek!), but then I realized I wasn't counting the computer books.

Quite a year.

Driving Down Western Australia

I know this is out of order and overdue, but I'm still trying to catch up. The first part of our trip to Australia we drove down the West coast of Australia from Broome to Perth. Google says it's 2638 km. We put over 4000 km on the odometer. Good thing we had unlimited mileage on our rental car! It was a great drive - not too many tourists and lots of great country. Here are more pictures from this part of the trip. Sorry, there are quite a few, I got tired of whittling them down.

2008 Australia West Coast

And here's a map of our route:


View Larger Map

In Distrust of Movements

This article by Wendell Berry makes for interesting reading. I have to say I've had my own doubts about "movements". My question has always been what the alternative is.

* Thanks to Tim O'Reilly for the pointer to this article.

Ktrak Christmas Gift

My business partner gave me an interesting Christmas present - a Ktrak add-on for my mountain bike. I think this is what you'd need in Vancouver right now if you wanted to ride your bike!

It was relatively easy to install. The only real problem was that I didn't have the right tool to move my brake disc so I ended up with no brakes. The front ski is optional, for downhill. You can ride uphill with it, but it's hard work!


Here's a video of one of my first test runs:

Kingfisher at Work

Pretty cool photos of a diving Kingfisher, especially the last one.

Recurring Mouse

Notice the tracks leading to the bottom of the tree.

The mouse obviously likes the bird feeder. She* seems to take up residence most afternoons now.

Now I'm reluctant to fill up the feeder because she won't be able to get inside, and obviously she likes it inside!

Those of you that have spent time and energy trying to eradicate mice will no doubt think I'm crazy.

* I have no idea if the mouse is male or female, but "it" sounds too impersonal.

Heroes

If you're a climber it's hard not to be inspired by Fred Beckey. Check out the story and especially the video (better full screen) from the New York Times. I wish I could say I'd devoted as much energy to climbing (or anything, for that matter) as Fred. I can only hope that I'll be a fraction as active when I'm his age.

My first contact with Fred Beckey was through his guidebooks. As much as we appreciated having the guidebooks, we always ended up cursing them (and him) as an innocent sounding single sentence in the guidebook routinely turned into hours (if not days) of horrendous bushwhacking or tricky climbing.

I remember some years ago we were in the parking lot at Skaha (a climbing area near Penticton) and my friend Ian Marsh suddenly started pointing at a car in the parking lot and saying "that's Fred Beckey's car!". It was a nondescript car so I couldn't figure out how he would know. The answer was that there had been a picture of Fred and his car in one of the climbing catalogs that we used to spend our time poring over when we weren't climbing. Sure enough, Fred and an entourage of much younger climbers were at Skaha that day.

Second Class Citizens

Walking or riding my bicycle I often feel like a second class citizen. The first class citizens, of course, being the cars. Even when they do add sidewalks or bicycle lanes, there doesn't seem to be any consideration that they have to connect, and actually go where you might want to go. And then there are all the places where the "freeways" (funny choice of name when you think about it) virtually block any foot or bicycle access to large areas.

It's nice to see signs of this improving, like this article on WorldChanging:

Copenhagen, Melbourne & The Reconquest of the City

I wonder how some of these approaches could be adjusted for cold climates like Saskatoon. No one is sitting at sidewalk cafes at -30. Maybe we could design our malls using some of these ideas. (Not that I'm a big fan of our current malls.)

Climbing Mouse

I went out to fill up the bird feeder the other day. As I walked up, I could see something inside the feeder, which seemed odd. It turned out to be a mouse! He sat inside, looking back at me through the Plexiglas side. He didn't seem too afraid of me. I left him alone and didn't fill the feeder.

It's been really cold here lately (-30c) and I wondered if it was looking for shelter. But thinking about it, it's got to be warmer under the snow. I guess he was just getting a free meal. But even that doesn't quite make sense because the birds scatter lots of seed on the ground, so there shouldn't be any need to climb the tree to get to the feeder. Maybe it's safer (e.g. from cats) in the feeder rather than on the ground.

