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 363: Night bridge

Another of Stanley Park's famous landmarks, the Lions Gate bridge was somewhere on my list of photographic targets but it wasn't until I saw a picture taken by a friend that I decided on a dusk shot. I've wanted to take a photo like this for some time, having seen many night shots of the bridge. With only a few days to go, my chances of including it in this project were diminishing by the day. And so, a rainy Monday evening saw me (and other photographers) standing on the bridge over the causeway, taking numerous long exposure photos of traffic on the bridge. I tried using the polarizer to help cut down reflections, but to my surprise (and disappointment) it had no effect. However, all was not lost - it acted as a perfectly good neutral density filter, allowing me to get longer exposures than was otherwise possible. Despite the rain threatening to soak the camera I got my shot.

I also have a graphic reminder that the bridge is a suspension bridge, with the oscillation of the bridge deck showing up in two photos taken back-to-back, about 20 seconds apart. You don't notice it while you're on the bridge as it's quite slow, and it's masked by all the vibration from the traffic. It's given me another idea for a diptych which may appear at some point in the future.

Lions Gate bridge at dusk

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 330: Ninety per cent

I can't quite believe it but today marks the passing of the 90 % point in the project. I used the 10 % mark to reflect on how things had gone so far so perhaps I can dare use this moment in time to look back and voice a few thoughts on a project almost complete.

• I have to say that the whole photo-a-day concept has become part of every day life, much to my surprise. I don't fret about it as much as did six months ago, though I still have days where I don't feel inspired - I just try to make those few photos count.
• While I have been less than happy with the image quality from the S3IS, and I've worked hard to make the photos from the SLR as good as humanly possible, buying the SX230HS was one of the best things I could have done. I no longer feel constrained by the "poor" image quality of the former, and I don't have to make a choice of lens with respect to the latter. I also feel freed up from trying to get a perfect-quality photo. I have an unobtrusive, versatile camera I can slip into my pocket every single day, and that has made a huge difference to the way I feel about this project.
• Having a camera I'm happy to use has been vital to getting satisfactory photos. My definition of happy includes good low-light performance. I wouldn't dare use the S3IS on anything other than the ISO 100 setting - under certain conditions, I'm happy to let the new SX230HS go up to ISO 1600. Plus its image-stabilization is superb.
• The Flickr set has filled out quite nicely, though the growth of this project has been to the detriment of our other photos (of which we have a huge backlog).
• I will do almost anything to avoid taking a photo indoors - only 14 of the 330 photos so far have an indoor subject. That's only 4.2%.
• Really? 90 % already? Where has the year gone? Mind you, I have to be careful that I don't get so carried away with being this close to the end that I get complacent and miss a day or end up with something I really don't like.

My photo today was taken from the Burrard Street bridge, a location I hobbled to from nearby Kitsilano hoping for nice light on the city. That didn't happen, but the little ferry boats doing their dance on the water always attract my attention.

False Creek ferry

Day 310: Climbing

The days are getting noticeably longer as the year climbs out of mid-winter. For the first time in over a week, the sun appeared at dawn and I could not resist the opportunity to get a sunny photo early in the day. Quite by chance, I sized up this view of Crown Mountain just as a float plane passed by, gaining height all the while. A nice alignment, I think, of the partially-lit snowy mountain and the bright aircraft against darker clouds. I tracked the plane until it passed overhead. I can't wait to ride in a float plane again - we have a voucher to use, so I foresee a flight to Victoria in the not-too-distant future.

Sunshine catches a float plane

Day 288: Grey clouds, grey water

After yesterday's rain came even more rain, leaving gusty easterly winds in its wake. It was late afternoon as usual when I wandered out to look for a photo. I had a couple of ideas in mind, but the strong wind and dull light put paid to them. I ended up walking out to the rose garden again because I could see the dark grey forbidding clouds over Howe Sound. The angle isn't too good from there so I crossed the road and walked up onto the embankment outside the Museum of Anthropology for a better view. Knowing how digital cameras treat large expanses of grey, I kept the ISO setting as low as practical, but I had to zoom in quite far to get the view I wanted, and was faced with an exposure time that is really too long for the conditions (about 1/20 of a second). I noticed a floatplane fly by and took the shot as it reached the centre of the frame. I quickly reviewed what I'd taken and I laughed out loud to myself: the plane was pin-sharp! Well, my steady hand and image stabilization really works wonders doesn't it. I was mightily pleased with myself until I got home and viewed the photo on the computer. Sure, the plane was perfectly in focus with no signs of blurring, but the backdrop was noticeably blurred - somehow as I wavered, I managed to move the camera in the same direction that the aircraft was moving. A beautiful panning shot, without even realizing it! How about that?

