I began my epic trip across the USA today to New York at 10am.
The car is packed full of all my stuff and the weather is looking good for when I arrive in Yellowstone national park on Sunday.
I'm sat now at the USA border near Vancouver with a 1 hour wait. Fun times.
Today I went exploring around Squamish which is North of Vancouver, I just found myself driving around not finding anything that caught my eye for a great picture, I could see I am getting bored of the scenery as I have driven through this area a few times and also it is very similar to Whistler and Vancouver with trees and mountains. After most of the day wasted with not a single shot I decided to stop at Shannon Falls, I’ve been before in the morning but the light was terrible, and knew I needed to come back in the afternoon when the sun had come around the mountains to illuminate the water.
I arrived at the perfect time to catch this beauty, for me this is the perfect simple shot with just water and rocks as the elements and the sun shining nicely from the right at 90 degrees to the falls. A 4 second exposure gave me the lovely flow of the water.
This is what the falls look like without the smooth long shutter effect. Which do you prefer?
Weeping Willow’s are my favourite trees, looks wise that is, and there are plenty around Vancouver but until now I’ve not found one in a decent setting to photograph. The issue is that I like all my shots to be clean and clutter free which means no signs, roads, cars, horrible buildings or anything that ruins the scene. Simple and clean is what I search for and if I can’t find it I won’t take a picture.
I found this willow tree today in Jericho Park, finally one I could shoot with just sky in the background as that shows the greatness that is the willow, for me if there was anything behind this shot it would be ruined, I’m already slightly annoyed by the clouds at the bottom of frame!
I also decided to take another self portrait, getting in a little of the clutter of the surroundings, I don’t ususally take landscapes with people in them but for certain shots like this it just helps to set the scene.
I keep thinking that I’d like to always have a theme through my shots with a girl in them with dark hair wearing a red jacket, it seems the best way to do that is to take the jacket and a wig with me wherever I go.
Even though it was raining all day I still managed to take a nice spring time shot inside with some of my Aunts flowers.
Today I decided to hike to a waterfall in Lynn Canyon, I wanted to do this last month but there was too much snow on the ground and hiking in snow is no fun at all All in it was a 16km hike as on the way back I decided to go the long route that way I would get to see some new sites. There weren’t any amazing sites that warranted my medium format kit but there where some interesting things to see that I captured on my Panasonic GF1. I’m still yet to see the bears everyone keeps going on about here.
THe area is an old logging site and mill so along the way I would see various rusting items with trees growing out of them.
There is also plenty of old growth trees that have long been cut down and mostly rotted away.
I would love to know how the tree below got like this, it was obviously cut down but then did this happen naturally?
The final destination of the Norvan falls, not that interesting as waterfalls go but a nice hike none the less.
I’m back in Vancouver after a month in the snow of Whistler, I’m happy I got all the shots I wanted to get whilst there which is considering the weather there.
Spring is officially here and the cherry blossoms are blooming here, apparently Vancouver was designed so cherry blossoms could be seen for the whole month appearing in stages throughout the city.
Having been around mountains for too long I wanted to venture into the city and explore there now, and too some shots in a style I started in London this year looking up the buildings, it’s a style that for me makes the most out of the buildings height and repetitive features.
These have been the most interesting buildings I found in Vancouver, unfortunately it’s not a city known for it’s architecture, and most of the buildings are both business and residential with gives most of the buildings the residential balcony look. It’s the business buildings above that interest me most.
I finally took the plunge and snowboarded with my medium format gear on my back, although stripped down a little so that I wasn’t carrying 20kg. On the way down this was a view that I was hoping to get someone skiing across in shot, but after lots of waiting instead I thought I would be in the shot. I almost wish I had also got one facing camera too.
This is a shot that has eluded me for the past month, it has teased me every time I had been snowboarding hiding behind the clouds and finally over the last few days I got 2 versions, now the question is which is better??
The first shot was taken on a nice clear day in the moning which was great as it required no waiting for clouds to blow out of the way which is a regular occurrence in Whistler.
For the second shot I was in this spot for over an hour waiting at 3.30pm for the right light to hit the mountains, but when it did clouds would cover the sun from the foreground trees so I would have to wait some more but it was certainly worth it. It would be amazing to get this on a clear day at sunset, but I am not allowed on the mountain much past 4.30 and also you wouldn’t get the lovely illumination of the foreground trees for that so it would have just be of the mountains.
