Real Life Munster's Home as Your Neighbour?

I was riding through a heritage home area in Vancouver (Commercial Drive and Hastings) and was appreciating the 100 year old homes. The above home is very typical of this area: beautifully and tastefully restored.  I even like the original brick/stone street surface (although it's not fun riding over).

Another example in the same neighbourhood, below. See the beautifully restored home on the left? Now look over to the ready-to-be-condemned-home on the right. It's almost as if it's made to look bad on purpose, like for a movie or something.  If this isn't a joke, imagine this was your neighbour? Man oh man!! I wouldn't even know what to say.......

Before taking this picture, I had to wait for a group of high school kids to move, as they too were looking at the Munster home, pointing, laughing, in shock, and taking pictures......

Orange and Green

I've been seeing orange and green in combination everywhere lately.  Even my recent post of the whale painting on a dumpster; if you notice the company logo, it's orange and green.  Many sports teams from basketball to hockey use these colours in combination as well.  It works most of the time. 

The picture above, at first I didn't notice anything weird about the matching colours. But then I realized even though the colour scheme is similar, the truck doesn't belong to the retail store that it's in front of.  The truck is carrying fruit, and the store sells meat. It's just a coincidence that their colours match.  The next building over also happens to be an even brighter and deeper orange. The building next to it? Yes, a faded green.......

Then, on my way home at the end of my bike riding afternoon, what do I notice near my house? Yes, of course! An orange and green house!!!  

What's next?! We shall see....

25' x 40' Canvas

I love street art.  Too bad Bansky doesn't live in Vancouver.  I'd love to see his stuff around town. You may recognize this large mural from the picture of the urban farm posting, just to the top right of the image.  But from this angle (low and looking up) it looks different doesn't it? I tried taking it with my other camera (Panasonic FX50) but I just couldn't get the right feel, so I took a few with my iPhone and the Hipstamatic program and voila!! I got what I was looking for.

Whale found on a Trash Bin?

I love traveling through backstreets and alleys to find things to take pictures of.  I noticed this hand-painted dumpster in a downtown alley.  Since the brand sticker is on top of the painting, I'm to assume they either commissioned it, or found it too beautiful to paint over.  Either way, don't you think all dumpsters should have paintings on it? Or at least a vinyl wrap, like they do now with post boxes and other ugly public devices and monuments? Another way to beautify our environment, even if it's just the alley.

Is Astoria Hotel next to a Farm?

 

I love riding my bike and taking pictures.  It's the best way to see one's own city, hands down.  You can hit 20-30 spots in an afternoon, something you can't do with a car, public transit, or walking. It's also a good way to see things we may never see if we stayed in our cars. An example?

I've driven past this spot a hundred times in my life, and I've never noticed this urban garden next to the Astoria Hotel.  No, not the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York, but the Astoria Hotel in the DTES of Vancouver , the poorest neighbourhood in Canada.  The Solefood Urban Farm Project has done a really good job making this a functional farm, as you can see by their website.  

Photographically speaking, I took this picture to emphasize the extreme juxtaposition between these two worlds, even though this contrast is no longer as such in more and more major cities around the world. I took some pictures without having to shoot through the fence, but the fence really worked photographically as a cool border between the enclosed city garden and the reality of the DTES on the outside.

Fire Hydrant slash Drinking Fountain?

I think this is a totally cool idea.  Shouldn't every fire hydrant have one of these on top?  Seriously?

Trains

Long forgotten photos. Took these pics in the summer from a moving car (you can tell from the reflection from the glass on all the shots), but as you can see, I was a passenger. The lighting was just right so I shot off as many shots on my iphone as I could.

How to Avoid Monkey Butt?

I saw this when I was at a hardware store in Bellingham, Washington.  I don't know exactly what a monkey-butt is or what it has to do with shampoo and body wash, but the packaging is pretty cool looking...... I don't think I'd be enticed to buy it though!! Taken on my iPhone because that's all I had on me at the time.

These Eyes.....

Since I've been sick the past 2 weeks, my wife's been driving us everywhere (doctor's orders!!).  I took this picture while she was driving today.  The way the low autumn sun swept across her face, it made her eyes and hair translucent, almost anime-like in appearance.  I didn't upload the full resolution shot, but as you can see this picture is uber sharp!  Taken with my favorite Minolta 35mm F1.4G series lens, it's the sharpest lens I own.  In fact, this image was not sharpened at all, but was stopped down to F/4. 

I'm Shooting with a Real Camera Again!!

I've finally replaced my old 6mp D-SLR with a newer (4 year old!!) 12mp D-SLR...... well, it's new to me!! Took this while I was sick at home....what else is there to do but a self portrait!  Look forward to a different style of photography versus my iPhone casual pics.....