Swift Street
A follow-up on my Lower Pandora post, when I was on the way to the bar from parking, just as the sun was setting. Anyone that knows this town, will now know where I was heading since Swift Street is one very short block. It has the Cool Aid homeless shelter at one end (where my daughter used to work), and the Canoe Brew Pub at the other (where my son often plays music). I have never stayed at the shelter, but I am occasionally found in this pub which has excellent beer brewed on the premises, and good live music on Thursday and Friday evenings.
The picture above is the Swift Street side of a funky home furnishings store that fronts onto Store Street. The picture below is the Canoe. The bottom picture is at the end of the street, right on the water’s edge. The statue (I think that is what they call it) is a hideous colour. I only took the picture because of the bike seat shadow – black and white is a must.
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I am separated from my computer, so will reply to comments when we get back together.
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Canon 5Dii, Canon 50mm/f1.4 lens, ISO 100, f2.2, 1/400th to 1/2500th second
burnt embers 
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The top photo has a very nice b&w treatment and with its reflections and its different textures is a pleasure to look at. As far as the statue is concerned (I have photographed it) I cannot say it is ugly, not even the blue color of it. It is interesting and one wonders what it’s all about. A plaque somewhere in its vicinity that explains what story it illustrates would be helpful. I like your shadowy approach on the statue photo.
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Hi Joseph, I think it could be subject for some interesting photographs, in the right light. I would like it better if the paint had faded a bit more. As to a plaque, when I was taking pictures one man was lamenting to another that some idiot had stolen the brass plaque that told about the statue, probably to recycle it. Maybe another one will be put up, this time not in what has proved to be a semi-precious metal.
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Hi ehpem, the plaque must have been gone for some time. Before I commented here I looked up the latest photographs I have on the subject (that’s how I know it’s blue, had forgotten all about that). These photographs were taken last February, but I took phone photos well before that time and never noticed any info about the statue. It has always been a mystery to me. Kind of gross spewing out of one mouth and seagull refuse all over it on the photos I have. Nevertheless the statue intrigues me but is difficult to photograph because it doesn’t matter how you turn there always is a non fitting background behind it.
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Hi Joseph – a bit of a dig on the internet turns up this post, which reminds me of the complexity of the piece. And which has a picture of the now missing plaque from about a year ago. The colour looks quite nice in this light. http://victoriadailyphoto.blogspot.ca/2012/05/four-winds-by-chris-johnson-aka-ice.html
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She has a nice blog but even in her photos the backgrounds distract. I comment on that because I’ve walked around that statue just to find ways of getting it to show up nicely and there is no way except for losing the background altogether. Beautiful plaque. I looked for it but never found it and as you mention things have a way of dishonestly disappearing. Anyway, ehpem, I found out more about this statue in one evening then in the past year. One picture may cause a thousand words. Very nice.
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Perhaps a night shot with spot lighting on the sculpture would work, if there is not too much background light, which I doubt. Next power outage + flash perhaps. Except I don’t have a flash….
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If that is the way, flashes can be had cheap (never mind the flashmeter, just rearrange till you get it right). A flash and a few slave units would make for an interesting experiment. I must have some of that stuff in storage, perhaps even an old umbrella or some other reflector. That’d make a good nice weather winter evening project, lol.
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well, that sounds like a project all right. I have an old flash that will work as a slave, but can’t be fired directly by the camera any more. I suppose on a very dark night I could put the camera on bulb setting and fire the flash manually, more than once. I have done that in cave photography. Tricky to calculate exposures though…
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Nice reflections in the top photo. I’m with Ken on the statue…
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Thanks Melinda. I like the relfections too. I took 2 shots here – one with the reflections in focus, and this one. I decided that there was too much out of focus brick to use the other shot.
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The shadows in the final photo really add a lot of interest. I’m undecided if I want to see more of the “statue” though.
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Well, it is a strange construction. I think maybe a dragon. It is kind of tucked away in a difficult corner too, so one can’t see all of it properly.
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