False Creek Spot Light Test Jan 30 2010 01_DSC9664

False Creek Spot Light Test Jan 30 2010 01_DSC9664, originally uploaded by VancouverDoug.

Very cool.

Tonight the Olympic Lighting Elves tested out their False Creek spot light setup. There was much well deserved oooh'ing and awh'ing. I think we should make them permanent.

Gulf Island Sunset Jan 27 2010_DSC9616

Gulf Island Sunset Jan 27 2010_DSC9616, originally uploaded by VancouverDoug.

Winter sunsets in Vancouver, while short lived, have this rich orange color missing from summer sunsets and, thanks to ever-present rain clouds, a good chance of including 'God-Light' - those spiritually motivating beams of light cascading from the heavens.

Here's a shot looking due west from downtown Vancouver taken later afternoon January 28 2010. In the foreground is the University of BC and a large jet on its final approach into Vancouver's international airport. In the background is Galliano Island. One of the many long-but-thin rocky islands sprinkled along the Strait of Georgia that separates the BC mainland from Vancouver Island.

CF-18 Fighter Jets on Patrol - English Bay Vancouver

Say Hallo To My Little Friends_DSC9619, originally uploaded by VancouverDoug.

Here's a pair of Canadian Forces CF-18 fighter jets zipping over English Bay Vancouver 2 weeks prior to the 2010 Winter games.

To paraphrase Al Pacino's character on the movie "Scarface" - "Say hallo to my two leetle friends!"

Sunset Beach Olympic Spot Light Jan 28 2010_DSC9622

Sunset Beach Olympic Spot Light Jan 28 2010_DSC9622, originally uploaded by VancouverDoug.

Here's a shot of one of the 20 massive projectors sprinkled along either side of the entrance to False Creek in Vancouver. Without seeing them in action it's hard to tell if they are spot lights or projectpr lights. I'm guessing projectors.

They are pretty massive with the spot/projector shown in this photo being about 2 meters tall. Bring on the games!! I can't wait to see these puppies in action.

The Olympic .. err .. Blue Boxes Are Here!

The Olympic .. err .. Blue Boxes Are Here!, originally uploaded by VancouverDoug.

Over the past few days the Olympic Construction Elves ('ookees' as we call 'em) have been carefully placing large blue box structures on both sides of the entrance into False Creek here in Vancouver. The boxes themselves are interconnected via underground cabling which you can see in the photo as a nice slash in the otherwise clean green of the lawn at Sunset Beach.

My guess? Spot light stands with the long trough connecting the boxes being the high voltage AC the lights will need. Oh ... Joy.

On the flip side though, once they fire those puppies up night will become day around here and us Vancouverites can start to party like it's 1999. :)

Law Courts Skating Rink Jan 27 2010_DSC9560

Law Courts Skating Rink Jan 27 2010_DSC9560, originally uploaded by VancouverDoug.

Here's a shot of the skating rink at the corner of Thurlow and Robson in the Law Courts plaza. It's been domed to protect the skaters from the 2 meters of snow we all know VanOc has on order for arrival a day before the Olympics start. :)

Count Down Clock 01 Jan 27 2010_DSC9578

Count Down Clock 01 Jan 27 2010_DSC9578, originally uploaded by VancouverDoug.

16 days, 4 hours, 12 minutes and 6 seconds till the party begins. Now all we gotta do is truck in about 10 million kilos of snow from Alberta and we're ready to rock.

And, as any Vancouverite knows, last week was the start of our spring. The trees are budding, the days are getting longer, the eagles are flying south to eat American salmon rather than BC's best and throngs of tourists have begun to croud out the locals.

As my grandmother used to say "Guests are like fish (salmon in this case). After two days they start to smell. How are we going to manage for 2 weeks? :)

Richmond Olympic Oval Mar 13 2009 03_DSC4788

Richmond Olympic Oval Mar 13 2009 03_DSC4788, originally uploaded by VancouverDoug.

Here's the final image from the Essent ISU World Championships held back in March of 2009. A fantastic warm up for the 2010 Olympics.

I like this shot in that it really captured the smooth aerodynamic form that is the speed skater. If I let my eyes blur for a bit the skater becomes almost robotic in her determined pose and sculpted form.

Richmond Olympic Oval Mar 13 2009 02_DSC4788

Richmond Olympic Oval Mar 13 2009 02_DSC4788, originally uploaded by VancouverDoug.

The Richmond Olympic Speed Skating oval itself is a thing of architectural and wooden beauty both inside and out. It's shape is nothing but smooth flowing contours that perfectly match the smooth flowing grace that is skating in general and Olympic speed skating in particular.

From Architectural Innovations.com "In total, the roof system uses about one million board feet of Douglas-fir lam-stock lumber in the glulam beams, another one million board feet of 2x4 spruce-pine-fir commodity dimension lumber – primarily lumber affected by the mountain pine beetle infestation in B.C.’s Interior – and about 19,000 sheets of four-foot-by-eight-foot Douglas-fir plywood in the roof panels. The roof is believed to be the largest surface ever-covered in beetle-affected wood – showing that the wood remains structurally sound and attractive."

Understatement of the year. The building is drop-dead gorgeous.

Here's a closer look at the ceiling and the participant flags.

Richmond Olympic Oval Ceiling Mar 13 2009, originally uploaded by VancouverDoug.

2010 Winter Olympic Countdown

Richmond Olympic Oval Mar 13 2009 04_DSC4788, originally uploaded by VancouverDoug.

With just under three weeks to go till the start of the 2010 Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games here in Vancouver the excitement is certainly building. As various side streets close and become covered with temporary buildings and rows of spectactor seats the feeling of living within a fortress becomes nearly everpresent.