I wasn't quite sure how he got inside. The gap that the seed comes out is quite narrow, only half an inch or so. That night I worried that it might have been trapped in there and maybe I should have let it out. I was afraid I'd find a frozen mouse in the morning. But it was gone in the morning, so obviously it can get in and out on its own.

Sorry, no picture - it was getting dark and it's hard to see inside the feeder. Instead, here's one from Flickr by yeimaya.

2008 in Photographs

Amazing photos on The Big Picture, although it's sad to see the violence.

Sometimes I think I take some decent photos, but it's hard to compare to the best of the best.

More Michael Pollan on Food

I recently mentioned a New York Times article by Michael Pollan on food. This video of John Battelle interviewing Michael Pollan is from the Web 2.0 Summit talks about that article and more.



They touch on lower gas prices and wonder, as I have recently, if lower gas prices are a move by the oil industry to sabotage the environmental advances that have been driven by high gas prices.

A Week in Cuba

We just spent a week (Dec. 3 to 10) in Cuba. We usually try to get away for a week or so around our anniversary. Since we hadn't done as much diving in Australia as we'd hoped we wanted to go do some more. A package trip to an all-inclusive resort in Cuba was the cheapest, easiest option we could find. There was a dive place right in the resort and from all reports the diving was good there. And it was a direct flight from Saskatoon to Cuba, which was a definite bonus.

We were a little nervous about the "all-inclusive resort" part. The idea of hanging out with a bunch of people who were primarily there to eat, drink, and lie around just didn't seem very appealing. But we'd never been to one and we figured we could try it at least once.

We went diving every chance we could, two dives a day, except Sunday when they were closed, and the first day when we only got in one, for a total of 9 dives. The people at the dive shop were great, except for one guide (Carlos) who didn't seem very safety conscious. He didn't keep an eye on his clients, and each of the three times we went out with him he ended up having to share his air with a client to make it back to the boat. He seemed to think it was fine to end the dive with no air. (You're supposed to always have a safety reserve.)

We had our own mask, fins, snorkel, and wetsuits. The BCD's and regulators they supplied were ok but obviously old and well used. Many of them had minor leaks or issues. One morning Shelley went through 3 regulators before getting one that didn't have any leaks. Of course, the leaking ones went back on the wall to be handed out to the next person! I think if we came back to Cuba to dive I'd want to have my own regulator at least.

The resort (Sol Rio Luna y Mares) was near several other resorts, but otherwise there was nothing much around except farmland. You could take a horse buggy or taxi to the nearby town of Guardalavaca but there wasn't much there. On the Sunday when we couldn't dive we took a taxi to the nearby city of Holguin. (where the airport is.) It was nice to wander around and see a little of Cuba. Everything seemed pretty poor and run down. Most buildings had peeling paint.

There aren't very many tourists in Cuba outside the resorts. We only saw one or two in Holguin. Perhaps because of this (and the poverty) there aren't many restaurants or tourist shops. We stood in line for an hour to eat at a place called Venecia. The food was ok in the end, but nothing special. We thought the $60 bill was pretty steep but it turned out to be in local pesos, not "convertible" (tourist) pesos, so it only ended up costing $25 which was pretty good considering it included 4 glasses of wine. (a result of slow service!)

The resort itself was quite nice. They're still recovering from the recent hurricanes but most things are back to normal. The main buffet was ok but not inspiring. There was a reasonable selection but it wasn't exceptional to start, and then it sat there for hours. You could reserve at the a la carte restaurant or sign up for "special" dinners which were better. We ended up eating lunches at the snack bar despite their limited selection, just to avoid the buffet.

The drinking and partying didn't seem too offensive. Of course, after diving we were tired and tended to go to bed early. The music seemed to continue all night but didn't bother us too much.

The weather could have been better (and typically is this time of the year). It was cloudy much of the time and rained almost every day. The temperature was comfortable, but not hot. It didn't matter too much for diving (other than a few rough boat trips from the wind) but if you'd come to lie in the sun it wouldn't have been ideal.

