Reaching for the Light

Here we are at the turn of the year once again. The days are getting longer now and here in Victoria spring's first green shoots are peeking out of the ground. I take this opportunity to wish all my visitors a Happy and Prosperous New Year.

Inner Harbour From Johnson Street Bridge

Here's a little panoramafrom 5 photos stitched together with Hugin. (Hugin is free and easy to use if you want to play with it.)

Joseph Despard Pemberton

The above photo of Government Street shows what it looks like at this time of year. Last June I posted another photo of the building on the left, the Pemberton Building, built in 1899. There is a brief history of this building HERE and a video of Government Street that includes this building, shot in 1907 HERE. The film was shot by William Harbeck, who died on the Titanic a few years later. The Pemberton Building is named after Joseph Despard Pemberton, one of Victoria's early citizens. He was involved in many aspects of life in the early years of the city and province but most notably as a surveyor and mapmaker. Thus it is only fitting that one side of the building named for him should bear the map of Vancouver island pictured below.

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To the right is my first slightly successful food photo using a home-made light box built roughly according to instructions contained on a very useful and interesting blog, "Food Photo Tips" by fellow Daily Photo Blogger, Canarybird, a former resident of Vancouver Island who now blogs from Tenerife in the Canary Islands. Her Tenerife photoblog is an interesting blog with great photos of a little known part of the world.

Street Lamps

Victoria has many different kinds of street lighting but these mock gas lamps that light Bastion Square are my favorites. (The thumbnail to the right is today's macro experiment, some delicious looking, organic Gala apples.)

Dallas Road Shoreline

I've been a little bit engaged lately with macro-photography experiments - very interesting to me but not yet ready for prime time. So here's another from the archives of one of my favorite bits of coastline along Victoria's Dallas Road. (The thumbnail to the right is a sample of the macro photography I've been attempting.)