Celebration of Light - China, 1 August 2009 - X

Celebration of Light - China, 1 August 2009 - X, originally uploaded by Tim McDonald.

Celebration of Light - China, 1 August 2009 - II

Celebration of Light - China, 1 August 2009 - II, originally uploaded by Tim McDonald.

Quite an anticlimax after the UK's impressive showing. For a number of reasons - lack of wind and possibly the fireworks themselves - a great pall of smoke lingered above the barge obscuring much of the show.

Capilano Suspension Bridge II

Capilano Suspension Bridge II, originally uploaded by Tim McDonald.

Capilano Suspension Bridge

Capilano Suspension Bridge, originally uploaded by Tim McDonald.

Decided to bite the bullet and check out the Capilano Suspension Bridge (no relation to the honey company).

Entry was a little steep ($30) but I had come all this way so in for a penny... I assumed it was just a bridge, and given that it looked far shorter than its 136m length I would have been sorely disappointed after paying so much to get in.

The bridge is far wobblier than I thought it would be (well it IS a suspension bridge) and the midday tourist traffic crossing in both directions didn't aid stability. Still, it is sturdily constructed so you feel safe and you get a nice view of the creek some 70m below (would be an impressive sight during the spring thaw I suspect) and surrounding trees. After taking some photos I was soon enough on the other side of the bridge and assumed there was nothing left to do but to turn around for the return journey. I couldn't have been more wrong.

On the other side I thought I had somehow been transported to the Forest Moon of Endor from The Return of the Jedi. Not only did the trees look the same but there was a series of elevated walkways and staircases weaving their way through the treetops above. All up, there is probably a couple of hundred metres of elevated walkways and it is a good deal of fun walking around on those even if the view is rather unsubstantial (mainly just other trees). In addition to the elevated walkway, there is a walkway on the ground that takes about 20 minutes to complete from end to end and has some nice views of the gorge and illustrates how high up the bridge actually is.

There are also a number of ponds with fish and a raptor enclosure with a handful of (sleeping at the time I saw them) birds including a falcon and a kestrel.

There is also a gift shop and some food stands and the obligatory First Nations totem poles.

All in an enjoyable, if a little expensive, way to spend an hour or so on a warm summer's day. Park upkeep doesn't come cheap I guess.

Celebration of Light - Canda, 22 July 2009 - III

Celebration of Light - Canda, 22 July 2009 - III, originally uploaded by Tim McDonald.

Celebration of Light - Canda, 22 July 2009 - I

Celebration of Light - Canda, 22 July 2009 - I, originally uploaded by Tim McDonald.

THEY'RE BACK!

Probably my last Celebration of light for a while and possibly ever.

Quite happy with the way the D700 handles fireworks; I can get much shorter exposure times than I did with the D200 but I did notice a higher number of nuked photos too.

Granville Bridge

Granville Bridge, originally uploaded by Tim McDonald.

The light trail on the bridge is the No. 17 Bus.

Cavernous

Cavernous, originally uploaded by Tim McDonald.

Inside the main hall at the new Vancouver Convention Centre.

Symmetry

Symmetry, originally uploaded by Tim McDonald.

Hydrant on Georgia Street

Hydrant on Georgia Street, originally uploaded by Tim McDonald.

Vancouver, BC Canada.

Airman Statue, Calgary

Airman Statue, Calgary, originally uploaded by Tim McDonald.

Statue in Calgary honouring airmen who served in World War II.

T-Rex

T-Rex, originally uploaded by Tim McDonald.

Royal Tyrrell Museum - Drumheller Alberta, Canada.

Banff II

Banff II, originally uploaded by Tim McDonald.

Taken just outside the town of Banff, on the edge of it's golf course.

Driving from Jasper to Banff

Driving from Jasper to Banff, originally uploaded by Tim McDonald.

Driving and shooting with an SLR would not normally be a good idea. Luckily, the D700 has liveview so I could use the screen on the back to see where I was going.

Banff

Banff, originally uploaded by Tim McDonald.

As seen from the town centre, Banff, Alberta Canada

Park Life

Park Life, originally uploaded by Tim McDonald.

This shot nearly didn't happen; the man on the left woke up and then the man on the right turned to face me. Luckily, I decided to wait and pretend to be shooting the building in the background. Fortunately, my patience paid off and the two men returned to their original positions.

Would have been nice if the seats and bin hadn't been in front of the subjects.

Coal Harbour - Vancouver, BC Canada.
Nikon F75, cheapo ISO 400 film.

