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 364: Along the old straight track

Some months back I was at the Commercial Skytrain station, admiring the view along the tracks towards downtown Vancouver, and kicking myself for not having the camera with me. I added it to my list and today (which is the Spring equinox - woohoo!) I took the bus out east and ticked off another photo from my now exceedingly-short list. The light isn't as good as it was 10 minutes earlier when I first stepped off the bus, and the sun had dipped below the clouds just moments after I crossed the road. I was also hoping to catch an approaching Skytrain, but in retrospect, I'm glad the photo is empty of trains - the exposure time was too long to stop them and I think a blurry train would have detracted from the photo. It'll just have to do as it is :-)

Today's title is brought to by the Jethro Tull song "Cup of Wonder" which includes the line "sung along the old straight track", though it is not referring to railway tracks.

Skytrain tracks pointing to Vancouver

Day 357: City under cloud

A fine end to the day and I sped home to pick up Maria before heading out to Jericho Beach for a walk in the sunshine. I thought about using a nice picture of a ring-necked duck but the sunlight on the cloud-capped city won. It's not obvious in the photo, but the leading edges of the clouds showed some nice iridescence.

Vancouver under cloud

Day 346: Gloom

With today's gloomy weather, I had this photo in mind as a counterpart to the night shot from a few days ago. I meant to take it earlier in the day, but it wasn't until dusk that I set foot outside to get the shot. It was dull, drizzly and I didn't hang around.

And now there are only three weeks to go...

Vancouver in the gloaming

Day 345: Look east

Another 111 days from 123 and 234. Funnily enough, 111 days ago was 11/11/11. The usual story - dull day, didn't get out - but this time I had a bit of spare time at the end of the day and used it to take a different route home, heading along Fourth Ave instead. I got off at a stop with a superb view along Fourth Avenue - on the best days about this time of year, the snowy face of Mt Cheam over 100 km to the east rises above the city. The only time I saw that view, I was a passenger in someone else's car, and I've waited in vain for those weather conditions to repeat. I grabbed my photo and wandered down to the Jericho Beach pond and watched the beavers in the fading light.

Eastwards view along Fourth Ave

Day 342: Vancouver at night

I'd taken some mediocre shots during the day, but it wasn't until the evening when I saw how calm the water was that I knew what picture I wanted. I drove down to Kits outdoor pool and set up the tripod on a small grassy patch with a clear view of the city. I should have brought the remote shutter release or used the timer as most of my photos showed signs of camera movement as the tripod settled (it's not the sturdiest tripod), but fortunately three photos turned out perfectly. Then it was just a matter of choosing the preferred scene - I like the fact that the mountains can be seen behind the city in this one. One other thing I should have done when shooting this scene: I should have used the in-camera correction for lens distortion, as the curvature of the reflections is pretty obvious near the edges of the photo. I could get rid of that if I processed it from raw but that's something I've yet to get into.

Vancouver skyline at night

Day 340: Breezy

Wow - Vancouver is rarely windy, but this winter has been quite exceptional. I was woken up by the wind at 5:30 this morning: I thought it was thunder. Knowing what the waves would be like down by the water I dragged Maria to the beach to get sand-blasted. I was disappointed to find that the tide was low, and the waves were far away so I couldn't get the picture I had in mind. On our way back to the car, the wind was whipping up the sand into an ankle-blasting storm, and a family of three was making its way across the beach, heads bowed against the wind. With the city as backdrop it made the perfect second-best shot for today.

A bracing walk on the beach

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 298: View over Vancouver

To our surprise, the clouds parted after last night's snow to reveal the bluest of blue skies. We didn't have much of the white stuff, but on our trip to the farmers' market we found that other parts of the city did. Having loaded up on market goodies, we drove up the hill into Queen Elizabeth park to take in the view. Pretty - though difficult to get a good clear shot of the city itself thanks to the intervening trees. But there was one spot on the wall that offered the best view, which I duly shuffled over to once the previous occupant had taken their photo. A lovely view of some of downtown and into East Van, with the snow-covered Grouse Mountain area acting as a gorgeous winter backdrop. We could see into the Capilano and Seymour river valleys, and even Lynn Peak looked lovely! I get so used to the view from our apartment that seeing the city and mountains from a different angle is a bit of a treat, especially on such a day as this.

