Vancouver Trip

[dtrayers]

I recently got back from my trip to Vancouver, BC. What a great city! I took over 500 pictures with my G3.

Here's a link to a few pics: http://home.attbi.com/~dtrayers/vancouver/html/index.htm

The weather was a light rain off and on most of the week. There were enough breaks to go out and take some pictures in Stanley Park and around the waterfront. My hotel was right near the yacht club and marina.

I was able to take one day and hop the ferry to Vancouver Island, Buchart Gardens and Victoria. It was a high overcast with no rain that day, great for taking pictures of flowers.

My wife is a master gardener, so I was instructed to document as much of Buchart as I could. Most of my photos are closeups of flowers and planting beds.

Anyway, on the advice of several forum members, I purchased the Bogen-Manfrotto 714B. Highly recommended! It sets up quick and is fairly light. I added a 3299 quick release plate which didn't add much weight. I've grown so accustomed to it, I found myself using it yesterday taking snapshots of my daughters piano recital. Thanks for the advice all!

Here's a little trick I used to keep the camera dry in the light rain. I got a lighweight plastic bag and screwed it between the 52mm adapter and a 52mm UV filter. I then cut away the plastic inside the adapter under the filter. That made a 'window' in the bag. It worked really well. The pic's a little blurry. Shows how sensitive the focus is at macro distances:

http://home.attbi.com/~dtrayers/photos/rainbag.jpg

Anyway, I've got a lot of cataloguing to do in Photoshop Album!

[lasercomp]

Your 3 pics are beautiful. I especially like the waterful shot. Wonderful clarity and the silky water makes the photo. The frame you made looks nice also. Did you make the frame in Elements yourself or is there a template to make the frame?

[dtrayers]

Thanks for the complements.

The frames are simple. After making all your adjustments, flatten the image and make a selection of the background layer about 100 pixels inside of the perimeter (select all, modify/border/1 pixel, invert selection, modify/contract/100 pixels) and copy that to a new layer. Apply a Gaussian blur to the background layer and add an inner ridge layer style to the copied layer.

I can't take credit for this kind of frame, I read it somewhere, but can't remember where.

[G3Hawaii]

Beautiful shots! How long was the exposure for the waterfall?

[G3Hawaii]

Beautiful shots! How long was the exposure for the waterfall?

[Beth]

Wow!!! What a fantastic shot of the waterfall! I was in Vancouver for the first time in April and went to Stanley Park also! But it was rainy and dreary. did not get over to Victoria Island, but will next year and can't wait to take my G3!

[PFlor]

Great shots. I really liked the panorama. I hope to do the same when I visit my sister in Vancouver in the near future.

[saqib]

wow i love the panorama - what did you use to stitch all the photos together?

thanks for sharing :)

[BartS]

Very nice pictures, nice colours in the garden pics.
I like the trick with the plastic bag, thanks for sharing! I've been messing with loose plastic bags before, or taped it to the Lensmate, but this is much simpler.

And Saqib: it says Canon Photostitch below the picture ;-)

[saqib]

hehehe i was too busy scrolling right and left that i forgot to scroll down :)

thanks bart :)

[dtrayers]

G3Hawaii,

The waterfall was 0.6 seconds at f/8.0

[getg3]

dtrayers,

Nice pics. Hope you can post more pictures.:)

[Dougery]

Great tip on the "bag" technique. I do a lot of paddling and have been looking into water resistant bags, but this looks simple and cheap!!

BTW, great photo's of BC. I love it up there.

[ranjanpa]

Can u explain the border stuff again as it is cool. I tried to follow your instructions but i am a novice. Can u once again tell the steps to create that border.

Thank you
Ranjan

[billdcat]

Nice photos! As a long time Vancouverite I must admit that there are lots of good opportunities for photos around here. Glad you enjoyed it here!

BTW, if you ever return, the west coast of Vancouver Island has some of the most amazingly wild coastline you will ever see. It requires more than one day to get there and back from the mainland to the island, but particularly if you can come out in a windstorm, you will no doubt be very pleased with the available subject matter.

http://www.nathanderksen.com/photography/wildWest.html?currentIndex=15&currentPage=3

Taken by Ucluelet, a small town on the south west of Vancover Island, just south of Long Beach.

[psk4363]

Nice shots Dave - we're hoping to get to Vancouver and the Canadian Rockies next April - hope I bring back images of such a high quality as yours.

Cheers,
Barry