Last weekend I headed down to Grouse Mountain and did some night riding for Mel's birthday. Grouse is located in the mountains around the city of Vancouver giving an amazing view of the skyline while you enjoying some night skiing. I was a bit skeptical when the idea of night skiing at Grouse was first floated. Understandable, why would a group of Whistler locals want to drive away from the best Mountain in North America to visit a local mountain with only two lifts and a handful of runs open at night.....and to top it off a storm was bearing down on whistler promising to bring 12+ inches of new snow.

As it turns out Grouse Mountain is a great time if you want to mix a bit of skiing with some late night festivities. The group had a great time messing around on different equipment (a handful kept it real with snowblades). And then we danced the evening away while still in our ski/snowboard gear....including boots. While the Polaroids have been censored to protect certain parties I did receive permission to release a few photos.

Continue...

A new year has arrived and it seems like a good time to post some pictures from the past month. I was slacking in blog posts for the month of December so I have pictures from Whistler, Vancouver, and Christmas with the family in SF to show you. I should also have some designs and a soundtrack to my life to share with you in the coming weeks. I hope everyone is looking forward to a creative 2008.

Continue...

New Mexico is dry and dominated by the colors brown, red, and yellow. I learned that and a few others thing over the past five days while I was visiting my Mom in Albuquerque. My sister Yasha also joined us for a few days making a family reunion out of it. It's was great to spend a few days living with my sis' and Mom, almost like being a kid again.

When I was not laid up by the flu, which combination with the natural desert dryness was not fun, we spent time walking through the desert, visiting healers, and catching up with each other. My Mom has an article about the statue on top of the US Capital, Lady Freedom, that is being published next month in the US Capital Historical Society Magazine. And Yasha is getting ready to go to Miami for Bridge Art Fair, as well as pondering her future and weather it should be spoken in French, Italian, or German.

The shades of New Mexico also turned out pretty well through the lens of my camera. Here are a few photos taken over the past 5 days in Abq.

Continue...

Hiking is an activity I've been overlooking a great deal in the past few years. As a kid my father would take my sister and I for regular hikes in the East Bay hills, occasionally we would even motivate to get over to Marin and explore a coastal trail. With a bit more free time and my impending departure from San Francisco, for an extended trip, I've been reacquainting myself with some of these hikes.

Using my childhood memories of hiking locations and the Bay Area Hiker website I've been exploring trails all over; reservoirs paths on the Peninsula, trails that terminate into the Pacific in Marin, and Eucalyptus covered paths in the Berkeley hills. On most of them I've been snapping away with a camera and I thought I share a few photos with you.

Continue...

Conde Nast Traveler is having a "Live The Cover" great travel memories contest. You upload a photo and an explanation of what made that moment so unforgettable. Having done my fair share of traveling and photography over the past few years I decided to submit three photos. It also does not hurt that the winner gets a free vacation to the Maldives, one of my dream destinations. The rest of this blog entry has my photos and descriptions but I would also encourage you to go over to their web site and vote for my entries (and Kenny submitted a few as well).

Continue...

I spent a recent weekend in Albuquerque visiting my Mom. The weekend was spent visiting with the animals on the farm, going on short walks in the high desert and even getting up over 10,000 feet on the worlds longest aerial tramway. Check out the photos I took with my new lens.

Continue...

Being injured is a difficult thing, especially when your sport is nature dependent like surfing. Last weekend things warmed up in San Francisco and the surf look pretty good. Unfortunately, I've been nursing a bad back so I was forced to sit on the sidelines and watch. Luckily for me my highly anticipated new camera lens (Nikon 18-200VR) had arrived last week. This gave me a change to enjoy the beach and take some time to play with my new lens. I'm so used to rushing into the water, scrambling into my wetsuit and spiriting across the sand that it was nice to slow down and take in the nuances of the beach. I shot weird rips in the water, the texture on the sand, and of course perfect waves that I mind surfed as I snapped the shutter. Enjoy!

Continue...