Blog
Springtime magic
Happy Canada Day!
From 2017’s record crowns and horrible organization to this year’s Corona Virus shutdown, much has changed over the years for our Canada Day parties. I did a quick video of how things looked last week.
Thanks for looking,
Dan.
(July 2020).
Springtime magic
I’m back!
I’ve still been creating, but I haven’t been updating the site as I should have been, so here’s my latest production a short snapshot of Ottawa in spring.
It really is a pretty little town. So please enjoy and I’ll update more often in the upcoming months.
Thanks for looking,
Dan.
(June 2020).
The Walk
The Walk…my fun little tribute to my pretty city.
For years now I’ve created a big year long project showing off Ottawa annually. The Walk was the concept for 2018. I wanted to show a few of the cool places and show that we have four distinct seasons here. All segments filmed in Ottawa in between January and November 2018.
There was no idea what I was going to do with the footage when I started, just the idea of continuously walking through the city. At some point I came up with the idea of heading off and getting something really, really mundane. The whole thing is supposed to be very cartoonish and I liked that absurdist idea of a year long walk to get something as easily available as a jar of peanut butter.
I love the Lonely Island and initially wanted to do something along those lines. The ‘story’ went through a series of iterations including song lyrics, using actors and me wandering through a grocery store. It all got too much and I was straying too far from the original goal and delayed it way too long. The plan was…make something big, make something, nice, make something fun and make something simple.
At the end of the day I hope showed off a little of this town and that I made someone somewhere smile.
Thanks for looking,
Dan.
(Aug. 2019).
St. Petersburg Vlog
Howdy Folks!
It has been a great year so far – creatively. One of this years big projects was vlogging during a family trip to Europe. We took a cruise in the Baltic Sea and visited some very cool places. This is just a taste of what we did along the way. There are 23 days of the trip and I have more…you can follow the links if you want to see them.
Thanks for looking and stay tuned more stuff coming up,
Dan (July 2019).
Extreme Live 1991
Well folks,
No music for you this week. I have a house full of guests and my studio was converted into a bedroom. But that is no excuse to post something, so here is a little gem I stumbled upon a week or two ago. Pornografitti was and remain a great guitar album. Wicked rhythm work, awesome leads, lots of variety in the music creative and oozing with energy. I still wanna be Nuno when I grow up. I actually got him to autograph my guitar when he was here and I still have that guitar.
Anyhoo, the cool thing about this was that I went with my sister…it might have been the only rock show we went to together. We both loved Extreme back then, and I still do today.
As for the show, I don’t really know why I missed the first few minutes of the show, I think what might have happened was I had the pause button locked on the tape recorder and when I hit record it didn’t start up. But I think I have enough to give the idea of what they were like. From what research I can do I think that they started most of their shows with It’s a Monster then When I’m President. I would think I was on the ball and wouldn’t have missed a whole song, but I can’t be sure and haven’t l re-listened to this concert since last week when I stumbled onto it. The other thing that makes me think they opened with When I’m President is that they were an opening band and they did play for 40 minutes. I don’t think they would have gotten too much more time, then again they might have been the biggest band on earth at the time of this show, More Than Words was a monster hit for them. I’ll Tweet the boys and see if they respond.
The sound ain’t great, but ain’t great is better than none at all eh? So be happy with it. It was recorded to an old cassette tape and then I digitized it and punched it up in post production.
They were opening for ZZTop that show will come out at some point too. Until then enjoy this one and see you next time.
Dan (Feb. 2019).
Guitar Solo
Hello,
I’m back, still alive and living in the grips of a good old Canadian winter. There is a massive snowstorm raging outside my window as I write this, so I thought it was time to take down the Canada Day 2018 video (from the hottest Canada Day on record) and get something a little more current up on here.
For the past year the photography side of my life has been happening less and less and the video and music has been happening more and more. This week’s post gives more of an idea what I’ve been up to over the past 12 months – audio, video and music training.
So what’s going on?
Well simply put, everything has changed since I started this website in 2011.
It has been both a fascinating and a frustrating time to be involved in such a technologically-based industry…or maybe any industry for that matter. Websites are generally passé and Instagram, Youtube, Twitter and Facebook are now the go-to places to post and share ‘content’. And that is basically how I’ve been showing my work lately too.
As for the technology, the 360˚ panoramas I used to painstakingly make with a DSLR, tripod and many hours behind a keyboard can now be done with one of many pocket-sized 360˚ cameras that are all available at any local electronics store. You just put one on a stick hold it above your head, download an app, press the shutter button and the final (nearly flawless) image can be instantly seen, fully stitched on your phone. Another touch of a button and it is shared on Facebook a moment later.
While the idea that all that is even possible simple boggles my mind, it also means that I can’t compete. So while I may still have a slightly better quality product – likely not for long either – the huge time I put in on them doesn’t make much sense anymore. You then have to try to recalibrate, set a new course and start at something new. So after some drifting around in the end of 2017, 2018 saw me focusing on many smaller projects that, while fun to do, didn’t really achieve ‘website status’.
The point of life and creating anything is the connection you make with others. That is always what engages and delights others. While certain things have change, that is what I love doing most of all and that has always been at the heart of what I do and what motivates me.
I’ll leave it at that for now and bid you farewell…but not for long,
Dan (Feb. 2019).
PS. It was actually kinda fun writing something up for you guys again