I finally have all my lantern festival photos uploaded to Flickr:

Illuminares 2005

This was my first and probably last Illuminares festival, and I’m really glad I made an effort to attend. Even when I used to live off Commercial Drive, I always thought ‘next time’…

I told a friend that living in one place for long (in my case, more than a few years) makes me complacent, and in terms of annual events this holds quite true. Despite the fact I was a full-time working student for a few of those years, when I cast my mind back to the years when I was working and living downtown, I didn’t take in as much as I should’ve. I’m grateful for the opportunity to have one last summer in Vancouver to visit as many festivals and activities and sites of local colour as I can cram into these days. (No thanks to USCIS, but many thanks to David!)

As festivals go, Illuminares is a standout, I have to say. If you’ve never been to a lantern festival, get yourself to one, because it’s a hotbed of creativity and community spirit. It’s also beautiful and magical and you’ll have pleasant dreams afterwards.

ADDITION: Thursday, July 28

For the inside scoop on how some of those funky lanterns came to be, check out Rainbowk’s LJ post on the crafting of the lantern hats.

So, how was your weekend? I think I need a weekend from the weekend, if you know what I mean.

The weather in Vancouver was nothing short of summery goodness, and I got a bit too much of that yesterday — I came away with a bit of a sunburn. I didn’t really notice it until late last night, feeling itchy-scratchy on my arms and neck. Come to think of it, I should be so lucky I didn’t roast to a crisp as I was at the New Westminster Show and Shine car show for probably 4.5 hours or so, and most of that time was spent under full-strength summer rays. Needless to say, I was engrossed in photo-taking, evidence to go online later.

I’m still uploading photos from the Illuminares festival at Trout Lake from Saturday night, which was a gorgeous display of sights, lights, and sound, but a photographic challenge for my Canon A80 and no tripod. Photos thus far can be found here. The good weather beckoned the crowds, and I bumped into a few Vandigicammers there, notably jmv and his sister jankochan. There was also a Tzatziki-spotting. I thought I’d bump into the large Vandigicam group somewhere around the lake, but I was snap-happy all evening, absorbed, and not there long before it got dark. Apparently Ciao’s phone was on the fritz, so I wasn’t able to reach him. Next thing I knew the fireworks went off over the lake, it was 11 o’clock, and I was getting chilled so time to head home.

It was a long day: volunteering at the hostel from 9-12 with Elena (a feisty Czech lady masquerading as a senior citizen, what a sweetheart), a quick lunch with Eliza before crashing hard for a much-needed nap before the annual HI BBQ at Jericho, then hoofing it east to Trout Lake to try and catch a dance performance by one of the Vandigicam people.

I was at the BBQ longer than I’d expected to be, and amazingly I didn’t even take any photos. By the time I got there I was ready to eat a picnic table, and made several rounds to the buffet. The guys standing at the BBQs should’ve given me a frequent flyer card, or just handed me the tongs. I *love* HI for being so good to their volunteers — every year we eat like kings. I was in a deep food coma from the sheer gluttony at the BBQ, which probably accounted for the seemingly slow trip to the Broadway Skytrain station.

Slept like a rock (do rocks sleep?) on Saturday night; yesterday morning came all too quickly. The plan was to meet Cliff and other Vandigicam people at the New Westminster Show and Shine at 11ish, but I arrived closer to 12:30 and found myself surrounded by a bevy of classic cars just begging to have their photos taken. I’m no car buff, but I appreciate good design in all things, and automobiles are no exception. I also had an ulterior motive for visiting the car show: to see if I could find a classic car for the reception on October 8. The next question was, could I rent it?

1942 Cadillac Imperial limousine, unrestored

I FOUND IT! A 1942 Cadillac Imperial limousine, in original condition.

I just spoke to the owner, Alan Cruickshank, who privately owns 27 classic cars. This automobile belonged to the governor of California at the time, and Mrs. Cruickshank told me yesterday that they have no plans to restore it — a paint job would be $10,000! She said they don’t want it to be a business; I got the impression they are just car collectors who rent them out to pay for maintenance costs. It sounds like the bulk of the rentals are for films — Robert de Niro is in their car’s photo album! (I think that was a big selling point with me!)

