Funk Cannon Up Close

One of many reasons I like photographing street performers is that it gives me a chance to practice making portraits. Here's some of the group featured in yesterday's post, Funk Cannon. My apologies for neglecting to get the names of the newer members of this group.

Thomas Daudlin - Saxophone

Max Stover - Saxophone

Trumpet

Rhythm Guitar

Drums

Funk Cannon

After watching a bit of the cycle race on Dallas Road (yesterday's post) on Sunday afternoon I strolled down into Cook Street Village and caught one of my favorite busking groups, Funk Cannon. This is a bunch of high school kids whose high energy music always draws (and holds) a crowd.

Cook Street Village

Near the bottom of Cook Street just northeast of Beacon Hill Park there is a cluster of boutiques, coffee houses, restaurants and stores known as Cook Street Village. It's a very comfortable couple of blocks, well shaded by big trees and almost always well-peopled. It has a laid back lazy atmosphere - there's always people chatting on the sidewalks. There's a couple of ethnic restaurants, a pub, a second hand clothing store, TWO health food stores, a small supermarket, a convenience store and a drug store. It feels like it would be a nice place to live.

Yellow Peppers

OK, here's a confession. I don't like cloudy, cold damp weather. I know that good photographers say that bad weather is a blessing because it provides all sorts of interesting lighting and dramatic skies and discourages dilettantes, but I like sunny skies and bright colors anyway. I have to search really deeply inside me to find anything inspiring about a landscape that looks like it has had all the life and color drained out of it by forty days of drizzle. In the midst of yesterday's downpours I happened upon this bit of sidewalk sunshine, some glowing yellow peppers provided by the Ambrosio Market in Cook Street Village here in Victoria.

The photo below is what the weather was really like yesterday at the foot of Government Street, where it meets the Inner Harbour. This vicious driving rain turned sleety while being photographed.... This is March.
Those of you who are watching this blog with eagle-eyed interest may have noted that yesterday's photo ("Big sky...." below) was uploaded not by myself (Benjamin Madison) but by the "Front St Gang." The latter is my daughter, Fern Long, who has kindly agreed to contribute some of her fine photos to this blog.