Forbidding weather in Howe Sound

Day 268: Bike racks

I must admit that every day I ride my bike into work, I have visions of returning to it in this state or worse at the end of the day. It's an old bike, one of the first generation mountain bikes with big knobbly tyres, heavy steel frame and no suspension, and it's showing its age. I don't think I've ridden anywhere near as far as I did on my previous racing bike, which was a dream to ride (except on crappy roads, which is most of them...). But I'd still hate to see it mangled, damaged or destroyed by some thoughtless person who felt that it was okay to trash someone else's stuff. It's more the principle - don't touch, take or break stuff that doesn't belong to you. Sadly, I see far too many bikes on campus with missing wheels, buckled wheels or sometimes just a wheel still locked to the rack. I'm not sure why this bike is arranged as it is - I doubt it was the owner - but seeing as it's actually undamaged I found it funny, and it reminded me of those idiot car drivers who seem unable to position their car in a single space.

Bad parking

Day 265: From sea to sky

I looked up at the time and saw 3:55 pm - 20 minutes until sunset, and I don't have a picture for today. I grabbed the camera and dashed out of the office. I went straight towards the rose garden, and then down to the Museum of Anthropology to catch the light on the distant Howe Sound peaks. Last week I'd seen a floatplane flying at what appeared to be mountain-top height, and made a mental note of that as a future option. Well, welcome to the future :-) I heard and then saw a floatplane making its way into Vancouver, checked its height and noted that it was due to fly right in front of the mountain I'd been photographing. I tracked it in, exposed and focussed on the mountain and took three shots in quick succession. The caption came to me there and then: a picture filled with sea and sky, a plane in flight (in the sky), snow on the mountains (formerly sea, then sky), looking up Howe Sound where the Sea-to-Sky highway runs. All very fitting.

Sea to sky

Day 258: Seagull security

Never thought I'd see a seagull on a bike... ;-)

I noticed this advert for the UBC Bike Kitchen a few weeks ago and added it to my list of things to photograph, waiting for an uninspired sunny day or a desperate rainy day to add it to the collection. I had just bought my afternoon coffee and walked out of the Student Union building, looked up and saw this. I carefully put down my coffee, pulled out the camera and reeled off a few shots (in a manner of speaking...). It's funny that the seagull was quite spooked by my presence, even though it was 20 feet up in the air above me, and almost took off in the time I spent pointing the camera in its direction. Not much of a security system, then, really.

Seagull Cycle Security Service

Day 237: Moonday

Another Monday, and a fine sunny one at that. The standing joke in Vancouver is "What do you call a sunny day after two days of rain?" and the answer is "Monday", the joke being that Monday always brings fine weather. A more accurate answer would be "more rain", at least at this time of year. But I digress. As I walked into work from the bus stop (the strong winds put me off cycling today) I saw the moon sinking low in the western sky. Seeing as I am still in search of my "blue" photo, I thought I might be able to use the pale moon surrounded by blue sky. I sized up a shot, and immediately noticed an aeroplane flying on a trajectory that would take it right across the face of the moon. I waited until the plane was dead centre and took a series of photos. The first one worked just fine. A little bit of a crop and a small boost in the contrast and I present today's photo, titled "Fly me to the moon".

Full marks to anyone who spotted today's pun too: Monday is named for the moon.

Fly me to the moon

Day 234: Remembrance day

Today is 11/11/11 (no matter how you write the date), Remembrance Day or Armistice Day, or Veterans' Day depending on where you live. A couple of years ago, we went for a walk on the beach and were treated to a flypast by a small squadron of light aircraft. They flew back and forth a few times in different formations. I remembered this just before 11 am, and wondered if I'd see it from our balcony. I ventured outside and waited in silence. At almost 11 on the dot, I saw navigation lights to the west which materialized into a large plane. It flew closer, and passed barely a kilometre to the west, at an altitude of probably no more than 500 m, dipping its wings in what I originally thought was the pilot keeping control in the blustery wind, but now I wonder if it was a salute. I snapped a dozen shots, staying outside to see if the smaller planes would make an appearance. They didn't: I'm guessing the weather was just too bad for them, with a stiff blustery wind from the east. (The weather got really interesting later: we had a downpour, hail, thunder and lightning followed by sunshine and blue skies and a couple of rainbows.)

I was still on the balcony a minute or two later when I saw the big plane flying back - it must have done a loop somewhere down by the airport - passing by even closer this time, filling the frame at full zoom. Today's photo is from that second pass. I recognized the aircraft as a Lockheed P-3 Orion, a maritime reconnaissance aircraft. I could see the aircraft's serial number on the tail fin and did a Google search for it. The results told me that this was, in fact, a Lockheed CP-140 Aurora which is a Canadian variant of the Orion using different electronics. I've always liked aircraft, so it was a real treat to see this one fly by so close.