We'd go back to Cuba again, to dive or maybe to see Havana, but I don't think we'll be rushing to go to another all-inclusive. It was ok, but just not our style.

2008 Cuba

Negawatts

I just listened to a podcast by Amory Lovins. It's so nice to hear someone strike a positive note. He makes it sound so simple and easy to solve our energy problems. And his solutions don't depend on government intervention or sweeping social change - just good business. Unlike most other optimists, he doesn't just retell the same few endlessly repeated anecdotes. (I'm never quite sure what these anecdotes are supposed to prove. So there's some little business in Nowhere, USA that's gone green. Sorry, but that aint gonna save us!)

As much as I'd love to be optimistic, my nagging doubt with what Amory preaches, is that people aren't rational. Even if all his science and economics are absolutely correct, that doesn't mean people will adopt them. Amory has been preaching his ideas for over 30 years and adoption seems painfully slow. However, there are positive signs like his work with Walmart to reduce energy consumption by their trucking fleet.

For more about Amory Lovins ideas, check out his Rocky Mountain Institute or his books or additional podcasts on the Conversations Network.

Another Beautiful Sunrise

Much as I hate going to work and coming home in the dark, I love the chance to see the sunrise and sunsets (as you may have gathered by the multiple photographs)

One Shot Left?

Whether you believe/agree with this article or others like it, it's scary reading. We can gamble/hope that the science is wrong, but we have to remember we could be gambling with very high stakes.

2008-09-27 Australia Parrots

These photos were taken at Rainbow Jungle, a bird habitat and breeding center, with the largest free flight aviary in Australia.

I love being inside aviaries with the birds where I can take pictures of them without bars, and where it's not so blatant that they're prisoners.

As well as the birds, it's a beautiful place with well kept gardens and ponds (as you can see from the last photo). And there was an art exhibition scattered throughout, which added interest.

2008-09-29 Australia Parrots

Michael Pollan on Food

Lately I've been reading Michael Pollan's books about food and the food industry. (The Botany of Desire, The Omnivore's Dilemma, In Defense of Food) (I actually got started on his books with A Place of My Own about building his own cabin, nothing to do with food.)

His recent article in the New York Times gives a good overview of his ideas.

Eating locally is tough in Saskatchewan, especially in the winter. But Shelley and I do try to get what we can from the farmer's market. And while we don't eat "junk" food, we do tend to use pre-packaged convenience foods, albeit usually "organic" or "healthy" ones (for whatever that's worth).

A Day Down Under

I've gradually been working my way through our Australia photos. It's embarrassing to take this long after a trip to post them. And there are so many I realize I should post them in sections anyway. So here I'll just cover a single day of our trip - Sept. 27.

We had stayed overnight in the campground in Denham. First thing in the morning we drove to Monkey Mia where they have been feeding the dolphins for years. It's a big tourist attraction to see the dolphins up close. From there we drove to Kalbarri. It was spring in Australia and there had been some rare rain, bringing out the spring flowers. Against the red sand and drab bush the flowers were beautiful splashes of color.

It was a long weekend and school holidays so we were a little worried about finding somewhere to stay in Kalbarri. People were telling us that everywhere would be full. But an act of kindness paid off for us. When we stopped for gas a women asked if we could give her a ride to where her car had broken down. We did and along the way got talking about where to stay and she told us about a riding stable just outside town that had places to stay. It turned out to be a really nice place and they had both camping and rooms. We decided to splurge and got a room ($50).

We went to the Seahorse Sanctuary just outside Kalbarri where they breed seahorses for the aquarium trade so that they won't be taken from the wild. They also breed pipefish and peppermint shrimp. It was pretty cool to see them and learn how they breed them.

We stopped at a beach and watched the surfers. Pretty good waves here. The lady at the seahorse place suggested we watch the sunset from the beach and cliffs at Pot Alley, It was a beautiful sunset.

Here are the photos:

2008-09-27 Australia

Another Sunset

I think I'm pretty lucky to get these kinds of views walking home from work. Better than staring at someone else's tail lights, that's for sure!

