The second round had some glitches and we had to wait an extra week. By the time I got in to select my tickets, the only event that sounded cool was Ski Jump. I selected Ski Jump based on the dates Robyn wasn’t working and I got 2 tickets for Men’s Qualifying Ski Jump on February 12th, the first day of the 2010 Winter Olympics.

Our morning started quite early. The 2010 Winter Olympic Spectator guide informed us that our trip by bus would take roughly 3 hours to get to the Whistler Olympic Park (WOP). We selected to catch a 6:20AM bus at BCIT which meant we got up at about 4:15AM to get to BCIT within the time they requested we arrived at before our bus left.

Originally we were to park in the BCIT parking lot in the East. When we arrived we were rerouted around campus to the southern most parking lots, closer to where people were to park if they were going to the Whistler Sliding Centre. We backtracked back to where the buses were being loaded with people who were also going to see the first game of the Olympics.

The bus ride actually took roughly 2 hours from BCIT to get us up to the Whistler Olympic Park. Robyn and I both then said we didn’t have to get up as early, nor catch such an early bus. Lesson learned, right?

When we arrived up at the Whistler Olympic Park we were corralled through security. Our bags went through X-Ray machines as we walked through metal detectors. Sort of like going to the airport, but at least we didn’t have to take off our boots.

From the buses to the actual Ski Jump venue it is about 1.0Km. You go up and down and snake your way to the event with a mass of other people. Even though there was gravel/sand on the paths, the snow and slush still made it a bit slippery to walk.

We reached the Ski Jump venue. Robyn went off to grab us some hot chocolate as I went over to see what was happening on the jumps.

One of the main topics people have been asking in regards to the 2010 Winter Olympics is camera equipment. What type of camera equipment are  you allowed to bring and what are you not allowed to bring. Most people have been asking if they can bring their dSLR (digital SLR) cameras up. The answer is yes. While at our Ski Jump event many people were carrying around dSLRs. They ranged from the Canon Digital Rebels, up to the Nikon D3s. In regards to glass (lenses) the biggest lens I saw with a spectator was a Nikkor 70-200 f2.8 VR lens. Granted the accredited photographers had 500mm and up lenses, but toss on a 1.4 or 2.o on a 70-200mm and you get a bit more reach, especially on a cropped sensor like the Canon 7D or the Nikon D300s. Did I bring up my Canon 7D or even my Canon XSi? Nope, I couldn’t get confirmation in time so we borrowed Robyn’s mum’s Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ7 which has 12x optical zoom (in 35mm it’s roughly 435mm). All of these photos (except for the first one in this post as it was taken with my iPhone 3G) was taken with the DMC-FZ7.

Once Robyn got back with our Hot Chocolate (they didn’t have specialty coffees) we headed up to our section in the bleachers.

We were sitting on the 4th row, not bad view to watch the various Olympians strut their stuff in the air! The benches are metal and were a bit wet when we arrived, I’m sure they can get pretty cold too. You can bring something to sit on like a cushion, but we didn’t think of that, we just sat on my jacket.

For this particular Men’s Ski Jump event there was over 60 athletes competing to qualify for the medal round on the next day. We learned that the athletes at the beginning were ranked lower than the athletes that were closer to the end. In fact the last 4 or 5 athletes had their starting gate lowered and were still able to get further distances. The lower the gate, the less time to build up speed to execute the jump at the end, the shorter distance you would technically go. It was amazing to see these athletes sail through the air and land anywhere between 95-108 meters later.

Robyn and I have not seen Ski Jump before and talking to people they have said it is pretty exciting to experience and watch. We would both have to agree. Ski Jump is pretty cool to watch, especially when the athletes sail over the HS (hill safety) line without crashing.

Now on to the photos, in no particular order!

There are just so many photos and it was a really enjoyable event. Now we’re wishing we had more tickets to various Olympic events.

The sun even came out for a little bit! It never rained which was great as like I mentioned above, we were sitting on my jacket.

After the event was over everyone had to make their way back down to the buses. We were glad we didn’t have to take a bus back to Whistler as the lineup was extremely long. There were probably more buses going back to Vancouver but more people heading back to Whistler.

You can check out the other photos I took while at the Men’s Ski Jump along with other photos I’ve been taking during the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics over on Flickr.

Thanks to April for allowing me to borrow her Panasonic Lumix DMC-FZ7 with it’s 12x optical zoom. Without it, I wouldn’t have had any photographs to share with anyone.

