Daniel Kingsbury

Here is a new mural I only noticed recently. It is a memorial for a young musician and environmental activist named Daniel Kingsbury, who died last year, aged 28. He founded and was the director of The Jellyfish Project, an organization that uses music to help educate schoolchildren about the environment. The mural is located on the wall of the Ageless Living store on Johnson Street downtown. You can find out more about Daniel Kingsbury HERE and HERE. The mural was painted by artist Ian George.

After Dark in Old Town - Lower Johnson Street

The southern side of Market square is marked by lower Johnson Street, where many of the most colorful and interesting of the old town heritage buildings can be found.

All these night shots for the last week or so were taken with an SMC Takumar 28mm lens. This is another of these old Pentax lenses I rave about from time to time, this one made in 1971. These night shots offer good examples of some of the qualities I prize in these lenses. First, they are incredibly sharp. To illustrate this I have left the larger version of today's photo at full size (7360 pixels X 4912 pixels), although I have compressed it into a smaller file so it can be uploaded and viewed without waiting for five minutes. Click the photo and then click it again to see it full size. Scroll around and look at the details - the moldings on the building and the writing on the parking meter for examples. Secondly I love the way this lens renders color. It's accurate but just a little richer and more saturated than reality. I often find myself taking phtos of stuff around the house and marveling at how it looks better through this lens than it looks through my eyes.

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For those of you who may be interested in the technical aspects, the lens is a fully manual lens - I have to choose the aperture (for these night shots I closed it down to f5.6 or f8) and then focus manually. The camera selects an appropriate shutter speed. I used a tripod for the night shots - shot them at low ISO (80-100) and long exposures. The lens was made originally for Pentax cameras. I use it by putting an adapter on my Sony A7r mirrorless camera.

The Daily Commute, Johnson Street and Douglas Street

So we here at Victoria Daily Photo Headquarters have been looking old photos of Victoria and what are the most interesting are the street scenes. The ordinary, nothing special photographs of what it looked like as people went about their daily lives. While this photo may not be exciting or beautiful I bet in a hundred years it might be fascinating to ponder the changes that will have taken place. - Fern

Old Town

The sun does make periodic appearances here on the grey coast and it's nice to stroll around town and enjoy the history of Victoria. The top image is from Herald Street and the second one is (of course) lower Johnson Street. - Fern

Johnson Street Invaded by Naked Zombie Mannequins

Nothing I can say tops the headline. The only clue I'll divulge is that I LOVE reflections....

Old Town - New Lens

I've been neglecting Victoria's downtown lately because my daily rambles have been taking me down the Westsong Walkway more often. However yesterday was such a beautiful clear, sunny day that I decided to try out a new (used) lens on Johnson Street. Above is lower Johnson Street, part of what is called "Old Town" because it is the area near Fort Victoria that was earliest settled. Most of this area was built in the 1860s.

One of the advantages of a Digital Single Lens Reflex camera that will accept legacy lenses is that one can try out many different types of lenses without spending a great deal of money. Today's three photos were taken with a lens that cost $23 and I am quite pleased with it. What I look for is how sharp the lens is - I love nice crisp images; how well it reproduces color and contrast, and how well it operates mechanically. This lens performs well in all these categories and is a nice mid-range zoom (28-70 mm f3.5) that will probably become a favorite in my camera bag.

Legacy Lenses: When I refer to "Legacy lenses" I mean lenses that were produced for older style cameras - film cameras or early digital cameras. My current camera is a Sony Alpha 550digital single lens reflex. It uses any of the Sony lenses and, since Sony bought Minolta, it will also accept any of the Minolta AF lenses or third party manufacturer lenses made for Minoltas. I also have an adapter that enables my camera to accept any lenses with M42 mounts - widely used, especially for Pentax film cameras. There are several advantages to using legacy lenses. They are often very well made lenses using high quality glass. They are now much reduced in price because the cameras for which they were originally made are no longer in use. An added advantage of Sony DSLR cameras is that the image stabilization mechanism is in the camera body rather than in the lenses as with Nikon and Canon cameras. This means one can use older lenses and still have the benefits of modern image stabilization (anti-shake) technology.

Pigeons

I often remark on seagulls and post their pictures here but above is another city-dwelling bird. In this city, however, they are far outnumbered by seagulls. These are Rock Pigeons (Columba livia). This group was scrabbling for bread crumbs some kind soul had scattered in front of the Salvation Army building at the bottom of Johnson Street.

Censored Cigars

On the corner of Johnson and Store Streets just opposite The Swans Hotel is the Goodfellas Cigar Shop. All their windows are papered over with these signs in order to comply with the Tobacco Control Act, which limits the way tobacco products can be advertised, displayed and sold in British Columbia. The act also defines areas where smoking is prohibited. Smoking is essentially prohibited in all public indoor locations (restaurants, bars, stores, malls, office buildings, etc.) Generally, anyone who wants to smoke must go outside. What kind of restrictions on tobacco do you have in your country?

Downtown II

This intersection is at the bottom of Johnson Street. Coming in from the left is Store Street. On the right when it leaves the intersection it has become Wharf Street. Behind me as I took the photo is the Johnson Street Bridge. The building on the left is Market Square. On the far right is the Salvation Army building that houses their thrift store and provides other social services to people in need. Further up Johnson is the colorful Paper Box Building and arcade. Yesterday's photo was taken on Yates Street, one block over from Johnson Street, on the right.

Paper Box Building

In yesterday's post about Michael Williams I mentioned that he had received awards for his restorations of downtown heritage buildings. Here is an arcade in the Paper Box Building that he restored in 1988. this is one of two joined arcades that link on the ground floor of the building. Below left is an interior passageway between the two arcades. On the right is the Johnson Street entrance to the second and main arcade.

Below is the exterior of the Paper Box Building.
One of my favorite City Daily Photo Blogs today celebrates its six month anniversary. If you haven't yet visited there, I recommend you check out Willits Daily Photo. Congratulations Elaine!