Merry Christmas and more

Snowy Owl

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, as well birthdays to Crazy Steve, Chitaroni and other people probably. Snapped a few photos of Kyle and Steve over the Holidays while observing at Taz. But let's get to the goods, what I am really excited about.

While my goods friends were visiting, I stumbled across a snowy owl landing on my garage right in front of me. I snuck into the house and even removed my keys and change so I could be stealthy with the camera. He was gone when I returned 10 seconds later though. Fast forward to Christmas day - while driving on the highway, I see him (or well, another owl at least) perched in a tree but I don't have the camera. Of course. Then yesterday while on the way back from my sister's on the backroads I spot him with Brenna perched on a fence post near the road. I have the camera but the sun has just set. I snap a photo that would have been worthy had I not found him today. So today I returned to the fence post area to see if he is around. I don't see him, but I see a large dark animal feeding on a carcass in the same field. It's far away and figure it might be a fox or a coyote picking up scraps. I ignore it and turn back, but as I pass the "animal" a second time I notice a distinct white head. I have sharp eyes, but they are not what they used to be. I can't tell what it is, my gut says bald eagle but my brain says no way not out here. I use the camera zoomed to the max and shoot a photo, then I zoom in on that blurred subject. Sure enough it is a massive bald eagle feeding on what appears to be a downed vulture, raven, or maybe a game bird. The photos of the eagle are cropped and attempted to be sharpened a bit. Thank goodness for my versatile 18-270 tamron lens! Excellent walk-around lens for stuff like this. A Raven actually comes in to feed and shoes the eagle away. I spot him flying away, snap a few photos in the distance and then race in my car to catch upto him. As soon as I got closer I snapped a few more, but his path of flight was where no car can go and all I could do was watch him fly away in awe. This is the third bald eagle I have seen (Florida and Pennsylvania) but I don't think I was happier for the others than this sighting. Right in my backyard! I had to hit crappy tire, so I made sure to take the long route along the highway since I was doing well for bird spotting. I knew I would likely see a hawk or two, and maybe the owl. Well sure enough I found the snowy owl. I had to exit further and turn back in the opposite direction. I snapped a few and scared him off in the wrong direction. So yes, I reversed down the 417 and got closer for some even better shots! And you know what? What I bought at crappy tire was on sale too! Wow what a day. Make sure to check out the birds down below. It's pretty well known I love animals. But I just really get into these predatory animals, there is something so neat about them. They really are at the top of their food chain it seems and it's really exciting to see these rare (to me at least) animals doing well in the area.

Have a safe New Year.

Dirty Lens blog is 1 year old!

I love shooting this trick as much as I love watching him do it

July 9th is here and my desktop is overflowing with June photos. I decided to check to see when I first posted on here. Turns out it's a full year to the day. A few weeks back I went to Toronto with Brenna and we had a great time wandering and relaxing. We started down by the brewery district and then got some of those whacky bixi bikes and cruised around downtown. I finally stopped at the "Big Apple" on the way back off the 401. You haste surely seen it; it's a giant apple. Stop sometime. While at the Mill Street Bew Pub we ran into Dave McCaig who was shooting photo for some nerdy bicycle enthusiast event. Then we randomly saw Mike Heaton fly by downtown on his bmx. There is no doubt in my mind where that guy's passion lies. He was just full speed cranking down the street. Check out Brenna's photos of a hail storm in June. Crazy! Got out for a small bmx session today with Crazy Steve. He shredded as expected. Always more pics in the works. 4800+ visits in the last 365 days. Lots of random people checking the motocross pics it would seem. Anyway, check back soon. Enjoy

Brose Farm Dirt Jam 2012

CFS was in top form

Brose Farm Dirt Jam 2012 went down successfully. What a great weekend. Perfect setup and vibes with equally good weather to boot. Josh's (and his many helpers) hard work was put to good use as approximately 30 riders hit the course throughout the day. There isn't a whole hell of a lot to say about it. It was the area's best bmx event of the year, easily. I only look forward to the next one. Thanks to the Brose family and the gracious sponsors who kicked in plenty of goodies for the rider's efforts. Brenna and Ray shot a few of the more random photos shown here. Enjoy.

Don't fuck with Chuck

Hallowe'en has come and gone. It was an awesome week as you can see from this first pic. I played a bunch of hockey that week. I organized a huge group for paintball. It turned out to be a lot more fun than imagined. Highly recommended. Check Chitaroni's facebook for some great photos of the action. Then we all got dressed up for the special occassion. Ben said it best "Hallowe'en should be twice a year." Then he fell asleep. Can't wait for next year. I'll probably find myself on kijiji this winter looking at paintball guns. One more toy to own eh?

Derek as Chuck Norris, with one serious fucking kick. Sweet chin music 

Brose Farm Dirt Jam 2011

So it went down and if you weren't there you should be bummed. I am sure Chitaroni will have have plenty more photos on facebook so you can be jealous. The weather held up and it turned out to be a perfect day of riding, followed by an old school country party with lots of non bmx'ers who know to get down. It was Josh Brose's 23rd birthday and he and his family know how to put on an event. They supplied us with food, kegs of beer, a DJ, cabins to sleep, and a really great party. I think everyone had a super time out there. His parents cheered us on while people took turns doing kegs stands. It was ridiculously fun. There was also lot of riders shredding. At one point I think we were close to 20 all riding. I didn't do much photo or video because I was having far too much a good time to get off my bike. I did for a few minutes and look at the results. This great riding was going on all day long! I am hung over, loving it, and hoping it will be an annual event. Enough said.

Big thanks to Josh and the Brose family!!!

Emile Otis is a micro human with super powers

2010 Canon 40D photo offload

The 40D is long gone now. It made it's way to the mysterious Chris Campbell somewhere in Alberta. It's either collecting dust or being used for creepy photos of girls. Here are a bunch of my favs from 2010 I found while poking around on my hard drive. More photos after the jump. Did I get that right? "after the jump..." Bloggin'!

Norco's Ben Kaufmann, one footed pancake in Montreal's Le Taz