Author Archives: Jens

Stanley Park

Stanley Park is in downtown Vancouver and surrounded by the Pacific ocean. The land was originally used by aboriginal people for thousands of years. It was later turned into Vancouver’s first park when the city incorporated in 1886. The park was named after Lord Stanley, a British politician who had been appointed governor general. While I was exploring the park the clouds parted for a short period of time creating these heavenly beams of sunlight. It was wonderful to see, but difficult to capture the beauty with a digital camera.

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Posted in Autumn, British Columbia, Historical, West Coast | Leave a comment

Why I’m Inspired By Joseph O. Holmes

Joseph O. Holmes is a New York street photographer who posts a new image every day on his website. His photos are mostly taken of people in Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens and occasionally elsewhere. The use of sunlight and shadows, balloons and steam are recurring themes in his work. His photos make me want to explore New York with my camera. Today I spent sometime taking images downtown.

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Posted in Autumn, British Columbia, West Coast | Leave a comment

The Ring Road

The Ring Road is a national road in Iceland that runs around the island and connects most of the inhabited parts of the country. The total length of the road is 1,332 kilometres and it was completed in 1974, coinciding with the 1100th anniversary of the country’s settlement.

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Posted in Iceland, Summer, Travel | Leave a comment

Dreaming of Ice

Today I was thinking about the beautiful chunks of ice and icebergs that I saw this summer. I spent some time processing a few images from my trip. The blue colour is truly unique and cannot be reproduced by any artist.

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Posted in Iceland, Summer, Travel | Leave a comment

Along the Fraser River

I was up early this morning to take images at Finn Slough which was founded by Finnish settlers who came to Richmond in the 1880s. Most of these residents made a good living from fishing and became local landowners. I always find something interesting to photograph and this morning was no exception.

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Mount Shuksan

Mount Shuksan in North Cascades National Park on a beautiful day in September. When I took this image, I waited until there was no wind to get a nice reflection of the mountain in the lake. Some colourful Paddle-Tailed Darner dragonflies seemed very curious about me, my tripod and camera.

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Posted in Hiking, Summer | Leave a comment

The Fringe Festival

DSC_0680The Vancouver Fringe Festival has been taking place in September. I’ve seen some amazing one man shows and have been impressed with the talent of the actors. The Fringe has a wonderful policy of no latecomers.

Posted in British Columbia, Humour, Inspiring, Summer, West Coast | Leave a comment

Street Art – ‘Giants’

“ Every city needs art and art has to be in the middle of the people ” – OSGEMEOS

Ocean Concrete had its six grey concrete silos transformed into a piece of public art by some Brazilian street artists. Os Gemeos are identical twin brothers from Sao Paolo. Each silo is 21 metres high and the project for the Vancouver Biennale cost $126, 250.00.

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Posted in British Columbia, Summer | Leave a comment

The End of Summer

It’s Labour Day in Canada and today I was thinking about my summer. I was very fortunate to visit Iceland and the Faroe Islands, even though the weather wasn’t so great for taking images. The photo below is a self portrait I took with my tripod, camera and self-timer in Iceland on the beach at Jokulsarlon. I went to sleep at midnight and woke up at 4:00 a.m. to find the black volcanic beach covered in huge pieces of ice. The North Atlantic waves wash the icebergs up on shore and as the tide falls their stranded on the beach. There was no one else around and it was a bit surreal walking and taking images amongst these beautiful pieces of ice. The ice is over a thousand years old and because it has been in the glacier under such tremendous pressure, there is no air in the ice, which is why it’s so crystal clear. The oldest ice also tends to be the bluest in colour.

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Posted in Iceland, Summer, Travel | Leave a comment

The Orpheum

The Orpheum is a grand old theatre in downtown Vancouver that was built by the Scottish architect Marcus Priteca, which officially opened on November 7, 1927 as a vaudeville house. It was the biggest theatre in Canada when it opened, with three thousand seats and it cost $1.25 million to construct. I was fortunate to take a tour of the theatre which has  huge and beautiful crystal chandeliers and the original Wurlitzer organ.

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Posted in British Columbia, Historical, Inspiring, Summer | Leave a comment