Photography – Page 10 – Nicolas Demers

Ode To A Juvenile Bald Eagle I Saw Perched By The SeaBus Terminal Friday Morning

O little Bald Eagle
(Well, not that little, you might have been three feet long)
I saw you from the escalator as I exited the train
Just sitting there, huddled against the rain
Quietly looking around
At everything and nothing

I wasn’t even sure what species you were at first
Since your plumage was dark brown with
A few white spots around the head and back
But the only big raptors around here are Bald Eagles
And seagulls for instance take a year or more to grow their adult colours
So it was a pretty safe bet
Later I googled “juvenile bald eagle” and there you were

Your beak so sharp, your eyes so bright
Elegant lethal beauty
Grace and power I can only dream of
Even if I could have gotten closer I wouldn’t have dared
Afraid you’d fly away
(And, just a little bit, afraid you’d attack me)

No one else looked at you
A vision for my eyes only
A special gift

I was glad
I paid attention

I should be doing a poetry post…

…this being National Poetry Month and all. But as I said last year, I just don’t read much poetry, and what with being insanely busy at work (in a good way, though) I honestly haven’t been inspired to read any, though apparently I have enough energy for supremely long run-on sentences that overuse adverbs terribly.

But behold, I bring you instead some more commuting photos.

But behold, I bring you instead some more commuting photos. Who needs mere human words when you can let Nature herself weave her spell?

And it’s that time of year, too. The days are warmer, the cherry trees are blooming… Who knows? Maybe you’ll get a haiku or two before the month’s out.

The Dying of the Light

A couple of sunset shots for your pleasure.

A couple of sunset shots for your enjoyment.

Looking down Cambie St. at a sunset reflected off a Yaletown highrise.

Taken from English Bay Beach last Friday night.

Fog, Fish and Old-Time Photos

This has been a pretty interesting weekend. On Leap Friday I almost went skiing. A couple of friends and I had planned it in advance, but the weather turned out to be too warm. It was raining in the city, and even on top of Seymour it wasn’t much more than heavy, wet snow. But that was nothing compared to the killer fog. Seriously, the drive up (and back down) was harrowing; without those little reflector thingies in the middle of the road, I’m sure we would have either crashed or plunged to our deaths a dozen times.

So we just went back to hang out at their place and watch anime.

Saturday was my first Taiji class in over a month. What with one thing and another, either the class was canceled or I couldn’t make it. It felt good to practice again and (bonus!) work on the staff form.

Sunday? Five hours of volleyball. And a special challenge as I got to play Setter for the first time in… well, ever. I wasn’t very good at it, sad to say, as I kept drifting back to the Middle position. But after a few games I got a little better; and I also got newfound respect for that position. I knew it was the hardest to play, but damn.

Monday, I had off. And I had a choice to make: should I sleep in, then veg around all day? It was tempting, especially since I’d recently bought the Little Britain DVD set. But no, I was going to enrich my mind. So I took the train as usual, and spent the rest of the morning at the Aquarium. I hadn’t been in ages, and it was great to get reacquainted with the froggies and the fishies and the anemones and the alligator and the sea otters (OMG SO CUTE!!!) and the belugas and the dolphins.

The bad weather put the kibosh to my plan to walk along the seawall, so I came back downtown and visited the Art Gallery. Did you know, the place isn’t just for political rallies? That they use it to actually display art? It’s true! Seriously, though, this first ever visit to the gallery was wonderful. I especially enjoyed TruthBeauty, an exhibition on the Pictorialist movement. I think what captivated me was the Pictorialists’ exploration of this brand-new medium, experimenting with mood and composition—just as I am myself doing, though part of me feels like a rank amateur compared to these past masters.

No, don’t mind me. This is just something that’s been percolating for a while; I’m looking for… inspiration, I guess, different directions, in my photography, but I don’t know where to look. Maybe the Pictorialists will give me a clue. In the meantime, I’ll just keep my eyes open and my camera ready.

I saw the lunar eclipse

… and it wasn’t what I expected. Then again, I didn’t really know what to expect, since I’d never seen a lunar eclipse and wasn’t too clear on the actual mechanics. So the dark red moon, covered by a fuzzy circular shadow, took me a bit by surprise.

