Satellite view of Vancouver 2010

The Vancouver region in British Columbia, Canada has a very mild climate offering rain conditions throughout the year. Winter at the base of the mountains is usually short as the temperature is often above zero Celsius and precipitations fall as rain instead of snow. Unfortunately, this year is even warmer than previous years and very little snow can be found on the ground.

Image courtesy of the Image Science & Analysis Laboratory, NASA Johnson Space Center.
Photo taken on January 22 2010 – Download large size image 3.5MB

Many articles, including one of the New York Times, mentions that the lack of snow in the nearby mountains requires that trucks, snowmobiles and even helicopters carry in snow to the competition areas for the Vancouver winter Olympic Games. Hopefully everything will be in place ready for athletes to compete at their best!

Note that the satellite image was taken from crew 22 on the International Space Station. I enhanced the photo in Photoshop and imitated the photo style of the excellent Earth Observatory website.

Exceptional view of Québec city!

Last night, a special event called a Tweetup was held in Québec city. Approximately one hundred tweeters were present at the Observatoire de la Capitale (last floor of Québec’s highest building: Édifice Marie-Guyart) to meet people of the Twitter community. The sixth edition of the successful event organized by Nicolas Roberge has been growing in popularity ever since it’s first edition back in April 2009.

In the following photo you can see the irresistible view from the observatory where the event took place. Printed copies of this photograph are also available on demand.

Related article:
Tweetup au sommet de la Capitale-Nationale : un succès (French only)

First pictures – powerful earthquake strikes Haiti

Edited 23h29 January 12th 2010 – A powerful earthquake of 7 on the Richter scale has struck in Haiti in the region of Port au Prince. The quake was felt just before 5pm and at least six aftershocks followed the events. Latest reports say that there are more damaged buildings than intact ones. With communications down in the affected region, it seems like the situation is chaotic and the death toll will be high. My sympathies to all the people there. Here you can see the first pictures and videos of the disaster:

Robinson 44 wrapping & painting

Helicopters can go just about anywhere (and that’s why I love them so much), this great ability allows them to go in dusty and sandy places. But in those environments, it means that some very small particles are likely to be lifted by the airflow and hit by the leading edge of the blades. This is far from dangerous, but it will slowly strip the paint on the leading edges of each blade.

To prevent corrosion and keep the blades healthy, it’s best to repaint them as the paint goes away and the bare metal starts to be visible. In the following pictures, you will see the preparation of the paint as well as a Robinson 44 wrapped with plastic to prevent the paint and fume from sticking to the fuselage. I have also included a quick time lapse of the helicopter wrapping. The video represents 7 hours of work in approximately one minute and half.

Timelapse video

Let there be light!

Ok… some of you might wonder where the hell I have been this last month! As some may have guessed, I have been more than busy. Many things have changed in my life.

To make a long story short, I have quit my job as a web designer/developper at EducExpert and I must say that I have spent two great years with this company full of young talent!

The reason for this major change is that I found another great job in a whole new world: The world of helicopters! I will slowly start flying as a helicopter pilot over the next year which I feel extremely privileged. The year 2009 was extremely difficult for this industry and for me to find a job only 6 month after my course is something that I can be proud of.

Another thing that can explain the absence of new posts on my site is the fact that I didn’t carry my camera very much these last 2 months. I find November & December extremely boring months for photography since the trees have lost their colorful leaves and the white fluffy floor has yet to fall from the sky.

Theoretically speaking, I should have more time in January 2010 to post articles on a regular basis. Until than, I leave you with this photograph that I have taken in 2007. The two photos featured in this post are some of the best photos I have taken in that year and that very few people have seen.

Peace! Maxime