Saturday downtown ramblings

You are probably wondering what I was doing downtown on a Saturday evening. If there is anyone that is totally not a downtown on a Saturday night kind of guy, it's me.

But.

There I was. My buddy Sean was looking for some specific downtown shots, and it's always nice to have some company during such a dangerous expedition. I mean, that whole downtown crowd, young, hip, trendy, anxious about boomers, the homeless, the con artists, the thieves, and who knows what else all that has come along in this degenerate culture? What's a poor photographer to do, wanting to focus on the shot, but worried about getting rolled along the way?

We had thought it would be a quiet night in Victoria Park, but not so. Turns out there was a concert in the Saddledome, and the rush was on. In spite of that, Sean worked on his shots, I worked on mine, both of us dodging cars and pedestrians. Nobody got run over, nobody had any unexpected adventures.

I was caught by some fluffy remnants of a hedge.

Built a panorama to get all the detail in this abstract image.

I wandered around this image for a while, but don't think I succeeded. I wanted to tell the story of this last remnant of a mighty forest, alone in a parking lot, facing a symbol of progress.  The architectural critics would say I've obscured a marginally acceptable shot of a nice building. Purists would say there's too much parking lot and not enough nice light. Developers would say this nostalgic longing for a past time is a sickness, and we should cut it down and put up another building.

Chatted with this guy a bit as he directed people into the parking lot.

His view.

A little later, once it got dark enough for the other planned shot.

My version of the planned shot.

Fun while Sean was working on his shot.

After, since we were so close, we zoomed up to Tom Campbell hill. I haven't been up there in a while. Played with the behemoth lens, but took insufficient care focussing, or it moved ever so slightly on the tripod, so I'm not happy with the shots. Still, the reflection of the tower in Banker's Hall is always fun.

Lynx of the Day

Deadwood of the Day
Found this in Fish Creek and was just in raptures. The next week's worth of this feature were all shot within a few feet of here.