Attending an Olympic event is definitely a life experience and we’re glad we got to be a part of it.

This year was the first year that both Robyn and I attended the Vancouver Pride Parade and we were entertained the entire time. The parade itself was longer than we both expected but the diversity of people during it were great. I thought it would have been as long as the Santa Claus parade but nope, it kept going past the 2 hour mark. It was a great celebration and was parked with spectators up and down Denman Street, Robson Street as well as part of Beach Avenue. The end of the parade was the Pride Festival at Sunset Beach, we didn’t attend that but I hear that it was a great festival as well. I did forget to mention that the Pride Parade was part of Pride Week here in Vancouver.

Enough talk though, how about some pictures to help better explain this year’s Pride Parade! Clicking on the photos below will overlay a larger photo without taking you to a different website, try it out!

I do find that the colours of the parade were quite vibrant too!

Oh no, I’m not done posting photos.

Want to see more photos? You can head over to my Vancouver Pride Parade Photoset over on Flickr.

Next year I’ll be sure to get on to the street to take photos. We were along the sidewalk but being able to go up and down the street like John and Peter did will give you a different perspective on this popular yearly event.

The Celebration of Light ended yesterday when China took its turn to wow the massive crowd around English bay. Overall they had a pretty good event, though Robyn and I both believe South Africa’s firework display was the best this year. UK was our least favorite, though China and Canada came pretty close.

This time we met up with some of our friends and headed down to the beach to see the fireworks. I’m sure people out there who have seen my fireworks photos this year are tired of the same perspective. So I thought we should see it among the huge crowd gathered along English Bay’s first beach. We actually hung out on the bike path along Beach Avenue which is a 5 minute walk from our apartment.

We found a decent spot with the least obstruction. At 9:45pm (15 minutes before the start), finding an unobstructed view is pretty slim. Though I did manage to find a decent clearing through the massive trees and set up my camera. I used my typical camera settings as well: f11, ISO100, Bulb and 1-4 second exposures.

Unfortunately without a breeze or a small wind the smoke from the fireworks hung out this time. As you can see in the above photos, once the smoke starts to hang around, the fireworks can become a bit hidden. To compensate I tried used quicker exposures as this would have helped not exposed the smoke as much.

The tree in the frame isn’t bad either. You can’t see it in all the photos, but for the ones it did show up in, I don’t think it really takes away from the shot.

You can check out all my other Firework photos (well the ones online anyway) over on my Firework Flickr Photostream. I’ve ordered them chronologically from the shot taken date. I have noticed an improvement and so has Robyn.

Did you mange to see the Celebration of Light Finale last night? Who would you pick to win this year’s firework competition?

Don’t forget by clicking on the above photos, it will overlay a larger photo for you to see!

Originally Robyn and I were supposed to take a Firework boat cruise but those plans changed. The weather changed with the approaching thunderstorm it rained while we walked down to Coal Harbour to the Vancouver Harbour Cruise marina. We we’re looking forward to a romantic boat cruise what would consist of appetizers and the impressive firework display but things changed when we arrived.

After we  received our boarding tickets we walked on board the Harbour Princess and were met by no seating and very crowded conditions. There was a mix of ages from screaming little children, teens, adults and elderly. Robyn and I did not think this would be very romantic. Did I mention it was raining and very humid? There was no covered area outside and what places we did find, easily filled up with beer drinking flailers. We were disappointed and disembarked before the boat left the marina.

The good thing is that Vancouver Harbour Cruises has an exceptional staff and were wanting to make it better for us. We were able to salvage our boarding passes and have them convert them to an Indian Arm Luncheon tour on the up coming Monday! We’re looking forward to that and we do thank the Vancouver Harbour Cruise company for helping us out. After all, we did really enjoy our Sunset Dinner Cruise with them last year.

Celebration of Light: South Africa

So we headed back to our apartment in the ran in Vancouver’s West End to watch the fireworks. Robyn’s mum and one of her friends were there to join us out on the balcony.

Last Wednesday was Canada’s turn to impress the over 300,000 visitor to English Bay with a spectacular fireworks performance. This time was South Africa’s turn and we believe that they outshone Canada, but just by a little bit. If you click on the photos below, a larger view will pop up without you having to leave the page!

Did I mention that during all of this a lightning storm was happening? It’s pretty rare for Vancouver to receive lightning storms but we did, and you could hear all of English Bay “Ooohing”, “Ahhhing” and cheering every time forked lightning cracked across the sky.

