Picture of the day - January 25, 2008

A Totem Pole in Vancouver's Stanley Park

Photo courtesy of John Ford. Today's picture features a common icon of the varied cultures of a number of Native American tribes from the Pacific Northwest coast of North America. Totem Poles are intricate monuments carved from the trunks of large trees, and the stories they tell are as varied as the cultures of the tribes which produce them. Photographer John Ford found this very colorful totem pole in the Canadian province of British Columbia, and the following is his story behind the image: "This photo was taken in Stanley Park in Vancouver, BC. The park was devastated a year ago by a wind storm which knocked down over 1,000 trees, but luckily none of the totem poles were affected. There are eight totem poles in this area, and this is a close-up of one of them. It was our first sunny day in almost two months so I took the opportunity to shoot some shots in decent light. I captured this image with my Canon EOS 40D and 70-200mm f/4L zoom lens using the following settings: Focal length: 70mm, ISO: 100, Shutter speed: 1/1600 second, Aperture: f/4"    --John Ford You can see more of Mr. Ford's wonderful photographs in his Flickr gallery.   Click here to comment on this picture.   Visit the POTD Archives for previous "Pictures Of The Day"!     Submit a photo of your own!            Why I publish the "Picture of the Day"