Thursday, March 31, 2011

Day 9: Not done yet

A few possibilities for today's photo. I took some nice ones of some budding and blooming magnolia. I don't normally like magnolia, but this one was a nice deep pink and there was a healthy variety of flowers at different stages of blooming. In the end I waited until the afternoon for some more Storm the Wall shots, especially now that the sun was shining. Watching the teams make their way over the wall is the most interesting part, and provides the best chance of good photo-ops. I took a couple of wall shots which turned out well enough. However, in the end decided that I liked the irony inherent in posting a picture of the archway over the finish line, complete with the word "Finish" is large letters. I also liked the blue and white colour scheme, which reminded me of the Finnish flag and allowed me to use an alliterative pun for the photo title :-)

A Finnish Finish
Storm the Wall, 31 Mar 2011

Wednesday, March 30, 2011

Day 8: Another day, another photo...

Today started out very, very wet and I wondered if I'd get chance to find anything worth taking a picture of. To my amazement, the rain stopped, the clouds lifted, and it turned into a pleasant, if cloudy day. While I was waiting for my afternoon coffee, I was tempted to take a picture of the pile of Smarties cookies for sale, but I think I'll save that for a day when I have the SLR. I went for a wander afterwards, taking in the view from the grassy knoll of the Storm the Wall event. It was the men's Ironman semi-final and there was a steady stream of guys wearing nothing more than runners and shorts/speedos making their final assault on the wall.

I took a few action shots and walked on, following the course back towards my office for a while before detouring round in front of the library. I passed a couple of girls sitting half watching the runners when I heard one of them exclaim "Oh my god - he's naked! He's totally naked!" It took me a minute to realize they were talking about one of the competitors! Well, that would certainly make for an, err, interesting shot as he went over the wall... I feel safer posting this one instead. :-)

Storming the wall
Storm the Wall, 30 Mar 2011

Tuesday, March 29, 2011

Day 7: One week

Day 7 already? Only 358 to go... :-) Today turned out to be easy in the end, thanks to my walk out for afternoon coffee coinciding with the clean-up operation after today's wall storming. With no teams trying to get over the wall I had a clear shot, a matter of minutes before the white tarps were draped over the walls for the night. Good timing on my part as the rain is now pouring down, a storm of a different kind.

Storm that wall
Storm the Wall, 29 Mar 2011

Monday, March 28, 2011

Day 6: Picking the right moment

One of the advantages of beginning this project in the spring is that there is plenty of new growth to photograph. Fresh buds, blossom and flowers are everywhere, and it becomes more an issue of which ones to photograph, rather than having to work hard at finding something. However, by the time I set out to get my picture for the day, it was getting late and rain was threatening. My attempts to capture some fresh downy serviceberry were foiled by the blustery wind. In the end I walked down to Kits Beach where the tide was low, and found a spot to take a picture of the city skyline. I've tried this shot several times before and never been happy with the results, but thankfully tonight's attempt worked just fine.

Vancouver skyline at low tide
Kits Beach, 28 Mar 2011

Sunday, March 27, 2011

Day 5: Birds in Boundary Bay

One of our contacts on Flickr posts a stunning array of bird photos, many of which are taken along the dykes of Boundary Bay. I've been down there a few times and seen bald eagles up close and far away, herons, golfers, wildfowl and garter snakes. One of the most common birds of prey there is the Northern Harrier and I've longed to get a good photo of one of them drifting and dinking over the marshes. But they're hard to catch, and tend to stay well away from crowds of the bird watchers armed to the teeth with their telephoto lenses.

My first foray onto the dyke today was met with a heavy shower of rain, and I quickly retreated back to the car. I began driving home, but pulled over at a spot where numerous eagles were flying back and forth. I parked the car and explored an area I'd not seen before, a gated paved road. An information board informed visitors that the area used to be the Vancouver Wireless Station operated by the Royal Canadian Signal Corps to monitor Soviet Arctic communications during the Cold War. All that remains is the network of paved streets that formed the base, and they're open to the public to wander around.

I didn't go very far, but in that time I had close encounters with half-a-dozen dogs, several herons, a few golden-crowned sparrows, and more than a dozen bald eagles. At times the eagles flew less than 10 feet above my head, and I missed more than a few photos due to the camera not focussing quickly enough. But I still got plenty :-) and having taken enough I returned to the car and decided to drive to a different part of the dyke, this time at the end of 64th Ave.

I parked up and wandered out into a new shower of rain. I spotted a lone tree out on the marsh and dropped down off the dyke in order to get a picture of it silhouetted against the sky. As I walked back up onto the dyke I saw a bird flying straight towards me. And not any old bird: a male Northern Harrier in breeding plumage. I raised the camera and quickly fired off a couple of shots as it flew right past me at little more than head height. Wow! I was thrilled to have such a close encounter.

I wandered a little further along the dyke and encountered the harrier once more as I was on my way back to the car. Of course I couldn't resist taking more photos, and watched it hover over the long grass, talons down ready to grab any unsuspecting mouse or vole. I'd say I have my photo covered for today... :-)

Other photos from today are on Flickr.

Male Northern Harrier
Boundary Bay, 27 Mar 2011

Saturday, March 26, 2011

Day 4: Keep looking - you never know what you'll find

Keep trying and something will work out. Well it did. We originally had plans for a walk on the beach, but we ended up in Yaletown sampling the local hospitality. It had been a dull day, and I didn't have much hope for anything grand photo-wise. On exiting the Canada Line station near the Roundhouse, I spotted an interesting sculpture which looked like it would be my photo for the day. I took a couple, thinking that would be enough, and we continued on our way to the pub. We went into the New Oxford which claims to be a modernized version of a traditional British pub.

Inside, the decor was dark oak panelling with larger-than-life portrait photos of various Oxford University alumni. Tony Blair greeted us at the door, while Michael Palin and others kept us company where we sat. But the crowning glory, much to our amusement, was the huge portrait of Margaret Thatcher which dominated the wall next to our table. In keeping with being in a pub, the Iron Lady was sipping a glass of beer. However, she was not drinking from a traditional British pint glass - oh no - but from a European or Belgian-style glass. Oh, the irony! Maggie Thatcher drinking from the cup of Europe. Ha ha ha.

Well, the place was alright I suppose. Attempts to make drinking establishments look like "traditional" pubs almost always fail in one way or another and they invariably end up looking cheesy. (Having said that, there's many a British pub with plain awful interior decor.) Oh, I got that wrong: apparently the New Oxford is classed as a restaurant, not a pub. Huh? Make up your mind, folks. And how on earth can you justify serving some draught beers in different-sized glasses than others? Just bizarre. The food was good, although I feel they were trying a little too hard to be some combination of trendy/cool or whatever. I suppose that's what Yaletown can be like.

We left the pub and headed up to Granville St to catch a bus home. Along the way we passed a building which stopped us all in our tracks with its attendant gargoyles over a gateway into a courtyard. On closer inspection we noticed that one of the gargoyles was distinctly femininely endowed. How confusing! A gargoyle with a feminine figure, and striking what could be called an alluring pose. Was I supposed to be attracted or repelled? Perhaps if I were a gargoyle I'd feel differently ;-)

And with that, the gargoyle easily won the prize for photo of the day, though I have to say Maggie came a close second (and arguably maintaining the gargoyle theme...).

An "alluring" lady gargoyle
Yaletown, 26 Mar 2011

Friday, March 25, 2011

Day 3: Friiiiiiday

Yes, it's Friday - woohoo! In thinking about what to photograph yesterday it dawned on me that in order to make this project work, I can't just sit back and let every day present me with a photo-op. There has to be some planning involved, such as knowing about the Storm the Wall event next week which should offer one or more shots. It was no accident that I started this project on a day I took plenty of photos. I already have a few ideas in mind, but I want to leave them for days when I can't get out somewhere, or can't be bothered to get out somewhere :-)

Weekends should be easier and, at least for now as we head towards summer, weekday evenings might also offer the chance to see something worth photographing. But the main challenge is going to be during the working week, especially on rainy days. I'm lucky in that I work somewhere with plenty of nature to photograph, and I like to photograph nature :-) Plus I've been needing an excuse to get out of my chair more often, so maybe it'll work out after all.

Of course I wrote the above before I went in search of a photo, and was on my way home when I discovered that the camera had no memory card in it. Here I was with some lovely budding oregon grape (aka mahonia) and no way to take its picture. Hmmm... It was a dull windy evening and it didn't seem possible that I'd get any decent chances at finding a subject. I caught the bus home, emptied my bag and picked up the other camera before catching another bus up to the nearby liquor store for Friday evening beverages.

