The last leaves

I was walking home from work the other day, and these leaves caught my eye. The tree had shed almost all of the leaves, and these last few were illuminated by a street lamp. I hope you like it.

Vancouver in the evening.

I picked up an iPhone last week, and have completely fallen in love with the wimpy little camera. With a few choice apps ( I like tiltshiftgen, ps mobile, and the wonderful squarespace app ), I can take awesome pictures and upload them anywhere.

I think I found out what this blog will be used for... Here's a few shots to get a taste of what I'm doing. Let me know what you think!

Riding my bike

Tonight while going for an evening bike ride I saw the following:

 - Someone getting high

- two street people walking hand in hand

- a glorious red sunset against a partially cloudy sky

- a sliver of a rainbow

- a group of people celtic dancing in the park

- a church service just about to begin

- a man sitting by himself surrounded by Canadian Geese

- an older couple sharing a cigarette

- a friend beginning his night of bottle collecting.

I love this city. No pictures this time, just thoughts.

A refining of direction

I've been struggling for some time trying to figure out what to do with this blog. My natural writing style seems to lean towards theology and philosophy, but neither of those topics have a direct place on a photography website, although photography can contain elements of each.

One would think I would write about photography here, but there are many other people far more capable and knowledgeable writing on the subject already; one of my favorite photography writers is local Vancouverite David Duchemin. While I probably have insight into what it's like to be a semi-professional photographer just starting out, my friend Adam Loewen is already writing from a similar perspective with much more eloquence than I can muster on a semi-regular basis.

The truth is that I am a huge procrastinator, suffer from my own unique blend of self-diagnosed ADD and OCD, and am just plain forgetful. I like havign a plan, but rarely stick to one. I enjoy objectives, but often feel cramped. In the end, life seems to get in the way of writing far too often.

Nevertheless, I spent some time in Stanley Park today, and came up with an idea. Over the next few months, I will spend some time doing a photographic exploration of this city that I currently call home. This will be part travelogue, part photo exhibition, part bike adventure. I plan on visiting everything I can within biking distance of my home on Powell street, and maybe a few locations farther afield. These locales will include, but won't be limited to, Stanley Park, Chinatown, Granville Island, Kitsalano and maybe UBC, Lonsdale Quay and perhaps some of North Van, and of course the Downtown East Side. I will include pictures, as well as some of my thoughts on the neighbourhood, the people, and the landscape.

I should have the first article up in the next couple weeks, so stay tuned. 

Creativity

I've been suffering from a pretty hardcore creative block the last few weeks, which is why there have been so few pictures put up here. I took my camera out today in an attempt to break through that block, but unfortunately it started to rain. It was nice simply carrying the camera again and starting to use my eyes to see in that slightly different way. Hopefully next weekend I'll be more successful in pursuing creativity - I'm doing an engagement shoot on Friday in Fort Langley if the weather is decent.

Life in the DTES has been busy and yet enjoyable. I work most weekends, sitting at a desk in one of our buildings, and then volunteer during the weekdays doing everything from light maintenance to cleaning to tenant support and room checks. It is mundane, ordinary and amazing, all at once.

Last night I went to the Coldplay concert at GM Place, which was simply amazing. Snow Patrol played before them, and had a very tight, if brief, set. Coldplay started at 9 and played straight through til 11. Incredible, and very much worth the money for the ticket.

Well, that's all for now. I will try to resume posting at a more regular interval in the near future.