Shazam
I took these three pictures while showing fellow photographer/blogger Melinda Green Harvey around Victoria a month ago.
Yesterday she posted a photograph from this location (Don’t Just Dream). I thought it would be interesting to post mine as well as there are interesting differences that speak to how different people see the world around them. I commented to this effect on her post, but decided the comment was worthy of a post of my own.
One main difference is what we chose to focus our lenses on. Melinda immediately keyed into the message in the graffiti she photographed. Since she is also a writer her ear/eye is trained to words in a way that mine is not.
While I noticed the graffiti she photographed, and read it, I did not actually Read it, or get its message. Thus I did not bother to photograph that patch. I was more interested in the aged buildings as a whole, and the context they provide for graffiti and thus only took a couple of detail shots.
Another difference is post-processing – Melinda has said in her blog that she shoots mostly with the idea of black and white conversion, and that once a picture is converted she cannot remember the colours of the original. I rarely anticipate a shot will be good in black and white but frequently discover in post that it should be converted.
In this case black and white was in my mind, though the Shazam graffiti is a bright pink and it was with regret that I changed that colour. My detail shots were processed in Photomatix-Pro with tonemapping of a single image while the general setting shot was processed in Lightroom 5. Melinda’s image was processed with NIK Silver Efex. I like how her treatment has made the stone look almost wet and really brings up the detail. It seems like that software may be on my wish list pretty soon!
The lane between these buildings is where I shot Pipe to Nowhere and Found Blue.
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Canon EOS 5Dmkii, Nikkor-N Auto f2.8/24mm lens, ISO100, 1/1000th and 1/1250th.
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burnt embers 
I think both viewpoints are interesting, especially when viewed side by side. My own inclination is to focus on the details since I’m not good at seeing the big picture. Probably the most creative tool I could buy would be a good wide angle lens. I have really enjoyed your colaboration with Mel.
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We had a great time together, and it was great to see a resident’s view of Victoria. Ehpem’s a great tour guide! Maybe you could join us next time!
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All would be welcome to come for a visit and a tour. I would try not to feel self conscious as one of a flock of photographers ;).
Is flock the best collective noun? Maybe clique pronounced click would be better? Or given how the idea makes me feel, a shudder.
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I am almost positive the correct term is “an aperture of photographers”.
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Hi Ken. It is interesting to view them side by side – I find there are things to learn from situations like this, about seeing, and about post processing. I have really enjoyed this too – though it is a totally haphazard collaboration, and it may well have benefited from a bit of coordination so that we posted about the same subject on the same day, for instance. Next time!
I too find that the lenses that I have, or have available, really influence how I shoot. I only own primes, or at least only own primes that are adapted for an EOS mount and so I am often out with just one lens, perhaps a second one but never a wide, normal and long lens at the same time. Getting my old 24mm Nikon really changed a lot of things about the way I shoot, or the subjects I choose. It is probably the lens I use most.
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Love that mixture of bricks and very familiar (to me) gentle yellowish Vancouver Island sandstone (also Newcastle, Gabriola, Pender I. quarries), which we see on the mainland only sometimes in the form of columns e.g. at the old Vancouver Public Library, later Carnegie Library, still at Hastings & Main in East Van. Not sure if this will work. Anyway http://bit.ly/1re4OA6
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Hi Richard, thanks for the comment and the link too. I have shortened it – you might want to check out bitly.com or similar services. You past a hugely long url into a window and they produce a nice short one. You see that sandstone quite a lot in Victoria on the older buildings. It does not weather very well – though it is beautiful when weathered. These are two of the oldest buildings in Victoria. They are slated for redevelopment and I am not at all sure what the means for their appearance, replacement of worn sandstone and so on. These drawings of course do little to help: http://bit.ly/1CmwtDM
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Thanks for bitly link and for the drawings. This VI standstone in your photos is great stuff. I’m sure it is the 1st local stone used architecturally on VI — (what else is there?) — but it does not appear naturally of course on the mainland due to very different geological histories of these colonies (oops I mean provinces. I wish). Your photos shows the stuff very well. But no, it doesn’t weather well.
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