I wasn't really planning anything for St. Pat's day, but a random wandering along Broadway brought my friends and I to my old haunt Lou'sGargoyle's. Upon the completion of a ridiculously good 'Nucks game (did you see the fourth goal?!), a random assemblage of Celtic dancers decked in gold sequins entered the rowdy establishment, hopping, kicking and clicking away in sync with the (intermittent) Irish tunage. And thus, this Celtic-themed post was inspired.

Above we have St.Patrick's Day Parade by Carson Ting.

Seriously, WTF. There are officially 25 days left in summer, and I have wet socks. They're drenched. Soaked to the bone. But at the very least, I have no more excuses to not post. No more scantily clad distractions to lure me from the interweb. Here are a couple of pictures from the BR pool that kinda look like how I feel at the moment.

So here we are with another edition of Pictures from the Pool, where this time, I feature a couple of neat fast shutter speed photos from the seemingly endless BR Flickr Group. Coincidentally, both feature people riding things, and both (completely unintentionally) are taken near my old 'hood of East Van.

It's been a while since we last featured picks from the plethora of superlative photos available in our Beyond Robson Flickr Pool. So let's go with a couple complementary pictures that have been taken in an area that used to be under water.

On the left is a exquisite shot titled "An Intro to Spring", taken by BR Flickr Pool member kennylouie. Being a huge fan of cityscape shots that balance the available luminance of the sky and city lights, I can safely say that kennylouie's nailed it in this wonderful example of perfect timing. Reflections, clouds, colours and shapes are all themes in this unique capture of Vancouver's world-famous skyline. Kenny uses a Canon 20D and has quite the collection of beautiful high dynamic range (HDR) photographs.

And over on the right side is a photograph deftly shot by bluechameleon named "silhouettes on main street". The black and white emphasizes the fantastic composition and framing of both the humans waiting in the station and the birds resting on the tree. Also note the excellent juxtaposition between the geometric lines of the girders and the haphazardly pointed tree branches. Keep in mind, she shot this and many others with a simple Canon A640, proving it's not what you have, but how you use it.

The talent I've seen in this pool seems absolutely limitless. Keep them coming people! Thanks again to all the members of the BR Flickr pool - we'll try our best to keep these photo posts going. In the meantime, if you haven't done so already, visit Ami's Flickr game!

I've said it before and I'll say it again: Beyond Robson is privileged to have such an excellent Flickr pool. Every day the pool expands it's collection of local images that are artistic, humorous, inspiring and provoking. Sometime this week we'll be welcoming our 500th member to the group! This benchmark is a great opportunity to further develop the group into a secondary BR discussion place. By increasing ideas, questions, tips, networking, collaborations and games, we can make our group even more valuable. If you're into Flickr games, check out a game that I recently started up!

I'd like to thank all those who have contributed images to the pool. Our Flickr group welcomes all Vancouver-related images (and video) from artists of all skill levels (from amateurs to professionals). Pictures from the Flickr pool are often featured (with credit to the photographer) in Beyond Robson articles.

This post includes images from Beyond Robson's Flickr Pool by Avienda Once, gwacdotca, Pisces Dreamer, John Goldsmith, Brendan Wilkinson, Mark Klotz, Kenny Louie, and Leigh Righton.

*Edit: My apologies to Jim Hejl for removing the credit to his great Tilt Shift shot!

As a new contributor to Beyond Robson, I've been pleasantly surprised with the calibre of images that are constantly submitted to the Beyond Robson Flickr Pool. The pool serves as a reminder that this city has a wealth of talent, and I thought I'd show a little appreciation by showcasing a few shots that caught my eye.