back from jay!!

hello all,

just getting back from jay.. it was an awesome 3 days of excellent skiing. we didn't get too much powder which jay is known for but we did get some great weather and excellent food!! my legs are hurtin right now so i'm going to keep this short and i need to get back to my emails which have piled up over the last few days.

here are a few shots from my little canon point & shoot. i love this little camera, its great for skiing, fits nicely into my ski jacket.



a run named after me!! haha i wish i were at hot shot..



yeah right..



i still love my skis.



the jay tram



blue skies is a rare thing a jay peak.. monday was a beauty.



a little apre ski!!

off to jay!!!

hello all,

just to let you know that i'm off to jay peak vermont for my annual 3 day ski trip!!

i'll be away from email/phone until wednesday. i'll respond to email and messages as soon as i get back.

have a great week!

derrick

its here!!!

image from nikon.ca

hello all,

yesterday i got a call from my good friends at henry's in kanata and they finally received my D3!! i have been waiting for this beauty since october, they are really hard to come by. i have not yet had a chance to really play with it, but i have an engagement session this afternoon so i'll post a couple images tonight. i'm really excited to be able to try this bad boy out, this camera is revolutionary..

have a great day!!

d

we have some walls!!

hello all,

well chantale and i have something finally to report about the construction of our new home. after many weeks with just a hole and some concrete, now we have some walls!! its getting exciting, we only have 4 months until we move in..

here is a photo from today, we have the end unit of a 4 unit townhome. also below the photo i have made a little video of the model home that looks a little different than ours, but it will give you an idea of what ours will look like.

Click To Play

whistler + mikha = conroy pit

hello all,

today whistler met up with his sister mikha at conroy pit. whistler was a very happy doggy to get to hang with his sister.

this picture and video where taken with my new little canon sd870is point and shoot camera. its so fun having a point and shoot, its about the size of a deck of cards and fits easy into your pocket.

cheers,
d

a night of luxury

hello all,

after shooting krista + mike's wedding on friday (slideshow to be posted thursday night) i surprised chantale with a little getaway to mt. tremblant. saturday morning we woke up early and took the 2 hour scenic drive. we had reservations at fairmont trembant which i must say is well worth the money. the service is unbelievable, you are taken care of as soon as you pull the car into the valet.

after we settled in to our room we took the gondola up to the summit to take in the view and hike around a little.. as usual the winds were howling and we were not properly dressed so we took a few quick snaps and headed back down to relax pool side. the fairmont has awesome pools and hot tubs, we pretty much spent the whole afternoon relaxing and enjoying the luxury of the 5 star hotel.

after our soak we relaxed in our room before heading out to dinner at the windigo restaurant that is inside the fairmont. the food was amazing, a crazy surf & turf buffet with lobster, scallops, shrimps...and some great wine and cheese.

after 10 saturdays straight of shooting weddings it was nice to spend some nice quiet time with chantale, we had a blast and i think its important to take some time for yourself and spend it with your loved ones. sometimes we get too involved in our work and time passes us by, take a day off and spoil yourself, its well worth it!!

i didn't spend too much time shooting but here are a few shots that i did get.

life is great!!

email problems

hello everyone,

it seems that i have been having some email issues. if anybody has sent me an email and has not heard from me from over a week, then could you please re-send. i am so sorry and i have not been avoiding you, just some techincal issues between my mac and pc. they have been fighting over email and the pc(bad) has been wiping out my emails before the mac(good) reads them. i have been trying to use my mac only for email but sometimes the pc goes behind my back and checks my mail and deletes it..i may have to uninstall my pc email for good so this does not happen again. my appologies to all you that have been affected.

for those of you out there looking to buy a new pc, take your time and look into getting a mac. i have a desktop pc and a macbook, the mac way out performs the pc, i don't think i have ever had to restart the mac due to failure. if you want to buy a second hand pc let me know, i'll sell you mine for cheap!!

all the best,
derrick

**attention home buyers**

hello all,

chantale and i have our house up for sale and we are wondering if you or your friends maybe interested in viewing. you can email me at derrick@derrickrice.com to set-up an appointment or you can come by next sunday august 5th from 2:00-4:00 pm as we are having an open house.

click here to see feature sheet.

also, we have our property listed on grapevine, click here to see the listing.

if you or anybody you refer to our property purchases it, you'll receive and $250 derrick rice photography credit.

