inspired photography with just enough perspective
This is a path through Stanley Park in Vancouver. This is one of world’s great urban parks, easily on par with Central Park, some would say it exceeds. The air is cleansed by the abundance of trees and walking on this path you could easily forget you are in a major city. If I was king of the world my first decree would be that every city must have a big beautiful park like this. But in the meantime, Vancouver will do.
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This is a naval station that rest on a little island inside Vancouver Harbour. At first glance when you see this and read the sign you think it can’t be because it’s so small. I think it’s a holdover from the days the harbour needed to be defended, I have never seen a naval ship here. However, there is one reminder that is unmistakable. Just to the left of where I’m standing is an active cannon (that’s right, I said active) in a big cage. Every day of the year at precisely 2100 hours the cannon discharges. It reverberates through the downtown towers in an unmistakable “report” that is sure to startle any non-local unfamiliar with the tradition. I, for one, will always consider this naval station and the accompanying cannon blast an indelible part of the great city that is Vancouver.
Last year I spent a bit of time in Vancouver and my favorite place to go is Stanley Park. I’ve posted pictures of this fountain before as it’s hard not to get a good picture of it. Aside from this I have a lot of favorite subjects in Vancouver which is an amazing city to be sure. Four years ago the winter Olympics took place here and the Olympic fountain where the flamed burned is another favorite subject. After seeing the opening of the games in Sochi, I think I may have to add that fountain to my list as well.
Today is Thanksgiving in the United States. When I was seven years old in grade school we would create autumn leaves from construction paper to commemorate Thanksgiving. Also I remember drawing a picture of a turkey that my grandmother kept at the cottage and which remained on the wall for years. These little things and many others have ingrained in my mind that the end of November is the harvest season, full of leaves and color. In actuality it seems that harvest season should be over by the end of November. For instance in Canada Thanksgiving is held at the beginning of October, to me that seems closer to harvest season than the end of November. I have no idea where I’m going with all this other than these autumn leaves reminded me of Thanksgiving and so I thought I’d post this picture today. For my friends in the U.S., Happy Thanksgiving. For the rest of you, get back to work, two more days until the weekend. 😉
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I used to think Summer and Winter were my favorite but now I’m leaning towards Spring and Fall. I think the reason is that each bring tangible change that I can see all around. Don’t get me wrong, I love summer and all the fun things it brings but, in my humble opinion nothing compares to the Cherry Blossoms in Spring or the leaves in Fall. And all this from a guy that lives in Florida, go figure.
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In Autumn I pay more attention to my surroundings, cold is coming. There are little queues which increase each day until one day I can’t ignore it. It’s not the end of the world, just dimming of the lights and I know what’s coming next. Autumn reminds me that time is ticking and I better get ready because once the clouds come and the rain starts we’ll all be in it for the long haul.
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Living in Florida we don’t get a lot of Autumn colors (nada, zip, zilch), and so when I recently landed in Vancouver I was pretty stoked that the colors were still there. I quickly deposited my bags and headed out to Stanley Park. I should have known I’d have good company, half of the city was out snapping photos as well. I witnessed the same phenomenon in spring when the Cherry Blossoms were in full bloom. Take it from me, Vancouver is one snap-happy town. It feels like one massive photo walk; I’ll notice something interesting and someone else will come over to take the same shot. I felt like I was on a scavenger hunt, trying to find the best compositions. Silly, yes, but fun nonetheless. I’m glad I was there to get a few pictures, along with about a million of my fellow photographers.
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Not too long ago I took a walk along the entrance of Stanley Park in Vancouver, British Columbia and ended up here. At this spot is where the rowing club is and in the evening you can stand here watching the crews work out. Rowing is another one of those sports I’d like to try, I think it would be much funner than the rowing machine at FitLorenzo (my gym). Even though I’ve been to this spot many dozens of times, there’s always something new to see or notice. And even if there isn’t I find it hard to leave, especially at dusk when the light is slightly muted and everyone is out running or cycling along the path. After I took this shot I headed back to the hotel and was surprised by the harvest moon, I didn’t realize it was on this day. I tried taking a picture of it but moons are tricky and I find it hard to capture it the way I see it with my eyes. Maybe one of these days they’ll figure out how to download the photo’s in my head. Until then I’ll keep trying with my camera.
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This is Siwash Rock which is at the western tip of Stanley Park in Vancouver. The first time I walked around the seawall I was struck by it’s shape and position, as though it were some mystical sentinel. I’ve tried several times to take a picture of this with poor results, in fact I was a little obsessed with this. How so? Well, when I’m in Vancouver I stay at the Marriott, and in each room of that hotel is the same black and white photograph of this rock, from roughly the same position. I don’t know who took that photo, but who ever you are it’a a really beautiful shot. So, I had it in my mind to do something like that. This is my spin, as it were, but of course I’m emulating another photographer who’s work is in every room of the Marriott. So there you have it, I got my inspiration from a hotel wall.
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I do this mental calculation in my head to figure out if it’ll be a good sunset. It’s based on the height of the clouds, the vision I have of what the sunset should look like and the amount of time I have to procrastinate. At about 15% accuracy I’d have to say it’s a pretty good algorithm, …not. In any case, this is one of those rare occasions when I lucked out. Not only did I luck out, but from this position in Stanley Park there were no fewer than eight photographers already setup, some with assistants and models in tow. It felt like I had to stake my ground as though I was in the press corps waiting for the president. That made me wonder if there is some website or iPhone app that tells photographers a good sunset is on the way, how else would all these shutterbugs be there at the same time and place? The only other possibility is that there are a lot of other people that think like me. And that, my friends, is a little unsettling.
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