Digital trip to Canada
SILEBY Photographic Society hosted its weekly Zoom meeting on Monday, February 15, when guest lecturer and long-standing friend of the Society, David Gibbins, ARPS, APAGB, EFIAP, BPE5*, CPAGB/AV presented digital images, monochrome and colour, under the title ‘Canada’.
David spent three weeks touring parts of Canada in 2018, at the time when British Columbia was undergoing massive wild fires, flying to
Vancouver and on to Calgary and Alberta.
David’s short AV presentation ‘Welcome to Canada’ gave a brief but stunning overview, beginning with his visit to Vancouver, showing the many skyscraper buildings, sea planes, beautiful landscapes and mountainous scenery.
His images of modern skyscraper buildings in Vancouver contrasted well to those captured on camera during a visit to the more peaceful Stanley Park, the third largest urban park in North America. Returning to down-town Vancouver, the fantastic architecture of the enormous Library with an appealing design photographed well.
Victoria on Vancouver Island was the next port of call, revealing distinctive wooden floating houses on the water’s edge, and interesting images of the water taxi drivers showing off their ‘dancing’ skills as they made their way down-river. Whilst walking through the forest at Cathedral Grove, home to extremely huge trees, David was able to capture their grandeur in both monochrome and colour, and it was interesting to see the differences reflected in these two mediums.
On to Calgary where David projected images taken from the Sky Tower of the many skyscraper buildings in the vicinity. Street views led to a very smart shopping mall with an incredibly architecturally beautiful shopping centre, and the artwork outside the entrance proved very photogenic.
Evidence was shown of the devastation caused by the Mountain Pine beetle through massive swathes of forestry in British Columbia and Alberta, successfully stripping all life out of the trees resulting in the added threat of a major fire risk. Great images despite the story.
An 8-hour journey from Jasper to Lake Louise was well worth the effort. Stunning landscape images captured on the Icefields Parkway, home to 100 ancient glaciers, cascading waterfalls, rock spires and emerald lakes set in sweeping valleys of thick pine and larch forests, were nothing short of spectacular.
A short trip from Lake Louise to Moraine Lake offered magnificent views, with rugged grandeur, snowcapped mountains, glaciers, and fir trees skirting the edge of the aquamarine lake. David’s images included a representation of the wildlife seen in the area, elk, a rather large black bear, not to be messed with, and the smaller and cute rabbit and ground squirrel.
A short AV showing some of the ‘not to be missed’ geological features, concluded his superb presentation and featured the Hoodoos in Alberta. Images of these unique and strange shaped features, created by nature’s own erosion programme, were stunning and David had been able to capture the different colours and textures to maximum effect.
John Hoogerwerf, President, thanked David for showing spectacular images of this part of the world which had brought back memories not only for himself but for many of the audience too.
The next Zoom meeting will be held on Monday, 1st March, when guest speaker, Helen Willis, will present digital images entitled ‘Shimla and the Narrow-Gauge Railway’.
Anyone wishing to become a member of Sileby Photographic Society, enabling access to the weekly Zoom meetings, should visit the contact page of the SPS website, when further details will be issued. The programme for the current photographic year is also available to view.