many thanks.
d

day trip to old montreal

hello all,

i am so glad to live so close to beautiful old montreal, its has a european feel to it, although i have yet to travel to europe but thats what i picture it to look like. old montreal has some cool architecture, great food, cobblestone streets and many different things to photograph. well last sunday my lovely chantale, my loyal dog whistler and i, the guy with the camera, decidied to jump into the car to make the 2-hour long journey. below are some of the pics i was able to grab while touring around. i have to thank chantale and whistler for being so patient with me as i stopped every 2 minutes to take a picture. i hope you enjoy them, i needed to get away and take some photos to hang on are newly painted walls, thanks laura and jean for painting!!

cheers,
derrick

lord stanley

a couple weeks ago when the ottawa senators were still in the hunt to win the stanley cup, i had the opportunity to shoot some photos of the lord stanley's cup for the staff of the holiday inn select here in ottawa. a great place to stay if your are visiting ottawa or planning an event or wedding reception. it took some courage to open these photos and prepare them for the hotel because of the disappointing ending to this years hockey season. most of the pics are of the staff of the hotel, but here is one i grabbed between shots, its the coolest and hardest trophy to win on the planet. i hope all you anaheim fans appreciate and enjoy it, because it will make its way back here next year!!

a big thank-you goes out to rick for asking me to shoot the photos of the cup, thanks buddie and i look forward to shooting your engagement and wedding photos!!

thank you ottawa senators

hello everyone,

i know a lot of ottawa senators fans out there are a little disspointed from last nights loss. we had a great year and a great playoff run. we should be proud of the team we have and and just accept that anaheim was better than we were this time around.

thanks ottawa for a great season and i cannot wait to go for it again in 2008!!

GO SENS GO!!!!

happy mother's day!!!

i just wanted to let everyone out there that i have the best mother in the world. i am the luckiest guy to have such a caring, loving and wonderful mom. even though she lives about 2000 miles away, she always picks me up when i fall, she is always there to listen and give advice in these trying times of our lives. thank-you mom, you are the best.

happy mother's day to all the wonderful mom's out there, where would we be without you.

almost playoff time!!!

Hello all,

I love this time of year. Its getting warmer and I don't have to wear a jacket, I'm allowed to take my pedal bike out of the shed, and the playoff hockey season is just round the corner.

For all of you that do not know i am a hugh Ottawa Senators fan. I know that they have a bad reputation of choking in the playoffs but i really think they have the right team this year to go all the way. Ray Emery has been playing awesome all year, even while playing with a sore wrist most of the season. Martin Gerber has been great when called upon and i think ottawa's young group of forwards and defence have matured and ready to take it to the next level. I just hope the fans start believing and stop critizing the past playoff experiences, this is a new year and who cares if they don't make it to the cup final at least we have a chance year after year, we should be just lucky that we are not the Toronto Maple Leafs, failing to make the playoffs yet again.

Anyway, I'd like to hear what you guys think, check poll below.

GO SENS GO!!!

vegas baby!!!

hello everyone,

was having a little trouble setting up a wireless connection in our condo in vegas, so i could not post in a few days. i am currently sitting poolside with a beer updating the blog. gotta love wireless.

anyway, vegas is wicked!! we are enjoying vegas more than we did la, way too much driving in la, we spent 60% of our 5 days in la driving in traffic. it takes about an hour to drive 20 miles, brutal, i was getting really frustated the last couple days there. now we are in vegas, much more relaxed. we are staying in a beautiful condo about three blocks from the strip. this condo has everything, a huge pool area with hot tub, a gym thats a mini goodlife, squash court, indoor basketball court, 3 plazma tv's...heaven!! the weather is great +30 all week, and you can drink beer everywhere, even while i watch chantale shop i can enjoy a nice cold beer, they should have this law everywhere, its much more enjoyable when you can drink beer while you watch your wife shop all day. its funny watching people walk up and down the strip with an open six pack in there hands.

tonight we are taking in a comedic hypnotist, supposedly the best in vegas, we have vip seats so hopefully i can volunteer to become hynotised. tomorrow night we are heading to a comedy club to check out some standup. the shows are very expensive, celin dion +$200, not for me, cirque de soleil, +$200 for really bad seats.

here are a few shots that i took last night and today, let me know what you think. i really like the effel tower and the bellageo water show.

i hope everyone is doing well, i'll be back home soon, i miss my alot :( hopefully all the snow is gone by the time we get there, i'm totally in summer mode.

cheers,
d

California - Day 3 & 4

Hello,

The last couple days we have been hanging out in Beverly Hills and Venice Beach. I could not afford to buy anything on Rodeo Drive, some places you need an appointment to even shop, they don't have price tags, because if you ask you cannot afford it. Anyway it was cool car watching, I must have seen 10 Ferrari's, 15 Bentley's, Range Rovers are most popular, you see five at about every light you stop at. Today was a relaxing one, we just hung out on the beach and walked the Venice Boardwalk, some very interesting characters along the boardwalk. Tomorrow we are going to Burbank to check out the studios and Wednesday we head to VEGAS BABY!!! Here are some photos of the last couple days..

