On one side of Lost Lagoon is Stanly Park and on the other is the big city of Vancouver. You can walk from woods to towers in about ten minutes. The name "Lost Lagoon" comes from a poem written by Pauline Johnson (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lost_Lagoon#Naming_and_history) and laments how she lost the use of the lagoon for canoeing when the tide was out. I looked up that bit of trivia, so now we all know the origins of the name. The lagoon is now a lake cut off from the bay, so presumably, you can canoe without worrying about the tides. Usually I might try to frame a shot like this using the rule of thirds, but in this case, the reflections produce a beautiful symmetry. In my mind its a kind of urban dreamscape.
Shooting right into the sun at f13 creates these long rays of light. I could have added them artificially with software, but these are the real deal. A high aperture number is not something I use all the time, but if I want starbursts, it's the way to go. The only problem is that dust spots from the sensor show up on the image; however, that's easy to remove with photoshop. A few days ago I visited this new section of Robinson Preserve. The creation of it took years, it's one thing to landscape a bunch of acres, but quite another to allow nature to move in at its own pace. Finally, after several years of growth, I have yet another new landscape to explore with my camera.
This picture is from a drive we took from France to Spain along the coast; we made so many stops that it was a minor miracle we made it anywhere. One of our favorite stops was Collioure. We intended to stop only for a few minutes but lingered half a day. We walked around, sat in outdoor cafes, and mainly enjoy the Mediterranean way of things. This is a street scene along the main road through town. I was walking around taking pictures of the side streets. The buildings are painted every color of the rainbow which made it even more fun to take pictures.
