A few years ago a company came up with an algorithm that found the most photographed sights in the world. When I checked out Vancouver it turned out that all of the places I would have guessed WEREN’T on the list, and the Lion’s Gate Bridge and the totems in Stanley Park WERE – two things I had NEVER taken a photo of!
Shortly after this I was going through my parent’s old albums and discovered this photo of my dad being an imp and climbing up on one of the lions on the Bridge.Obviously I needed to remedy my lack of Vancouver Hotspot Shots so I headed off on a (rare) sunny day in January and got these shots. I’m actually surprised it was one of the most photographed sights – getting there involved a scenic but loooong walk – I supposed in most cases it is included on a bus tour of Stanley Park.
My friend suggested I mimic my dad’s pose and climb up onto the lion. However I didn’t inherit a single drop of my dad’s athletic ability, and getting me up there would have been an impossible task. My friend thought it might be possible if she could figure out how to operate the crane that someone had left temptingly close to the lion.
Without the crane, this was the best I could do – not nearly as impressive as my dad!
This shot was taken from underneath the bridge looking up from the Sea Wall.
Another shot of the bridge – this one at night from across the water in West Vancouver. The shiny balloon installation at their Harmony Arts Festival framed the Lion’s Gate Bridge and the blue moon shining on the water in the background.
I’ve just found the original site that listed the Hotshots, or rather the Hotspots, as it is called Shot Hot Spot at https://www.shothotspot.com. It’s changed somewhat from its original format but is still interesting to browse through and discover new places to shoot.
I turned to this post because it’s quite a few years since we were lucky enough to visit Vancouver. Happy memories – thank you.
Nice shots. I don’t recall this from my brief visit there. Do you happen to recall the name of the website that did the algorithm? I’d love to check out Boston.
I’m afraid that website went under – they never found a way to make it work. It was an interesting exercise to ask everyone I knew what they thought the two most photographed sights were – my husband was the only one who guessed correctly – I will probably do a series of posts based on everybody else’s guesses!
That’s too bad it is no longer. I know of a site called photohotshot.com. It is supposed to help find good shots. It is rather hit or miss for Boston.
It might be the same site – I had trouble tracking down the original site although it did have hotshot in its name – at any rate this one is also defunct!
Actually, I just re-located the site (and looked up Boston) at https://www.shothotspot.com/hotspots/?nelng=-70.9232&nelat=42.3989&swlat=42.2279&swlng=-71.1911&country=US&place=Boston%2C+MA%2C+United+States
It’s changed a bit in focus but there is still some interesting stuff there to look at!
love that bridge!! Great photos of both you and your dad!
Haha, a great shot of dad and good to see you too, even if on firm ground. 🙂