I did manage to capture the lightning and fireworks in a single photo. Unfortunately the fireworks at the time were not that impressive. Still a pretty cool effect if you can understand how difficult lightning can be to photograph.

You can check out my Flickr Photoset for Fireworks. I will be looking at uploading my lightning photographs later today as well.

Most people who frequent my blog have probably come to notice I take photos of the local birds we have near where I live, particularly around Lost Lagoon. One of the more popular species of birds that people will watch along the edges of Lost Lagoon would be the Mute Swans. These large, white ‘Royal’ looking birds are not native to North America either! In fact, you can see them all year round here at Lost Lagoon and Beaver Lake in Stanley Park.

The most interesting fact about these large birds, for me anyway, is that their wings are clipped. Well technically there is a tendon that has been clipped so that the Mute Swans cannot fly away. They can still flap their wings and get above the water, but they cannot leave the area by flight. Some people will see this as being bad, and others will not care too much.

According to the Stanley-Park-Swans.com the original Mute Swans were introduced back in 1889 as a gift from England. Currently, from my observations while on my walks around the lagoon, there are at least 4 pairings.

If you have walked around Lost Lagoon in the recent months you probably have noticed some temporary fencing that has been put into place around some sections of the lagoon. These temporary fenced off areas are where the Mute Swans have been nesting. There are at least 4 nests along the shores of the lagoon, but as of this post 3 of them have been abandoned. The fencing has been put up into place by the various volunteers to help protect the swans while they nest. When I talked to one volunteer they mentioned it was to keep away dogs and some of the other predators such as Raccoons. Though if you have seen the Raccoons at Lost Lagoon, they can easily swim in the water and access the nests that way. There have been reports, from last year, that off-leash dogs have attacked the nests as well and that previous cygnets have been killed.

Cygnets or Sygnets

Cygnets are baby swans. I found that out recently as I have been waiting for any of the Mute Swan eggs to hatch. Though the outcome hasn’t looked great thus far. Out of the 3 nests that have been abandoned I have only ever seen 1 cygnet. They are pretty cute too, the Mute Swan variety are fluffy off-white with black beaks. They are also curious little guys too as the one pictured above would come right up to me to see what I was up to. The mother Mute Swan saw no threat from me and just watched as I took photos.

Yesterday I found the same Cygnet with the parents in close proximity too. I just sat on a rock and took photos for a while. He (or she) has grown pretty quick and I am glad to see him (or her) still around as well.

I am hoping that the 4th nest produces some more cygnets. I know the Ecological Society of Stanley Park would also be excited if more cygnets survived as well. Though as one person has mentioned, why would they not incubate the eggs themselves to help ensure a higher survival rate and then put them back into the lagoon among their parents? Perhaps it has to do with the way cygnets are raised and they want a more natural way of life? Who knows? It will be interesting if there are more Mute Swans present in the lagoon though.

What are your thoughts?

Sunday, June 14th 2009 marks the day that people from around Metro Vancouver got to walk across the newest bridge connecting Pitt Meadows, Maple Ridge to Langley. What people didn’t realize is that well over the expected 30,000 showed up. Some numbers I have read recently this morning have been that 60,000 people showed up and eventually the Traffic Authority had to turn people away.

Robyn, myself, my little sister and my mum ventured to the Golden Ears Bridge at 11:00AM and joined the slowly increasing mass amounts of people on the bridge deck. The Traffic Authority had one side of the bridge closed off for bus, media and and event people access, which forced people to funnel up the one side of the bridge to the mid span.

I thought it was pretty cool to walk over with the mass crowd towards Langley from the Pitt Meadows, Maple Ridge side. There were various food and drink vendors along the way as well as various organizations such as Scouts, Beavers, and Vintage Car clubs too. A large stage was set up near the mid span to offer some entertainment from the massive crowd that began to slow foot traffic down.

We walked about 3/4 of the way over the bridge and decided to turn around and head back. The amount of people on the bridge seemed to have doubled if not triple as we made our way back towards Pitt Meadows and Maple Ridge.

I stopped to take photos of the Brazilian entertainment and people were pretty much at a standstill at this point. People were pushing, shoving which were making it harder for people to move across the bridge. The people around me were getting upset at the pushing and shoving as we tried to make our way back down the bridge, of course people were also trying to still get up on the bridge too. No control, just mass chaos.

