the calm between the storm...

today was filled with madness...so much going on. between signing the contract with the school board (making me an OFFICIAL teacher!), the numerous drives from one end of the city to the other, and my galfriend's birthday (all on only a couple hours of sleep!), i managed to squeeze in a walk through the forest with lucky, the dagobah dog.

searching the forest floor...


what's that? a possible squirrel sighting?


sunburst...


...just goes to show ya...you can make interesting photos even during such routine and seemingly mundane activities as a walk with yer dog.

new portfolio!!! now available!!!

the first eFOLIO by yours truly is now available free online!!! it's in .pdf format, so make sure you have the free adobe acrobat reader.


http://photos.christianstepien.com

album held back...again...

i've decided to put the release of THE EXCESS MINDSTATE on hold yet again. there are still some things i want to tweek, as well as possibly add a few more songs. it will come out...eventually...i PROMISE! it's been in this finished state for over a year now, but i'm just not 100% with it yet.

on the plus side, my first eFOLIO of photographs titled TWO YEARS IN THE ESCARPMENT will be up on the site tomorrow!

and finally, damien went up to tobermory last week and captured a bunch of great photographs. here are two of them, unedited, right out of the camera...

back to school...

...well...almost...

contemplating life...

a photo i took this past spring near glen williams, in an escarpment valley. poor little frog...he seemed so overwhelmed by the vastness around him, yet oddly at peace.

panorama...

marina and i spent the evening last night with some friends at panorama, an amazing bar on the 51st floor of the manulife centre in toronto. best view of the city that i've seen to date!

back out to nature...

damien and i finally got a chance to head out into the country to photograph again after a long hiatus. despite the harsh light, the sky was looking pretty sweet and i came home with a couple of cool photos.

corn & sky


a barn on the hill


near cheltenham


damien walking


a few months ago i had decided that i wanted to put together my first portfolio of prints...after much debating, i couldn't decide which photos to include or what the theme should be. well, that has changed. i will be coming out with my first portfolio of prints on AUGUST 30th, and it will include 15 of my favourite niagara escarpment photographs taken over the last two years. this will not be your standard portfolio, mind you. it will be an eFolio...a portfolio made freely available in .pdf format (for those of you who know me, i'm not much of a business man when if comes to my art...i release a lot of my art for free because...well, honestly, it's done for the love.

niagara...

marina, myself, & her brother took her visiting God-brother to wine country yesturday (one of my favourite places in ontario to visit!). we visited a few wineries, tasted some great vintages (i recommend strewn's late-harvest vidal...late harvest wines are not as sweet as ice wine, but defintely have a kick to them!), and then continued on to the falls. i managed to snap this photograph of the most southern end of the niagara escarpment, fulfilling my journey to both ends (if you scroll down to my AUGUST 7th post, you'll see the northern sign)...

...then tonight, after a long day at work and some drunken birthday celebrations, i headed home and worked on a few photos before typing this up and hitting the sack (which i will be doing once this is posted). this is a shot i took on the way home from tobermory of one of the many wind generators...

...and now, off to bed.

great video!!!

Get this video and more at MySpace.com

of all the web browsers on all the net...

...she had to pop-up into mine.

it's strange to bump into people on the net that you haven't seen or even THOUGHT of in years. sometimes a good strange. sometimes...not so much.

ansel adams in toronto!!!

i just found out that 125 of ansel adam's prints are coming to the AGO in toronto in november! there isn't another photographer that i've come across who's photographs perfectly embody everything that i love about the medium. i'll be there opening night!

the drive home...

9th line, near my favourite 7-11...

some new photographs...

i (christian) have some new photographs up in the photo section of my website, as well as the dagobah store for you to check out along with audio clips. they're from my trip to tobermory last week. enjoy!

what a weekend...

my girlfriend marina and i went up to tobermory, ontario this weekend to photograph the most northern tip of the niagara escarpment. unfortunately, on the way up we were hit from behind by a red honda, which subsequently sent my car flying into the car in front of us. this less then 24 hours after getting my car out of the body shop, repairing the front fender from an impact last week when a woman decided to back into my parked car. the poor dagobah tour vehicle is a mess right now.

before the crash, however, we were driving up highway 10. of course, being the long weekend, it wasn't moving. i, however, know this northern country like the back of my hand, and i soon had us whipping along barren dirt roads, bypassing all the traffic and laughing all the way. all of a sudden we see a bunch of cop cars ahead of us. as we approach, we look to our left and notice a house and it's property are yellow taped off. as we pass, we see not one, but two airplanes lying in ruins on the guys front lawn and farm field. we found out later that night that 3 people had died when their planes crashed in mid-air.

despite what was a pretty solemn beginning, we trekked on, had a great weekend up north, ate a lot of beaver tails (the one with chocolate and banana is freakin insane!!!), and i got a few decent photos of my beloved escarpment. all in all, a great weekend.

on the way back, we stumbled upon a massive field of wind generators...

... which was great to see. i'm happy that the ontario government is at least trying out other sources of energy...sources that are environmentally friendly.

on a side note, i'm going to be using the dagobah blog exclusively, instead of having one for christian stepien.com and the dagobah project. they both involve yours truly anyway, so why double the work, ya know?

guess who made the front page...

our interview with the mississauga news came out today, and chris clay (who did the interview with us) did a great job. what's even cooler is that we made the front page of the paper! click on the pic below to check it out!