Lighthouse Park, long exposure using 10 stop filter/saturated (Vancouver BC, Canada)
Image by @CarShowShooter
Lighthouse Park is a popular park in West Vancouver, Canada. It covers about 75 hectares (190 acres) and it is almost completely covered with rugged, virgin rain forest. At the southernmost tip of the peninsula is Point Atkinson Lighthouse with an impressive landmark lighthouse from 1912 replacing the original built in 1875. Point Atkinson was first charted and named by Captain George Vancouver in 1792 and is a National Historic Site of Canada. The park contains the city’s last remaining stand of first-growth Douglas fir, as well as some magnificent Western hemlock and Western Red cedar. Whereas most of the region has been logged, the trees in what is now the park were spared as they provided a necessary dark background for the lighthouse. The area was thus set aside in 1881 as the lighthouse reserve. Some ancient trees reach heights of up to 200 feet (61 m) and are around 500 years old. There is a network of hiking trails in the park, some of which are fairly rough and can be slippery when wet. The park receives more than 50 inches (1,300 mm) of rain annually and has an abundance of various ferns, berries and mushrooms. Visitors should wear good walking shoes as the trails are often slippery due to the damp micro climate. Another word of caution: do not leave any valuables in the car as the parking lot at the entrance to the park is a scene of regular break-ins. Access to the park is through Beacon Lane off Marine Drive. [source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lighthouse_Park]
Vancouver, officially the City of Vancouver, is a coastal seaport city on the mainland of British Columbia, Canada, and the most populous city in the province. The 2011 census recorded 603,502 people in the city, making it the eighth largest Canadian municipality. The Greater Vancouver area of around 2.4 million inhabitants is the third most populous metropolitan area in the country. Vancouver is one of the most ethnically and linguistically diverse cities in Canada; 52% of its residents have a first language other than English. Vancouver is classed as a Beta global city. The City of Vancouver encompasses a land area of about 114 square km, giving it a population density of about 5,249 people per square km (13,590 per square mi). Vancouver is the most densely populated Canadian municipality with over 250,000 residents, and the fourth most densely populated such city in North America behind New York City, San Francisco, and Mexico City. The original settlement, named Gastown, grew up on clear-cuts on the west edge of the Hastings Mill logging sawmill’s property, where a makeshift tavern had been set up on a plank between two stumps and the proprietor, Gassy Jack, persuaded the curious mill-workers to build him a tavern, on 1 July 1867. From that first enterprise, other stores and some hotels quickly appeared along the waterfront to the west. Gastown became formally laid out as a registered townsite dubbed Granville, B.I. ("B.I" standing for "Burrard Inlet"). As part of the land and political deal whereby the area of the townsite was made the railhead of the CPR, it was renamed "Vancouver" and incorporated shortly thereafter as a city, in 1886. By 1887, the transcontinental railway was extended to the city to take advantage of its large natural seaport, which soon became a vital link in a trade route between the Orient, Eastern Canada, and Europe. As of 2014, Port Metro Vancouver is the third largest port by tonnage in the Americas (displacing New York), 27th in the world, the busiest and largest in Canada, and the most diversified port in North America. While forestry remains its largest industry, Vancouver is well known as an urban centre surrounded by nature, making tourism its second-largest industry. Major film production studios in Vancouver and Burnaby have turned Greater Vancouver and nearby areas into one of the largest film production centres in North America, earning it the film industry nickname, Hollywood North. [source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vancouver]