Banff Avenue (S)

Banff Avenue (S), originally uploaded by Tim McDonald.

Looking the other way on the main street of Banff.

Banff Avenue (NE)

Banff Avenue (NE), originally uploaded by Tim McDonald.

Main street of Banff, Alberta Canada.

Horseshoe Canyon

Horseshoe Canyon, originally uploaded by Tim McDonald.

Alberta, Canada.
Created with PTGui.

Who Killed the Electric Car?

Who Killed the Electric Car?, originally uploaded by Tim McDonald.

Most of the cars I saw in Alberta had electrical leads hanging out the front. These are for block heaters that prevent the engine from cracking due to the extreme cold in winter.

Rockies

Rockies, originally uploaded by Tim McDonald.

Taken in Jasper National Park - Alberta, Canada.

Tyrannosaurus Rex at Royal Tyrrell Museum

Tyrannosaurus Rex at Royal Tyrrell Museum, originally uploaded by Tim McDonald.

Calgary Tower II

Calgary Tower II, originally uploaded by Tim McDonald.

Cave and Basin

Cave and Basin, originally uploaded by Tim McDonald.

Inside the underwhelming caves just outside Banff.

At least it only cost $4 to see this.

I Have a Big Head and Little Arms

I Have a Big Head and Little Arms, originally uploaded by Tim McDonald.

Tourist Information Centre in Drumheller, Alberta.

If you want to know where the title comes from, go here: www.youtube.com/watch?v=fmiV2AaIeE0

Horsethief Canyon

Horsethief Canyon, originally uploaded by Tim McDonald.

Outside Drumheller, in Alberta's badlands.

The Tide At English Bay

The Tide At English Bay
Originally uploaded by Tim McDonald

Time lapse of the rising tide at English Bay.

To create, I set the camera (D700) up on a tripod in interval shooting mode. I then left it to take a photo every 10 seconds over approximately 3 hours (1027 photos in total).

Each photo:
1/500th sec at f/9, ISO 200. 40mm focal length.

The photos were then imported to Lightroom primarily so that they could be resized down to 640x480 en masse to keep the vidoe file size and processing time to a minimum. The resized photos were joined in a freeware program called Photolapse and output as an avi file at 30fps.

Final step in the process was to use Windows Movie Maker to compress the video from 74mb down to about 5mb.

Not the most efficient process but it works and it's free. I understand that a lot of people use Quicktime Pro to create time lapse videos. I'd like to know how easy it is before I cough up the money to upgrade to Quicktime Pro

Lac Louise

Lac Louise, originally uploaded by Tim McDonald.

One of the primary reasons for my trip to Alberta was to visit Lake Louise and Moraine Lake. Everyone has seen those amazing photos of these two lakes with the beautiful blue water. Unfortunately, I had not done my research so did not know that these lakes do not fully thaw until June/July. As a result, I was a little disappointed to find Lake Louise still mostly frozen (even in late May) as well as Moraine Lake closed altogether. C'est la vie. Still an amazing sight though.

Clouds over Grouse

Clouds over Grouse, originally uploaded by Tim McDonald.

The fireworks are back

Celebration of Light - China 30 July 2008 I, originally uploaded by Tim McDonald.

Also managed to smoke out the upstairs neighbours with the bbq on the balcony.

The 2009 "Pontiac G8"

"Pontiac G8", originally uploaded by Tim McDonald.

Does this car look familiar?

Taken at the Vancouver Motor Show at BC Place on Saturday.

Had some nice cars there, and quite a few exotics such as Aston Martins and Lotuses.

The new Nissan GTR (Skyline) was also on show there and looked impressive.

We were there mainly to check out the Jeeps as that's probably what we're going to get.

It also snowed here yesterday, but today is bright and sunny. What crazy weather we're having.

Night Snowboarding on Grouse

Getting Ready, originally uploaded by Tim McDonald.

On Saturday night, we gave night skiing on Grouse Mountain a try. A couple of weeks ago we purchased ski passes to Grouse that give us unlimited skiing though to the end of April 2009.

We got to the gondola at about 7pm and were pleasantly surprised that the usual throng was nowhere to be seen. At a guess, there were probably 15 of us on the gondola on the way up.

Even at 7.30 there is quite a bit of light left (the sun sets at about 8 at this time of the year here). Now, the view from Grouse Mountain at dusk is nice, but it's after dark that it really comes alive. The sensation of belting (or falling) down a hill in the middle of the night is quite spectacular. The runs are very well lit and visibility is very good throughout. Better yet, there are about 20% of the crowds that are normally there. One downside, is that the number of 'nut' skiers increases; lured by the smaller crowds they can roar down the runs much faster than during the day without fear of taking some poor beginner out. On two occasions, a skier came within a metre or so of taking me out.