We all got separated as the mass crowd pushed and shoved itself around. I eventually caught back up with Robyn near the end of the bridge where the crowd thinned out. My mum and little sister were waiting for us near the car. The Police and Traffic Authority at that time were telling people that they were not allowed on the bridge due to the large amount already on it. That definitely did not make more happy parents trying to do something fun with their children, but then again, children were also being pushed and shoved around on the bridge deck. The sun was also coming out and people were complaining about not moving and becoming overheated.

It wasn’t as spectacular of an event as I thought it might have been, and we are glad we didn’t venture all the way over to Langley either. We would have been stuck somewhere among the 60,000 or so people that were stuck on the bridge and not moving.

The bridge is toll free starting June 16th for 1 month, after that you will have to pay Toll to cross either way. On Wednesday I will drive across the bridge on my way into work as it should save me a great deal of time, though on the way home, it will be a nuisance due to traffic congestion near 152nd street in Surrey. It will definitely be neat driving over the new bridge though, but I will not be driving over it when the Toll goes into effect.

Did you manage to walk onto the bridge on Sunday or did you participate in one of the many Car Free Days that were happening around Vancouver?

Other photos from the Golden Ears Bridge event can be seen on my Flickr Photoset.

Yesterday when Robyn, our friend Jenny and I went to the BCKA Kite Festival we walked by what seemed to be a large gathering of people at Sunset Beach. What we didn’t notice was that the people in the middle of the crowd were all nude cyclists. I remember last year while I was walking down Thurlow Street, a horde of nude cyclists whet riding past on Robson Street in Vancouver. So this group of nude cyclists I thought might be the same protesters from last year, well some of them anyway, but with the same idea of riding around the tourist filled streets this year with nothing on but a smile and perhaps some body paint.

What is the protest about? If I remember correctly it has to do with clean or green alternatives to driving, particularly biking your way around the city. Is it a coincidence that it happens the day before Car Free Day? I also remember reading that a local association is trying to have even less cars in the downtown area of Vancouver by trying to get rid of permit parking as well as residential building parking. Yes, I live in the West End but I need my car to get to work on the two days I do work, our Transit system fails me for my long commute out into the valley. I am also not about to get a different job closer to home either. Robyn too has to take 3 buses to get from our place in the West End to her work on Broadway, now that doesn’t seem very transit efficient does it? Oh well.

Anyway, I’m falling off topic here with personal rants. After we got back from the Kite Festival and walking along the First Beach area of English Bay the nude cyclists were on their way back and made quite a ruckus as they passed by. Some were fully naked, some were just topless and the occasional person was clothed, though those people might be just random cyclists that got sucked into the massive group. The Police were also escorting the group on their bikes too.

So how does this increase traffic to someone’s Flickr Photostream? Well, I found that within 24 hours I have received 3,000+ views alone just on the Flickr photoset I created for the Nude Cyclists. Within that set, the two most popular photos are the following:

So how does one get such a huge increase in traffic with Filckr on their Photostream? The secret I would guess are the keywords that are associated to these photos; Breasts, Topless, and Nude. People must be searching for these terms on Flickr and just lurking behind the scenes, not commenting either. The photos of the females cyclists are also receiving more views then the male cyclists, does this mean guys are more likely to search for the above terms on Flickr?

So now that these photos are receiving hundreds of views, what now? Nothing really, the photos are not receiving any comments. Nor do I think the photos themselves are very technical either. I did some cropping, colour and light adjustments.

I did tweet saying that I saw this group of cyclists, received a few replies, but nothing spectacular. I wasn’t expecting any sort of traffic increase, but there is the odd person who would be curious what the Nude Cycling in Vancouver was all about.

If you want a quick increase in Flickr photos traffic, just post a couple of nude photos!

Most readers of my blog will know I have many passions in life (one of which is my relationship with Robyn) though recently, the other two I have been focusing as well,  is photography and snowboarding. It looks like those two passions of mine are going to fuse together this weekend up at Cypress Mountain; LG Snowboard WorldCup 2009.

Robyn and I first learned about the WorldCup Event up at Cypress through one of our friends. I was pretty interested in seeing if I could obtain media accreditation for photographing the snowboard events. Our friend mentioned it might be hard to obtain since VANOC and the municipality of West Vancouver was in charge of the event.

So what did I do? When we got home I looked through the LG Snowboarding WorldCup website to see how one might be able to obtain media accreditation. I read over the information provided on their site and noticed that an application form had to be filled out and sent in a week prior to me reading this information. I thought I would email them and ask if I still could get accreditation. Doesn’t hurt to ask right?

