inspired photography with just enough perspective
There is a building in Vancouver that has a waterfall over a hallway leading from the lobby. On several occasions I’ve tried to capture it but I think the night exposure conveys the feeling of it best. It really does look like something out of this world, or perhaps something you might see at a Disney resort. In any case, I’m sure I’m not the first photographer to be captivated by this, …or the last.
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This is a rail yard in Vancouver that’s adjacent to a busy commercial port. I happened to be walking over a bridge and thought it interesting, however when I looked at the surrounding buildings I could almost imagine I’d been transported back in time to another era. When I was young we had tracks in our back yard. For a while after moving away I had a hard time falling sleep because there was no sound, it was too quiet. I wonder if the folks living in these buildings go to sleep with the rumbling of the trains. In an odd way, it’s quite soothing.
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Being a procrastinator I waited until about twenty minutes before sunset to head out of the house this evening. As I headed for the beach I passed Robinson Preserve and thought this might be just as good a location. It was getting late so I parked and headed into the park on foot, hoping I hadn’t left it too late. Just then the ranger doing his final rounds met me on the path and insisted that I leave as the park was closing in five minutes. I was deflated and not sure if I should be upset at the rules or myself for being so haphazard. I was at least five minutes from this pier where I wanted to setup and then another twenty minutes to hike out. In the end I think he rolled his eyes and looked the other way, but told me I should come back during the day to capture a family of bald eagles that he pointed out a quarter mile away. I will do that one day, but on this day I got the sunset and walked out of the park in darkness, alone, with all the little critters that come out at night expecting to have the park to themselves.
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The is the Burrard Street Bridge which crosses False Creek in Vancouver. On a typical evening its filled with cyclist, joggers and folks enjoying the view. This evening a dozen strangers and I stood on this bridge taking pictures of the sunset across English Bay. Just after nightfall I left the bridge and I looked back to realized I needed to put a few more megapixels in my camera. I love bridges and this one practically begs to be photographed, and of course I am always eager to oblige.
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Walking around Vancouver you can be forgiven if you become a little blase at the overflow of outstanding architecture. This is just one more lobby that I’ll walk by from time to time. Coming from a small town in Florida, I never get tired of this, it’s so unlike anything I normally see on a daily basis.
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The other day I took the ferry to North Vancouver. Along the way the Canadian coast guard were taking their fast hover craft out for a spin. The size of it is impressive, and even more so when it flys by. I was lucky enough to have my camera handy and was able to grab a few shots as they passed on the starboard side. If I had to guess, I’d say they we’re having a little fun, at least it looked that way.
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On the first day of my stay at this hotel I was sitting in the lobby and noticed the whole staff walk across the lobby and through a door into what appeared another room. It seemed apparent they were heading into a staff meeting. As I sat there I saw several people walk in and out of the meeting. From the amount of people I guessed it was an important meeting. Curiosity got the best of me and as I headed to the elevator I took a quick peak inside. In fact it was a stairwell which the afternoon shift was using to get to their assigned floors. I may not be the sharpest tack in the drawer, but at least I’m easily amused. This is the stairwell at the Casa Monica hotel in St. Augustine, Florida.
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This particular shot was taken at night, and as normally the case with these I press the button and the camera starts about its work which can take a minute or two. I’ll usually just daydream or look the other way and wait for the clicking to stop. Right after I pressed the button on this I heard a woman yell and I immediately thought I was doing something wrong, perhaps taking pictures of someone’s private Cherry Blossoms? I had no idea. It turns out there was a man walking a dog and the dog was, well, answering the call of nature on this grass in front of the lady’s house and she was yelling at the man. The dog was oblivious, the man was embarrassed, and the lady continued to yell. So while all this was going on I was stuck there waiting for my camera to finish this HDR exposure. Let’s just say it was a long sixty seconds after which I quickly picked up my camera and tripod and headed off. (Note to self: always carry poop bags when walking my own dogs).
Sunsets are complicated, you never know what you’re going to get and of course no two are ever the same. On this day I resolved to learn about sunsets by staying in one place before, during and after the sunset to see what range of colors I might see. This is a composition of that study and after nearly forty five minutes in the same place taking dozens of photos, I can honestly say I’m not sure what I learned. Nevertheless, it was good fun and easy on my legs.
North Vancouver city hall and civic center are designed with a minimalist theme that evokes the modern designs of someplace in Scandinavia. To get here I crossed the Vancouver Harbour in a ferry and trekked up the hill for about a kilometer or so. Turning around I had a panoramic view of Vancouver across the bay and jagged rocky peaks at my back, it’s hard to imagine a more scenic location in a cosmopolitain setting. These are my impressions of the architecture at the North Vancouver city hall.
