Spring is here though, and the flowers are making their appearance. I can’t wait for everything to be in bloom.
This is their newest truck, and they’ve only had it for 8 months. On the front of the truck there was a spray nozzle that is directed from within the cab using a joystick. Next to the joystick is a screen showing an infrared view of what the nozzle is seeing. We could clearly see the hot spots on a person standing in front of the camera.
This is the truck we rode in. It’s hard to get the right scale in this picture, but that step on the back bumper was about 3 feet off the ground, and the tires are about 4 feet tall, and extremely wide.
Inside the cab there was a lot of equipment, indicators, levers, switches and gauges.
That is one happy boy. He was a little stunned at first, and was quite overwhelmed, but I think he had a great time. I know I did.
I never would have thought that Victoria International Airport would have so much big equipment. I always think of it as a rinky-dink airport with nothing much going on. I was pretty impressed with their setup.
Here is the only somewhat decent picture of the eclipse last night. I set up my tripod on the deck, and with my new lens did three test shots to nail the focus. When I tried my first real shot, the battery died. :grrr: I couldn’t even review my previous shots until I put the card in my computer. I ended up with 2 horrible shots, and this one. 🙁 Bummer.
The bottom three are of the back of my espresso maker.
Yoshi and I did the tour of the park before being able to see the new ship. Meh, it looks like a ferry. Perhaps the inside is a little nicer. They are a welcome addition to the fleet though, since I know the Nanaimo, and Victoria runs are extremely busy. Being able to move more cars and people in the same amount of time is going to be great. I hope that they have a nice area on the car deck for pets, and I really hope they have somewhere to lock up bikes, not that I plan to walk on with my bike any time soon.
It was a nice walk, Yoshi had a great romp, and I got to take some pictures.
Well, project 365 is done, and I have to say that I don’t think I succeeded with it. I think that I am more aware of photographic opportunities now, but I don’t think I expanded creatively like I had hoped. Additionally I didn’t feel very enthused by this undertaking after the first few months. It turned into more of a chore than a journey. I often found myself crawling into bed at 10 or 10:30 only to realize I hadn’t taken my picture yet. Part of my frustrations were around my work day. I get too wrapped up in work, and often forgot to go outside, get some fresh air, and take some pictures.
I also never quite got to the point of posting the picture the day it was taken. This is also something that I felt was a priority for the project, but with a young child at home posting really fell by the wayside.
Some days I was quite happy with my work, and other days I wasn’t. One thing I found was that I was spending a lot of time touching up the pictures. After a while I decided that this was again not in the spirit of what I had wanted to do.
Now I am left with the questions of what was it that I really wanted from this project, and what was it I was I was trying to accomplish?
I think I was wanting to expand my creativity with the project. Learn to see life differently, and to not be so self conscious when I am shooting (something I always struggle with especially when I am shooting alone).
I was trying to accomplish the creation of a nice large portfolio of work. I don’t think I really accomplished that. I have a bunch of semi-interesting pictures, but it isn’t the amazing, breathtaking body of work I was wanting.
I supposed I romanticized this project, and under estimated just how much it would take out of me. I have too many commitments right now to fully fly at a project like this. Maybe I will try it again in another few years.
A little summary of what I ended up with for the year:
291 pictures posted
First Picture
The photoblog
Last Picture
156 of that 291were taken with my 20D and 134 were taken with the S30. That math doesn’t add up, so somewhere along the line one of my posts isn’t tagged with what camera I used.
Popular Tags:
71 around the house
39 flower/s
13 plant/s
12 tree/s
Notes for next time:
January
While the weather was cold I was inside taking pictures with a lightbox I had built. Here are some coffee beans that I played with one afternoon.
February
There was still no good light outside, so I picked some Crocuses and put the in the lightbox, turned on the lights and start making my shots.
March
This was a fun shoot. We had these Daffodils in a vase on top of our tv. With the camera on a tripod I set the shutter for six seconds, and started popping the flash from behind the flowers. I was trying to get the flowers to look like lanterns.
April
I looked down and saw the smooth blades of grass, and loved how uniform, yet chaotic they looked. The green tones were very striking to me.
May
In May I shot my first wedding. The wedding was of two very good friends of mine. The weather was making me nervous, but thankfully it didn’t interfere with anything. It was challenging, and very fun, and we were all rewarded with some excellent pictures.
June
The tree, the shadows, the window sill in the background, and the orange color of the wall all combined to catch my fancy. I took this while sitting in my car waiting to pick up my wife after work. This is taken downtown Victoria and is the city hall building.
July
Myself and another gentleman from the photoclub made a visit to the Saanich Historical Artifiacts Society. They have a lot of old equipment scattered about their yard. I had a great time making images there, until I found this old firetruck. I was in heaven shooting this. The wonderful red paint that is chipped and peeling. I couldn’t break free of it lure.
August
I August my family and I made a trip to Ottawa. While walking over the Rideau Canal I saw this lone kayaker going against the wind. The dark water contrasted nicely against the yellow kayak.
September
During a trip to Beacon Hill Park I had some time to wander around with my camera. There had been a heavy dew that morning but it had all evaporated. Fortunately I found a couple leaves that still had some heavy droplets on them. I love the clipped grass, and the lovely globes of water on the underside of the leaf. Again, the green tones are stunning.
October
Walking my dog Yoshi through Oak Bay, I found the lantern plants at the side of the road. It was a gorgeous fall day with blue skies and colorful leaves all around me. The warm sun was pouring down on this plant, and the vivid colors here were more vibrant that anything else in the garden.
November
I awoke early one morning while in Maui and was fortunate enough to look outside and see this sunrise. I didn’t even have to leave the condo we were renting as I was able to shoot this from our balcony. I was afraid that if I took the time to run downstairs I would miss the light. Five minutes later the light was totally different, and ten minutes after this shot the sunrise was over.
December
Walking dogs at Elk Lake is always a good time, but for one reason or another, on this day Yoshi was behaving oddly. He and I broke off from the group and went on our own walk. I saw this miniature forest with perfect light, just off the trail we were on. I crouched down, then set the focus on the camera. With the strap around my neck, I then lowered the camera until it was only a few inches off the ground, and the strap was tight. Pressing the shutter I didn’t know what I would end up with, and after three shots were done, this was a result.
Today Sox and I were out, and I bought my new lens, a Canon 70-200 F4.0L IS.
The above picture is a crop of the first picture. Nice and sharp.
I’ve taken a few pictures with it so far, and I like it a lot. It seems lighter than the 28-135 I already have, and the focus seems quick. Most shots were of Sprout, and strangely enough, he was asking me to take pictures of him and his Bopp (blanket).
Now I can’t wait to use it on a real photo shoot.
I call this one “Spidey has a fling”.
Yesterday Sox’s dad was in town, and we did a dog walk with his dog as well. Yoshi was acting very strangely, and I ended up having to break off from the group, and walk Yoshi by himself. I had my camera with me, so I snapped a few shots along the way.
The rest of the pics are here.
The sunset wasn’t as brilliant as I had hoped, but I still managed to get some good shots.
The rest of the pics are here.