Vancouver Seawall IRHDR May 15 2012 02a
The West End Vancouver section of the Seawall walk/bike paths just as it connects with Beach and Thurlow. A nice and sunny day in what turned out to be a nice and sunny week.
Tuesday, May 22, 2012
Saturday, May 12, 2012
Sunset Beach & The Burrard St. Bridge Vancouver Apr 20 2012
I love this shot. I'm going to get a 24"x36" copy of this and put it on the wall above my TV. Pure IR.
West End HDR Fish Eye May 12 2012 05a
I love this shot. Since a High Dynamic Range image is itself a collection of images it naturally follows that the images have to happen over time. A very short period of time mind you but still over a discrete period of time. With the new HDR software (I use Photomatix Pro) you can tell the software areas that move (over time) and areas that don't. It then adjusts its computed image accordingly. If you then go one step further and purposely NOT tell it about certain parts that you know do actually move ... it's a nice fugue. Sort of a 21st century motion pan shot.
West End HDR Fish Eye May 12 2012 04a
An eagle eye perspective on English Bay Vancouver a few minutes post sunset May 12 2012. Summer's early.
West End HDR Fish Eye May 12 2012 03a
Thurlow and Drake looking south towards English Bay. And yes, the bottom left corner of this shot totally confuses the visual / spatial part of my brain. I've stopped trying to figure it out and now mostly just go with it. :)
West End HDR Fish Eye May 12 2012 01a
Time to play with the expensive lens. :) An hour before high-noon in Vancouver here's the 179' view from the edge of the shadows just north of 1011 Beach and the Vancouver Aquatic Centre.
Burrard St. Bridge Looking South - West End HDR May 06 2012 11a
Burrard St. Bridge Looking South - West End HDR May 06 2012 11a, a photo by VancouverDoug on Flickr.
Built between 1930 and 1932 the Burrard Street Bridge connects downtown Vancouver to the Kitsilano residential area. Recently redesigned to support bike traffic with one southbound lane and the eastern sidewalk devoted exclusively to two-wheeled transportation.
Thursday, May 10, 2012
Entrance to False Creek Vancouver - West End HDR May 06 2012 10a
Entrance to False Creek Vancouver - West End HDR May 06 2012 10a, a photo by VancouverDoug on Flickr.
It's been a mostly soggy spring for us here in Vancouver so when that great yellow ball of warmth and good feelings (something which most call 'the sun') appears we all get busy all at once. It's great to watch and be a part of and it's like I live in two cities - a wet one with perhaps 50,000 people in it and then a dry one with 2.3 million, all going for a walk or bike or cruise, all at once. Very cute. :)
Here's the view from one the observation balcony on the Burrard Street Bridge on a sunny and bustling Sunday May 6 2012. In the foreground is Vanier Park and the 'Bard on the Beach' summer home being assembled. In the background is English, the far western tip of West Van and the start of the Sunshine Coast.
Tuesday, May 08, 2012
West End HDR May 06 2012 06a
Sunset Beach, West End Vancouver. I love the detail near the ferry terminal at the bottom of this shot. Light turned into molten gold.
West End HDR May 06 2012 05a
The corner of Beach and Thurlow with the Vancouver Aquatic Centre and its mutant trees from Venus foilage in the foreground. .... Looking all '60s and such thanks to high dynamic range. Once you go HDR you never go back.
Sunday, May 06, 2012
West End HDR May 06 2012 01a.jpg
I'd like to nominate the Vancouver city workers who came up with the epic idea of promoting gardening in what used to be ugly mounds of mud for the prize of "Awesome Vancouveritte(s) of the decade". Over the past few years citizen run gardens like this have been popping up all over Vancouver and personally I love them. Big time. They add color, fresh air and turn what would be a urban dead-zones (in this case the area underneath the Burrard Street Bridge) into a pleasant oasis. Two green thumbs up!
What I find even more impressive is how each garden I see smacks the urban-cynic in me up-side-the-head. At first I figured the evil anarchists that haunt the urban night would trash something so pretty simple because it's pretty. As it's turned out though (knock on concrete) I've yet to see any evidence of major trashing to any of the urban gardens I stroll past. Proof yet again that deep down inside, even in Vancouver, the vast majority of us are pretty decent people.
Mid Winter West Coast Sunset - Feb 02 2012 03a HDR
Contrary to popular belief we do get a bit of sunshine during the winter here in Vancouver. Here's a mid-winter sunset looking out across the Straight of Georgia which separates the British Columbia mainland from Vancouver Islands. In the foreground is the Kitsilano region of Vancouver. In the background are Galiano and Mayne Islands which are just off the coast of Vancouver Island.
Friday, May 04, 2012
West End IRHDR 09a Apr 20 2012.jpg
The corner of Beach and Thurlow in Vancouver's West End.
