Category: photos

when did Halloween get … BIG?

On By Rick McIn humour, photos, traveloguesLeave a comment

This was a dying excuse for an annual holiday. No?

A symbol of excess and needless consumer spending hyped by Wal-Mart and the dental industry?

Yet Halloween is HUGE in Vegas. (Masks no longer allowed in Casinos, though.)

I enjoyed the party hosted by Tom and Karen Otjes, escapees from frozen Canada. We were coaching colleagues in Calgary for years. Now Tom is Head Coach of Cirque du Soleil’s “O” at the Bellagio, the company’s largest production.

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more photos from the party on Flickr

Meanwhile, in Saskatoon, disguised partiers raced around town in taxi-vans attempting to “beg, borrow or trick our way into getting strangers to give us stuff. Nothing counted if we didn’t get it on video tape.”

In this likely illegal contest, Warren’s team won.

photos of the revelry – Warren Long

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» next travelogue post on this trip – Le Halloween est Mort

hiking Mt. Shasta California

On By Rick McIn blogs, hiking, photos, travel, traveloguesLeave a comment

Thanks to Tom Mangan, a hiking blogger from San Jose, I travelled to the first annual outdoor bloggers meetup. Tom put together a nice photo report on the weekend.

Tom first collected myself and Szu-ting Yi (a Taiwanese blogger living in Philadelphia) from the airport, then drove us 5hrs to gorgeous Mt. Shasta to rendezvous with the rest of the gang.

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larger version

Though strangers, we had much in common — the outdoors and the internet.

Russ the Wine Hiker supplied us with great reds and prepared gourmet Thai food. The best meal I ever ate around a campfire. Though he knows the lyrics, I am quite sure he never actually toured with the Eagles.

Tom Chandler (Trout Underground) and his wife Nancy provided the local information — they live in Shasta — though we did not find time for Tom to teach me to fly fish. Perhaps he was worried I might be a natural Brad-Pitt-River-Runs-Through-It-type and make it look too easy.

The hard-core hiker amongst us was techie John Fedak who lives down the street from Apple Computer (but works mostly for Intel). John’s a blogger — but his forte is photography. Check some of his favourite pics.

Lastly, Adam and his almost-3-year-old son kept up to the rest of us on the trail. Adam is a climber who loves Mt. Shasta. He blogs as climb_ca on GoBlog which supports the GetOutdoors.com — everything you need to GetOutdoors.

Photos of camping, fishing, drinking, dining and even some hiking on Flickr.

» next travelogue post on this trip – San Francisco?

boating Alberni Inlet with Dad

On By Rick McIn McCharles family, photos, travel, traveloguesLeave a comment

It was too late to fish — the (poor) fishing season had ended — but Dad thought we might run his boat for a couple of hours then take it in to be winterized.

The Fall weather was so good he decided to leave it at the marina in Port Alberni for at least one more trip.

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more photos on FlickR

» next travelogue post on this trip – thanks Stacey, thanks Bevan

Parksville, BC in the Fall

On By Rick McIn McCharles family, photos, travel, traveloguesLeave a comment

Grabbed a chance to visit my parents at the new house in quaint Parksville on the east coast of Vancouver Island. We had great weather for the end of September!

This was the start of 5 weeks on the road.

I posted a few photos of the trip on Flickr — click “view as slideshow” to see them.

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» next travelogue post on this trip – Arthur Black – comedian

Cartwrights hike Lake O’Hara

On By Rick McIn hiking, photos, travelLeave a comment

It was pouring rain on what I thought was my last hiking weekend of the year. Rocco and I cancelled.

But the following September weekend turned clear. I insisted on joining the Cartwright clan on their annual Lake O’Hara adventure. This was the 14th year for Judith Cartwright. Her husband Rob was chief organizer.

Turned out that 6 of 7 siblings were able to make it up to the mountains with various family members and a few (how did they get invited?) friends. What a turn-out!

100_4585-crop.jpgClick on the thumbnail photo for a (slow loading) larger version or see all full resolution photos on Flickr.

We were there for the spectacle of the changing of the Alpine Larch from green to golden yellow. This signals the start of winter in the Canadian Rockies.

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details on how to organize a hike to O’Hara – besthike.com

Bangkok military coup – 20th Sept.

On By Rick McIn government, photos, travelLeave a comment

“… the incongruity of the festive atmosphere amidst a coup d’etat.”

Bangkok looks pretty relaxed so far. Thai tourists are not fleeing.

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photo originally uploaded by Dan Caspersz.

More photos from Thailand

“geotagging” photos in Flickr – update

On By Rick McIn photos, travelLeave a comment

Update:

The Jelbert GeoTagger device records the latitude and longitude and compass direction of every photo you take. …

GeoTagger Adds Positioning Info to Snapshots – Slashdot

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There is some cool stuff happening on that there internet.

I love all the map mash-ups.

For example, when I post a photo to my Flickr account, I can tag it with the exact location it was taken. It is automatically posted to my personal photo map of the world.

For example, here’s the map of 6 photos I took near the Mississippi River in St. Paul:

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If you have plenty of extra time, you might want to play with these new mapping toys.

But working with photos in Flickr can be painfully slow and a bit buggy. A desktop client would be better.

I may wait until the GPS in my (future) camera does the job without me manually having to tag each picture.

FlickrBlog
Great shot – where’d you take that?

book – a decade of Burning Man photos

On By Rick McIn books, photos, travelLeave a comment

This may be the closest I ever get to the famous desert festival.

Barbara Traub’s new book Desert to Dream is an unprecedented photographic record of a decade of Burning Man celebrations. Contributions from filmmaker Les Blank, Burning Man founder Larry Harvey, Leonard Nimoy and beat poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti …

10 Years of Burning Man – photos – Wired magazine

If interested in the book for one of your alternative friends:

A Decade of Burning Man Photography
Desert to Dream: A Decade of Burning Man Photography