A Day for Remembrance

November 1, 2011 ~ Teresa ~ 4 Comments

Today is All Saints Day in some places, Día de los Muertos in others. It was also knows as All Hallows, which is where Hallowe’en came from (All Hallows Eve). It’s a day of remembrance for those who have passed and I’ve also always thought of it as a good day for broader reflection on the impermanence of everything around us. Reflecting on impermanence gives us space not just for letting go, but also for honouring what’s lost to us.

In that spirit, I’d like to share some photos that I took on a recent trip to Mayne Island at the Japanese Garden. It was built by residents to acknowledge the loss of one-third of their community to internment in World War II and to honour the history of those Japanese Mayne Islanders. The garden, uncoincidentally, is a beautiful place for reflection.

Patio’s Progress

October 11, 2011October 8, 2011 ~ Teresa ~ 3 Comments

Literature students will have to forgive me the alliteration stolen from John Bunyan. I just couldn’t help it. As you may have guessed, last week we had a patio put in our backyard and I used its progress for a little photo practice. Here are the results.

A Photo Walk in Fort Langley

July 26, 2011 ~ Teresa ~ 5 Comments

Right now, I can only dream about going on nice, long photo walks with my favourite walking companion.

I sprained my ankle rather badly last week, so a long walk for me right now is across the apartment. Luckily, I have some pictures from my recent walk around Fort Langley. We’ve had a rainy summer so far, broken with some stretches of sunshine. As a result, water levels have been quite high. The day I was in Fort Langley, the Fraser had even flooded its banks slightly, covering the walking path I’d intended to use.

I wandered on the raised boardwalk instead, crossed the bridge to McMillan Island and then walked back up to the town’s historic centre. When I was growing up, Fort Langley was a little sleepy, but the community revitalized it on a vintage theme, in keeping with the tourism that’s drawn by the National Historic Site on the edge of town. What they’ve done is similar to La Conner, Washington, but on a smaller scale. There are a number of heritage buildings nearby, including this church, where my family would often go for midnight mass on Christmas Eve.

I didn’t take many photos of the town’s buildings, but instead kept to the river, a nearby garden and the restored CN Station.

The smaller details caught my eye that day.

Driving into Fort Langley from Langley proper, the outskirts seem just as they were when I was young, but on the other side of town, condo developments are being erected. It seems a shame, so close to the centre of town. It’s so lovely otherwise.

Garden Grows

July 19, 2011July 20, 2011 ~ Teresa ~ 16 Comments

I’ve been spending some time in my garden, watching over the vegetables in my raised bed, adding a few plants to the flower beds, and (above all) weeding. There’s still a lot to do, but here are a few photos from my backyard, carefully composed to avoid showing the areas that need the most work!

Travelling at Home

July 12, 2011May 4, 2014 ~ Teresa ~ 8 Comments

This summer seems especially full of community events. Part of it is Vancouver’s125th Birthday, with events like this past weekend’s Summer Live. Another part of it is that there’s been a groundswell of community creativity around public events that’s been supported by the current City government. Organizations like Vancouver Public Space Network, websites like Vancouver is Awesome, and initiatives like Car-Free Vancouver are helping to drive this movement. Public Dreams pioneered such community-making, espousing a grassroots ethos that includes making these events free of charge.

I think this atmosphere is inspiring traditional institutions like Tourism Vancouver to follow suit. This May, they ran a promotion of local attractions called Be a Tourist in Your Own Town, which was open only to residents of Greater Vancouver. Each day of the promotion, residents could download coupons good for a range of destinations around Greater Vancouver, ranging from the well-known to the obscure.

I managed to take advantage of two of the offers, admission to Vancouver Lookout and Dr. Sun Yat Sen Chinese Garden. The first was one I’d never considered, while the second was a chance to re-visit one of Vancouver’s treasures.

Vancouver Lookout sits atop Harbour Centre’s tower, which was Vancouver’s tallest building until 2009. It still gives a clear 360° view, looking out over downtown, the west and east ends of town, and toward the North Shore. Even on a rainy day, the views were compelling. It made for a nice exercise – trying to identify our neighbourhood from that height and distance; seeing the roofs of most of the downtown’s buildings; getting an aerial view across the water.

