the.[ED]ition

I wasn’t a big fan of the Original Fake Chomper hoodies because I thought they looked rather awkward but this collaboration between Original Fake (made by American artist KAWS) and Gallery 1950 is just about the coolest messenger bag I’ve ever seen. I’ve got to see if I can get my hands on one of these.

The bad news is…they’re probably only available in Japan (although there are Original Fake dealers and stores elsewhere) and they’re around $250. The good news is…I’m headed for Japan this summer.

There’s been so many hot kicks released lately and, well, it’s hard to resist when they’re relatively limited and tough to get. I’m not much of a shoe collector since I think shoes are for…wearing and not keeping pristine in a box but I do keep up with new releases and buy when they’re awesome and reasonably priced. There’s plenty of great looking sneakers out there but quite often, limited editions are absurdly priced. I mean, look at these $4000 Nike Dunks, for example.

I dropped by one of my favorite places in Vancouver today, Livestock, and picked up both of these. They’re a collaboration between Puma and Yo! MTV Raps, sneakers inspired by groundbreaking old school hip-hop artists like Dr. Dre, Ed Lover and Big Daddy Kane. The pairs that I bought were inspired by MC Shan and Doug E. Fresh.

The Doug E. Fresh are a combination of suede and patent leather. I usually hate patent leather because it’s too damned shiny and shows wear very easily but a little bit of it is usually alright. The clouds are inspired by the song All The Way To Heaven, which is written on the inner lining.

The Shan’s are really interesting because the left and right shoe are inverse with a graphic of the Queensborough Bridge. Mixing and matching shoes was MC Shan’s trademark style, after all.

The others are really nice too. The Kane’s, for example, are covered in pimp chains and the DJ Cash Money is…well, green.

It was a lazy Sunday afternoon and most of my friends were playing golf. Not that golf isn’t fun and I wouldn’t mind taking it up but I have too many expensive hobbies as it is. Cars, computers and generally being awesome isn’t cheap. Neither is photography so this past Sunday, I decided to go get some more practice with my new camera. Fortunately, one of the my favorite stores in Vancouver, Livestock, was holding a block party downtown with live DJs, a mini-skateboard ramp and food.

I arrived a bit after 2pm when the crowd was just starting to form. By the time I left at around 4:30, the entire street was incredibly crowded and that half-pipe had about 10 people on each side. It grew increasingly more difficult to take pictures with so many people in front of you and people were playing it safer on the ramp since the population doubled. Not to mention that the garbage strike was still on in Vancouver so anytime you’re near an alley, the smell begins to get to you.

Either way, there was some great music from a fantastic list of DJs and a lot of friendly people around so it was a good time. I actually wish I stayed longer since some fellow photographers told me they showed up around the time I left.

Here’s some shots I took of the half-pipe. Click ‘em for bigger ones.

And I can’t ever seem to leave Gastown without buying something. On Sunday, I picked up a couple new t-shirts. This one was made by Livestock specifically for that day.

And this is an unreleased Subdivision X N.S.B.Q. collaboration that I convinced SUBDVN owner Anthony to sell me before anyone else. It looks damned awesome and the lower half of the back side is half of a Chinese chess board signed by N.S.B.Q. artist MC Yan, a Hong Kong graffiti artist, probably best known as a former member of rap group LMF and for his design work with CLOT and Phillippe Starck to name a few.

Only 50 of this particular shirt will be made worldwide.

If there’s one thing that’s awesome about Oregon, it’s not having to pay taxes. I hate paying taxes…mostly because it means you have to do math in your head to figure out the true cost of anything but also…well, it just feels like you’re paying more than you actually should. Either way, being anywhere in the state of Oregon (where I’m actually not welcome…but…shhhh!) means you don’t have to pay any sales tax on anything. Naturally, that means I had to buy stuff.

I really didn’t need anything to be honest but it’s hard to argue with low prices (due to the high value of the Canadian dollar). I picked up a new watch, one of those self-winding-when-you-move doohickies. I forgot to turn the flash off on my camera but I assure you it’s all black.

I also grabbed this book from Banksy, since Banksy is awesome.

