Fotune Teller of Old Havana

I really have to get over being shy about asking strangers for their picture, because I saw many interesting portraits on our trip to Cuba. With the lady above, I couldn't resist asking. When I did she held up her index finger and said "One peso". I dug into my pocket to get one and realized that I gave my last peso to a museum attendant that let us into off limit areas. I replied "Desculpe, no peso" to which she smiled and posed for this picture.

More on my Flickr

Tropicana Havana

On our second full day in Cuba we decided to take a tour of Havana plus Tropicana Show. We were picked up at our resort at about 8:30 am, did the tour of modern and old Havana, stopped in nearly every bar that Ernest Hemingway drank (incredible lush), had dinner and went to the Tropicana show. On arrival the women were given carnations and the men were given cigars. Then we were sat at a table with a liter of rum for each group of four and a can of pop each. Whatever we didn't drink went onto the bus to take us back to our resorts at nearly 4:00 am.
Good times.

Compay Segundo and More From Cuba

Here is my favorite souvenir from Cuba. It is a painting of the late great Compay Segundo. Señor Segundo was a master Cuban musician in the 30s and 40s that had received a resurrection to Cuban fame with "The Buena Vista Social Club" recordings initiated by American recording artist, Ry Cooder. I found the photograph that this painting was inspired from here.
The song below, titled "Chan Chan", quickly became a favorite of mine. A few more photos of the trip to Cuba have been uploaded to my Flickr Photostream.

Cuba 2009

So we returned from our great trip to Cuba on May 1st. I meant to post about it much earlier but came home to find that my laptop battery was dead, so it has taken a little while to get pictures online.


One of the great things Cuba has to offer, and something that became a great subject of my photography taken there, were all of these vintage cars. What was cool was that they had, not only classic North American models, but also some old Russian and European cars like Skoda, Citroen and weird three wheeled trucks.

There are only about 7 pictures uploaded to my Flickr page, but in my defense I haven't even pulled them off of my camera yet so expect more soon.

Money Flavoured Chips

Mmmm, money flavoured chips. Actually it's for a contest where you name the unidentified new Doritos flavour. The winner gets $25,000 and a percentage of the chip's profits. The design of the bag makes me want to get a mask and a black and white striped shirt, and get pictures of myself running from different banks with my hands full of these chip bags a la cartoons.


On the Easter weekend Rae and I found an ice breaker on the Red River near the south perimeter, breaking ice and drawing a crowd.

More 2008 Guardian Dojo Challenge

I've just posted more of the 2008 Guardian Dojo Challenge pictures that I took last November. I haven't been at all diligent going through the gigabytes of pictures that I took on that day but, as many of you know, life get's busy. I've been a practitioner of the philosophy, especially when it comes to action shots like these, that quantity will yield quality. I am now trying to go in the opposite direction and really plan out my shots and trying to cut down on my insane number of archived pictures. It is getting hard to find that one picture in my head amongst the thousands of pictures in my archives. I know that I will still have to let the Rebel burst when I am capturing a crescent kick to another man's face, but at the same time I am working on really learning my camera so I can focus more on composition rather than scrambling to get the settings right.

Pictured above is the Guardian Dojo's Sensei, Diego Beltran, breaking a baseball bat WITH HIS F***ING SHIN! see more of the recent upload of the Guardian Challenge here. See pictures that I took last year at my good friend and Guardian Dojo student, Adrian Shum's photostream here or some of the pictures of the band Fubuki Daiko on his photostream here.

The Crusty Bun

This blog is more and more becoming a restaurant review and promotion blog, however biased it may be. In spite of my bias and friendship with Andy and Frieda (owners\operators of the Crusty Bun), The Crusty Bun is one place that I think anyone would agree is world class bakery and café. It's a brand new place at 1026 St. Mary's Road. I recommend that anyone who enjoys wholesome, hearty, fresh baked goods, drop in and visit The Crusty Bun. Try the sunflower seed bread, it is a favorite.

Pictures above is a picture of head baker and owner, delivering a fresh batch of buns.