Remembrance Day flypast

Day 221: Filtered sunshine

I'm getting a bit careless with the batteries again... I went out for an afternoon coffee at the new Uprising Breads before continuing my wander around the neighbourhood looking for photos. I managed to get half-a-dozen or so before the camera gave up on me. I was curious about how the tulip poplars lining 10th Ave were faring, as I have a striking photo of them lit up by the sun in late autumn from a few years ago. They're still mostly green, with a good mix of yellowing leaves. I had the good fortune of the sun coming out as I sized up my shots (walking back and forth across the pedestrian crossing to get the view straight down the road), which lit up the tunnel of trees with a lovely afternoon glow. Two more photos and it was time to go home and recharge.

Filtered sunshine

Day 215: A world of science

We didn't go hiking today despite the fine weather - we needed a rest :-) Instead we met with friends for brunch, and then walked down to the athletes' village area on False Creek. It was very relaxing strolling along the water's edge on such a sunny day, with views across False Creek to downtown Vancouver dominated by the new roof on the BC Place stadium. I've heard people complain that it's unsightly but I quite like it. I'll save that picture for another day, though. Today I rather liked the view of Science World with a pair of docked dragon boats in the foreground.

Science World and dragon boats

Day 198: Lessons

My original photo idea fell through as the leaves I had intended to photograph had all dropped off the tree. I need to be a little more pro-active in getting these type of time-limited shots. There will be plenty of grey rainy days for me to explore later - get the colour now while I can. So I got back on my bike and headed for the sea. I stopped off at Hastings Mill Park but there was nothing worth taking pictures of there. I moved on and took my bike down the steps at the end of Waterloo St, propped it up against a rock and looked out over the water to see what I could see. I took a few city shots - a cormorant was drying its wings on a floating log - and a couple over towards Stanley Park when the sun came out and lit up Siwash Rock, but nothing really stood out. Turning the other direction, I noticed the light was nicer to the west, and I spotted a handful of laser-class dinghies out on what looked like a sailing lesson. I snapped a couple with Mt Gardner looming in the background. Looking more closely back at home, I cropped one to highlight the boats, made a few adjustments to the contrast and colour and was really pleased with the way it looked. Another pleasant surprise.

Sailing lesson

Day 180: Half a circle

Mum and Dad flew home today, and after reluctantly waving them goodbye at YVR we met up with a friend from work and a couple of his friends for a gentle wander around Lighthouse Park. We walked a little, found a rock to sit on for a bit, before walking for a bit more to find the next rock, etc. While sat on one of the rocks I saw a zodiac speeding over the water, and while the the sea appeared calm, the boat was crashing through waves, sending spray in all directions. I quickly raised the camera and shot off a few photos and this one caught the splash quite nicely.

Splash!

Day 176: Commutable

My brother's daily photo project has included a few shots taken while cycling. No surprise given how many miles he covers. There are a couple of sights I see on my bike ride to and from work that I often think about trying to catch while passing, but have not yet figured out how to do that. For now, then, a shot of University Boulevard heading away from campus. I had the camera slung over my neck and shoulder, the screen folded out and tilted towards me so I could get a rough idea of what I was taking a picture of. I used my thumb to actually press the button. For the most part this was a pretty stable way to get photos, though my framing was mostly random and it took quite a few shots to get something that looked even close to composed :-)

Commuter's-eye view

Day 128: Long ships

But fortunately not of the Viking variety... ;-)

Perhaps we're beginning to get a summer after all. A fine morning and I found myself biking to work via the beach route. I stopped off at the far western end of Spanish Banks to admire the view before tackling the hill. The tide was low and I was hoping to see some eagles. That hope was in vain, and although I saw one it was too far away to photograph. But this ship caught my eye. Through the lens, it looked long and thin (almost sleek) and dominated the scene. The line of the ship was echoed by the alternating water and sand on the beach. The telephoto lens compressed the distance and made it look even bigger behind the people walking their dogs down at the low-tide line. I looked up the name of the ship and found that it's 300 m (1000 ft) long. That's a long ship.

Azul Legenda

Day 100: Road trip

We just spent three full days in Wells Gray Provincial Park in central British Columbia. I'll get round to putting up photos from the other days soon enough, but for now here's a photo from the early part of the drive. I took it in slow traffic as we crossed the Fraser River on the Alex Fraser (no relation) bridge. From there we headed east through Surrey until we joined the queues on Highway 1. Actually the road wasn't too bad with just a couple of slowdowns near Abbotsford. Our journey was made much easier by the fact the mudslide of the day before had been cleared already (a big thank you to the highway cleanup crews!).