And some shoes. They’re out in the car but here’s…generally what they look like. Another pair of AirMax 360s and some Dunk/Presto hybrids that we have in Vancouver but at three times the price.

Anyways, I’ll be back home tomorrow and blogging will resume as normal. Let me take this time to remind you to enter our Name Our Hockey Blog contest. There are currently 96 e-mails sitting at hockeyblogideas@yahoo.com and it’s growing by the day. Not a bad number of entries for 6 days although three of you have been particularly diligent. Michael and I thank you for your support.

Blogging is awkward and lacks personality when it’s forced or rushed and to me, photography is much the same way. Of course it’s best to get a shot than miss the opportunity completely but when given time to compose and plan, it is far better to think it out and create something rather than firing off as many as possible, hoping you’ll get a hit. Personally, I call this the “machine gun method”, which I’ve used many times in sports photography when composing a shot is difficult due to the speed and variation of movement on the part of the subjects. Early in my experience, I would simply follow players around with my telephotos, wait for something interesting to happen and then hold down the shutter, firing off a flurry of shots. This usually creates a bit of a slideshow and sometimes you’ll capture the action, sometimes it’s nothing. However, when things aren’t moving so fast and you won’t miss the action if you think for more than a second, it’s better to slow things down.

Let me explain. I’ve been wanting to replace the banner image above with something else. After nine months at the top of my blog, Floating Ball Man (as I like to call the popular street performer from Paris) is getting a bit dusty. I wanted to create an original image specifically for that spot…something wide angle. I wanted an urban cityscape from a low or eye-level angle from close up (not a distant shot of all of Vancouver, if that’s what you’re imagining) since I think that describes me and my home. I wanted it to be somewhat busy but also clean so it looks modern. I also wanted some entertainment landmarks since for the most part, elements of entertainment is the biggest part of my blog. I also thought I’ll need a bit of dead space on the left side so the site’s name pops on the top corner of the banner.

Again, a photography project like this takes time and when you got it, it’s best to use all the time you’ve got to think and see. Some people think that the actual taking of the picture is the only step when it comes to photography but in truth, it’s not the first step…heck, I don’t even think it’s near the middle. You have to do your homework on locations that you have no control over such as an urban landscape.

What time is the natural lighting best?

When is there the right amount of traffic?

Are there aggressive bums in the area that will attack me for five grand worth of camera equipment strapped to my back?

All these things should be taken into consideration. If sports photography (for me at least) is like being a machine gunner, this would be more like being a recon sniper. It’s better to be patient and plan the shot than to miss your target. I’d like to say “one shot, one kill” but hey, in reality, I’m going to be taking a hundred, if not more, shots of the same subject…even if it’s not at machine gun speed.

So I went on foot today around the streets I thought would be ideal. I found and marked several places around the city on my PDA using Microsoft Pocket Streets but being summer, it’s actually rather difficult to get proper lighting. For the most part, you want the sun to be in a low position so you get dramatic shadows and so the colors aren’t washed out. Other times, you want the place to be pitch black and illuminated only by street lights and neons but since the sun is in the sky for so damned long during the summer, you have a very short timeframe to work. I also wanted an interesting car in the frame but that’s a bit of a toss-up. Since it’s city parallel parking, it’s more than a little difficult to position my own car in an ideal position. If I’m going to put my little Mazda in it for a bit more personalization, I’ll need to get really lucky or get some outside help.

However, I do have most of the preliminary work and the ideas of the frames in my head to work off of so it’s a start. Hopefully, I’ll have a cool banner image (perhaps a bit of an overall redesign) up there. This might take me awhile but truthfully, it usually takes a long time. Some of my friends always ask why it takes so long for me to show pictures and why I don’t show them all. Well, I probably release a very small percentage just because I don’t want to put out something subpar that I’m not proud of. I’d rather take a long time than end up with a product I don’t like but I’m feeling pretty good about this one so far. I’ve also got a few sports pictures from a hockey game I’ll show sometimes this week coming up.

Today wasn’t all fun and games though. I mean, afterwards I had to get down to the serious business of…uh…buying…cool t-shirts. Yeah, it was rough work.