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.

Yesterday was a beautiful day here in Vancouver. The sun was shining, the clouds were late in rolling in and people buzzed around the West End. Yes, they are still trucking in snow for Cypress for their Olympic Events. They were trucking it in from Manning Park, but now they are trucking it in from another location. Anyway….

The lighting was pretty good as the sun is higher in the sky these days. Doesn’t seem like winter though, but that’s ok, I was getting tired of the sun not being very high or out for very long. I do miss the snow though, we haven’t been able to hit the local mountains for ski/snowboarding as much as we did last year.

I’ve been working on my Bird In Flight photos. The Canon 7D helps me capture many more frames per second that my Canon XSi did and the results tend to show that. Now I just have to work on getting the sharpest photos I can and then experiment with using even higher shutter speeds to freeze the action better.

A female Common Merganser. They always seem to be smiling, even their male counterparts. Just the way their beak turns up I guess but it gives the photo a bit more personality. Usually at Lost Lagoon the light isn’t great and shadows tend to be cast over the birds. I was glad she swam into a brighter spot which helped bring out some more detail.

A juvenile Great Blue Heron. How do I know its a juvenile? I’ve read that the longer the feathers/hair on their front (chest) area the older they are. This guy didn’t have any, he was also a bit smaller than most of the herons I see. He flew in while I was feeding some ducks, stood around for a while and pulled out a couple of small fish. I just loved the lighting on the side of his body, along with the water’s ripples reflecting light.

Yup, more bird in flight shots. The more I feed the ducks, the more ducks come over to be fed. It’s a great way to set up for bird in flight shots too. Get the ducks all worked up by feeding them millet and the louder the commotion they make, the better chance of getting other ducks to fly in.

The cool thing about posting photos of birds is that the next time you go out after reading this post (or any of my bird posts) you’ll look at the birds and say, “Hey! I know that bird, it’s a such and such bird”. Well, at least I would like to think that you might say something like that!

Here’s hoping the clouds part and I’ll head back outside with my camera!

GM Place is slowly being converted over to Canada Hockey Place. They better hurry though with the games only 6 days away they need to get rid of the large General Motors Place signage that is currently still in place. I’m sure they will just plaster it with some sort of sign in the current Winter Olympic motive. The area around there is also pretty secured too with lots of Police on hand to help people in the right direction.

It’s fun to find all the variations of colours that the Olympic Rings are displayed in. I wonder if the Olympic Rings that are floating in Coal Harbour will be displayed again in all their colours and not just once single colour.

This is where that large Roberto Luongo sign was on GM Place.. err I mean Canada Hockey Place.

Old and new SkyTrain running along the Expo Line near False Creek. I haven’t had the pleasure of riding on the new one but I’ve heard they are air-conditioned! I”m glad for that, riding the SkyTrain with people who don’t shower or wear deodorant is one of the reasons I really dislike taking transit. Yea I’m a bit stuck-up when it comes to transit.

While in the area there was a soccer (football) game happening. They didn’t mind Keith and myself taking photos. A great way to test out the speed of the Canon 7D in combination with the EF 70-200mm f2.8L IS lens!

Kept the shutter speed up to 1/1000 though probably could have used a smaller aperture, but the majority of the photos were good. The action wasn’t exciting and we didn’t stay too long.

Wondering what sort of photos I can get during the Olympics, hopefully I can get some pretty cool venue shots at least. I’m always up for doing photowalks around Vancouver, if you’re available during the days during the Olympics ping me and we can do an impromptu photowalk!

I’ve been monkying around with my Canon 7D custom functions and getting it to match my Canon XSi so that when I go use both camera bodies, I don’t have any issues with one working a different way than the other. I use * button on the back to stop (or lock) the focus, so that the regular shutter button controls the AE (exposure) and taking the photo itself.

Anyway, Keith and I wandered around the entire Stanley Park seawall on our normal quest to find the resident eagles. We never did come across any of the eagles this time.

We stood around the little stone bridge at the west side of Lost Lagoon for a little bit. Showing some Aussie tourists how friendly the local chickadees actually are, especially when you have the proper seed for them.  While this was going on the two sparrows (I think that’s what they are) were gabbing to each other.

I have really been enjoying my Canon 7D’s high speed continuous ability. At 8 frames per second and a high shutter speed I can now freeze movement and capture instances I would normally miss with my Canon XSi. I still have to work on focusing on the proper spots on a bird though as this guy’s head isn’t in focus.

We popped over to the Vancouver Aquarium, but at the section that is “free”. Here a trainer is working with the recently rescued Harbour Porpoise the Aquarium as acquired. Wonder if they will release it back into the wild, or if it will join the spotted dolphins in the next tank over.