Carbon Offsets

I recently started buying carbon offsets from Planetair. For example, it cost me $650 to offset our flights to Australia and $25 to offset flights to Calgary. I also signed up for $30 per month which is what I calculate our electrical and heating equate to.

There's a lot of debate over carbon offsets and claiming to be carbon neutral. Do I think it will solve our climate change problems? No, but I think it's better than nothing. Just arguing about the best solution won't solve it.

The other question is where the best place to buy carbon offsets is. I just looked for a Canadian company with a good reputation. Planetair is recommended by quite a few organizations and is the only Gold Standard offsets in Canada. (for whatever that's worth) They're definitely not the cheapest, and for air flights they suggest doubling the offset because of the increased affects of emissions at high altitude. But to me it doesn't make much sense to look for the lowest cost.

Even if carbon offsets aren't the best solution, I can always just look at it as donating money towards the development of renewable energy.

As you can tell from the amounts above, it's my long distance travel that is the worst offender. In most other respects I think I'm doing quite a bit better than average. But so far, despite feeling strongly about the issue, I can't bring myself to quit traveling. So I'm also trying to offset a certain amount of guilt.

Banff Photos

We just got back from our annual trip to the Banff Mountain Book and Film Festivals. We spent a free day hiking up Tunnel Mountain and around the 12km Spray River Loop. It had snowed overnight and the clouds were swirling around.

2008-11-05 Banff

Glorious Sunrise

One of the good things about spring and fall is that sunrise and sunset coincide with going to and from work. I'm not sure the people in their cars appreciate it, but I sure do.

(as usual, click for larger versions)

World Animal Day photos

Check out these great animal photos.

Diving Down Under

There aren't any big mountains in Australia, but there is quite a bit of rock climbing. However, we decided not to haul our climbing gear around with us. Instead we planned to scuba dive. I've been diving for a while, but Shelley had just taken her dive course in the summer. She was a bit nervous about her first "real" dives. One of the things she was nervous about was having to do a big "giant step" entry into the water. Of course, the very first dive we did had the biggest giant step I'd ever done. It was about 3 m (10 ft) from the platform down to the water. That might not sound like much, but all geared up for diving it's a little intimidating. Shelley joked to the dive master that he might have to push her and he replied that it wouldn't be the first time!

Our first dives were out of Exmouth at the north end of the Ningaloo Marine Park. It's the main place to dive the Ningaloo Reef. We dove with Ningaloo Reef Dreaming. Just because of scheduling, our first dive wasn't even on the reef, it was the Navy Pier. It seems funny that you're at this world famous reef and one of the best dives is a pier! But the Exmouth Navy Pier is considered one of the top dive sights in the world. It didn't turn out so good for us. We arrived at the pier to be greeted by high winds, and rough, white capped water. The dive master went in to check conditions but soon returned reporting that visibility was about a meter and we wouldn't be able to dive. So much for that dive.

We came back in the afternoon and it was calmer, but there was still quite a lot of surge and visibility was only about 3 m. On top of that, we had a big group with quite a few beginners. Shelley and I were ready and jumped in first, which of course meant we then had to wait, bobbing up and down, for everyone else to get their act together. Finally everyone was in the water and we could descend. Not surprisingly given the conditions, one of the beginners (not Shelley!) didn't like it and the guide had to take them up and wait till they were safely up in the water. Again, we waited, this time at the bottom of the guide line instead of the top. Eventually the guide returned and we set off.

What a circus! With the poor visibility, everyone was trying to stay as close together as possible, And with the large group and the surge tossing us around, that meant constantly struggling to avoid getting kicked by the fins of the person in front of you. Shelley ended up holding her regulator to make sure it didn't get kicked out. At one point I did have my regulator kicked out of my mouth. I'd thought that would be a scary thing, but it was more confusing. It took me a minute to figure out what had happened and to realize I could no longer breath, at which point I grabbed my regulator and put it back in my mouth. I don't even recall having to clear it of water. Thankfully I didn't have any trouble locating it or I might have got a bit freaked out.

