Tuesday, January 27, 2015

Another foggy night!

I had to shoot out to the store and I noticed it was a lot foggier than the day before when I had gone out with my camera. So when I got home I grabbed my camera and tripod and was off again. I decided to go down to the walk way that winds around the inner harbor. Robert, Dante and I walked the whole way round on it when he was last here. Its a very nice walk if your not in a rush to get down town. Lots of nice areas to shoot and from many different angles. I stayed there for about an hour then drove down to the parliament buildings. There were lots of photographers out and it was nice to talk to people trying to do the same thing I was trying to do. It was pretty quiet down there as well. I'm used to the day time when its real busy and lots of traffic. I spent a while there then decided to head over to China Town. Its not that far from the parliament buildings but it wasn't foggy at all. I met a couple more photographers and they said they were going to go to Ogden Point and I thought that was a great idea. I told them where I had been so they were going to check out that. Ogden point is a break wall that has a walk way on it that leads to a light house. I was surprised that there were no lights on at the light house. I only walked halfway out and decided to turn back because without any lights on it would be too dark to shoot. Too bad I was working tonight because it was even foggier than last night! Was fun driving in though!

Here are some photos from the pile I took! 

These are on the walkway in Esquimalt!








These are at the parliament building and across the street at the inner harbor!








These shots are in China Town!



This is the walk way at Ogden Point!


Saturday, January 24, 2015

Rented lens

Today I took a bus downtown and went to a camera shop. I discovered recently there is a shop in town that rents everything photography. I went into talk about renting a lens for my new camera that I want to take to the canucks game. It says on the web site no lens bigger than 75mm  so I wanted a 24 to 70mm lens. After filling in all the paper work and discussing when I wanted the lens I realized because of the days they are closed I could pick it up today and keep till Thursday and only pay for 3 days. What a steal, how couldn't I? So tonight after my beautiful wife treated me to dinner I decided to go out and play around with the lens and get a feel for it. Following are some of the results!

The first 7photos are of an old school just across the street from us.





Below is one of my ghost shots.



This one here was going to be a ghost shot but then I started to draw with my phone. I should have had it in manual focus because the light must have made the auto focus sensor mess up.


Below are car trail lights as they pass a bus stop.


The top green light in this photo is from a taxi sign on top of the car.


The following are from the dock yard.






When we had got home from dinner it was looking quite foggy out but I had to take a bus down to the Dock Yard to where there was still fog. It will probably be foggy in the morning since today it was +9 at 8am this morning and should be close to the same tomorrow.

Tuesday, January 20, 2015

Walk with my new camera

Its been a little while so I thought I should do another post. Lots of ideas floating around my head just no real time to do this. Im on holidays from BC Transit for a week so I will make some time. I bought a new camera since mine is about 1 years old. I bought a canon 6D which is considered a prosumer camera since it has full frame technology and 20.2mp sensor. Yesterday afternoon I decided to hop on a bus and go down by the water to see if there was anything interesting. As I walked by a gate leading to a dock I could see something big on the dock. By the time I realized that it was a big otter taking a crap it jumped into the water.


A guy came up behind me and asked if he could help me and I told him what I saw and he said yeah that happens a lot. He works in the office right there and said they are cute but they are also a nuisance. Just then I noticed a Heron on one of their boats so I asked if he would mind if I went out there and tried to get a couple photos. He said sure but if I got a nice shot could I email him one. I said no problem. So he unlocked the gate and I started to sneak as close as I could. I was creeping along a boat watching not to step in all the otter poop and camera ready in case I startled the Heron. All of a sudden I heard a noise and it startled me and I watched the otter jump off the deck of the boat i was beside and dissapear into the water. It scrared the crap outta me but I held it in and didnt scare the bird away.







I got fairly close to him/her before it flew away. I took a lot of photos as usual but didnt get carried away. I then took a few abstract photos before I continued down town.


It was a very nice day probably about plus 10. I had to wear my hoodie close to the water but a short sleeve T shirt was good enough every where else. I decided to walk down closer to the Empress hotel and parliment buildings to take a few more shots then head up to a bus stop and head home. I have to read up on the camera to figure out some of the new settings but I really like the feel of it and of course the results.







Thursday, January 01, 2015

Well Happy New Year everyone! It was also Patty and my anniversary yesterday a big 30 years I mean 8 years. Forever is a real long time and you dont realize it when you sign on the dotted line lol. Last night we went out for dinner at The Keg and I actually ordered a top sirloin medium well. It was still pretty tender although it was a bit more pink than I wanted but it was so easy to chew and swallow I got through it no problem. Patty got chicken and it was very good as well. Oh so tender! We both had the garlic fried mashed potatoes and I had a ceaser salad to start. We both barely had room for desert but we managed to polish off some strawberry cheesecake. I think I had the last bite or two of Patty's.

After dinner we drove home and picked up Dante then went down to the legislature building to take a ride in a horse drawn buggy. Dante was a little nervous at first, he wasnt sure about the horse but once we got in and got going he was standing on the rail watching all the people who were adoring him as we went past. The carriage we were in was a replica of the queens carriage only it is not covered in gold. So Patty and I did the royal wave to some of the peasants as we rolled by lol. The city looks so nice at night all lit up. We went up Government to China Town then over to Wharf Street then back by the water and Empress to the Legislature building. They have a nice warm blanket but it wasnt all that cold and we had dressed warm just in case.  The horses are so smart if the woman driving was busy talking, the horse would know when the light had turned for us to go. She said they dont see colour but know when the top ones lit they have to stop and wait and when the bottom one comes on they can go.She promised the horses were well taken care of and they retire them to the farm around 25. She said some horses go a little longer if they show signs of restlessness after they have been taken out of rotation. She said most of them live on the farm about 15 more years or until their health starts to deteriorate then they are humanly put down. Some of them are sold as companion horses to other farms but they are not used as work horses any more. I asked if they get many protesters and she said there a small pocket of them that come out now and then but they stand quietly with their signs.

Ok now that I bored you with that stuff the real reason for my post! Patty knows Im still a big kid so for Christmas she got me the perfect gift. well at first she got me an I Tank that you use your phone to control and it has a camera that you can watch in real time on your phone. I didnt open it right away because i wanted to check it out and found out there are lots of problems with the app you use. When I mentioned that to Patty she told me that she had a hard time deciding between that and a helicopter so she told me if i wanted i could take it back. I had no trouble exchanging for the helicopter and couldnt wait to try it out. I got one use out of it then the battery wouldnt charge. I took it back and got another one and it works fine. I have to see about getting extra batteries because it lasts about 12 minutes and a little less if you use the on board camera. Now Im still new at it so have screwed up useing the camera when its good lighting outside. One time I was having a real good flight and was excited to check out the video but had forgotten to put the SD card in it. I did get out this evening before it got to dark to try again and the video worked this time. I will warn you its a little shaky and the helicopter spins a bit because I wanted to see how high it would go then had trouble getting control of it. It was drifting in the breeze and i couldnt tell which end was the front and then it drifted out of the controllers reach. I thought I would post it anyways just to show you all.

Just a warning Terry it does spin and probably wont be good for you. I will try another video tomorrow where I control it better lol,