Now if you have ever gone on a photowalk with me into the more nature type places of Vancouver (Stanley Park, Lighthouse Park, Riefel Bird Sanctuary etc) you’ll probably learn I’m really good at seeing and pointing out critters that most people seem not to notice. The above photo is of a hummingbird, just not sure which one it is since the lighting is horrible on it. I cropped the photo to about 90% tried to increase the light levels and bring out any colour I could with Lightroom. I then tossed it into Photoshop CS4 and run NoiseNinja on it to clean it up a bit. Not bad for what I had to work with, maximum focal length at 200mm in a tree whose leaves are almost the same size of the bird and with no sun being out!

I should get a hummingbird feeder out sooner than later now! It seems that Spring is here…

Since the clouds were out and about it’s always a good time to do a hand-held HDR photo of Coal Harbour. The Westin (far left behind marina) is home to not only I.O.C (International Olympic Committee) but also to various families of the Olympics too. I heard a rumour that President Obama was supposed to stay there too but it looks like he pulled out and now the Vice President will be in town for the 2010 Winter Olympics.

So what, now the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics are 9 days away? What will I be doing? Probably just wandering around with my camera taking photos of whatever I happen to see. Too bad I couldn’t get accrediated to do some sporting venues for the Olympics I would have really liked to see Shaun White and them on the Half Pipe like I did at Cypress last year.

Yeah, I have been going through some of my photos taken during the LF FIS WorldCup event up at Cypress Mountain last year. I even did a first attempt at creating a sequenced shot in Photoshop too, I don’t think it turned out half-bad.

There is still some time left in this Winter season, perhaps I can get up to Grouse Mountain for an event or two, or at least head over to Whistler for the upcoming 2010 Telus World Ski and Snowboarding Festival!

When we eventually hit Brockton Point there was this little bird pecking at the barnacles and muscles attached to the rocks. I’ve never seen one of these but a quick look up in my Birds of Southwestern British Columbia book tells me it is a Ruddy Turnstone.  It’s pretty cool to see birds I have not seen before and to learn their identity, perhaps I should do a birding photowalk one day when the weather is good. I can typically ID most of the birds I encounter.

It’s pretty neat to see more cruise ships docked in Vancouver. Yup, it’s not cruise season here but these two are being used for the 2010 Winter Olympics. I’ve heard via Twitter that the Carnival ship (with the big red exhaust stack) is for the RCMP. Glad to know our tax dollars are keeping them a float!

People having their photo taken with the Olympic Rings in the background. Am I allowed to use the words Olympic and Rings without IOC’s permission? Ah well, I guess as along as I don’t use the above photo for monetary gain, I’m safe!

A CP-140 aka Aurora does circles around the downtown area of Vancouver. According to my buddy Keith they are doing some trial runs of their onboard electronic equipment and “mapping” the area for security purposes. So during the Olympics they can monitor any change in activity from the air.

It’s always fun to see harbor seals right? This little guy made an appearance as we rounded Coal Harbour on the Stanley Park side. A neat shot with both the immature double-breasted cormorant and the harbour seal, or at least I think so.

We made our way back to Lost Lagoon where we watched this Great Blue Heron take off, circle and land back in the same spot. If it wasn’t for my Canon 7D and it’s 8fps shooting ability, I don’t think I would have captured the cool action as he came in for a landing. I still find it funny how the heron’s legs remind me of turkey thighs!

The herons in the area are pretty good about getting close to them and they are great for taking photos of because they stand relatively still as you fire off a bunch of shots. The combination of my Canon 7D with the EF 70-200mm f2.8L IS lens isn’t too shabby either. Now if I could only get up to the local mountains to shoot some terrain park action!

If the weather holds I might duck out for another little walk around the Lagoon as the weather is supposed to only get worse. Though the lighting isn’t the greatest with full cloud-cover, but I’ll make due.

So who would be interested in either a birding Photowalk around Lost Lagoon or even the Reifel Bird Sanctuary near Ladner? Actually Scott and I talked about having a Day Photowalk at the Reifel Sanctuary for No Compacts Allowed one sunny day, perhaps closer to Summer we’ll do that.

By now most people know that Whistler/Blackcomb is home to many of the Alpine events for the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics. Which is quite evident when driving up into Whistler itself. Various Olympic graphics are being put on the various fencing and tents, security measures are becoming a bit more evident and you can now see a Military presence. The snow base is great though, so no need to truck or fly in snow like one of our local mountains has to do.