We stopped briefly in Hope before heading up through the Coquihalla region under grey skies. By now the traffic was light and we made good time to our next stop for petrol in Kamloops, about five hours after we'd left Vancouver. However, the weather was beginning to turn against us and we continued north through several heavy showers. The North Thompson River was high, and looked like it was ready to flood the road if any more rain fell. The only upside was that Maria spotted a bedraggled bear wending its way up the hillside.

Another hour-and-a-half later, we reached Clearwater just as night was truly falling. We turned off Highway 5 and headed into the darkness of Wells Gray provincial park (where Maria spotted another bear!). We passed through a few more showers but they eased off by the time we left the tarmac behind, finishing the journey with about 20 km of good dirt road. We startled a third bear at the roadside (this time we all saw it), causing it to lollop into the undergrowth as we sped along a straight section of muddy gravel road. Finally, at 10:30 pm we reached the campground, found our camp site and set about pitching our tents. Within an hour we were all curled up in our sleeping bags.

On the road

Day 89: Marine migraine

A marine migraine is no fun. But kayaking in calm water with visits by inquisitive little seals is. One of the Black Sheep runs the kayaking place and he invited us to go out on the water for a couple of hours. Five of us paddled out from the pier in Snug Cove heading around the corner into Deep Bay. I lagged behind a little to grab a couple of photos and as I worked to catch up I saw something floating in the water ahead of me. At first I thought it was a piece of driftwood but then it turned to look at me with big soulful brown eyes. I stopped paddling and began to unroll the dry-bag as quickly as I could to get the camera. Just as I turned on the camera, the seal ducked under. I put it away again and caught up with the others.

Into the bay, we paddled in towards the shore, investigating a boat festooned in plants of various kinds (no, it wasn't a grow-op ;-). The seal joined us again, splashing in the water just in front of Maria. And of course, the moment I had the camera ready, it ducked back underwater. Just as we reached the far side of the way I did a double-take in front of me and sure enough I could sense a blind spot - the first indications of a migraine. A classic day for it too: bright, overcast. I called out to let people know, and set off back to the dock with Dawn (always good to have someone with you who can actually see...) so I could take something. I should have had it with me so I could the tablets immediately, but I wasn't really expecting a migraine. I would still have had to paddle home since sloshing around on the water feeling nauseous from the headache isn't the most pleasurable experience. The others followed in at their own pace.

We weren't out for that long in the end, but as always it was good practice to be out on the water again. And my legs couldn't have taken much more time in the kayak anyway ;-) Even the water taxi ride back to Granville Island was nice and smooth.

Calm kayaking

Day 87: Cars

Barely two weeks ago I casually answered an advert on Craigslist for a Honda CR-V. I'd had it in mind that the replacement for our aging Integra would be something more suited to getting to remote trailheads, but it was one of those tasks I wasn't really looking forward to - finding a car, test-driving, getting it inspected, haggling over the price and then all the ensuing paperwork. I didn't hear anything back about the ad for 3 days and had given up on it when I got a reply saying the car was indeed still available. We arranged a time to take a look and it seemed to live up to the advert. Later that week I got it inspected, which revealed nothing of immediate concern and so we found ourselves on Friday evening going through the necessary forms involved in buying a new car.

The fact that the buying part went smoothly enough had us in a state of bewilderment. Now it was time to sell the old car. I was looking forward to this part even less. At one point I wasn't even convinced that our car was worth trying to sell, but spelling out the facts assured me it was, and that we should be able to get a reasonable price. The sticking point was always going to be the rust on the boot (or trunk if you prefer). People are funny about cars like that: it irritates me no end that a shiny PoS is more likely to sell than a weathered gem. And I looked upon our Integra as a weathered gem: it was the best car we've ever owned. Damn good fun to drive (when the mood took me), especially for an automatic, and economical by North American standards.

I put it through its emissions test (always a selling point), hoovered the inside, ran it through the car wash and took a few pictures of it in nice morning sunshine. I must admit it looked good in the photos. I've always liked the colour and style. Finally, this morning, with some trepidation, I put the ad on Craigslist. To my astonishment, I received five inquiries over the course of the day. I arranged a time with two people for tonight and, to my further astonishment, the first person gave me an offer I was more than happy with. So within the space of a little over two weeks we've bought and sold a car, with about as little hassle as you could possibly hope for.

Which kinda brings me to today's photo in a roundabout way. I'd spotted this sign a while back on my bike route into work, and promised to take a picture during the Stanley Cup finals. That didn't happen, but I figured today was as good a day as any to get that photo. I was tempted to include the nearest parked car as it was an oldish Chrysler (a genuine PoS in my opinion), but in the end I was content to just allude to what may have been parked there, with an oblique reference to the trouble after the final game on Wednesday.

No parking!