1011 Beach Ave Vancouver IR AnselA Apr 28 2010_DSC1788

1011 Beach Ave Vancouver IR AnselA Apr 28 2010_DSC1788, originally uploaded by VancouverDoug.

Beach and Thurlow in Vancouver Canada's West End from Sunset Beach. English Bay. Made all the more dramatic in the Infra Red light of a sunny but quite blustery spring day - April 28 2010.

Sunset Beach Vancouver Looking East April 27 2010 Ansel Adams Style_DSC1796

Sunset Beach Vancouver Looking East April 27 2010 Ansel Adams Style_DSC1796, originally uploaded by VancouverDoug.

I use a program called Capture NX/2 as part of my digital photography workflow. The amount of fine grain control that this application allows and the results delivered with both HDR and Infra Red photographs is fantastic. If Ansel Adams were around today I'm certain he'd love the creative freedom that digital photography delivers.

Here's a recent Infra Red photograph treated in the Ansel Adams style - high contrast and near perfect black and white balancing. What took Ansel days in the darkroom takes but 30 minutes in the digital light rooms of today.

Processing thanks to page 336 of the definitive Capture NX/2 digital book - The Photographer's Guide to Capture NX2 by Jason P Odell.

English Bay Sunset with Solar Halo April 18_DSC1361And8more_tonemapped

English Bay Sunset with Solar Halo April 18_DSC1361And8more_tonemapped, originally uploaded by VancouverDoug.

High Dynamic Range photography more often than not will reveal details in a scene that you can't see with the human eye let alone a single exposure. Here's a pretty solar halo surrounding the setting spring sun over English Bay Vancouver the evening of April 18 2010. I didn't know the halo was there until I 'developed' the 9 images into one a week later. :)

English Bay Beach Logs April 28 2010_DSC1816

English Bay Beach Logs April 28 2010_DSC1816, originally uploaded by VancouverDoug.

English Bay Beach, Vancouver in Infra Red. April 28 2010.

Log rolling contest anyone?

English Bay Beach April 28 2010 IR_DSC1828

English Bay Beach April 28 2010 IR_DSC1828, originally uploaded by VancouverDoug.

English Bay Beach, Vancouver in Infra Red. April 28 2010

Here's a nice shot of the entrance into English Bay Beach location at Beach and Denman.

Stanley Park Rhododendron April 2010_DSC1162

Stanley Park Rhododendron April 2010_DSC1162, originally uploaded by VancouverDoug.

Happy Earth Day 2010!

What do you get for a 4.5 billion year old planet that has everything? Easy - Flowers. :)

2010 Olympics Canada vs US Celebration Feb 28 2010_DSC0478

2010 Olympics Canada vs US Celebration Feb 28 2010_DSC0478, originally uploaded by VancouverDoug.

Like something straight out of a Disney feel-good movie at the final hour of the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver the come back heros, Canada's mens hockey team, beat the US team in one of the most fantastic games ever seen. Needless to say downtown Vancouver pushed the 1 out 10 celebration scale to 11.

Lost Lagoon HDR Vancouver Canada Apr 2010_DSC1244And8more_tonemapped

Lost Lagoon HDR Vancouver Canada Apr 2010_DSC1244And8more_tonemapped, originally uploaded by VancouverDoug.

Lost Lagoon, Stanley Park Vancouver looking east in High Dynamic Range. Taken on a hazy spring April day 2010.

Stanley Park Rhododendron April 2010_DSC1176And8more_tonemapped

Stanley Park Rhododendron April 2010_DSC1176And8more_tonemapped, originally uploaded by VancouverDoug.

Right beside the micro-mini golf course inside of Stanley Park Vancouver. Enough green to last 100 St. Patrick's days and then some.

Warm Spring Sunset English Bay Vancouver Apr 14 2010

Warm Spring Sunset English Bay Vancouver Apr 14 2010, originally uploaded by VancouverDoug.

Here's a nice and dreamy spring sunset over English Bay in Vancouver Canada. Very much a preview of the hazy, lazy summer that's just around the corner.

One thing I really like about this photo is that it was taken by my new, simple to use, Nikon L110 point and shoot camera. I bought the camera specifically for its ability to shoot 720p High Def video onto a flash card rather than those pesky and so-old-school video cassettes. As always with these simpler cameras I find that it reinforces a key rule I've learned to love about photography - it's not the camera that counts it's the conjunction of the photographer with a camera (any camera) and the moment.

Photography is all about the moment in my opinion. With a cheap little point and shoot camera, one that's ready to go the moment I turn it on and, most importantly, is not something I'm too worried about breaking or loosing there's a much greater chance I'll have it with me than my more expensive equipment.

It's always nice to see how photographic beauty transcends the dollar.