Snow!

It rarely snows in Vancouver but today it started and lasted all night so by the morning there was a nice 6 inches covering the ground.
I headed out to Stanley Park, the cities main park on took this shot of the frozen lake.

Finally I get the Lions at sunrise!

I woke today at 6.45am, and it was so clear it was worth rushing out to get the Lions at sunrise, I was in my car by 7am but boy was it cold, with wind chill it was around -10 so I was stood there taking this photo shaking a little as the wind blew at my face before running back to the car for warmth.

Later in the day I headed to the Capilano Suspension bridge thanks to Jess my cousin who used to work there and her great friend Kara. I only wish it was an old school rope one!

Exploring Coquitlam and back to Capilano River

It was a very cold day in Vancouver today but the sun was out so a perfect day to hike around a little.
I started out by going back to Capilano River to capture the 4 trees growing from the log properly.

I learnt that they call these Nursing Logs, apparently they help other trees grow, how I'm not entirely sure know that usually these logs are discarded poor quality ones from logging just left in the forest.

I have tried a new style with this shot, usually I don't like to include paths or much man made things in my photos, but this time I left the path in to hopefully give the viewer a way to walk into the picture.

I also finally got a great shot of the mountains north of Capilano lake which include the Lions, the 2 snow covered peaks in the middle. I had been waiting for a clear day to get this since first seeing it and last night there was lots of snow to cover the trees too. I'm going to head back to get this at sunset with the last rays hitting the mountains.

I then headed to Coquitlam (try to pronounce that correctly!) where I had seen some nice mountains and lakes on google maps, but as much as I tried I couldn't get to the lake as all the land was private, I was a bit naughty and walked onto some land to snap this quickly, but not great vantage point for a nice shot.

There were some nice trails and I found this great shot trying to get to the lake, at the time I only had my portable camera so I headed back to the car for all my kit. Most of my shots are being taken on 617 film and medium format digital, so it will be interesting so see how they film shots come out once I have them developed and can find a place that rents scanners here in Vancouver.

There was also some interesting ice along the trail, I wonder how these form?!

And this tractor from 1924 that used to be driven by a little old lady was on one of the dirt roads near the lake.

A day trip back to Lynn Canyon, and to the Capilano Lake

The sun is out so I headed out for the day for more exploring, again armed with my my portable GF1, I'm changing my style of exploring, whereas before I would take my full kit with me and eventually get tired of carrying it on my back so not get as far, I am going have exploring days and any great shots I find I will re-visit when I know the light will be best.

First I headed to Lynn Valley to see if I could get the shot from the suspension bridge again on my medium format, but unfortunately the sun is just too low this time of year, I may be lucky if I come on an early morning and the sun just shining through the canyon, but not today. So I wondered around the falls a little climbing over the fences to see where I could go.

This is another shot I couldn't get on my Mamiya 645 camera as the light is too low in the canyon this time of the year, plus I was on top of a rock leaning over the edge again.
In the summer kids come here to jump off into the pool below.

I took a shot of the suspension bridge this time, not the greatest light or greatest shot, but still nice. There isn't a moment when no one is on the bridge!

After lunch I headed to the Capilano Lake, I was here a week ago and wanted to revisit at sunset on a clear day to get the sun shining on the Lions peak, but just like last week the clouds became too heavy and the sun vanished by sunset.


So instead I went exploring the trails by the river as it flows through the hydro dam through the canyons.
All of British Columbia's power is from Hydro electricity, they have so much water it makes sence,
even some of the buses in downtown Vancouver run on electricity powered from the dams all over BC. Makes me wonder why the UK doesn't make better use of it's water.

I walked past this great shot of 4 trees growing out of an old log, I'm going to have to come back and get this with my 617 panoramic camera another day.

Lynn Valley

I just bought a new more portable camera, the Panasonic GF1, as my more portable hiking camera that I can take anywhere, so I thought I would test it out with a day trip around Lynn Valley with my flatmate for the month Aaron. Taking my big cameras on trips with other people is a disaster as they will end up spending half the day waiting for me wondering what is taking so long, so I'll use the day as a 'Recki' day to check the place out and come back another day on my own.

This is Aaron, he a musician and plays the trumpet in various bands here in Vancouver.

We would keep daring each other to go in the water, it was freezing!

The only way I could take this shot was by leaning as far out as I could with my hand all the way too hoping I didn't fall in, I only wish I had even longer arms. This won't be getting taken on medium format any time soon.

This shot was taken from a suspension bridge, the first time I've walked on one, for some reason I didn't think to take a picture of the actual bridge, probably because too many people would walk across it and I thought they would ruin the shot. I think it will worth coming back for this on my Medium format digital camera, but it will have to be a bright day as I will need to do it handheld leaning over the bridge.

There are so many interesting trees to find in BC, look at the left where it joins back onto itself and twist around, I wonder what it looked like when it was more alive.

Every so often we would get some snow coming down, it's lucky we were high up in the mountains otherwise it would have been rain.

It was an interesting little hike, I will to re-visit the suspension bridge on a brighter day and see what I can get.

My New 4x4! This will be talking me all the way to New York and back

I've got the 4x4, 1999 model for ¢4500, 26 mpg, leather seats, Air-con, Cruise control. Now I just need to pursuade my UK insurance company to give me my No Claims History, apparently they don't do that whilst a policy is active which makes no sense!
Rocky Mountains here I come.

