English Bay.com is a community web page!  First and foremost this site should serve the needs of the Vancouver, West End, English Bay community and anyone wanting to move or vacation here.

I think that message gets a little lost sometimes with the site design…..?  If that is the case it was not intended!  The site design of English Bay.com is meant to be modern, stylish, nice to look at.  I don’t think that means it is less of a community page, but maybe it looks a little less community.  However I really don’t see how those things could make it less of a community oriented page.

An open invitation to all Vancouver area community groups and organizations: Any Vancouver area community group is entitled to a feature page on English Bay.com, in fact several pages if need be. You can have yourcommunitygroup.englishbay.com that will point to your groups page and on that page you can publish any and all info and activities of your group. There is also a photo gallery and blog (your are reading it now) that can be used by your group.  Basically we will set a mini site for you on English Bay.com. If you are interested please email us for more info.

Just a quick note to let blog readers know that I have done some updates to the FLASH version of the site. You can view them here: English Bay FLASH Site

I love the flash version of our site!  I wish that flash were more indexable by search engines and that I could rely on all people having computers updated to see flash pages.  Then I would only have the flash version and would not continue to have both HTML & FLASH.  

It is true that the overwhelming majority of computers can read flash pages.  You may have noticed a lot more adds on sites these days are flash adds not gif’s or other types of images like in days gone bye.  Flash is more lively and well….  More flashy.  It makes for pages that are more fun to view and more interesting to interact with.  So if I had my way English Bay.com would have only a Flash version of the site. But believe it or not: Some people are still on dial up and some computers are not updated to read flash.

Another big thing to consider in having only a flash site is that search engines like Google have a hard time with flash sites.  They see one large movie, not a site with individual pages. Mostly because it is in fact an interactive movie without typical pages.  This means that individual page content inside flash site is not seen or indexed by the search engines and so page ranking and indexing suffer.  

Anyway….  These are just some random thoughts on flash and an update to let you know I’ve updated the flash version of our site.

I don’t intend for this blog to be overly political.  However it’s fine if people want to comment on politics in the blogs they create here. Politics is a part of life…..  To that end I wanted to post this.  This link is to a FaceBook group to oppose bill 42 on free speech restriction.

English Bay.com now has a FaceBook Group. It is open to anyone to join so please join our group.

FaceBook really is an interesting phenomenon!  And a useful one at that!!  It allows people to connect not only from great distances but also from back in time.  It is common place on FaceBook to reconnect with people you have not seen or heard from in years or decades.  My partner Gerard has now re-established contact with friends from his homeland of Sri Lanka that he last saw as a child. I’ve had a chance to reconnect with some people to. But nothing as dramatic as across decades and the world…..

We hope that people joining our Face Book group: English Bay.com will not only get a chance to meet some new people but also reconnect with some old friends.  This will hopefully also allow for people to get more and timely information about whats going on around here.  People can upload photos, video, post about what they’ve been up to and maybe get the word out about whats up in Vancouver.

I was just doing a little updating to the community page of English Bay.com and it dawned on me….  People often want to find ways to connect with their community.  A common question I get on the reception desk at the Centre, where I volunteer, is “How can I meet some new friends?”.  One possible answer: Volunteer….

Volunteering is a great way to get out in the community, learn some new skills, interact with and meet new people, and make some new friends along the way. It’s a great deal when you think about it.

I have been volunteer for the LGTB Community Centre for about 7 years now.  I work the reception desk a couple days a week and help out with special events and a few other things.  Being at the Centre has given me a feeling that I have helped out a bit but also given me  opportunities to learn things I would not have otherwise leaned.  I have made friends and I always enjoy being there.

So if you want to make new friends and help out the community a bit try volunteering.

The Centre is always looking for volunteers.  Call Volunteer Services at 604 685-7589

English Bay.com now has an online store.  Check out our fabulious English Bay ispired murchendice!  Lots of different items from mugs, calendars, framed pictures, shirts, hats, and bags to baby gear. We have lots of great gift items.  Visit our store here: English Bay Store

English Bay.com had a large community business directory.  It contains all kinds of listings like local hotels (listings broken down by how close they are to English Bay and by cost! You can even book rooms in Vancouver area English Bay hotels), local business and shops, community organizations, recreation, dining, cafes/bakeries/delis, drinking, all kinds of stuff.  There is also a section for non Vancouver links.

If you have a web site for your Vancouver Business or Community Agency/Group please add you link to our local directory. If you have a web site located anywhere out side of Vancouver and you think its content would be of interest to the people that visit our site (and that’s lots of people with widely varying interests….) Please add your link to our non Vancouver directory.

I’ve been adding and in some cases restoring pages to English Bay.com over the last few days and weeks. The site is still under going a redesign and reimplementation of core services. We are adding tons of new features like the photo section and this blog. Lots more is in the plans….

Today a few things were added:
A new recreation page, with lots of great tips and features from the older version of the site.
Updated maps page, check out the 7 page walking tour of English Bay.
Entertainment page, a good place to waste a little time online.

Also added is a new Community Event Calendar for the LGTB Centre, 1170 Bute St Vancouver BC. Now you can view all the events sheduled at this comminty centre!

