While I concentrated on the wealth of red, orange and yellow foliage for the majority of the day, my journey also took me past a great new public art display called “A-Maze-Ing Laughter” on English Bay beach by Chinese artist, Yue Minjun.

Further, journeying into Stanley Park led me to a stunning tree lined avenue featuring a thick carpet of fallen leaves – the best traditional “Fall” scene I came across all day.

Finally, I spent around an hour snapping away on the sidelines of a rugby game at Brockton Oval. Just like last time I was out that way, the decent quality game ended up becoming a great opportunity for me to get in some sports photography practice. I’m not sure who won in the end, but the “Rowing Club” home team were a couple of tries up at half time.

In a slight change from our first Yukon Rush back in 2007, this year we incorporated a river trip, fishing trip, and short exploration of a sleepy lakeside town that took us through 3 different provinces and states across two countries.

Rather than wade through copious ramblings covering the 11-day trip day by day, I’ve prepared a photo gallery which more than adequately covers our adventures and misadventures experienced while paddling for three days down the Yukon’s “Stewart River”; travelling through the stunning Kluane National Park and fishing for three days in Haines, Alaska; and making a quick trip down into British Columbia to sample the charming little gold town Atlin, on the shores of the impressive Atlin Lake.

I’ve spent some time adding captions to all the photos, thereby telling a bit of a story as the gallery unfolds. To get started, click here or on the screen shot above.

I hope you enjoy the shots and encourage you to share with your friends and family via Twitter (post using this link: http://su.pr/2bMZIO) or by any other social media site like Facebook or Stumbleupon. Oh yeah, and if you’d like to leave any comments, you can do so in the comments section below.

To kick things off, we headed up the sea-to-sky highway stopping in at one of our favourite snack stops – the Howe Sound Brewery in Squamish, for a late lunch. From there it was on to the The Fairmont Chateau Whistler Resort where we checked in and headed straight for the pool to cool off, have a couple of cocktails and just relax before we headed into the village to have a look around and grab some dinner.

On Saturday I surprised Carmen with a half day mountain horseback ride which meant a 9am start for us downstairs at the “Outdoor Adventures Whistler” office in the Fairmont lobby. From there we were picked up by mini van and transported further north to a hobby ranch in Pemberton where we embarked on our adventure which was described on the website as follows:

This half-day ride is the ultimate horseback adventure for riders with previous experience. Fields, forests, mountains and creeks, this ride covers spectacular and stunning terrain. After winding through hay fields and potato crops, we will climb to incredible view points and a beautiful waterfall.

Carmen spent the morning with a steady, careful steed aptly named “Relic”, while I was matched up with a rambunctious fella named “Crackerjack”. As part of a group of 6, we all enjoyed a great morning filled with steep mountain climbing and galloping through potato fields (my testicles are still forgiving me for that bit).

Back in the village we headed to the Garibaldi Lift Co. to enjoy a cold bevy while taking in some of the action on the bottom stretch of Whistler Mountain’s famed downhill mountain biking trails. Some of these riders are absolutely nuts… it’s no wonder that they get around covered in armour and looking like they are about to go into battle with the mountain.

This morning we embarked on what I had hoped would be a really fun and scenic alpine hike on the peak of Whistler Mountain. Having scouted out a trail known as the “High Note Trail”. As it turned out, it really was a scenic hike, but the unrelenting fly population took the shine off the potential “fun” aspect and I must pay a huge amount of respect to Carmen for toughing it out. To get a good description of the entire trail, check out Tyler Ingram’s summary.

The following images we shot throughout the day as we made our way through stunning fields of alpine wildflowers. We took in unchallenged views of “Cheakamus Lake” and were fortunate to have constant views of the unmistakable “Black Tusk” in the distance to the south-west.

After a rewarding day yesterday covering some technical and practical theory, followed by a photo walk through Vancouver, today was all about critiquing each others best shots from yesterday’s session, followed by some time in and out of the studio working with different types of lighting.

The critiquing session was very informative and I have to say I got as much out of the conversations stemming from other people’s best shots from yesterday, as I did from the banter surrounding my selection of 5 images.

The critiquing session ran into some broad discussions on software selection and usage surrounding applications such as Photoshop, Adobe Bridge, Light Room etc. I got plenty of great hints and tips out of this segment of the day and I left for the lunch break with plenty to think about.

It was today’s afternoon session, however, that I had been waiting for all weekend, and indeed signed up for this particular course for in the first place. We were all about experimenting with different types of lighting in both indoor and outdoor settings. For the first time in my life I got some hands on experience with monolights, Kino Flow shells, various reflectors, soft boxes, umbrellas and tungsten gels, all supported by the wonderful two models we had for the day, Aleksandra and Pooya.

The following images are a selection of the shots I took from the day. You’ll notice that the lighting varies greatly in a number of the shots. That’s pretty much due to the fact that we were constantly moving things around and changing things up to make sure that we were getting the fullest experience with the equipment while we could.

There’s so many positive and helpful things I’m going to take away from this weekend’s workshop. I dare say my bank account is going to take a major hit by the end of the year in one way or another, but here’s hoping I can pick up some paid jobs with my new found skills and confidence to help cushion the blow.

A HUGE thanks to Syx Langemann for putting on such a great workshop. Cheers mate!

I kicked the day off this morning by joining Chris and Ryan for a little breakfast action while keeping an ear and eye on what was going on in the NHL free agent frenzy.

To be honest, the whole shebang was a little on the boring side after Vancouver stitched up the services of the Sedin twins for another 5 years. But a few cups of coffee and some particularly well crafted scrambled eggs in the belly later, we decided to switch things up and head to the horse track at Hastings for a little flutter on the GG’s.