Finished up (bruised and sore, mind) at about 9.30 and headed to the restaurant for a burger and beer. The runs close at 10pm, but the restaurant stays open til around 11.30.

We got the 11pm gondola down the mountain and due to the joys of public transport, we didn't get home until 1am.

Time to get a car methinks.

Snowboarding on Grouse

Snowboarding on Grouse, originally uploaded by Tim McDonald.

I write this, sore and knackered, more than 24 hours after my first snowboarding experience.

Travis and I headed up to Grouse Mountain Saturday morning to give snowboarding a shot (neither of us had done it before).

We got there about noon and picked up some rental gear (board, bindings and boots) for $45. This is in addition to the $50 day pass that includes gondola up and down and unlimited use of the chair lift.

Once we got our gear we headed outside and spent the first 15 minutes figuring out how to get bloody things on.

Once we got our gear ready, we headed up to the top to try our hands at riding these things.

I was expecting to be hopeless at these things, and as it turns out, I was. I did really enjoy it when I did get up and actually found riding a snowboard to be easier than I thought it would. The fact that you're not afraid of stacking it because of the soft snow really makes it easier to to keep on trying. I actually found the act of getting up from a sitting position to be the hardest part as I found that when I pushed up with my hands to try and stand up, I would push the board forward and my feet out from under me and end up on my back again.

We mucked around on the green (beginner) slopes and took heart in the fact that everyone else there was as bad as we were.

We eventually made our way to the main slope which is about 100m wide and about 700m long with a chair lift to one side. Here there were hundreds of people all doing much the same as we were; stacking it while trying to avoid everyone else stacking it. By this time, I was starting to get tired and frustration with being hopeless was starting to get the better of me (I cracked my goggles after I threw them). I also was starting to get a headache from the constant rattling around of my brain in my skull due to my numerous falls. So instead of continuing to try to ride, I removed my boots from their bindings (which lock your boots to the board) and sat on the board to ride it the rest of the way down the slope. I was good for about 20 or 30 metres until I tried to use my foot to turn, which cause me to roll over and resulted in the board shooting out from under me and continuing apace, uncontrolled, down the slope. I did my best to run after it (I was the only person actually running on the ski slope) down the hill but it had too much of a lead. I found it resting in a snow drift at the bottom of the slope near the entrance to the queue to the chairlift back up.

We took the chairlift back up to the top and at which point I returned my gear and waited for Travis in the pub.

We plan to go again next weekend, where I will in all likelihood, take some lessons.

Dr Tim Tam

Dr Tim Tam, originally uploaded by Tim McDonald.

This window caught my eye as I walked past on the way back from buying snowboarding pants this evening.

Glad I had my camera on me.

Also, picked up a pair of snowboarding pants for $50 (on sale for half price).

A Break in the Weather

Granville and Broadway, originally uploaded by Tim McDonald.

Surprisingly, the weather was clear and sunny this weekend. Took advantage of it and did lots of walking this weekend.

Whistler

Whistler-Blackcomb, originally uploaded by Tim McDonald.

Went for a quick (5 hours total) trip up to Whistler on Sunday with friends. First time I'd been there in winter (went during summer in September). Quite a lot of snow there; with approximately 2 feet of snow on the roofs.

Took some photos and drank some beer.

First Day of Winter

English Bay Snow, originally uploaded by Tim McDonald.

Well, 1st December and winter is officially here.

The Grouse Grind

Wednesday after work, I headed off to do the 'Grouse Grind' with a mate from work. The Grouse Grind is a trail from the base to the summit of Grouse Mountain, and follows the path of the cable car (see pic).

The Grouse Grind is, indeed, a 'Grind'. I was expecting it to be tough, but I was not prepared for the hour and a half of hell that awaited me. The picture to the left does not give do justice to how bloody steep this mountain is. To give you an idea, the Grind takes you from 300m above sea level to 1100m, but is actually 2.9km long. It gets better: it's all STEPS!

The trail has markers at every quarter based on altitude rather than length and the first quarter is the easiest and also the longest and flattest. We were taking it 'easy' and all up it took us about 45 minutes to make it to the first quarter. Yes, it took us 45 minutes to climb 200 metres up the mountain. I was already stuffed at this point, with my heart pounding and legs burning and had to take a 5-10 minute break to catch my breath and regain my colour. We then made a start on the second quarter.