… and it wasn’t what I expected. Then again, I didn’t really know what to expect, since I’d never seen a lunar eclipse before and wasn’t too clear on the actual mechanics. So the dark red moon, covered by a fuzzy circular shadow, took me a bit by surprise. I was like, “Whoah! Did the Apocalypse start already?… oh, right, the eclipse. Cool!”

I was lucky. The sky was clear (a miracle for Vancouver at this time of year!) and I had to work late, which means I saw the bloody eclipse on the way home. Otherwise, I hate to say it probably would have slipped my mind. I got home a little late (around 8PM, the moon was just coming out of totality), but that didn’t stop me from grabbing my tripod and looking for a relatively dark spot. You can see Saturn to the left, and Regulus above.

Last month’s photos

I’ve just posted a little medley of pictures I took over the month of January. Enjoy!

First post!

…of the year, that is.

Okay, it’s been almost a month. What have I been up to, you ask?

…of the year, that is.

Okay, it’s been almost a month. What have I been up to, you ask?

Well, I spent 10 days in Ottawa and Montreal, visiting family. I saw Mamma Mia! at the National Arts Centre, which was awesome. Yeah, it was a pretty threadbare plot, little more than an excuse to string together two dozen ABBA songs, but that’s exactly what I signed up for, so that’s all right. I visited my brother for New Year’s, as per tradition. I was actually there for a couple of days, and had the chance to explore the city a bit. With a borrowed Metro pass (thanks, Laurie!) I first swung by Île-Sainte-Hélène, then wandered around downtown snapping pictures of churches and interesting buildings. Unfortunately, this being New Year’s Eve, a lot of places were closed. Now I won’t get to see if the Museum of Contemporary Art would have been worth the detour. Boo. On the bright side, I learned something about French-Canadian martyrs.

Oh, and I finished Les Misérables. Yeah, it only took me… what, nine months? But it was worth the effort. To be honest, I’m still in the process of digesting it. I think what I loved best about it was how it made history come alive. All I remember from studying the early 19th century in school is a bunch of dates: Napoleon, Waterloo, Louis XVIII, Charles X, this Republic, that Empire… but Hugo gives context and depth to those numbers, by going on about slang, fashion, popular culture, local history and various fascinating trivia that ties everything together. Les Misérables is the story of Paris as much as that of Jean Valjean, Cosette, Javert and Thénardier. More so, maybe; they’re the lens through which the reader experiences the revolutions and wars and proto-socialism and all the other crazy, exciting events of the era. In fact, they may be no more than symbols of different aspects of French society; the misérable who found a way out, did good, and died well (Valjean); the misérable who was irredeemably bad, kept abusing his fellow human beings in spite of numerous chances to mend his ways, and ended up settling in America to become a slave trader (Thénardier); the incarnation of Law, harsh and absolute, who couldn’t go on when faced with the truth that shades of grey existed.

Yeah. Still digesting.

And it’s a brand new year, with a brand new job. Yes, I was laid off last November. (Which, now that I think about it: it is just me, or are people more likely to be laid off after long weekends? Because I was laid off just after Remembrance Day. The time before that, after Labour Day. And before that, Thanksgiving.) And this new job is Web development, which is something I’ve been wanting to get into for a while.

2008 should be interesting. I’ve… had a lot of stuff happen to me in the last couple of years, a lot of it painful, most of it growthful. Haven’t blogged about it, ain’t gonna. But the point is, though I’m still in a period of transition, I feel that I’ve reached a turning point, and my life is finally on track. Yes, 2008 should definitely be an interesting year.

“i used to <3 life.”

Thanksgiving photos are coming soon. Meantime, here’s what you might call an anti-Thanksgiving photo. I saw this graffiti for the first time as the train pulled into Waterfront station, and took this photo during lunch.

Enjoy. Or, not.

Giving Thanks For Whistler

Boo on me. Working so hard on my blog & gallery redesign that I totally forgot to write about Thanksgiving. And it was pretty special, since I spent it in Whistler with a few close friends. Just one day (Sunday afternoon to Monday afternoon), but it was a hell of a day.

The good omens started on the drive up. It had been raining for a few days, but the weather was just then clearing up. Which meant dozens of gorgeous rainbows lining Highway 99. The first almost took my breath away, and it took all my concentration to keep my eyes on the road. Over the next couple of hours, I did get a little more used to them—and the gorgeous scenery I hadn’t seen in a while.

