Saturday, March 29, 2014

Theatre Row, Granville Street, Vancouver, BC

Saturday I went for a long walk.   I left my car in Kitsilano and walked downtown.   The first kilometer was the hardest and my legs started to hurt but I endured and kept walking. I walked over the Granville Street bridge and down to Pacific Centre, where I had a sandwich.   A few hours later after wandering aimlessly it started to really rain so I walked back to my car



This used to be our main theatre area "in the old days".  Now it is a hangout for young people without jobs who apparently live there as many were still in their sleeping bags


Note:   a few people have asked so I will make my comment here:

This photo was processed using  Photomatix Pro 5.0  HDR software.   This was a 3 shot bracketed +/- 1 EV  HDR and converted to Monochrome, then slightly sharpened with very little colour saturation.  The result is nearly a black and white with a hint of colour


14 comments:

  1. It's kinda sad that such a nice area becomes so seedy. I like the effects in your picture.

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    1. Sonja:

      This area was okay until the city decided to ban cars from this street and created Granville Mall. With little traffic, the homeless took over and started to hang out which forced all the stores to move as "normal" people didn't want to be harassed with aggressive people begging for money or a handout. They started to allow traffic but it is taking a long time for businesses to start spending money to remodel these old buildings

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  2. Me too, the photo could easily be a painting when I sit back a few feet.

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    1. Coop:

      Most of the posts where I only post one photo I have spent time Post Processing. I will explain farther down ...

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  3. The picture makes it look like a nice area. I too like the effect.

    Good for you for getting out and walking. Hope you aren't too sore today.

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    1. Trobairitz:

      I have wanted to go walking for some time and even though I got soaked later I am glad that I got some exercise. It was hard at first but I kept pressing myself to continue. My plan is go to different areas and show more scenes of Vancouver, both good and bad

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  4. It is a sad thing when the historic and almost historic places have become a place of ruins. These places could put some of those kids to work if up and reconditioned to the past. Its the same way here though. It is almost non avoidable these days. Great photo of telling that story!

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    1. Kathy:

      It's sad but I think every large city has places to avoid. There is no where else these people can go and who wants to invest in dying or undesirable districts. A lot of shopping has moved out to the suburbs so there is not the population who come downtown anymore as they can get stuff they want closer to home, or online

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  5. Replies
    1. Karen:

      I've been playing with my new software so the computer did most of the work. I only moved the mouse and clicked here and there and dragged a few sliders back and forth

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  6. I like the effect and composition but the I'll pass on the city…

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    1. Richard:

      I have new software which I am learning. The city isn't that bad except it is hard to find reasonable priced parking where your car isn't a target for vandalism or theft. Here we have too few roads and too many cars

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  7. I'd like to see Vancouver one day, but whenever time is an issue, nature will win out over a city hands-down.

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    1. Kathy:

      While we live in the City, we generally ignore urban areas when we travel . We also like the open road with less people and less traffic. You were so close. Seattle is only 3+ hours away from Vancouver dependent upon border wait times. We also plan trips where we can visit scenic places

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