Winery Wedding at Sunset

Back in August, I visited a winery in Kelowna, BC that had a beautiful Vista of the lake and mountains in the background.  The wedding was just adorable and they had it set up perfectly. View larger size in Flickr.

Taken in Kelowna, BC, Canada.

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Crazy Hat

It's been a while since I published a LensBaby shot.  I was flipping back through some old photos and this one caught my attention.  The expression and shot just jumps out at me.  View larger version on Flickr.

Taken in Victoria, BC, Canada.

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Ready for the Party

In light of my recent trip to Napa Valley, the wine capitol of California, I thought I would post one of the shots I took in Kelowna at the winery over there.  Something about the age of these wine barrels caught my eye.  View the larger version of Flickr.

Taken in Kelowna, BC, Canada.

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Fire Tulips

 

Back in 2009 at Buchart Gardens, I saw a row of tulips that just seemed to burst out of the ground like fire!  I figured since we are losing the summer and entering fall, it's a good time to reflect on the wonderful things that Spring and Summer were. View full version on Flickr.

Taken in Buchart Gardens, Victoria, BC, Canada.

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Ready to Ride

 

While in Kelowna, BC for a wedding, someone showed up on a beautiful chopper.  It was just calling to be ridden, not by me of course, but it was ready for the open road.  I couldn’t help but snap it.  View the full version on Flickr.

Taken in Kelowna, BC, Canada.

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Red House and Vancouver

While walking around the Sea Wall of Stanley Park, I snapped a RAW photo of the red building with the city of Vancouver behind it.  I wasn't intending to take an HDR photo, but I processed it and liked the way it came out.  The sky is a bit grainy, but I like the rest of the photo so much, I decided to publish it. View the larger version on Flickr.

Taken in Vancouver, BC, Canada

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Japanese Water Walkway

Last year when I visited Butchart Gardens, I was shooting in RAW (as I usually do when going on photo shoots) and going back to the photos I took in 2009, I decided to try this one as a single shot HDR.  I really loved how the water turned out here, reflecting the flowers.  The Japanese Gardens are just so still, if you can get there when there aren't too many people.  I spent most of the day waiting for people to filter through and snapped this closer to the end of the day.  View the larger size on Flickr.
Taken in Saanich, BC, Canada

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What’s the Buzz About?

This shot is another shot I re-discovered from Butchart Gardens last year.  I like it because we're getting into the good weather here in Victoria, and it's a nice symbol of spring; the pollination engine back at work.  View larger version on Flickr.

Taken in Saanich, BC, Canada

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The Red, White & Pink

Looking back on almost my entire 2005 photo collection as I prepared to get ready for 2006, I made a resolution to stop shooting flowers.  I had too many and they started to all look the same.  However, a trip to Butchart Gardens in the spring of 2009 I broke this resolution, because well, at a garden, what are you going to take photos of?

I actually modified this to be to take only pictures of interesting photos of flowers.  Similar to this flower posted almost a year ago, it’s interesting.  So I recently went back to those Butchart photos and found this one that really jumped out at me with the red, white and pink (not blue, sorry USA), and the fence behind it.

I still need to get back to Butchart to see the roses, but I’m not sure if I’ll make it this year. As always, you can view the larger version on Flickr.

Taken in Victoria, BC, Canada.

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Old Red

I stopped in Cook St. Villiage the other day and there happened to be a few nicely maintained old cars.  Not necessarily unusual, just strange to see more than one.  This red truck actually caught my eye before the Audi TT behind it (I love Audi).  I quickly snapped this truck parked on the side of the street and decided to see what it looked like in HDR.  Processed the single-shot HDR I found I had a lot of noise.  I managed to clean that up in Photoshop and Noiseware and I’m super happy with the end result.  View the larger version on Flickr.

Taken in Victoria, BC, Canada.

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The Governor’s House

The Governor's house in Victoria BC is one of the more beautiful gardens that's open to the public from dusk until dawn.  I ventured there waiting for my wife and was able to snap a few nice HDRs.  I'm learning that HDR isn't really the best thing for flowers, but it does buildings really really well.  I like how the building pops out of the flowers on this one.  View the larger version on Flickr.

Taken in Victoria, BC, Canada.

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Here Comes The Rain Again

While talking a walk on Dallas Road, the rain clouds exploded from the west stretching over the sky.  I really like how they look like they are just exploding out of a central point.  Often the west coast isn’t known for it’s sky’s, so it’s nice to see some cloud action out here.  See full size on Flickr.

Taken in Victoria, BC, Canada

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"That's Not Graffitti" Tunnel (Formerly "Graffitti Tunnel")

This tunnel goes under the only train tracks on Vancouver Island near Thetis Lake. The tunnel walls were actually painted by a school project. All the walls are painted, including the roof. I want to come back here in the fall and shoot this with the fall colours as I think it’ll be a colour explosion. View larger size on Flickr.

Technically, this is my first HDR taken from a single RAW image by exporting the RAW file into multi-exposure. I’m happy with how it came out, although I wish the sky wasn’t so grey, but apparently this weekend I can’t do anything about that.

