On a walk to from the Inner Harbour around the winding pathway following the seacoast to the Seawall I came upon an interesting tree.  From some perhaps it would evoke a memory of Twisted Sister, but not for me.

Instead it reminded me of a friend from days past.  Quite a few days past.  It kind of goes like this, well it does go like this:

My Friend

Standing naked before me
Gently waiving as if in greeting
Arms reaching toward the heavens
Soaring upward yet grounded are thee

To find more about my friend go here to My Friend. You may ask what it was that evoked this memory.  Well it was this tree:

You likely know you can click on the image to make it bigger then come back using the back button.  This was originally inspired by a tree in St Vital Park, Winnipeg, Manitoba. Trees, even the twisted ones, have a lot of character and many live longer than we humans.  They are strong survivors and thrive in all kinds of inhospitable environments.

Down by the seawall the tide was out and I was able to take some closer pictures down the side.   I found this to be another interesting sight.

There are more photos which I may post on another day.

Enjoy your day!

Cheers,

Gene

I have always had an interest in photography, of sorts.  Yet I had not taken up the hobby.  I recall in high school there was a fellow student who went around taking all kinds of pictures and even had a dark room at home to process the photographs.  His parents moved around a great deal so he was getting to see the world and play with his hobby and no doubt made it into a profession.  I did manage to get to see the dark room with photographs hanging all over the place but that is as far as it got.

Later on in my adult life at times I thought about taking some courses in photography but being a busy father with 3 children and having a demanding career, taking business courses and doing other things on the side, I never got around to doing anything about this interest that I had.

As for my interest, I suppose being male and as some would label me to have a tendency to be somewhat visual, but certainly not exclusively so, this may make some sense.  I certainly did not have a great appreciation for artistic things, although some paintings do appeal to me and also some things of a feminine nature would catch my eye at times! For sure, that I cannot deny.

In any case, late last year in 2008,  I bought a point and shoot, Fujifilm digital camera .  Not that model.  Hey maybe I will upgrade one day.

It turned out to be a real point and shoot experience.  I took a trip to downtown Victoria, BC , Canada, where I currently reside.  Victoria is situated on an island, Vancouver Island, quite close to Vancouver, BC.  The reason I say a real point and shoot experience is that it was a bright sunny October day and I could not see anything in the camera viewfinder.  So I was really just sort of aiming at what I wanted to take a picture of and pointing and shooting in that direction.

This seemed a bit strange, having not used the camera before and never a digital camera at that.  I was a bit exasperated at first, then became resigned to the fact that this was just the way it was. I just accepted the situation.  Like reading the book, Practicing The Power Of Now – Eckhart Tolle, as seen on Oprah, as Eckhart Tolle would likely suggest doing.  So I proceeded to take the pictures with the belief that they would, somehow, turn out fine.  And if they did not, so be it.  I certainly did not know how to use the various shooting modes and I still don’t.

I showed some of the photos to a few folks and got some positive feedback. I attribute it to the camera, the guy in the sky or whatever else may be lurking behind the camera lenses and helping me shoot.  I can see more now as I found a way to adjust the light inside for the viewfinder.

So that is where I am now, just dabbling a bit, taking some photos and enjoying doing so.  I have put together a pictorial video of some photos I took in downtown Victoria near the inner harbour, the Empress Hotel and the seawall.

****I have removed the video, please use the link below to view it instead.****

I will likely keep doing this for awhile.

Cheers,

genes creative waves

PS. I have also posted the video at  4Shared for a full screen version,  and may take the above one off if it keeps loading slowly or I just may choose to do so.