Day 361: It's so fluffy!

After a grey start, the afternoon brightened up and the day ended with a fine sunset. The stormy clouds over the mountains puffed up into great towering cumulus. As the sun dipped low in the sky, the bottom of the clouds faded to an ominous dark grey, while the middle was bathed in a rosy pink glow. Higher up, the tallest clouds were still the brightest of white. The structure in the clouds and the contrast between them and the blue sky made for a beautiful sight. I had taken some photos earlier in the day, but they weren't a patch on this.

Roiling clouds at sunset

Day 351: Vapour trails

No, not the Rush album - real vapour trails, in the sky :-) I was out trying to get a good picture of something else when I noticed this vapour trail. At first it was two bright white and parallel straight lines, but it quickly began to break up into a wonderful wavy pattern. I've seen helical vapour trails before, and I wonder if the shorter wavelength ripples are like that. Within a minute of taking this shot they'd disappeared completely.

Like a vapour trail...

Day 332: Band of gold

The day started grey, got greyer and then somewhat wetter. On the drizzly walk home from a pleasant afternoon coffee at Momento I spotted the something bright on the western horizon: a gap in the clouds as the sun set, a gleaming sliver of golden light on the horizon. I hobbled home as fast as I could, grabbed the camera and went out onto the balcony to capture it before the light disappeared.

Band of sunset gold on the horizon

Day 311: Planets and moons

Today passed without me even thinking about getting outside for a photo, and it was with some trepidation that I set off home wondering what I could get tonight. Last night, the slender crescent moon was close to Venus in the sky, making for a beautiful sight. I looked up to see where they were, not believing that I'd see them due to the cloud cover. Lo and behold, through the clouds, Venus and the Moon were shining brightly, along with Jupiter a little higher in the sky. Now for the next challenge - holding a small camera steady enough to get a decent picture. Zooming in for a detail shot was a no-go, but at full wide angle, I could easily get all three in the picture. My exposure time was still quite long at half a second, but I leaned my elbows on the bike lockers, took a deep breath and took a handful of shots. And as has been the case so many times before, one of them worked well enough to post.

Jupiter, the Moon and Venus

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 283: As the sun sets

The last Friday of the year, and I slung the camera over my shoulder as we went for a walk up the street for a hot chocolate. I could see a little colour in the sky as the clouds began to break up and the sun made an appearance. I was hoping to see a rainbow, given that the rain hadn't completely stopped falling but it all came to nothing. Back at home, I could see the western horizon was beginning to get its sunset orange glow, and I went out into the freezing cold wind (where did that come from?) and tried a few photos. I've taken many sunset photos, so I wasn't convinced I'd get anything good. But then I saw an aeroplane taking off from the airport, rising into the orange sky and casting a long shadow on the ribbons of rain. I pointed the camera at the plane, but it decided to re-focus and by the time it had done so the plane had risen and the shadow had faded. Darn. I waited for another airliner to take off to see if the same thing would happen. It never did, but I was happy with this particular aeroplane shot, taken just as the sun had set, the sky now looking like a bright orange portal. Quite appropriate for the "time" travellers on board.

Sunset flight

Day 276: On the outside looking in

Last day of work before the Christmas holiday - hooray! Even better it's only a half-day. The campus is so abnormally quiet - I was one of only 2 passengers to get off the 99 when it pulled in - but oh so peaceful. The Student Union building (SUB) was empty and everything (except Starbucks) closed. I took a couple of pictures of the empty concourse to see if they would work (they didn't) and then noticed that the seating area under the two partial globes was empty. I thought I'd try and get a picture of the one of the night sky, and I must admit I've never looked at it long enough to try and work out exactly what part of the sky it's showing. I set the camera down on the floor pointing straight up to get this shot. A square crop seemed like the obvious thing to do, and I made it black-and-white because I could not get a colour balance I liked. I'm happy with it: the B&W works quite nicely, and in reality the piece is a silvery-grey.

