Pekin Chop Suey House in Chinatown

I was walking through Vancouver's Chinatown district and I noticed a faded sign on the side of a building. It reads: Pekin Chop Suey House. It sounds very 1950's American-Chinese, and so it should, as this was the old location of a Chinese restaurant many years ago. The lower half was rebuilt and the core was redone with concrete, leaving the top outer shell original. You can see in the distance the entrance-way into Chinatown from the West side on W.Pender, and the far left corner is just a part of the world's thinnest building.  The sun was just going down behind the downtown buildings, and so the lighting was just right for a westward picture.......

Vancouver Shoefiti

Shoe flinging or shoe tossing has it's own name now, shoefiti, as in graffiti with shoes.  I took this shot because I liked the way the shoes were silhouetted by a dramatic and cloudy sky. 

Is Astoria Hotel next to a Farm?

 

I love riding my bike and taking pictures.  It's the best way to see one's own city, hands down.  You can hit 20-30 spots in an afternoon, something you can't do with a car, public transit, or walking. It's also a good way to see things we may never see if we stayed in our cars. An example?

I've driven past this spot a hundred times in my life, and I've never noticed this urban garden next to the Astoria Hotel.  No, not the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York, but the Astoria Hotel in the DTES of Vancouver , the poorest neighbourhood in Canada.  The Solefood Urban Farm Project has done a really good job making this a functional farm, as you can see by their website.  

Photographically speaking, I took this picture to emphasize the extreme juxtaposition between these two worlds, even though this contrast is no longer as such in more and more major cities around the world. I took some pictures without having to shoot through the fence, but the fence really worked photographically as a cool border between the enclosed city garden and the reality of the DTES on the outside.

English Bay Beach

I love Vancouver summers. It's light outside until 10pm! This picture was taken at about 8:30pm from the patio of The Boathouse Restaurant. Nice.......

Sun Setting.....

Low angle sun and dramatic light this time of year. Shot in my backyard coming home from work on my bike..........

Vancouver Drydocks

I took a quick pic with my iPhone while I was installing new decals on a new $15,000,000 tug boat. These are cool, since they can move in any direction, including sideways!! They use these specifically to pull big cruise ships into harbors, as big ships don't maneuver well in tight spaces.....

After taking the picture, I imported it into my computer and played around with different settings. I adjusted in Photoscape and finally decided to convert the image into a sketch...... Enjoy.

Ride Home

I happened to work a 12 hour day today, so I finished as the sun was setting. I usually don't get a sunset on the way home in the summer, unless I work unusually late (which was today). As per usual, I only had my work camera, so it didn't really do it justice, but you get the picture......

Picture Postcard

I've done a few installs at 943 West Broadway, so I've got to know the building manager reasonably well. One day I was up in his office, and realized what an awesome view of downtown he has. I just happened to have my LX3 with me, so I asked if it was okay for me to take a few pics. What a most excellent day to take this picture. In fact, the manager was telling me that after the olympics, the USA Olympic hockey team took a team photo up here for some cereal box poster or something like that......

Bridge Pics and Equipment Debate

I'm facinated by cloud patterns. I love the big fluffy ones (aka Cumulus). Whenever I ride home and I see a bunch of clouds just hanging around, I stop and I take a picture.

I've posted 4 pictures, two are taken with my Minolta A200 camera, and the other with my Panasonic FX50. Both have similar pixel count, but notice the difference in over all texture of the images. Even though all pictures have been edited, they still have a distinct look, especially the grain pattern. I like the look of the Minolta (the top two pics) versus the Panasonic. There's too much smudgy noise reduction on the Panasonic pics..... too bad it was pouring rain when I shot with the Minolta (you can see where the raindrop hit on the first image), while the Panasonic got the killer clouds!! As mentioned earlier, my Panasonic FX50 is a cheap work camera, but is small enough to be on my hip whilst I ride my bike, so it's always ready to take a picture. My other cameras I have to pack in my bag and takes a lot longer to set-up before I can shoot.

The answer to my dilemma? Buy a better, smaller, work camera. Which camera? My dream would be the Ricoh GR D III. Next, perhaps the Canon S90. A reasonable option would be aused Panasonic FX35 or FX37. Sorry for nerding out on equipment....but you know what they say: Neither wise men nor fools can work without tools!!

Day 00? Shipyards....

Well, I haven't posted any new pics for a while, only posting lost pictures from my picture a day project. I've got some input from others, and I think I'll do a few mini projects from time to time, and also post pictures when I've shot something interesting.
I don't think I've actually mentioned this in my blog, but I started this blog to get myself back into creative photography. I wasn't trying to take prize-winning pictures, and I avoided using my top equipment. In fact, I shot mostly on my cheap work camera... it takes not so good images. Noisy images even at a low iso 80, and then attempts to correct it with noise reduction that smears details. As well, most shots were taken on the go, at work, or commuting to and from work while on bike. I didn't use a tripod, nor did I spend time pondering over the shot. I see a shot peripherally while riding, stop, take the shot, then back to riding. Gone in 30 seconds!!
At home, I edit on a free photo editing program (Photoscape, found free online), and do so as quick as possible. The whole process is sloppy at best... haphazard photography. This style was inspired a bit by John Frusciante's (lead guitarist for RHCP) 6 albums in 6 months project. It wasn't about making each song or album perfect. It was about putting ideas down quickly, so the inspiration wasn't lost in overthinking the song, or in my case, the image.

