Urban Vancouver

I’ve been photographing Jessie Farrell and her band for almost 2 years now. Taking pictures of Jessie was how I first got into photography. I started taking pictures at gigs, her first music video (in which I made a brief cameo as a pink hatted fiddler), her big CD release, and all the moments in between & that time we went to Jamaica (that was weird that we went there).

I was so tentative and unsure of my ability at first because I didn’t know anything about photography or dSLRs in general, let alone the technical skills required to take that money shot. When I look at my old shots, I’m so embarrassed at the settings I used. But that’s how I learnt, by experimenting with settings, taking thousands of shots, and basically falling in love with the process of taking photographs. That’s what I love. Just hanging back behind the scenes and capturing subtle candid moments of people, animals, even nature. I rarely, if ever, leave my apartment without my camera. It’s basically a part of me. Gosh, this is beginning to sound sappy. Uh. Brief pause… and resume…

I almost never get to see Jessie Farrell et al. perform live, because they are on the road so much in far off Canadian places, so I was really excited to catch their performance at Festival 150 in Victoria, BC. This might be the reason I took 1000 or so photos. Eek, I know. My Air is gasping for… well.. air.

Kylee Epp.

I also blame the Canon 70-200mm IS f/2.8 lens I rented again. It has such a delicious sweet spot that makes me swoon when I hit it. Wait. That sounded bad. I’m not sexualizing photography… Ever. Stop. I’m blushing. Actually, I’m just super sunburnt because I literally have the skin tone of a sickly vampire who spends all day & night on a computer like IMing and pirating shizz.

Anyway, I supposed to be taking a little break from my blog and the computer this week, as I’ve totally done in my neck. My computer over-use injury is back with a vengence.

Ok. Ok. I’m getting off the computer now… Don’t be mad.

Jessie was recently nominated for 7 Canadian Country Music Awards, including Best Female Artist, Album, Song, Songwriter of the Year & Best Selling Album. She is also nominated for Fan’s Choice award so if you are a fan, Vote for Jessie here. Additionally, 3 of her band members were nominated for the best performers in their categories: Ryland Haggis for Bass Player of the Year; Jesse Tucker for guitar player of the year; and Jesse Godin for drummer of the year.

Ryland Haggis.

Jessie Godin.

L-R: Jesse Tucker, Kylee Epp, Jessie Farrell, Jesse Godin, Ryland Haggis.

I’m currently in negotiations with them to start my throw-back 80s, futurist/emo/punk/rock/folk/singer/songwriter band. It’s a real mix of genres, but I’m covering them all to please that fickle, yet predictable the Gen “i”.

1-2-3-4, I’m seeing Feist tomorrow! Who’s coming?

And my question to photographers and blossoming photogs:
How did you get into photography? What or who was your muse?

If you listen to TWIP, you’ll know about Fredrick Van & Scott Bourne’s on-going Adobe’s Lightroom vs Apple’s Aperture debate. Scott swears by Aperture and at Lightroom & Fred’s sweet on LR2.

It’s quite childish really, considering Scott just abandoned Canon for the Nikon D3. hmph! Plus, who starts arguments over technogeeky topics? No one that I know personally, as in not being that person directly. Huh? Exactly. I’ve discombobulated you have I?

When I was down in SF visiting the TWIP team, I was put in the hot seat and forced to pick a side. But, the truth was, I had never used either Aperture or Lightroom. And so a challenge began between Scott & Fred to see which of these two powerful photo editing and management tools would win my little n00b heart.

I’m installing LR2 this very moment and am really pumped about the new features Adobe is offering in this latest update. For more info, check out Fred’s LR2 post. I’m also excited about starting to shoot more in RAW. I think it is the only way of getting the quality, sharpness, and perfect lighting I want in my photos.

My only concern with Lightroom is how it will work with iPhoto as we all know iPhoto and Adobe aren’t the greatest of pals and the interface doesn’t look as clean and apple-icious as Aperture. But, beyond that, I have no leanings towards either, so I am coming into this challenge completely unbiased. Though Fred is pulling out all the stops with his traffic-stopping smile!

