May 2015

Generally in the winter we try to keep the kids in activities both days on the weekend.  Over the summer we do the opposite - no classes.  Our last class on Sundays (Claira's Gymnastics at Mount Pleasant) just ran out so we had the whole morning (don't miss that nap!) to ourselves.  I thought hiking would be fun - I chose Yew Lake at Cypress Mountain.

We were leisurely until we got to Yew Lake (about 1.8km).  Then we realized we might have a late lunch and then miss the nap so we stepped up the pace. 

 
After all the wildlife, Nara wasn't very patient with me taking photos of flowers.  Oh well - maybe another time.

The trail is wide, flat and doesn't have a steep drop off into the river.   We stopped off at the playground for a little playing around, but basically biked 5 km from the car to the end of the trail and back. 

 
Their are a few minus.  There are a lot of transitions - biking over a rail line at one point, on the road at another.  Second - there is a lot of open sky - you better bring your sun cream because it's exposed.  We had a good day!

The beds were made an filled by the city.  I heard a rumor that they are filled with mushroom manure.  When the weather is just right, we do actually get mushrooms sprouting up.  We have had a mixed bag of reactions - the tomatoes love the soil but the onions are having a really hard time.  Maybe next year we'll add some soil conditioning before we plant again.

 
Is it good for the kids?  Pine Street Community gardens is rare in that it has a playground right next to the gardens.  The kids definitely are interested in what's going on and want to help, but you can't expect all 7 water can's to be interesting.  I figure any time outside (garden or playground) is good for a kid.

My coworker Bob found a really nice set of images online - the photographer had photographed buildings isolated from others to make them look like a chess set.  The images were black and white shot near the base of the building.  We thought it would be fun to wander Vancouver and try our own project that was similar.

 
I learned a lot which is a nice way of saying it wasn't very successful.  The images don't hang together well because of the changing light.  I messed up the aspect ratio - I should have tried to shoot everything at a 1:3 ratio rather than the portrait 2:3 ratio so that a collection of images would lay out better.  I was glad I bracketed all the shots because the exposure was quite wide - center was rarely my favorite choice.  I'm not generally a fan of HDR, but the contrast it so high in many of the images that there would be quite a bit of blow out.  Trying to make up a set:

I went with a near black and white treatment because that is the only way I can get the sky's to line up without being ridiculous.  Do they make a set?  Barely.  If I spent a few more nights and scouted a few more locations?  Maybe.  Could Vancouver provide both a black and a white set?  I'm not convinced.

My mother-in-law's garden has a large collection of peony's from before Helen got married.  Every year she brings over beautiful bouquets from the spring flowers.  I happened to be at VanDusen a few weeks before and saw some photos that made me think of a very macro kind of style.