Tag: Photography

Bluebells Nicely

I am getting caught up on some of the pictures I took in May while I was off work. I don’t think I ever posted some of the Blubells that have overtaken our backyard. When they are in full bloom it is a sight to see the yard choked in blue. Very pretty. Sadly they are on Yoshi’s side of the yard, so you need to watch where you step. Of course, since they are on the dog side, the flower don’t get mowed until they are done.

I managed to get out in the yard between rain showers, so I took some other rain drop shots that I thought turned out nicely too.

Injury Dent

A severe injury to a good friend.



I discovered this a couple weeks ago when I pulled my Canon S30 from its case. There is a small dent on the front, so it must have been dropped onto something pointy, and this is the result. The metal case cannot be bent back into place, and I may try disassembling the case to fix it. Amazingly the camera still works.

No idea when, or how, this actually happened though.

Roundhouse Refurbish

I was at Vic West Fest on Saturday, and came across a display for the proposed changes to the Esquimalt Roundhouse. I’ve been to the Roundhouse on a couple picture shoots (Oct 2005, Feb 2006) and it is a pretty amazing historical site. Here is the development’s website.

The problem is that the buildings are in disrepair and partially condemned. Many people want to save the site but they cannot raise the funds to preserve and refurbish the site to its former glory. The plan I read is to revitalize the area and completely redevelop it into a live/work arrangement that saves the Roundhouse, and its usage for the E&N dayliner while introducing high rises, shopping, restaurants, a brew pub, a market, and condos.

I really have mixed feelings about this. I’d love to see the site preserved as is, but without the money, it just isn’t going to happen. It is sad to think that the site may cease to exist in its current state, and only the roundhouse building will be saved. Even at that, the roundhouse will be forever changed into mixed use.

Lose it and save it. I guess that is better than losing it altogether.

Pictures Engage

Monday (day 3 of the vacation) I got out to shoot some pictures. I ended up at the Kinsmen Gorge Park which has some excellent flower beds. Unfortunately I didn’t hit them at their peak. The Tulips and Daffodils were ending so they were very bland, and nothing else had really taken off yet. Some of the Rhododendrons were blooming, but I find it difficult to get good shots of them.

I was struggling creatively too. It has been a while since I was out on a real photoshoot and my brain would not engage. I took approx 130 pictures, and most of those were discarded.

This heather (I think it is called) provided some opportunity to play with depth of field. Most of the plants like this I find have a purple flower, yet this one was white.

These were the only decent Tulips in the park, and the sun hadn’t reached them yet. I still have a hard time taking good pictures of Tulips. The flower is so simple, it is very easy to end up with a picture that doesn’t highlight it.

I’m not 100% sure, but I think this was a weed. It was a few feet high, and had these clusters of buds. I played with the aperture to change the depth of field, and this was my favorite setting.

I’ve experimented with HDR images a little bit. Below are two examples. The Rhodo and the bridge shots are composed of 5 exposures, ranging from -2 ev to +2 ev. PaintShop Pro took care of the rest.

Backyard Explainable

Some pictures from the backyard, taken some time in the last couple weeks. I haven’t been shooting as much recently, but that is easily explainable. Work has been pretty busy, and there are more demands for time at home too. Something will fall through the cracks.

Spring is here though, and the flowers are making their appearance. I can’t wait for everything to be in bloom.

Firetruck Equipment

Some friends of ours know a firefighter who works out at the Victoria International Airport. He invited our kids out to get a little tour, and to ride in a firetruck. I was pretty pumped to see the trucks too, so I was extra special to make sure that the camera was primed and ready to go. We were not disappointed. The firetrucks are huge and insanely cool. We got to climb in one, go for a short ride, spray water using the canon (Sprout’s friend hit the button to do that), and turn on the siren (Sprout hit the button for that).

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.

Ogden Ferry

Sunday I took Yoshi to the park. I had heard that the new ferry was at Ogden point, so I wanted to catch a glimpse of it. Actually, I wanted to go for a tour, but there just wasn’t enough time in the day for everything.

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.

Photographic Results

in my own world

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.

more reliable on a daily basis

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.

nothing but me

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.

tidied up a little

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

listen to this

Notes for next time:

  • If I do this again, it will be at a point in my life where I have more free time.
  • I will dedicate time each day to shooting.
  • I will do more preparation, and give myself more themes to shoot (ie corners)
  • Learn more
  • Be happy with the results