So what does it show? It's looking at the south celestial pole at stars which cannot be seen from here. Growing up in the northern hemisphere I don't recognize any of the constellations, except for Crux, the Southern Cross, and in trying to identify them I realized that the constellations appeared to be backwards. Then it dawned on me: this partial globe is showing the stars as if you were outside the Celestial Sphere, whereas star charts and planetarium programs put you in the centre. Mystery solved, but I'm still having a hard time identifying the constellations!

Stars of the southern hemisphere

Day 275: Second by a second

Yesterday was actually the shortest day, and the solstice occurred last night for us here on the west coast. Today is the second-shortest day of the year, longer than yesterday by a whole second (according to timeanddate.com). I checked when the sun would be at its highest today and decided to head down to the beach for that time (about 10 minutes after midday). This time I chose Wreck Beach, as I haven't been there recently and by now all the naked people will have given up and gone home. (I wasn't quite right on that one: a topless woman - for a welcome change - dashed into the water for a quick swim.) As soon as I reached the beach I saw my picture for today: the array of vertical poles in the sand casting long shadows. I walked up to the tallest one and stopped when I could no longer see the sun. I sized up my shot, and backed up a little until a little bit of the sun was peeking over the tip of the pole. With the small aperture (I was on f/22) and only seeing a tiny fraction of the solar disc I was hoping to get a nice little "starburst" effect. See for yourself.

The midday sun on the second-shortest day of the year

Day 271: A sea of clouds

We set off to Dog Mountain a little later than expected, and much as we did last year, we missed the sunset by a few minutes. Not that it mattered: the sight that greeted us was truly spectacular. Below us lay a sea of clouds, lit from above by the orange-red sky. Venus emerged from the twilight to add a bit of sparkle. What really caught my eye was the way the clouds were "lapping" at the edge of the forest, like a wave that had broken on a beach. The mist draped itself over and through the tree tops, creating the most amazing effect. One of the most beautiful views we've seen from a mountain, and that's saying something!

That was our first hike in two months and it felt damn good to be back in the mountains.

Where the forest meets the sea (of clouds)

Day 254: Blue

I've been trying quite hard to find a "blue" photo that I'm happy with. The hard part has been finding a way to make the colour the primary focus of the picture. In the end I've just given on trying to get good blue sky photos and I've cheated to get this one. I knew from previous photos that setting the white balance to "auto" would get the lights from buildings about right while making the sky very blue. This evening I wandered over by the Koerner Library at dusk to capture the library in the so-called "blue hour". The clouds were making nice patterns in the sky and at first I experimented with just capturing those, though none really worked. In the end I went for this slightly-leaning-back-due-to-perspective photo. I had a deliberately askew one that I quite liked, but on the whole I prefer this one. The colours have been tweaked a little to boost the saturation, but not by much. Most cameras have settings that would result in more saturated colours than this. Finally I can move on to "indigo". :-)

I like the design of this building - the roof is based on an open hardback book, with the central atrium acting as the spine of the book. I think it works perfectly. The twin rows of lights at ground level are associated with bike racks, a little emptier at this time of year.

Koerner Library at dusk

Day 225: Red sky in the morning...

A hint of sunrise in the east bloomed into a firey sky. I can tell if the eastern sky is clear because there's a downtown high-rise that reflects the light. I have a vague plan to position myself where I can catch that reflection, but I would have to get out of bed somewhat earlier than I do now. This morning's red sky might indeed be a portent of the weather as it's due to rain today...

Haven't made much of the numbers recently, but for the record 225 is 15x15.

Red sky in the morning

Day 214: A gap in the clouds

We have numerous brilliantly-coloured trees in the neighbourhood, but all my attempts to photograph them have ended in disappointment. Somehow I just haven't been able to capture what my eyes see. So I was very glad when the grey clouds parted at sunset and gave me a very moody-looking scene. I don't think I have a sunset photo that looks like this, so I'm happy to use it.