Anway, I'm going on and on. I was at the shipyards today doing an install and took some cool shots. It's a heavy industrial and ugly place, but even there you can find cool pictures. I love it when the big horn blasts to announce coffee or lunch, and all the guys (and gals) go marching off, so it leaves the shipyard empty. That's when I take my 1 minute break, sip some tea, eat a cookie, and take a few shots. Here are some pics I took today (although 2 are from last week)..... sorry for writing so much!! My wife told me to keep it short and sweet!! Arghghgh!!! Stop writing.......

Day 23: Biggest Frame Ever

It was a beautiful day and I thought I'd take the long route home through Lions Gate, Stanley Park, downtown, and then through East Van, then back to N.Burnaby. I knew I'd fine some sweet pics on my journey home on my bike. I picked up some cds from HMV on Burrard & Robson, and slowly made my way home. I roamed strange neighbourhoods, and took really cool shots. However, the shot of the day was one of the last shots of the day. I take this route home all the time, so its funny that none of my other exotic downtown shots made the blog. The lighting was just perfect, as the sun was just beginning to set and hit the yellow of the bridge.What I like about this shot is the bridge acts as the frame for my picture, as it leads your eye to the centre of the image. To emphasize this, I used a very subtle bit of colour isolation and focus blur, but very little..... your eye naturally looks under the bridge......

Day 21: Drive-By Shooting

Okay, to start off, as they say, don't try this at home. That is, don't take pictures while driving. I don't do it all the time...... okay, I almost never do it, but I've seen some pretty spectacular images while driving, and this shot was one of those impossible shots unless driving up high in a van. I was on lower levels in N. Van and I saw this perfect landscape, including a group of crows flying together in a big flock over to the right......I grabbed my camera, which is usually on my hip when I'm working, and I quickly shot off a few shots, with minimal composition. I did shoot in colour, but that's only because I didn't have time to switch the camera to b&w mode. It didn't matter because it was cloudy and gray and pretty much monochromatic anyway........but the picture works. The glue that holds the image together is the sideview mirror showing what's behind. I'm happy with this dangerous, accidental, uncomposed, spontaneous shot...... not too much modification, just darkening of the highlights, up the contrast and switching to black and white.......

Day 18: Main Street

Third day in Whistler, and I spent from 8am to 4pm snowboarding. The pictures I took up at the mountain were more smiley tourist shots, and my mind was not in photo-blog mode. I was in "don't fall on my face while trying to go from heel to toe edge" mode...... anyway, after getting back to the apartment, taking a shower, going out for dinner and then back to the hotel, it was pretty late. After looking at all my pics during the day, including food pics at the restaurant, nothing was blog-worthy. So I trekked out late, hunting down a good shot. Not unlike the night before, I took lots of shots at dark, empty store windows, lights and buildings, and finally I took the above shot. I love the halo around street lights, especially the type that arches straight down. I waited for a car to pass by just to add a bit of something to the picture.... I did want something or someone under the street light.....a couple kissing under the light would have been too cliche...... how about a young kid doing a headspin on a sheet of cardboard? How about a clown in full circus-garb?

Day 16: Glow in the Dark Inukshuk

What a long day!! Work all day, and then scramble to pack to go to Whistler, go to a buddy's house to pick up snowboard equipment, fill up gas, and then finally off at 7pm!! We rolled into Whistler at 8:30pm, and it was snowing hard. As we drove in off of Highway 99, what greeted us was a big, illuminated Inukshuk, a remnant of the 2010 Olympics.

After dropping off our luggage and settling in and relaxing a bit, I ran outside in the snow to take this picture. It was cold and wet, but I was well prepared. I braced myself against a light post so I could still shoot at iso 200, a wide open F 2.0 and a slow 1/6 of a sec. You can see the snow coming down in the top right of the image, falling like stars...... not a great image, but good enough to make the blog. I was too tired to run around the village at 11pm to look for the perfect picture.......

Day 12: Here Comes the Clouds

I've been wating for dramatic clouds since I've started this project. I ride to work, and I cross 2nd Narrows Bridge (okay, Ironworker's Memorial Bridge!!) on the East side in the morning, and the West side when I go home. Depending on the time of year, I get real dramatic sunrises and sunsets, and double bonus if I get dramatic clouds or fog. The dead of winter or the middle of summer has either too much sun or not enough when I travel to and from work, so I love spring and autumn the best for taking dramatic landscape shots. Since today was a grey and cloudy day, there was no point in shooting in colour. I think black and white truly brings out the different textures and layers, much better than colour. As well, by equalizing the shadows and highlights the best I can, I can get a very HDR-like picture. Punch up the contrast and then darken the image 2-3 stops, and you get this very sereal image, almost as if its a painting.....