Now in previous times when Robyn and I have gone up to Whistler/Blackcomb, Cypress or even Grouse Mountain, I tend to take Robyn’s Pentax Optio W10 point and shoot camera. Why? Well the main factor is that it is waterproof. Dropping it in the snow or getting wet isn’t a big deal. It also easily fits into one of my various pockets which makes it easier to use than a typical digital SLR camera such as my Canon 7D or my smaller Canon 450D (Digital Rebel XSi).

Today was different, because I bought a Canon 7d, I now have an extra camera body. I thought about bringing my Canon 450D up with us to the mountains but falling on the camera has always been a fear of mine. Not from hurting myself mind you, but breaking the camera and leaving me camera-less. Today I brought along the Canon 450D along with the EF 18-55mm f3.5-5.6 IS kit lens. I used my 2L water backpack which happens to have enough room to fit my Canon XSi, the battery grip attached as well as the kit lens. I was stoked! In fact, I slept horribly because I was so excited to try and take my camera up with me!

Now I don’t know how many of you reading this actually Ski or Snowboard, let along carry anything with you when you do it. This was my first time and at first it was a bit awkward having that extra little weight on my back. I quickly got used to it and it felt normal.

We parked up at Base 2 (Parking Lot 6 on the Blackcomb side), geared up and headed up the Excalibur Gondola. From the Excalibur Gondola you head over to the Excelerator Express Chair. This is where I first took out the Canon XSi and started taking a few photos.

I fully strapped myself into my board and we proceeded down towards Glacier Creek Lodge. Robyn wanted to hit up 7th Heaven right away, so we did just that. At first it was a bit weird to have the extra weight, but that feeling quickly subsided as I twisted and turned down towards Glacier Creek Lodge.

We headed up Jersey Cream Express to where Rendezvous Lodge is located. We ducked down Expressway and entered 7th Heaven from below. By this time I barely even notice the small backpack and camera on my back.

The great thing about getting to Whistler/Blackcomb so early, is that there is virtually no one at the lift lines and a few people actually on the runs. Though I am sure it’s not like Fresh Tracks.

Once we got up to Horstman Hut the sun was out, the clouds were far away and the snow was great.

It was time to head down into the first main run of our day, we decided to take Cloud Nine as it seems everyone else was heading towards Hugh’s Heaven.

Cloud Nine was great even if it wasn’t a groomed run. The snow was nice and soft, there was some small patches of deeper snow too, which is always fun of course!

We cruised on down to the 7th Heaven lift and went up again. We did Cloud Nine and Panorama a few times before heading over to Glacier Creek Lodge for some lunch. Though before heading out, Robyn tried to capture me snowboarding down Panorama.

Ah so much fun. No I didn’t fall, I was waiting for Robyn to put the camera away and hand the backpack over. Though I did find riding without the backpack was weird and I felt off balanced. I think from this point on, I shall always have a dSLR with me on the mountain.

To get back to Rendezvous Lodge we took the Green Line out of 7th Heaven. We went past the lodge and headed back down to Glacier Creek Lodge for lunch. Robyn and I had a delicious lunch and rested for a little bit before proceeding back outside. At this time it seems that clouds were beginning to roll in and the sun was falling behind the mountains. We headed down Zig-Zig took the Excelerator Express chair back up to Glacier Creek Lodge.

Headed up the  Jersey Creme Express and down past Rendezvous Lodge. Robyn suggested we head towards the Big Easy Terrain Garden as she knows I want to take photos of people taking jumps, rails and such. We just went through the park, didn’t stop to take photos as I felt a bit awkward doing so. I’m fine for taking photos when I’ve been asked to do it, such as the time I went up to photograph the LG FIS WorldCup 2009 events at Cypress Mountain, or when I photographed the events at the Telus World Ski and Snowboard Festival last year too, but when it comes to taking photos of random people I tend to be a bit shy. I want to work up the courage to do it, I need to hang out at the terrain parks more often and take people photo’s right? People want to be photographed showing off their mad skillz in the parks right? That would be awesome!

At this point I was getting tired, I accidentally went through some massive mogul area (Sluiceway) up at 7th Heaven and that tuckered me out for the rest of the day. From the Big Easy Terrain Garden we headed back down to Base 2 and drove home.

It was an awesome day. Great snow, great weather and of course it is always fun riding along side Robyn. I was such a good ROI I think!

Some other photos from today:

From a photography standpoint, using my dSLR was just amazing for the results. Being able to control the finer aspects of the camera’s settings I think can help make a photo a little bit better. The great thing about so much sun was I could get away with using a lower ISO, smaller aperture and faster shutter speed. I don’t remember the last time I could shoot at ISO 100-200 with an aperture of f16 and still get shutter speeds above 1/500th of  second.