Joining us for the jaunt to the track was Dre, a mate of ours who spends most of the year sailing yachts to exotic locations spread far and wide around the planet. He tried telling us that he was new at this game, but his almost perfect start in the first race had us thinking otherwise.

You see, he threw 4 horses down in a $2 superfector and only missed out on a multi-thousand dollar purse by a photo-finish between 3rd and 4th. Damnit! And don’t let the two sheilas at the Kokanee stand tell you that it was due to their advice that he even got that far. I mean, they showed up to work and didn’t even realise it was a horse track until the beasts thundered around the final bend in the first race!

A couple more hours of fun at the track and we were ready to move on to our weekly round of Urban Rec beach volleyball games. In true “Balls ‘R’ Us” fashion, we managed to win all three games in semi-convincing fashion, and having a tonne of fun along the way.

With volleyball, my last social engagement for the day, out of the way I jumped on my bike and peddled like the clappers around to the 9 o’clock gun on in Stanley Park, on the shores of Burrard Inlet, for the Canada Day fireworks display. After witnessing quite the explosive spectacle from the same spot last year, I was expecting great things photographically. But, to be honest, I was kind of disappointed in the end. I’m not sure if it was because the barge seemed to be anchored too far away from the perfect backdrop, or because the display appeared to be done “on the cheap” this year (can’t say I blame them if that was indeed the case). Either way, it didn’t really live up to my hopes and expectations… but I still managed to snap off a few decent frames.

I can’t wait for the annual “Celebration of Light” in English Bay coming up in a few weeks time.

You know, Tweets like “Just woke up”. We’ve all let out a collective groan while thinking to ourselves, “who really cares???”.

While I like to think (fingers crossed) I’ve never been guilty of such dreary and banal Twitter dribble myself, I certainly have been on the receiving end of many a Tweet that has left me yawning and/or shaking my head.

The clever and entertaining folk at SuperNews! and current.com have put together a very funny short animation (see below) titled ‘Twouble with Twitter’, which pretty much highlights all that is wrong with the Twitter experience and sections of it’s user base. In a way, however, the video serves as a great little etiquette guide – just avoid becoming guilty of all of the points poked at in the 4:30 minute flick.

All I can say is watch it, laugh at it and more importantly – learn from it!

PS. If you enjoy this animation, make sure you check out more SuperNews! offerings such as the following:

• Obama Hits the AIG Spot
• Becks strikes the USA (Skeletor McBoobs – hahahaha!)
• The Hills

Probably the highlight of this trip for me was getting the chance to finally see the Northern Lights in all their glory. They really are a spectacular and mysterious phenomena, and one I am glad to be able to say I have finally witnessed in the flesh!

The lowlight? Probably my attempt to board a plane with a dirty big Swiss Army Knife in my carry-on camera bag, the frostbite I got on my nose, or simply just the bloody freezing (roughly -30 degrees all weekend) temps. It’s all part of the fun I guess!

I wish all the competitors of the 2009 Yukon Quest a safe and speedy race. I really admire all 29 entrants on their sheer guts for taking on a 1,000 mile, 10-12 day race like that in one of the world’s most remote and harsh environments. Just awesome stuff.

I’ve put together a gallery, similar to the one I prepared for my visit to the 2007 event, and posted it online. Click on the image above, to view the gallery, and feel free to leave your comments below.

As the story associated story goes, when the white tiger cub pair (Mitra and Shiva) were born during Hurricane Hannah, the flooding of their sanctuary forced their separation from their mother. They ended up at South Carolina’s “The Institute of Greatly Endangered and Rare Species (TIGERS)” under the care of infant animal care giver China and her 2 year old chimpanzee companion, Anjana.

Anjana has been by China’s side since she was born and has therefore naturally learned the ropes when it comes to the caring for and raising of baby animals. Having already helped raise leopards, lions, orangutans, Anjana’s maternal behaviour has resulted in her obvious close bond with the white tiger cubs. Cue the awwwwwwww’s…

The thing that really gets me about these pictures, taken by Barry Bland, is the incredible visual parallels you can draw between Anjana’s postures, expressions and apparent emotions, to that of a human. I’m blown away. But wait… we’re all descendants of that naked couple that ran around with the snake and that apple tree and all that right??? Pffffffffft.

I think it’s fair to say that Vancouverites don’t get into the whole National Day sort of thing as passionately as those in the East, or indeed Aussies in any part of the world on Australia Day. But the locals were afforded a stunning blue sky, albeit slightly smokey, day today with which to hit the beach, mountain trails or otherwise, and it seemed like everyone was embracing the opportunity.

Due to some (what I consider anyway) moronic scheduling, we were required to front up to beach volleyball tonight to thrash out our weekly 3 games knowing full well that half the competition was going to be struggling to even scrape players together to make up numbers on a public holiday. Regardless, we won 2 from 3 which is an ok result I guess.

Racing home (thanks again Andrew for the lift), I showered, grabbed my bike and headed straight out along the rapidly crowding sea wall to Stanley Park in search of a decent photographic vantage point from which to shoot the Canada Day fireworks display in front of Canada Place.

Turns out I didn’t have any trouble getting a spot where I wanted to set up in the end, and the resultant shots are listed below.

Happy Canada Day everyone!

Not really knowing anyone in Calgary and not having any real accommodation options available to me, Joy and her family saved my bacon by allowing me to crash with them for a few nights – thanks ever so much ladies!

I could write a REALLY long blow-by-blow entry going into detail with all the mischief I got up to this weekend (the bit about our night out at Cowboy’s alone could take me hours to write), but I’m going to wimp out and instead subscribe to the old adage that, “A picture tells a thousand words…”