This angle is special to me in that I took a shot from this angle with my first (finally) successful roll of Kodak's IR Film. We've come so far since that earlier shot I took 15 years back. Digital photography let's you get feedback from your shot instantly. You can look at it. You could not do this with 35mm film. Personally I totally love digital photography over the 20th century tech.
Thursday, May 03, 2012
Sunset Beach HDR 09a Apr 30 2012.jpg
Can't see the forest for the jungle.
I sort of like the depth of field in this photo but know another 3cm or so front and back would have been awesome. Sigh. Since this was an HDR shoot speed of shot was a priority. Getting all five shots in under 500 ms would minimize motion in the series. On a windy day that meant 1/30s as the slowest shutter speed.
This in turn meant big aperture's (f/5.6 or so) and thus low depth of field. Grrr.
Maybe I should compare the downside of getting noise with a higher ISO vs the bigger depth of field. I used ISO 200 for these and the software I use could most likely handle any noise reduction up to ISO 640. Hmmmm.
Sunset Beach HDR 07a Apr 30 2012
While the holiday is still many months away it's never to early to replenish the Christmas Greeting Card stock. :)
Tuesday, May 01, 2012
Sunset Beach HDR 06a Apr 30 2012.jpg
Is it just me or is that not the creature that tried to kill Arnold Schwarzenegger in the movie Predator? ..... What? .... He's a flower now? ;)
Sunset Beach HDR 04a Apr 30 2012.jpg
I'm really warming to this series on a tech-art level. A nice fugue.
I shot these, on a blustery day on Sunset Beach in Vancouver as a 5 frame HDR series. Given the winds there was a near certainty that the shots would not align. High Dynamic Range software (Photomatix) to the rescue. The software allows me to tell the processing engine which areas of the image are full of movement. It can then set a better baseline for what should move and what should not and adjust the image as it see's fit. Digital stabilization taken to the next level.
The cooler part though is that what this feature really allows me as an artist is to use time (5 shots over 750ms or so) as a temporal palette. I can tell the software which parts are movement intense and which aren't. I could for example flag one section of the image as the absolute center of attention since it does not move. Quite cool when you think about it.
In this shot parts are in perfect focus while others are anything but. Hi Def Motion.
Monday, April 30, 2012
Sunset Beach Genus Solenostemon (guess) Apr 30 2012
A new species has arrived at Sunset Beach here in Vancouver. A plant that's quite cute and not yet in bloom to the point that I can identify it. I'm pretty certain it's part of the same tribe as the Coleus plant (genus Solenostemon) which, as any bachelor knows, is the best plant to get for the first apartment. Coleus = looks good - tolerant of forgetful waterers and one that actually flowers.
It's also a species that's highly invasive and it will be interesting to see how long it takes the city to pick up on the invasion and, being a green city, what it does to ... err ... combat? ... it. Bottom line though - it's quite pretty and I can't wait to identify it.
And it's time for some color gosh darn it! Black and White is the power equation of photography, no question, but there is more than 10 to the 32 shades of IRHDR gray. :)
Sunday, April 29, 2012
Sunset Beach & The Burrard St. Bridge Vancouver Apr 20 2012
This is one of my favorite composition spots on Sunset Beach Vancouver which is located at the corner of Beach Ave. and Thurlow St. in the city's West End. Pure urban with the tri-lane seawall walk/bike path (2 for bikes, one for us walkers), cute puffy trees caught in their spring bloom and the iconic Burrard St. Bridge.
Friday, April 27, 2012
West End IRHDR 15a Apr 20 2012.jpg
I love Vancouver's version of the Biennale sculpture exhibition. Being a tourist town having world class items of art scattered across the city makes for millions of photo ops. Being an urban residential area having world class items of art in our backyard gives a nice high class feel to where we live.
This is the sculpture 217.5 Arc x 13' located on Sunset Beach in downtown Vancouver. Crafted by Bernar Venet of France and so named for it's 217'5 degree art of 13 raw steel segments. As noted by the artist "Nature, the universe, and life are all interconnected and explainable mathematically." Well put.
In behind the sculpture are a collection of English Bay beach facing residential towers most if not all built during the late 1960's and early 1970's. And while it's hard to see in the shot there's a parking lot just to the left of the photo that, this year will get its first set of electric vehicle charging stations. Modern art, funky 1970's architecture and 21st personal transportation-pod charging stations. How cool is that? :)
Thursday, April 26, 2012
English Bay Rain Storm HDR 06 Apr 18 2012
I love the 'zone-ness' of this shot. If you split the image into 3 vertical and then 3 horizontal sections you get (3 times 3) 9 zones. For me this shot shows that the more you have going on in each of the 9 zones the more engaged the viewer will be and the more engaging the photo. Bottom left to right I love the ripples in the water (HDR for the win) the rich green caught in the sun dead center and the urban residential area we call the West End. Mid row we get fleets of boats tacking with the wind from the storm just past and then the storm itself. Ka-boom. Then of course are the clouds - pure pretty.
