We had a great time at my cousin Rene's and Dimitri's wedding this past weekend in Swift Current Saskatchewan. Great family, food and music made the long journey worth it! Got a chance to catch up with most of my cousins, uncles, and aunts but not enough enough time. Going to have to make another trip down for a longer visit.

We awoke this morning in Brooks Alberta to the sight of snow! Yes snow, and lots of it! Heavy wet snow, covering everything. It was kind of surreal to see the beautiful long stemmed tulips in my father in laws front landscape capped with a frost crown of snow. It was hard to wrap our brains around the fact that we were having a snow storm at the end of May but here it was. The snow made our ride to Swift Current more challenging than had been expected. There was a strip of highway for about 20km that was covered in an inch of slush. This treacherous slush seemed to want to pull the car into the ditch for some reason. Luckily, it was only 20km and the rest of the way was smooth sailing towards our destination of Swift Current Saskatchewan!

Some of the damage due to the rioting in Montreal after a huge loss to the Pens in the Stanley Cup finals. I guess it is the price you have to pay to be part of the Energy surrounding the Habs quest for the cup!

Tension is running high in this town! Riot geared police officers are positioned on every street corner. Montreal is a crazy hockey town!

My first two days back in Montreal consisted of getting my rhythm back for shooting ultimate, and to make it even more challenging I shot two evening games at Forbes field just behind Molson Stadium. The ultimate action was fast with the disc moving in any direction within seconds of a turnover. I must say that I found the higher level of ultimate more predictable and thus a bit more on the easier side for getting good photos but that didn't stop me from getting great shots from all the games. I must have spent a good 3 hours each evening shooting but I hardly noticed the time slip by.

One of the technical difficulties I experienced was the inconsistent lighting in each photos even though I was shooting under controlled consistent stadium lights. I was shooting at 1/500th to 1/1000th of a second and at ISO ratings of up to 3200, I noticed some well lit images and then the next image was surprisingly dark. After asking a friend of mine who is an experienced photographer, he noticed the same phenomenon shooting indoors with fluorescent lights or any lights that flicker at 60Hz. There is a unnoticeable flicker from these lights that become more obvious when shooting at higher speeds. How unfortunate, to loose so many good shots due to this lighting issue. Anyway, I just have to shoot at a higher frame rate. Problem solved.

The response from the ultimate community to the images posted was amazing and inspiring. Just to give you an idea of the numbers, the statistics for my website rocketed to 3000 page views and 200 visitors per day for the following week and many prospective inquirers into acquiring images of themselves playing. Well, this sparked me to revamp my site with an option to purchase images (with personal licensing use only) using Paypal and credit card. Not an easy task but well worth the investment of time. I ran a few pilot transactions through before trying it out. I really appreciate the support from the members of the Montreal ultimate community. I plan to shoot even more games during the rest of the spring season at Forbes and games during the summer season. Thanks to all!

It has been an exciting playoff series for the Montreal Canadians and now there is only one team standing in their way to pick up the Stanley Cup....the Penguins! It should be a great series!

Wow, what a find! Can not believe that someone would just throw away a brand spanking new Polaroid camera...OK sure the company went bankrupt a few months ago but Lady Gaga pulled them up from the ashes and now she is their spokes-woman or something like that. Anyway, this puppy is fully functional with the shutter which is pure mechanical. The battery/capacitor for the flash (an old Duracell) is pretty much dead but I'm sure I can substitute something for that. I even found a unopened box of flash bulbs...like how lucky can you get. It has a nice compact form factor when it folds up and away! Smooth mechanical action all the way! I just got to find some film and then I'll be in business! I remember Polaroid having a negative and film combo system and if they still have this, I'm going to have in my hand a medium format camera.....Oh weeeee.. can't wait to get my hands on some huge negatives! Polaroid film can be purchased under the Impossible brand.