From here on, the quarters get shorter and steeper (and harder) and the half way mark is the point of no return as it's quicker to keep going to the top rather than walking back down.

There were dozens of people, of all ages and fitness levels, doing the grind with us and it was heartening to hear them all huffing and puffing.

After just under an hour and a half, I emerged drenched and wheezing at the summit. Beer and nachos have never been so good. Besides the sense of achievement, the view is awesome and makes it worth it.


Even though it was real hard yakka, I plan on doing it again and hopefully will do it regularly in future. Sadly, and obviously, the trail is closed during the winter months.

Vancouver Pride Parade 2007

Flag, originally uploaded by Tim McDonald.

Quite an eventfully weekend in Vancouver. Saturday saw the finale of the Celebration of Light fireworks and Sunday was the day for Vancouver's annual Pride Parade. Traditionally a gay and lesbian parade (like Sydney's Mardis Gras), it is now more of celebration of lifestyle and cultural diversity in Vancouver with many participants from the various communities in the city.

We headed down at about noon for kick off. We didn't have to walk far as the parade was along the street in front of our building. The organisers couldn't have picked a better day; bright blue skies and mid-high 20s. Quite warm for downtown Vancouver. Ironically, it was the worst conditions to take photos in with the bright sun overhead creating harsh shadows. This was made worse by facing into the sun, leaving my subjects' faces in shadow, but enough about that.

As you would expect most of the paraders were men; dressed in drag, leather, underwear or nothing at all. Despite being surrounded by families with young children, no one seemed to mind. The glitter and paint that I was told was ubiquitous last year, however, was seldom seen this time round; strange considering it's what I think of when I thing of a gay parade. This one's for you Robert: There were some women parading too; the most notably the girls in fishnets, and the girls dancing with huge feather arrangements a'la Rio's Carnivale.

Except for the naked blokes it was quite an enjoyable experience and the crowd and participants had a great deal of fun and the parade lasted about 2 hours. Afterwards, Trav and I headed up Davie Street for our regular Mongolian BBQ lunch.

More Fireworks

Celebration of Light, China 1 August 2007 - III, originally uploaded by Tim McDonald.

It was China's turn on Wednesday and they were far and away the best; plenty of big loud explosions filling up the sky. They also synchronised their fireworks to music better than either Spain or Canada.

The Finale was on Saturday with all three nations taking competing for 'victory'. I don't think there are any prizes awarded for the actual winner. Each nations put on a 10 minute display and pretty much recycled music from their earlier displays. Once again, China were the best, though I believe Canada may have 'won'.

'Twas a good evening: had 7 people over to watch the fireworks while drinking a number of bottles of assorted beers and red wines. The lowlight of the night would have to have been the dubious Szcechuan chicken from the late-night take away window at a near by Chinese place at 2am that Travis and I had. Most of it ended up in the bin.

Celebration of Light - Spain, 25 July

Celebration of Light - Spain 25 July 07 - I, originally uploaded by Tim McDonald.

One of the highlights of summer in Vancouver is the annual 'Celebration of Light'. Similar to Skyshow, it's fireworks set to music. Where it differs from Skyshow is that it's a competition between 3 countries. This year's competitors being Spain, China and Canada.

The beaches around English Bay were all packed with hundreds of thousands of people which is amazing considering it was a Wednesday night and due to the long days of summer, the show wouldn't start until 10pm. The bus ride home after work was a bit of a nightmare as thousands of people left their cars at home and took the buses downtown. The buses here are not air-conditioned. The next show is on a Saturday night so it's going to be insane.

Spain was the first competitor and did a good job. Their show lasted about half an hour and they used a wide variety of fireworks. One of the most spectacular was one that exploded into a huge golden 'weeping willow tree'. More photos of the show here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/tim_mcdonald/

Had some friends over and we made pizzas for tea then sat back and enjoyed the show drinking beer and wine and laughing at the poor suckers crammed down on the beaches.

We're going to do it all again on Saturday night.

Canada Day Fireworks

Canada Day Fireworks I, originally uploaded by Tim McDonald.

July 1 is Canada Day (same as Australia Day) and besides a public holiday on the 2nd (Monday) there is is also a fireworks display. There were actually two simultaneous displays downtown; one in Coal Harbour and the other in English Bay near West Vancouver.

This is from the West Vancouver display. The tree tops of Stanley Park can just be made out in the foreground.