Tuesday, April 24, 2012
West End IRHDR 11a Apr 20 2012
I love that as humans we love trees and I love that once we take root in a spot nature tends to return, adjust and coexists to help create something ... different but the same. Eventually an urban forest springs forth - concrete, glass and steel living within and around leaf, feathers and bark. Here's a view of Beach Avenue in Vancouver looking towards the iconic Burrard Street Bridge (right side) on a hazy and very much lazy 420 (April 20) afternoon.
Monday, April 23, 2012
Beach and Thurlow Vancouver Apr 20 2012 _DSC43602_3_4_tonemapped.jpg
Beach and Thurlow Vancouver Apr 20 2012 _DSC43602_3_4_tonemapped.jpg, a photo by VancouverDoug on Flickr.
Spring's blush.
Sunday, April 22, 2012
English Bay SunSet HDR 03 Apr 18 2012 DSC_43943_4_5_6_7_tonemapped
English Bay SunSet HDR 03 Apr 18 2012 DSC_43943_4_5_6_7_tonemapped, a photo by VancouverDoug on Flickr.
Mid level clouds at sunst over English Bay Vancouver. Filling yet still low in calories. :)
22 Degree Sun Dog Arc Eng Bay Van HDR Apr 18 2012
Sun dogs appear during the transition between low and high pressure systems. Moisture get's kicked high into the stratosphere, freezes and reflects light from the sun in a circle of light 21.84' from the sun's center. Look to the far right of this image and you'll see the arc of the sun dog reflect in the waters of English Bay. One of my coolest Sun Dog photos so far. Two thumbs up. :)
Springs Blush Beach And Thurlow HDR 13 Apr 18 2012
Nothing brings out nature's blush of spring green than the light right after a rainshower in particular when processed via High Dynamic Range photography. Here's the corner of Beach and Thurlow in Vancouver's famous West End just after a series of rain storms passed across the North Shore mountains. A pallete of natural beauty portending the photographic smorgashboard that is a settled urban landscape in the spring.
English Bay Rain Storm HDR 02 Apr 18 2012
A series of rain bands approache the North Shore mountains of Vancouver.
Friday, April 20, 2012
Home Sweet Home 01 Reg Apr 20 2012_DSC43587.jpg
This is the camera's choice of its dozens of settings for 'cool' of the earlier image. Pretty cool actually much of which is coming from the custom camera effect. This is shot in Infra Red. Another hour or so of doing some pixel work I could really craft out this image. So far though the computer's HDR version is my favorite.
Home Sweet Home 01 HDR Apr 20 2012_DSC43587_8_9_tonemapped.jpg
Here's the HDR version of 1011 Beach Ave Vancouver this afternoon. This is a composite of 3 shots of the same image: one under exposed to really grab the highlights, one over exposed to pull out the detail from the shadows and one computer-knows-best 'perfect' exposure per the camera's digital brain. All three are then merged into a High Dynamic Range (HDR) picture on the computer. I use PhotomatixPro which, of course, I love. Next image in this 2 shot series is the computer-knows-best semi-post processed in Capture NX/2. Another hour of work and I could get that image to an equally cool old-school B&W. Decisions decisions. :)
Saturday, April 14, 2012
Sunset Seagull 02 Mar 30 2012 DSC_43686.jpg
Seagulls = perfect mathematical form + organic aerodynamic symmetry. Mother nature - the true mathmatician.
Thursday, April 12, 2012
Sirrus Apr 04 2012 DSC_3746.jpg
I've tried to outstare cats over the years. The one time I did succeed the cat in question was a kitten and she fell asleep more than actually looked away. Thus I'm not certain if it really counted as a 'win'.
Sailing Silouette False Creek Entrance Mar 25 2012 DSC_3651.jpg
Sailing Silouette False Creek Entrance Mar 25 2012 DSC_3651.jpg, a photo by VancouverDoug on Flickr.
Nothing better harolds the arrival of spring here in downtown Vancouver better than the appearance of very cool double mast sail boats cruising into False Creak a few hours before sunset.
Sunday, March 25, 2012
Mikes New Hog Detail 01 Mar 24 2012.jpg
High Dynamic Range photography loves gleaming chrome just as much as gleaming chrome loves HDR.
Wing Tip to Wing Tip 01 Mar 21 2012.jpg
Viewed in isolation Vancouver is a very cosmopolitan city. Culturally diverse, Olympic host, vibrant metropolitan centers, etc. Viewed through the eyes of two golden eagles flying wing tip to wing tip over English Bay however it's a city that is still north of Washnington State and a great source of fresh salmon. Mmmmm ... sushi.
