A very basic studio set up in my living room.

Loosing contact as one does I never knew she was such an artist back in high school. Her work is amazing.

I on the other hand had to pull out the old Camera Gear and jury-rig up a studio in the living room to capture her work. It was the first time I had really shot something in over a year. It was fun to get back into the photo groove if only for a morning.

She is having a show at the Gumboot Garden Cafe for the month of July. I’d certainly check it out.

I then met up with another artist type friend. Dan Sullivan (better known as exploding Haggis) who in comparison I have only known for two years and we off to enjoy a bike ride around Gibsons.

I didn’t really start feeling old until I realized that it was Elphiphstone Secondary Grad Night and both myself and Jana graduated in the same gym some 15 years ago.

This is when I really started to feel old. Lucky Dan showed up. I asked if we could jet, before I break a hip and my false teeth fall out.

On the way home I felt the entire day from start to finish was comprised of my past and how easily you are reminded of it.

Chris Young Photography

British-born and Toronto-based photographer Chris Young contacted me about improving his website. He wanted to have a site that was more search-engine friendly, had bigger images to display and something that fit his sense of style and colour scheme.

I showed Chris what I had done with Andy Clark’s site as well as my own and we started on the design process.

Chris wanted the flow of a flash site but none of the drawbacks. So through a process of trial and, admittedly, some error. We found a clean looking site with all the functionality he needed.

Being a freelancer, Chris also wanted a site that would increase visit’s to his site from first-time visitors and hopefully increase sales of some of the spectacular images he has taken.

Making a Splash

Accordion Widget

For some splash pages there are antiquated pieces of the Internet’s past. But for a photographer they do play a key piece of branding as you want to make an impression with your images as soon as possible. I took what I learned from the devious behaviour site and made the entry page one large image that adjusted to the size of the browser. I also did this with CSS and not javascript so it would be compliant across multiple browsers.

I suggested a wide horizontal image and suggested to Chris he use the Stonehenge photo. It is certainly a powerful photo that captures your attention immediately.

My developer Kevin Ganapathy did some programing so that Chris could change his background image from the user interface and not from the confusing FTP.

Playing the Accordion

Chris also wanted some way to hide the thumbnails. So, I took the accordion that I had been using on my own site and Kevin programmed the thumbnails to show up only in the different categories.

We then installed a WordPress blog and styled it toward more of a photo-blog format. Both Chris and I are pretty happy with the results and had a lot of good feedback on the clean aesthetic look.

Frozen Fog one of many image from Native Landscapes

In my former life as a news photographer and I did a fair amount of travel around Western Canada covering the events of the day. So when Joe and Audrey asked me to show my work at the Bump and Grind I was more than happy (it is the closest cafe to my house).

This show was commissioned five years ago for the Bienal Fotosemana, which had photography exhibitions across Bogota, Colombia. I was chosen too as the international guest and showed at Universidad Nacional de Colombia Meseo De Arte, The National University Art Museum.

With the help of Vince over at 49th and Bump and Grind we will be serving the Colombia Timana during the event.

So here is the skinny:

Show: Native Landscapes
Where: Bump and Grind 916 Commercial Drive
When: Saturday, June 13 5:00 – 7:00 pm

Well my summer has been a lot different than the usual tree planter. Instead of working in a camp in the middle of a clear cut, I am working for Bikes on the Drive (BOTD) on Commercial Drive, which is pretty much the center of East Vancouver.

I walked into the shop some months ago and talked with ilan Handelsman, manager of BOTD about telling their story and getting some more traffic to their website. What happened was ilan told me the story of The Tree. A bike conceived by the staff on BOTD out of frustration with the current trends in the commuter bike industry.

Bikes on the Drive Tree

What happened next was truly something amazing. I had one opportunity to convince BOTD that I was the one who should tell the story of The Tree. But to do this I had to explain social networking. The problem is that much like everyone else I didn’t really fully understand social networking in terms of marketing and a return on a shop’s investment. But what I did have was time on my hands.

I sat down and two days later with the help of OmniGraffle I had built a three-page flowchart that somewhat explained social networking to the bike shop and how it could be measured. A full two months after my first conversation I then presented this two month proposal to Tina the shop administrator and owner.