On top of the crowd problems, we were swimming in, around, and under the pilings of the pier while the surge and other people bumped us around. Shelley banged her head under one piling. We did see some big gray nurse sharks, which are one of the attractions, but even that was a rather murky view, obscured not only by the visibility, but also by the other divers struggling to see.

You could tell that in the right conditions it would be a great dive - there were a ton of fish going by and lots of stuff on the pilings. We hoped to get a chance to come back to try a second time but it didn't work out. It also would have been better if we'd explored on our own instead of with the group, but given the conditions and with it being Shelley's "first" dive we didn't. It was definitely a "trial by fire" for Shelley. Too bad we didn't have kinder conditions. But she did really well and handling the challenges gave her more confidence than an easy dive would have.

On the positive side, we saw whales breaching both times we were at the pier. And a big sea turtle swimming lazily alongside the pier.

The next day we headed to the Muiron Islands, about an hour boat ride from Exmouth. Unfortunately, conditions were still pretty rough. I struggled to avoid getting sea sick, keeping my eyes on the horizon. It was a bit sheltered at the first dive site, but there was still some surge. Of course, the rough conditions meant poor visibility again. Great coral and fish though.

I'd been feeling distinctly queasy before the second dive but was alright once I got in the water. But when I got back on the boat after the dive it was rocking and rolling a little too much. I barely got my gear off before rushing to the back of the boat to puke. I was surprised how suddenly it hit me. I skipped the next dive, although it was debatable whether sitting on the rocking boat was any better than diving feeling sick. Shelley still went on the third dive though, good for her. She said it was the best dive of the day, annoyingly!

The next day we went to Lighthouse Bay, a shorter boat ride, and conditions were a bit better. Except that there was quite a strong surface current. Even swimming from the back of the boat to the front (to descend the mooring line) was a struggle, especially for Shelley who was still getting the hang of swimming with all the dive gear on. Starting with a bit less air in her tank, and using it up a bit faster, Shelley needed to surface sooner than the rest of us. She went up with the assistant (trainee) guide. When we came up about 15 min later I was surprised that Shelley wasn't back at the boat. Unfortunately, her guide had misjudged and they came up a long way from the boat. With the strong surface current you had to swim hard just to stay in one place, let alone make any headway. Eventually, with some help from the guides, Shelley made it back to the boat, but she was exhausted and skipped the third dive. Probably just as well since the current was even stronger at the third site. One of the divers gave up before they even made it to the mooring line, after failing to swim against the current and getting pushed and banged against the side of the boat by it. Again, despite the less than ideal conditions, there was fantastic coral and sea life.

And that was the end of our three days of diving in Exmouth. We were a little disappointed that conditions hadn't been better, but there's not much you can do about that. If we'd had more time we could have waited for better conditions, but we had a lot of ground to cover. At least Shelley had 6 dives under her belt and wasn't a total beginner any more.

We did some snorkeling at Turquoise Bay in Cape Range Park near Exmouth. It was awesome snorkeling with lots of coral and fish and even a sea snake. Given the water temperature, you really needed a wet suit though. I had my own with me so I was fine, but Shelley didn't so she couldn't stay in as long.

Our next stop was Coral Bay at the South end of the Ningaloo Reef. This is a smaller town and we weren't even sure if there was a dive operator there. Luckily there was (Ningaloo Reef Dive) but all they had going the next day was a "wildlife viewing trip" with an optional single dive. We signed up. The first part was whale watching and we were lucky to see lots of humpbacked whales. The first sight of them was when one jumped completely out of the water just ahead of the boat. Pretty impressive. At one point we had two separate pods (groups) of whales on either side of the boat. Unfortunately, it's almost impossible to capture the whales in photographs. All you end up with is a a distant view of a sliver of their back. The pictures definitely don't convey how impressive it is to see such huge animals.