There were a few other cars I liked at the show (photos to be uploaded to Flickr later today), but this one was my favourite. They also have a similar 1940 Cadillac limo, but I don’t think we’ll need it. Which is good, because it’s booked that day — for a film, I think he said. One reason why I like this car is because it doesn’t look like a limousine, it just looks like a vintage car. I’ve never seen one like it, and he said there are only four of them around — two down south and one in Pennsylvania! Maybe if I can track it down, we can use it! (Ah, if only that were likely…)

originally uploaded by Ciao in Vangroovy.

Ciao got me — big-time — in this photo from last Wednesday’s BBQ for Striatic. Don’t ask me what I’m looking at! I don’t know!

Vandigicam BBQ for Striatic

(This is a fly-by posting. I’m off to go shoe shopping with The Shoe Aficionado.)

Striatic, of Flickr fame, rolled into town to begin the Canadian segment of his Striatic Does America Roadshow. (Click here for the photo set.)

Last night the Vandigicam group threw a BBQ and grilled meat in his honour.

He’s a vegetarian.

Gail at night,
originally uploaded by goddess_spiral.

whizzing by,
originally uploaded by gail on the web.

After my first volunteering stint of the season earlier this evening at the Hostelling International infodesk, I went for a night shoot with Rachael.

I was revved up about getting out my camera after dark. I’d mentioned it in Vandigicam before, but hadn’t co-ordinated a night shoot yet. One of things I’ve been meaning to do is camp myself at one of the outdoor patios and shoot the clubbers along Granville Street. With a camera, of course… but there are always scuffles and ornery people and such, so it can be a rather dangerous prospect when you factor in the aggression that’s attendant with alcohol-fuelled energy.

Because we went early in the evening, we didn’t have to be too concerned — people hadn’t really started drinking yet. There were plenty of people milling about Granville Street, but nobody seemed to notice the cameras, and those who did weren’t paranoid about it.

There’s a lot more neon on Granville Street than before, too, what with the proliferation of new businesses in the area. Lots more to shoot when we’re not as tired. Photos uploaded thus far are here.

Chinatown gate
Uploaded by gailontheweb.

The catch-up continues! I managed to get as close as one week behind, then I fell… behind. Now I’m more like a week and a half out-of-date. Here goes…

Thursday, June 2

Vandigicam is really growing! My first outing with this group that formed in Flickr was the trip to Jericho Beach last month, and a week after the Flickr farewell party we ventured out en masse again, this time in Chinatown. I thought there were a lot of people at Jericho (15 or so?), but there were even more people gathered outside Starbucks in Tinseltown to go shooting, maybe 18 in total, give or take a few. We agreed to meet back at the same spot at 8:30, and figure out where to eat from there.

Chinatown shuts down fairly early on a weekday, we discovered. Most of the shops closed around 6 o’clock, and there wasn’t much activity by the time we started roaming. As a big group we stuck out like a sore thumb, wandering the streets and resembling a tour group with cameras in tow.

More on Vancouver’s Chinatown district:

http://vancouverchinatown.ca/

I was walking with Hendrik and Ciao, and saw this sign for something called Murmur. Being the curious type, I phoned the number to see what the murmuring was about, but I only reached silence after dialling the code at the bottom of the sign. I thought maybe it was a tourist info service like the audio tours you can take at museums, but I’ll try it again later, and see if it’s that or a commercial enterprise.

The three of us were shooting graffiti in an alley when two guys asked Hendrik where Science World was, and if it was alright if they could take OUR photos. A visitor from Austria taking English courses (his friend was from Belgium), he explained that he was interested in photography, but was short on people pictures.

“You picked a good night to be here,” I said, “there’s a horde of photographers wandering around that you can follow!”

He said he put his stuff on deviantart.com, so I launched into this spiel about Flickr, and how this group formed there. Evidently this was exciting news, because he had me write it down! Am I a Flickr spokesperson, or what?