If you want to check out Adobe Lightroom 2, you can download a 30 day trial here.

… usual hi-jinks ensue. Those Brits sure know how to make some sweet rides. Nemesis was definitely the big daddy, with Oblivion close behind. I’m glad I ate my huge portion of Fish and Chips after riding the big guns. Though my stomach was no so stoked about the combination of mushy peas and the hardcore Nutty Squirrel ride.

Oh & check out my Alton Towers Flickr photo set.

PS. I used almost every iLife iMovie packaged tune in the making of this vid. I hope I used alll your favs. Hoorah for Roller Derby!

PPS. Still dusting and tweaking a few things on ze blog at the moment. Pasquale helped me switched hosts to Media Temple (mt), did a clean install of WP, and de-widgetize my sidebar. Holla at me if you notice any 404s, missing links, etc.. And I apologize if your comment was deleted. I lost a few in the transfer. Let’s hug it out

You must know by now, that I am a wee bit of an Apple fan girl. Obviously. It’s tough to question my loyalty to Apple. Well except the fact that I still have that late 90s Compac desktop sitting in my living room. I just can’t get rid of him, he’s like my personal WALL•E.

Nevertheless, my loyalty for Apple is unquestioned. I may not be die hard enough to say, camp out for days in front of an Apple store to pick up the first released iProduct, but I’ll properly follow the guys that are and feel a quiet self-reflective disappointment that I’m too lazy or apathetic to camp out for days in front of an Apple store. I try to make up for this by posting zany Mac-related videos.

With that being said, I’m going to say something controversial… mostly so be forewarned:

I wish Apple would fix the problems with their current iProducts BEFORE hyping, advertising, then releasing the next gen iProducts.

Especially with computers. Sure Steve, go nuts with the iPods, but your loyal, creative, freelancers and students really need consistent, bug-free machines to work all the time in order to pay rent and hand in artsy school stuff.

I don’t know about how your Macs are running, but mine are far from smooth sailing. Don’t get me started about Leopard. The worst appears to be over, but OSX continues to reek havoc on audio firewire interfaces. It’s not that Mac aren’t lovely and oh so aesthetically perfect I make cooing noises when I stroke the brushed metal, but experiencing regular kernel panics, the spinning pinwheel of death, force quitting, overheating, fan noise, and major battery fail are not memories that are adding to my love of Mr. J’s Empire of hype.

Speaking of hype, ahem, the 3G iPhone, which was just released last week, receiving such massive hype that no one actually ended up getting one. Huh? I don’t get it. Me neither. What is the world coming to when iJustine can’t get a freaking iPhone?!? And already the Apple rumour mills are churning with the pulpy goodness of new sleek and sexy MacBook Touch.

Now as someone who recently got a MacBook Air, is still paying off a Mac Pro, and is still emotionally attached to last year’s MacBook, when I hear about a next generation release or major upgrade to a better, faster, more awesome and streamlined machine than the one I just bought last week, I don’t feel anything related to happy. In fact I feel a little ill, then hysterical, then I get on the line with Apple, and then I wait, and wait, and crrrrrrrrry when my call gets disconnected.

Too much Apple. Too often. Too much exposure and hype and advertising and mainstream blah! Remember when Macs were so underground that you had to fight tooth and nail to get even an once of respect? Like that time you were thrown out of computer camp for refusing to use a PC. Oh you weren’t thrown out of computer camp? That was just me? Ok fine, but It was important for me, at the age of 12, to really lay down the law. Oh and remember when you were the only one with sweet graphics in your 4th grade essay on tornados cuz you had Paint? Yeah, those were the days. Now, anyone from Beyonce to (puke) Spencer from the Hills (don’t ask me how I know that) can use and abuse a MacBook Pro. But, it’s all good right? More money for Apple, more live John Mayer keynote performances, better products for us… Yes? Or more like a n-n-n-No!

