Keep It Surreal

This is my first time-lapse sunset from my place in English Bay. It consists of 879 photos taken in about an hour and a half one evening in late August. I strung the image sequence in Quicktime Pro and then I added Moby’s great song Hymn as the background music.

If you haven’t been to Mount Baker you have to go. It’s only a two hour drive from Vancouver and it offers some of the best alpine scenery in North America. In the winter, the Mountain Baker Ski Area gets obscene amounts of powder (in fact, they set the world record for ski resort snowfall in 1999 with 95 feet!). And to sweeten the pot, lift tickets run from $35-$45 which makes it a lot better bang for your buck than Whistler Blackcomb.

In the summer, the entire Mount Baker recreation area offers an incredibly scenic drive and all kinds of hikes in the upper alpine. The highlight is Mount Shuksan 9, 127 feet which many mountaineers claim the most beautiful peak in the Cascade Range. The alpine lakes around the recreation are provide excellent reflections, with Picture Lake attracting herds of tripod-wielding camera enthusiasts.

This a collection of photos that showcases the changing views  of the North Shore Mountains from Vancouver’s West End. I took the photos from my old apartment on the corner of Robson and Cardero.

The morning fog hanging over the Stanley Park and Coal Harbour as the mountains reappear after a week of dense fog that completely enveloped the city.

The perfect shade of blue sky on a clear, crisp summer day.

Different shades of clouds as the mysterious haze gradually colours over the blue sky.

A bright morning reveals a fresh dusting of snow on the North Shore Mountains.

After a fresh dump snow at sea level, the city of Vancouver grinds to a halt.

An inversion of clouds hangs below the North Shore Mountains and above the city of North Vancouver.

After a big storm, clouds blanket the North Shore Mountains.

Misty mountaintops after a winter storm.

My favourite thing about the few summer sunrises that I manage to catch is how the ridgelines of the mountains light up against the fiery morning sky.

The November gloom sets in as the rainy season begins for another year. The city remains socked in by grey clouds for most of the next 4 months. When the clouds occasionally break and the rains stop, the mountaintops are dusted in fresh snow.

One of my favourite things about Vancouver is how the clouds break up at in the late morning or afternoon after a storm. Then they bunch up on the North Shore Mountains, often creating explosive looking cloud pillars thousands of feet high.

In the winter dense fog can completely cover the city, dramatically reducing visibility.