My Canada camera kit

I thought I would share the kit I have brought over to Canada, I tried to travel light this time and only bring a handful of lenses, but it still ends up being heavy on a 4 hour hike!

The first is my good old trusted Mamiya 645 Pro TL medium format camera with it's 22mp Imacon Digital back. This has had many a fall but has never let me down, it's all manual and I love it.

I brought 5 out of the 13 lenses I have - the 45mm, 50mm shift, 80mm F1.9, 120mm macro and 150mm APO. I have found these to be the 5 I use most often on my trips. With all the other gubbins like filters and batteries that go in the bag this weighs about 15kg.

Next is my newest camera and favourite, the Fotoman 617 Large format panoramic camara, with 90mm and 18mm lenses. This  takes stunning images 6cm x 17cm wide on film, images when scanned come to 21000 pixels across and 120mp! I love shooting with this although every shot isn't ideal for the panoramic format, and it can take 15 minutes to set up a shot.

I am Jason F U Denning

I received my new VanCity credit card through the post and it seems Vancouver has changed me already, my middle names are F V!

Vancouver - The first 2 weeks

Hello and thanks for reading my first blog! I'm not usually one to write anything like this so I hope this is interesting, if it's not then please let me know and I'll try to add in some life threatening moments or something that TV seems to be so fond of these days.
I realised that writing this blog would be the best way to record my journey, I've never written a diary but I need to do this as the whole point if this trip is to experience and do things I wouldn't normally do, so here goes with blog number 1......


I have just begun a trip of a lifetime traveling around canada for 6 months photographing this beautiful country (with a little snowboarding in between), and I have to say being here 2 weeks exploring a little and taking photos I can already see they don't have many trees here.

I have never seen so many great forests to wonder through, even in winter it's a luscious place to be.

I am going to start by exploring around and nearby Vancouver before venturing out farther into the mountains and national parks.

I arrived on saturday the 30th January, my Aunt, Linda, has lived here for 40 years was at the Airport to meet me and she has been the greatest. Firstly she found a room for me to rent for the first month giving me time to settle in, she's lent me her car when I need it (although only because I know how to drive stick, otherwise I'd be out of luck), she helped me set up a joint bank account with her, and has been clearing out her freezer of various home made dishes, meats and other delights to feed me, apparently I'm a surrogate Jessica to her (her daughter and my cousin)  and I have the same chirpy personality. The area she lives in is East Van so I'll be here for the whole of february, it's a cool area much like what Shoreditch is to London, and it's only 3 miles to the centre of town with easy access north when I want to venture into the mountains.

We have spent a few rainy evenings playing scrabble together which Linda loves, and somehow she keeps pulling out 7 letter words. She averages about 2 per game with a score over 400 each game. Out of about 8 games I have won once, and that is only because I had to change tactics to stand a chance. I took a picture to remember it as it could be the only game I win.

So far it has rained more often than not, but I have already managed to take an awesome shot of the city, although I still can't quite decide which I prefer, any thoughts? The second one was taken 5 minutes after the first.

I found this spot in Stanley park whilst I was driving around after taking a sunset shot and it caught my eye with the reflections, at the time I was too late to be able to jump out and set up my camera, as I shoot on medium format I need at-least 5 minutes to set up, and that's being quick, so I planned to go back 2 days later, and luckily I was there on the best day and this beautiful sunset came out for me.

One thing I have noticed here is that the clouds seem to sit higher in the sky than in England, which means the sunsets tend to reach further and also seem to last longer too, which as a photographers dream.

During the rainy days I have been doing lots of research, planning my trip and getting to know the lay of the land, I decided I should drive across America to New York and Toronto and stop at all the sights along the way, which now means I need to buy a car instead of my original plan to rent which would be too restrictive and costly. So my plan is to buy a 4x4 and sell it once my trip is over. I have been recommended a Subaru Forester as apparently they run forever, and looking at one it is perfect, 26mpg which is great for a 4x4 and I can pick up a 99 model in good condition for around ¢5k, so now I need to keep my eyes peeled on craigslist for the right one, I'm trying to avoid any dodgy dealers!

That also means I needed to swap my driving license for a canadian one, which I thought would be more difficult than standing in line for 15 minutes and paying ¢31.00, I guess the lady did ask me 3 driving safety questions.

In-between my exploring days I have been on the slopes 3 times, twice in Whistler and once on a local mountain at night. I had my first experience with fresh snow and I can agree that it is like boarding on clouds, falling over has never been so much fun.

My second day was a real test of my waterproof gear as it was a snow storm at whistler and half the mountain was closed, I would occasionally get brain freeze as I boarded down but my clothes stayed bone dry, thank you Gore Tex! It is quite something to be heading down the slopes with heavy snow falling everywhere and poor visibility.

Whist up in the mountain I've been trying to work out the best way to get my camera to the top, getting up there is easy on the lifts, it's the getting down that's the hard part especially with a 20kg bag on your back, and I'm not the greatest boarder just yet. There are only certain lifts you can download on so looks like I finally need to buy myself a more compact camera like a panasonic GF1 to take anywhere. I know I'll always wish I had my medium format kit with instead though.

Well that pretty much sums up the first 2 weeks, more to come soon.

Good night!