Well it has been two weeks in Vancouver (doesn’t time fly) and sadly we have to head back home.  It has been great to spend time with our friends and to take some photographs when the weather allowed.

Once I get home it will be to the post processing to create a new Vancouver gallery which will hopefully be on my web site towards the middle (or end) of next week.  I have already made a start and sorted out all except for today’s photographs.

And of course, we hope to be back in Vancouver soon!

I have just read an excellent blog by Nicole Young (aka Nicolesy) titled “The Reality of Being a Microstock Photographer” based on her own experience.   Nicolesy’s honest and frank account of being a microstock photographer is very valuable and a must read by anyone considering taking up photography full-time … thanks for sharing this!

If you have time, I would also recommend looking at the rest of Nicolesy’s web site.

Yesterday was a beautiful but chilly day in Vancouver.  There is snow on the mountains and also settled around our friend’s house in North Vancouver.  The photography (left) shows a large ship sailing under the Lion’s Gate Bridge with the mountains on the north shore in the background.

It has been a long time since I have done any serious photography (with DSLR) round Vancouver so I caught a lift downtown with my friend when he went to work in the morning.  I walked, not so directly, all the way back to their house near the Grouse Mountain base station.  My guess is that this was at least 11 miles but in the sun it was very enjoyable and gave me some great photographic opportunities especially walking across both the Granville and Lion’s Gate bridge.  Now I need to post process all these photos and create a Vancouver gallery on my website … keep a look out for this towards the end of next week.

Today the snow is back and it has been steadily falling all day long.  Hopefully, we will get some more sunshine before we have to leave at the weekend.

Back in June I blogged about my Kiboko camera bag designed by Andy Biggs, which I still think is a fantastic bag!  I have found out that Kiboko is hippopotamus in Swahili which made me laugh – thanks Andy.

The only downside to my Kiboko is that it is too large for a day out when you don’t need to carry all your kit, then it is good to have a smaller bag.

As any photographer will tell you (if they are being honest) camera bags are tricky things and finding the right one seems impossible … too large and they are too heavy; too small and you cannot get everything you need in it.  Sadly, no one has yet invented a Tardis style bag and if they did I guess it might be called the “Doctor Who”.

After much searching, thinking and looking at other photographers’ bags, I decided to invest in a Domke F-2 Original Bag (see insert top right) which is the same day bag as my friend & pro photographer Steve Davey uses.  Now I have been using it for a few months out and about, I am sure that it has been a wise investment … they are not cheap!

It is great with because it can be packed virtually flat in your baggage whilst travelling with all your kit between places.  then when you are out and about for the day, it is capable of holding a pro camera body, four lenses, filters, spare batteries, and a small bottle of water.  It definitely served me well in Cairo and the various other days out since August.

If you are looking for a good day bag then I would definitely suggest checking out the Domke F-2 Original Bag.

After some very heavy rain here in Vancouver, we woke today to much better weather and decided to venture up Grouse Mountain.  For the most part the weather held up and the main challenge was the clouds which kept rolling in and out.  So some good photographic opportunities existed.

Whilst I have been up Grouse Mountain a number of times before, at various times of the year, I have never seen their two grizzly bears which live there as part of their Refuge for Endangered Wildlife programme.  I think that the photograph to the left is Grinder but it could be Coola as I’m no expert.  These bears are well feed and just about to start their winter hibernation.

There was only a very small amount of snow on the top of the mountain and it is going to need quite a lot to fall in the next few weeks if it is going to open at the beginning of December.  Their open door ice rank had only just opened and the mountain crew were preparing an enclosure for some reindeer near Santa’s hut.

The guys at Fotomoto have been busy improving their service and back on 23rd September they release a new feature called Auto Pickup: Free Valet Service for Your High Res File.  Essentially, this provides the photographer with the ability to configure Fotomoto to automatically upload their high resolution images when someone makes a purchase.  Using this facility should reduce the time that a customer has to wait for their order to be fulfilled, especially if I am travelling.

Due to other commitments, I have only just got around to configuring my site to use Auto Pickup and creating all the high resolution images for my galleries.  Thanks to Fotomoto’s hard work, it was a fairly straight forward process to go this working – in fact all of the problems that I encountered were of my own making which I was easily about to sort out once I figured out what was going on.

I look forward to more new features from Fotomoto in the near future.

A month ago, I blogged about Gleb Budman’s interesting blog about backing up photos whilst travelling.  Now Gleb has followed up with additional information about various options that he was offered and it is worth reading Backing up photos while traveling – feedback | Backblaze Blog.