July 16th, 2008 — Erinne Willock leads the peloton down Cordova Street near the end of the 2008 Tour de Gastown. Her teammate Gina Grain won the woman’s race.
Andrew Pinfold
July 16th, 2008 — Andrew Pinfold of Team Symmetrics (yellow shirt) was the winner of the 2008 Tour de Gastown.
Peloton
July 16th, 2008 — The peloton turns off Carroll Street onto Water Street during the first laps of this years Tour de Gastown.
Peloton
July 16th, 2008 — The peloton heads up Water Street during this year’s Tour de Gastown bicycle race.
Svein Tuft
July 16th, 2008 — Svein Tuft of Team Symmetrics on one of his many breaks from the peloton during this year’s Tour de Gastown. Tuft will represent Canada at this years Olympics in Beijing.
Svein Tuft
July 16th, 2008 — For the next few days I’ll take a break from the past and post pictures from this years Tour de Gastown bicycle race. Svein Tuft of Team Symmetrics receives encouragement from a fan on his last lap break from the peloton. The encouragement wasn’t enough as he was caught just before the finish line and his teammate Andrew Pinfold won the race. Tuft will represent Canada at this years Olympics in Beijing.
Dale Nelson
September 6th, 1970 — On September 4th, while high on LSD and alcohol, Dale Merle Nelson killed 8 people just outside of Creston, BC. He was captured by police at this cabin two days later. At the time of the murder I was a photographer with the Edmonton Journal and vacationing near by. How I got to be one of two photographers at the capture is a story of skill and intuition. How the other photographer got to be there was pure blind luck on his part after getting lost on a back road nearby. Both of us dug in behind logs as the police approached the cabin. Everyone expected a gun fight. When it didn’t happen both of us ran up the hill taking pictures as we ran. This is the only picture by either of us that was in focus or not blurred. I didn’t share it with the other photogapher.
Aground
August 12th, 1989 — Before radar it was common for ships to run aground while coming into Vancouver Harbour. Normally they hit the sand bars at the mouth of the Capilano River just west of the Lions Gate Bridge during a fog at night. How this ship came to grief on a sunny afternoon must have been difficult for the pilot to explain.
Commercial Hotel fire
October 21st, 1973 — There was a time when scenes of crime or disasters weren’t immediately sealed from the public and the media. This fire at the Commercial Hotel on Cambie Street was out by 7am on a Sunday morning when I arrived to take pictures. There was no one in the building so I wandered around inside, photographing until Sandor Szabo, a tenant, came in, stopped in front of his room, then calmly went inside and put on his socks which he hadn’t had time to put on when he left quickly when the fire started. Today this man would be surrounded by social workers helping him cope with his grief and pictures like this would be considered invasions of his privacy. In the 1970’s people just got on with their lives. Five people died in the fire which had been deliberately set.
Gastown Grand Prix
August 5th, 1975 — What’s fascinating about this picture of Vancouver’s Gastown Grand Prix and the one below is the complete lack of crowd control. Restaurants had tables right beside the track. Spectators ate lunch and drank wine as the racers went by. The Gastown Grand Prix is still held but now spectators are packed in behind six foot high fences. It’s still a fun race to watch but it doesn’t have that special joy it once had. The picture above was taken as the riders sprinted for the finish. The rider on the left, Brian Keast of Coquitlam, won the race. Bill Wild of Port Moody on the right was second.
