Posts tagged with “highway”

Nicholson Road is an ongoing photo project aimed at sharing and celebrating the different communities in Metro Vancouver. Each week Vancouver Is Awesome will be featuring an image from the previous week, shot in one of the many ‘hoods around town in order to draw your attention a little bit outside of the hyper-focus that we usually have on the City of Vancouver. Metro Vancouver Is Awesome, and you should get out and explore it!

One of the goals for my Nicholson Road project was to show people you don’t need fancy cameras to capture interesting photos. I’ve never owned an SLR, and find their bulkiness more of a hassle than a benefit for most of my needs – the ability to whip a camera out of your pocket and snap a photo or two before hiding it away again let’s me spend more time looking around, and less time dealing with lenses/the added weight of a camera bag/the pressure to flawlessly capture something. Thus, my guidelines are as follows:

• There’s no rush: Compose the shot, and wait for the right moment.
• Without an array of lenses, make the most of what you have: Focus on the entire scene, not the small details.
• Process intelligently: A little contrast and colour adjustment in post can go a long way when you’re lacking camera features.
• Remember your goal: Try to convey the area as best as possible to those who may never visit, or even know of its existence.
• When in doubt, Instagram: Think of it like rapid prototyping for photographs.

This week the iphone snap and quick instagram edit won out, with a shot of Highway 99 from the new Pioneer Cycling and Pedestrian Overpass out in South Surrey. It’s one of two overpasses Surrey installed over the past couple years (you may have heard about it, or seen it thanks to its awesome animated LED light shows).

I just couldn’t help imagining myself in that motorhome (or maybe the bike behind it) headed off on some great adventure. Maybe they’re coming up from the border and it’s their first time in BC? The Pioneer Overpass is at the top of a hill, which is one of the first spots you really see the mountains when travelling north on the 99 before descending towards the Nicomekl River and Mud Bay. Or maybe they’re headed home after a whirlwind trip across the continent ready to enjoy the sunny days ahead back in Metro Vancouver.

#Icantwaitforsummer!

Archives of the Nicholson Road project can be found HERE.

Nicholson Road is an ongoing photo project aimed at sharing and celebrating the different communities in Metro Vancouver. Each week Vancouver Is Awesome will be featuring an image from the previous week, shot in one of the many ‘hoods around town in order to draw your attention a little bit outside of the hyper-focus that we usually have on the City of Vancouver. Metro Vancouver Is Awesome, and you should get out and explore it!

I always love when I get the chance to venture up to Brentwood in Burnaby. A few reasons why:
1. The frequently breathtaking view of Metrotown across the central valley and Burnaby Lake lowlands,
2. The always architecturally beautiful Brentwood Skytrain Station,
3. The awesomely friendly, family-run Pita King in the Brentwood Town Centre food court! I swear, the calamari from their kitchen easily rivals dinners I’ve ordered from countless Greek restaurants around town!

While we’re checking out the view above, the skyscraper nerd in me wants to point out that a couple projects under construction will soon make a big impact on what you see now: Sovereign and Metroplace.

See those two tallest towers near centre of the frame? Take half of their height, add it on top, and you’ll get the height of Sovereign when it finishes up in a few years at the corner of Willingdon and Kingsway – soaring at 155m which will make it the 3rd tallest in Metro Van (after the Shangri-La and Private Residences at Hotel Georgia)! Metroplace will take 9th spot at 144m when it finishes up in 2014.

Without view cones and height restrictions, it’s my guess that the suburbs will soon become home to the tallest new skyscrapers in the Metro.

Heck yes Metro Vancouver is Awesome!

Archives of the Nicholson Road project can be found HERE.

Nicholson Road is an ongoing photo project aimed at sharing and celebrating the different communities in Metro Vancouver. Each week Vancouver Is Awesome will be featuring an image from the previous week, shot in one of the many ‘hoods around town in order to draw your attention a little bit outside of the hyper-focus that we usually have on the City of Vancouver. Metro Vancouver Is Awesome, and you should get out and explore it!

I know what you’re thinking.. Robert, this isn’t ‘Surrey is Awesome’ it’s ‘Metro Vancouver is Awesome’. Problem is there’s too much good stuff in Surrey to cover!

Remember, Surrey is the size of the University Endowment Lands, Vancouver, Burnaby, and New West combined. Or Richmond combined with Delta. It’s geographically the second largest municipality in the country, and by 2041 its population will begin to surpass Vancouver(!) at around 740,000 (Surrey’s population grows the size of White Rock every year). So how could I not write about Surrey?

Now that we’re on the same page, did you know Green Timbers Urban Forest Park, in eastern Whalley, was the first reforestation project in BC? As much of Metro Vancouver was being logged through the 19th and into the 20th century, Green Timbers was one of the last first growth forests to go. I’m told it made a bit of a name for itself as being the only virgin forest to be found highway-side between San Diego and Vancouver. And San Diego is a little ways off… (Remember Yale Road/the Pacific Highway from last week? Yep. That highway.)

Since the 1860′s there were requests to designate the area as a park. It wasn’t until the last trees were felled in 1930 that the provincial government set aside 35 acres and the BC Forest Service came in to begin replanting what would become Green Timbers Urban Forest. Various projects took bits and pieces from the area over the years, including Douglas College and the City of Surrey. Most recently, the Surrey Outpatient Centre is located on the edge of the park, and the RCMP E-Division Headquarters, consolidating all of the minor RCMP headquarters located throughout Metro Vancouver when it opens in late 2012.

There was a bit of a stir when, in 1987, 42 acres were cleared to create a sports complex. This is one of those situations that works out way better in the end, because residents were outraged, the Green Timbers Heritage Society was formed, and the group lobbied on behalf of the park for 8 years. In the end, the clearing was transformed into the lake you see above, and a surrounding meadow. It has become a hidden treasure for the city, and if you’re into fishing, the lake is stocked with Rainbow Trout during the spring and fall – usually around 250g, but if you’re lucky you might snag one of the 8lb broodstock!

Today, the Green Timbers forest covers about 560 acres, including the Ministry of Forests nursery and arboretum.

<3 Surrey.

Archives of the Nicholson Road project can be found HERE.