X2

A great review of the new Leica X2 here.

Election Night

As elections go, what a great election to cover. It was the first real election race in Alberta that I have ever covered. Usually, the polls close at 8 pm and the PC party is declared the winner at 8:01. But this year was a little different with the surge of the Wildrose party. Election day came and I chose to cover Alison Redford and the PC Alberta party. Some photos from the day.

Sikh Temple

Another campaign stop at the Sikh Temple in Calgary. The lunch smelled amazing, wish we had time to eat there.

Final Stretch

We are in the home stretch in Alberta, the election campaign in coming to a close and I have one more full day on the trail. With current Alberta premier Alison Redford today, and I will visit both camps tomorrow the day before the vote. If I can say one thing, it’s go vote. I have been to countries where people have died for the right to vote, we have it easy in this country, 2 minutes and your done.

Vatican Tour

Went on the tourist tour of the Vatican last week when I was in Rome, incredible art, architecture. Packed with tourists (Easter Week) but worth it. Need to go back and spend a whole day and get lost in there.

(Click on any photo to make it larger, or click on the first one for a slide show from start to finish.)

iPhone Portraits.

Two portraits from the Alberta campaign trail today.

Silver & Light

Check out this video, great video, unbelievably great photographer. Silver & Light.

Flour, water and yeast

I still find it amazing that you can combine 3 simply ingredients and get something as beautiful as a loaf of bread. This is my recipe for a great loaf of bread. It takes time, but oh so worth it. This is from Jim Lahey’s book My Bread, and his bakery in New York, the Sullivan Street Bakery. Lahey has searched for great bread in Europe, and one of his favorite places is Forno Campo de Fiori in Rome. I will be in Rome later this week, and this will be one of my first stops. If you want to see a great video on making bread, check this out as well at the New York Times web site.

My method is very similar to the video. I use.

3 cups of flour

1 1/3 Cup of water

1/4 teaspoon active dry yeast

1/2 teaspoon of salt

I mix all ingredients together in a bowl for only 30-45 secs until it’s a ball of dough.

I cover it with a tea towel and let it sit for 18 hours. (Yes, for bread on Sunday you have to start Saturday)

2 hours before you will cook it, I take it out of the bowl, and make the dough into a ball on a lightly floured surface.

I wrap the dough into a ball again and dust it with cornmeal so it doesn’t stick to the towel, which I wrap around the dough.

I let it raise for another 1-2 hours.

30 mins before it should go into the oven, I pre-heat the oven to 475 degrees, with a 5 litre heavy pot, like a http://www.lecreuset.ca

After 30 mins, I take out the pot, put the bread in upside down so the seem faces up, cover the pot and put it back in the over to cook for 30 mins. After 30 mins, I remove the lid and then bake for another 20 mins until the bread is a chestnut brown. (CAUTION: This pot will get super, super hot, use heavy oven gloves when doing this.)

I then take the bread out and let it cool on a rack. After 30 mins, Enjoy.

Getty LA

At the Getty Museum, Los Angeles.

Night Magic

Just when I really don’t pay attention to this whole digital world in photography, I do something that really opens my eyes to how different photography is now in the digital age. I still love the tactile quality of film, but shooting an assignment like I had last night would have never worked in the old film world. I am sure by now you have all heard of the massive solar flare that spouted off a few days ago, and last night was supposed to be prime viewing of the Aurora borealis, or Northern lights up here in Canada. So I set off after dark to go hunting for the elusive lights. Soon out of the bright lights of Calgary, it was clear that the night skies were not going to be so clear last night. Clouds everywhere. So much so, you could not even see the full moon that also had risen. After an hour of driving east of the city in hopes that the cloud cover would break, no luck. But on a road side bathroom break, a sliver of light started to break out from the full moon. I pulled out my Nikon D3s and 24mm F/1.4 lens and decided I’d try to take a landscape photo of the full moon. After the first exposure and a few adjustments, bazinga.

It’s really amazing how much brighter this looks like than what the human eye actually can see. With the added luck of a truck driving by and the lights from his tail lights, I decided no use in just going home, I was going to explore what else I could photograph in the dark.

The above photo was looking East, and the bottom photo was looking West.

Nikon D3s, 24mm F/1.4 lens, Exposure 30seconds @ F/4.

 

In the end I could see no northern lights, but ended up seeing more than I bargained for.

 

Rosebud, Alberta