Vancouver and its mountain backdrop

Day 228: First Beach

Usually when we go to Stanley Park, we walk from Second Beach around to Third Beach and beyond. Today we went the other direction, walking the sea front as far as Sunset Beach. We paused by the Inukshuk to finish our hot drinks and I sized up my photo of the day along the line of the beach with the West End highrises beyond.

First Beach

Day 217: A sunny morning in the city

Yesterday was a beautiful sunny day, but I only took the wide-angle lens with me. As I cycled up Eighth Avenue, I stopped by Trimble Park to look back at the city. The trees were lit up perfectly by the morning sun and I vowed to capture that scene today with the telephoto lens. And so today I stopped at the same spot and took that picture, and though it's turned out quite well, I don't think it's as good as it was yesterday. Never mind. Golden Ears looks nice, doesn't it? :-)

Morning sunshine on Vancouver

Day 168: Jasper

To our amazement, the good weather has continued and what better way to get a feel for the Jasper area than by taking the tramway up to Whistlers Mountain to take in the view. From up here we could see Patricia Lake, Pyramid Lake, Annette and Edith Lakes, Beauvert Lake and Jasper Lodge, the Colin Range of mountains, the greyish Athabasca River and the banana-shape of the Jasper townsite. To the west we could see a bright white Mt Robson standing tall above its neighbours, and to the south (once we climbed a short way up the mountain) we could see Mts Kerkeslin and Edith Cavell. We haven't been up in the Banff gondola before - somehow it's never appealed - but this is the second time we've been up to Whistlers Mountain. Of course it helps that you can get a discount when you book the Maligne Lake cruise as well (that's for tomorrow!).

Jasper

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

Day 125: Blue Vancouver

As has happened a few times, I had another photo lined up for today, and ended up using something different :-) I wasn't too happy with what I'd taken earlier and so ended up squeezing in some time down at Kits Beach yet again (popular place for me on a Monday night). I was rapidly losing light and the sunset was nowhere near as colourful as last night's. I went down to the waterline and was hit by a blast of cool air as the wind tore across English Bay. Brr. (It's July, remember?) The light was fading to blue and I positioned a rock in the foreground with the word "LOVE" stencilled on it. It was too dark to get the depth of field right, and probably too windy for a tripod (well, for our tripod at least :-) so that's my excuse for the city being slightly out-of-focus. But I think it works well enough - it's a different kind of shot than any other so far in this project, so I'm happy.

Blue Vancouver

Day 90: Beach habit

I've been reading "Born to Run" by Christopher McDougall and to my utter amazement it has inspired me to try the running technique described in the book. I don't run, and have always scratched my head and wondered exactly what the appeal is. Doubly so since I was a sprinter at school, and not much good at long-distance running. But the description of the barefoot running technique and the ability of some people to run for 50 miles and more had me wondering just whether there was any merit to it.

On the back of yesterday's migraine, I took today off work and by late afternoon felt well-rested enough to venture out and try some running on the beach at low tide. I drove down to Spanish Banks and walked out onto the sandy flats. I'm guessing the water line was a couple of hundred metres from shore. I padded through the shallow tidal pools, silty mud squishing between my toes and tiny fish scattering in all directions, until I reached the outermost sandbank. I set down my sandals and backpack, looked up and down the beach and set off into the wind at a gentle trot.

I did my best to maintain the form described in the book - head up, back straight and short light steps - and soon covered my first out-and-back of about 300 m. I rested for a bit and then repeated it. I moved on and found another section right by the waterline with a nice smooth patch of firm sand. I set off into the wind again, turned round at the water and returned with the wind on my back, past my gear and down to the waterline again, before turning back and returning to my stuff. I felt fine - a little out of breath but not really tired. I paddled in the shallow water for a bit and took a few photos before running one last time. To my surprise I ran my out-and-back circuit twice without stopping, counting the steps on one pass to work out how far I'd run. I measured my stride and it came out to be about a metre: that meant each leg of my run was about 200 m - and I'd run that distance at least half-a-dozen times. I don't remember the last time I ran that kind of distance but I must have been at school. I figured that was enough, but couldn't put my finger on exactly why it was enough. I wasn't tired, I wasn't out of breath, and the only thing that came to mind was that I shouldn't push it too hard at first. Back at home, I could feel my calf muscles complaining - they had been worked quite hard after all - so it was a good decision to stop.

