Some people are dumb - the death of a chocolate bar

So today I'm parked outside the VANOC building and what do I see on the dashboard of the car next to mine? 3 lovely chocolate bars, including my personal favourite, Coffee Crisp! Problem: its sunny out. Yeah sure its November, but UV radiation + car windows = convection and you know what that means right? A nice puddle of melted chocolate on the dash. Some people are just dumb!
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A very sad day - some cuts are too deep

I'm a "Vancouverite"... sure i've lived elsewhere, but the majority of my life has been spent in this city. All of my childhood. there are so many things that i love about Vancouver, the ocean, the mountains, the fresh air, the unique neighbourhoods, the history... and so many of its wonderful landmarks

Tonight, the corporation of the city of vancouver resorted to what I and many have been fearing for some time. In order to save face and cover up the severe mis-management perpetrated by its current and recent leadership, the city is implementing deep cuts... two wonderful amenities are going to be a distant memory this time next year. The Bloedel Conservatory, with all its awe-inspiring plants and animals, a tropical gem in the middle of our less than tropical rain-forsest... gone. The petting zoo at stanley park, one of the last pieces of the long history of family attractions at one of the city's oldest... gone.

Both of these places hold a special place in my heart... its sad to know that my daughter will probably never to get to experience these places for herself, barring some sort of funding intervention, or a serious reversal of thinking by city council. That of course will not happen, city council cannot overturn the decision of the parks board without instead cutting funding from something else... but what's left to cut?

Sure, some of this can be blamed on the recession... let's face it, municipalities invest taxation revenue and rely on the returns. But vancouver's funding dilemma's are largely due to systemic mis-management and very poor fiscal decisions, dating back to the time of former mayor Larry Campbell and the terrible decision to virtually empty the reserve funds in order to subsidize the now infamous millenium development (aka athletes village) on some ridiculous notion that the city should be nearly doubling the quota of sub-market affordable housing in this, one of the most expensive undeveloped pieces of property left in the city. Fast forward to current Mayor Gregor robertson, just prior to his election, in a selfish political move, exposing a move by the city to shore up its risk in the millenium development, which effectively destroyed any leverage they had against the failing developer.

Its hard to believe what should have been such a promising revitalization of south east false creek has turned out so badly. Not only has it not delivered on its promised affordable housing, recreation facilities to be included have never materialized, and now... it ultimately has contributed to the closing of two more community amenities, and possibly will be the driver of what may cost dozens of civil servants their jobs.

On a side note, anyone remember that multi-million dollar mound, aka "the island" that the city built on the south side of false creek to the east of cambie street bridge? No? well its not memorable... but had they not built that worthless pile of seagull shit, they'd have the money to fix the roof on the conservatory, and continue to operate both the conservatory and petting zoo.

Its about time that archaic local civic management gets a shake up. Vancouver would be a good place to start.

Baby Portraits

This baby portraiture is HARD work! directing models is one thing, but when the model is a baby... wow. Here's a few shots I managed to squeak out tonight:

Help People - a pre-olympic challenge

Way back in my third year of University, one of my projects just prior to the Salt Lake City olympics was examining the social impacts of hosting world-scale "mega events" (olympics, expo's, etc)... one of the things I learned was almost without fail, every community had a track record of marginalizing and displacing its lower-income citizens and homeless. Vancouver itself only 24 years ago in anticipation of and during Expo '86 became a difficult place to live, large in part due to the dramatic increase in cost of living, rental rates, low vacancy, all things associated with being a community attracting millions of visitors in a short period of time, and needing to capitalize on the inflows of cash that result.

Without getting on too much of a soapbox, Vancouver is already a difficult place for many people to afford to live normal lives. Add the impending Olympics, the back-end of one of the hardest recessions of our time, and the many cuts to services, there are a lot of people in our community who need a helping hand.

My challenge to everyone who lives here and has the means... please help. Whether it be through donation to a local charity, taking extra non-perishables to your local food bank, putting in some volunteer time... every little bit counts and as we head into winter with all these other circumstances, there is no better time.

