Entrapment

Another shot from Steveston. Can't say that I'm overly thrilled with this one but I'm trying not to be too picky as there's not much else 'in the cupboard' from which to choose. I'm hoping to get out tomorrow for a bit - it might be the last time for a while if the Olympics deliver the city-wide gridlock as expected.

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Flat-decked Tug

When I was out at Steveston almost two weeks ago I spent a bit of time watching the activity on the river - there was quite an elaborate bit of business going on with bouyed pipes zig-zagging along the breakwater, leading up to but not quite reaching a large vessel/barge. While I watched, the crew pictured here appeared to complete the connection, though the 'plan' behind the odd pipe arrangement was still hard to figure out.

The barge-thingy (well out of picture to the right) was probably the base for a dredging operation, but alas it must have been the end of their working day (it was about 4:00) as once they had connected the last pipe they returned back to the barge and things started to shut down and get quieter, rather than noisier as one would expect if they were going to commence dredging operations.

There are quite a few things about this picture that I don't like:

• the composition is clumsy,
• only one of the crew of 4 (I think) is actually visible, and you can't really see how the tug operator is maneuvering the pipes into position. I'd moved around several times to try to get a better vantage point, but each time I moved so did the tug, and due to the distance involved I had to move quite a ways each time to make a noticable difference.
• It's also a little too tight, in hindsight I wish I had zoomed out a little to capture a bit more of the scene, although that would have meant loss of other detail in the tradeoff.

That said, here it is anyway

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Brick/Red

Thought I'd post something a little different. There's a guy in Toronto who often posts shots like this, and generally I enjoy them. I've tried taking similar shots myself, but I'm usually disappointed with the result.

This is a little better than usual for me. I needed to do a bit of post-processing clean-up, but otherwise things came out pretty much as I'd hoped when I took the shot.

In case you're wondering, it's the back of a couple of buildings out at Steveston. The brick building on the left is kind of a rarety for the greater Vancouver area, brick just isn't used much for buildings around here, so when I saw it (and it was accessible) I knew I had to take a picture. Then I noticed the contrasting painted building beside it and decided it had to be in the picture too.

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Old Tires on Aluminium Boat

I had two shots of this boat & dock (from different angles), both processed as black and white, which I quite liked, although compositionally they're quite different. I won't bore you by posting both, but thought I'd at least post one of them.

This was taken at Steveston on the same day as the last two pictures that I've posted, though obviously quite a bit earlier.

And in case you're all getting tired in general with the Steveston shots, I hope to get out and shoot something new this weekend.

I think I've not been going out that much lately partly because of the weather, but also partly because I miss having my long lens with me. I checked on the status today, apparently it's still sitting at the Canon repair shop in Calgary listed as "repair in progress" which probably means that they're waiting for some replacement part. It's been 7 weeks, and I guess it'll be a little longer yet.

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Steveston Boardwalk

I seem to have been somewhat distracted the past week or so, even though there were other pictures, like this one, from Steveston that are worth posting.

Actually, I only started working on this one tonight. After a little playing around with it I thought I'd try a monochrome treatment and voilá, perfect. Then I did the necessary things to create a web-ready version and it lost something in the fine detail in the darker areas down near the front. What started out to be a 'quickie' edit turned into a protracted attempt to get it to look the same in sRGB as it did in AdobeRGB, something I didn't think would be that hard since it's black and white. I mean, how different can these two 'colour' spaces be when there's no colour?

In the end, no luck. You'll have to take my word for it that although fairly subtle, the differences make this version something less than it should be. Oh well, more to learn. In the meantime, I still think it makes for an interesting black and white image.

Oh. I should mention that this was taken at about 5:45 in the evening and although it wasn't really all that cold out, it was virtually deserted. I don't know how the merchants/restaurants survive.

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Steveston after Sunset

Just a quick post - thought I better get something up after having had a 4-day long weekend. Back to work in the morning and actually looking forward to it, I need the rest.

This was taken last evening at Steveston. I'm not sure just how it'll look on other monitors as my configuration has changed at home and I've spent most of my time the last couple of days trying to get things re-calibrated (a real up-hill battle). It didn't occur to me that changing my video card would mean so much work, fiddling, and on-line research for help.

Anyway, about this picture... it has been colour-corrected to remove the awful yellow from the bright sodium lights around the pier, with some extra work required on the posts in the foreground. Not sure about the 'truth' of the resulting colour, but true or not, I kind of like it (again, assuming that I've managed to get my monitor reasonably calibrated and what I'm seeing here is what others will see on their monitors...). I haven't tried to print anything yet - kind of afraid that my calibration will be off and prints will be horrible again.

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Smoke and Mirrors

Well, fog and calm water, actually.

Probably the last of the shots from Steveston. Actually, I wasn't sure that I'd post this one, considering that the last two - which I thought were quite good - haven't received a single comment good or bad...

Is anybody out there???

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This Float Reserved

The second image from Steveston on Saturday. It was a real toss-up as to whether I'd go with this version or the black and white, but I think, in the end, I prefer this one, by a whisker.

I have perhaps one more shot from the set that I'll post, then it'll be dry for a while until I get out to shoot something new as I have to work this weekend - there'll be little chance to shoot anything.

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The Fog Approacheth

Here's a little break from the black & white series.

I quite like this one. It was taken at Steveston Dock late Saturday afternoon, where it was quite cold due to the fog. It never got as pea-soupy as I thought it might, which is kind of a bonus, because it's hard to photograph anything when you can't see six feet in front of you.

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Something Fishy

I don't seem to be managing to shoot much new lately - the days are just too short. On top of that, this past weekend was a working one for me, so it's been nearly impossible to get out when there's any light.

To make up for working the weekend I did have Friday off, but with a lot of errands to squeeze into the one day. I found myself in Richmond late in the afternoon when I'd finally managed to get all the essential stuff done and tried to make it to Steveston for the sunset. Alas, I missed the sunset, but there was still some lingering light that I tried to take advantage of before the chill off the water drove me away.

This shot is of a statue commemorating the contributions of Japanese Canadians to the local fishing industry, with one of the old BC Packers cannery buildings in the background.

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