| Photojournal
- 30
September 2004
Steveston
sunset
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When last I left you,
I had just been out to Piper Spit after my customary Saturday
brunch at the Golden Pita. What I didn't tell you was that at
that brunch, I met a fellow photographer named Tim, who is a friend
of some folks in my brunch crowd. Tim had brought his new camera
(a Canon digital SLR, the EOS 20D) and I brought my camera and
we examined each other's toys and talked camera talk and experienced
lens envy and all the usual things that happen when photographers
meet.
Tim lives out in Steveston
and mentioned to me that he had gotten some nice pictures of some
swans there recently. We get two kinds of swans in Vancouver,
the Trumpeter Swan and the Tundra Swan. I've seen and photographed
Trumpeters a few years ago out at Grant Narrows Park, but I'm
still looking for Tundras.
On Monday, I get an
email from Tim, with a beautiful photo of a swan at sunset...and
it's not a Trumpeter Swan...and it's not a Tundra Swan. It's a
Mute Swan, the other regular North American swan. Mute Swans aren't
supposed to be out this way much, according to my field guides.
They're mainly found out east; there are only a couple of places
they've been reported west of the states that border the Mississippi
River. So I was a bit excited, and decided I had to go to Steveston
and check out these swans myself.
Work was busy this
week, though, and Tuesday and Wednesday I worked late. On Thursday
I could've worked late, but I instead went home to grab my camera
and head out to Steveston. On my way out, I took a few photos
of the building that they're constructing in the lot behind mine.
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It was 6:00 by the
time I left. You can see it in the colored light and long shadows
on the construction.
Well, it turns out
that I didn't realize how long it takes to get to Steveston from
my place. By the time I got there, the light was fading fast;
it was already into sunset. I did a quick scan of the waterfront
near the main part of town, but didn't see anything even remotely
swanlike. However, the sunset was getting pretty nice, especially
the sky to the east, which had turned blue and purple. Here's
a picture of the waterfront walkway with that nice sky behind.
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| New condo
and townhouse developments seem to be springing up around Steveston.
Here's some pretty new-looking townhomes that were nearby. |
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| I was still
looking for the swans as I walked down the waterfront. The low light
levels meant I had to use a tripod and I was getting very long shutter
speeds. Here's one interesting shot I got as a result: one where
everything seems nice and sharp, except a big cargo ship, which
has been blurred by its motion. That ship was going at a typical,
slow pace, and it's unusual to get a photo where it looks like a
speeding racecar or something. |
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| Back to
the west, we had typical sunset oranges and yellows in the sky,
hanging above the mountains across the straight. |
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Those last three photos,
with their three different skies, were all taken within two minutes
of each other. I'm always fascinated how one can pick all of these
different moods out of one scene.
Just because I like
the blue and purple sky, I'll show a few more photos with it.
Here's one with a nice orange counterpoint in the middle windows.
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| And here's
one with blurry walking people. I'm slowly learning to appreciate
and use motion-blur effects in photos. Previously I was a "it
all has to be perfectly sharp" guy. |
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| Steveston
is a trendy and touristy little waterfront town, with some shipbuilding
and fish packing history to it. It's got some really neat buildings,
like the following one. Tim tells me (thanks, Tim!) that this is
part of the old BC Packers complex, and was built as a storage and
repair building for fishing nets. |
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That's Mount Baker
in the background there, contrast-enhanced. (The day was even
hazier than it appears.)
That net-facility picture
is one that I'd like to work on. I'd like to catch the building
in a little bit better light (although I really have no complaints
about the light I did catch), with less haze in front of Baker,
and a better composition. Other angles on the cannery would be
good, too...it's a building with character. Buildings are nice
in that you can revisit them and reinterpret them if you don't
get it right the first time. (Although Tim tells me that my time
may be limited here--this particular building may get restored
soon.) Birds are hard to revisit and reinterpret. You might not
find them again, might not find them in the same place, and definitely
won't find them in the same posture. You have to take what you
can get. My friend Derrill is always extolling the virtues of
taking pictures of barns as opposed to taking pictures of birds.
I guess I'm agreeing with him a little.
By the time I was back
in my car driving home, it was night. There was this big round
bright thing up in the sky that was distracting me as I drove,
so I stopped, set up my tripod, and took some photos of it, hoping
maybe to scare it away. It didn't go completely away, but it did
go a little further up so it wasn't as annoyingly visible when
I drove.
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It being late September,
I believe that that would be a Harvest Moon.
I was a bit disappointed
in not having found the swans (and more disappointed that I had
to work the next day rather than take photos), but I consoled
myself with the interesting sunset colors and the almost-full
yellowy moon. Maybe next time I'll get some bird photos.
Making lemonade,
Tom
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