Please let me know your preferences as I really can’t decide which is nicer as they both have their strong points!
I had a great week this week as Yann came to visit from London, so finally got to do some of the things here that really need 2 people and that weren’t photography or snowboarding.
Firstly we went dog sledding where they make you dress up in loverly outfits that resemble something from Dumb and dumber the movie (remember the scene on the motorbike?) I’m not sure he will be so happy I included this shot in my blog.
You find most of the time when sat in the sled that you get snow thrown in your face from the dogs running, it’s certainly great to stand on the back and have some control though.
They had funny little kennels, this guy no longer worked as he was run over by a car, poor guy.
At the end of the tour of course they bring out the cute puppy. Did I hear an Awwwww?
Next we went zip-lingin over the Fitzsimmons creek which is on between Blackcomb and Whistler mountains, one of the lines was 2200 feet long! It was my first time and it was awesome, I recommend it to anyone who doesn’t mind heights! On the last run they even had us hanging upside down.
We would go across the creek through woods and have this view along the way.
You can’t be around snow and not build a snowman! At this point the snow was very slushy but luckily still stuck together and it was very easy to mold so we could get a perfect shape to him, I’m actually quite proud of it! It took over an hour, slushy snow isn’t easy to gather up.
It was a beautiful day that we headed up the mountain to go on the Whistler Peak 2 Peak which is a gondola that goes from one mountain across to the other, you get quite a view along the way.
I finally got a nice shot of a view I had seen whilst boarding up here but it had always been cloudy, although I still think I need to get it later in the day for a better angle of light.
Finally a shot of me! Yes mum I’m wearing my xmas hat. My face was a little red by the end as it was very bright up there.
Sat on the lifts on the way back I grabbed this shot which show everything Whistler has, mountains, trees, ski lifts, skiers, lakes and the village.
During a relaxing visit to Harrison hot springs our hotel room had a great leak view that gave me the opportunity for long exposures whilst still relaxing, both on my Fotoman 617 the first one was a 1 hour shot of the sunset and the second a 3 hour shot in the hope to get star trails, I will post these pictures once I have them developed and scanned.
The next day we planned to visit some nearby waterfalls, the first we didn’t make it to however as the road was full of sharp rocks and I got a flat tyre so didn’t want t risk going any further, but the second was Beautiful, it was almost elegant and delicate the was a small amount fell down the rocks in a wide flow, the picture below was taken with a fast shutter but the great thing about the falls is it also looks naturally like a long exposure.
The great thing about Canada is they don’t clear up the logs that fall naturally, so you winder upon parts of trails like this where a log has fallen across it and they have just cut a whole for the trail.
It was a great week that also involved loads of food, the last time I remember getting so full was in Los Angeles. The week was ended having a dinner at Seasonal 56 near Vancouver, Yann had booked the chefs table (the best table which means eating in the kitchen!) amd we had a tasting menu that involved various local dishes including Rabbit (sorry sis!)
A clear night meant it was the perfect night to take some moon light pictures, especially with the so called super moon that mean there was 20% more light. I spotted this great shot of the Tantalus mountain range.
I also took it on my 617 camera for a 30 minute exposure which I can’t wait to see how the stars turned out in it.
Today was a great day, I took my medium format camera onto the slopes, I was able to store it in some lockers up there all day and then could just go and get it when clouds cleared and snowboard in between.
As soon as I got to the to of the Whistler gondola I saw a great shot as the sun was low and everyone was getting ready to hit the slopes.
I then went up to the peak for the first time, this is an area that is regularly closed due to bad weather as it’s about 7000 feet high, you can see it in the shot above to the right which is the first time I’ve seen it since arriving. It’s certainly cold up there, any exposed skin freezes quickly with the wind chill. It’s amazing how different everything looks here to just 1000 feet lower, the trees were completely hidden in snow. On the way down I saw this great view. This is my favourite shot so far in Whistler, the perfect snowscape with the mountains in the background.
Before finishing for the day I took this shot of the canadian flat backlit by the sun, it’s a shame the background isn’t more interesting as that would make it a great shot.
Since it was only 4.45 by the time I got back to the car and had 2 hours of sun left I decided to drive around searching for a great spot for the mountains, but try as I might I just couldn’t find it, there was always something in the way (usually trees!) It’s a shame as it would have made a beautiful shot.
I’m completely pooped after the 2 days on the slopes, tomorrow will be a nice photo day in the valleys I think, hopefully another waterfall. Night night