Interview with Dan Barham

I was first introduced to Dan Barham at my old job, he had just moved from Manchester, U.K. I just thought he was another guy in a bike shop until the speaker at the seminar we were at recognized him from the U.K. She had said how he took some amazing photos, so I got to talking with him. Dan was pity modest about his talents, I realized something was up when he said he had a Canon Mark II DS. I have grown up around bikes and computers so we had a lot in common.

Dan has had a number of cover shots on top bike magazines as well as features in many more of them. Bike Magazine, Dirt Rag, Mountain Bike Rider, and Mountain Biking UK to name a few.

Dan doesn’t limit himself to just mountain bike photography if you have a look at his Flickr Gallery. I really like looking at peoples more raw galleries, not the portfolios because it’s a glimpse into the every day life of an artist.

Dan has since moved on from the bike shop and Edmonton to Live in Canada’s Famous North shore (Vancouver) were covers the biking events all over British Columbia.

Dan was nice enough to do this interview with me, and i hope you enjoy it.
Read on..

Canada targeting dirty two-stroke engines

I found this interesting, if you were to run your lawn mower for about 1 hour it will produce about the same amount of pollution as a car that has driven 500km.

Using a two-stroke lawn mower to cut a decent-sized lawn can produce as much smog-forming pollution as driving a modern car from Ottawa to Toronto.

If Canada wants to have the average household drop there green house emissions then lets have a look at some flexible numbers.

It took me 1hr to mow my parents law, thats 50′ x 100′ lot, thats more or less the average size of an older lot in Edmonton (before the housing boom) so in that hour the lawn mower potentially released as much pollution as driving a modern car 500km. The grass usually gets cut at least once a week. So in a month thats 2000km most people don’t drive that much in city conditions.

It make sense for Canadians to look into more efficient small engines, i would assume this would account for small boats, dirt bikes, chain saws, and land escaping equipment.

People also seam to want the perfect golf course looking law, cutting the grass so its 1″ long. Believe it or not having your lawn cut that short will cause the lawn to loose moisture and is actually hard on the grass. Remember its a plant, grass grows long, so leave it longer. This will allow it to shade its self keeping i’m moisture and reducing your water bill.

Source:
http://www.cbc.ca/story/news/?/news/2001/03/26/ott_lawnmowers010326