Thursday, March 15, 2012
Lenticular Cloud 01 Mar 15 2012 Vancouver..jpg
Here's a nice shot of a lenticular cloud hovering over greater Vancouver on March 15th 2012 5:00 PM. This HDR processed shot was taken during the transit of a mini-high pressure system which was caught between this morning's low pressure cell of rain and snow and tomorrow's low of (hopefully) just rain. This cloud type is quite rare and lasted roughly 30 minutes with several smaller lenticulars appearing west of the city. Seeing one of these cloud types is pretty much up there with seeing a large whale (killer, blue or grey) in the waters of English Bay (which happens more often than you'd think).
Lenticular clouds form near the base of mountain ranges when the conditions are just right and today they were. With the BC coastal mountains at my back this beauty appeared. Oh yeah.
Mother nature - the true artist.
Friday, March 09, 2012
Ghost Islands Mar 08 2012 Now You Dont.jpg
An hour later the islands are just barely visible in the mists. I wonder if, in 20 years, they will return or will this new view become more common as the climate changes. My guess is that I'll see them again sooner rather than later.
Ghost Islands Mar 08 2012 Now You See Em.jpg
Roughly 80 km north west of downtown Vancouver, as the eagle flies, are the islands of Lasqueti and Texada. Snuggled inbetween the BC mainland and Vancouver Island these islands are, in my 20 years of watching sunsets, never visible from Vancouver. Yesterday around 5:30 pm, as another golden sunset built it's colorful momentum, for the first time I spotted the islands.
It was wierd.
For a time my mind refused to accept the fact that I was able to see a whole new strip of land off in the distance. It was like flipping between two visual realities. Once I'd got the islands in my camera's view finder (200mm telephoto zoom lense for the win) the islands 'snapped into reality. An hour later they were .... 'gone'. (See next image.)
Reminds me of the old wives tale of how, when Christopher Columbus and his three ships neared the coast of what eventually became Cuba the natives could not 'see' the ships. The technology Columbus had used to navigate from Europe to their home island was so outside of their experiential and cultural frameworks that their minds eye could not process the view and didn't 'see' the Nina, Pinta and Santa Maria until they layed anchor off shore.
Food for thought for us photographers. You might not see the whole picture until you sit back and make the effort to really see it.
Wednesday, March 07, 2012
Power Sunset 02 Kits Beach Mar 06 2012 HDR.jpg
Here's the same moment same HDR and post production tweaks but zoomed back to show more of the zenth light. The soft sister of black's color of blue. The rare air.
Power Sunset 01 Kits Beach Mar 06 2012 HDR
I got home about 6:30 yesterday and this was the view from my living room. .... I love my apartment. :)
Needless to say dinner became secondary to the need to shoot a sequence of 4 HDR images of this power sunset. This one being 01. Nature truley is the artist.
Thursday, March 01, 2012
Flock of Fire Dragons 03 Feb 22 2012.
The third in the Fire Dragon series. A classic sunset over English Bay Vancouver on Feb 22 2012 that, thanks to HDR, suggest a flock of Fire Dragons chasing the setting sun. Hey ... I'm just the photographer. :)
Fire Dragons 04 Feb 22 2012 With Dark Dragons in Tow HDR
The fourth in the my Fire Dragon series. High Dynamic Range has shown me how much happens that I don't see directly but my peripheral vision does. In fact my HDR workflow is very reminiscent of my days as a kid playing in the darkroom I'd built in my family's basement (in two homes no less). Waiting for the true image to emerge from the exposed paper I was shuffling around in the tray of developer fluid (developer -> stop -> fixer = 3 trays) while in the magical red light of the darkroom has permanently stuck with me. With HDR the feeling (but not the smells LOL) of anticipation is very much back but in a ... wierd digital way. I also love that my go-to piece of photo management software is called Lightroom. :)
Friday, February 17, 2012
Spanish Banks Vancouver Sunset Feb 14 2012
Cool-Warm-Cool. Nature once again proving that two extremes can beautifully co-exist.
Thursday, February 16, 2012
Power Sunset English Bay Vancouver Feb 15 2012
We had a pretty spectacular sunset Feb 15 2012 here in Vancouver and this is the first of the series. A very impressionistic treatment which goes counter to my goal for this year - crisp, sharp, low noise, low ISO, etc. But ... whatever. Resolutions are partially meant to be broken in an emergency right? :)
Sunday, February 05, 2012
Sirrus Sleeping In the Winter Sun Feb 04 2012
A nice warm shot of one of my cats snoozing in the winter sunshine. HDR treatment via Photomatix Pro 4.1 and then post processed in Capture NX/2.
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