I am happy to say that three weeks ago a three month contract was approved by Bikes on the Drive and I have barely had enough time to do laundry since then. (I said barely).

So we have taken The Tree to the Bike to Work Week BBQ’s, Commuter Stations, Mexico thanks to Bugsy, Critical Mass and the bike is already a Museum Piece and it’s barely two months old.

So far it has been the biggest internet marketing project I have ever taken on. Here is a short list of what we’re working on:

• Microsite dedicated to the bike.
• Bikes on business card
• Magazine display ads
• Domain Purchase and association
• Guerrilla marketing
• Art Directed photo shoot on false creek.
• Photos of every part of Tree Life
• Event promotion and coverage
• Video
• Own Flickr group
• Interview of all staff

And we’re not even into month two of the contract. . .

So unlike the intrepid tree planters of the Canadian wilderness I have been a firmly planted urbanist this summer, promoting one of the coolest projects I have worked on since becoming a web designer.

Jenelle models the Tree on False Creek

The shop managers and owners have been amazing to work with. I have presented ideas and concepts and 9 times out of 10 I hear, “Yes, sure, lets try that!” To be given almost cart blanche to market a product without a laundry list of restrictions has been a dream of a job to work on.

But I could not do this without friends like: Jenelle Schneider who was an awesome model for the photo shoot. Jacob Hopkins who did the photography of the tree on False Creek. My programer Kevin Ganapathy who is a great web developer but also speaks fluent Robert, which means he know what I am talking about most of the time. . .

Will keep you posted on how things are progressing this summer it certainly has been a wild ride this spring.

Atchelitz Hall

Back when I was a kid I used to go to Chilliwack for a number of family functions. These ranged from weddings to anniversaries and funerals. You know, the stuff you were usually dragged to by your parents when you were a kid.

And while there was a huge variety of church’s halls and locations that we used one always stuck out in my mind and only because of my story connected to it.

Atchelitz Hall has been part of the Chilliwack Sardis community since 1924 and part of my life since the early 80s.

And so when I was called to take some pictures and make a five-page website for the Hall, truly it would be my pleasure.

See, when I was about five years old I was taken to a wedding reception at the hall. It was a hot summer night and the front doors of the hall were open to welcome the breeze come off the field of the Fraser Valley and cool off the guests who were dancing up quite the storm upstairs.

Well after all that partying I was a little tuckered out and had a seat on the front steps of the hall. The cool breeze was so nice. Some time later my parents found me sitting up fast asleep, completely balanced and by some mystery of physics I hadn’t fallen down the stairs yet.

Since that story and every time my parents mentioned it as we drove past I have always been quite fond of the hall even if I hadn’t been back in over 15 years. So when I was contacted by the Atchelitz Farmers Institute Hall to build a small website and take some pictures of the hall I was more than happy.

Atchelitz Hall Website

The site is a minimalist approach with a matching color scheme to the outside of the hall. For a savy web user this might seem to be a very basic site, but I believe that websites are supposed to serve a purpose of the user, not the designers ability to design a website. So having a basic photo gallery (which actually has SEO unlike flash based galleries) and a contact page is all they wanted and all they were looking for and are quite happy with the results.

For me it was just a feel good project to work on with a funny bit of history from my childhood and a chance to visit with some relatives I hadn’t seen in awhile. What more could you want out of a day in the valley?

Critical Mass stops at Granville Bridge no problem here

When I first moved back to Vancouver I  heard about critical mass and thought it was a great idea and while there has been a little bit of controversy over the years you just can’t stop 1,000+ people who want to ride down the city streets. I finally afforded a bike last fall and I took it to an awesome mass bike ride that end on the drive. The drivers seem to know what was going on and were more or less co-habiting with the biking masses of Vancouver and wow what a great way to see the city. A nice leisurely pace, a few hills and beautiful weather.

While we had a brutal spring, I was really looking for a nice relaxing ride through the city.

I had a few issues with this last ride. Frist there seemed to be a number of angry drivers who want 1,000 bicyclists to just stop what they were doing, not really that easy, hence the name critical mass.

