While I wasn't paying attention, it seems I posted my 1,000th piece. Today's is the 1,003rd - how'd that happen? And, when I started, I'd just gotten a Nikon Coolpix 4500. Halfway along, I picked up a D50. Now? Well, as you may have noticed, I'm getting pretty enamoured of the Canon G10. I've never owned one of their SLRs ("D" or otherwise), but this is, I have to admit, the second "point-and-shoot" from them that I've used. Years ago, I had a Canon Photura that I'd bought to replace a teeny Pentax clamshell-design autofocus camera that I'd, um, er, left out overnight in the rain. The Pentax was great - small, took good pictures - and I was sorry to lose it. Well, I went off to a local camera store where I'd worked once upon a time to look for a replacement. The Photura was definitely not a replacement. It was about 10-times the size, had a zoom lens, and was the weirdest looking camera I'd ever seen - complete with a flip-out spotlight! Between its weird design and that spotlight, well, of course, I had to buy it. Yep - just 'cause it looked so damn strange, I bought it. Picture quality? Who cared? Luckily, it was fine. Too damn big, but....

Anyhow, back at the G10... I'm getting to like it more and more. I can live with 80 ISO (heck - I lived for years with ISO 25!). And it's (reasonably) small and (reasonably) light. And, so far, I'm liking the output. I still can't believe they can get this kind of quality out of a dinky digicam sensor at 15 MP. It would be interesting to see what Canon could come up with in a 10-12 MP camera using whatever magic it is they've got going in the G10.

Isn't it sad when the landscaping budget runs out too soon?

Ah, once more at the PNE. Tough place to get into, though.

I've been a big fan of the New York Review of Books for a long (really, really long) time. Got an interest in art? Literature? Science? History? Politics? Philosophy? Anything? Go buy a copy.

Vancouver's a great place to go out for dinner in. It's a small town, and almost anywhere you might go will likely be in walking distance of your home. Which, as long as dinner goes on long enough, will give you lots of opportunity to wander slowly home, taking pictures.

There's a flaw in this story, I know, but....

Oh, and the "title" for this photograph is "Dive". For at least two reasons. Details - it's all in the details.

Once upon a time, Vancouver, like so many cities on the west coast of North America, had a Japantown. You can probably guess when that ended. This little scene is on Powell Street, once one of the main streets of Japantown. It reminded me of shoji.

Any "Zoolander" fans out there? This is the back door to a modelling school in downtown Vancouver. I wonder if it's the exit the failures are forced to take. "Pout, dammit! I said pout! You're hopeless! Out! Get out!", and the poor hopeful has to slink out this back door, into a squalid alley of failure. Oh, the shame. The shattered dreams. What could have been!

Riiiight.

By the by, I think I've mentioned this before, but the Tokina 12-24/4 is a darn fine lens. Sharp. Very, very little distortion. Try it - you'll like it! Really.

Take your choice in Chinatown.

I think I've mentioned this before - Vancouver's got the world's most colourful "bad" end of town. Things may be falling apart, no one's got any money, but - wow! - somebody's got access to paint.

It'd just be so hard to decide, wouldn't it?

Uh-oh. People seem to be creeping into my photographs. Have you noticed? Most of my pictures look like they were taken in a city depopulated by some virus - everything inanimate is intact, but there's nothing alive. But, lately...

Went to see "Before the Devil Knows You're Dead" on the weekend. If you like movies that show a bad train wreck in excruciatingly slow motion, you'll want to see it. Philip Seymour Hoffman is, as usual, brilliant. His character is the embodiment of the self-centred creep. He's totally screwed up his life, and the movie is, basically, all about him taking everyone else he's ever been "close" to - parents, brother, wife - down with him. Things start out badly (more or less) and just grind slowly downhill from there. It was great!

O.K., it doesn't exactly scream "Thanksgiving", but, nevertheless, Happy Thanksgiving, Yanqui pals! Enjoy the Murkey (i.e. mock turkey). And, well, if you're on call (or waiting for someone who's on call), hey, be thankful that it'll end. Eventually.

It's morons like this who ensure that people and places like this don't change. Unless, of course, there's big real estate money to be made.

Despite the "Blah" someone's expressed so artistically, today was a swell day. Spent much of it drifting around downtown, taking pictures, as usual. I'm getting a lot more comfortable wandering around down on East Hastings - not the most "upscale" neighbourhood. Met a nice woman there named Blue Stone Woman with Eagle Spirit. As you might guess, she's Indian (First Nations, to you, pal). Like I said, very nice. Fairly well damaged by alcohol and, I'm guessing, prostitution, and maybe some drugs, too, but very nice. Which, of course, is what most people forget. And, by the way, no, I didn't photograph her. If she'd asked me to, I would have, but, otherwise I figure she (and her pals, a couple of whom I also met briefly) have enough trouble without some rich dickhead sticking a fancy camera in their faces.

Have I mentioned how much I like my nifty new Tokina 12-24mm lens? I do! I like it a lot!

Add PTLens, from ePaperPress, and you're sailing.

And, nope, neither of these folks is sending me any money for praising their products. I just like what they do.

Come on in! We got it all!

Just more of the rapidly vanishing part of Vancouver's downtown.

Back to the alley. What can I say? It was pretty neat. Well, not in the "tidy" sense of "neat", but...

I suppose, in this neighbourhood, you might be considered lucky to be able to afford a room in this fine establishment, but.......