Bike ride out to Iona Island

For the first time in months, after reinflating my tyres, I jumped astride my bike and went for a ride. After spotting people walking around on the beach at the edge of the Vancouver airport, I figured it would be a good place to explore and ride around on (especially since it looked flat!). It also gave me the opportunity to cross the north arm of the Fraser River on the relatively new pedestrian and cycling bridge, which I am happy to report was a pleasure. Although I took a slightly roundabout route through Richmond to get to Iona Island, there were some interesting photographic subjects on the way.




Water #10 sculpture, part of the Vancouver Biennale




Fraser River




Industrial site that I can see from UBC




Massive log chained up alongside log rafts

Short Track Speed Skating

The only ticketed event that I made it to was the short track speed skating at the Pacific Coliseum. Despite being passed up by several full buses, we made it in time to the venue. After standing in the rain and then passing through the security checkpoint, we made it just in time to catch the only Australian skater, Tatiana Borodulina. She won her heat in the 1000 m event. Unfortunately, since I am still bereft of a telephoto lens, I couldn't get a good shot of her, but the following events, the men's 500 m heats and the women's 3000 m relay final, yielded some OK photos.

The funniest thing from the whole night was that the fries had to be called "savoury spuds", presumably not to interfere with a certain Olympic sponsor "family restaurant".




A false start by the Belorusian skater during the men's 500 m heat.




The chaos of the changeover during the women's 3000 m relay final.




The Canadian team celebrates with the crowd what they thought was a bronze.




The South Koreans despair after being disqualified after finishing in first place, while the Americans were jubilant after being promoted to bronze - despite finishing almost a whole lap behind the South Koreans.

Vancouver 2010

The Olympic circus is here - this is a selection of the festivities through my lens. Enjoy!




The Olympic flame - safely kept away from the marauding crowds behind a lovely chain link fence.




Large sections of Granville St and Robson St are closed to vehicle traffic, returning the streets to the people - and the people are making their claim. I personally think that most of Granville and Robson should be permanently closed to car traffic, the footpaths widened and just allow buses to run up the middle.




And the climax of Stephen Colbert's second day of filming by False Creek - giving in to the crowd's chant of "Ride the Moose! Ride the Moose! Ride the Moose!". He took it one step forward by waving the Canadian flag around too. Classic. Can't wait to see the show next week!

The Dark of the Year

The winter solstice has arrived, and the days are short here at 49.25°N. Fortunately I get to escape the winter dark and spend a couple of weeks at the opposite end of the globe in Melbourne, Australia.




The sun rises late...




...the vegetables are frozen in the gardens...




...the sun sets early...




...and the greenhouses glow orange.

Shots in the grey

November was a REALLY wet month in Vancouver. There were just four days without recorded rain, and from the 5th to the 26th it rained every single day. This series of photos were taken towards the end of that stretch, on the 21st and 22nd. Now that we're in December, the days are clear and cold. Seems like the weather changes slowly at this time of year.




The two large rings are a public art installation on English Bay. Dozens of these types of large scale sculptures have sprouted around Vancouver as the city prepares to host the 2010 Winter Games. I like the way that they frame the container ships anchored out in the bay.




The general gloominess lent itself to some black and white imagery. And the sun breaking through the overcast sky provided a little bit of sparkle. This is the Burrard Bridge looking east.




Looking in the other direction, this is a composite panorama made from three images in Autostitch, a great FREE panorama-making piece of software.

International Day of Climate Action

I put on my event photographer hat and joined in the protest. This was the biggest rally in Vancouver since the anti-war action in 2003.

Fortunately the weather held up and even improved during the day - the gloomy clouds disappeared over the course of a few hours.



Sign waving on the Cambie Bridge.




The crowd gathers.




This gives some sense of the number of people.




The banner that was hung from the Cambie Bridge.

Ghosts of Sunshine Past

Now that the rainy season has well and truly hit Vancouver (50 mm forecast for today after 20 yesterday), I thought I'd blog about some sunny photos from the last couple of weeks (and hopefully get up to date!). These are all from in and around Vancouver.





This selection of squash was on display at the Brackendale Fall Fair, which is just north of Squamish.





From a lookout close to the summit of Lynn Peak, on the North Shore.





While not sunshine per se, the sunset was reflecting off the buildings of North Van.


And that's it for this installment - watch this space!

Festivals

Last weekend featured both the Powell Street Festival (celebrating Japanese-Canadian culture) and the Vancouver Pride Festival. Both events afforded some good people watching opportunities...




Some interesting East-meets-West clothing combinations, such as the Fan Man.




This little girl was adorable, very interested in everything around her, including a snappy dog. Her Grandma had to continually hold her back, although she is releasing her in this picture.




This Taiko drumming performance was impressive. The man on the left with his foot way up in the air was very enthusiastic, and I love the very serious expression on the woman at the front of the line on the right.




There was also a Japanese rock band "Paris in Tokyo" performing all sorts of crazy stunts like playing guitars through their legs and behind their backs, but the funniest part of the whole performance was that no one was up close to the stage except for a pack of amateur photographers all doing their best paparazzi impersonations. So naturally, I shot the shooters.


So, moving on to the Pride Festival - unfortunately I missed the parade but there was still the stationary part of the festival to enjoy.



This guy surveying the scene sums it up for me pretty well.

A lazy Sunday

A few snaps from Cambie Street and Heather Park.


Life on Cambie Street on a Sunday summer afternoon.


Cappuccino on a sunny afternoon.


This was best one - the dandelion seeds were quite stubborn and were quite hard to get airborne.

Post-gallery photo-walk

So after an evening spent admiring the magnificent work of Andreas Gursky at the Vancouver Art Gallery (my favourite was Engadin II, an incredible shot of a cross-country ski race), I headed out onto the darkening streets of Vancouver...


Love the juxtaposition


BC Lions fans heading home


The older district of Beatty St, quite a contrast to Yaletown


I kind of had an aim to find a shot to add to the Film Noir Mood Flickr group and this was best I could come up with. I quite like the pool of light on the street corner. However, it didn't get approved - better luck next time, I guess.

Festival d'été francophone Vancouver

Well, here it is, post #1. What I'm going to do here is put of some of what I consider to be my best or most interesting photos as I take them. You can see more of my work on my flickr photostream.

This weekend featured the Festival d'été francophone Vancouver, which is the annual summer festival celebrating the French language in Vancouver, and part of that was a music festival held in W 7th Ave, just off Granville St, on Saturday evening. Three francophone bands performed, Malajube, karkwa and Pierre Lapointe. See the full set.

There were some pretty avidly patriotic (or should that provinciotic?) Quebec fans - lots of blue and white, and lots of poutine consumed (they actually ran out and had a temporary poutine drought).



I was quite pleased with my effort at capturing the drummer from karkwa in action in this shot:



It ended up being quite a fun event, and I think a bit of my high school French was coming back by the end of it all.