Nice View Conflicted Feelings

Also while being a corker on the Robson St. hill, heading westbound a woman wanted me to stop the entire parade so she could cross the street… She fully supported the movement but yet couldn’t wait the five minutes for bikes to pass. She was horribly inconvenienced and getting quite agitated while this was a movement she fully supported?

On the other hand I always liked the mantra we’re not blocking traffic we are traffic. Hey drivers, don’t get annoyed with our so-called protest if you can’t share the road, but blocking the Lions Gate Bridge in both directions to smoke a bowl really didn’t sit well with me either. ‘Cuz regardless of whether your bike or a car blocking a main bridge for a 1/2 hour just isn’t cool regardless of who or what you are.

If any Critical Mass feels the need to block the Lions Gate Bridge I will not be part of it.

In Conclusion

So drivers remember we only do this once a month for a couple of hours on a Friday night and it is actually a very liberating thing and you should try it out.

Critical Mass is intended to be a celebration, not an opportunity to cause trouble. Those who want to try to tie up traffic as much as possible and be confrontational with motorists are missing the point. Remember we’re not blocking traffic we are traffic. I am sure we can all enjoy this amazing city together…

See you at the next mass

Powered by WordPress

But I took the writing for the web course in stride and had to sign up for a WordPress.com account. I decided to write on coffee as it was close to home, easy to write about and a popular topic. My class only required me to write 12 posts, but after those 12 posts I saw the power of blogging and had 1,200 unique page views and a number of comments about the blog.

So I really started to take the WordPress blog seriously about that time and got a domain name and style that fit and the readership continued to grow. WordPress was growing right along with my own blog, the two seem to feed off each other (no pun intended).

When I started to see other blogs link to mine in some authority I knew I was on to something. So what to do? Well the first thing was to make the blog self hosted and, well, that was the hardest part. But, it was also important to keep the blog looking the same. I picked the Freshy theme by Julien De Luca as it was one of the 16 different themes available to WordPress.com users at the time. While I could make a change when I moved the blog why change? As it works for me and the readers seem to like it. (p.s. the theme I am using here is a highly customized Orange Coffee)

Change is a good thing…I think…

While WordPress had designed a way to take your content with you when I moved it wasn’t that easy. I had three issues with my content moving:

• I wanted to keep my old Freshy theme and while it was still available for download it wasn’t optimized for WordPress 2.7
• My old content from WordPress 2.1 didn’t format that well into WordPress 2.7 So if I wanted to edit any of my old content I essentially had to re-align the entire post.
• All of media, pictures and video had to be manually copied from the wordpress.com site and uploaded to the new server while persevering the perma-links.

Yeah this totally wasn’t that easy and I would never suggest trying to do this and I am sure there are easier ways to go about this but just not to me and not at this time.

When moving call friends

But with any move you need to enlist the help of some good friends and I really couldn’t have done this without the help of:

• CSS guru Jeff Hifner.
• My service provider Site 5.
• Developer Kevin Ganapathy of Second Sites Communications • WordPress Plugin Developer Dylan Kuhn at the Cyber Hobo• And of course my awesome, awesome editor Stefania Seccia

So what is new?

Better Cafe Reviews

Lattes and Laptops

The whole essence of this blog is to pass on the most accurate information I can. I’ve done some minor editing of archived posts but only to keep information current as some of those old posts are damn popular.

Interactive Map

I always liked maps especially when they are interactive so now you can find a visual representation of the great cafes (in my humble opinion) via this map. Just click on the cafe review icon to bring up the review of that café.

Our Mantra

I really like to show people where I am coming from when I write a review or give my opinion. This page is after two years of coffee knowledge, what we at the Indy Coffee Scene and what I rate on. Also a code of ethics for users to see where we’re coming from and what we look for, and once advertising appears on the site, what type will be allowed.

Coffee Terms

Well I decided to stake my claim on this lexicon and collect over 100 coffee terms that are currently used in Vancouver.

Social Media

We have also joined twitter so you can follow us at coffeevancouver. We have a flickr group called (Vancouver Indy Coffee) where we’re posting some awesome coffee photos.