My LG Snowboard WorldCup 2009 Media Pass

This week I received an email saying I was accepted for media accreditation and I could pick up my pass for the event. I was ecstatic!

For me this is a great opportunity to combine two passions of mine as well as experience a sporting event as a photographer, it is a dream of mine to get into Sports Photography. Attending games such as baseball, football and even hockey I was always taken an interest of the photographers and their camera gear. Being able to capture such action to me was pretty cool their results are always astonishing.

So this now being my first (of hopefully many) media event, I’m excited to get out into the snow with my camera and capture some of the most exciting action in sports for the Winter season. I’ve also read that Shawn White will be attending the Half-Pipe event too.

Many 2010 Winter Olympians will be in attendance for this event hosted by Cypress Mountain. There is also over $150,000 in cash up for grabs too.

Me Riding Down Blackcomb Mountain this year

According to the website, the Half-Pipe tickets for spectators are sold out. That still leaves the PGS (Parallel Giant Slalom) and Boardcross events for spectators to see. If you have a season pass to Cypress you are also allowed to go watch the events without paying the $10 ticket prices. Tickets can be purchased at the Park Royal shopping centre in West Vancouver if you plan on attending.

Be sure to follow my photographic journey at the LG WorldCup Event over at WestCoast Alpine.

When I got home after a couple of errands that evening  a work buddy of mine, Brent Hickman,  sent out a  message via Facebook about how he is going to Ride to Conquer Cancer with hundreds of other people and looking support.

Dear Friend,

I’m sure I’ve told you about my Father, his struggle with cancer, and his passing last year. Until now, I never felt like there was anything I could do. I’m not a scientist and can’t find a cure on my own, but I can and will be participating in an event called The Ride to Conquer Cancer benefiting the BC Cancer Foundation. Through this event, I can help prevent other families from having to struggle with this disease.

…

You can read more about Brent’s personal fight with Cancer on his Ride to Conquer Cancer webpage.

To help Brent him reach his goal of raising $3,500 I have sent a donation to help sponsor his cycling trek down south and I am looking for other people who might also help him reach his goal. If you would like to help Brent reach his goal of $3,500 by sponsoring his ride then please head over to his Ride to Conquer Cancer page and make a donation. The further on in life I go, the more I find how the majority of people have been affected by Cancer in some form or other, please help find a cure!

For more information about Ride to Conquer Cancer in 2009 check out their about page.

With the recent snow that we’ve received here in Vancouver there has been a lot of debate on what the bylaw states are proper snow and ice removal from our fair sidewalks. I have looking through the bylaw as best I could (disclaimer: I am not a lawyer) and have found the section of bylaw that coincides with this matter. Hopefully this will help people understand what is required by law of the properties around the City of Vancouver.

Vancouver ByLaw 2849 – Street And Traffic Bylaw

Subsection 76:

The Owner or occupier of any parcel of real property shall, not later than 10:00
a.m. of any day except Sunday, remove snow and ice from any sidewalk adjacent
to such parcel for a distance that coincides with the parcel’s property line, except
that this provision shall not apply to real property occupied only by a one or two-
family dwelling.

76A. Notwithstanding section 76, the owner or occupier of any parcel of real property
in that area of the City bounded on the north by Burrard Inlet, on the east by Main
Street, on the south by Terminal Avenue, False Creek and English Bay and on the
west by Stanley Park shall, not later than 10:00 a.m. on any day except Sunday,
remove snow and ice from any sidewalk adjacent to such parcel for a distance
that coincides with the parcel’s property line.

76B. If an owner or occupier of any parcel of real property fails to remove snow and
ice, as required by either section 76 or 76A, the City Engineer may authorize the
removal by another person and the costs of such removal shall be at the expense
of the owner or occupier as the case may be.

So if I had the proper understanding, as long as the owner or occupier of a property has shoveled their sidewalk by 10AM of that day they are in the clear. They also don’t have to do it one Sundays. Though most landlords and property managers I’ve seen do a pretty decent job of their sidewalks. I just wish more of the retailers around the WestEnd did a better job of salting their sidewalks. If I slip on the ice outside of a store front and break my leg or something, do I have legal action against that store? Who knows but I do hate having to walk up inclines on icy sidewalks.

The other municipalities probably have similar bylaws too, or I would think they would. What do you think of this bylaw for Vancouver?