Update: With a stroke of good fortune, I found the artist of this tunnel online, who reminded me it's not Graffitti. His name is Morgan Macaulay. He's an artist in Victoria, BC that paints all sorts of projects, including ones like this one, in the community. I'm happy to give him credit for this beautiful tunnel that I get to walk through a number of times a week. If you're interested in more of his art, check out his webpage here

Taken in Victoria, BC, Canada.

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Old Amy Usen

On my photo walk in Victoria, I snapped this photo of Amy Usen, across the inner harbour.  Again, I overcooked it as part of my learning of HDR, but for some reason the colours with the old buildings in the back attracted me to this one.  See the large version on Flickr.

Taken in Victoria, BC, Canada.

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Kayak Rental

From the same photo-walk at Fisherman’s Warf I did a few weeks ago.  This Kayak rental place caught my eye.  I guess you could say I’m attracted to the splashes of colour from the kayaks.  Again, this one is “over-cooked” as an HDR, but I’m liking how it turned out.  Larger version on Flickr.
Taken in Victoria, BC, Canada.

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The Old Houseboat

I took a photo-walk around Fisherman’s Warf in Victoria, BC and caught this awesome house boat that was super colourful.  I used it, among other houseboats to play with my HDR post processing.  I overdid the HDR post processing here such that the picture is super colourful, but I’m really happy with how it turned out this way.  View the Larger Size on Flickr.
Taken in Victoria, BC, Canada

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Motorcycle Cruiser

While on a trip out to Ocean Shores, WA this past weekend, we had some friends tag along who were cruisin’ on their bikes.  I shot this out of the window of an Audi with a rather stiff suspension. 

Taken just outside of Olympia, WA, United States

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Lonely Beach Chairs

Walking on the beach looking for a good sunset shot that never produced, I thought it looked pretty cool that all these beach chairs were empty.  I guess it’s proof that the sunset just wasn’t spectacular.

Taken in Kona, Hawai’i, United States

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Lonely Walkway

While visiting the Hawai’i Volcanoes National Park on the big island, there were some old glyph’s about a 20 minute walk from the road.  I managed to hike across the lava field to find the glyph’s surrounded by a walkway, in the middle of no where.  I really liked how old the wood looked in this photo, so I snapped that off first.

Just so you know what I hiked out into the lava field for, I’ve included this shot of the glyphs.  Kind of neat to see something so old, although a 40 minute hike to see some stick figures on rock??

Taken in the Volcanoes National Park, Hawai’i, United States of America

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Resting Kayaks

The sunset wasn’t always perfect in Hawaii, but the colours of these Kayaks after a day of use caught my eye.  Attempting another HDR photo, I’m happy with the results.

Taken in Waikoloa, Hawaii, United States

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200 Yard Lava Tube!

This Lava Tube is the tube that the Hawai’i Volcanoes National Park will let you walk through.  They ran the power down so you could see what you were doing.  It wasn’t a lot of power, so I ended up with a 5 second exposure time at ISO 3200.  I’m super happy with the results.  Of all the shots I took of/in the Lava Tube, this one is my favorite.  The tube is over 500 years old, and in my estimation, is about 200-300 yards long.  According to the ranger, the longest lava tube they’ve found is about 20 miles.  yes, 20 miles!

My second favorite shot is actually the HDR version of the same angle.  What makes this angle so great is (a) the moss hanging from the ceiling, (b) the lights are like stars and show you the depth of the tunnel and (c) I had the best make-shift tripod: a set of stairs leading out of the tunnel.  Here is the HDR:

The HDR pulls out a bit more detail out of the wall, and gives a slightly different effect.  Both cool photos in my opinion, and I couldn’t decide which one I liked best.  Do you have a preference?

Taken in the Volcanoes National Park, Hawai’i

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The Beach House at Sunset

It’s hard not to take some sunset photos when you're in the sunset capitol of Kona, Hawaii.  I like this one because all day this place is a hustle and bustle of people.  Adults trying to get stuff for themselves, or for their kids, everyone focused on the water sports.  But at the end of the day, there isn’t a sole around, and the beach house watches the sunset alone.

Taken in Waikoloa, Hawaii

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Kona Sunset

While traveling, I managed to snap an HDR of the sunset at my hotel.  This one turned out to be my favorite from the bunch.  The neat thing is the lake prior to the ocean is actually a mixture of salt and fresh water, which adds for some interesting wild-life, but for me, a beautiful reflection!

Taken in Waikoloa, Hawaii

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The Green Knight!

At my trip to Medieval Times which I commented on in a previous post, I took a few shots.  The evil knight was the Green Knight.  I’m pretty sure they chose Green because it’s the lamest colour, so it gets that audience excited.  Ours was the Black & White Knight, which admittedly is the coolest colour, except he died first.  In this shot, the Green Knight has just captured the prince.

Taken at Medieval Times, Toronto, ON, Canada

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Captured!

Over the holiday’s, we visited Medieval Times for a “knight to remember!”.  It was quite a show.  I brought my 5D Mark II and tried to get some shots.  The lighting was difficult to work with, let alone the fact that I couldn’t move from my super tiny seat.  I managed to get some pretty neat shots, this one is my favourite.

Taken at Medieval Times, Toronto, ON, Canada

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