Last weekend I was lucky enough to take a road trip with some good friends to Big White resort in the Okanagan Valley of British Columbia, Canada to do some snowboarding. I was ridiculously excited, not only to experience snowboarding in the resort’s famous ‘Champagne Powder’, but also to see snow ghosts; the effect when trees become encrusted with snow and ice, adopting a ghostly appearance.
Part way into our 6 hour drive from Vancouver, my husband turned to me and asked if I had remembered the camera. I had specifically reminded him to bring the charger, but it seemed I had neglected my packing duties and left the camera at home. Fortunately, the friends we were travelling with had remembered theirs, but in a comical turn of events their battery died after taking roughly three photos, and alas, their charger was in Vancouver, along with our camera.
The first day on the slopes can be described with no other word than ‘epic’: champagne powder, blue skies, snow ghosts…but no pictures to prove it. So when stocking up on essentials such as wine and cheese that evening, I purchased a Kodak FunSaver single use camera; something I have not used since backpacking around Australia at the age of 18, and something I had never expected to use again (“They still sell these?”, were my exact words when I found the camera at the supermarket).
The next morning I woke up; excited to capture the phenomenon of the Big White snow ghost, only to look out the window to a ‘white out’ (almost zero visibility). I optimistically pocketed the camera as we strapped in and set off for another day of boarding, but considering I could only see the trees split-seconds before I crashed into them, I didn’t think there was much hope of my disposable camera capturing much more than white.
I was left with the dilemma of what to do with the snappy little Kodak I had purchased, and decided to start a personal project to capture all the signs and buildings that I love around Vancouver. With less than a month left in this city, I want to make sure I make the most of it, and for me that means having tangible memories I can take with me. So for the next couple weeks I am going to snap away at some of the quirkier things I love about Vancouver City. So I suppose forgetting to pack a camera wasn’t the worst thing after all.
my new project
