yep… Vegas is like outer space in some ways. Surreal and vibrant by day; eerily bright and sparkly at night with weird characters [aka ALIENS] walking about in micro minis, skyhigh stiletto heels, crazy hair, spikey jewelry and toting huge glass tubes, holding copious amounts of alcohol, in their arms like a mother would carry a small child. WEIRD. and wild. and SO MUCH FUN!
Will post more pics shortly, this is just a teaser as I wade through the 600 shots I took. I’m whittling that number down to about 200+ and will upload a best of Vegas gallery this week. Stay tuned…
I LOVE Vegas. It has the perfect mix of quick holiday that I love. Here’s why…
Great hotels, 4+ stars at REASONABLE prices
Warm, sunny weather = pool time
Great shopping
Great dining
Great GAMBLING
loads of walking to be done = good workout for the butt, hips, abs and of course, legs!
This Vegas trip we’re gonna do something a little different. We’ve been hooked on the TLC reality show ‘Pawn Stars’ for a while now and just finished watching 4 back-to-back episode of the series. It’s a show about a real-life, working pawn shop in Vegas and yup, you guessed it, we’re going to go and see what’s what in the pawn shop. The shop is located on LV Blvd and is just a bit north of the Stratosphere hotel, so we’ll be hopping on the Vegas public transit to check it out.
The cast of the show [Old Man, Rick, Big Hoss - Rick's son Corey & Chumlee] have owned and operated the pawn shop for over 20 years and the stuff they have there for sale is crazy! Everything from the $10K Ormolu gold ‘Death Clock’ to cars, jewelry and antique documents. T is considering bringing a StarWars toy just to see what the value of the collectible is in a place like that. I’m looking forward to this. I hope that at least one of the main guys [either Old Man, Rick or Chum] are there. I’d love to take a pic with one or all of them if they are available. These guys are HUGE and would make me look teeny tiny nex to them =)
Hello all…
Just a quick note to let you know that all my new giclees are now available exclusively at the Velvet Room Boutique in Vancouver, on 41st Ave between Yew and Vine. I delivered them myself yesterday and are currently being hung in this exceptional, Canadian oriented designer clothing store.
All of my new pieces are based either on my botanical photography or on antique 1950s imagery from 1950 Vogues and Officiel fashion magazines. The Botanika Series is based on hand-altered photography in combination with 1890s ledger book sheets and the new retro fashion collages are timeless, elegant and beautiful – perfect for any young woman’s bedroom, a powder room, or anywhere you want a little bit of Audrey Hepburn style. The 1950s collection are 24×36 and the Botanika pieces are 12×18 archival, museum quality giclees on canvas respectively. The giclees are gorgeously printed and have a minimum expected lifespan of 100 years!
Here is an example of the artwork you’ll find at the Velvet Room Boutique:
The store location is: 2248 West 41st Ave Vancouver – Kerrisdale 604-264-8664
HOURS: 10am-6pm Mon – Sat and Sunday 12-4pm
So we went to late/early show of Ironman 2 last night.
It was great overall… BUT if I have to give my honest opinion there are a few things that did stick out as not quite on par with the first Ironman [Note: the first Ironman is tough to beat. RDJ as IM was fun, revealing and he embodies this character perfectly. The surprise and fun of the first movie is going to be tough to match much less beat...].
First the good stuff:
RDJ is at his best. Smart, funny, charismatic and looking fiiiiiiiiiine!
The ’suits’ were wicked cool
Mickey Rourke as Whiplash was great. I’ve always liked him as an actor, even if he’s screwed with his face to the point of ‘beyond recognition’.
LOVED Sam Jackson. Some of the best one-liners in the movie. I want an eye-patch like Nick Fury…
Sam Rockwell as a bumbling nemesis. Great casting and allows for him to segway into the 3rd installment of Ironman. Wonder if he’ll be back…
Impeccable costuming – I want Gwenyth’s shoes and dresses.
SHIELD agent who threatens to taser Stark until he’s left drooling on the carpet. AWESOME!
Scarlett Johansson was good as Black Widow. She kicked some bad-guy ass
The cars. Oh the cars. Particularly the Audi. Yummy ride.
RDJ. RDJ. RDJ.
The ‘meh’ stuff:
A little too much focus on the ’suits’
Could have built on the Pepper and Tony storyline a little bit more BUT this is an action/comic book flick, so love storylines are quickly dealt with and squished outta the plot
Don Cheadle as ‘Rhodey’. I like Cheadle as an actor, but that special chemistry between Terrance Howard and RDJ was missing from the performance. He did well under the circumstances, coming in after Howard had placed his character stamp on Rhodey. This time however, Rhodey was a more ‘business-like’ character in sequel, and while I did miss the relationship chemistry between Rhodey and Tony Stark a little bit, I think it was handled decently. Let’s hope for more development in IM3…
Not enough of Mickey and Stark together.
Overall, if I had to give a rating on the movie – I’d give this Ironman a B+.
It kicks ass just enough, but stops shy of being fricken awesome. It’s a great, fun movie for those into the comic-book-movie-genre and for those who love a RDJ movie vehicle. Go see it in IMAX, just try not to sit in row 4 like we got stuck in… you can get real dizzy really fast.
Ironman 2 with my beloved RDJ opens tonight [ok technically TOMORROW morning] at 12:01am and after some discussion about working tomorrow, late night, etc… T and I just bought tickets online! I’m so excited I can hardly wait ;^)
We’re seeing it in IMAX and will be lining up for the big show at 10:30pm to get decent seats.
RDJ as Tony Stark
And for those of you who haven’t yet seen the trailer, here you go…
My friend Sharon from Toronto had this on her blog and it inspired me to try it out. it’s surprisingly accurate (I’m ashamed to admit) but fun! To find out what flower YOU are, just click on the link in the graphic below to be magically transported to the quiz site. Ah… I love the ‘net!
This image below is featured on the HDRSpotting website! Yay…twice in one week =)
The shot is a re-worked single RAW HDR image from 2008 and the British Open Car Show held annually at VanDusen Gardens in Vancouver. LOVE the red and chrome together. So slick…
I’ve re-worked a number of photographs from single RAW files into HDR images and have posted a few older images in my smugmug account for fun. This image:
Jacob - Age 1.5yrs
is currently being featured on the super cool HDRSpotting website and was selected by the HDR editors as an example of great HDR work. At least that’s what I’m telling myself and why it’s being featured. To view the HDRSpotting daily featured sheet, click here.
More HDR shots on their way… just waiting for a break in the weather (and my migraines) to get out there. PLUS I have a new 8mm fish-eye lens that I’m dying to test out and a 200mm f2 lens on its way. Yup, I’ve said it bef I’m a gear head LOL
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