spring + ping’s

I’m surprised at how unaffected the top photo is. Anyways, good news…my camera is not broken. I went back to Chinatown yesterday and finished up a whole roll which I will be posting bits and pieces of over the next few days. In the meantime I just wanted to post a few of these, even though they didn’t turn out that great.

The last photo was taken at Ping’s Cafe on Main+11th. It almost doesn’t look like a restaurant from the outside, very unassuming. But they had some really good Japanese-inspired food, and cool lighting and chairs. I can’t wait to go back and have another Bang-Bang Chicken Salad…yum.

I’m nervously awaiting responses from grad schools.. hopefully the weather will hold up and be nice for the weekend so I can take my mind off the stressfulness of applications. The cherry blossoms are out and a lot of the streets are looking beautiful

oops

So, I made a big mistake with my camera the other day. I saw I had about 14 exposures left on my camera so I decided taking some pictures in Chinatown might be nice. Everything was going great until I got to the 24th exposure and the roll seemed to keep advancing. I thought maybe I set the film up wrong so I tried taking another few pictures, realized the film dial was still turning and noticed something sounded off. At this point I was concerned that something in my camera was broken [since it's over 50 years old] and I was willing to sacrifice a bit of a light leak to figure out what was up. Also the film wasn’t rewinding. So basically, after fooling around with the camera for 5 minutes, trying to get it to rewind [thanks Eric for finally getting it to work], I decided to just get it developed and see what the deal was.

And the deal was, only 11 photos were actually taken. What happened to the other 13 pictures I took in Chinatown.. I have no idea [I think the film was stuck or something]. So I have these photos which I took the previous week which have all been psychedelically transformed by the light leak. I can’t really tell if I like it or not, but I was pretty disappointed about the chinatown photos. Anyways, the last 2 photos are from this cool container exhibition that was on display near the Olympic flame downtown. I’ll post more from this weird roll of film soon..

olympics

granville + robson

victory ceremony

photo credit to eric

So the Olympics officially ended last Sunday. It was a strange experience for me. A few months ago I really wanted to get out of town [to New York specifically] but in a way I’m actually kind of thankful I stayed [although I still want to go to NYC]. Growing up in a place all your life, you get kind of used to things, like going downtown, I always know what to expect. But the Olympics changed all that, and I kind of loved it. I know there was a lot of bad press, a truly awful tragedy at Whistler, and I definitely agree that there are some major issues that the city is faced with that probably should have come before a multi-million dollar sporting event, but I gave it a chance.

I actually kind of felt a bit patriotic at times [which for me is weird]. I loved being downtown and hearing all the different languages and seeing all the different flags. But mostly I enjoyed it because people were enjoying themselves in a way I’d never seen in Vancouver before. The city felt so alive, and already I can tell it’s lost it again [probably due to the outward migration of thousands of visitors and athletes]. But for those two weeks, the city changed. I hope the energy and spontaneity I felt on the streets sticks around. The “no fun city” needs that.

Anyways, that’s just my thought on the games. Although I dislike a lot of things to do with the Olympics [the heavy bureaucracy and corporate nature of it] I tried to look on the positive side [as I generally do]. I’m curious to know what other people think though… did anyone else watch? What did other people think about the 2010 games?

east van

A week or so ago during the stretch of beautiful weather I took a few photos in random places in East Van.

I was trying to focus on shadows [although it's not really that apparent in the third photo]. One thing about my film camera is the view finder is so small, it’s sometimes hard to tell exactly what is in the frame or not… which meant some of my photos turned out not exactly how I had planned, and a little crooked.

So the Olympics are over. And I’m actually kind of sad about it [never thought I would say that]. After being downtown yesterday night, going back today things seemed like “normal Vancouver” again [ie. quiet and wayyyyy less people] .. it was a little bizarre. I have some more digital photos from my adventures downtown during the Olympics which I will post soon along with more of my feelings on the games. Hope everyone had a great weekend!

numbers + letters

I know this is a little nerdy, but I really like signage.. I would love to own some old letters or numbers. Like this or this.

