Location: 10.712776°N, -85.177221°W ; Alt: 753.1m
	Photo Date: 27 May, 2008
	ISO: 100
	Aperture/Shutter: F/6.3, 1/125"
	Focal Length: 14mm
	Camera: Olympus Evolt E-510
Category: Guanacaste, Costa Rica - 2008

Volcàn Miravalles. Guanacaste, Costa Rica

The feeble chains of man string losely across the fumerole field. A weak attempt to enforce our will on nature.
Every stake in the line, every rail and every stair are charred black with disdain from the perpetual heat from below. A casual reminder of the emense power beneath our feet and who the real boss is.
We attempt to control nature with levees and silicon chips, confine it with fences and define it with words, yet should the volcano erupt one of it's pyroclastic flows it once used to create itself, all of these would be swept away like so much dust in a single, brief, cataclysmic moment.
We must be mindfully conscious of nature and the environment not for her sake, but to save ourselves from extinction. After all, half million years of human history is a terrible thing to waste.

Location: 10.58852°N, -85.66990°W; Alt: 8.8m
	Photo Date: 25 May, 2008
	ISO: 100
	Aperture/Shutter: F/6.3, 1/100"
	Focal Length: 14mm
	Camera: Olympus Evolt E-510
Category: Guanacaste, Costa Rica - 2008

Costa Rican Twilight, the beautiful Bahía de Culebra and the end of my first day in Costa Rica. After 12 hours of transit, I was just about beat, but still managed to get my butt to the buffet after this (and somehow martyring myself to 3 or 4 plates of food).
This fantastic view kept bringing me down to the beach in all sorts of weather (mostly the wet varieties) and all times of day. The near glass beach and calm waters betrayed me into a fall sense of security, those clouds where getting ready to drop Tropical Storm Alma right on top of us for the next 3 days.
But what a view!

Location: 44.0202°N, -77.8025°W; Alt: ???m (estimate)
	Photo Date: 11 June, 2005
	ISO: 200
	Aperture/Shutter: F/5, 1/400
	Focal Length: 15mm
	Camera: Fuji S5000
Category: Miscellaneous Pics

Salem, Ontario
Now a victim of the very sand and stones it once commanded, the former control tower lies forgotten here at the head of the gravel pit. Although the windows are barred and the doors are firmly bolted against intruders, it has suffered a good deal of abuse to the exterior from the local youth. The 2nd floor platform (not visable) does provide an excellent view of the site and the interior of the master control room.
Looking inside, this building continues the place's eerie feeling of instant egress as coffee cups and work coats are still in place on and around the control panel. The panel itself also doesn't disappoint, plenty of now dark lights, knobs and toggle switches line it's 3 angular sides like the cockpit of some kind of BBC space craft. Now it simply waits to be consumed by the rapidly eroding sand left behind by the ecologically devistating process it inspired.

(See the Gravel Watch website to find information on the rehabilitation of Ontario's gravel pits.)

Location: 44.0202°N, -77.8025°W; Alt: ???m
	Photo Date: 11 June, 2005
	ISO: 200
	Aperture/Shutter: F/4.5, 1/100
	Focal Length: 6mm
	Camera: Fuji S5000
Category: Miscellaneous Pics

(Best as large image) This shot was taken in Salem, Ontario (near Brighton) at an abandoned stone quarry/gravel pit along Hwy 2 (co-ords are again an estimate).
The place is quite odd, as it appears that everyone simply dropped their tools and wandered off one day. Several pics in this set, so I'll elaborate later.

Behind the Lens Details
This was a lost shot initially, I arrived in mid afternoon with some pretty high angle of sun casting deep shadows under the truck. With most things washing out, I decided to burn the image twice, desat (via channel mixer), jack the contrast and focus on bringing out the "45" as the focal point of the image.
Some great textures came about with the high con/burn that where highlit even more with the green toning (PS/CS1 green photo filter set to around 80% or so).

Location: ??.????°N, ??.????°W; Alt: ???m
	Photo Date: 21 January, 2005
	ISO: 800
	Aperture/Shutter: F/5.6, 1/160
	Focal Length: 42mm
	Camera: Fuji S5000
Category: Miscellaneous Pics

I paid a shitload for the car, so I'm presuming that comes with the right to photograph and display it as much as I like! (anything over $100 is technically, in my eyes, a 'shitload'. Frankly I wouldn't pay a dime for a shitload, but I guess it has it's purposes in both prank and agricultural circles as well as use as a colourful expression; next week: rats and how their asses became currency to be given and taken at will).
DIGRESSING!
Needless to say, this is the dashboard from my car. Just as nature abhors a vacuum, I abhor sitting idle. While waiting outside a store one day, I started taking shots of anything in eye-shot (camera-shot?).
My car was hit hardest.

Behind the Lens Details
Image was actually taken intending to be a B&W shot and as such managed to get a bit of in camera preparatioin. ISO was set quite high (800) to give the image a bit of that grit that looks so nice with B&W or Sepia. Light is natural, shaped from the side window (overcast sky), nice mid size aperture to keep all things in focus and a (very) light sepia applied to the B&W image to make things a little moody.
Oh, and cropped of course!

I wish my car was still that clean though ...

Location: ??.????°N, ??.????°W; Alt: ???m
	Photo Date: 23 August, 2004
	ISO: 400
	Aperture/Shutter: F/2.8, 1/4
	Focal Length: 6mm
	Camera: Fuji S5000
Category: Black and White / Duotones

An early attempt at IR photography with the Fuji camera (and a Hoya R-72 Infrared Filter). This particular shot uses the Scarborough, Ont civic center and the former surrounding skyline. The rather sizable building being constructed in the background is now flanked by others of equal size (some 30 or 40 stories by the time they where done. Needless to say, this skyline no longer exists in the real world.

I'm still not entirely convinced of the practicality of IR photos. The long exposure times required and silly amounts of light (usually resulting in really long exposure times) really reduce the opportunities to bring out the filter. Although the effect is interesting and lends itself well to false colouration, I don't know if the tradeoff is entirely worth the effort.
Still, I have yet to try an IR filter on the Olympus, and it has a free release shutter. If I can figure out a way to keep the sensor cool, perhaps I can minimize the noise and work out a way to make it worth while.

Can't wait for that warmer weather!

Location: ??.????°N, ??.????°W; Alt: ???m
	Photo Date: 23 August, 2004
	ISO: 400
	Aperture/Shutter: F/8, 1/400
	Focal Length: 11mm
	Camera: Fuji S5000
Category: Black and White

The Nestle building in North York at Younge and Sheppard. It took a bit of roaming around like a loon, bobbing and weaving to get the sun pleasantly behind the building but the effect was interesting enough and the clouds where quite interesting to look at that day. Unfortunately the optimum angle seemed to be somewhere inside the Sheppard Centre, but I made due with where I could get.

Behind the Lens Details
Photo was hit with heavy contrast (legacy as it was PS/CS1) and sharpened (unsharp mask) just enough to give the building a light halo effect to project the sun's glow down the length of the building and make it stand out from the rest of the shot.