Last Tuesday (that would be July 19, 10 days ago!), the photo club met up in Gonzales Hill Regional park for a little photo shooting action. It was fun, until I got my truck stuck. I drove up over a curb, and on the other side was a hole I couldn’t see. Wheel fell in it, truck was stuck. Scared me good.

Anyway, the shoot was rather fun. We were high up over Victoria, and it was windy, windy, windy. I tried to capture that in some of the grass shots, but I am not sure if that came through very well or not.

Update: Pics are here

The photoclub met tonight at Craigdarroch Castle. I chose it since I had never been there before. I most likely won’t be going back. Sure it is a nice building, but there wasn’t much else on the grounds. Perhaps I just wasn’t into shooting tonight. Noone else was there either. In any event, I was definitely feeling less than inspired. Imagine my surprise when I got home and looked at my shots and discovered that I actualy liked a few of them! :jawdrop:

Pics are here.

Tuesday night was the most recent Photoclub meeting. I chose the Kinsmen Gorge park (although I think it is called something else now), as the destination. I got there a little early, and since Yoshi was with me, I took him for a short walk. This allowed me to scout out a couple nice locations to shoot. I actually enjoyed the location, and came away with some nice shots.

I got a bad surprise when I got home though. I had forgotten to change the iso setting on my camera, and it was set at 1600. I can see some noise in each of my shots, so that is a little disappointing. Overall it was a good experience. Nice park too. I will definitely go back there.

Pics are here.

Tuesday the photoclub met again. I chose Saxe Point Park (can you imagine why?), and it worked out pretty well despite the factonly one other person was available. It was gorgeous out, and there were lots of people out enjoying the sun. The flowers were a big attraction for me, and it shows in my pictures.

Pics are here.

Yesterday the photo gang got together to take some pictures. Originally we met at Hatley Castle and were going to walk to what turned out to be the Pacific Centre Family Services Associaton. After checking a map we repositioned our vehicles outside the front gates, which suited us much better. The Pacific Centre is a next door neighbour to Royal Roads, and is somehow affiliated with them. The grounds are beautiful, and there are many water features, though it sort of feels like a cheapened version of Royal Roads.

Water was a significant theme with my shots from this shoot. Seeing how it was raining, that was wholly appropriate. It was difficult juggling the camera, a tripod, and a large golf umbrella, but I am quite proud of my shots.

Speaking of tripod, I used my new tripod for the first time. I like it. I like it a lot. It is a Manfrotto 550, and I bought a ball head for it. The Ball head makes all the difference in the world. Fiddling with levers and twisting dials made me not want to use my old one. This tripod is easily adjustable, and the ball head a snap to manipulate. Sweet!

Pics are here.

Yesterday was such a beautiful day. The photoclub met early in the morning at the Victoria Courthouse. It wasn’t the best architecture in town, but I thought it would have some interesting textures and shapes. Turns out I didn’t realy shoot any of the things I thought would be interesting. Instead I was more preoccupied with the sun and the temperature. I still managed to shoot a few pictures, but mostly I was enjoying being outside.

Still I came away with a bunch of pictures that I am proud of and that I like. Pics are here.

Meeting at 10 am at the top of a mountain seemed like a good idea when I sent the email. It still seemed like a good idea when I got up this morning. I stopped being a good idea when I jumped out of my truck. It was chilly and windy at the top of Mt Tolmie, but the sun was out, and the sky was blue. Overall it was a nice day.

It took me a bit to get into taking pictures, and once my hands went numb it was all the more difficult. In the end though, I am pretty happy with my shots. I found a fly on a railing that captured my interest for a while. Then I started noticing the railing itself.

Flowers, trees, sky, flies. The makings of a good photo shoot.

Pics are here.

This morning the photo club met to take pictures at the Chinese New Years parade in Chinatown. Upon arriving it was quite clear noone knew what was going on. There were people all over the place, and even though some people were lining the streets, it still wasn’t clear when, or if the parade would move up Fisgard from Chinatown. Finally, with enough asking around, we got the scoop, so we moved up Fisgard and prepared for the parade.

A small ceremony for dignitaries preceeded the parade, then the people surrounding the parade moved to let the procession begin. Unfortunately for us our carfeull chosen spot was inundated with people standing in front of us. Stink. Soon the dragons proceeded past us, and I quickly took a few shots. Upon review, most of my shots were unusable since they were too overexposed. I tried to salvage a few, but I am not too pleased with the results. So, after waiting for close to an hour, it was over in 30 seconds. Kind of fun, but definitely over too quickly.

It was kind of fun taking crowd shots though, something I don’t do very much of. The other thing that confused me was the lighthing. I couldn’t get my exposure right. It was overcast, and quite bright, so I tried underexposing. Reviewing showed these pictures too dark. I tried no exposure compensation, and the shots were still too dark. I then tried overexposing, and these shots had the highlights blown out. I just couldn’t hit the sweet spot today.

Anywho, my pics are here.

Today’s Photo Club meet was a little different. We met early. Very early. I set up the meet so we could be out at Witty’s Lagoon to catch the sunrise. Since sun up was supposed to be at 7:45, and we needed some travel time, I set the meeting time at 6:30 (to allow for stragglers).

I got up, got ready, and headed out to the truck and discovered frost. I hadn’t left time to scrape the windows, so I was going to be a couple minutes late. When I got to the meeting place, they had already left (I was 10 minutes late). Crap, I was a straggler. Add on the fact that to drive myself, I was going to need to stop and get gas, I thought I was going to miss it all.

Boy was I wrong!

I got to the parking lot, and headed down the stairs. I met up with the other 3, and set up my gear. I was trying some new film in my SLR, so I was pretty pumped to use it. Then we waited. And waited, and waited, and waited. The light was slow in coming. I was gettin concered that the sunrise would be vey unfulfilling. Then I saw a plane’s contrail through a break in the coulds. The rising sun had colored it pink! It was very cool, but it disappeared within seconds.

Part of the reason the sun was late in getting to us was that there was a cloud layer right along the water. Remember the frost on the truck? It was pretty damn cold! Gradually we saw the sun start to peek from behind the cloud, and we were not disappointed. Then the mayhem began. Somehow my film SLR jammed, and wouldn’t take pictures (I suspect I loaded the new film incorrectly). Then one of the ladies ran out of color film (sun rises in B&W aren’t so hot). Then the other gentleman that joined had his tripod tip over, and his camera went lens first into the sand (thankfully not a rock). Meanwhile I had pulled out my digital and continued shooting. The good golden light only lasted less than 10 or 15 minutes. Then it was over.

We had waited for close to an hour in the freezing cold, for 15 minutes of shooting. Crazy, but incredibly fun! I still managed to get some shots that I really like. One of the sunrises I might blow up, then crop so it is a panoramic. Not sure. Afterwards we headed to My Chosen Cafe for some warm drinks and good eats.

Pics are here.