The Best of 2011 Part III

October began with me scoring front row tickets to a Vancouver Canucks pre-season game against the Edmonton Oilers and the pictures that resulted led to (in terms of numbers) my most popular blog yet. According to my tracking software, I received 1500+ page views - and that was just within the first 2hrs of posting!

TIME magazine's "Person of the Year" for 2011 was The Protester and October marked the beginning of the Vancouver "Occupy" movement. Given the events that followed the Canucks loss in Game 7, I'm sure the officer below had a busy year when it came to crowd control...

Week 42 brought with it a trip to the Westham Island pumpkin farm.

The result of my pumpkin carving certainly isn't up there in terms of great pictures from 2011 but as creative endeavors go I had to include it because I'm still proud of what I came up with!

Week 43 brought with it a trip to the PNE's "Fright Nights" exhibition. I had a frustrating night as far as picture taking went and mostly failed to meet my high expectations (if only I'd brought a small tripod!) but this one turned out great and wins the award for "Most Macabre Shot of the Year"!

One of my regrets of 2011 was not taking my camera everywhere I went. There were so many missed shots. However, in November while on my way to a meeting across town I did have the foresight to pack my gear and ended up with some nice images in and around historic Gastown. This one turned out to be my favourite...

Despite the freezing cold temperatures of Week 45, I wrapped up and had one last foray into long exposure night photography downtown. This image from the corner of Burrard and Nelson ended up being my personal favourite.

With the Fall there often comes some stunning sunsets and armed with what turned out to be one of my best performing lenses of the year, the Sigma 10-20mm f/3.5 wide angle zoom (had to get some geek material in here!) Week 46 ended up being hugely successful.

Inukshuks and Canadian Geese - talk about being a true Canadian eh?!

As 2011 came to a close, terrible weather and massive work commitments curtailed my photo-taking adventures to a large extent. Testing out a lens I picked up dirt cheap from a pawn shop I was happy with how this one at Vanier Park from Week 48 turned out...

And in another test (the newly acquired Tamron 90mm Macro lens), this one turned out okay considering the low light.

Sticking with lovable pets, Max, the Powell River Goldendoodle made a return and won the award in the 2011 "Awww!" category!

Perhaps its fitting that I close this retrospective photo blog look back through 2011 with this image...

All in all, 2011 was a big, crazy, unwieldy year in many ways. A lot of transition for me personally and professionally. Through the tougher times, along with my awesome circle of close friends (you know who you are!) my trusty Canon 60D and this blog helped me stay creatively inspired.

Though the sun has set on this particular journey, others await! There may be fewer photo blog posts to come in 2012 but I'll still be out there doing my thing - Stretching the muscles of my creative side is hugely important to my physical, mental and emotional health.

Thank you for letting me share my pictures with you over the last 12 months, for giving me hugely appreciated feedback and for continuing to encourage my endeavors. Stay tuned for what's to come next and as always...

Until next time folks!

2011 WEEK 44: Gastown

I found myself walking across town to a meeting on Alexander Street this week and so brought my camera along with me.

Beginning on the East side of Gastown and running one block north alongside Hastings Street, Alexander  Street is in one of the oldest areas of Vancouver. Did you know the term "Skid Row" originated in Vancouver in this part of town? The name comes from the roads made of logs which were used to "skid" timber from the nearby forests. Over time the term was used to describe the logging camps and mills along the Pacific Coast and then as a derogatory term for the low income neighborhoods that built up around these areas.

My meeting was at 611 Alexander Street - an awesome space filled with design studios, new media offices and agencies. Kicking myself now because I neglected to take a picture of it! 611 Alexander was once the American Can Company. For more about the history of the area check out this blog by local Historian James Johnstone.

I have a lot of memories of Alexander Street since it was one of the locations used in my first short film The Fare. The Ironworks building at the corner of Main Street and Alexander is now an art studio and the rear parking lot beneath the overpass functioned as the lot for the fictional taxi cab company in the film. Now it's an urban garden... Weird.

From atop the overpass at the end of Main Street there are some great views of the city.

These aren't the views of the city we usually see on postcards but I kind of like it better - old and new cramming together for space.

Focus on foreground... Too abstract?

Focus on background... Better?

On my way back I stopped briefly by Blood Alley and Gaelor's Mews (love those names). This is such a great area but with the rain starting I wasn't able to take many pictures. This ended up being my favourite...

There are so many things to snap pictures of in this part of town you could literally spend a day within a 3 block radius and still barely scratch the surface.

No visit to Gastown would be complete without an image of the world famous steam clock. I wonder how many millions of photos have been taken of this tourist hot spot?

On a completely unrelated note, I had to share one last picture with you. The below creature (I think it's a hornet) has been perched on the back of a chair, freezing his socks off in our backyard for the last 3 days. It's still alive but is not moving very much. Maybe hibernating? Either way, I'm glad he's no longer flying around since he's close to an inch long...

Until next time folks.