Island View Beach

I went with my friend Brenden to Island View Beach earlier this month.  He was looking for wind to go kite boarding, I was looking for an opportunity to use my camera.  The wind failed him, but it was one of those overcast days my photography teacher would have told us was the best for shooting.  We pulled out our cameras and started climbing around in an old skeleton of a shack.  

The old and the new

I finally got to point my camera at some pups again this weekend!  My friend Devin came by to visit today with his handsome little boy Keiser.  The last time I saw him he was about a third of the size he is now (Keiser that is, not Devin).

 You can see why I couldn't wait to post these shots.

I love his squishy face!  And he's such a chill puppy.

Although he did get a case of the zoomies when he met Rosie, my boyfriend's parent's dog. She's much older and wiser then little Keiser, and played for a little bit, but soon had to tell him to settle down.  Anyway the visit reminded me of this great shot I got of Rose the last time she was here in July.

And then I found this shot too.  It has nothing to do with the dogs except that I took this photo the same day as the one of Rose.

This moth and I came to an agreement.  If he sat there quietly and didn't flutter around, I wouldn't squish him.  In fact, he was so good, I finished getting ready (he was in the bathroom), photographed him, then opened the window and let him out, without incident.  It was a pretty rare encounter if you ask me.

Sandcut Creek

As promised, here are the images from Sandcut Beach.  It gets it's name from Sandcut Creek, a creek that cuts through sandstone, running out of the woods, and tumbling onto the beach.  It's a beautiful and secluded beach.  We only saw two other people while we were down there.  This is probably because the trail to the beach is unmarked, there is however, a small gravel pull off marking where to start for those who are looking for it.

Here is the creek, cutting these beautiful formations into the sandstone.  There was a man sitting and reading a book beside the creek when we arrived.  he told us that the creek is completely different every time he comes down here, but always beautiful.

The water as it tumbles over the edge of the stone to the beach below.

I love the compressed perspective on this one.  The Olympic mountains are hidden behind a fog bank that blends into the sky, making it look like you can see to the horizon, but maybe the horizon isn't really that far.

The creek was very yellow.

There were actually two sets of falls, but this is the one to the right.  The water forms a pool where it hits the beach, but then disappears below the rocks and sand instead of running into the ocean above ground.

Mo' Fog

As we passed through the town of Sooke, on our way up to Sandcut Beach (pictures to come), we saw this big fog bank sitting on the water. This led me to pull over, and we wandered down to find this beautiful little marina.

There were some pretty damaged docks. I wonder if that happened during some of those crazy wind storms in the winter.

When we got down there, we saw these two seals hanging out together, and soon realized it was a Mom and baby.

The white one is the baby, we realized this when Mom started doing this weird floating thing with just her nose sticking out of the water. Then we saw baby just under the water, by Mom's belly. She was feeding baby.

The baby was pretty curious about us.

There's the fog bank I mentioned.

The timing on this one was great, the gull in the background took off as I was snapping a photo of his friend.

I got a little closer to the dock, but I would have liked to get right up there. It was pretty warped.

Just out the front door

I just had a friend in town for a few days. It was pretty rainy for the first part of his visit, and he didn't believe that there was a "mountain" out the front of our house. So I took Justin out to Mount Doug for a walk, to prove that it was there.

As we walked through the trees, a fog rolled in above us. It got thicker and heavier as we stood there marveling at it. Fog never quite looks as good in photos as it does in person... but I still gave it a shot (pun intended?).

It's pretty amazing to have a rain-forest so close to your house!

Long Overdue Wedding Shots

I've been lucky to tag along as a second shooter for a couple of weddings this summer. Both photographers were kind enough to give me the files for my shots from the days. So I figured I should share a few of my favorites.

As a bridesmaid in my friend Amanda's wedding, I didn't have my camera on the day, but I brought it along when we set up the hall for the reception. Instead of a seating chart, Amanda made little chairs with all the guest's names on them, along with their table number.

It was cute and crafty.

Her centerpieces were home grown, and carefully maintained by her father (his trimming method involved a shop vac!).

I tagged along with Shane Deringer (<- link!) to shoot Natalie and Rob's wedding on Thetis Island. It was absolutely beautiful out there, and so was the wedding!

The groom and his men making their entrance.

These two couldn't stop gazing at each other, they were so happy, and you could feel the love.

Thanks Shane, I had a great day.

I spent the day second shooting for Lisa Louise at Lindsey and James' wedding at a private residence in Metchosin. Another beautiful day, in another beautiful location.

The rocky shore line, and coastal wind made for a very dramatic backdrop.

One of the beautiful bridesmaids.

Thanks for bringing me along Lisa.

No kidding we have fire warnings!

So my camera was feeling lonely today, so I decided to take him on an adventure. We visited the little park at the end of our street. It was awash with this golden wheat looking grass. So me and my 50mm lens got to work playing with it's amazing depth of field.

Sometimes we tend to focus too much on focus, and forget about the amazing things we can do with motion. Yes, you can capture motion with a still camera, and in my opinion, it can be pretty cool.

Yes?

I love the pastel colours created by these seed pods, and the bokeh behind them. Very "painterly" one might say.

The only down side of this beautiful little park, is that it was hopping with my nemeses.

I faced my fear to try and capture this guy (although it was at this point, my battery started to die... whoops).

The colour of these flowers always gets my attention.

I took a bike ride to the beach the other day. Just wanted to include Apollo here!