One thing I am beginning to understand about photography is: Always, always, always have your camera or pay the consequences! In just the last month I have missed 3 exceedingly rare photo opportunities. 2 happened in one day and only hours apart.  

The first was one that most people would not care to photograph but I would…..  It was of a seagull that had just captured and was killing a pigeon. I know, not everyones taste.  But this was a rare urban wildlife event playing out on the streets of Vancouver (actually an alley just off Davie street).  I’ve seen seagulls eat lots of things like starfish, fish in general, and all kinds of trash, but never another bird and one that it had just captured and was killing.  It was an amazing site.  I will not go into more detail…..  Just that I still wish I had my camera and had gotten photos of this event I have never seen in my 35 years.

Later that day on a walk around the city seawall with my partner we saw a hawk in flight with a pigeon it had just captured.  The hawk flew in front of us and landed 4 floors up on the ledge of a building.  It then preceded to rain down feathers and the hawk at his meal.  Again, I was without my camera obviously not having had learned my lesson from earlier in the day.  This was the first hawk I have ever seen in Vancouver.  

The third was today: the Owls of Stanley Park.  I know that there are owls in Stanley Park and I have photographed one before. But today my partner and I were walking on the trails (lovers to be exact) and we came across 2 owls sitting on the same branch only about 8 feet off the ground and just of the side of the trail.  It would have been a fabulous shot!  

I know it is not likely to have your camera with you at all times.  Sometimes like today it was just to hot and I didn’t want any unnecessary things to carry.  When it came to the seagull  eating the pigeon I was on the way back from knitting class (see the YahooGroups page).

Bottom line: Life just seems to know when you are not prepared for things and mostly picks those moments to throw these little treats at you.  Have the camera and be prepared or blog about missing them…….

I’ve lived in Vancouver for about 15 years now.  I’ve seen the Celebration of Lights show many times, every year for at least the last 10 or so years.  Since most of my work before now has been customer service I’ve also had the chance to work retail on Davie Street during the fireworks.  Let me tell you…..  It’s crazy!  The fireworks draw a crowd of hundreds of thousands for every event. All of those people are coming down just a hand full of streets.  Davie street is a main route and is the most direct route to the entrance of English Bay and the fireworks barges.  One year I worked at a Starbucks on Davie Street (Davie & Therlow).  It’s hard to describe the stampede of people that goes past and comes into all of the stores on Davie that night. Then once the fireworks start all those people vanish and it becomes a ghost town. The street are blocked so even cars are off the streets.  

This year I have my Sony A700 to shoot the fireworks.  It’s been fun!  For the most part I used iso 200, f11, 1.6 sec shutter, and a tripod.  On one night, the Canadian display, I was invited to the top floor of the Coast Plaza Hotel with room enough that I could set up my MacBook and use it via USB to control the A700 and trigger shots from it. This eliminates any shake even from the pressing of the shutter release.

The one big mistake I made on the night of the Canadian display was that I thought I would need my 75-300mm lens.  I ended up shooting all photos at 75mm and wishing I could pull back even more.  The lens I needed was my 18-70mm. But this was the best opportunity to shoot the fireworks unobstructed and with the best setup. I can’t thank the Coast Plaza enough for their hospitality that night!  That night I saw the best fireworks display in years.  I was sure that Canada was going to win for the second year in a row.  They did.  The HSBC Celebration of Light winner is Canada: Attack (Godzilla).

The next display was USA, the Power of Love.  I had no invitation to the top of any tall building this time.  I was out in the crowd and it didn’t work well.  There was no way I was going to be able to set up a tripod and not get bumped every time someone moved.  We were packed in like sardines.  I decided to go….  Got 9 shots and was lucky to get that.

Next was China, The Power of the Dream.  I was invited back to the top of the Coast Plaza for their staff night fireworks viewing.  However by the time I got up their it was packed and all the out door viewing space was taken.  It looked like it was going to be a disaster!  (however one with food and drinks….)  But then my partner Gerard decided we should leave and head to the beach and the crowd.  The same crowd that had foiled my attempts for the USA. However Gerard had a plan.  He lead up to a great spot where I was able to set up but without the laptop.  I managed to get even more shots than with Canada.  It was a great fireworks display.  China was chosen and was given the Peoples Choice Award.

Now for the finale.  For this I was invited to the roof top of a tall building , 28th floor, with a panoramic  view of Stanley Park and Vancouver city. This was supposed to be a perfect opportunity to photograph the 2008 Celebration of Light Grande Finale Fireworks but it was not to be.  The board of directors of the building hired a guy to stop any person from taking photos with a tripod.  As soon as I set up he came along and demanded I take it down.  Telling me that I was obstructing the people and would be in the way of others who wanted to view the fireworks. At this point there was on about 10 people on the roof of the building.  Without writing a ton of detail on this…..  I had to take down my setup and stand at the back of any/all people.  The suite owners I was with and the ones whom invited me were not happy with the restriction the director hired guy was trying to enforce.  To make a story short, I didn’t get much of any useful photos.  Next year I will try to secure one spot for all fireworks.

All the photos I took of the various firework displays are available here: 2008 Celebration of Light Fireworks Gallery.