I lost my job a few weeks ago and so I’ve got a new abundance of free time and with a desire to motivate myself, I decided to set myself a mini project. I would spend a week going to Granville Island and just shooting anything that interested me - a very loose concept I know but we’ve got to start somewhere! I made a video about the project if you want to check it out below.
Monday and Tuesday had incredible light, but it was pretty quiet with not a lot of people around. This forced me to focus on detail shots and some playing with light and shadow, which is not typically how I shoot these days but it was fun to just play and see what I could come up with.
On Wednesday it was forecast to be the last day of nice light, and also the first day of the Vancouver Boat Show which was happening at Granville Island and over at BC Place. Before leaving the house I thought I would take a chance and request a media pass for the boat show, and to my surprise it came through almost immediately. After a bit of a scramble over to BC Place to collect it I made my way back to Granville Island, excited to have a new avenue to explore there.
The highlight of Wednesday for me, and probably of the entire week, was meeting John and John on board a lifeboat which was showing there. They were so welcoming and eager to tell me the history of their boat and just their own personal stories. I wish I had more time to spend with them as I could have listened to them for hours. I was very grateful to have met them and to have been able to take some portraits and some quick detail shots of the interior.
The rest of the week unfortunately did not go as I had hoped, I did go to BC Place on Thursday but struggled to make any shots worth showing here. I was feeling a bit run down and probably should have just rested rather than forcing myself to go there. This of course meant Friday was a complete write off and I didn’t visit the show at all!
Overall though it was a fun week and even if just for the experience of meeting the two John’s it was more than worth it. Mini projects like this are certainly something I will continue to explore as you never know where something like this can lead and who you might end up meeting in the process. Being open to these unknown’s and willing to follow new paths that open up is the most intriguing part of photography for me and I can’t wait for the next one!