08-12-18

simulacrum, what a wonderful word.

08-12-17

We're in a deep freeze in Vancouver with highs of minus five or so and lows into the negative teens. It's uncommon but not unusual I suppose. There's been snow on the ground for a few days now. I don't suspect many of the houses are designed for this kind of weather and despite where I live now being a relatively new building it gets cold here. There's no control of the thermostat, many conveniences of houses made of paper go wonky after a while and so has our furnace which is now turned on and off via an alligator clip on the side of the furnace itself which is buried in a basement suite separate from the part of the house I live in so to make things tolerable we have gas fireplaces which work surprisingly well.

But there I was with my camera in hand trying to get warm by the fire when I took this picture. Like I've said before, this blog isn't necessarily about "photography" but about pictures of things that catch my eye and there's nothing as universally hypnotic as flames.

08-12-16

08-12-15

More landscapes.

08-12-14

A rare daylight photo. With it getting dark at half past four and the shortest day of the year yet to come it can be a challenge to find the time during the day to take a photograph.

08-12-13

08-12-12

08-12-11

08-12-10

Italmanubri has been making stems and handlebars for bicycles for a long long time now. This past summer they announced they would be closing their doors as they could no longer be competitive in today's market. They made some of the most beautiful bike parts available. This is the last of the forged stems they continued to make right up until calling it quits. They didn't disappear because they were making outdated or antiquated bike parts, they also made some of the lightest and most advanced carbon fiber and magnesium bars and stems available today. I believe the ITM "THE STEM" that they produced five or six years ago is still the lightest stem ever available for a bicycle. But this one, the forged one, it's beautiful enough to want to get a bike to go with it.

08-12-9

08-12-8

I actually took 29 pictures today. This is one of them.

08-12-7

08-12-6

Looks easy, doesn't it?

08-12-5

08-12-4

When he bought the steel toed boots it was less about protecting his toes specifically and more about creating a barrier between himself and the rest of the world.

08-12-3

It's almost like aliens were landing across the street to pick up some sushi from The Sushi Bar. But really, it's just the sun making a rare appearance in December. The last time I lived in Vancouver there were a record number of sunny days through the winter. I suspect this year we may break that record, there have been a surprising number of days where the sky is blue and I am thankful that my windows face south and there isn't a six story condo across the street.

08-12-2

It was a late night doing paperwork. And then I looked over in the corner at the pile of discarded paper in a pile. I filled in a questionnaire tonight about what being a "green" company meant and then there was this pile of paper being tossed. Of course within that there's this natural beauty that results simply as an aside to what's happening in a context. It's a reduction of elements, an abstraction of months of work, an artifact of a going concern. It's proof. It will be swept away or discarded, I mean, it can't sit delicately in a pile at the bottom of the stairs for too long, and that's fine. "Proof" seems to always be temporary.

I think I'll take a picture of my boots tomorrow.

08-12-1

I took this photo with my "good" camera and I think it's inspired me to drop the point and shoot and just use the good camera. The little one has its spots for sure, but it usually leaves me grinding my teeth when looking at the full resolution images.

This is 6th Ave in Vancouver. Its trees are twisted and covered in a type of green that 5th and 7th Ave trees aren't. I would like to know the story behind that one day.

08-11-30

It's amazing how concrete can soar so lightly and elegantly through the air.

08-11-29

The problem with propping up a camera on rocks and pebbles on the ground is it's difficult to get the horizon horizontal. But it's also nice that in the heart of a city with something like a million people you can walk along an entire edge of the waterfront and hardly see a soul. Not far from this part of the walk they are building the Olympic Village which is supposed to house up to 36000 people in a couple of years which, as someone who comes from a town of 6000, blows my mind. I don't know if introducing that many people to the waterfront will affect how it feels to walk along it at night. My experience is that people mostly buy access to a lifestyle but rarely live it so those that can afford those housing units will likely stay comfortably warm watching their big screen televisions rather than venture out into cold misty nights to walk along the water. At least I hope so.