If you ever visit Vancouver, do yourself a favor and reserve a table at the Observatory Restaurant on top of Grouse Mountain. I can’t imagine a better location and even without wine the combination of view and fresh air is intoxicating. If it’s a clear night you’ll have a spectacular sunset followed by the glow of the city lights and ships moored in English Bay. I’m starting to sound like a travel brochure. I guess you can say I was impressed and this photo is my attempt to catch some of the magic of this unique location.
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Bradenton Riverwalk
Across the river from Palmetto where I live is the town of Bradenton Florida. A little while back the city decided to improve this walkway along the Manatee River. It now hosts food festivals, jazz concerts and a skateboard park. On this day I arrived around sunset to capture the modern, yet relaxed feeling of the place where families love to stroll and I’ll go to walk my dogs or just enjoy the eclectic atmosphere.
Waterfall Hallway
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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Switching Yard
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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Robinson Preserve
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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Casa Monica Stairwell
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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Uncomfortably Long Exposure
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).
Hidden Lagoon
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.
Civic Architecture 2.0
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.
Bank of Montreal
In Florida where I live it seems that a lot of small banks have been purchased by big Canadian banks. They’ll put up a new sign and logo which I then recognize as Canadian. Other than the new logo, the buildings are fairly nondescript as many local banks tend to be. However, when I walked by the same bank on a busy street in Vancouver, well, there’s something to look at. In any case, here’s to the architecture of Canadian banks…, in Canada.
