2011 WEEK 48: Vanier Park

This is kind of a cheat... Technically these pictures were taken the same day as last week's Jericho Beach pictures but hey, "full disclosure" and all that. I could have just skipped a week but I'm soooo close to reaching the end of this epic year-long journey I can't exactly quit now, can I?!

Last time I was at Vanier Park across from the Maritime Museum was way back in August when I was creeping around in the darkness snapping long exposures. It was nice to actually see where I was walking this time.

This is what this looked like back in WEEK 34.

This next effort nearly cost me my camera... I was crouching down in the midst of snapping the next two pictures when all of a sudden-  WOOF! WOOF! WOOF!- BOOM! - A very large, salivating dog (a German Shepard I think) barreled into me on his way to chasing a nearby Jack Russell. I wobbled... I teetered... and almost fell over... And I think it was the weight of my camera in my hand that actually helped me keep my balance and save me embarrassment.

And throughout all of this barking, yapping, camera-balancing chaos, this awesomely proud lady Poodle didn't budge an inch. Nope, she was determined to hold her pose until I was done.

Her owners told me she sits like this for hours, her perm gently blowing in the wind...

This rusty old chain was connected to a giant anchor but I couldn't get a good angle of the whole shebang without getting parking lot, garbage cans or backlit, lens flare hell.

Why so serious?

I snapped the Kits totem pole from a couple of angles and they turned out so well I had to include both of them in all their desaturated glory.

And here's how the sky turns out when not desaturated... Perhaps I'm just getting used to the months of Vancouver greyness this time of year but isn't that sky almost TOO blue?

1950s giant robot come to invade Kitsilano...?

Or mini-sub?! You'll have to go check out the Vancouver Maritime Museum to find out.

Here's another example of the funkiness that is my El Cheapo plastic lens aka the Canon 35-80mm. Point the camera towards the sun and all kinds of odd things happen. In this case, this fern turned out all soft and dreamy like a 1970s pornographic art film!

Point the camera in a different direction and you get these weird looking things appearing atop the grassy knoll...

I have no idea what they are so don't ask. Presumably something to do with the Maritime Museum. From a low level perspective they look like rusted out tanks on a forgotten battlefield.

Only 4 weeks left and we're done! Until next time folks...