Every day we share a single photo from our Flickr Pool shot by one of our faithful and talented readers (that’s you!).

Dinafasbro provides us with today’s photo, and once I saw it in the pool, I just had to take a closer look at it. And even before I saw the title, City Ghosts, my mind went to the same place.

There is a lot that I like about this image – not only do we have some sweet chunky grain and beautiful black and white tones happening, but there’s that intriguing and ephemeral cloud  of something hanging right there in the frame. Is it bus exhaust? The vapour-trail of some one who has just exited the frame? Or is it, in fact, a city ghost?

Depends on what you believe or who you talk to I suppose.

But perhaps it’s simply the by-product of the city’s central heating system that runs throughout downtown, sending heat (in the form of steam) to almost 200 buildings including BC Place, Rogers Arena, the Vancouver Public Library – even the steam clock in Gastown. The Central Heat Distribution building is located at the western end of the Georgia Viaduct – its the building with the big stacks and used to be the home of Pacific Press. The system was initially implemented in 1968 in a move to lower costs and reduce pollution.

Gary