I have always been a supporter of the Union Gospel Mission, and if you're so inclined, here is a direct link to their donation webpage... a very worthy organization who has done good work with thousands of people on the downtown eastside for over half a century.

Here's a few other local charities I feel may help make a REAL and immediate difference in the lives of people in our community now:

St James Community Service Society

The Kettle Friendship Society

Covenant House Vancouver

There are of course so many others who are very worth while supporting, and for a variety of causes. If you know of others, or have one you are passionate about, please share!

PS - I am NOT anti-olympics by any means, just so I'm clear.

Sustainable Christmas Tree?

This may prove to be one of the dumbbest ideas i've ever had, given we live in a condo, but for the past couple of weeks i've been looking at the ridiculous prices of fake trees, and i'm not really into the idea of having a full sized live tree cut down, only to drag it up here, and subsequently drag it back down a few weeks later... then today i'm driving by a local plant and flower shop, and BAM... i see it - An Italian Stone Pine. Its maybe about 1.5 feet tall at the moment... a little small for a christmas tree (but then again we do live in a condo!) but I figure for the next few years if it grows as it should, and I prune it back once it starts to get to big, theoretically i have a "sustainable" christmas tree? I'm sure its not that simple, like the roots getting too big for the pot, etc... but what the heck, its worth a shot right? Anyway, our tree will be a small one this year, charliebrown-esque!

How to rock out with a newborn!

This is the best thing EVER! Whoever is behind Rockabye baby, they're a GENIUS! Now I can have cozy, friendly lullabyes playing for my newborn, and still be rocking out at the same time! Well sort of. At least in my head, but its a hell of a lot easier when you've got the tune playing... even if the vocals have been replaced by a xylophone!

Currently own: Radiohead, Coldplay, Beatles, and U2. So many more though... I won't buy the Metallica version, but I'm dying to hear it! Can just imagine what "Sad but true" must sound like!

Anyway, all you guitar-hero / rockband lovers out there with babies who dictate the decibel levels in your home, here's my gift to you!

Rockabye Baby Music Website

Strike a pose! Baby-Super-Hero-Style

So there I am this morning relaxing on the couch / bed (lately) with Marisa when all of a sudden she goes superwomen on me and has her fist up in the air. Now of course its not uncommon for babies to have an arm or a leg stretched out at random, but here's the thing... she was asleep, AND she held that pose for like 10 minutes! finally I joined in, I couldn't help myself! What a great way to start the morning, fist in the air, superhero style! 12 days on the planet and she's already trying to fly!

Mmm... Blueberry Pancakes!

I've been promising Anna some pancakes for the past few days but once the morning rolled around I just didn't have the energy to do it... finally this morning I lived up to my word! VOILA, Blueberry Pancakes!

Not quite ready to unwrap

Not quite ready to unwrap
Originally uploaded by michaelfox

This was part of a series of portraits I took of my wife, Anna, in the weeks leading up to our baby, Marisa being born. Ironically, she was born on the exact due date!

These shots were all using a limited lighting scenario; two speedlights, one as trigger, one as off-hotshoe slave, and a triple velvet background.


Here's a few more:

Marisa loves her carseat

Well perhaps. This moment of serenity lasted all of 10 seconds before she realized we were no longer moving, and the screaming begins! Apparently the carseat is more fun when the car is moving.

10 days old, weighed in at 8lbs 10ozs today, finally regained her birthweight!
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New Blog, FIRE IT UP!

I never seem to do too well with these blog things... can't quite figure out why but I've decided rather than continually separating all the aspects of my life, why not bring them all together in one spot. So in this blog I'll be writing about my daily life, sharing the images I take, the recipes I'm trying, the adventures I have with my new daughter, and whatever else I might find myself doing or thinking about!

For my first post, I just had to share a rather cool moment from the other night. I was sent out by Three Sixty Photography to work an event where an olympic torch bearer would be making an appearance... after an hour of shooting impromptu portraits, I got the chance to hold the torch myself! Pretty awesome since I didn't get the chance to be an official torch bearer, this is about as close to one of these babies as I'm going to get!