Then dinner, walking around a bit, and hanging out, then off to bed.

Monday promised to be clear, so I set my alarm for 6:00 to get some sunrise pics… forgetting the crucial detail that Whistler is surrounded by mountains. At 6AM it was still mostly dark, nowhere near actual sunrise. Oh well. So I wandered around, took some nice photos of Whistler in the early morning fog, went back to my room, tried to get back to sleep, couldn’t, went out again and finally saw a good sunrise over Blackcomb Mountain around 9AM. Then a few minutes later the fog came back in and hid it. Boo.

We had breakfast, walked around Whistler for a bit, then spontaneously decided to go up Whistler Mountain. What a difference 2 months makes! The last (and first) time I was there in 2003, it was August. Now snow covered the whole mountain (enough for at least one small avalanche), the hiking trails were closed, and I was kind of freezing. Sure, I was dressed warm, but obviously not enough for the mountain. Still: we kept moving, admired the scenery—and it was breathtakingly gorgeous with the fog-slash-clouds playing around the many mountains whose names I never bother to learn. Oh, and on the way down, we caught a glimpse of a mother bear out with two cubs.

We had an early turkey dinner, because most of us had to go back to Vancouver. That evening I went to see Between Heaven and Earth, part of the VIFF lineup. Excellent movie, much better than what I expected. I thought it would be about the trials and tribulations of two families of wandering circus folks in Uzbekistan. And it is about their trials, but so much more than that. The circus people are not passive recipients, they’re involved in their community, and even in national politics. There’s issues of tradition vs. modernity, faith and religion, and the greater social/economic picture of Uzbekistan. Great stuff, stark and troubling at times, but not sensationalistic.

Riding The Rails

16:59. I sit on the train, looking out at the water and the mountains. As we come up to Second Narrows, I see dozens of crows flying about and perching on the trees. Yep, it’s that time of day. Hi, guys. Long time no see.

I was laid off last September, and spent the next few months looking for work. I haven’t written about it because… well, it just wasn’t that exciting to live through, and wouldn’t have been much fun to write about. Maybe some other time. But all’s well that ends well, and I’m again gainfully employed. This is the fourth week of my new job, and it’s been pretty interesting so far. A different culture (much larger and established company), different technologies, and a different routine, which honestly I’m still adjusting to. But on the whole it’s a positive experience, and part of that is my commute: for my new job is downtown, which means taking the West Coast Express.

And this train kicks so much ass. No more fighting rush hour traffic, all by myself in my car. I can relax, sit down, buy a muffin, listen to my iPod and read (or I would, if I weren’t so prone to motion sickness) and/or chat with friends and coworkers. And I’m magically whisked from the boonies to downtown (and back again, in the evening) in just over half an hour.

Best of all, I get to see the sights. Part of me feels like a tourist discovering Vancouver for the first time. Some things I’m familiar with: Burrard Inlet shrouded in early-morning fog; the North Shore mountains topped with snow, tinged orange-pink in the sunrise; the twinkly lights of North Vancouver. But I’m close to the water, and there are things I get to see close up, or from a different perspective. The ducks on the shore, completely unafraid of the big noisy metal thing rushing by. Passing under the Second Narrows Bridge. The big-ass cranes in the harbour, surrounded by containers from all over the world. The old sugar refinery, which for the longest time I thought was abandoned. The West Coast Reduction plant. The Shellburn Oil Refinery with its tall chimneys next to Burnaby Mountain. The sulfur storage facilities in Port Moody—which as far as I can tell consists only of honkin’ great piles of sulfur amidst the machinery. I’m not even clear how they transport it to and from the place. It has to be by train, though, since I can see streaks and piles of bright yellow on parallel tracks for a couple of miles westward.

Great stuff. Maybe I’ll get jaded someday, but right now it’s all new and fascinating.

Mind you, I also get to see decaying, graffiti’d building fronts as we get nearer downtown, with homeless people peeing in corners or sleeping in doorways. I’ve seen those sights enough times walking down Granville Street or driving through the East Side. It’s not all pretty scenery or productive industry. But, that’s part of my city too, and I won’t ignore it.