victoria/vancouver

[gary]

i know this is the dcl forum, but since these are part of the overall karen & gary great alaskan adventure of 2011, i'll have the victoria and vancouver travelogue thread here, and an actual cruise travelogue thread when we get on the ship. the trip started rather stressfully, we had a 2 hour weather delay wednesday, flying islip to midway, then another 2 hr delay in chicago yesterday for our flight to vancouver. both flights were fine once in air, just the planes were delayed coming north from the southeast.
so the first up is a first nations canoe replica you see walking from the arrivals gates to canadian customs
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next is a series from the ferry from tswassen to schwartz bay, the route to victoria, capital of the province of british columbia, on vancouver island
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[Scottwdw]

Day "hi" to Deb for me. Looking forward to your photos from this adventure, Gary.


Sent from my fabulous iPhone 4

 

[jbwolffiv]

Nice! ; Looking forward to following you through this trip of yours!

 

[gary]

these are big ferries, upwards of 500 cars/busses/trucks per load, the ride is about 1hr45min, and about halfway there you enter a series of narrow zigzag channels passing several nice homes, and usually another ferry
one of the larger ferries
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about to enter active pass
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[ddindy]

I look forward to your posts, Gary. ; Vancouver and Victoria are among the most beautiful cities in North America. ; Or at least they were when I visited in the late 80s.

 

[gary]

one of those nice homes i was mentioning
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and the view from my hotel window, the harbour towers, overlooking james bay
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and fyi, all shots so far taken with the panasonic lumix g1, some night shots of victoria coming soon from the 5dmk2, followed by 4/29/11, craigdarroch castle and butchart gardens

 

[gary]

and we finish the travel day with 2 of victorias iconic images


parliament


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the empress hotel


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[jbwolffiv]

Great stuff Gary! ; I like that house so much I think I will take 2! ; Thats an amazing view!

 

[gary]

yes, there were quite a few nice waterfront homes and consider how close this large ferry is to the shoreline, that was taken with the lumix, with the 35mm equivalent of 90-400mm, racked out to the long end


friday, 4/29/11, today we took in the sites on vancouver island, first up, after a lengthy walk to breakfast, turned out we were only a few blocks to craigdarroch castle, built by robert dunsmuir, an industrial age coal baron. http://www.thecastle.ca


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and every well equipped rec room had to have a regulation english billiards table


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and a gentlemen's smoking room of course
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[gary]

on the walk back we went into the parliament building, i attempted a shot of the dome, looking up. the first photo is of the large stained glass window commemorating queen victoria's jubilee, i think 60 years of rule?


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the dome shot
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[jbwolffiv]

Again, very nice!

 

[gary]

in the afternoon we went to the butchart gardens, created by jennie butchart in one of her husbands spent limestone quarries
http://www.butchartgardens.com


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the sunken garden is just flat out stunning, this was the original piece, the gardens are still owned by some of jennie's descendants


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[jbwolffiv]

You right about that! ; That is stunning, I can only image what it is like in person.

 

[gary]

sturgeon fountain, right before the entrance to the japanese garden. when i get home i will be scanning in the guides and brochures from the places we visit


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the bamboo water feature


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[gary]

butchart cove, where jennie's husband kept his yacht, and where today if you have the $ you can arrive by seaplane

 

[jbwolffiv]

Nice shots Gary, did you use a ND filter for the fountain?

 

[gary]

thanks, no i did not, i am traveling fairly light on days with a lot of walking, and i have to get step up rings and get in some practice on filters/nd type with the lumix

 

[jbwolffiv]

I see, just curious, what were the settings? ; Is your Lumix not a dSLR? ; And I love asking the obvious question that I don't know, what are step up rings?

 

[gary]

i'm shooting on this trip with 2 systems, my usual canon 5dmk2, with 2 lenses along, 24-105 f4, and the new 70-300 f4-5.6 L
in additional i am working up my skills with my future travel setup, a panasonic lumix g1, this is a micro 4/3 system, no mirror, electronic view finder, so the bodies are much much smaller and lighter than pentaprism equipped bodies. the shorter distance to the sensor also allows much lighter and smaller lenses, along on this trip are 7-14mm f4, 20mm f1.7, 14-45 f4-5.6, 45-200 f4.0-5.6, given that the sensor results in a 2x factor, the lenses all have 2x relation to 35mm focal lengths, ie: the 14-45, my most used lens, is 28-90 in 35mm terms. so yes it is dslr type with interchangeable lenses. step up rings are machined metal or plastic, threaded, the male side is a match to your lens, the female side is whatever you need it to be, in my case, it's 77mm, that's the most common filter size, thus no need to buy separate filters everytime you get a new lens.


traveling back to the mainland yesterday, ferries making the meet in narrow active pass


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and our first glimpse of canada place, the cruise terminal we sail from on tuesday


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[jbwolffiv]

Thanks for the explanation, sounds nice to be able to carry lighter gear! ; So you sail on Tuesday, return the following Tuesday?