Another walk in the (gorgeous) park.

I’ve spoken about it on a few other pages, but my new travel strategy is to hit as many attractions/destinations as possible when in a new location, as opposed to wandering streets on foot looking for street photography. It’s worked out very well so far, and that includes this first day in Vancouver. Friends like to offer travel suggestions, which is natural, but to be honest, my method for navigating a new destination is simply Google. “Things to do in ___________…” and after that long list with accompanying photographs comes up, I simply scroll and see what I like. I make a list in my Notes app and try to hit as many of the items on the list as possible. I arrived at the 130 acre park, opened in 1939, just before sunset and that was perfect timing. This is something about travel that I am not tiring of; I’ve seen many different parks and gardens at this point in many international cities, but I still love wandering in nature. It’s very peaceful

I’ll probably caption a few of the images, but highlights of Queen Elizabeth Park include:

The Quarry Gardens.
The Bloedel Observatory. I enjoyed getting some details of it’s geometric dome.
Some back-lit blue globe thistles. You’ll know which ones they are. I share an abundance of images of them.

Lastly, I have to speak about the final attraction I visited at the Park, and spent some really quality time photographing and enjoying. It was a stainless steel sculpture entitled, “Love in the Rain,” by artist Bruce Voyce. It is a brilliant piece of art that embraces the idea of love locks. I first saw them in Paris and have seen them in other cities, but couples in love attach a standard padlock to bridges or fences with their names or initials as a way to publicly profess their love for one another. It’s a sweet gesture, but one that’s ultimately seen as an annoyance by most local municipalities. Sadly, the locks are usually cut away. Love in the Rain features four “couples” embracing underneath umbrellas. The wirey structure is meant for padlocks to be attached. How clever. There was something very endearing and attractive about it. Was it strange to feel a sense of intimacy between these inanimate medal object? I don’t know. Maybe not. That was the artist’s goal, right? I enjoyed capturing many images of the work.

[Also, of course, thanks to it being sunset, I had to spend some time doing my best Michael Bay impression. I admit, I’m a fan of the blockbuster action director. A recurring image in his films is a close up of two characters kissing (or nearly kissing) while a strong back light bursts through the frame between them. My origin story for discovering my love for film and cinematography is actually thanks to one of those images. I was 17 years old on a History class field trip to see Pearl Harbor. We were sitting in the third row of the theatre, almost underneath the screen, so there was absolutely no where to hide from the scale of Bay’s film. There is a scene where Kate Beckinsale and Ben Affleck abscond to share a moment just off the deck of the RMS Queen Mary. They kiss, and the close up is exactly as I described. In that one shot I understood silhouette, back light and soft light and understood the emotional effect it was having on me. Like a lot of suburban kids I grew up on movies and had plenty of favorites, but Pearl Harbor was the first one where its cinematography stood out to me as a separate part of the film. It was bold, high contrast, colorful. If you freeze some of the frames you just say, “man, that’s a cool photograph.” ]

If you make it to Vancouver, I highly recommend Queen Elizabeth Park: