During the Vancouver 2010 Olympics the weather could not have been more beautiful (unless you were up on Cypress Mountain). This panorama was taken from English Bay with my back to Granville Island and. One of the great things about living in Vancouver is that even on an exhausting day, I can look up at the mountain skyline and receive exhilaration at the view. I know that wherever I live in the future, I’ll probably end up missing mountains in my life daily.

For the full 6545 x 1249 version check it out on Flickr.

The last few weeks have been full of Vancouver 2010 crazyness but now that things are starting to settle back down I can return to a regular weekly posting schedule. I spotted these jellyfish at the Vancouver Aquarium when @jfeltis and @jennkane were visiting. Jane promised us that we were going to see orcas but it turns out that those orcas were actually

The Year of the Tiger rolled in with a bang on Sunday as Jane and I hit up the Vancouver Chinatown Chinese New Year Parade. In China, I’m sure they just call it New Year though. This was an awesome parade with all the dragon dancers and costumes but these dancers really captured the essence of the new year in my mind.

at Yellowstone Canyon, the lighting the backdrop and everything else was perfect for capturing this moment. Thanks to @serdmanczyk for being a great subject here!

This one was my first experiment with exposure blending. HDR can give some great results from complex lighting, but what about when no light exists? Exposure blending allows you to use limited light to give a better picture of the scene. All those little streaks you see are the stars moving through the sky. You can also see a shooting star there in the middle!

The Crowfoot Glacier is about 20 miles northwest of Lake Louise in Banff National Park on the Icefields parkway. The glacier used to resemble a crow’s foot but the bottom toe/claw has dropped off due to glacial melt from increased average temperatures in the region. The glacier looks like a painting when you see it in person, this photo was my attempt at capturing the amazingness.

Yellowstone is full of awesome stuff. Mammoth Hot Springs is the largest and most impressive geothermal area at the National Park. Looking out at the mountain vistas through the Earth’s steaming emissions is a fantastic experience.

Fortunately, my visit back to Charlotte overlapped with the grand opening of the Bechler Museum of Modern Art. Charlotte’s architecture is largely bland and corporate, the same glass and steel that’s typical of un-imaginative “efficient” building designs. Now that the Bechler is open, I hope it becomes the face of the city. Housing some awesome pieces only bolsters its amazingness. Who knew there were so many modern art tapestries? Or that said tapestries were woven by Picasso?

Sure, its far from perfect as @thediscochicken will tell you. But this is the kind of challenging provocative space Uptown CLT needs desperately. The only awesome building in Blandcouver is the downtown library… the only structure that stands out from the countless towers copied and pasted from Hong Kong.

One of the most iconic images from Banff National Park in Alberta, Jane and I just happened upon it as we were driving from our campsite near Lake Louise to Banff.

The mountain was named in 1858 by James Hector for its castle-like or fortress appearance. Following the post-war visit of U.S. president Dwight D. Eisenhower, the name was changed to Mount Eisenhower by the then Canadian Prime Minister W. L. Mackenzie-King. Eventually, public pressure forced the name to be changed back in 1979 to its original because the Alberta locals were outraged at the snap judgement of the Canadian PM.

@ Porter Sculpture Park between Sioux Falls and Mitchell, SD on I-90. This place was one of the highlights of the roadtrip this summer with so many awesome sculpture and meeting/talking to Mr. Wayne Porter himself.