There’s a single seat at the back of the (newer) Skytrains in Vancouver that faces to the rear, and I always try to get it so I can take these motion blur shots when the Skytrain picks up speed departing the stations. Unless riding at night that back seat is usually taken, but if you have a camera and you like this sort of light-in-motion shooting it’s worth positioning yourself to get into the last car.

You can tell by looking at my previous attempts of this type of shot with a point-and-shoot digicam (Canon A80) that having the control of a DSLR and a higher-quality lens makes a big difference.

Not for the faint of heart, I still prefer it to the expensive Capilano Suspension Bridge ($26.95 for an adult as of this writing, and there’s no family rate!). Lynn Canyon is quieter, it’s still impressive, and better yet — it’s FREE! (No gift shops, either.) I took this with my cameraphone this afternoon, I’ll post better photos later.

My visit was supposed to be a surprise for the kids, but the older three managed to find out I was here, anyway! I had an early appointment on Saturday morning for a haircut by my regular hairstylist in Vancouver (she works from home), and I asked Allan to pick me up from there with the kids because it was on the way into the city.

I found a good hairdresser in Toronto, but Hisako’s been cutting it for years and I prefer the way she layers it. It’s been chopped and straightened in this photo.

A little knock on the door revealed a shy Melissa, who didn’t look at all surprised to see me but was curious to see what was going on around me. We finished up my hair, and I went out to the van to see if the twins were surprised. Lots of squealing indicated they were!

The weather was on the iffy side, so I thought the best thing was a mixed indoor/outdoor recreational place where we could duck inside if the weather turned sour. Plus, I hadn’t been on Granville Island for ages — it was my old stomping ground for a long time. I lived across the water for nearly seven years and I used to take the kids there frequently, since they were babies.

Once we arrived at the Kids Market, Allan and Michael wanted to check out the arcade, so I bought passes to the Adventure Zone for the four girls so we could have in/out privileges. It’s four levels of playground, the ultimate in caged mayhem for kids. They could run amok to their heart’s content, and still be contained!

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Yeah, a real bargain at $4.6-$17.6 MILLION DOLLARS. The Vancouver real estate market is insane.

I arrived in Vancouver around 1:30 PST Wednesday afternoon, the mountains visible under a clear blue spring sky. It’s always a treat to return to BC’s southern coastline and its mountain ranges, something I do long for after living in relatively flat Ontario. (I’ll post my aerials later, when I write about Winnipeg.)

My dad met me at the airport, bless’im. He’d been there for hours, killing time after dropping off someone who was catching a flight in the morning. Even though I told him I’d take transit before I’d ask him to make the journey back to the airport for the second time in one day, he waited for me, anyway. I was able to spend some quality time with him in the afternoon, and with my younger brother when he got home from work. (My older brother is working in the field this week, at a mine in the BC Interior.)

I persuaded Alvin to take his Nikon D200 out (a much fancier camera than mine) to shoot the sunset at Crescent Beach. By the time I got this idea, I had just enough time to drive to the beach before the sun disappeared off the ocean horizon.

I’m on my dad’s computer to write this (because I left my power cable in Vancouver!) and it’s a dinosaur, so I’ll upload the video later. For now, some photos from our Christmas Eve in Stanley Park.

“Bright Nights” included a visit to the Children’s Farmyard, the lights display, and the highlight of the night, the Christmas train.

View the Bright Nights photos as thumbnails or as a slideshow.

This email languished in my inbox for nearly two weeks, and I hadn’t given it a second look until today:

Hello

Below is a link to a Call for Artists for an exhibition Heritage Vancouver is hosting to coincide with their Annual General Meeting on October 18th at the Vancouver Museum.

Vancouver Arts & Culture Forum: Call to Artists

To get things started we have created an on-line gallery of art inspired by the Burrard Street Bridge. One of your works has been included in the gallery to provide an example to show how each work of art can be displayed on line and linked to the artist’s web site.

Heritage Vancouver: Burrard Street Bridge Online Gallery

If you would like to show or sell any of your work related to this theme at the exhibition, add more art work on the theme to the on-line gallery, or if you would like to have your work removed, please let us know. Also, if you know of other artists who may wish to participate, please feel free to forward this message.

Thank you

Janet Leduc, Heritage Vancouver and Roger Chilton, Vancouver Arts and Cultures Forum

The photo they used for the online gallery of art inspired by the Burrard Street Bridge is this one:

One of my favourite photos, I shot it more than two years ago with the Canon A80. Not bad for a point-and-shoot. It’s the third piece from the left, and one of the few photos in their online gallery.

The AGM for Heritage Vancouver is the day after tomorrow so this is probably too late, but hey, it’s worth submitting your art if you can.

Shamelessly pinched from Carey’s blog, I bring to you Rick Mercer’s report on Vancouver being rated the most livable city.

Since I have more readers in Vancouver than Toronto, this might ring true to a few of you.

And while I’m directing you to Carey’s blog, I should add that he’s an extremely talented individual seeking gainful employment in a creative field. (If you know of any vacancies, please let me know and I’ll pass it on!) Read through some of his posts and you’ll see what I mean. He’s been a friend since 2002 (?), and I try and catch up with Carey and Lise when I can while in Vancouver. In fact, I caught up with them over Easter, but I forgot to take photos. Can you believe it?

Technorati tags: Ricker Mercer, YouTube, Vancouver, real estate

I’ve had an interesting and mellow weekend with some things cooking (that don’t happen to be food) which I can’t divulge quite yet, so I thought I would post a food picture placeholder instead.

I squeezed in a dinner at Guu on Thurlow Street in Vancouver with Eliza and Kristin before heading to the airport last Monday night for my red-eye to Toronto. Deee-LISH! Because what trip to Vancouver would be complete without at least ONE izakaya meal?

I need to find the Toronto equivalent of Vancouver’s Guu restaurant triumvirate. I really miss that restaurant.

Technorati tags: Guu, izakaya, restaurant

Because I apparently treasure sharing the cuteness that is my nieces and nephew at the farm more than sleep itself, I bring to you some photos from Monday. The bunch uploaded thus far can be found here.

Really, folks, call me biased but it just does not get cuter than this.

I’ve been taking the kidlets to Maplewood Farm for years, but have only uploaded a couple of photos from the pre-Flickr archives. Check out Melissa at age 3 on the left, the same age as the twins are now. Melissa is now 7, going on 8 in July.

OK, I’m going to upload the rest of the photos later — bed calls. No sheep-counting necessary here!

Technorati tags: Maplewood Farm, North Vancouver