burrard inlet

Vancouver Convention Centre

The Vancouver Convention Centre and the North Shore Mountains in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

vancouver convention center and the northshore mountains in british columbia canada

Vancouver Convention Center and the Northshore Mountains (Purchase)

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   Last week I traveled to Vancouver to photograph some of the downtown area as well as any potentially lingering cherry blossoms in Stanley Park. Stanley Park is often a relatively quick trip for me, even coming from the Fraser Valley, but this time it took me about 65 minutes to get from the Cambie Bridge into the park. Gridlock isn’t nearly as much fun as photography! When I finally got into Stanley Park I stopped at the first parking spot I came to, paid my exorbitant $13 for a few hours of parking, and went looking for blossoms. I didn’t find many, though the daffodils and some tulips looked great. After walking around Stanley Park for an hour (time never wasted) I went along the seawall to photograph Canada Place, the Vancouver Convention Centre, and anything else I found. Normally I have photographed those two buildings from Stanley Park but it was time for new perspectives.

   The first photograph here shows the view looking north from the sidewalk between the east side of the Vancouver Convention Centre and Canada Place. I liked this angle as it not only showed some of the form of the centre and placed it well in the usual backdrop familiar to those who have visited Vancouver – the North Shore Mountains and Burrard Inlet. The two main mountains you can see here in the background are Crown Mountain and Mount Fromme. Grouse Mountain is the one with the ski hill lights on it. The blue, teardrop shaped sculpture seen at the end of the building is another familiar thing to those visiting Vancouver – the raindrop!

vancouver convention center in the early evening as seen from canada place

Vancouver Convention Center and Coal Harbour (Purchase)

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   The Vancouver Convention Centre (formerly the Vancouver Convention & Exhibition Centre) opened in 2009. I have often referred to Canada Place as the Trade and Convention Center but after 2009 it is also known as the Vancouver Convention Centre East Building. During the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics the East Building was the press building for the games. A wide variety of events and conferences are held at the main building – when I was there last week the Vancouver Ted Talks were about to start.

   As I walked along the seawall at Coal Harbour I took note of some other angles that looked interesting. You’ll see more photographs from this area soon, but I wanted to concentrate on the main Convention Centre for this particular post. The second photograph here was made from the side of Canada Place, which offers good views in most directions and is a great vantage point to view the newer building.

For more photos of Vancouver buildings visit my Cities and Buildings Gallery.

View of Downtown Vancouver from North Van

Downtown Vancouver’s buildings at sunset as photographed from the Burrard Dry Dock Pier (near Londsdale Quay) in North Vancouver, British Columbia Canada.

downtown vancouver at sunset photographed from North Vancouver

Sunset Behind Downtown Vancouver (Purchase)

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   While I consider myself a landscape and nature photographer I do enjoy photographing almost anything – including cityscapes. I have photographed several panoramas of downtown Vancouver in the past, though most of these have been from various vantage points in Stanley Park and some from Kits Beach. I have been wanting to do the same from North Vancouver’s perspective and had the opportunity to do so a few weeks ago.

   I had spent the day photographing around North Vancouver in areas such as Maple Flats, Cates Park, and Deep Cove. When the light was running out at Deep Cove I determined that this would be a good chance to shoot the sunset and downtown Vancouver from somewhere in North Van. I had previously tried this at the dog park near the automall, but there always seems to be a large amount of barges and boats blocking the view from there. I’d heard that near Londsdale Quay would be a better spot, so I headed there from Deep Cove. There has been a lot of changes in that area since I was last there, so I had to find my way to various viewpoints in new ways. I wound up on the Burrard Dry Dock Pier (just east of Londsdale Quay) which offers a great view of downtown Vancouver. I was able to make some good photographs here including the one above. While I had to dodge the Seabus and a few other boats moving through the foreground (and their wakes) this turned out to be a great location to view Vancouver.

For more photographs of downtown Vancouver visit my Cities and Buildings Gallery.

Cruise Ship Docked in Vancouver

The Princess Cruises ship Golden Princess docked at Canada Place in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

princess cruise ship docked in vancouver

Cruise ship docked at Canada Place in Vancouver, BC

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   Recently I have been going through my archive of photographs and editing a few I missed, and re-editing a few that showed promise but I didn’t do a good enough job of processing years ago. This is a photograph I shot in 2007 but I simply didn’t know how to stitch a panorama at the time. I liked it enough when I came across it the other day to process it now. This is the cruise ship terminal in Vancouver next to Canada Place. The ship is the Princess Cruises Golden Princess which at this time was about to head back to Seattle. If you look at the larger version you can see the Helijet flying past near the stern of the ship.

Downtown Vancouver Panorama

panorama of downtown vancouver including canada place and the new convention center - seaplane terminal

Panorama of Downtown Vancouver from Stanley Park

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   I have not posted a large panorama in a while. This is a 14 exposure panorama of the iconic view of downtown Vancouver from Stanley Park. Canada Place is the building on the right and is used for convention center space. The next building is the new Convention Center. Next to the Convention Center is the 2010 Olympics torch (you can just see the top of it) and then we have the Seaplane Terminal. I was in the park looking for fall colors, and was initially attracted to this scene due to the great leaf color on the right hand side near the seaplane terminal. I made another row of photos to catch more of the buildings but the light had changed in the 3-4 minutes from the first exposure and the result was not pretty. So I only included the lower row. I’m going to have to get better with my timing or just work faster next time!

North Vancouver Sulphur Works Panorama

Night panorama of the North Vancouver Sulphur Works from Stanley Park, Vancouver, British Columbia

panorama of the north vancouver sulphur works from stanley park

North Vancouver Sulphur Works

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Panorama of the North Vancouver Sulphur Works from Stanley Park in Vancouver, BC.

I have always liked the view of the North Vancouver Sulphur Works from Stanley Park – especially at night. Always reminds me of a roller coaster that just dumps passengers into Burrard Inlet. I have an earlier panorama from this location in Stanley Park but it is not nearly as clear – owing to my old shaky tripod and lack of techniques such as a shutter release and mirror lockup.