We weren't so excited about "swimming with the manta rays". The tour operators share a spotter plan to find the mantas. This day the plane only spotted one so multiple boats converged on it. The manta obviously just wanted to find some peace and quiet so it was swimming away at high speed. So the boat would race after the manta, try to drop us as close to it as possible, and then you were supposed to swim as fast as you could to catch a murky glimpse of the manta before it disappeared. I'm not an especially fast swimmer, especially with my camera in my hand, so the only glimpse I got was when the manta happened to double back past me. I could have done without this part of the outing.

The dive was great. It was inside the reef so it was much calmer. And Shelley and I were the only ones diving so it was just us and the guide. It was quite a shallow dive, at one point only a few meters deep. The coral was some of the best I've seen in size and variety and health. We saw sharks at one point. This is something that a lot of divers get really excited about and spend a bunch of time looking for. I'm not sure what the big attraction is. Usually you just see them cruising by in the distance. I'd rather look at the coral and the fish myself.

We enjoyed the dive so much we immediately signed up to dive the next day. All they had scheduled was a half day trip but at least it was two dives. The first dive wasn't as good as we'd hoped. There was some surge and it was along a wall with a sandy bottom. Not so much coral or fish. I spotted a few nudibranchs and rockfish and eels. But because of the surge, Shelley was hanging back from the wall and didn't see so much. The next dive was more like the day before with good coral and fish.

And that was the end of our diving. We'd have liked to do more but unfortunately we didn't have the time - too many other things we wanted to see and do. Next time ...

The photos aren't great - it's tough taking decent pictures underwater. But it's still nice to be able to share a little of how fantastic it is down there. (Taken with Canon SD700IS with Canon WP-DC5 underwater case, tweaked with Adobe Lightroom.)

2008 Australia Underwater

A Fall Walk

I went for a walk Sunday morning, just to enjoy the sunshine and the fresh air. Of course, I took my camera. It helps (forces?) me to look at everything in a different way, a good way I think.

2008-10-19 Fall Walk

My camera (the Pentax K10D) was behaving a little strangely at one point. Every other picture was much darker, even though I wasn't changing anything. It was even on a tripod so I wasn't even moving it. Looking at the metadata afterwards, it appears it was switching ISO,which it does normally, but without also changing the aperture or shutter speed. Very strange. It only did it for that one sequence of photos. They happened to be the ones where I used the tripod but I can't imagine how that would affect it. It's never done this before, that I've noticed, but in many situations I might not notice it, I'd just think the exposure was off.

Fall Sunset

When I stepped out of the building to go home the red tinge to the light told me the sun was setting. As I biked home, the crisp air (and the jacket and gloves) told me it was fall. There was a big harvest moon in the sky:


For some reason I didn't notice the sunset till I was almost home.

Back from Down Under

We got back from Australia yesterday. 12 hours of sleep and I'm almost feeling normal.

I apologize for not blogging during the trip. I prefer to write about things at the time rather than after the fact but it obviously didn't this time. We were camping (tenting) for most of the time which isn't conducive to blogging or sorting photos. And there weren't a lot of internet places, partly because we were (deliberately) off the "beaten path". But even to me, those seem more like excuses. The big reason (problem?) was that we were too busy. Writing and sorting through photos takes me a fair bit of time.

There's such a drive to "fill up" your time, to not miss anything, to see as many things as possible. It's good but it leaves me feeling uncomfortable. It doesn't seem right that you're so busy that you look forward to coming home so you can relax. That's where my last trip to Mexico was nice. Apart from the diving I did, I didn't have any agenda, no sights to see, no places to go, no things to do. Just hanging out in a different place, soaking up the different place.

A recent post by Timothy Ferris interviewing Rolf Potts echoes this:

Travel isn’t about efficiency. It’s about leaving yourself open to new experiences. You can’t do this when you’re racing around on a strict itinerary. If you examine the truly life-affecting experiences I describe in my new book, you’ll find that they most all happened by accident. If you aren’t open to the unexpected — if you aren’t willing to get lost from time to time — you’ll be selling your travels short.

[Suggestion from Tim: reread the previous paragraph substituting "travel" and "travels" with "life".]

[I enjoyed Rolf's book Vagabonding and I'm looking forward to reading his new book, Marco Polo Didn’t Go There.]

In any case, it was a great trip and I'm hoping to write it up "real soon". And post some pictures, as soon as I get a chance to pick out some good ones (out of the roughly 4500 I took - about 150 per day!)

2008 Prairie Pitch

I always breath a sigh of relief when the last racer crosses the finish line and I'm no longer "responsible" for them. And a final sigh of relief when the course is all taken down and I'm home again.

This year's race was a bit of a roller coaster, with Murphy doing his best to mess us up, and lady luck doing her best to rescue us. Maybe it was payback for everything going so smoothly last year. (Of course, I thought last year was payback for the problems the year before!) For example:

Several weeks before the race there's no water in the creek we're supposed to canoe on. Luckily it was only because they diverted water for irrigation and it came back again.

One land owner didsn't want us on his land, so I re-routed the course around it. Then, two weeks before the race, we found out his land actually juts out on one corner so I had to re-route the course again. In the process our proposed rappel location no longer worked and we had to hurriedly scout out another one. Luckily, we found a good spot nearby.

The people I'm counting on to lend us orienteering flags end up having an event the same weekend. Yikes! I arrange to borrow some from Alberta but they have an event the weekend before. Luckily, the flags arrive an hour before I leave for the race. Nothing like cutting it close!

Although statistically this area should have had little to no rain, the week before the race there's over 2 inches of rain. Two days before the race because of the mud we can't get our vehicle to the rappel and have to carry 4 big metal tripods and all the ropes and anchors a kilometer from the highway. Five trips later and I've completed the first 10 km of my race. (Of course, if I didn't keep forgetting things I could have cut out a couple of trips!) Things had just barely dried out enough to make the dirt roads passable and then it rained most of the night before the race. Even then, we might still have squeaked by but it rained again in the first few hours of the race.

The day before the race the water system at the camp burst and we had no water for toilets, let alone showers! Luckily it was easy to fix.

Because of all the changes I ended up printing the maps at the last minute. Of course, the printer has major problems - actually melting one of the rollers! Luckily we have a spare, even though it's not something we normally keep a spare of.

Anyway, you get the idea. It definitely added to the stress of organizing the race.

On top of the stress, there's just a lot of work involved in organizing this kind of event. I made 5 trips down to the area, totaling 14 days. (No wonder I didn't get out climbing much this summer!) Even just the driving time added up to 40 or 50 hours - a full work week! And then there's the countless hours preparing the maps and other materials, handling registration, and organizing volunteers, and all the hassles associated with each of those. Thank goodness Don Hernberg looked after dealing with the land owners - that was another big job all by itself.

Don and his son Michael have been wanting to organize their own race in the area. After the race I asked Don if he still wanted to do his own race. I had to smile at his response: "Well, I don't know, it's a huge amount of work."

Don't get me wrong - I enjoy it, especially the scouting and the planning. But still sometimes I wonder why I get myself into these things!

Race day just continued the roller coaster. I lay awake most of the short night before the race (the start is at 4 am) listening to the rain and wishing it would stop. It actually did stop about 3:30 am but then we had to decide what to do. Would the roads be passable for the volunteers and support vehicles? We decided they wouldn't be, so I quickly shuffled parts of the course to try to piece something together. But then the volunteers who had gone to the first location said that conditions weren't that bad, so we decided we'd go back to the original plan. Then, after we'd committed to that, it started raining again. And the vehicles that had gone ahead further reported that the roads were no good and we'd never get the support vehicles down them safely. So I had to re-shuffle the course yet again. As the saying goes, "No plan survives contact with the enemy."

I thought I'd designed the first foot stage in the dark to be fairly easy. You could follow a fence line from one road to another, and then follow the road to the transition. Even in the dark, you wouldn't think that should be too hard. And it wasn't for some teams. But others had more problems. Teams arrived up to 45 minutes late. One team arrived at the transition from the opposite direction, having somehow missed the road and done a big circle. One team quit and went home after this stage.