I went to Dr. Sun Yat Sen Gardens on another grey day, but the rain held until near the end of my visit. The Vancouver Tourism offer coincided with the garden’s 25th Anniversary celebration, so we were treated to tours, activities and goodies. I loved watching the koi feed, hearing the history of the garden, and contemplating the symbolism of elements in the scholar’s garden. The garden is not just a contemplative space, providing a venue for theatre, music and conferences.

I try to approach living in this region, where I grew up, in the same way I do unfamiliar places. Looking at one’s home through traveller’s eyes means trying to discover both the surprising and delightful, along with what’s most authentic. But tourism has its rewards, too. Thanks Tourism Vancouver, for reminding me of that.

A Little Practice

May 31, 2011 ~ Teresa ~ 3 Comments

As I told you last week, this weekend I attended a day-long photography workshop. My partner gave it to me as a birthday present, which was both sweet and perfect. The instructor was a hobbyist photographer called Alastair Macleod, who started exploring photography as a way to improve his skills for his film industry work. He is an enthusiastic instructor, who is knowledgeable about the technical requirements for good photography, but really shone when reviewing our images.

At the break, he sent us out into the neighbourhood to take photos and we spent the bulk of the class looking at each other’s results and in demonstrations of particular techniques. I made the bulk of my photos that day with my digital camera on manual, playing with the different settings. This is something I always felt comfortable doing with my film SLRs, but for some reason, have avoided with my digital camera.

The best place to take photos turned out to be the classroom itself. It obviously hadn’t been remodelled in decades and its desks, shelves and blackboards seemed to be at least 30 years old. The smell of chalk dust and ink overlaid everything with a feeling of nostalgia, too.

I’ve got a long way to go before I’m happy with my photographic results, but it’s good to be reminded how rewarding experimentation can be and how working with others can help you improve.

What You See and What You Get

May 24, 2011May 4, 2014 ~ Teresa ~ 9 Comments

I have a couple of film SLR cameras that I’ve used for years and love dearly. I don’t shoot film very often these days, but I feel more comfortable using them than I do my not-too-shabby, slightly-better-than-a-point-and-shoot digital camera. (I know that it’s a commonplace that the best camera is the one you have with you, but there’s something to be said for lenses that can be adjusted by hand.)

I’m trying to improve my digital photography, both on my iPhone and on my camera. To that end, I’ve started following The Daily Shoot on Twitter and am using their assignments to challenge me to improve my iPhone photography. So far, I’ve done two and have used Instagram filters on the images. I also have Hipstamatic on my phone and am interested in trying those filters, too. I hope that some images will be compelling enough to stand on their own, as well. The photo at the top of the post is the Instagram version. Here’s the original:

I like this version, too, but I’m enjoying the effects that the Instagram program brings. I often don’t manipulate my photos very much, mostly just to compensate for those times when I rely on my in camera flash. I’m curious to know which of these images you like better. I also would like to know how you feel about photo editing in general – do you see it as a further expression of your creativity, a necessary evil, a cheat? If you use any photo editing programs, what are your favourites?

Next week, I’ll tell you about a day-long photo workshop I’m attending, in hopes of upping my game with my camera.

Social Media from the Roots – Northern Voice 2011

May 17, 2011March 14, 2015 ~ Teresa ~ 4 Comments

I’m good at figuring things out and learning things on my own, but I like taking classes and learning in a group environment. It not only exposes you to the knowledge of instructors and other students, but I also find my own thoughts and ideas quickening when I’m sharing them with others. So, when I started this blog, I knew at some point I’d want to do some learning away from my computer screen.

This weekend, I did just that. Northern Voice is a social media conference based in Vancouver and is in its seventh year. The conference is organized by volunteers and has a grassroots ethos to it. You won’t find corporate swag bags, but you will find media professionals, artists, amateurs and enthusiasts gathering to learn from each other. The participants are drawn mostly from around BC, as well as the Pacific Northwest in the US.

I knew that I was going to like this conference as soon as Day One’s keynote speaker began her presentation. April Smith of AHA Media spoke about using social media to democratize media and to provide coverage of Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside as a member of the community. Beginning a conference with such a dynamic, grassroots perspective is so different from what professional/corporate events provide. It’s a much needed perspective.

