35 minutes from downtown (by bus — take the 250 bus) is this little gem of a park which offers amazing views on the Greater Vancouver and Howe Sound regions. It contains all the ingredients of a hike, minus the pulse-pounding cardio bit. Its pièce de résistance is of course, the lighthouse from which the park got its name.
Lighthouse, West Beach viewpoint
Great Heron
Arbutus
Leaky boat ;)
This Pyrenean Mountain dog is positively drooling over the view! :p
Labrador Retrievers (?) and their proud owner :)
Oh my God! Do you “photoshop” your pictures a bit or are they naturally luminous like this? The colors are so bright and pure… It seems that there are a few sunny days in BC, not always raining…
Thanks for the compliment. :)
I like to keep the “post-processing” part to a minimum. I don’t use PhotoShop, but I do use the freeware “IrfanView” to do a quick fix on my pictures (takes 30 seconds or less usually).
If I have to touch up my picture, I’ll fix one or more of those characteristics:
- exposure (if picture is too dark or too bright)
- contrast (if picture looks too monotone or to reduce the haze)
- saturation (if colors aren’t rich enough)
- sharpness (if picture is a little out of focus)
Of course, some pictures need no touch up at all (I’m pretty sure the last 3 pics in this article remained untouched).
My camera is a Nikon D80 (10 megapixels) and I customized the settings a little bit so it always adds some saturation by default. Contrast and sharpening are set to “Auto.”
The banner for this blog has been heavily saturated though, because such small pics need a boost so they stand out more.
Wow, your photos are incredible. It’s amazing that you were able to catch such a clear shot of that heron in flight. You captured the beauty of Lighthouse Park very well!