We'd carefully instructed teams not to cross the fence into the out of bounds area. Somehow, between racers and volunteers some teams heard "don't cross any fences". So when they came to the first fence they had to cross, they retreated. Even though the fence was fallen down, and we'd gone to the trouble to mark the route with a glow stick, and the map was pretty clear. Of course, after they retreated they found out they had been in the right place after all and they had to go back again (up a big hill). Ouch! I do have to give them credit for following instructions though!

Meanwhile, the racers were all on their way to a transition area where we couldn't get to and they were going to arrive to find no one there. I jumped on the quad with another volunteer and we got there as fast as we could. (I'm not a big fan of things like quads, but it's hard to argue in this kind of situation.) Surprisingly, despite the mud plastered biking, the racers were in good spirits and were understanding about the problems. We sent them on their way to bike another 10 km of mud to meet up with their support vehicles.

I stayed to wait for the last few teams. At this point I realized that there I was, alone, in the middle of nowhere with no water, no food, no pack, no first aid kit, no nothing. But hey, I had my clipboard! On the positive side, by this time the sun had come out and it turned into a reasonable day.

Once we'd regrouped all the racers and support in one location (the Jensen's farm) I let the racers vote on whether to continue biking, which they'd have to do if they wanted to do the bulk of the original course. As I expected, there were some teams that had had enough of biking in the mud, but most wanted to continue. In the end only one team decided not to get back on their bikes. At least everyone had a bit of a break and a chance to clean the worst of the mud off their bikes.

We took all the support people back to the camp, and at this point the volunteers and I could relax a little. We had 4 hours or so till we'd see the racers again.

The race finished up with the climbing wall and zip line and a foot section around the camp. Everyone crossed the finish line within about a 40 minute period - one of the nice things about the score format with timed stages. (Previous point-to-point Prairie Pitches had people crossing the finish line over as much as a six hour period.)

In hindsight, I could have planned the canoe stage near the camp. Not so nice, but we could have done it regardless of conditions. And I probably shouldn't have planned a transition in a spot we knew we wouldn't be able to get to if it rained a lot. (Regardless of whether a lot of rain should have been about as likely as winning the lottery.) But hindsight is always 20:20.

Even without the bad conditions, I also suspect I made the course a little too tough for the beginner teams. It's so hard to judge. When I raced in the Prairie Pitch I usually came in somewhere near the middle. So I figure I can regard myself as somewhat "average". However, when it comes to the hills, all my climbing experience probably makes me not so average. And after scouting the course multiple times it all starts to seem pretty easy!

An even bigger problem is the huge variation. Fast teams are twice as fast (or more) as slow teams. And bad conditions can easily be twice as slow as good conditions. So a fast team on a good day could be 4 times as fast as a slow team on a bad day. So do you allow an hour for a stage, or four hours? (Then add another factor of two for navigation skill!) In theory, the score format and its optional points accommodate for this. And it did for the most part. But because conditions were slow (at least on the biking) it meant that people got very few (if any) optional points, which makes the race less interesting.

Of course, you're not dealing with a blank slate when you're designing the course. There are all kinds of constraints that make it tough to adjust things the way you'd ideally like to. There are only roads and trails in certain spots. The interesting terrain is only in certain spots. Canoeing is only possible in certain spots. Support and volunteer vehicles can only reach certain spots. And, of course, you want to include as much good stuff as possible.

Oh well, it was definitely an adventure, for the organizers as well as racers. For the most part I think everyone had a good time despite the hiccups. All I can do is try to learn from the experience when I'm planning next year's race. Not that I want to think about that just yet!

I have to admit I'm looking forward to leaving tomorrow for a month in Australia where the most stressful decision will be which beach to lie on! (Ok, slight exaggeration, anyone who knows me knows that lying on the beach isn't exactly my style. But you get the idea.)

Links:
ACC Sask race web site
Photos
Map and Point List

2008 Prairie Pitch Adventure Race

The Shaunavon Standard has run a couple of stories on this year's race - Race trek and Gearing up for adventure.

I enjoy planning and organizing these races, but it's a lot of work, and can be a little stressful. I'm just crossing my fingers the weather isn't too evil!