Rhythmic Scurry

I have always been drawn to the ocean. The rhythmic pounding of the surf. The ever changing landscape. Plants and animals that look so foreign it is difficult to comprehend that they also came from Earth.

Sometimes, during the winter when it is really stormy, I will head down to the beach to revel in the power of Mother Nature. I love the feeling of the wind trying to push me around, the spray of the ocean after pounding the rocks. The howl of the wind as it begins to hurt my ears.

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In good weather I love exploring the beach. Jumping from rock to rock, poking around in tidal pools, turning rocks over to watch the crabs scurry about, are all wonderfully relaxing to me.

For me, the west coast, specifically Long Beach in the Pacific Rim National Park, is the epitome of beach going. This past weekend Sue and I headed up there to spend some time with my Mom and sister (it happened to be my Mom’s birthday too).

In a word, the trip was awesome. We arrived around 8 on Friday evening, spent some time with my Mom and sister, then went to bed. I woke up early on Saturday, so I grabbed my camera and tripod, and headed down to the beach to do some shooting. It was misty out over the water, and the tide was on it’s way out. The waves were breaking and provided a nice backdrop of sound. I headed to a rocky outcropping in search of some subjects, and found lots!

After shooting for an hour or so I headed back and had some breaky. The four of us then headed into Tofino and wandered around the town a bit. Such a quaint little town. We hung around for a bit, then went to visit Sue’s friend Janet who was up there for the weekend doing some surfing.

After lunch, my sister and I walked out to Sunset point. It had started to rain, very very lightly. It was more like aconstantly falling mist. Very neat. There is a high perch above a point, overlooking two different bays. The waves were rolling in, and when they hit the rocks below, it sounded a lot like thunder. Awesome. I took a few pictures of waves crashing and spraying, then we headed back.

For dinner we went to the Tin Wis. It wasn’t my most favorite restaurant, but the salmon I ordered was excellent.

Sunday morning I awoke to the mist still falling, but it ended, and the sun came out. The four us were out looking for shells, taking pictures, and going for a run (only one of us ran, care to guess which one?). My sister headed back to the room, but mom, Sue and I walked along the beach, barefoot. The water was actually warm. The tide was on the way in, so it was flowing back and forth across the sun-warmed sand.

All too soon we had to pack up and head home. This was a very relaxing and fun weekend. I got to take lots of pictures, visit with my mom and sister, eat well, play games, and read.

The only scary part happened on the way home while I was deleting some pictures from my camera. One deletion was taking a lot longer than it should have. An error message appeared on the camera saying something about corrupt data! I was scared I had lost all my pictures. Turns out I hadn’t, but I guess the camera’s index to the pictures got messed up. Phew, close one!

Big Rigs University

Ouch. Last night while on a photo shoot out at Royal Roads University I got my finger pinched in a door. I was entering the Italian Gardens when it happened. I opened a door, walked through, and when I reached behind me to grab the door, it had swung shut, and my pinky was caught between the door, and the door frame. Ouch!

It was a pretty good place to shoot actually. Beautiful grounds, interesting buildings, wildlife, and to top it off, big rigs and pretty women. There were some professionals there doing a shoot of some new rigs. Not sure why they came all the way here (there were California license plates), but they did choose a nice setting. It was kind of interesting watching the professionals work though. Huge white screens to bounce light, the truck freshly waxed, the ground wet to look nice, the lady dressed in a shimmery dresss, and tons of helpers. People placing the hair on the model, people adjusting lights, people just standing and watching. Very cool.

My shoot went pretty well, but I struggled with the lighting. Everything was a bit cool and dark, and my camera seemed to want to lighten everything too much. Maybe I had the wrong settings. I need to consult the manual. I should have the pictures up tomorrow though.

Mechanism – Johnson St Bridge

I took this picture one day while downtown. It was the first time I got to see the bridge open up. I have lived in Victoria for several years, so I was quite surprised to see it opened in two seperate pieces. I still think this looks like a giant abstract pair of scissors.

Ross Bay Cemetary

This was taken on a recent shoot at the Ross Bay Cemetary in Victoria, BC. Some more pictures from the shoot can be found here.

911 Streetlights

Saturday night I had planned to head out to Luminara to check out and photograph the lanterns people had created. I had attended last year, before I was into photography, and really enjoyed myself. Once your eyes adjust to hte darkness, the lanterns really stand out, and become quite magical.

This year was not to be. I left late, a few minutes before ten, and drove down to Beacon Hill park. I missed the entrance to the parking, so I cirlced around, discovered that too many people were leaving to allow newcomers to park, so I circled back and parked along Dallas Road.

I jumped out of my truck, grabbed my gear, and started walking towards the park. There were lots of cars out, and people were snapping up the parking spots as quickly as they could.

