Photography by Leonard Whistler

Canadian National Railway (CNR)

From 1979 to 1997 I worked as a Carman for the Canadian National Railway (CNR) and VIA Rail Canada in Surrey BC, Canada, and Vancouver. The Carman position is similar to a Heavy Duty Mechanic.

During my time there I picked up two souvenirs - a Canadian National Railway (CNR) caboose kerosene signal lantern manufactured by the Hiram L. Piper Company, and 4 railcar outer bolster springs.

I used the bolster springs as legs for a coffee table with a wooden top. I made the coffee table in 1980 and still have it.

Railcar Bolster Spring Coffee Table

Good Morning from Vancouver BC, Canada

Today I visited Downtown Vancouver to get my breakfast at a very nice fast food restaurant called Anita's Kitchen in the Bentall Centre on Burrard Street.

After breakfast, I usually go to Starbucks for my daily coffee, but today I went to Tim Hortons.

3D Red-Cyan Anaglyph Video

In 2023 I made three 3D videos using two GoPro Hero7 Black cameras mounted side-by-side. Put on your red-cyan glasses and view the videos on my YouTube channel at: 3D Red-Cyan Anaglyph Videos.

URL Shortening - www.len778.ca

I created www.len778.ca to redirect viewers to my main website at www.LeonardWhistler.ca.

I use the www.len778.ca web address on my business cards because it is short, easy to remember, and easy to enter into the browser address bar. I chose len778 because Len (Leonard) is my name, and 778 is one of the telephone area codes in Vancouver BC, Canada - my home city.

VCC Printing Production Certificate Course

In September 1987 I took a 10-month Printing Production certificate course at Vancouver Community College (VCC) in Vancouver, Canada. I finished the course in June 1988.

I took this course because I was interested in printing up a 12-month calendar of my images from the concert photography (Blog post #008) I was doing at the time, and I wanted to learn how offset printing worked.

For the final project the students were required to print a 2-color job on a 1-color offset printing press. Since I was collecting Canadian stubby beer bottles (Blog post #011), I decided to print some beer bottle labels. I designed the labels on an Apple Macintosh Plus computer and printed them on a 25-inch L125C Harris offset printing press.

Canadian Stubby Beer Bottles

From about 1976 to 1983 I collected Canadian Stubby beer bottles. All major Canadian breweries bottled their beer in the same bottle from the 1960's to about 1984. I have almost 300 bottles in my collection.

If you have any Stubby beer bottles and are curious how much they might be worth, check the Completed and Sold Items on eBay. Or the collectibles section on Craigslist.

I have created a website at www.stubby.ca for my collection: Canadian Stubby Beer Bottles

Good Morning from Burnaby BC, Canada

To start my day after my breakfast, I went to the Starbucks at Brentwood Town Centre in Burnaby BC, Canada. Burnaby is a suburb of Vancouver, Canada.

This Starbucks location is very easy to get to, it is about 100 feet from the Brentwood SkyTrain Station. SkyTrain is Metro Vancouver's rapid transit system.

Drone Videos

I bought a DJI Mavic Air 2 drone a few years ago. In Canada you need a Basic Drone License to fly a drone that weighs more than 249 grams, this drone weighs 570 grams.

DJI drones are easy to use. They feature automated take-off and landing, simple and intuitive flight controls, simple image & video exposure controls, and compact design. They are also very reasonably priced for the technology inside them.

I uploaded 9 drone videos to my YouTube channel - Drone Videos Playlist - and my favorite video is an aerial view of Como Lake Park during the winter in Coquitlam BC, Canada.

Como Lake Park - Coquitlam BC, Canada

Concert Photography

From about 1984 to about 1990 I was interested in concert photography and planned to publish a calendar of Vancouver bands. The 16x20 print I am holding is of Madelaine Morris when she was with Moev at the New York Theatre on Commercial Drive in East Vancouver taken in 1984 - this was my first concert photo.

During the next few years I photographed a few more Vancouver bands in concert but decided not to publish the calendar. I don't have any of the negatives from the time I was working on this project, I had no use for them so I disposed of them around 1995.

Moon Phase Triptych

There are eight lunar phases - new moon, waxing crescent, first quarter, waxing gibbous, full moon, waning gibbous, third quarter, and waning crescent. The cycle repeats every 29½ days.

A triptych is a picture or artwork divided into three sections and displayed side-by-side. The term comes from the Greek word triptykhos, which means "three-layered". Triptychs are often used to create sequences, or to show different elements of the same subject matter.

The triptych composite image below includes the first quarter, full moon, and third quarter. I used a Canon 5D III with a Sigma 150-600mm f5-6.3 Contemporary lens at 600mm & Canon 2x extender.

I also made a 14-second YouTube short video, which you can view at: Three Moon Phases - YouTube

SFU Trottier Observatory

Here I am at the Simon Fraser University (SFU) Trottier Observatory - elevation 370 meters. Built in 2014 and located at the SFU campus on Burnaby Mountain in Burnaby BC, Canada. The observatory is open to the public every Friday night depending on the weather.

Good Morning! Happy Saturday

Good morning from Vancouver BC, Canada. I am at the historic Waterfront Station in Downtown Vancouver, which was built in 1914 by the Canadian Pacific Railway (CPR). It is the main transit terminal in Vancouver serviced by Skytrain, which is Vancouver's rapid transit system, SeaBus to North Vancouver, and West Coast Express to Mission City.

After my breakfast, I usually go to the Starbucks in this building. This Starbucks location was the first international Starbucks store to open outside the USA on March 1, 1987.