Tag: Willows Beach

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Photos of Canada

A few photos of British Columbia

The pictures below were taken in Vancouver and Victoria, in British Columbia. They were all taken with a Canon 5DSR full frame camera.

In the Vancouver harbour, several condo towers have been built in the last few years. Many condos in those towers can now be rented by travellers through Airbnb, thus entering in direct competition with the hotels located nearby. I was trying to use the water reflections in the harbor to show one of the towers when this seagull appeared in the viewfinder, adding a touch of life to the scenery.

Another way of showing the Vancouver Harbour architecture (2016)
Another way of showing the Vancouver Harbour architecture (2016)

Floatplanes of all types constantly maneuver in the Vancouver harbour. The two photos below show a Saltspring Air Turbo Otter as it is being helped to park. You can also see a row of Harbour Air Beavers (DHC-2) parked after a day of uninterrupted flights.

Saltspring Air Turbo Otter C-FLAP in Vancouver Harbour 2016
Saltspring Air Turbo Otter C-FLAP in Vancouver Harbour 2016
Harbour Air DHC-2 Beaver floatplanes in Vancouver, British-Columbia (2016)
Harbour Air DHC-2 Beaver floatplanes in Vancouver, British-Columbia (2016)

In the Willows Beach’s Park, in Victoria, I was able to photograph this Cooper’s Hawk using a Canon 70-200 f2.8L IS II USM telephoto lens. The full frame sensor 50 megapixels allowed for some serious cropping to bring the bird closer. The hawk clearly annoyed all the crows that considered themselves as the owners of the territory.

Cooper's Hawk in a Victoria's public park (2016)
Cooper’s Hawk in a Victoria’s public park (2016)

In the evening, the fishing boats come back to the Victoria Fisherman’s Wharf. Since I was standing on a moving platform, the use of a tripod would have been useless because of vibrations impossible to eliminate. The solution was to use a lens requiring little light, like the Canon EF 50mm 1.4 USM. By increasing the aperture and the ISO, the picture could be taken with a high enough shutter speed to avoid a blurred photo.

Fishing vessel in the Victoria harbour (2016)
Fishing vessel in the Victoria harbour (2016)

 

Categories
Street photography

Playing piano in Oak Bay, Victoria

A young girl plays piano on Willows Beach in Victoria.
A young girl plays piano on Willows Beach in Victoria.

The photo above was taken with a Canon 5DSR full-frame camera in Victoria, British-Columbia. The exact location is a beach in Oak Bay called Willows Beach.

In many cities around the world, the trend is to install used pianos in unusual places hoping that citizens and tourists will take a few minutes to try their hand at the instrument. While a young girl was starting to play on this piano left beside Willows Beach, a young boy appeared in my viewfinder, upside down on his father’s shoulder. To each his own.

In the distance, it is possible to see the sailboats of the Oak Bay Yacht Club and the Washington State Olympic Mountains, in the United States.

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Street photography

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Street photography

Each one in his own bubble in Willows Beach Park

Each one in his own bubble in the Willows Beach Park, Oak Bay, Victoria
Each one in his own bubble in the Willows Beach Park, Oak Bay, Victoria

In the foreground sits a man in the Willows Beach Park of Oak Bay in Victoria, British Columbia. He is totally in his bubble, absorbed by his book. I have been looking at him for few minutes wondering how I should position myself in order to get an interesting picture.

Suddenly, a bubble, very real this time, appears in the viewfinder of the camera. The bubble is moving, thanks to the efforts of a child that is walking inside of it. An adult is monitoring to situation to prevent accidents.

Street photography sometimes requires luck. For every successful photo, many opportunities are missed. The fraction of a second offered to a photographer to capture an unusual scene always imposes to have the camera settings already set for the ambient light and the expected use.

The picture was taken with a Canon 5DSR full-frame camera.

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Street photography

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Photography

An artwork left on Willows Beach in Victoria, British Columbia

Artwork in sand on Willows Beach, Victoria, 2014
Artwork in sand on Willows Beach, Victoria, 2014

The picture above represents an improvised artwork that was done on Willows Beach in Oak Bay, a municipality in Victoria, British Columbia. The work, created during a summer afternoon in 2014, was made slightly out of the way from the main activity area of the beach and, by luck, was not damaged after its author left the beach.

However, during the evening, while taking a walk, I saw that a group of young people had installed a volleyball net on the beach, not far from where the artwork was located. The players often sent the ball very close to where the eyes where so I decided to take a picture to immortalize the work.

Shells and rocks of multiple colours had been assembled by a real artist to give the eyes an extremely realistic appearance, full of life. You may note that the artist took care of designing the eyes of different size, as it is necessery to add a three dimensional effect. Few white shells had even been added near the centre of the eyes to add the reflection appearance and bring the eyes to life. A real artist creation!