Kinsol Trestle

The Kinsol Trestle has been on my radar for quite some time. It was built in 1920. Located near Shawnigan Lake, BC. And apparently the website says it’s the highest and largest surviving timber trestle in Canada and reportedly one of the four largest wooden structures in the world.

Not too long ago (maybe a few years?) the trestle got fixed up so it’s now 100% safe and people can walk over this incredible structure. Sooo Rhiannon and I decided to check out the place (we’ve both never been here before) and picked up a couple of geocaches on the way too. It was a great day!

The next picture is taken with a technique called HDR (High Dynamic Range)

In the next picture, you can see a gas pipeline going across the river. So crazy!

Geocaching at East Sooke Park

Wow it’s almost 2 months since my last post. I guess things got a bit hectic with work (finishing up my contract), looking for work, and dealing with other things in life. That’s just the way it is sometimes.

Well, the weather has been amazing this week, and I’m hoping it’ll stay like this forever! Matty and I took advantage of this by going out to East Sooke Park to do some geocaching. Recently there has been a geocaching event which resulted in A LOT of new caches at this park. Soooo we decided to tackle some. We found a total of 19 caches and we explored an area of the park which I’ve never been before so that’s always exciting!! Found some cool things along the way too!

Oh, and have I mentioned how beautiful the west coast is?

Just Another Sunset in Victoria

It’s been over a month since my last post… I’m back at H&R Block setting up offices. These past couple weeks have been super hectic – working 10+ hours every day. I was pretty exhausted, but I’m glad all the offices are up and running now.

Last Friday was my first “slower” day so I decided to finish work early and go take some pictures because it’s been a long time. I was trying to figure where I could shoot a sunset. After a few minutes, the Gorge Rd Trestle came up to mind. It’s right by my place, so I got home, ditched all my stuff, grabbed my camera gear and headed out the door.

I’m still testing out this post-editing stuff… But the more I do it, the more I realize how much it enhances a picture. I really like seeing my progress as a photographer and how much it’s changed. It’s great! I’ve even included a HDR picture in there just for fun.

I hope you all enjoy these!

HDR – 10mm, F4.0, ISO 200

Christmas 2012 in Victoria

Finally getting into the Christmas spirit! My friend and I decided to go for a walk downtown to check out a few Christmasy things that happen in Victoria. It was a beautiful day in Victoria. It wasn’t very cold for a December day. So off we went! I love all the different lights around the place. Victoria definitely puts some effort into it.

First stop was to find free parking…. Soooo we ended up parking at Ogden Point and decided to take a stroll out on the breakwater. The sky was doing awesome things, and there was a pelican around the area which is rare around Victoria.

Next stop, gingerbread houses at the Laurel Point Inn. I wasn’t sure what to expect from this. We got there, and I was blown away! Wasn’t expecting the gingerbread houses to look that amazing! The people must have put so much time in making them. It was awesome! And it smelled amazing there!

The next one was one of my favs.

So much detail!

After the gingerbread houses, we walked over to the Empress Hotel to check out the Festival of Trees that they have every year. Pretty much a company goes in on a tree and they decorate a tree together.

Yes, that’s a really big gingerbread castle!

Mandatory reflection shot.

Afterwards, we just wandered/drove around town for a bit while taking a few pictures here and there.

And there you have it… A glimpse of what Victoria looks like during Christmas! Thought I would post a bunch more pictures because I haven’t been updating very often.. But hope you all have an awesome Christmas and New Years! Feel free to drop me a line any time!

The Long Plane Ride

After a long day of 9 hours being on a plane, two 1.5 hour train rides, and an hour or two of waiting around, Shannon and I finally made it to my friend’s place in Gloucester, UK. The scenery definitely felt familiar yet different. A lot of the buildings were made out of bricks and a lot of fields. It’s cool seeing different parts of the world! It’s still hard to believe that we’re actually on the other side of the world, but I’m sure it’ll set in soon.

This is what a lot of non-paying people don’t get to see at the airport. We had an hour or two to kill before we boarded the plane, so we walked around for a bit.

We’re on a plane! …. To the UK! It’s sooo crazy!

We caught two sunrises. It was pretty sweet.

I believe this next picture is when we were flying over Greenland.

UK!

Waiting for the train at Reading.

Thought I’d try out this HDR thing again.

More pics to come!

Epic UK Trip 2012 Starts Now

Shannon and I have been talking about possibly going to the UK to visit our friend for a really long time. We have been throwing the idea around, and I can’t believe we’re ACTUALLY at the airport right now waiting to board the plane.

This is super exciting for me because
a) I’ve never been to the UK
b) Get to finally visit some friends
c) Going to check out the Olympics again (last time was in Vancouver)
d) Finally get some stamps on my passport!

We’ll be going for 3 weeks, and hopefully I’ll be able to keep you all posted about the trip my blog. All pictures were taken with my phone.

