Photos and images from British Columbia, Canada including Vancouver, the Fraser Valley, and the Thompson Okanagan
Wildflowers in the fields of Kekuli Bay Provincial Park on the shore of Kalamalka Lake in British Columbia’s Okanagan region.
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In May of this year I ventured into the BC interior. This is a morning view from Kekuli Bay Provincial Park at Kalamalka Lake.
Eureka Falls flows into Silverhope Creek just outside the Silver Lake Provincial Park boundary.
I am not completely sure that the name Eureka Falls is the official name of this waterfall, but I had seen it called Eureka Falls in a few places before naming it such here. I’ve asked a few people how they came by the name when I saw them use it and they cited ME as where they got the name. I guess this is how names of things get started!
These first two photos came from my first attempt at using my new ND filter (B+W 77mm #106 Neutral Density 1.8). Very glad I added this filter to my bag!
The overcast yet bright evening gave me great lighting for these shots. The waterfall pictured is Eureka Falls (or IS it? 😉 ).
View from Morris Valley Road of the Harrison River area of British Columbia.
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A panorama on the edge of Morris Valley Road just north of Harrison Mills. A great place to watch salmon spawn in the creeks and rivers nearby. More on that later. 🙂
Brandywine Falls is a 70 meter (230 feet) waterfall north of Squamish on Hwy 99.
The Stawamus Chief is the second largest granite monolith in the world (after El Capitan in Yosemite National Park). Probably why my Geology Professor dragged us out there and tried to make what is a spectacular sight uninteresting.
The sun disappears behind Alpha Mountain and Mt. Dione in the Tantalus Range
Howe Sound Sunset with Anvil Island in the foreground.
A Honeybee (Apis mellifera) drinking water from the edge of a cement bird bath.
I have occasionally seen the odd honey bee drinking water from the edge of the pond, and occasionally from the edge of the birdbath – but never en masse like they have this year. I don’t know if it is the nature of the summer weather, or the fact the neighbours have a beehive – but they have been there every day in numbers for most of the last few months. I got the tripod and my macro lens in very close to them and aside from a few buzzing around my head they didn’t much care I was there. At least they sit still on the birdbath relative to on the flowers.
Sun shines through the leaves of a Bigleaf Maple on the beach at Chilliwack Lake in British Columbia’s Chilliwack Provincial Park.
Some fall color at Chilliwack Lake. The mountain at the end of the lake is Mt Redoubt, but is actually in North Cascades National Park in Washington State.
Hope Mountain reflected on Silver Lake in Silver Lake Provincial Park, just outside of Hope, BC.
I had arrived at Silver Lake (in Silver Lake Provincial Park) just after passing through Manning Provincial Park on the way home from my trip to Kelowna. Earlier in the year I had visited there on a fairly rainy, bad weather day but noticed potential in Hope Mountain to nicely reflect in the lake. So I thought I’d drive by having passed through the rain storms in Manning to see what I could find. I had not intended on staying long, as I’d done about 13 hours on the road that day after 14 the day before. I wound up spending a few hours in this area photographing both the lake, the peaks, and trying out my new ND filter on Silverhope Creek.
Had the opportunity today to photograph the 2010 Olympic Torch Relay in Aldergrove, BC.. There hasn’t been a torch relay through here since the 1988 Calgary Olympics and I don’t remember all that much about the brief glimpse I saw of them running by in the dark 22 years ago. However, I had the perfect lens (a Canon EF 70-200mm f/4L IS USM) for this and Aldergrove is not one of the centres where I expected a ton of people to show up. I also studied the route map so that I could get in and out fairly quickly – and even catch the torch twice on its Aldergrove journey.
Initially I had picked a spot along the route that apparently was well before the actual start point. This resulted in some quick running down the street as all the official torch relay trucks/support vehicles sailed on by. This did allow me to watch the torch being lit for this leg of its journey, however.
The torch is not run throughout the whole route – it gets a ride in one of the support motor homes. In the photos below you can see the small thermos sized lantern that carries the flame the rest of the time.
At this point I was able to turn and run through an apartment complex parking lot to Fraser Highway where the torch came around the corner and passed me again.
The highway was lined with a lot of people wearing red, and school children in red ponchos. I have no idea what this guy was wearing but it looked interesting.
This time we have a new Torch Bearer – Keary Bott.
The torch was followed by a school group with flags of the participating countries.
Further down the route towards 272nd Street there was a stage setup. Im glad I was able to avoid these crowds – I had enough issues with heads in the way when there were only dozens of people around the torch!
