Day 365: 0.986 degrees to go

The penultimate day and I'm scratching my head - what shall I photograph today? I found myself in downtown Vancouver under unexpectedly-sunny skies and decided to walk home over the Burrard Street bridge to size up one of my favourite views of the city. I stopped mid-span and to size my photos: the conditions could not have been better with snowy peaks peeking through the city canyons and the flat calm water reflecting the blue sky. But it was this view that caught my eye - zooming in on the Inukshuk in English Bay (which, actually, was on my photographic list for this project) offered a perspective on Sunset Beach that I really liked, and I could follow the curve of the seawall path from there into Stanley Park.

And with that, I am less than 1 degree off finishing.

Following the seawall

Day 341: The otter and the beaver

A wander downtown on a fine but chilly Sunday. Getting a photo of the floatplanes here in Coal Harbour has been high on my photographic to-do list for this project, and today was a good day for it. I could have got closer by walking round to the west side of the convention centre, but that wasn't the direction we were going today. We watched several planes take off and land (do float planes "land" on water?), but it was this shot of two together that I liked best. The smaller plane on the left is a de Havilland DHC-2 Beaver, like the one we flew in to reach the beginning of the Nootka Trail; the larger aircraft is a de Havilland DHC-3 Otter. I've always liked aircraft, and I could watch these all day.

Floatplane greeting

Day 337: Mountain city

Much of the last week has been rainy with little or no sign of the mountains. Today, the clouds lifted and the sun shone a little, brightening up the city. I've always liked the view downtown along Cambie Street and over the bridge with BC Place, the Harbour Centre tower and Crown Mountain lined up. I think it's one of the best views in and of the city. The problem is that to get a clear view requires standing in the middle of the road, which I could do for a few short seconds while crossing. I went back and forth a few times, taking as many photos as I could hoping to get that perfect shot with the best light. This is about as good as it gets, I think.

Mountain city

Day 326: Canada's Place

As part of our endeavour to sample as much of the hot chocolate festival as possible, we found ourselves downtown searching for one of the places taking part, Leonidas. A bit of aimless wandering had us scratching our heads as to where exactly this place was, and fortunately we happened to walk past the tourist information centre. We went in and asked, and they knew exactly where we meant. As it turned out, we had walked more or less right past it, about the time I took this photo of the sails on Canada Place. We ended up at Bella Gelateria instead as it was closer (by all of 50 m) and enjoyed a truly sumptuous salt-caramel hot chocolate with their fantastic to-die-for banana bread. Delicious!

Canada Place

Day 286: Goin' postal

I've had my eye on postboxes for a while, as I really like the fake graffiti-covered look. I don't know the story, but I'm sure that covering the box in postal codes is a great way to stop graffiti artists. Alternatively, it could be that any graffiti (at least of the "tagging" variety) that does end up on the boxes doesn't stand out, effectively nullifying the purpose of the graffiti in the first place. Anyhow, there I was, sipping a perfectly pleasant mug of Earl Grey when I spotted these two postboxes side-by-side. Even better, I was sat next to an open window, so all I had to do was point the camera through the gap, zoom in a bit and take the picture. Once back home I realized the two postboxes were not quite as level as I first thought, and I briefly considered a bit of Photoshop trickery to line them up, but in the end I've posted the picture as-is, cropped a little and the contrast and saturation boosted slightly.

A pair of postboxes

Day 261: Weinachtsmarkt

Last year Maria went to the German Christmas market and enjoyed it, so I decided to go with her this year. Once inside, we avoided the nauseating smell of the melted cheese and wandered round the stalls, admiring all manner of intricate traditional German Christmas ornaments and gifts. In the centre was a small bandstand with a choir and band, loudly belting out a variety of seasonal songs. The PA system had some bad resonances and quite a few of the stallholders were less then impressed at being located so close. As the evening drew to a close, the choir and musicians moved on to the carousel, and spent a few minutes playing and singing while the carousel turned. One trumpeter sat high on his trusty steed while two trombone players took a bench seat, for all the world looking like a pair of musical book-ends. Time to get a long-exposure photo :-)

Musical merry-go-round

Day 244: Happy Birthday

To me :-) My driving licence expired today so I thought I should get myself down to one of the ICBC offices to renew it. I was in and out of the office within 5 minutes. Since I was downtown and I had some time before my bus ticket ran out, I wandered round taking a few city shots. I've taken so many photos with the Shangri-La building in it from our balcony, or from the beach, it made a nice change to get a different view of it. I tried a few angles, but in the end liked this one best, which highlights its triangular shape. Must be a nice view from up there...

Living on a knife edge

Day 148: Curves and lines

Yet another phrase which, for me, immediately recalls a song: "Grand Designs" by Rush. The lyrics go, "Curves and lines // Of grand designs". Not that it's relevant, just puttin' it out there... ;-)

I took the bus downtown on a bright sunny morning to run an errand. The glass high-rises reflected each other and the blue sky and I couldn't resist lining up a photo of this building, especially given the symmetry. The sun was almost directly behind it so the light is all reflected from the sky or other buildings. It's always hard to get building shots right as the perspective quickly goes awry, so viewing a building face-on like this is the easiest way to go. I also made sure I had the lens-distortion correction on too to keep the edges of the buildings straight. I've wanted to get a good "downtown highrise" photo for a while. This will do for now.

Curves and lines