Perhaps I’ll work my way up to bring along my Canon 7D, but for now the Canon 450D works perfectly fine for this sort of thing. Well except for getting action shots. While Robyn was trying to photograph me coming down Panorama, the buffer filled up (it doesn’t have much of a buffer to begin with) and there were some great shots missed. Though I do like what she did manage to capture.

When I get more into it, I can look at purchasing one of those Burton Camera Backpacks or perhaps one from F-Stop. Then I can bring more camera gear with me, though I’ll probably have to get into better shape to carry a 28L pack while riding the slopes. I can hang out around the Terrain parks at the various ski mountains we have and work on my portfolio and experience! After all, I’m not too shabby with a camera, right?

For example as I was out walking around the Lagoon yesterday morning before the rains came in I came across this little fellow in a nearby tree.

A Downy Woodpecker. He didn’t seem to mind me as I tried to get better photos of him, he would just peck away at the small tree branches and move his way up. I’m still getting used to my Canon 7D, but I’m getting there, and the exposure on this guy is a bit off, especially for the amount of photos I took of him. According to the specifications of my camera, the 7D has a shutter live of 150,000 clicks. I wonder how long it will take me to reach that.

So it’s pretty neat seeing a bird I have not seen before, and be able to get photos of it too. In Stanley Park I’ve seen many types of birds, so seeing a new one is pretty cool. Perhaps I should start a list of birds I’ve seen?

So far the birds I’ve in and around Stanley Park:

• Bald Eagles
• Crows
• Ravens
• Great Blue Herons
• Variety of Seagulls
• Chickadees (Black-capped and Chestnut-backed)
• Towees
• American Robins
• Black-Winged Birds
• Juncos
• Song Sparrows
• Bushtits
• Hummingbirds (Anna’s I think)
• Mallards
• Wood Ducks
• Mergansers (variety of them)
• Widgeons
• Buffleheads
• Coots
• Canvasbacks
• Scaups (Lesser and Greater)
• Harlequin Ducks
• Goldeneyes
• Canadian Geese
• Oyster Catchers
• Belted Kingfisher
• Sandpiper
• Cormorants (variety of them too)

I’m not sure if I have forgotten any, but that is a pretty big list in the variety of birds you can see in and around Stanley Park. I wonder if there are any that I have not seen yet that perhaps some of you have?

Thanks to Karl from OutdoorVancouver.ca he has a link to Stanley Park Ecological Society Eagle Report which lists the locations of their nests around the city (among other cool links).

On a side note, before I came across the Downy Woodpecker, I did spot a relatively unobstructed view of one of the resident Bald Eagles.

Happy to see one of them in a tree that is slightly shorter then the other nearby trees near Second Beach and the Lawn Bowling area. Also has some decent light on him as the sun began to rise. I still can’t decide which birds I like more, the Bald Eagle or the Osprey. I like how I can get closer shots of the Bald Eagles, but those Osprey seem to be better at keeping their distances.

I understand that Birding isn’t everyone’s cup-o-tea, but I hope you can at least enjoy the photos I share with you since most of them seem to be birds lately. Who knows, with the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics coming up in a couple weeks, perhaps I’ll have more non-bird photos to share!

That’s the receiving platform for the Zipline that they are putting up at Robson Square (aka GE Plaza) during the Olympics. The starting point is across the street near the provincial courthouses. You would zoom across the plaza (over top of trolley wires) and land on the platform pictured above.

Getting closer isn’t it? The city is going to be crazy when the Olympics hit full throttle!

Some of the public displays of art on Granville Street. I guess these are part of the Lantern Festival that happens from now until I think the end o the Olympics. I’ll have to head over there during the night then the place is lit up. Hopefully the rain stops.

These two girls are hurrying to catch the Seabus, or at least I would assume so. I wonder if they realize that our beloved North Shore Mountains (Cypress, Grouse and Seymour) are pretty bare right now? There is more dirt/grass then snow on them right now.

Just thought the peak of the big W(oodwards) sign was pretty neat. I need to check out the new W2 building one day I think.

I didn’t think people still wore fur! I just don’t see the appeal of something like this really. How many things had to die for it! Or if it’s faux, how many faux things died for it?

Yes I did make my way over to Lost Lagoon, as per usual. I love taking photos of birds. I don’t know why, but I guess because I’m not shy to point my camera towards them. I also think birds in flight look pretty cool, perhaps it’s just me! Anyway this youngster thinks that stick is a good thing to eat. It’s amusing to see what sort of things seagulls will try and eat!

