Travel: March 2005 Archives
I'm headed out of town this weekend to the city pictured here: Seattle. I love to shoot out the window of airplanes, even though most of the time the photos turn out badly even after lots of cleanup in Photoshop. I guess shooting through engine exhaust and scratched, dirty plastic windows will do that.
This was shot during my flight from Vancouver to Phoenix two weeks ago. With photos like this I always debate whether to crop out the wing pylon. I decided against it because I feel it gives the photo a bit more context.
The photoblog's on autopilot until Monday, when I'll replace the procession of Vancouver shots with scenes from Seattle. ;)
America West Flight 815, Houston to Phoenix.
Detail of a decorative concrete wall at the in Vancouver, BC.
During our day in Vancouver a few weeks ago, Rich, Gavin, Cari, Ruey and I headed to the . The bridge in itself isn't particularly special, and I'd hesitate to say it was worth the entrance fee -- until we found that the area also included something called the "."
There's a series of bridges running from giant tree to giant tree, 20-30 feet above the forest floor. The engineer in me was interested to learn that the construction of each platform uses a compression system that only puts 20 psi of pressure on the trees. That's the equivalent of you pressing on your desk, hardly enough to harm the tree.
The entire network of bridges felt like either the Ewok village from Return of the Jedi or Lothlorien from Lord of the Rings. Take your pick.
They look like sails, but are actually part of the roof of in Vancouver, BC. The complex is home to a convention center, IMAX theater, hotel, and cruise ship terminal among other things. We walked around it in the chilly breeze watching the seagulls and seaplanes landing.
To orient yourself to what the building looks like from afar, you can to see a shot taken from Stanley Park.
One of the many totem poles atop in the Vancouver, BC metro area. There were a few things about Vancouver that hadn't occurred to me prior to visiting.
One was the enormous Asian population in that city; the friend of a friend that we stayed with one night is Taiwanese and took us to Chinatown and to a great authentic Chinese restaurant. Immigration had never occurred to me, but the Asian population in Vancouver is obviously large and thriving. I suppose it's the same way here in Houston with the large Hispanic population. I just hadn't thought about it, and it was cool to see. Diversity is good!
The second was the area's history; there were totem poles everywhere it seemed, reminding visitors of the area's indigenous population.
This was shot along British Columbia's Hwy 99, also known as the . The leads from Vancouver north to Whistler/Blackcomb and onward into the western Canadian mountains, and gives a driver gorgeous views around every bend. I don't know the name of this mountain, unforunately; all I can say is that it was between Whistler and Squamish to the west of the highway.
As with the photo from two days ago, this is a crop of a larger panorama. The full size image covers ~180 degrees and can be seen if you .
Close up of what I thought was a lion, but on second thought is probably a dragon in Chinatown, Vancouver, BC. Submitted just before the buzzer for last week's challenge, Faces.
Wow. My trip to Vancouver was fantastic (if you're curious, read my ) and I'll probably be posting the photos for at least a week, including two or three panoramics.
The photo above is a small crop of a ~270 degree panorama taken just outside the Roundhouse Lodge at the top of the Whistler Mountain gondola. For the much larger, full panorama version (7,300 x 700 pixels), please . The mountain at far left of the full-size panorama is Whistler, while the mountain at right with the obvious ski runs is Blackcomb. Whistler Village is in the valley below.
I'm finished with the Scotland photos for now. I have a few more that I'll share one day, as well as photos from other adventures done prior to the existence of this photoblog. But tomorrow, it's back to "current" shots. I know at least one person out there will be very excited to hear that I got my first two rolls of Holga shots back today and will be posting a few this week... :)
Today's shot was taken in the Andes mountains of Peru, near Machu Picchu. The entire area is called the (Oriental mountain range), but there are sub-cordilleras. I wasn't certain which this photo shows, but after a bit of research I am 99% sure that this is the , as visible from our final campsite at Winaywayna. While on the trail we also saw a lot of the higher Cordillera Vilcabamba (and its most impressive peak, Salcantay).
In black and white, I feel the shot is great for this past week's topic, Ghostly.