I still have some more photos to post from last week’s roll of film. Despite a bit of bad weather lately I’m keeping my fingers crossed that this weekend will be nice so I can get out and take some more. I also am considering taking up sewing, which is kind of scary. Maybe I’ve been watching too much Project Runway, but I think it would be fun to try and make something, plus I have too much free time. But considering I haven’t really sewn anything since grade 8 home ec [some crappy pyjama pants], I’m sure I will need more than a little practice.

Anyways, it’s the last weekend of the Olympics so I’m going to try and get out to see a few more things. I haven’t really bothered to wait in line for anything.. except I went to Holland Heineken House with a bunch of friends on Tuesday night which was surprisingly good.. [surprise DJ show by Armin van Buuren + hockey game broadcast in dutch + lots of orange]. I’ll just be glad when I don’t have to hear that Olympic “Believe” song ever again..

GO! gallery

There are a lot of arts and cultural events going on in Vancouver right now, and on Saturday I went to check out the GO! Gallery, a collaboration between some local architects and designers [including my friend and former TA, Alex]. The installation is part of the Bright Light public art exhibition, a collaborative event in the Downtown East Side from Feb 12 – Mar 21.

Anyways, the GO! Gallery is in one of the oldest [and most secluded] courtyards in Chinatown. White umbrellas were used to create a canopy that is illuminated at night.. it’s a really cool space to be in. Plus on the night I went there was a fashion show with some traditional Chinese clothing and a Chinese opera singer which was pretty interesting. Oh, and they also have these awesome umbrellas for sale [last photo] with a map of the sites where Bright Light exhibitions are taking place.. super cool, I might just have to get one.

twenty ten

I spent a good portion of yesterday walking around downtown to check out some of the Olympic festivities. Well, basically all the events and pavilions had huge lines, but the weather was so nice I was perfectly happy just walking around outside. It was a lot of walking… and more experimenting with the old camera. My shutter speed was a bit too slow on some of the earlier photos.. and I may have had a little bit of a light leak as well. But, I’m still getting used to the camera, and I secretly kind of like the way that they turned out.

Vancouver feels like a totally different city to me right now. There are so many people everywhere, and it’s just such a good vibe. I hope it carries on after the Olympics.. plus I love hearing all the different languages and accents, and seeing all the different flags around town.

Oh, and if any of you go to the Plaza of Nations site, do not buy the mini donuts, no matter how delicious they smell. They are terrible.

film!

So I got my film developed today, and I’m pretty happy with the results. Not all the pictures turned out that great, but that’s okay, I was doing a lot of random experimenting.

I took some photos with my digital today too, which I will post soon.. the weather was nicer than expected. More film photos to come as well, I just thought I’d stick with the Chinese New Year theme this time.

haikuesque

I’m starting to feel almost fully recovered from that awful flu, so I’m going to be getting out and taking more pictures soon. And I caved yesterday and bought a new charger for my camera which was kind of a rip off, oh well. I also finished my first roll of film on my old old camera, which I will probably take to get developed tomorrow since the weather is supposed to be not very nice. Hopefully some of them turned out!

These are some photos I took in January when I went out around town for a day with my parents and sister.

I had a wonderful Valentines Day/Chinese New Year and I hope everyone else did as well!

And no, I didn’t make up some cool word for a title [I'm not quite that creative]. It’s a Bibio song that I was listening to [it's really good].

main again

Just some more photos I took the other day around Main Street. I like this last one, it was taken on the roof outside this small studio space a couple of friends and I have rented. The good old Lee Building.

This week is kind of crazy, my “To-Do” list is still quite full…I’m determined to finish this grad school application by Monday, so I’m going to be pretty busy with trying to finish that up.

I still have to get my Germany photos up here at some point. As well as the ones from the rally I went to a couple of weekends ago… soon!