While Hendrik experimented with his new Canon Digital Rebel XT and I futzed about with my little Canon A80, I tried my best to recall some of the history I learned of Chinatown from previous outings with Hostelling International volunteers on fam(iliarisation) trips. Practically the only tidbit I could remember was that Vancouver was the LAST Chinatown in North America (the world?) to erect a gate (2003?). The other tidbit I have yet to verify — my memory fails me on this one — was that some of the old buildings are built as half-storeys to avoid paying full property tax. If you take a look at buildings like these, you’ll see what I mean. I did a quick Google search on it for an article to link to, but looks like I’ll have to keep digging.

Something we did see was apartments with half-numbers like this one. 224 and 1/2? We looked around for 224, but couldn’t find it. The numbers went from 222 to 226.

While we were meandering around, shooting rats (I spotted a big one, but it was too quick for me), graffiti, memorials, and whatnot, we were shooting each other. Chinatown is probably the most colourful place around town to shoot, the photo ops are limitless, really.

By the time 8:30 rolled around, people were hungry, but we ended up going on a bit of a wild goose chase, trying to find a restaurant that was open. Earlier, a bunch of us passed by Hon’s and noted that it closed at 9, but that applied to nearly every place we tried to get into. We tried the Brickyard on Main, too, but they didn’t serve food. We voted to walk back to Tinseltown, and on the way we found the Floata Seafood Restaurant on Keefer St., which was open until 10. Hallelujah!

Hallelujah, indeed! After waiting a few minutes for the restaurant to prepare our tables, we picked up another person for dinner (he works with a couple of the Vandigicammers), and were ushered past the enormous ballroom where a Chinese Christian organisation was having a function. People were dressed up like it was an awards show.

To our surprise, we were given our very own room, which was a larger room with moveable walls. Kris took it upon himself to act as our negotiator, boldly telling the manager we weren’t going to order off the menu. Instead, he said we’d pay $10 each plus tax and tip, and they would just bring out food for us that equalled that amount. The manager agreed, and platters of food and pots of tea arrived shortly after. Leave it to Kris!

We had two tables, and the other table shot video of themselves using the lazy susan. Dandy! I want to try it sometime! Check out the results here, courtesy of icathing:

http://www.marginalia.org/vid/lazysusan.avi

Vandigicam last night was too fun for words, so I’ll just post this for now and the rest later.

We encountered a meter monkey and this super-friendly squirrel in Stanley Park. Watch him in his first feature film:

Stanley Park squirrel,
brought to you by Vandigicam (4.8MBs)

Coming soon to a park near you. more…

I had a great day yesterday, productive and social and geeky all at once.

After some errands, I met up with Rachael on Davie Street to go for a photowalk. Photography is generally a solitary activity, but after the Vandigicam meetup last week, I was keen on doing more such photowalks, but on a much smaller scale. We headed down Davie Street, and wouldn’t you know it — the very first shop we entered, we got told off for taking photos. It was a little florist/home decor place I’d patronised before, and I didn’t think they’d be uptight about it. Granted, we didn’t ask permission and they weren’t stroppy about it, but it wasn’t as if they were a high-end niche market shop with rare items. Neither of us are interested in pissing off shopkeepers, though, especially near where we live, so we stayed out of retail places and kept outside. That is, until we spotted FOOD…

I’d just eaten, but Denman is full of little restaurants and cafes and dessert places like Cupcakes and Mondo Gelato. Rachael could’ve probably resisted a mini-cupcake, but I’d convinced her not to fight the urge, and a few doors down I stopped in to try some new gelato flavours and caved in for a half-scoop each of maple caramel and Indian mango. Note to self: we are far too weak-willed to do photowalks near dessert places. Must stay away from dessert places.

I’d mentioned to Rachael that the view from the top of the Landmark Hotel on Robson Street was great for photos, but we’d discovered that it didn’t open until 5 o’clock. So, we headed east up Robson Street to Burrard and north along Burrard to Hastings to shoot in the Marine Building. Built in 1930 in Art Deco style, it’s one of my favourite buildings in the city. I used to work on the 12th floor years ago when I first moved to Vancouver, and had a view of Stanley Park and the North Shore from my desk. I loved watching the floatplanes coast into Coal Harbour.

Click on the image to see the whole photoset.

See Rachael’s images here.

We finished off the photowalk at the Marine Building, which is conveniently located kitty-corner to my bank, so I did more errands there before heading back up Burrard to meet Eliza. I FINALLY have my 2004 RRSP receipt so I can complete my income tax return!