Underneath the Venice Pier


Real life rescue


Lifeguards get to drive cool trucks


Mom & Dad at Venice Beach



Chantale at Venice Beach




My momma



Chantale and I


Chantale at the Lifeguard station



A rare pic of me, I let Chantale hold my camera.


I'm getting a pair of these tomorrow!!


David Hasselhoff paparazzi shot, my Dad thinks he is Hasselhoff



Rodeo Drive/Via Rodeo Street Signs







Versage, not my style..




Watching the sunset

California - Day 2

Hello everyone,

yesturday was spent in Hollywood. We did the Hollywood behind-the-scenes tour, which was kinda of boring. Our tour guide talked about old movies that I had no clue about. We then when took in the Homes of the Stars tour which was kinda cool, we drove past many famous peoples homes, like Bruce Willis, Demi Moore and Ashton Kucher (live across the street), Britney Spears, Justin Timberlake, Gene Hackman (has 8 Ferrari's parked in his front driveway), Sylvester Stallone, Dr. Phil, Steve Martin, Will Ferrel and Bob Parker, I actually got a paparazzi of Bob, see below. Again, it was hard to shoot pictures while on the tour, I have just a few posted. Heading out to Rodeo Drive today and I'm going to buy myself a $100 pair of boxer shorts, thats the only thing I can afford to buy. I'll try and take lots of pictures today.

Hope everyone is enjoying the spring weather, +30 here today.

Cheers,
Derrick

Chantale and I at the a lookout over LA, too much smog to see the city.


Mom & Dad


Rambo & Chantale


The famous Hollywood sign, used to say Hollywoodland.


The Beverly Hotel


Bob Barker Paparazzi Shot

California - Day 1

Hello everyone,

we made it to LA.. Beautiful day, +20 celcius. I didn't take many photos, too busy trying to find our way around. We did get out to Santa Monica Pier and Third Street for some shopping. We are staying at Gary Fong's beautiful condo in Marina Del Rey, its has an awesome view of the ocean and the Hollywood hills. We are going to Hollywood tomorrow so be sure to check back for more photos.

Cheers,
Derrick

Santa Monica Pier


The Best Mother in the World


Santa Monica Beach Lifeguard Station


Palm Tree

California Bound!!

Vacation is finally here. We are currently in Syracuse awaiting our 6:00 AM flight to LA. We had to drive across the US border because we didn't receive our passports in time, you have to have a passport to fly from Canada into the US. Driving without a valid passport is possible until 2009.

Keep checking my blog each day as I'll be posting pictures from our trip.

Cheers,
Derrick

Tampa 4, Ottawa 2 - Senators Lose Two Straight

My parents are in town for the holidays and were so kind enough to take us out to go watch the Sens. We had great seats in the lower bowl and I was able to sneak my D80 in with a Nikon 50mm f1.8. Here are a few shots!!

More Lewis & Whistler Pics

I can't get enough of these two..

Ice Storm

This past Friday we had an Ice Storm here in Ottawa, not nearly as bad as the 1998 Ice Storm but it did put a damper on my drive home. This was the first bit of winter weather this year, all I had in the car for an ice scraper was a Dave Matthews Crash CD Case, it took me about 20 mins to get the ice off the windsheild. These storms make for great photo ops, I did not get to shoot much but this street lamp outside of my day job office. Stay tuned from other pics of Ottawa's crazy winter weather.

The Life of Lewis & Whistler

Well our good friends Melanie, Jeff & Lewis the dog are in visiting from the great northern community of Iqaluit. Its great having Lewis around to keep Whistler company, as you can see in the pictures below they are taking a well needed nap. Although Lewis isn't getting much sleep because I have my big Nikon 17-55mm-f2.8 lens about 2 inches away from his face.

My dog loved this book as much as I did

A couple weeks ago I was reading David Jay's blog and he recommended this great book. A must read for anyone who has a small business or who is thinking about starting one.

Anyway, I had trouble putting this one down and almost finished it in one sitting. I had one chapter left to read and I decided to take a break, so I placed it safetly on the dining room table to return to it later. After a hot shower I was ready to come back to read the last chapter, relax and have a glass of wine. Once I returned to retreive my book I noticed it wasn't on the table where I last left it, but there was a paper trail leading down the hall where I found my favorite dog Whistler enjoying the taste of the last chapter. Anyway after chasing Whistler around to grab the book from him, there was not much to salvage. So I had to go back to Chapters and repurchase the book I just paid $23 for.

Here is a picture after I yelled at him for 10 minutes. Doesn't he look sad.. He gets away with everything.