35mm

Millstone project - December

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Photo studies around Bowen Park. My plan is to start shooting tests on 16mm colour film in January.

I had taken a picture of a tree growing out and over the river back in November. I didn’t know that would be a “before” shot. Now there’s an “after” (post-atmospheric river) shot of it snapped off.

I wonder if that’s the same heron that I photographed in November?

Millstone River

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I took some photos around the Millstone River and Bowen Park in Nanaimo after my project proposal to shoot make a film that documents one year of the Millstone was shortlisted for the Temporary Public Art Program. I found out that the project was picked to go ahead on November 16. The next day we had our second baby.

DRAO

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The Dominion Radio Astrophysical Observatory (DRAO) is located in a radio-quiet zone in the South Okanagan situated between Penticton and Oliver. The DRAO is a National Research Council site home to several massive telescopes including Canada’s largest radio telescope Canadian Hydrogen Intensity Mapping Experiment (CHIME), which consists of four 100m long 20m wide cylindrical reflector antennae. In addition to CHIME, the Synthesis Telescope is an array of seven 9m wide antennae on tracks that studies the interstellar medium of the milky way and nearby galaxies. The smaller, solid-surface dish Solar Radio Flux Monitor tracks the sun’s movement across the sky and produces space weather data that is used for a variety of purposes, for example, with commercial airlines, flights will be grounded if a solar storm is detected (also pictured, the data collection shed). The centre-piece of DRAO is the monumental John A. Galt telescope, a 26m wide dish that has been used in the Very Long Baseline interferometry (VLBI), a process that involves multiple radio telescopes collecting a signal from an astronomical source by acting as a single telescope the size of the distance between the smaller ones (VLBI was used to create the first image of black hole in April). Also pictured, a couple shots from the completely sound-proof room housed in the main lab building.

Bush sculpture

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A few views of a work-in-progress sculpture installed in the forest near my barn studio at Kinkora Golf Course in Chilliwack. Each level is an equilateral triangle, approximately 32” per side, that consists of one bag 30kg concrete mix. The plan is to finish add several more levels before the end of the summer.

Merritt clay banks

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Picked up some clay along the Nicola with my dad. He’s been making his own ceramics since he retired from teaching and moved to Merritt 10 years ago. The banks are slowly being eroded by the river, but there’s some nice clay deposits there if you pick through the silty stuff.

Stag

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Before my wedding, I went with my brother-in-law, Gary, along with Pietro and Genta, a couple of friends from the city, to a cabin my parents share with their friends on Peterson Lake, just off the 97C. The lake is close to Pennask Lake, a popular spot for fishing, and Rouse Lake, which is a short walk away on an old forestry road where they keep an old rowboat locked up. The second day we were there, Dwayne and Braden, a couple of old friends came with Braden’s giant canoe, that had been used at the 2010 Olympic opening ceremonies.