Illuminate Yaletown

Last month, after Northern Voice wrapped up, there was a unique event being held in a part of downtown Vancouver called Yaletown that seemed like an ideal photographic subject.

Basically a couple of city blocks were closed to vehicle traffic and a number of light installations were set up by local artists. There were also fire jugglers/dancers and live music scattered around the area.

I wasn’t quite sure what to expect and it certainly was much bigger than anticipated. We’re talking light shows projected on the side of five story buildings, lasers and fire all over the place. Plus a TON of people showed up to see what was going on.

I submitted most of my set of photos to the contest and two of them were selected as finalists. So if you’d like to vote on either or both of these shots, click on them to go to the Illuminate Yaletown voting pages for each photo (quick registration required):

Best of Yaletown category:

Best Digital Art category:

I have to say that I had some ideas in my head of the kinds of shots I was going to get but ended up with completely different ones. My iPhone even surprised me with some interesting shots. I thought I’d be a little different and use my fisheye (surprise) for the shoot and after getting my tripod setup at the first fire juggling ‘station’, a guy walks up with the exact same camera and fisheye lens. Oh well…still haven’t found his shots yet on Flickr.

I’m looking forward to next year’s event to try and see what I can do now that I have a better idea of what to expect.