I love taking photographs.
I took many this year, most of which accompanied my stories.
Thought I’d share some and tell you a little bit about each one.
I’ll begin with the lead photo in this post of the mattress fire on Main Street.
I captured the image at the end of a 12-hour ride-along in November with firefighters working out of the No. 2 fire hall in the Downtown Eastside.
Firefighter Josh Wyer spotted the bizarre scene around 10 p.m. as we were returning to the hall in the medic-rescue truck from an overdose call.
Someone inexplicably placed a mattress against a tree in front of the former police station at 312 Main St. and set it ablaze.
While Wyer and Cam Galbraith grabbed extinguishers from the back of the truck, I got in position.
Focusing was difficult because it was so dark.
I didn’t have a flash either, so I had to crank up my ISO to get some light into the camera.
I used a wide-angle lens, fired off a burst and got what I got in the seconds it took Wyer and Galbraith to extinguish the fire.
Tour de Concord
Regular readers might be surprised to see a photograph of a bicycle race in this space.
But I’ve always been an avid cyclist and enjoy watching the wheel-to-wheel action, as I did this summer in the Tour de Concord races near Science World.
This shot of Cole Glover was taken from a great distance with a 70-200 millimetre lens.
The area near and at the finish line was a blend of shade and harsh sunlight, which made for some guessing on my part regarding exposure.
I got lucky.
Hastings Racecourse
Here’s another surprise for readers: occasionally, I go to Hastings Racecourse to photograph horse races.
I’m not a gambler, although I was trained years ago to be one of the people who takes bets at the track; never worked a shift because I got another job that paid better.
The shot here was taken this summer at the last turn before the finish line.
It rained the previous day, so the flying mud worked in my favour.
Taken again with a long lens.
Heiltsuk Nation
I took this photograph at a press conference in September hosted by the Heiltsuk Nation.
The news here was that Maxwell Johnson and his granddaughter Torianne reached a multi-pronged settlement with the Vancouver Police Board after the pair was mistakenly suspected of fraud and handcuffed by officers in 2019 outside a Bank of Montreal branch in downtown Vancouver.
Torianne, who was 12 at the time of the incident, got emotional as she spoke to reporters.
“We were on a family trip in Vancouver, and we were supposed to be making good memories together,” she said. “Instead, what happened to me and my grandfather traumatized me.”
Lighting is always a challenge in rooms lit heavily with fluorescent lights.
Shot with a 24-105 millimetre lens.
UNDRIP
In October, members of Vancouver city council and the Musqueam, Squamish and Tsleil-Waututh held a ceremony at the Museum of Vancouver to celebrate the release of the City of Vancouver’s UNDRIP strategy.
The document, which city council later passed unanimously, is to guide the implementation of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples in Vancouver and use it as a framework towards reconciliation.
Former Vancouver city councillor Andrea Reimer spoke at the ceremony and got emotional as she recalled some of the Indigenous women who had died recently and couldn’t be there to participate in the event.
She mentioned Lillian Howard and Tracey Morrison.
Some light pouring in from a bank of windows helped with the photograph.
Long lens.
East Hastings Street encampment
This is a photograph of Franchesca Leo, who was living in a makeshift shelter outside the entrance to the Regent Hotel, near Main and East Hastings streets.
I took this photograph with my iPhone. So that’s why it looks (to me, anyway) distorted.
I wasn’t expecting to be in the Downtown Eastside that day in August and rode my bike to work (sans camera gear).
Though people rave about the quality of the cameras in phones, I still prefer a real camera and actually took another photograph (with my camera) of Franchesca at a later news conference in the Downtown Eastside.
I never did post the photograph, choosing others to fit the story.
Ken Sim protest
This photograph was taken in October after a protest outside Ken Sim’s campaign office on Broadway, near Cambie Street.
The protest concerned Sim and his ABC Vancouver party getting endorsed during the election campaign by the Vancouver Police Union and Sim’s promise to hire more police officers.
I have photographs of the protest (which were posted with my story), but I liked this one because it helps tell the story about the union’s endorsement of ABC Vancouver.
Was getting dark, so was glad to get what I got (again, with long lens) before the sun went down.
Ken Sim’s first news conference
Ken Sim’s first news conference as mayor-elect was held in October at the Helena Gutteridge Plaza at city hall.
Before he spoke to reporters, he met with colleagues and others who gathered at the plaza.
I remember the sky being filled with wildfire smoke, but it was still bright at times.
So Sim put on his glasses for a few minutes before removing them to take questions.
The glasses, by the way, are prescription.
Long lens.
ABC Vancouver rookies
Yes, it’s a blatant ripoff of the Abbey Road album cover, although Mike Klassen should be in a white suit and Brian Montague barefooted.
Anyway…
Wanted to do something different with the four rookies, so suggested they walk across the crosswalk at the back steps of city hall.
I popped a flash on a stand and made them walk back and forth until I got a decent image.
Shot with a wide-angle lens.
High-powered rifles
Came across these two police officers while on my way to the Remembrance Day ceremony at Victory Square.
Unfortunately, since Corporal Nathan Cirillo was shot in 2014 while standing guard at the Canadian National War Memorial in Ottawa — and people have died in incidents around the world from vehicles plowing into crowds — high security is a reality on Remembrance Day.
Not only in Vancouver, but at various ceremonies around the Lower Mainland.
In this photograph, the dump truck parked behind the officers is not there by mistake.
Long lens.
Remembrance Day
This was my first time taking photographs of the ceremony at Victory Square.
Lots to photograph, but picked this one of Canadian Army veteran Roger Prouse because believed the reader/viewer gets an immediate idea of the nature of the event.
More photos can be viewed here.
Long lens.
Emergency responders
I was in Chinatown to take a photograph for my story on a court decision regarding a property at 105 Keefer St. when sirens and lights alerted me to police, ambulance and firefighters gathering at the entrance to a nearby alley.
I ran the couple blocks to the scene, where some of the alley was filled with smoke.
Turns out a van caught fire and crews were worried someone might be trapped inside.
Firefighters smashed the passenger window, but were unable to access the back of the van.
They first used pry bars and an axe in an attempt to get the back doors open, then transitioned to the “jaws of life” hydraulic rescue tool, which worked.
No one was inside and there were no injuries reported.
Long lens.
@Howellings
