Month: August 2012

Shinto Entrance

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This is the lovely entrance to the Nitobe Memorial Garden at the University of British Columbia. Brendan previously showed you some views from farther inside, but there’s something about the entrance itself that is particularly lovely.
Part of my attraction must certainly be from all of the anime and manga I consumed as a teenager, but even when considered objectively, the garden is gorgeous. I first thought it a bit contradictory to imagine a serene place to be overwhelming, but that was just the experience when I walked into the Garden.

Shinto Entrance

Seaside grafitti

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If you give people a maleable surface and some privacy they will almost undoubtedly deface it. This is certainly true on this soft, well-worn sea cliff on California’s coast. It was difficult to make out much of the writing but it is evident that someone sure wanted to make sure that heart would endure. Almost makes one wonder if the original artist periodically comes back to touch up and admire their handiwork or if the heart just serves as a painful reminder any more.

Seaside Graffiti

Downtown Oakland

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The relative safety of the fire trails above Berkeley you can survey most of the rest of the bay, in this case I’ve got a nice vista of downtown Oakland which makes it seem much more reputable (but maybe less charming) than it is when you actually walk into downtown proper. When you’re down in the thick of it all you often forget how green the bay area actually is, something you are reminded of from the hills.

Downtown Oakland

Green College

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This photograph comes from within the walls of Green College at the University of British Columbia. I really recommend clicking through to read all about its somewhat bizarre history. The dormitory is a place where academics of all ages come together to exchange ideas and cook extremely garlicky food. The combination of alpine architecture and enormous trees makes it feel like a cross between Hogwarts and Rivendell. I was feeling these mystical vibes in the middle of the night, as the Moon peaked through the trees and I took this picture.

Green College

Tranquil Falls

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The Nitobe Memorial garden (previously featured here) is full of water features, each with their associated symbolism. Featured here is one of several water falls. On this particular occasion I was shooting free hand and so the washed out highlights are somewhat unavoidable here, but there is something I find appealing about the effect created by the falling water and its spray in and about the rocks at the foot of the falls contrasted with the pool only a little further on.

Tranquil Falls

Low Tide

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Shorewood beach at low tide is a completely different place from Shorewood beach at high tide, a place filled with tranquil tidal pools and beach combers. At low tide there are sandy beaches whereas at high tide the beaches are rocky. Pictured is the row of houses which is adjacent to Shorewood beach as shot from about halfway out to the low tide point.

Shorewood at low tide

Heavyweight Theology

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During our recent trip to the University of British Columbia, Brendan spotted what looked a bit like a castle rising from behind the otherwise modern architecture of the university. What he saw was the Iona Building, the heart of the Vancouver School of Theology. It struck me as a little bit odd to see such an imposing and explicitly religious building on the campus of a public university, but hey–that’s Canada for you. The building’s provenance does little to diminish its architectural achievement.

Heavyweight Theology

Laying a foundation

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My parents were recently doing some much needed repair work to one of the walls of their basement during which I was able to snag this shot of the wall in the midst of the repair work. The struts were just there to keep the rest of the house from sagging while the wall from being put in but it is slightly alarming at first glance how much those struts are flexing (not entirely the result of lens distortion!).

Raising the Roof

Mt. Jefferson and the Patchwork

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Timberline lodge overwhelms its visitors with both its interior (as I posted last week) and its views from near the summit of Mt. Hood. Fifty miles away is Mt. Jefferson; between the two, as we see today, are acres of forest. Within these spaces are these tiny patchwork spots, cut clean from foresting. They regrow surprisingly quickly; Oregon seems to handle the whole process pretty effectively.

Today’s photography is definitely worth clicking through to the large size; the detail in the forests is hypnotic.

Mt. Jefferson and the Patchwork

77 Log Bridge

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If you have never visited the Nitobe Memorial Garden on UBC’s campus you are really missing out. It is an authentic Japanese garden which is painstakingly maintained. Strolling through you get the feeling that not a single rock is out of place, and that ever leaf is placed precisely where it ought to be. It’s really the kind of place you could spend an entire afternoon walking through and enjoying.

Pictured here is one of the bridges, the so-called 77 Log Bridge. I fee like this shot really captures the tranquility of the garden, reflected in the stillness of the water.

Tranquility and the Log Bridge