Wild Drake Photography

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  • Smoke on the Water… and in the Air

    This spring and early summer has been hotter and drier than normal over most, if not all, of British Columbia.  In fact in many areas there have been watering restrictions and burning bans for several weeks now.  Unfortunately, with such dry conditions, the fire risk is at extreme and there are a number of active wildfires.  Although it is supposed to be a clear, sunny day again today, what it actually looks like is an overcast day as seen through those blue-blocker sunglasses that turn everything orange, due to the smoke drifting in from all the fires.  They are far enough that they don’t pose a danger to me, but they do cause concern.

    smoke from wildfires covers the province
    An Almost Erie Orange Haze Blankets the Area

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  • Canada Day with the Dogs!

    It’s been a little longer than usual between posts, but I’m back with a quick one here on Canada Day.  Today was Canada’s 148th birthday and falling on a Wednesday, it nicely broke up the work week.  Instead of making big plans I took the day to relax and watch some of the celebrations across the country on TV (which is something that has only been turned on a handful of times since the beginning of the year).

    After that, I took the dogs down to the ocean for a swim and to cool off in the 25C heat.

    A Favourite Waterside Activity
    A Favourite Waterside Activity

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  • Car Free Day in Victoria with my Camera

    Once again the weather was beautiful and it made for a perfect day to head to downtown Victoria for a walk through the street marked set up for Car Free Day.  Several blocks of Douglas Street were closed off to traffic and various booths, stages and other things were set up along it.  It attracted about 20,000 people and was well planned.

    flag person directing traffic
    Traffic Control was in Place at the Cross Streets

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  • A Busy Weekend With Little Time For Photography

    This was a busier than expected weekend and things didn’t work out like I had planned.  The oldest of the family dogs had really been showing his age recently and suddenly took a turn for the worse on Saturday.  This necessitated an emergency trip to the vet’s.  Sadly, he didn’t make it to see his 16th birthday, the next day. 😦  That kind of put me off doing anything else for the rest of the day, other than returning home to play with our other dogs.  Sunday I decided to start a project at home that I’ve been thinking of for a while.  I will be working at it bit by bit and when things get a little further along, I will post some photos to show the progress.  That brings me to the brief break I took this evening, to get out by the water, mostly to relax a bit.  I found an old broken down dock along the water’s edge that looked interesting and the rest of the time I just soaked in a few rays of sunshine and the ocean air.  an old dock in disrepair sits along the shoreline

    I have big plans for next weekend and the weather looks good, so I expect to have a more substantial post.

  • A Picture Perfect Day to See Sooke’s Secret Gardens

    This year is the 7th annual Sooke Secret Garden Tour, and the first time I took the opportunity to check it out.  Not only does the $20 tour fee allow entry to all the different sites, the profit goes towards supporting the Sooke Philharmonic Orchestra.  The weather was spectacular and there were a steady stream of people visiting each of the gardens.

    an old English Tudor style house hosts viewers of its flower garden
    Enjoying One Of The Sooke Secret Garden Sites

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  • Bike Ride To Leechtown

    For more than a month I’ve been telling myself that I should get my bike out and go for a ride.  I only picked it up last year, after not having a bicycle for more than a decade.  Today I decided I would actually take it out on a ride and I would take my camera with me to hopefully get some interesting photos.  In order to do this, I drove up to the top parking area at Sooke Potholes Regional Park and then got on my bike to travel along the Galloping Goose Regional Trail.  My destination was a little over 7 km away and was the old site of Leechtown, a one time gold mining town.  Now there is little left, except for some rusting machinery scattered around the bushes and a marker indicating where the site was.  Nonetheless, I wanted to see it for myself and with my camera in my backpack (which seemed to weigh about 10 kg), I set off on my bike for the first time in about 8 months.

    Leech town Historical Sign
    This Sign Marks The Site Of The Old Gold Mining Town

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  • Neighbourhood Walk

    This weekend was pretty busy for me and I only got out for a short walk around the neighbourhood.  Still, I look my camera along and found a few things worth taking shots of.  I found the pattern of the siding on the new construction to form an interesting pattern.

    A building being framed and sided with the wood forming a angled pattern
    New Condos Under Construction

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  • A Photo Club Outing to Victoria

    Every year in Victoria there is the Victoria Camera Swap Meet and this was the first time I made it out.  In fact, several members of the Camera Club I am part of headed out there to check it out.  It was an interesting mix of mostly older 35 mm, medium and large format film cameras, as well as movie cameras, accessories and some dSLR’s.  I could easily have spent enough to put me into debt, but in the end common sense won out and I only picked up one filter.

    4x5 format film camera on a tripod
    An Old Large Format camera at the Victoria Camera Swap Meet
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  • A Walk On A Cloudy Evening

    I recently wanted to go for a walk near the water to take some sunset photos, but it was overcast and not the best day to do this.  As the location I had planned was a little farther away than I wanted to go that evening, I decided to stick close to home and am pleased that I did.  I was able to catch a little of the setting light on the small waves before I moved closer to the water for some bird photos.

    the setting sunlight casts shadows and an orange glow over the waves

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  • Another Surprise Find on a Local Hike

    This weekend I thought I’d check out some trails I just learned about on an app I recently downloaded (Backpacker – Map Maker).  I’ve only used the app a little, but so far it looks great and has shown me all sorts of new trails that I didn’t know existed.  For this hike, I went to nearby Broom Hill.  There are several trails shown on the map, some fairly well travelled and others that had obviously seen much less use.  As I went along one of the well worn trails, I saw what at first looked like an old, broken, home made ladder… then I saw several others further up the trail.  Some with round “rungs” and some with flat ones.  I realized that these were old, disused, raised bike paths.

    an old, disused, wooden bicycle pathway
    The Old Raised Bike Path

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