Over the next few days I'll be posting photos that were taken inside the Richmond Olympic Speed Skating oval during the March 2009 Essent ISU World Single Distances Speed Skating Championships. After an afternoon of fast shooting hoping for the perfect shot I now have great respect for not only sports photographers and the big $15,000 lenses that they use but also how sexy women look skating away at high speed dressed in tight latex. Speed skaters have to be one of the hardest photo subjects in existence. :)

Burrard St Bridge 90mm Jan 11 2010_DSC9403And8more_tonemapped

Burrard St Bridge 90mm Jan 11 2010_DSC9403And8more_tonemapped, originally uploaded by VancouverDoug.

Sometimes with High Dynamic Range photography "less is more". Here's a composite of 9 images of the Burrard Street Bridge that crosses False Creek into downtown Vancouver. This photo was taken on a very rainy west coast winter Monday afternoon around 2:30PM. The forecast called for 100 to 200 mm of rain for Howe Sound which is north of Vancouver on the way to Whistler. Ground zero for the 2010 Winter Olympics in 32 days and the spot where my brother and I will watch the Olympic Ski Jumping in just over a month from now.

In this shot I wanted to capture the nice pocket of warm color from the lights on the north bridge span nestled in the grey brooding nature of winter on the west coast represented by the bridge itself. Thanks to the magic of High Dynamic Range photography I think I captured it.

During winter on the 'wet coast' less is more.

Sunset Beach Eagle Jan 11 2010_DSC9376And8more_tonemapped

Sunset Beach Eagle Jan 11 2010_DSC9376And8more_tonemapped, originally uploaded by VancouverDoug.

(With apologies to Albert Camus) - In the depth of a west coast winter, I finally learned that within me and my digital SLR there lay an invincible High Dynamic Range summer - or at least a soggy spring.

Queen Elizabeth Park IR 06 May 21 2009 raw

Queen Elizabeth Park IR 06 May 21 2009 raw, originally uploaded by VancouverDoug.

Queen Elizabeth Park Vancouver Canada in Infra Red.

The park is so thick with carefully tended foliage that it pretty much explodes visually when photographed in Infra Red light.

My favorite part of this shot are the two wheel barrows in the bottom right corner. Sort of a his and hers thing. :)

New Name - Same Cool Photographs

Work is now complete on linking my personal web site name (DouglasFarmerPhotography.com) to this blog. The old link ( http://temporaldistortions.blogspot.com ) will still work so nothing needs to change at your end.

Happy New Years everyone!

DouglasFarmerPhotography.com

I've bought the link 'DouglasFarmerPhotography.com' and will be switching this blog to that link. What this means for those who visit my Google Blogger site (where you are now) is that you now have two ways to access this blog. That's it. Everything is pretty much the same only I'll now be able to make the transition to a more commercial slant on the site. It will also make all those business cards with a www.douglasfarmerphotography.com link actually work. :) I expect the transition will take 3 days to filter across the Interwebs.

At the transition from 2009 to 2010 and what for most is a fresh new decade my best wishes to you and yours for a safe, happy and productive new year. I have lots of photographic plans for the coming year and hope you'll be part of that journey. If you would like to receive e-mail updates to changes in this site's content feel free to e-mail me at djfarmer@telus.net.

F/8, 1/60s and go!

BoB_25_2009 Lost Lagoon Swan IR Aug 12 2009 Nikon D80_DSC1371

BoB_25_2009 Lost Lagoon Swan IR Aug 12 2009 Nikon D80_DSC1371, originally uploaded by VancouverDoug.

This is my favorite capture from 2009. Thanks to the focusing complexities of digital infra red photography (manufacturers tune the focus of cameras for visible light) I learned a lot about hyper focal focusing this year.

This shot in particular is taken at one of my favorite composition spots in Vancouver - Lost Lagoon in Stanley Park look east towards downtown Vancouver. There are so many cool things about Vancouver but one of the best has to be the glorious park on the western limb of the downtown core.

BoB_24_2009 English Bay Sunset Aug 29 2009 Nikon D300_DSC8268

BoB_24_2009 English Bay Sunset Aug 29 2009 Nikon D300_DSC8268, originally uploaded by VancouverDoug.

The High Dynamic Range software I use (Photomatix) can create some rather interesting results even within a series of images that do not differ that much in terms of dynamic range and color.

Here's a lazy hazy summer sunset over English Bay in Vancouver in HDR.

BoB_23_2009 Beach Avenue Spring IR May09 2009

BoB_23_2009 Beach Avenue Spring IR May09 2009, originally uploaded by VancouverDoug.

This is a view of Beach Avenue in downtown Vancouver taken from the Burrard Street Bridge looking north. On the right are the high rise towers that run along Beach. To the left, nestled in the trees glowing white in the infra red light, is the Vancouver Aquatic Center and then off in the distance is English Bay itself.

BoB_22_2009 Cypress Falls HDR Jun 05 2009 DSC6226_27_28_29_30_31_32

BoB_22_2009 Cypress Falls HDR Jun 05 2009 DSC6226_27_28_29_30_31_32, originally uploaded by VancouverDoug.

Here's the second High Dynamic Range photo from a trip this year up to Cypress Falls Provincial Park in West Vancouver. If you let your eyes relax a bit you might see the skeleton like face appear - eye socket top left and mouth middle bottom.

BoB_21_2009 A Quizicale Lucky on the Deck CNX2

BoB_21_2009 A Quizicale Lucky on the Deck CNX2, originally uploaded by VancouverDoug.

Here's a scan of a photo from thirty years ago touched up with Capture NX/2. Getting the old photos in the 'digital domain' is turning out to be a very enjoyable spin off of the digital darkrooms available to us 21st century photographers.

The subject in the photograph is of the sweetest dog I ever had the fortune to get to know - Lucky. :)