I got off the bus and was surprised to be greeted by sunshine and blue sky! OK surely I must be able to find something now. I tried a couple of shots of the construction site that used to be a supermarket before heading into the liquor store. I decided to walk home afterwards, hoping that there'd be some nice cherry blossom along the way. Sure enough there was, but by now the light was flat and dull again and the blossoms were strongly backlit by the sky.

I found some daffodils, which I normally ignore since I'm not a big fan of them, and then some of this yellow stuff that's growing everywhere at the moment. I later found out it's called Forsythia :-) I liked the yellow flowers (ever noticed how so many early spring flowers are yellow?) against the patch of blue sky. The shot was kinda boring when I first viewed it at home and was leaning towards posting one of the construction shots, but then I did some tweaking of the colours (saturation and levels) and decided I quite liked it after all. Good enough to post.

Friday Forsythia
Kitsilano, 25 Mar 2011

I must admit I had no idea what it was called when I took the photo, but Google came to my rescue. I entered "shrub tree yellow flowers" and the top result was a UK gardening site which listed the plants with yellow flowers. On the third page I recognized what I'd taken a photo of. A quick Google image and Flickr search confirmed it. As to what kind of Forsythia, well that's for the gardening experts - I'm just happy I got a photo...

Thursday, March 24, 2011

Day 2: An achievement in itself

Of course all of yesterday's enthusiasm had waned by the time I got up this morning, and the realization of what it means to take a new photo every day began to sink in. Nonetheless, I threw one of the cameras into my work bag and headed in.

On my way across the UBC campus, I passed the "Storm the Wall" setup where a group was practicing getting one of their team up and over the wall. This is an annual event at UBC and is effectively a modified team triathlon with swim, run, bike and sprint elements culminating in getting the team over the wall. All week I've had to listen to organizers' cajoling over a PA system (usually accompanied by obnoxious music); it gets a bit tedious to listen to the same pronouncements over and over again, but it's all in good fun, right? ;-)

The day came and went, and I hadn't taken any photos, but I knew that the Wall area would be quiet now as I headed home. Indeed, both walls were covered in white tarpaulins (looking like bleached, fallen monoliths from 2001) and the aromatic mulch spread out for protection was lit up brightly by the afternoon sun. With no one around (I'm not keen on getting strangers' faces) it was easy to get the shot I wanted.

A Storm is brewing
UBC, 24 Mar 2011

Next week is Spring Break, and the contest is on all week so hopefully I should be able to get at least one decent action photo.

Wednesday, March 23, 2011

Day 1: And so it begins...

Blogs and/or photo projects of the "one-a-day" kind never appealed to me. I figured they were mostly an exercise in Internet-narcissism (look at ME!) and yet here I am, Day 1 on a new blog posting a photo which may be the start of something interesting, or just another navel-gazing series of words and pictures. Or it may fall flat on its face.

I've tried blogs of various kinds and they generally don't stick. I kinda maintain a hiking diary over at Wordpress but it's woefully behind and far from complete. I tried a generic "blog-when-you-feel-like-it" blog, but that disappeared into nothing. I even had the grand idea of reviewing every album I own. This got further than most, and yet it's been more than two years since I last felt compelled to write about the music I listen to.

With all that in mind, how on earth do I propose to keep up with a one-a-day prescription? To make matters worse, the backlog of photos scattered across multiple hard-drives at home would seem to suggest that posting a photo a day is simply beyond me. But perhaps with a different focus, and with the emphasis on trying to find one photo that is worth posting and (maybe) writing about, I might be able to pull it off.

Well it all seemed like a good idea when I was sat mulling it over a glass of whisky the other night.

So here's photo number one, and to my mind it's quite apt, perhaps even contrived. Today I took the morning off work and spent a couple of sunny hours wandering round Lighthouse Park in search of white fawn lilies. I didn't find any lilies, so I sought out a spot where I'd seen trillium growing last year and sure enough they were just beginning to emerge. One flower was slightly ahead of the rest and I could see the white petals furled up inside the third leaf, ready to emerge within the next few days. Usually I catch trillium at or past its peak flowering, so I was really pleased to find some at this early stage.

Unfurling trillium
Lighthouse Park, 23 Mar 2011

Day 2 is another day...