A gap in the clouds at sunset

Day 210: User error

Would you believe it? Another beautiful day in October, so I had to cycle in. I took the old camera in today seeing as it's lighter and smaller, but guess who forgot to check the batteries? I turned it on just to check how many shots I had on the card, and promptly got the low battery warning and it shut down on me. There I was, gorgeous blue skies, firey red and yellow trees all over campus and nothing to record them with. Talk about frustrating.

In the end I had to make do with some rather nice wispy clouds seen from our apartment :-)

Wispy and ripply clouds

Day 203: More of the same

Another grey day, another day of not getting out to find something to get a photo of. So I had to make the most of the ten minutes I had when I got home before it got dark. I was lucky that there was a bright patch on the horizon where the sun was setting (or rather, had just set) which brightened up this ominous cloud view. I must admit I really like the clouds in this one.

Grey clouds at sunset

Day 202: Dodging showers

Guess what? It's been raining today. Which means that I didn't feel like going outside to look for anything to photograph. Not until late afternoon anyway when we went for a wander along Jericho Beach whatever the weather. Remarkably, the rain stopped as we parked up and we had a dry, and peaceful, walk. That didn't change the fact that it was dull, and there wasn't much to get a good picture of, but I managed to find an angle I liked when we got to the pier by Locarno Beach.

Locarno Beach pier

Day 196: Signs of the rainy season

What to photograph on a rainy Tuesday? Well it hadn't actually been that bad during the day. I was at home in the afternoon waiting for the cable guy to turn up with our new box, and for the most part it was dry, even bright at times. But I was deep in work stuff and didn't get off my chair to look for photo ops. Towards the end of the day, I heard the first rain drops hit the skylight in the kitchen and I wandered through to take a look. I've always like the pattern that the rain makes when it's just started. Once the rain is continuous, the skylight is a blur with the water, but in the beginning the drops make a nice pattern. I've had this picture in mind for a while now - today was its day :-)

Rain on the skylight

Day 195: Smooth as silk

I hadn't recharged the batteries for the old camera, and I didn't fancy cramming the SLR into my work bag, so I left my photography until the evening. With the sun setting before 7 pm I figured I would try some dusk photography, and ended up shooting a handful of long exposures of the sea to smooth it out. Most of them didn't work out (I need to use the other tripod I think) but I only need one. Some bright western sky, some blue-tinged clouds, some ships in the bay, some nice reflections.

Dusk on Kits Beach

Day 181: The sun goes down

First day back at work after Mum and Dad flew home. Didn't feel much like taking photos, but fortunately the sunset cooperated and put on a gorgeous colour show for a few minutes. All I had to do was step out onto the balcony and take a few pictures.

Multi-coloured sunset

Day 158: Cheam sunrise

Another sunrise photo but this time one taken of a view I've wanted to capture for ages: the sun rising over the Cheam Range of mountains. This was an opportunistic photo as I pulled off Highway 1 just before we reached Chilliwack on our way to Yoho National Park. I drove a few hundred metres along the road and stopped next to a field full of ripening crops. A grain silo (or similar) was silhouetted against the morning light, adding a nice level of rural goodness to balance the jagged mountains. I'm not sure what it is about Mt Cheam and its fellow summits, but it has a hold on me I can't explain. Maybe it's because it's just such a picturesque mountain, maybe it's the notoriety of the road to its trailhead. Dunno, but I love taking photos of this mountain.

Cheam sunrise

PS Mt Cheam is the one at the far left :-)

Day 157: Sssunrise

I got up this morning with the intention of getting a photo of the waning crescent moon. I was a little later than I wanted to be, and the moon was too high in the sky to make an interesting picture. The sun was about half an hour off rising, and there were some clouds to the north west which lit up pink as I stood on the balcony. Nothing unusual about that I suppose, especially given the glorious sunset of two nights ago, except the line of clouds was edged by a series of S-shaped clouds. Now these were far more interesting than the moon!

Pink clouds at sssunrise