Etana and Robert, Photo by Laia Prats, used with permission

Robert Caplin is someone I have only met once, you might say we run in the same circles just in different end of the continent. I first talked Robert when we were both member of the sportsshooter.com. What I learn about Robert back then was when does something he does it right. Big big or go go home. . . Well Robert always goes big. Like the time Robert entered to win a Jack Gruber autographed monopod cover from the Salt Lake City Olympics. Robert set his lawn on fire to spell Jack’s name. Yes, he did get the monopod cover, but anyone who goes to that length for a monopod cover, must be dedicated to photography, Caplin is and it shows. He now lives in New York city after graduating school and having internships with LA Times and NY Times. I have always been impressed with his work. He is a gifted individual with telling a story through the lens of his camera.

Game changing

When the Canon 5D MKII,(the one that shoots 1080p video) was released, we all saw what could be done with this new hybrid of the digital age in  Vincent Laforet’s Reverie. But he had helicopters, car mounts, lights, and some resources that most people just don’t have. No doubt it is an impressive camera when put into the hands of some one who is truly a master of the craft. I though Vincent’s video was truly ground breaking and game changing. I though How hard it would be to put something like that together with limited equipments funds and budgets.

Home Video

Caplin came through to answer this question for me. He and his sister produced quite the amazing video with the same Canon 5D MKII camera. He writes in a story for sportsshooter.com that all he used was four people and a iPhone to produce this video.

The production of the video consisted of four people in total:
• Myself as ‘the cameraman’
• Etana, as ‘the talent’
• My Step-Mom as ‘the help’
• My Girlfriend Laia as ‘the producer’
Robert Caplin

He also shot the entire video in natural light, and some fast lenses (aperature f2.8 or faster) and used a reflector on just one shot. This is where the future of the industry is going where stills and video mashing up into a one solid visual artist.

Etana

Did I meantion that Etana is just a high school student who wrote this song herself and is only 15 years old? I also showed this video to a friend of mine who though this video was shot by a recording studio on location with a large crew. She did get the vocals recorded in the studio and  then added some musical accompaniment to help fill out the song, but truly it was just a family affair.

Now we all don’t have New York based awarding winning photographers as brothers, who can put us in a music video in Time Square, but  but don’t let that dismay you! Why I am showcasing this amazing video because I don’t believe it is out of reach of any photographer with a little dedication.

You can also video the behind the scenes footage of the video on how they used that iPhone too, and true to form Caplin makes an appearance at the end which captures him quite well I think!!!

Clarkfoto.ca

Blast through the next 7 years and I am having coffee with Andy, outside Reuters’ Vancouver office.  We chatted about my new career of web design, the internet and Andy mentioned that he never really had a website to call his own.

I had mentioned a content management system called Pixelpost, which was an open source and developed mainly by Europeans (how very haute couture) and wasn’t all that known in these parts.  I loved the slick user interface and I showed it to Andy and within moments I was contracted to do his website. Wow I thought, I am actually making Andy Clark’s website. This is the stuff dreams are made of. Or at least the direction I wanted to take my web design, knowing what most news photographers want in one.

And now the hard work

It took some recoding of the original source code and some help from Piotr Galas, one of the developers of Pixelpost, but six months after we had developed the concept, Andy had a categorized portfolio site he could update at his leisure. After a few tweaks and reviews from a few other sage photographers we launched the site on January 12th and the next day we had Rob Galbraith.com linking to the site.

The Result

Clarkfoto.ca had 2,000 visitors in just one day and blew through 10 gigs of bandwidth in a week.  This is a great start for a veteran photographer of the Canadian news industry, and visits have been steady 300 to 400 a week since, which makes Andy one pretty happy fellow.

“I was very pleased with how Robert took my somewhat hazy idea of what the website should look like and transformed it into to exactly what I was looking for….very nice job indeed”

Andy Clark

Andy also has a blog, which I bet he will muse about shooting cricket, leica lexicon, curling, etc. . .  but don’t listen to my bias opinion read it for yourself.

Apple Store Opening in Vancouver is met with great fan fair

The Apple Store before the rush

Yes this is the line up for the free T-shirt

Yup the line goes out the door and around the corner

Over all I was impressed with the Apple Store and welcome it to Vancouver. It is sorely needed.

Here is a video of the opening

All photography is copyright ©2008 Robert Dall – all rights reserved – No reproduction of any form without expressed written permission.