So little to so much

Long term readers know I keep track of which photos go in the blog. The idea is to not bore my readers with repeats, and it mostly works out. There's a folder that shows which photos have not been blogged in the last 3 months, and that's the usual source for blog photos. At the beginning of the year I was down to a few dozen photos. Right now there's 674 photos to choose from.

There was a bit of writer's block happening at the start of the year. Now I've got some AMA questions to work with. The window is closing on that, so if you're going to ask, send in that questions soon. Comment, text me, email me keith at nucleus dot com, whatever. Plus there's some vacation stuff to talk about.

So now the problem is how to organize all that material in a way that makes sense to me, and entertains you. Plus I'm looking at the paper strewn mess of my desk, thinking about how the various things need to be sorted into different piles. The current bills, and tax slips are merely the first of it. Plus I've got Ladyva doing epic piano boogie woogie in another window. So I'm a bit distracted.

Then again it's Sunday, and I don't have anything much on the agenda today. I'd mentally planned to be editing today, but I got through the vacation photos more quickly that I thought. I'm awaiting the 3 rolls of film back from the lab, and that will be another bout of digitizing and editing.

So vacation. We like the idea of going some place warmer during the endless Canadian winter. It's been New Zealand and Bermuda twice. Vancouver Island several times. But not USA or Mexico, which are popular warm destinations for lots of people. USA has all too many people that think nothing need be done about many episodes of children being shot in school. They don't deserve tourism dollars. Or any respect, for that matter. I don't even want to transit USA, which I admit limits my travel choices.

Mexico is a more complicated choice. Lots of my friends have been to Mexico, and many of them love it. I've been tempted a few times. Some friends have become ill during or after the trip, and thats so common there's a whole bunch of related slang phrases. I don't like getting sick, and worrying about what's in the water that washed the food is more thinking than I really want to do. Plus I don't speak Spanish. Resort life doesn't really appeal to us. 

We still think COVID is not totally done with us, and there is still a possibility of futher travel restrictions. Or weather, that's getting more unpredictable, leading to flight changes. I just read about some people that spent more than 16 hours on an airplane to go from Auckland to Auckand. Yes, in New Zealand. Had we gone to New Zealand again this year, like we thought about, we'd have been in that terrible cyclone, since the north part of the north island is where we wanted to go. That might have been bad. 

So we picked a spot on Vancouver Island we hadn't been to, that might have warm(er) weather than here. We ended up staying just outside of Sooke, and explored the coastline up to Port Renfrew. Mostly the weather was as expected, cool and damp. We pretty much wore a sweater under a rain layer and were fine. Liquid water is nice.

I'm not going to give you 400 vacation photos. Many are driftwood, and I know there is a limited audience for that. But there's other stuff as well, so I'll pick and choose some highlights, sort of like what I did here, the other day. Maybe tell a bit of a story.

1. Linda posing, happy to be out of the snow, surround by green. Much of the time she was off ahead of me receding into the distance.

2. A beach scene. Sand is nice, but I don't mind the rocks, and love the sound of the waves.

3. The first serendipity, a coffee roaster from a 2021 photo session.

4. I laughed out loud when I saw this. Someone carefully arranged the shells. Look at the right-most one more carefully.

5. Another serendipity of the coffee roaster.

6. The green! One of the things I wanted to do was walk through green forests. That happened, and there will probably be a blog featuring that.

7. Yet another serendipity. This actually looks a bit over baked to me now, but it's from early on, while I was still experimenting. When I asked a trusted buddy if I had overdone it she said, "I want a print." I have a test print of it on the fridge where it has faded quite a bit.

8. A tree on Whiffen Spit. It's a popular walking trail in Sooke. It was full of people that made it difficult to get some of the photos that mostly appealed to me. By that I mean I'd have taken the photo to see what it looks like after editing, but wasn't so pumped about it that I'd wait for people to move (I might still be waiting) or to go through the work to find another composition. But the light was nice on this tree, and nobody was around. And when I say light on the tree was nice, as foreshadowing, there will be a blog with stunning light on the trees coming soon. Stay tuned.

9. Part of the Sooke Potholes park. I had great light. More of this coming later as well.

10. I'm always looking for reflection photos.

11. One huge advantage BC has over New Zealand for driftwood is that it's often wet from rain. This brings out the colour and textures much better than dry wood baking in the blazing sun. There was a shininess to it that needs careful editing. Yes, it makes the wood slippery, which makes crossing driftwood log bridges tricky.

12. This exactly such a driftwood bridge.

13. Slippery logs, and me not wanting to get my feet wet if I could avoid it, carrying expensive camera gear. I could easily picture my feet slipping between the logs and me falling to one side causing grievous damage to my legs. A bit later on I got wet feet working on composition for a waterfall photo, so on the way back I just waded through the knee deep stream.

14. Always on the lookout for temporary art.

Of the Day

Driftwood (NZ) (There's still several hundred in the pipeline.)

Driftwood (BC)

Peony

Film (new)

Sean working the scene at Big Hill Springs park.

Film (old)

Linda, Nefertitti, and Amelia.