Stefanie Goh

LOCATION SURVEY

Address: Dr Sun Yat Sen Classical Chinese Garden

578 Carrall St, Vancouver

BC V6B 5K2, Canada

I remember getting a lot of weird looks as I stood with an umbrella, my measuring tape and my juggling my sketchbook and a huge backpack in the other hand. I figured, these people will probably never see me again, so I really went all out. I was splayed on the floor, squatting at a corner like a homeless girl, and even subtly trying to divert the tourist to the other side of the garden first so I could take my measurements. Hehe.

I also managed to get a hold of a pamphlet of the park and as I was walking through it, I made some notes on it and highlighted some of the features I thought was fascinating. Since I have not yet decided on which part I wanted to focus yet, I just did a rough (not drawn to scale) drawing of the park.

The measurements were in Metric form as I forgot that we were going to trying it in Imperial this time round. As you can see, I obviously struggled with the conversion in the beginning as underneath each measurements I had the conversion in decimal points! And if you have worked in Imperial, you will know that you do not EVER do that. You either leave them in fraction or inches. But do not worry, I think I am well equipped with filtering between both Imperial and Metric scales now.

Rough Floorplan Of Park

And the following is a to scale version (in imperial) of a selected portion of the park which I wish to focus on.

Location Survey With Pictures

Update:
I realised I've done my location survey wrongly. I forgot to label my picture elevations by indicating from which angle are the images seen from on the floorplan. Also, if you know which area is facing North/South, it is good to include that as well, so the DOP (Director of Photography) will know how to fight the battle with the Sun while shooting.

While I was at the gardens, I also took the opportunity to get some other measurements as I knew that I would not be able to revisit the place. Apart from doing some measurements on my own, I also took a whole bunch of pictures with my cousin holding a measuring tape set up at 1m so that I had a baseline to estimate heights from after.

That coupled with some of my own basic measurements, it is easier for me to design my elevations and make estimations later on from other photos archives found through books and the internet.