Category: Cross-process

Leaves against sky.

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Chinatown tree

This past weekend I was happy to finally achieve my long-standing goal to visit my friend Amy in Portland. She’s been studying there for almost two years, and I hadn’t managed to get the time or money to go see her, until now. I think it all came together when Joanna told me there was a train I could take from Vancouver (actually a bus to Seattle and then the train), and suddenly I could make the trip I wanted. I love traveling by train. It can be a wonderful way to get around and see things one doesn’t normally get access to by car. There’s also more leg room…

I didn’t really have a set plan of things to do and see while in Portland, but I ended up doing a lot anyway. I think the highlights from the weekend have to be our visit to the Japanese Garden, a 4km hike through the Columbia Gorge in heavy rain, shopping in the Hawthorne district, lunch at Pambiche’s, and attending the opening party of Mississippi May, a DIY arts extravaganza in a massive wearhouse.

I really liked Portland and hope to go again later on in the summer.

Lucky room for rent

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Lucky room for rent

Taken in the neighbourhood of Strathcona, Vancouver, with an Olympus XA and cross-processed Ektachrome 100VS. I haven’t done any xpro in months, so I was happy to have such satisfying results on my first roll of the spring/summer season.

The weather is fantastic today. I went for a long walk along the seawall at lunch, and stopped in a park to play on the swings. What a great afternoon!

Red coats are wonderful.

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A coat of red

Danny Michel was in town this week for two shows at the Railway Club, and I’m very happy I made it to one of them last night. I’ve missed him the last few times he’s played Vancouver, and didn’t want this to happen again. He’s always an entertaining performer and anyone I take to see him becomes a convert to his music. He’s on tour right now to promote a new CD/DVD box set he’s put together independently, featuring material recorded at two live shows in Toronto.

Sun summoning sunflower

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A bit of colour to brighten the day

I have chosen the above sunflower photo as my avatar to summon up a bit of sunny weather. Here’s hoping it works.

Last Saturday I went for the loveliest walk in the rain. The air was fresh with the perfumed scent of spring, the temperature was warm, the plants and moss glowed a vibrant green, and everywhere the trees were blossoming. A week later it’s still raining, and my walks outside seem less lovely and more…soggy. We are at the point of springtime when every Vancouverites thoughts turn to ark-building.

Crows in conversation

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Crows in conversation

Thank you to everyone who came out to Exposure Gallery over the weekend to visit with me and see my photo in the show. I was able to get a bit of reading done during my gallery sitting shift, and discovered the work of two photographers new to me.

The current issue of Light Leaks magazine features an interview with pinhole photographer Martha Casanave, and a stunning selection of photos from her series Explorations along an Imaginary Coastline. A nice compliment to her work is that of Robin Bartholick and his digitally constructed black and white images. (See series 1 and series 2.) It’s interesting to me that their work is so similar, with gentlemen dressed in turn of the century garb and imaginary landscapes, but they achieve their results at opposite ends of the technological scale.

The posing crow

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The crow who posed

If this picture is any indication, I must be getting better at stalking crows. He (or she) was preening when I snuck up to take its picture, and though it was startled it didn’t fly away. Usually crows get very nervous about having their picture taken, but this one seems to be posing for me.

Vancouver has a huge crow population, and every morning and evening they can be seen crossing the city’s skies to and from their nesting site in Burnaby. It’s an impressive sight to see, and one I never seem to tire of.

Signs of spring

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Signs of spring

I rarely take self portraits with my holga because my arms don’t seem to be long enough to meet the minimum requirements for getting myself in focus. But I wanted to take a spring-themed photo with the cherry blossoms, in focus or not, and finish the roll in my camera. I’m glad I took a chance with this shot because I’m very happy with how it has turned out. I managed to get the composition I wanted, even with my eyes closed… 😉

The NV wrap up

The sky appears to speed on by
The above photo was taken in Gastown, Vancouver, with a Vivitar Ultra Wide and Slim toy camera.

I’m really glad Zak invited me to work with Foo Associates at Northern Voice this past weekend. I don’t think I would’ve attended otherwise because my experience last year didn’t leave me “wanting more”. I would’ve missed out on a lot if I hadn’t been there.

I felt last year was great socially, and interesting because I was “thrown” last minute onto a panel, but lacking in the kind of content I’d actually paid for. This year was still very social, but because of my role as “Foo Associates representative”, brought me into contact with many new and interesting people instead of just chatting with friends. I was definately more interested in this year’s speakers, and made a point of not opening my laptop and (mostly not) shooting my camera during sessions to divert my attention. An open laptop in the audience usually seems to mean surfing/chatting/photo editing is going on, and I didn’t want to fall into it this year like so many others I observed.

Zak and I led a morning session on the first day called “Photo-Blogosphere-Meatspace-Mashup.”
The idea was to document different information related to blogging, such as the year people started blogging, number of blogs kept, and so on. We threw out some ideas, as did the audience, and then found a spot to create human graphs using the twenty or so participants. The results were fun, and though we hoped to explore this further during the conference, weather and space issues were against us. It’s an idea I’d like to try again, if I can figure out a good way to bring together interested bloggers.

I never did get further on the second day with my diptych series of conference attendees and their equipment, as mentioned in my previous blog entry. But again, I definately want to explore this further, now that I have a better idea of what works well and how best to shoot it.

All in all Northern Voice was a great source of inspiration, knowledge and social interaction.

Bottle collection

Old bottle collection

On Friday afternoon I went to see an art installation at Centre A by artist Germaine Koh. The show, called Overflow, was a site specific display of hundreds of glass bottles deemed as unusable and reclaimed from local recycling depot, United We Can. I was glad to have made it to the show before it closed this weekend. It was an impressive display and definately interesting to photograph. It was also a very telling installation about many aspects of Vancouver life, and the role recyclables play in the survival of the city’s homeless population.

Reaching up and away

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Reaching up and away

I have trees on the brain lately. They have dominated my photographic subject matter since before Christmas when I first ventured out into the cold night air with a friend and my holga. I’m less interested now in shooting at night and long exposures, but trees continue to hold my fascination. I’m trying to develop it into a series, and possibly a show. I’m unsure of this focus though, and wonder if it’s an interesting enough subject to build a full scale artshow around…