Happy Snow Year

Ghosts of snowstorms passed stand atop Silver Star Ski Resort while the sun sets on a fine day of skiing. The quality of the light (in this case) almost makes one willing to overlook the quality of the image capture through my cellphone camera. It's been a banner beginning to the ski season so far in the Okanagan. Strong bookings over the Christmas holiday period have been accompanied by bountiful snowfalls continuing into early January. Here's to more good stuff to come in 2013.

Love the D800

The more I use it, the more I love my new Nikon D800 camera. Obviously, image resolution has improved to 36 megapixels. Not noticed so much in the camera statistics, the dynamic range improvement is also a new record available for a DSLR - and something that is readily evident even when you don't require full-size poster prints. Beyond professional photography applications, I enjoyed using my D800 this past weekend during a getaway to the Columbia Valley in B.C. Here's a shot I liked of a seemingly delicate violet flower growing within an extremely rugged rock cavern at Radium, B.C. More scenic photos with other Nikon cameras can be found on my website at kelownaphotographer.com

Colourful season

Away from the work projects of photographing furniture, architecture and other projects, I took some time for some personal photography just for the fun of it.
Weekend sunshine illuminated some fine colours that Mother Nature has stirred up for autumn in the Okanagan. Here's one of my shots from Kelowna's Waterfront Park.
Getting as low as possible with a 20mm wide angle lens, I exposed the shot for maximum depth-of-field, shooting at one-quarter of a second to let the flowing water blur through the frame. Its fluid motion contrasts nicely with the still leaves on the rocks.
I'm hoping for more fine fall days like this before snow arrives ...

Excitement in the air

Lots of excitement was in the air this past weekend in Kelowna, from volleyball spikes and mountain bike jumps at the 4th annual Center of Gravity event, to the dazzling aerial show of the Canadian Snowbirds on holiday Monday.
While it was not the same experience as when I enjoyed a media fly-along with the snowbirds in 1998, it was still a pleasure to photograph these professional flyers today.

Hello, my name is ...

I'm working on some new designs for a new run of business cards. Like these so far?

Aerial Artistry

Another freestyle ski expert who will proudly compete for Canada is Kristi Richard of Summerland, who grew up on the slopes of Apex Mountain Resort near Penticton.
Kristi got to compete against the best skiers in the World last year on the slopes of Apex, finishing behind teammate Jennifer Heil of Alberta - the current Olympic champion in the women's event.
More ski action photos, along with sports and photojournalism is found on my main website.

Aerial Artist

Steve Omischl of Kelowna is expected to soar at the 2010 Vancouver Olympic Games later this month as a veteran condender on the Canadian mens aerials team. With numerous World Cup titles earned over the past few years, Omischl finished second at the 2009 world championships. Here's a photo I shot of Steve training at Silver Star resort a few years earlier. More ski and sports photos are found on My website