Last of the 2011 Fall

We’ve had some strong, stormy winds coming through the area lately, so there aren’t very many fall leaves left on the trees. A couple of weeks ago, a friend and I went out for a ‘photo drive’ around Surrey to see what we could see.

We found quite a few pockets of colour, but I really liked this homy, colourful, little farm, stuck on the side of a hill in south Surrey.

We really do live in a beautiful area. Sure, it’s grey a lot of the time, but all you need is a little sun to change the mood 100%.

Dear [First Name]

Sometimes that’s all we are: an email address.

A local networker has been sending me her newsletter for some time now. I’ve usually scanned it quickly for things of interest, and in the past it was addressed to me, as in “Dear Don”.

For the last 3-4 issues it’s been addressed to Dear [First Name]:

I can see an occasional gaffe like that, but for it to happen regularly suggests that the author isn’t really paying attention. She’s not interested in informing ‘me’, she’s more interested in getting that email out to the thousands of people on her email list – checking off that task for another week.

Sigh. Ok, nice knowing you. Bye.

More and more marketers are talking the talk about developing relationships with their customers. Too bad more aren’t walking the walk too.

Seasonal Reflections

There won’t be too many colourful leaves left on the trees after the windstorm tonight on the south coast of BC. The leaves have been getting more and more sparse over the last couple of weeks and only a few die-hard trees remain in full colour.

Thought I’d put up a photo to brighten the day. it was taken earlier this month around Deas Island Park. That was one colourful day.

Election Day – Update

Well the usual suspects were elected in Surrey yesterday, so I guess they’ve been doing a fairly good job.

I can’t say as much for the voters though. According to the BC Gov’t website, there were 279,051 eligible voters (out of about 400K citizens in Surrey) and only 70K of those took the time to vote. 25%???? Twenty-five percent???

People all over the world are dying for the right to vote and only 25% of our population can give up half and hour of their day every three years to express that right? Sad.

What more can I say….

Election Day in BC

I got out to vote around 9:00am, and when I sent my ballot through the counter, there were about 120 people that had voted all ready.

Later in the afternoon, I saw a tweet that said that about 50K people had voted in all of Surrey and there was only 4 hours to go in the polls. It will be pretty sad if voting doesn’t pick up. 50-60K/400K citizens in Surrey is not a great turn out.

Fingers crossed that people will vote. If they do, at least they have a right to whine too. If they don’t, they won’t. Period.

Burvilla

Deas Island Park is nestled on the banks of the Fraser River in Delta, between the main river and Deas Slough. It’s quite a picturesque place to spend an afternoon.

A couple of weeks ago, I did just that. The fall colours were still at their peak, and even though I got there in the hazy mid-afternoon, there was lots to shoot. One thing that really caught my eye was the heritage residence in the park, Burvilla. I’m not all that sure about its history, but it has been preserved, along with the Inverholme Schoolhouse and an agricultural building. I suspect there was a small fishing and agricultural community there at one point. I’ll have to find out.

The building itself is beautiful and it has quite a collection of fancy trim that was common to the time. The day I was there, the house blended well with the trees in the garden. I found it a very restful scene in the afternoon shade.

Elections 2011

Just two more sleeps before the municipal elections in BC.

Please, it doesn’t matter how you vote, just that you DO vote. And if you don’t vote, don’t complain.

I’m not much on politics, but for what it’s worth, here in Surrey I’m tending towards a mostly Surrey First vote. They’ve been doing a pretty good job over the last 6 years, and I really can’t get on board with the issues that the opposition keeps bringing up: a ward system, and not moving the city hall.

We’ve been waiting for a downtown core to develop since I moved back to Surrey in 1992. It’s finally happening, and that’s largely due to the focus the current government has placed on building in the core. Moving the city hall downtown sends a message that the area is important and that it is on Councils radar. There is no reason that we couldn’t have some small satellite offices in all the town centres and take more of the city’s business online.

I can’t get on board with wards. All I see is a bunch of little fiefdoms at war for dollars and attention. There is no way that a group of people, each responsible to one little area in the city, will be able to work together for a better city overall. It just won’t happen.

Anyway, enough of my rant. Saturday’s the day, so please get out and vote.

This Used to be a Forest

This area under the Skytrain, just before King George Stn. in Surrey, use to be a small, urban forest, a couple of blocks square. When they logged it out a few of years ago, I was really pissed. We had skunks, racoons and seagulls migrating around the neighbourhood for a year or two after that. We also lost a bit of nature, right in downtown Surrey.

But, there was the other side of the equation too. Druggies and homeless folks camped there all year round, leaving needles, garbage and used condoms everywhere. It was a dangerous walk through the paths, as you didn’t know who or what you would run into. The park wasn’t somewhere you’d voluntarily go after dark, that’s for sure.

Now we have an urban park called Holland Park. Fusion Fest takes place here every year. We had the Olympic Celebration there, it’s been home to Movies in the Park and a variety of other events in the City Centre.

You can (mostly) walk the concrete trails and enjoy the trees, ponds and other water works around the site, and there is a small playground for kids tucked into the south west corner of the park.

As the new developments in the background here fill up, I’m sure there will be more than a few folks happy to have Holland Park across the street. We’re already seeing more and more people walking around and the park seems to be used all year round.

I’ve said for years that Surrey’s City Centre needs more feet on the street. Now with this park, SFU, new condos and other developments in the Centre, we’re seeing just that, and more and more people are feeling safer when walking around.

It’s starting to feel like a city in downtown Surrey.

Creative Use of Photos for Good

You see graffiti all over, covering mail boxes, building walls, electrical sub-stations, etc. Sometimes it’s art on its own; more often, well, it’s not.

One of the anti-graffiti strategies cities can use is to replace bare painted surfaces with desirable art. It seems that graffiti artists don’t like to deface other art.

The art we’re seeing more and more of around Surrey looks like some kind of wrapped photos.

I found this hydro sub-station in Surrey’s Holland Park. At first glance it really looks like a green house full of tropical plants. The structure in the background looks much like one of those living walls you see around. That’s common, but I thought this ‘greenhouse’ motif was quite original.

Not exactly sure how this is done, but I’m going to find out. It seems like there should be more opportunity for doing this sort of thing with photos, i.e. not just to prevent graffiti.

What do you think? Would you like to see your photos use as wraps for structures like these? Any ideas on how it’s done?

Workflow Woes

My goodness it’s easy to get behind in processing photos.

I spent the day out shooting in the sun and wind today at Green Timbers Park, Crescent Beach and White Rock. It was a gorgeous fall day.

Despite the wind, many leaves seem to be hanging on in all their colourful glory. We may get a few more lovely fall days yet. As for today, the finished photos will be up on Flickr in a day or so, I hope.

When I got back and started downloading the photos from the camera to my computer, I noticed a backlog of unprocessed photos dating back to the middle of last month. Ack. Being a somewhat linear guy, I expect it could be a day or so before I get to processing todays pics. Guess a workflow only ‘flows’ if you make it happen.

I shoot in the RAW (NEF) setting on my camera, so my photos need to be tweaked in Adobe Lightroom or Apple Aperture and exported as jpg files before I send them on their way. It’s an extra step, but I like to have some control of the results, rather than just let the camera determine what’s right.

So the next cloudy/rainy day, I’ll focus on cleaning those photos up and posting them to Flickr and/or Google+. In the meantime, here’s a fall shot from Surrey’s City Hall in October. Some early colour.