Day Two’s keynote speaker was Chris Wilson of Google. His presentation was well-tailored to the audience, too, bringing a technological perspective to the idea that the social media and blogging worlds cater to the long tail of interests – there’s room for a lot of diversity in these spheres.

Highlights from Day One:

The Courting Controversy session:
Don’t be controversial for its own sake, because you’ll be called on to back up your claims.

Photocamp:
– Leah Gregg’s photos
– Roland Tanglao’s exhortation to shoot daily
– Jeremy Lim’s advice to shoot less so you can notice more

Communities that Rock:
There was more information in this session than a newish blogger like me could even get down on paper, but what stuck with me most was that you need to work at making your blog visually appealing, giving your readers opportunities to interact beyond comments and keeping your blog posts fresh by varying form and content.

Highlights from Day Two:

Grassroots Campaigns
It was fascinating to hear the evolution of the presenters’ various social media and offline campaigns.
– Keeping your message simple, then translating the interest and support into offline actions is key
– Complexity can come later
– Simplicity doesn’t have to cancel out diversity

Looking Through the Lens
Alan Levine led us through a presentation of gorgeous photos and discussed the impact of aperture, shutter speed and ISO on photo quality. He also encouraged us to shoot daily, through communities like The Daily Shoot, which provide feedback as well as incentive.

DS106
The DS106 Radio crew took a university course and turned it into a Wild West of internet radio experimentation. Great storytelling.

Awesome-izing Your Podcast
v, an experienced broadcaster, gave us a wealth of information on best podcasting practices. What it boiled down to, though, was creating a sense of intimacy in your recordings.

I encourage you to click through to the Northern Voice conference schedule link at the top of the post – there were many more sessions and the schedule has lots of links to the fantastic presenters’ sites.

And lest you think it was all session and no play, I’ll leave you with a photo from the wine tasting room.

At a Walk

April 10, 2011May 4, 2014 ~ Teresa ~ 18 Comments

In a plane, geography becomes a physical reality; you can see the contours of a topographical map come alive. Travelling by train or taking a car on a freeway, you can track the differences between regions as you move through them. Cycling gives you control of your explorations of a city, allowing you to move from neighbourhood to neighbourhood without reference to the routes set for buses and cars. It’s walking (or scooting or however you locomote), though, that is the method scaled best to our bodies. As Rebecca Solnit says in Wanderlust: A History of Walking, “[w]alking itself is the intentional act closest to the unwilled rhythms of the body, to breathing and the beating of the heart.” What I especially love about walking, though, is how much I notice. Even lost in thought, there’s plenty of time for awareness of your immediate surroundings to sink in and allow you to make discoveries that you’d surely miss if you were moving any faster.

I love walking long distances, by city standards. When my partner and I first started dating, he lived near Commercial Drive and I lived in Kitsilano. I’d often walk the seven or so kilometres to his place, or back to mine. So, when I heard that Automattic was inviting WordPress users to blog about a five kilometre walk/run on the same day, I decided that it was high time to visit Burnaby Heights again. I lived there when I was a student, before I moved to Commercial Drive the first time. It’s actually a lot like the Drive.

I started my walk at Victoria Park, at the corner of Kitchener and Victoria to be precise. I made my way over to Charles Street and followed it to the pedestrian overpass near Rupert Park. Then, I made my way north and east until I reached the corner of Willingdon and East Hastings. It’s probably a bit more than five kilometres, actually.

I spent a little time exploring Burnaby Heights, which has been largely redeveloped, both commercially and residentially. Some things remain the same, though. I was happy to discover that one of our favourite student hang outs, Cafe Classico, was still there, serving good lattes and tiramisu – both of which I was in need of before making my way back home, this time sticking close to Hastings on the northern side streets.

My bare bones description doesn’t do justice to the afternoon’s walk, though. Nor do the photos I took. I walked on streets I knew and ones I didn’t, discovering gardens, parks and architecture I’d never seen before. My walking companion was my dog, Roxy, and we had encounters with dogs, birds and people along the way. A walk isn’t simply exercise and it’s not just a method of getting from one place to another. What you see, do and think while walking are as much a part of a walk as any health benefits or practical concerns can be.