The next sequence of events happened rather quickly, but I will try to explain them as best I can. I was looking up the road for a good place to cross. I noticed a vehicle coming towards me, then noticed the right hand light looked funny. I realized there was a motorbike in front of a car, and that is when I heard the engine from the bike. Next, a car coming in the opposite direction (same direction as I am walking) turns left in front of the bike. I saw the headlights on the bike dive a few inches as the driver of the motorbike hit the brakes.

I thought to myself “This is going to be close”, and then bam, the motorbike hit the car. The riders were catapulted over the car and slid along the ground a bit.

I was slightly stunned, but I took off running towards the acident, jumping over some bike parts as they slid down the road. I got to the passenger from the bike, and I stopped there. I tried talking to her, but she didn’t say anything. I told her not to move, and that she was going to be alright. I grabbed my cellphone, dialed 911, hit send, then someone else said they were already calling. Myself and another gentleman waited with the girl until some help arrived.

Some people from nearby vehicles brought some blankets to cover the girl. It was pretty freaky, and my legs were quivering from the adrenaline. After some police officers arrived, I backed up and let them do their business. I had to hang around and give a statement.

As I stood there waiting, I was looking around the scene a bit. There were about 6 police cars in the vicinity (later I noticed two more down the road directing cars), two ambulances, and a firetruck. There were no streetlights at all, so the only illumination was the red and blue blinky lights from the police, ambulance, and fire vehicles. This cast an eery aura onto the scence. I stood there freezing my butt off from the breeze coming off the ocean. I surveyed the bike, and sort of vowed I would never get one.

I discovered that the driver of the car had jumped the curb, and his car was in the middle of a field. He was sitting there looking very stunned. I felt for him. I was in a similar situation many years (car vs pedestrian instead of car vs motorbike).

After giving my statement, I reallly didn’t feel like going to the festival. I had been really looking forward to it for about two months now, and I was a little disappointed that I would miss it, but I really was a walking zombie after that. I grabbed my gear, walked back to my truck, took the above picture, then left.

There is always next year. I just hope the motorbike riders come away ok. I also hope the driver of the car can get on with his life. It is quite devastating to go through something like that.

Canada Day Fireworks

Here are some of my favorite Canada Day fireworks shots. You can see the whole gallery here.

Technical Critique

Well, photography class is coming to an end, but it sure has been fun. The first few weeks were extremely technical in information. The instructor explained the different parts of the camera, how they work, and how they all interact with each other.

Film affects shutter speed, which affect aperture setting, which is also affected by flash. How do different pieces of equipment affect all of the above.

We also covered regular topics like macro photography, night photography, portraiture, travel photography, and the last class will be sports, and nature photography.

I really like how the instructor taught the course. He has a nice range of technical information, common sense, and technology. I would highly recommend this course to anyone wanting to improve their shots, or who wanted to learn more about their camera.

I set up a gallery to show some of the pictures that I submitted for critique. I appreciate any comments.

Exposure Assignment

The Photography Class last night was great. I learned lots of useful things. Let’s see, topics covered were: focusing techniques, shutter settings, aperture settings, and exposure meters.

Different cameras have different focusing techniques. The instructor explained some of the benefits and drawbacks to split image focusing, micro prism focusing, grid-matte focusing, and the straight up very familiar autofocus.

We learned how changing the shutter speed can affect the picture taken. Changing the aperture size affects the depth of field. The right combination of shutter speed, and aperture size determines how your vision of what the photo should look will actually turn out. Lots of experimentation is needed to get it right on a consistent basis. Exposure meters help you figure out the correct aperture and shutter settings. Like I said, lots of useful topics were covered. This is the kind of stuff I wanted to learn.

The assignment: Lines. That is the only description he gave us. Cool. I am excited by this, but I don’t know if I will really have a lot of time, or any time for that matter, to do this assignment.

Session Composition

Well, last night was the first session of the photography course that I am taking. I am pretty excited by the course. I think it is going to be pretty good. I like the instructor, and his teaching style. Yesterday we learned the basic operations of different styles of cameras. Each class we have assignments to do which are optional. We even get two field trips where we get a bit of instruction, then we just go off and take pictures. Last night he gave us 5 tips that will make our pictures 500% better.

use a tripod, mono pod, or brace yourself
use a shutter cable release or timer
???? (I can’t remember this one right now, but it was a good one to remember)
looking vs seeing
left eye vs. right eye

This is the course for me. You see, every once in a while I take an amazing shot. I am not sure why they turn out so good. I want to know why, so I can do it more often. This course teaches the technical aspect of taking pictures. Krista got me a cool book on picture composition, a topic not covered in this course.

I am really starting to develop photography as another hobby. I can see why it is so fun.

muddylaces

Spreading mud since 1975.

Tag: Photography