The Messy Desk

Edit 03/14/10 – Added more places; one I came up with and the others as suggested in the comments, thanks!

Justin made a great comment on my last post along the lines of “we need to keep taking photos now that the Olympics are over”. In the spirit of that I’m making a list here of great places around Vancouver to take pictures.

Coal Harbour condo buildings, December 2004. Canon 10D, Tokina 19-35, 1/125, f/8, ISO 400

The downtown core – Lots of cool stuff here of course. The Paralympics are on now so there’s still some related stuff on display. I’ve always wanted to do a series of shots of Vancouver’s back alleys, they’re so impressively seedy and grim. More sunrise/sunset stuff would be cool. I’d LOVE to be able to get up high and take some shots – we got onto the roof of our building at work once for a team photo, 23 stories up, and I didn’t have my camera. Are there any other public viewing platforms around Vancouver? There’s the Harbour Centre restaurant but you’re shooting through glass.

Stanley Park – I’ve never really done a good photoshoot around here. The lighting is frequently challenging with the typical high dynamic range of woodland environments. An overcast day might mitigate that. Shots of the Lion’s Gate Bridge from the seawall and Prospect Point would be cool.

George C Reifel Bird Sanctuary – Been here a few times but not since I got my 100-400. When it’s not raining this is a spectacular place for birding and other wildlife photography. The setting by the ocean is nice too.

Horseshoe Bay – Been a while since I drove out here. When the weather is good it’s a beautiful place. I need to find some good places to shoot from up on the mountainsides overlooking the village and bay, to get away from the typical tourist-style shots of the docks and ferries.

Barnet Marine Park – Went here a few times last year, it’s a wonderful place along the Burrard Inlet in between Burnaby and Port Moody. Some really great opportunities for the North Shore mountains, some birding, boats etc. Probably spectacular at sunset with the light on the mountains.

Beached rowboat at Barnet Marine Park, September 2008. Canon 40D, 10-22 lens at 22mm, 1/250, f/8, ISO 100

Burnaby Mountain and SFU – Burnaby Mountain is a great place to shoot, with sweeping views of the inlet and mountains. SFU has some awesome architecture that’s been in tons of movies and TV shows, and I’ve never taken a walk around it.

Buntzen Lake – Scenic lake with some hiking trails. Been here a few times. It’s most interesting when you get some fog on the lake in the autumn.

Iona Beach Park and the airport – Iona is a really cool place right by the airport. Lots of people don’t seem to know it exists, so here’s a good link to help you get a sense of it. There’s a 2-mile-long breakwater extending out into the ocean that you can walk along and get right under the flightpath from one of the main runways. In addition the marshes to the north are full of birds (different ones at different times of the year), dragonflies, flowers and water scenes. I love this place.

Deep Cove – Picturesque little village right on the inlet, on the North Shore. Been here lots of times but haven’t taken too many memorable pictures yet. Gets very busy when the weather is good.

Lonsdale Quay – Probably the best place on the North Shore to take shots of downtown. Need to get out here one evening to get some better skyline shots; the ones I took before the Olympics aren’t bad but they don’t stand up to high-res use for a 3-monitor wallpaper like I want I should make a panorama with the 100-400.

Steveston and White Rock – Both of these places are nice little seaside towns, like Deep Cove but larger.

Whistler – A bit further afield, but Whistler is just PACKED with photo opportunities. Louise and I spent a day here in late summer 2008 and I got some of my favourite shots of the year in just that time. Within a couple of hours you can go from amazing coastlines to glacial streams through forests to epic mountaintop views. Have to do it again this year.

Queen Elizabeth Park and the Bloedel Conservatory – Shouldn’t leave it too long to visit here again as the Conservatory is under threat of closure. I hope it doesn’t happen Great views of downtown if the foliage isn’t too overgrown too.

Granville Island

UBC/MOA

Alouette and Stave Lakes

VanDusen gardens

Fort Langley

Lighthouse Park

That’s the start of my list; I’ll add to it as I think of more. Please comment if you know of anywhere worth a visit that I’ve missed – I’m sure there are tons of places!

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This entry was posted on Saturday, March 13th, 2010 at 5:49 pm and is filed under Photography. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.