Another image of the Chinese Garden in Vancouver. It was getting dark very quickly by this time of the day.
Hasselblad 500C/M, Kodak Portra 400 film
Today’s image is of our tour guide in the Chinese Garden in Vancouver last week. It was late afternoon on a very dull day, so I had to shoot wide open at a low (for a Hasselblad) shutter speed. I’m surprised it turned out at all! Given the poor treatment of Asian Canadians in British Columbia (indeed all of Canada) in recent years, it was hard not to feel some shame, in the face of this man’s quiet dignity. He was old enough that he certainly would have experienced some of this first hand.
Hasselblad 500C/M, 80mm/2.8 Planar lens
Rollei RPX400 film
Today’s post is the first in a series of film images taken during my time in Vancouver, B.C. last week. Although it did not rain the entire time, there was not a lot of sun, and for the most part the light was measured in degrees of overcast. This image is from Stanley Park.
Hasselblad 500C/M, 80mm/2.8 Planar lens
Ilford HP5+ film @ E.I. 320, developed in LegacyPro Mic-X developer
I don’t normally post more than one post a day, but this is not a normal day. Yesterday we went to Stanley Park in Vancouver, and walked through a forest of huge cedars. Everywhere we saw fallen trees, giants that had come crashing down, or stumps of trees that had to be cut down Β for one reason or another. In this sense, the forest was a cemetery.
And yet wherever a giant tree had fallen, new trees, new life was flourishing; amidst the chaos of decay, hope for the future, proof that life endures. So not a cemetery, but proof that life, and hope, cannot be held back.
Courage.
Yesterday we went to the Vancouver Art Gallery to see the Walker Evans photography exhibit. Β (Incredible and well worth seeing, by the way. If you’ve never seen top quality silver gelatin prints, this is an exhibit to see!). I happened to look through a doorway and saw a gallery employee in a perfect pose, framed by the building, so I quickly took the shot with my iPhone before he moved.
On my recent walk through High Park, I was struck in this one spot by the amount of light coming through, silhouetting the trees.

Hasselblad 500C/M, 50mm/4 Distagon lens
Kodak Portra 400 film