Photography by Leonard Whistler

AstrHori 50mm F1.4 Tilt Lens

I recently bought an AstrHori 50mm F1.4 tilt lens with a Canon RF mount for my Canon EOS R camera body. It was only 180 USD from Ebay.

The tilt lens alters the plane of focus for an artistic effect. The plane of focus is moved up or down, left to right, using the focus ring. It has an aperture range of F1.4 to F16, but for the best image quality I use F4 to F8.

You can view some pictures I have taken with this lens in the AstrHori 50mm F1.4 Tilt Lens portfolio.

AstrHori 50mm F1.4 Tilt Lens

Creekside Park at False Creek

Today I went to Creekside Park at False Creek in Vancouver BC, Canada. I took my camera with me and took some photos, then walked to the Cambie Street Bridge, which is 1 kilometer away.

Creekside Park is next to Science World, a very popular attraction for visitors. False Creek is a short, narrow inlet in the heart of Vancouver, separating the Downtown and West End neighbourhoods from the rest of the city. It is a 5-minute walk from the Main Street-Science World SkyTrain Station.

Captain George Vancouver - Vancouver City Hall

This is a statue of Captain George Vancouver at Vancouver's City Hall. The city of Vancouver is named after him.

Captain George Vancouver (June 1757 – May 1798) was a Royal Navy officer and explorer best known for leading the Vancouver Expedition, which explored and charted North America's northwestern Pacific Coast regions, including the coasts of what became the Canadian province of British Columbia. After a Spanish expedition in 1791, Captain George Vancouver was the second European to enter Vancouver's Burrard Inlet on June 13 1792, naming it for his friend Sir Harry Burrard.

Granville Square in Downtown Vancouver

Hello from Downtown Vancouver, Canada, I am at Granville Square next to the Waterfront SkyTrain Station. The building behind the newly installed Vancouver sign is Canada Place.

From here I will walk to the Pacific Centre Mall for lunch and a coffee.

The Hudson's Bay

Iconic Canadian department store has permanently closed. At one time, the Hudson's Bay department store was one of the main anchor tenants at shopping malls across Canada with about 90 locations.

Founded on May 02, 1670, the Hudson's Bay Company opened its first department store in 1881 in Winnipeg, in the Canadian Province of Manitoba. It was the oldest and longest-surviving company in North America as well as one of the oldest and largest continuously operating companies in the world.

In the picture I am at the Metrotown location of the now closed Hudson's Bay in Burnaby BC, Canada.

Audio Library

I have added a new Audio Library page to my website. I will be uploading royalty-free MP3 audio files. They will be mostly environmental sound effects, such as freight trains, traffic, etc.

Most of the field recordings will be made with my Tascam DR-05X stereo digital audio recorder.

Good Morning from Vancouver, Canada

Hello! I am in Downtown Vancouver at the Starbucks in Waterfront Station. I had breakfast at Fatburger and will explore the Seawall Water Walk along Vancouver Harbour.

Howie Avenue - Coquitlam BC, Canada

Howie Avenue is in the Austin Heights area of Coquitlam BC, Canada. The 3-block avenue from Gatensbury Street to Blue Mountain Street has mostly 3-story apartment blocks built in the late 1960s and early 1970s.

Around 1974, while I was in grade 9 and 10, I had a paper route delivering the now defunct Columbian Newspaper in this area. My paper route number was #224. I had 30 customers and made 30 Canadian dollars per month delivering the paper 6 times a week. In 1983, I rented my first apartment on Howie Avenue and paid 300 Canadian dollars monthly for a 1-bedroom apartment. Rents today in 2025 are about 2,000 Canadian dollars.

Below is an aerial video of Howie Avenue, which I made using a DJI Mavic Air 2 drone. The view is looking east from Blue Mountain Street to Gatensbury Street.

Howie Avenue - Coquitlam BC, Canada

Cherry Blossoms

The cherry blossom season in Vancouver typically runs from late February to early May, with peak bloom expected around the first week of April.

Vancouver has many locations known for their cherry blossoms, including Stanley Park, Queen Elizabeth Park, VanDusen Botanical Garden, Granville Square, Art Phillips Park at the Burrard SkyTrain Station, the 3100 block of Graveley Street, and various other streets and parks throughout the city.

The picture above and below were taken at Granville Square in Downtown Vancouver.

Cherry Blossoms at Granville Square

Breakfast at Jollibee

Good morning from the Downtown Vancouver location of Jollibee on Granville Street, near Robson Street.

This was the first time I went to a Jollibee. I ordered 2 pieces of Jolly Spicy Crispy Chicken with mashed potatoes and gravy. My drink was the Pineapple Quencher.

Shepard Tables - Optical Illusion

Shepard Tables is an optical illusion first published in 1990 as "Turning the Tables" by Stanford psychologist Roger Shepard in his book Mind Sights, a collection of illusions that he had created. It is one of the most powerful optical illusions, typically creating length miscalculations of 20–25%.

This illusion is based on a drawing of two parallelograms, identical aside from a rotation of 90 degrees. However, when the parallelograms are presented as tabletops, we see them as objects in three-dimensional space. One table seems long and narrow, with its longer dimension receding into the distance. The other table looks almost square because we interpret its shorter dimension as foreshortening. According to Shepard, "any knowledge or understanding of the illusion we may gain at the intellectual level remains virtually powerless to diminish the magnitude of the illusion".

I made a YouTube video about the Shepard Tables: Shepard Tables - Optical Illusion.

47 Years after High School

I graduated from high school 47 years ago in 1978. Below are my yearbook school photos from Winslow Junior High School and Centennial Senior Secondary High School in Coquitlam BC, Canada.

The photo on the left is me in 2025.

Junior and Senior Secondary High School - 1976 to 1978