The rest of the evening involved driving out to Cloverdale to pick up a box from Allan’s house — stuff I’d ordered from Apple Canada — and a wacky Vietnamese noodle house, then more errands around Vancouver. One of the things I ordered from Apple was iLife ‘05, so now I can use iMovie again (I’ve been getting by with Quicktime Pro), and iPhoto 5 has some features sorely missing from iPhoto 4. Eliza is getting Tiger installed on her PowerBook, so we’ll see what new stuff Apple’s introduced to OS X — and how it works with iPhoto ‘05.

Thursday was a busy day — I attended my first Vandigicam Meetup after the trip to the Aquarium. The Vandigicam group started off in Flickr.com in February and moved on to Meetup.com to facilitate RSVPs. It’s grown from three people to something like 40 members. Of course not everyone shows up each time, but I’m told attendance is fairly steady.

I was thinking of joining Vandigicam, anyway, since I’d seen notice of the group forming in Flickr. They meet once a fortnight on Thursdays, which is frequent compared to meetups in larger cities such as Philadelphia. I know the Philly folk meet once a month, and they don’t do photo walkabouts like Vandigicam, it’s usually just a social event.

My formal invite to join Vandigicam was actually on the day I rolled in town, the previous Friday. I’d taken the Amtrak coach from Seattle to Vancouver, and I was in a taxi on Burrard Street heading to the apartment when I thought I spotted a fellow Flickrite, Goddess Spiral, who shares a couple of forums/photo groups with me. I wasn’t sure if it was her, but I took note of what she was wearing and sent an e-mail later with the subject line: “Am I seeing things??” It turned out to be her (wacky, huh?), and she invited me to join Vandigicam.

The creator of Vandigicam is Laura, a lady from Atlanta who’s spending 2005 in Vancouver while her husband is on sabbatical. She’s been very instrumental in mobilising the group and keeping the fortnightly meetups on track. It was great to finally meet a bunch of people I’ve been in contact with via Flickr, people whose photos I admire and comment on. It’s not just about putting faces to the names, it’s also to see what equipment everybody uses and how they set up their shots!

I met up with Laura, TizBarb, and slightly-less-random at Wicked Cafe, and we bussed it over to Cuppa Joe’s to meet up with the rest. I didn’t recognise everyone, but probably half are either Flickr contacts of mine, or people I’d remembered from various forums. The other thing about meeting people in person is you can call them by their real names, rather than long-winded screen names. Somehow, referring to someone as ’slightly-less-random’ is a bit absurd, even though it’s common nowadays.

A bunch of people brought their tripods and made the rest of us look like hacks! (I don’t have one, but maybe once I upgrade.) Actually, we’re a mix of compacts, SLRS, and DSLRs. The first camera I saw when I sat down at Cuppa Joe’s was someone’s Canon EOS 20D with a big honkin’ lens on it… yes, I had camera envy. But that feeling soon passed — we’re all mostly amateurs, anyway.

From there we headed over to Jericho Beach en masse. We were a big group trying to meet up with others who said they’d be at the concession stand, but there were too many people and the light was fading, so everyone scattered. Stewart (founder of Flickr), mentioned later online that he tried to find us at 8:15 but we’d spread out by then. Hopefully I’ll get to meet the Ludicorp people at their going-away bash, yet to be announced. (Flickr has been purchased by Yahoo, so the office is moving down to California soon.)

I got some decent pictures on the beach, but was too busy yakking to take a lot of photos. There were some easy bunny shots to be had that the others took advantage of, and other urban wildlife pics like ducks and this unidentified bird… what IS that??

Vandigicam Meetup Photoset

When the light was nearly gone I set off for home, getting some moving light shots walking along the Burrard Street Bridge. These streaks in the bottom left photo are from a bus going by, probably the #22 Knight Street.

Some of my favourite photography is city nightshooting, but I don’t have as much opportunity to do this in Pennsylvania. For one thing, we’re not in a big city, so there’s not much reason to wander around there at night. I’ll have to get my fill of nightshooting while I’m here.

Burrard Bridge Photoset