Fernwood West
A few more shots from around the Fernwood neighbourhood in Victoria. These were all taken last weekend while I was shopping for baked goods, and are just some of the buildings that caught my attention.
These buildings are all on the west side of the Fernwood neighbourhood, within a block of Cook Street, both sides.
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Canon EOS 5Dii, Nikkor-N 24mm/f2.8 and Canon 50mm/f1.4 lenses, ISO100, +/- 2.0 E.V.
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burnt embers 
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My favorite photography subjects!! These old buildings are full of character, you’ve done a great job with this set!!
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Thank you Toad – its a really great part of town for photography, especially for these funky old places. I need to go back for more pictures, there are hundreds to be taken.
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I LOVE the blue house with the arch of tree branches; all of the elements are just right in this image.
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Thank you Lynn! This is a perfect example of where HDR works really well. None of the brackets came close to giving a sense of the light in the trees, and on the house, and what the fence surface looked like. Combining them was really the only way, though a huge amount of fiddling with a single image might have got close.
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Don’t forget your barbie photos are from Fernwood too!
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I think that they *should* be from Fernwood, but are from the heart of Fairfield on May Street.
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As always, well observed.
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Thanks so much Andy!
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My grandmother swept the sidewalk in front of her house every day, as did most of her neighbors. And this was a very low income neighborhood but she was proud of it and kept it neat and clean. To this day I sweep the street after cutting the grass. My neighbors might think I’m crazy but it does look nice after I’m finished.
I love the house in the last photo with the overgrown yard. I’ll bet it’s prettier when the foliage comes out.
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HI Ken – it’s funny how something like one’s grandmother’s habits can continue for generations in some form or another. It is the essence of culture I think, learned local behaviours passed on and becoming the norm for the majority. A nice, if trivial, example of that very large process at work.
I bet that house is wonderful in the spring. It looks like it could have a really nice English style garden, and if it doesn’t, it should. Sadly it’s days are numbered.
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Each one of these photographs is beautiful to look at. The black and white especially with its tones and fine detail everywhere. Next time in Vic I must have a wander in that area. It has its very own feel and long history even though not as pretty as some other areas. Houses like on the first and the last photo are on their way out so for the record’s sake get them and their surroundings. It’s an awesome post.
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Hi Joseph – it is worth a wander, which you can punctuate with a coffee at the place next to the sweeper, or the one a few posts back, a stop at one of the very best bakeries in Victoria, or a beer and some bluegrass music on a weekend afternoon at Logan’s, or pick admire the beautiful stringed instruments at Larsen’s Music next door. As you say, it is a not as pretty as some areas, it is a great part of town.
As to these places being on their way out – the last house behind the vegetation has a rezoning notice (it an adjacent larger building that is all boarded up). And the first one must be a rental – there appear to be several old houses that are just waiting for rezoning or redevelopment in a row here.
I wanted to photograph the house next door to the top one but someone was sitting on the front step. This actually happened three times in the half hour I was wandering around – nice weather was getting people with cups of coffee outside onto their porches or steps. It feels so much like a living community which is one of the things I like about Fernwood.
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I spy some more graffiti!
And it made me laugh to see the woman sweeping the sidewalk, just below the Easy Living sign.
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There is some more graffiti, though I think it too may be commissioned work. The painted murals don’t usually get tagged or oversprayed and I could see that part of the building particularly prone to graffiti, so it might be the easiest way of keeping things looking neat is to get someone to paint it with a theme of some kind.
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And the woman sweeping – she gave me a beady eye when I was taking the pictures, but did not stop sweeping. I had to isolate her in the HDR processing, though I was tempted to set it up so that all three broom positions from the brackets were in the shot. I decided that might be a bit cute….
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Yes – that might have been a little too precious…..
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