Day 322: Paint the whole world

...with a rainbow :-) Well, not quite. As I mentioned in my indigo photo, the gay pride rainbow flag is missing a colour. Never mind - there's a shop down the street with a sign outside that has all the colours of the rainbow (and more!). This is one of only four photos I took today thanks to a migraine - my first, err, opportunity to try out my new tablets. An interesting experience in itself...

Rainbow flag

Day 321: Upon reflection

Take a calm sunny day and a photo-scoping route that goes past a pool of water near a couple of striking buildings, and today's photo is done.

Reflecting pool

Day 320: Trapped under ice

From eagle sculptures to Eagle Bluffs. My first snowshoe trip of the year took us up over Black Mountain to a pleasant lunch spot on Eagle Bluffs. On the return, we explored some of the small ponds and lakes on the plateau, taking great pleasure in being the first to walk through the soft snow. At the edge of one lake, the outlet stream was still open and only partially covered by ice. I was delighted to see the ice was full of bubbles, reminding me of one of my favourite shots on Flickr. Some of them looked like bubbles trapped under the ice, rather than frozen into it, but many of them were indeed trapped in the ice itself. I've wanted to see that for ages and I'm really happy to have found a good example.

Today's title is brought to you by a song from Metallica's "Ride the Lightning" album.

Bubbles in and under the ice

Day 319: Foggy

I first noticed the mist over the Burrard Inlet yesterday, and wondered if I could get a picture of it from down on the beach. The mist had largely drifted away by the time we went for our walk, and I found something quite different to photograph. Today, the mist hung around for longer and at about 4.30 pm I decided I had to head down to Kits Beach to capture it (despite failing earlier thanks to a dead camera battery). I trotted down to the beach (testing out the bare-foot running technique some more) and ended up down at the waterline on a small section of sandy beach. The mist was drifting through the trees of Stanley Park, with some making its way into the middle of downtown Vancouver. I was losing light rapidly and I snapped as many shots as I could as the sun sank until I got my favourite: the sun was still high enough to illuminate the top half of the mist, but low enough to have gone off the lower half, leading to a lovely pink-and-blue mist picture. With some trees poking out. Perfect.

Pink and blue mist over Stanley Park

Day 318: Tranquility base

A mid-afternoon walk along Locarno Beach on a fine working-from-home Friday. We noticed some metalwork sculpture set up on a log and walked over to investigate. There, we met and chatted to the artist, Don Francis, about the three pieces he had out. The most striking was one of an eagle clutching a salmon in one of its talons. I couldn't resist trying a shot with the rising moon between the eagle's raised wings with the Vancouver skyline, Eagle Ridge and the bright white peaks of Golden Ears in the distance. (Though unintended, Golden Ears continues the eagle theme, as they were originally named the "golden eyries".) What I didn't notice at the time was the bright orange jacket of another photographer at the shoreline... D'oh!

Eagle sculpture

Day 317: Hangin' out

I don't know when this trend started - it required the invention of shoe laces at least - but many streets seem to have one or more pairs of shoes decorating overhead wires. As we walked out for hot chocolate I couldn't help grab a photo of these wireline companions.

Just' hangin' out

Day 316: Former glory

A few short months after I took day 28's photo, the Hollywood Theatre closed its doors forever. It seemed inevitable that an old-style cinema showing second-run films would not be able to survive the modern movie-watching experience (you know, watching a horrendously-compressed version on a 4-inch phone screen). But the reason for its demise seems to be simply one of money - the owner was offered a deal he couldn't refuse (though maybe not in the Godfather sense), and the property was sold less than 3 months after celebrating its 75th anniversary. Before I knew this, I felt guilty for not frequenting our local cinema more often - I still wish I'd watched more films there, but I no longer feel guilty about it.

The late great Hollywood Theatre