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 350: On the crest of a wave

As I get closer to the end of this project, I find myself having to fight a sense of complacency - the job's done, right? Not quite... Today was a perfect day though - clear sunny skies, a stiff breeze from the west and a rising tide all made for some wonderful beach photography. I spent my lunch hour taking pictures of the waves, trying to capture that precise moment when a wave starts to break. The strong onshore surge had piled up the pebbles, creating a small storm line along the beach. I stood at the edge and sized up a photo, waiting for a wave to break in just the right way to emphasize all the various perspective lines. The snow-capped mountains on the horizon, up to 60 km away, made the perfect backdrop.

Breaking waves on a pebbly beach

Day 229: Jug Island

The fine weather continued into Sunday and of course we wanted to get out somewhere. We went for Belcarra Regional Park, near Port Moody, a place we'd visited briefly once before. We took the northward-heading trail to a small beach with a view of Jug Island, about 50 m offshore. I thought we'd get a better view of Indian Arm from here, but I'd forgotten that the fjord narrows, and the headland there prevents a view right up the arm. We'll have to revisit the Diez Vistas trail on a good day to get that view again. The trail was largely unexciting - a 6-km round-trip through mostly dingy (if fungus-festooned) second-growth forest, with a short stretch of Gulf-Island-like hiking (complete with water view). But it was easy going; we saw a pileated woodpecker and it was just nice to be out and walking.

Jug Island

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 227: Tinges of pink

Today is the last day of Bike to Work Week (at least for me) and the weather has been very kind considering it's November. It only rained on one day, and even then not during the commuting hours. I've been taking advantage of the fine weather and cycling in to work up the hills on the 8th Ave route, preferring to leave the longer seaside route for my homeward journey. Tonight I wanted to capture some of the evening light on the mountains, so I left work a few minutes earlier than usual and caught some very nice, if subtle, pink light on the North Shore mountains. The snow from the mid-week rain has melted a bit in the sun, so the pink isn't as strong as it could have been, but that doesn't matter. There will soon be plenty of snow for that.

A pink-tinged sunset

Day 224: The morning commute

Day two of Bike to Work Week. Another fine morning, so I forced myself to take the beach route. The cottonwoods and tulip poplars were lit up beautifully in the morning sunshine. In contrast to yesterday's choppy seas, today was a peaceful flat calm, the kind of day that kayaking was made for. I saw an eagle perched in one of the tree tops as I gasped my way up the hill. Wonder if it's the same one as yesterday...

Morning commute