Fresh off a photography course designed to help develop / discover one’s creative side, I went on a hike with my camera and from a distance, and I spotted an interesting looking feature on an Arbutus tree. After a closer examination, I decided upon the look I wanted and set about the process of making the image. I knew some people would find it interesting and others would not care for it.
After seeing some fantastic photos from other photographers this past year, my attention was brought to JMG Galleries “Blog Project: Your Best Photos From 2015” and I was inspired to go through my images from 2015 and put together my own top ten list. The ten photos I chose for this are some of my favourites and cover a variety of styles. I hope to take some even more creative and interesting photos over the course of 2016 and have an improved batch of top ten photos for next year.
One thing going through my photos from 2015 has done, is given me the opportunity to see the progress I have made and realize that what I once thought was really good, now I see there is room for improvement in. It should be a fun year. I hope you will have a chance to enjoy my posts.
Early in the year, I took a trip to Tofino and slipped down to Ucluelet for the day, were I enjoyed a hike around the Wild Pacific Trail. I always find this part of Vancouver Island to be a very special place.
On a hike in East Sooke Regional Park at low tide, I climbed up a small rocky island and found this egg shell. At first I wondered if a little bird had hatched, but I noticed it wasn’t in a nest and there seemed to be some dried yolk on the rock just in front of the egg shell, so I was left believing another creature had lunch.
Sometimes I like to go down to the waterfront in Sooke and just watch what is going on. This time there were quite a few birds around, including these ducks, skimming over the water on a quiet morning.
Once upon a time… one of my favourite photography sites, Oopoomoo, had a project called the “Chain Mail Chicken“, where they had several rubber chickens that they sent to photographers all over the country, to photograph and tell a story about. I had been on the list to have one of the chickens visit me, but it flew the coop before it arrived and I never had the chance. Not satisfied with this outcome, I met Henrietta chicken, and helped her search for her missing relative. This was quite a fun challenge, and I enjoyed writing the story of Henrietta’s quest.
As you may have noticed, many of my photos are taken while I am on hikes, including this photo of Mary Vine Falls, near Sooke Potholes Provincial Park.
On another trip down to the local waterfront, I saw this group of people rowing what reminded me of a Viking boat, across the calm waters of the harbour. I liked the look of it best with the selective colouring I used here.
This past summer I had the opportunity to stay after the park closed and take some photos of the park and Fisgard Lighthouse. There was just enough lighting from Victoria to illuminate the lighthouse and allow me to get the stars without too much movement.
The summer in Victoria brings with it many festivals and I had been at Busker Fest for this particular day. As I was walking between venues, I saw this young lady in her own world, dancing away with seemingly not a care in the world. It was almost as if she had planned the shot for me, as she was right in the centre of an ornate circle.
Whenever I travel, even for a short day trip to Vancouver, I try and make sure I have my camera with me. On this trip I had enough time to linger a little near Canada Place, where I saw this window washer seated on a tiny little platform, suspended by a couple simple ropes as he went about his day.
On a very rainy night in November, I thought it would be a good idea to take out my camera and get a picture of the BC Legislature building. I got soaked, but kept my camera dry enough to continue working.
As I said, there were a variety of styles and genres of photos here and I plan on continuing to explore my creative side, so I hope you enjoyed this review and will be checking back, soon!
Once again it was a foggy day near the water and previous plans had to be altered. Not that I minded, as I kind of enjoy the fog. In fact, this is the second time I am dedicating a post to “Photography”. This time I went down to the Rotary Pier, on the Sooke Harbour waterfront and had a nice leisurely stroll.
For the second year in a row I went to the Kelby World Wide Photo Walk, in Victoria, BC. This time there were about half a dozen photographers from my local photo club that joined the walk through Beacon Hill Park and surrounding areas in the city. It made for an interesting trip with a wide variety of subjects to photograph.
Usually when I fly it is on a large commercial jet with tiny windows and no room to use a DSLR. Recently I took a return trip between Victoria harbour and Vancouver harbour on a Harbour Air float plane and I had an easy time taking photos. One of the other benefits of this was also the relatively low altitude compared with large jets.
For my latest post, I thought I’d present my latest diversion. Normally, I post some sort of landscape photos and a short story about where I took them. Today is not normal. I have decided to start a project that I plan to build on from this one post and eventually create a separate image gallery for it. I am calling it Project Shoestring because that’s how they hang… 
I went for a brief walk around the Cooper’s Cove area in the Sooke Basin and had a chance to take a few photos of the Stickleback West Coast Eatery, which, by the way, is a great place to grab a meal after a day of kayaking. This is a favourite area of mine, because it is close to the Galloping Goose regional trail, where I take a lot of photos, and provides great access to a sheltered cove. I have seen many excellent photos taken from kayaks, but as of yet, I have limited myself to using an iPhone in a waterproof case when I am on the water. The idea of taking my DSLR in a little kayak makes me rather nervous, to say the least, but it is really something I want to do. Perhaps, in the future, I will venture out on a calm day and ease into it. For now, I leave you with an HDR image of the Stickleback.
The blog has been silent for a little longer than I would like, but that’s because there have been many changes going on lately. Many, but not all, have little to do with this blog. I have decided; however, to try and raise the bar on the blog, so, over then next while there will be some visible changes around here. The first of those is the URL (or website address) has been shortened, by removing “wordpress” from it (although the old URL will continue to redirect to the new one). The site is now officially wilddrakephotography.com
Look for more changes soon.
It’s been a busy summer, so far, and while I’ve been having a great time, I’ve had less time than usual for photography (and subsequent post-processing). The good news is that I spent a couple nights at Fort Rodd Hill and Fisgard Lighthouse National Historic Sites, where they have “oTENTiks”. These are great, as there are only five of them at the site (only two occupied on the nights I was there), and the occupants get to stay and explore the sites after they are closed and everyone else is locked out!
It has been a crazy couple of weeks for me, but I finally managed to get some time to take a few photographs. This time I went with a small group to see the Busker Festival, around the inner harbour area of Victoria, BC. It was almost the perfect day for it, as the weather was partially overcast, so it was not too hot and we didn’t get wet. While the festival was going on, so was everything else that happens in Victoria, including traffic on the sea, land and air!
Wild Drake Photography 