I’m so far pretty happy with my 7D. I’m having to figure out all the settings I had on my XSi and how they work on the 7D, such as AI Servo with Focus Lock, easily enabling the High Speed Continuous mode (8 fps is great!) and other things. As I get more used to this camera I’m sure I’ll have an easier time.

In the meantime my Canon XSi will be used as a second camera/backup and I can let Robyn learn on it as well.

Here’s hoping for some sunny weather sooner than later!

Today’s walk was a fun little journey. I headed towards the Inuksuk as my first stop and the lighting was pretty cool. So I took the photo below and processed it as an HDR (High Dynamic Range) image.

Some people on Twitter were saying that it’s postcard worthy for the 2010 Winter Olympics. My little sister was even saying that the photo should be a postcard. What would make someone buy a photographer’s photo anyway? I’ve seen some pretty good work out there (like at Granville Island, Hornby Island and such) but I never thought I would buy someone else’s photography. I guess because I tend to think, “Why buy that, when I can go out and take a photo like that too?”. Perhaps once I get my head around that and then look at figuring out how to sell my photographic work!  Back on track, the rest of my Vancouver photowalk.

I took the False Creek Ferry ($3.50 one way or $5 for return) from the West End to Granville Island, watched the sun rise above and headed towards the Cambie Street bridge. The rest of the seawall past the bridge is closed to due security measures at the new Olympic Village, so I continued up onto the bridge and headed towards Gastown.

A lone guitarist plays his tunes next to the Steam Clock. Yup, with the max reach of 200mm I can shoot a little bit inconspicuously. But then if you looked towards me with my big white lens, it’s quite noticeable. Even from far away you can notice that a  77mm diameter of a lens is fairly large. I really need to get more comfortable taking photos of people, being shy with my camera I think doesn’t help to much.

I walked past Waterfront Station and into Coal Harbour. Here they are prepping the area for the Olympic Flame to arrive. I find it silly that the new Vancouver Convention Centre was built and then they have to go and tear a bunch of it up to accommodate for the various tents that are going up for the Olympics. It will take them a long time to put things back the way they were after the Olympics are gone. Even the Westin in Coal Harbour is going to be home parts of the  Olympics too. It also seems that the members of IOC (International Olympic Committee) are staying at the Westin. Their rooms don’t have bad views though.

I eventually headed towards Lost Lagoon to meet up with a fellow photog buddy. Thinking to myself, that it must be spring a Red-Winged Blackbird was out and about chirping away. I don’t think I have seem any of them during the Winter thus far.

Meandered around Lost Lagoon, but nothing was really active. Too bad too, as the sun was peaking over the trees quite nicely, illuminating the area.

It was time to head back home and rest my feet. Nearby there is a bit of a tribute for a guy named  Eddie, one of the West End’s local homeless guys who recently passed away this Winter.  I’ve heard and read stories about him and have seen him around too. He was always keeping busy by cleaning the sidewalks and some of the store-fronts. Unlike some of the other local homeless people who just harass you for change and at times are a wee bit too aggressive for it.

He seemed to have a big impact on the local area and the people in this part of the West End. It is nice to see a tribute like this to someone that people were fond of. The tribute to Eddie can be see on the side of the building at the corner of Nelson and Denman Street.

Let’s hope this great sunny weather stays around for a bit longer.

The turn out wasn’t bad considering the heavy dark clouds hang over Vancouver and threatened to rain but in attendance was of course myself, Brennan, Scott, Joel and Pedro. It was good to meet new people and wander around parts of the Vancouver that I typically don’t venture into.

So we headed up Pender towards Veteran’s Park at Cambie and Hastings. All my shots were pretty much hand-held at either ISO1600 or ISO800 using my Canon EF 50mm f1.8 II lens.

We wandered back towards Chinatown and hung out at the entrance to the Dr Sun Yat Sen Gardens. Here Brennan brought out some cheapo sparklers and tried to write his name with them.

The rain slowly started and we wandered towards False Creek and took photos of Science World, err I mean Telus World of Science. The area sure looks different with all the 2010 Olympic venues that have been built in the area.

So overall we spent a couple hours wandering the streets and taking photos. Night photography is fun as it makes you think about your shots in a different way. If you do want to do night photography make sure you can stabilize your camera on a tripod or some other sturdy surface. If you can use a timer for the shutter use it to help reduce camera vibrations on longer exposures.

If you’re interested in coming out on one of our Photowalks the next one will be during the daytime. We talked about having it Fort Langley next. Don’t worry, if you don’t have a Digital SLR and just a point and shoot, we still welcome you to come out and join us. It’s fun to walk around with a bunch of other photographers and learn some new tricks.