Canada Day 2012

Hope you all had an awesome Canada Day! I stuck around Victoria and decided to hang out downtown. I love it here especially when big holidays like these happen – everyone is wearing red and white, downtown is packed with people, roads are closed so you can wander freely, live music, and so much more! It’s always a great time hanging out here on Canada Day. Here’s some proof:

Pretty good spots for watching the fireworks! Patiently waiting as the skies are getting darker.

I don’t know how every year, the fireworks get better and better. Maybe I just love fireworks, and how loud it is, the different colours, and the rumble you can feel in your chest. It almost seems magical. Can’t wait for next year’s fireworks display!

Goldstream Park, Coombs, and Parksville

Matt’s friend, Shane is leaving Victoria soon, so Matt and I decided to take him places he’s never been to! It was a long day, but it was tons of fun. Here’s what happened:

We started off at Goldstream Park where we showed him the waterfall – Niagara Falls. This is a cool area because from the parking lot, you have to cross underneath the highway via a tunnel. You follow the riverbed for a little bit, and then you’re greeted by a waterfall.

The riverbed and waterfall looked lonely, so we built an Inukshuk friend. Hopefully there will be more next time we go there.

Next we hiked up to the trestle. There’s Mt Finalyson! We didn’t have time to show him the top of it, but oh well…

We kept following the tracks, and we came across a second trestle.

And a tunnel.

We walked back to the car and started driving towards our second destination – Coombs. The next two pics are from random lookout points along the highway.

Coombs!! A big tourist trap, but they also have a lot of cool stuff here! Shops, markets… And random stuff.

Coombs is known for the goats on the roof. Yup… They just hang out on the roof of a building. Sometimes there’s a lot of them, and sometimes they’re all hiding. Can you find the goat??

One of my favourite things about Coombs is the market. They sell a lot of cool things from smoked salmon, cheese, and other foods from all over the world. It is also pretty expensive, but there’s a lot of unique foods and stuff you can get here.

Last stop was in Parksville. We went mini golfing! … Do I need to say more?

Butchart Gardens in June

Matt and I had annual passes to the Butchart Gardens. Throughout the year we kept saying “yeah! Let’s go to the gardens!” But we would either be really busy or we’d forget about it. Since our passes are nearing the expiry, we decided to finally go. Matt’s friend, Shane came along too. It was his first time at the gardens, and I think he had a good time!

The weather wasn’t the greatest, but it was great to us because:
a) cloudy days = great shooting conditions
b) not crazy busy

Here’s a shot from the lookout point in the middle of the gardens. It was awesome!

Some of the old equipment. The Butchart Gardens used to be a limestone quarry. It’s really hard to believe that it went from that to a beautiful garden.

Shane’s first carousel ride EVER. It was magical.

The venue where they have live concerts everyday during the summer.

What can I say? I love symmetry.

I also love reflection shots.

One of the few roses that are trying really hard to bloom. It’s still too early for 95% of the roses.

This next shot is near impossible to take on a nice day because usually it’d be filled with A LOT of people.

Japanese gardens!

Not sure what it is, but I really like this shot. Maybe because of the tree? The colours? I don’t know.

So here’s hoping I’ll be able to visit the gardens at night because that would be awesome! And maybe catch a fireworks show in the summer.

My Encounter with a Woolly Mammoth and a Grizzly Bear

When I was a kid, my folks took me to the Royal BC Museum in Victoria. I didn’t remember much of it except for the big wooly mammoth, a cool dome where you can stand across from each other and talk to each other and it’ll seem like they’re right beside you, and a few other animals on display. This past year, I went there a couple of times with friends, and on the Easter long weekend, I decided to go with my folks. As my mom said “we used to take you to the museum, and now you’re bigger, you’re taking us to the museum!” It was great spending time with them. There was a special exhibit there – The Wildlife Photographer of the Year which was closing on that Monday. I’ve heard great things about it, so I knew I had to go check it out. And since my dad loves photography, I thought he’d enjoy it as well.

We got to the exhibit and spent a good couple of hours looking at all the amazing photography on display. It was awesome! But unfortunately we weren’t allowed to take pictures in there. We caught an IMAX about building the railroad through the Rockies. Then afterwards, we strolled through the older part of the museum. I’m always amazed at how much stuff they have there – fake animals on display, totem poles, Native history, old Victoria history, etc. It’s pretty diverse so you could easily spend an entire day wandering around the place. So here’s some pictures of the museum!

The next picture is a HDR picture. I thought it’d be a great place to try it out because there’s lots of little details in the picture, and it’ll look like I had an encounter with a Grizzly bear! I’m really happy how well this one turned out.

14mm, ISO 400, F5

Is it weird how some of my childhood toys I used to play with now sits on display at a museum? What do you recognize here??

For more information about the museum and the current exhibits and IMAX movies that are on, check out the website here. It’s definitely worth checking out!