So I begin to see the state of mind that runners aim for, and I'm looking forward to trying it again.

City in the sea

Day 66: All hail

Another day of all work and no photos until I got home. After watching the Boston Bruins beat the Tampa Bay Lightning to face the Vancouver Canucks in the Stanley Cup finals I picked up the camera and took the bus down to Kits Beach. There were some grey clouds around, and enough blue sky to have me believe that there might be some interesting colour around sunset.

I got off the bus and promptly ran for the bus shelter: it was hammering it down with hail and I needed a moment to think about where I should head in order to not soak the camera. I ran over towards the pool and ended up huddled with half-a-dozen other folks under an overhanging roof near the open-air amphitheatre. As the rain eased off I walked round to the western end of the pool where I could get a view of the city skyline across it. The pool glowed bright blue against the dull grey clouds and, yes, the swimmers kept on swimming through the storm. The sun never did reappear...

Storm clouds over Kits Pool

Day 48: Another Monday

It's Monday again and I completely forgot to take the camera in to work with me. Fortunately it was a nice end to the day, and after watching the Canucks win their way into the Western final in the Stanley Cup, I took the car down to the beach. I opted to get a slightly different view and parked up at Hastings Mill Park next to the yacht club. I like this vantage point for a couple of reasons: it's a nice angle on the city and it's where we watched fireworks the weekend after we first moved to Vancouver back in 2004.

I started off taking a few tree photos, trying to get a good shot of the blossoms of a big-leaf maple. Looking up, I saw a bird of prey in the upper branches, which turned out to be an osprey. It spent most of its time looking up, perhaps wary of crows or eagles, but definitely not fishing. The sun was reflecting off a couple of downtown high-rises, casting nice long bright stripes on the water.

A thought occurred to me as I wondered about alternative photos, and I was reminded of a set of steps which led down to what is a minimal beach at high tide. I walked over and went down the steps. The tide was out though heading back in, and a heron was down at the tide line. I startled the bird as I approached and as it flew I panned and snapped a photo, not expecting it work. In fact, I was pleasantly surprised that it did. But I was losing light and the best reflections off the buildings had faded. I tried a few shots but wasn't happy with any as the sun sank behind a cloud. I'll save those for another day.

Reflecting on Vancouver

Day 17: Fun in the sun

Despite being more of a night-owl, I really like seeing the sun rise. This causes problems in the summer :-) So far this year I haven't been tempted out of bed by too many sunrises. The only other memorable one was back in January when I drove all the way out to SFU. Since then I've been content to watch the sunrise from home. However, this morning promised to be clear and I had already decided to take the day off work so I figured that today would be a good day to catch sunrise. I wanted to see the sun come up behind the city skyline so decided that somewhere along the waterfront between Jericho and Locarno Beaches would do the trick.

I checked the time the sun was due to rise and set my alarm. I got up just before 6am and almost didn't go out as the temperature was only about 3 C (prairie folk can laugh now). I didn't fancy the idea of being cold down by the water. But I told myself it would be worth it, grabbed the camera, hat and gloves and headed on down. I went out onto the pier by Jericho Sailing Club, which was covered in a light frost. Looking around me I could see the sand was also frosty.

And so I spent the next three-quarters of an hour admiring the golden sky behind the city, and the blue then pink sky to the west. The wind was calm, and though it was cool I didn't feel cold. A group of people were fishing for crabs off the pier, loading up their traps and casting them into the shallow water. I took pictures of the city, of the mountains, of the water, generally keeping my sights occupied until I saw the first light on the tips of the Tetrahedron Peaks. I snapped a few in that direction and turned back to the city. I noticed a strange halo more or less directly over the Shangri-La tower, and within seconds the sun peeked over the Golden Ears ridge and lit up everything around me. I'm guessing it was a pollen corona since all the cherry trees are in bloom.

With the sun up, it was time for me to head home for some breakfast. But I took one last shot as the sun cleared the tops of the Vancouver high-rises and saw crepuscular rays where the buildings were casting shadows. It looked like a golden orb had been perched on top of Vancouver. And I decided that was my photo for today.

Other photos from this morning are on Flickr.

Golden sunrise over Vancouver

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