Sweet Girl

My co-worker's sweet little girl, Kaitlyn.  She loves her mix of pineapple and grapefruit juice I poured for her =)

Merry Christmas 2011

Happy holidays wherever you are! Hohoho from the Santa balloon!

Walk around Westwood Lake

What could be more comfortable than relaxing by the lake with a cold can watching some ducks waddle by?

A look back

Catching up on some older pictures I took earlier this year from Nanaimo's Neck Point Park.

These were definitely warmer times! I do enjoy playing with my wide-angle lens here.

Happy Halloween!

No great pumpkin this year but who knows. Maybe I'll still be able to see one. Hope everyone has a great dress up day!

Foggy

I was just heading home tonight after dropping my friend off and I noticed this lovely foggy scene across the street.

I don't know why, but I've always been a sucker for the wispy dogs rolling through the city. It gives everything a mysterious feeling...

iPhone4s

So I've made the upgrade to a brand new phone and I'm quite impressed with the camera on this. Blackberrys, as great as they r for messaging, took revolting pictures. Hopefully I'll be able to take more fun pics and update my blog more often! (I also hated how BB did not hv blogger support).

Ciao for now!

Happy Thanksgiving

This is a picture of my parents posing in front of the Long Beach by Tofino. I had taken them there just in July to show them life around Vancouver Island. A lot has happened in the last month and I'm really thankful for all the love ones I have to support our family. I have a greater sense of appreciation for everything my parents do wish there was more I could do for them.

And another thanks to that special girl in my life, Joanas. She's added so many great moments in my memories, I still wonder how I "caught" such a great girl.  I cannot wait to come back from Nanaimo!

 Happy Thanksgiving everyone. =)

Basking in light

Basking in light, originally uploaded by allenmfwu.

Around the Camp Fire

Around the Camp Fire, originally uploaded by allenmfwu.

Just chilling around the camp fire in good ol' summer fashion.

Brioche

Brioche, originally uploaded by allenmfwu.

My girlfriend and I love to visit Brunch places. Brioche was offering a groupon-esque deal via TeamTicket several months ago so we decided to try it. The food wasn't bad and it was all very fresh. They have sandwiches and omelettes available along with other delights from the bakery. There's a menu online but I found they had a much larger selection written on the chalkboard in the cafe! My favorite item we ordered was this London Fog though, just so delicious =)

Flowers at Bella Gelateria

I'm always impressed by the fresh flowers on each of the tables in Bella. It's just a wonderful finishing touch to the delicious Gelato we eat and the warm atmosphere the cafe has been able to portray. I'd definitely recommend this place to anyone whether you like ice cream or not! (If any one can convert you non-ice creamers, James will)

And while I'm mentioning my favorite gelato cafe, James is the owner of Bella Gelateria. I see him in his shop every single time I visit. I've gone at noon, before supper, dessert... he's always there! It just shows his dedication to his customers and it shines through in the gelato he produces. (And his twitter account exposes exactly the monstrous hours he spends with his gelato XD) Bravo James, Bravo!

Stawamus Chief

Stawamus Chief is a giant granite rock poking out of the Howe Sound area just north of West Vancouver. It's been an attraction for rock climbers, mountain bikers and hikers alike. I've been wanting to go for a couple years now and finally conquered this beast with a few good friends.



MAP: We started off from Shannon Falls parking lot, hiked to 3rd Peak of Stawamus Chief from the back trail (undeveloped), then hiked to 2nd Peak, then the 1st peak, then made our way back down to Shannon Falls parking lot.

Start time: 10:54 am
Finish time: 6:21 pm
Total Duration: 7 hours 27 minutes
I'm guessing we spent a good 2 hours on lunch and photo breaks though... But that was tiring!

BONUS: we found a cliff described to us as "Peak 2.5" It's half way between 2nd peak and 3rd Peak (but just north of the gully between these 2 peaks) and was the most terrifying of the 4 to look down.

Project 365

PROJECT 365 - Feb 2010 to Feb 2011

Well I'm 3 months behind in posting photo's but I finally finished!
My project ran from February 2010 to February 2011. It was fun while it lasted but I gotta admit, I became quite frustrated with post-processing daily photos along with my extra activities.

This is my favorite picture from this project:


What I learned: I grew a lot with my camera and all my lenses as I found more creative ways to shoot around boring Nanaimo. I also pushed my creativity to find different angles and settings with both my 5DmkII and LX5. They didn't always work out and as you can see, most of the pictures are not the most spectacular but oh well!

I also simplified my processing and found shortcuts to speed the upload process from my computer to flickr. I first made use of some of programing macros in photoshop but in the end, I learned how to use Lightroom a lot more efficiently and have eliminated using photoshop altogether.

Lastly I wish I had a cellphone that can take and publish photos a lot better. I am very spoiled with the quality of a full frame SLR and I can't stand any photos from my cellphone (Blackberry Torch, 5MP). I even find most of my LX5 photos pretty bad... oy!

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I'm still catching up a bit but hopefully I'll be able to post a little more regularly now without feeling so overwhelmed with keeping up to Project 365!

Happy Chinese New Year!!!

I spilled coke all over my laptop when someone called me... I spent a good part of the night taking the keys off my keyboard and cleaning each piece!

Anyways, it gave me this awesome opportunity to get this message out =)