skyline

Downtown Vancouver and Earth’s Shadow

Earth’s shadow (the Belt of Venus) behind downtown Vancouver’s Canada Place and the Trade and Convention Center building in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

earths shadow belt of venus behind canada place in vancouver british columbia

Vancouver’s Canada Place and the Belt of Venus (Purchase)

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   A few weeks ago I was in Stanly Park again photographing downtown Vancouver near sunset. There wasn’t great light for sunset, and the blue hour photos I made that night were okay, but didn’t surpass my previous photos of downtown Vancouver in those conditions. I was able to photograph what I had only previously seen over mountains much further East – the Belt of Venus (aka the Earth’s Shadow) over downtown Vancouver. I enjoy this photograph because it is not quite like other photographs I’ve seen of Vancouver, and I like the soft colours in the sky.

   About an hour earlier I was watching the float planes land in Coal Harbour and decided to switch up from a wide angle lens to my 70-200 to try to catch one landing. As Canada Place seems to be well represented in a panoramic format, I stitched two exposures together to make the photograph below. This is a Whistler Air floatplane landing in Coal Harbour on its way to the Vancouver Harbour Water Airport (Vancouver Coal Harbour Seaplane Base).

tatoosh range and wildflower sunset panorama in mount rainier national park

A Whistler Air floatplane lands in the water of Coal Harbour next to Canada Place in Vancouver (Purchase)

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Downtown Vancouver Fall Panorama

A Panorama of downtown Vancouver including the Trade and Convention Center, Canada Place, and HMCS Discovery on Deadman’s Island – as seen from Stanley Park in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada

view of downtown vancouver and deadmans island after sunset from stanley park

Panorama of Downtown Vancouver and Deadman’s Island (Purchase)

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   Back in 2011 I was experimenting with various locations to find a good place to make panoramas of downtown Vancouver. This particular panorama was made from Stanley Park near the totem poles. My favourite panorama of Vancouver remains the blue hour photograph from a nearby location, however. I should try a blue hour photograph from this location but I normally try to avoid the floating gas station which bobs up and down and is troublesome during long exposures. The sky on this particular day had a bit too much grey in it for blue hour, however. I like the the nice maple fall colour foliage on Deadman’s Island and think it adds some interest beyond the city buildings.

If you enjoy panoramic images I have an entire gallery of panoramic images on my site. You can also click on the panorama or panoramic keywords at the bottom of this post to see the panorama blog posts.

 

Lights on the 5 Sails of Canada Place

Canada Place in Vancouver is now a trade and convention center, as well as a cruise ship port, but during Expo ’86 it was the Canadian Pavilion.

lights on the sails of canada place in vancouver, british columbia

Lights of Canada Place in Vancouver (Purchase)

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   I’ve always enjoyed the shape of the Canada Place building in downtown Vancouver. I remember it being one of the few distinctly shaped buildings in the 80’s (in addition to Harbour Center, Science World and BC Place). While Vancouver’s skyline has many new additions – Canada Place is still one of my favourites. Recently they replaced the covering on the 5 sails and projected images on them during the Olympics. Photographing them from Stanley Park I recently made this image of one of the various projected images currently on the sails. These change every few minutes or so – and sometimes this can cause some unwanted effects in a 30 second exposure! I was careful to make this image within just one variation in the lights. I like the various colour versions but this one is probably my favourite – the lights are relatively subtle.

   This is just one image from many I’ve recently added to my Vancouver Coast & Mountains Gallery.