What do you think? Has Apple’s mainstream hype and lack of product accessibility (ahem… iPhone) got you feelin’ less than perky? Or are you jacked into your feed reader jumping with glee when your Apple RSS gets all kinds of new, sweet iProducts & Software?

Rocking Twitter Bird Illustration by Pasquale D’Silva

Vectorama is a regular design/illustration competition on MostlyLisa.com. Last time, the Steelie’s Canadian Beaver took the top prize.

This month’s theme is Twitter Love!

Recently we’ve seen a lot of talk of new twitter mutinies in favor of more stable or enhanced mo-blogging platforms like Friend Feed. Though I use other platforms, nothing beats Twitter for me. In honor of the FailWhale, I’d love all the vector savvy design peeps out there to vector up a sweet Twitter bird. Maybe we can turn some fail in to Win…Whale. Wait, that didn’t make sense.

Oh and answer this question: With the new twitter clones popping up, are you going to stay with twitter or change to something new?

For the rules, read on:

Here are the rules:

1. Your illustration must be vector i.e. Adobe Illustrator
2. Your design must include a twitter bird… or many!

What you win:

1. Vector Sized Glory!!!
2. A coveted adspace on my sidebar which will display your winning design and link to your website for one month.
3. A whole lotta link l0v3 and straight up respek!

**Send your 500×300 entries to mostlylisa *at* gmail *dot* com. You have until Tuesday, August 12th to get your entries to me.**

Judging:

Blog fans and general internet peeps will vote for the top 3 Vectoramas. Then, the winner will be picked by yours truly and announced at a later date!

Just arrived back home to beautiful sunny Vancouver. I rarely blog about the weather, but maaaaaan it was cold, rainy, cloudy and nothing like summer in England. You get sun for 5 mins, just start to relax, then boom! ominous cloud and rain! I’m writing an angry note to the Queen!

So I still not in possession of an iPhone. I seriously can’t believe that I could not find a 16GB in England. They were all sold out everywhere and there were massive wait lists just to get on a list to get an iPhone. You gotta respekt apple for the incredible hype power they have.

I’ll probably wake up tomorrow, walk out of my house, and find they are selling iPhones at the corner store. Oh cruel fate!

PS. I promise a non iPhone related post asap. Just gotta get through the multitude of photos and videos and biscuits i bought.

PPS. I got totally pulled over AND interrogated for 1 hour at customs in Vancouver because they didn’t believe that:

1. I was a photographer;
2. I’d stayed so few days in the UK without some ulterior motive like, say, drug running;
3. I traveled so much in the UK (London - Cambridge - Bury St. Edmunds - Leeds - Derbyshire (Alton Towers!!!) and back;
4. The MacBook Air was so small;
5. Someone could spend $50 on biscuits (I reckon they’ve never been in Marks & Spencer);
6. I had not laced said biscuits with Narcotics.

Note to self: Next time lie about the biscuits.

So yeah… No iPhone for me as all of Europe is sold out! Most stores only carried 2 of 16GB and 18 of the 8GBs! So by the time I arrived in London at 3pm they were long gone. I’m going out today to take a spy round the O2 store in Bury St. Edmunds, where I’m staying. Must fondle one before the day’s out.

(yes! i finally found one to fondle. so thin and light).

So i’m just about to board my flight to London in jolly ol’ England (I’ll be there for a week), and i thought i’d throw up a post asking that question that everyone is asking today:

I’m on the fence right now.

If you buy one (especially first timers), flickr a photo and link it in the comments. It will make me jealous, but i’ll try to be happy for you.

PS. I may get one, I may not. We’ll see tomorrow… if I make it through Platform 9 3/4…

i fell in love with this seal at the Granville Island Market. He was very talkative. It made me happy.

PS. i haven’t mastered ventriloquism yet.
PPS. iPhone. i know. gah. i know.