City of Colour

City of Colour epitomizes patience and persistence. You see, I’d been in this location before, and I’d seen the perfect scene. Sadly though, I was without my photography gear. It was years and countless hours before I had the chance to capture this shot again.

Not only dazzled with colour, this photograph also captures the phenomenal skyline and the landmark buildings edging the City of Vancouver’s shoreline. Sailing centre stage, almost as if intentionally commanding the spotlight, is Vancouver’s famous sailboat, the SV Cresset. She has sailed the shores of British Columbia since 1929, being passed through the hands of several owners and looking worse for wear each year. Her tenacity was rewarded when finally, in 2009, the Cresset gained a new steward and over the next six years, she was lovingly restored to her former glory. She is once again sailing this beautiful coast steeped in West Coast maritime history.

Taken in early April, I spent nine days and three-and-a-half hours per night patiently waiting for the perfect scene. The initial images I took were average at best – nothing as spectacular as that first one I’d seen so many years before. I made a vow to myself that I would take the right gear and wait for the right light and persevere for as long as it took to capture this perfectly.

On the ninth night, I was on my phone talking with my brother, waiting for the sun to set.  He was mid-sentence when the time came. I intentionally dropped my phone. Left listening to near silence, my brother could only hear the sound of the camera’s shutter firing repeatedly. The moment was here, and it was exactly as I had imagined.

City of Colour is mesmerizing with a rainbow sky moving from pale yellow, orange, and subtle reds to finally shades of blues on its right. Stitching together a progressive series of eight to ten digital images taken at sunset, I created this panoramic image. Demonstrating a wide spectrum of colours, I had the stitching technique and a little bit of luck to be grateful for. As photography is often helped or hindered by time and place, City of Colour just might be among the luckiest images I’ve ever captured.