It can be tough at times when I’m “on the job” to actually stop working at the end of the day and let my brain flip into a mode that let’s me see the photographic possibilities in front of me. Some days the switch doesn’t flip as well as others, but I think it matters to make the effort. I’d tell you why, but my brain is still kind of fried.

Long day on the road today: 5:30 am roll-out, cancelled flight, alternate destination, rejigged car rental, and an extra 2 hours of driving. It was a hectic enough day that I didn’t shoot anything until dinner. BUT .. all’s well that ends well. Blackened Cajun chicken with potatoes and coleslaw at Earl’s for dinner. It could have been much worse.

The snow I mean. This is my street, captured as I was walking home from the train the night it snowed. It doesn’t look like this now.

.. but then, what would you do?

I sat down on the bus this morning and someone had scrawled some graffiti on the window beside me.

I’ve always been ambivalent on the issue of graffiti. I agree wholeheartedly that as a practice it’s wrong. It’s not about art, it’s about using something that’s not yours to use. It’s not the same as sidewalk chalk artists temporarily using a public space. At best it’s impolite. At worst it’s malicious vandalism.

At the same time, it’s all well and good to refute the practice, but how much consideration is made of the options available to a young person (and graffiti as far as I know is the domain of youth) who has something to express via graffiti?

I wonder what the lifespan is of the average graffiti artist after all? Is it a phase? Something life-long? If they are given the option to express themselves in legitimate circumstances, do they take it or stay where they are?

This might be a stretch to some, but I do not think it that dissimilar when I look at my kids and what it took to get them to understand that books and paper are available for drawing and writing and not the walls. I wonder how long it would have taken (if I could have at all) to get the point across if I hadn’t provided them an outlet for self-expression?

Queensborough Bridge Interchange

My daily commute to and from work takes me through New Westminster and 22nd Street Station. I’ve been meaning for a while to stop and shoot the evening traffic that whirls through and around the interchanges that feed the bridge or route traffic past it. I realized the other night that the early evening sunsets we have this time of year are an opportunity, and not to be cursed. This way I get some night shooting in with a decent amount of traffic. In the summertime, I’d have to hang around until between 10 and 11 pm and there would not be nearly the amount of traffic to create the swirling light trails.

The power of wet snow and wind.

Our cold spells here might be brief but we rarely escape unscathed. I was walking at lunch time and took these pictures of a tree that was downed by all the wet snow and wind. It mangled the sign in front of our business park.

Melissa wanted to take some pictures with her new tiger and the Traveling Trio. “Kitchen Safari” is what we ended up with.

Gumpa and The Boy continue a family tradition.

Michael’s hair has been getting pretty shaggy for a while now – almost Bieber-like. According to the other Parental Unit, “he looks like he has permanent bedhead”.

So I wasn’t surprised to get a request last Friday to have Gumpa get his clippers out and make the boy’s head presentable again.

Dad of course was happy to oblige. Michael doesn’t squirm nearly as much now as he did at 4 years old. It only took about 20 minutes or so and then I got my kitchen back. Michael even helped sweep up his trimmed tresses.

Looking around on Flickr I noticed that there’s quite a few folks posting photos of vintage Fisher Price Little People figurines, the kind I played with when I was ankle-biter myself. I mention this because anyone who has seen the figurines from that era will know right away that the Little People figurines posted here are not from the same time period. Still, it’s fun playing with the tools available to make a faux instamatic like this. I liked how the colours turned out and how much it reminds me of the pictures in my mother’s albums.

As seen on my evening commute home. No one looked twice, even though there’s a snowfall warning out for today for Vancouver and the Lower Mainland. This my friends is why people move here from other parts of Canada. No, not to wear Birkenstocks and socks. Not because we get to mow our lawns in January. Not to join in the eye-rolling as the rest of Canada giggles when their 6 o’clock tv weatherman pokes fun at us for having a warning out for mere snow. No, not just because of these things, but because out here it’s ok to be weird. Nobody cares.