Songhees Point at Night

Last week I posted some views from Songhees Point during the daytime. Here's a shot taken a few nights ago from Songhees Point looking across the harbor towards the Legislative Assembly Buildings. This photo is a bit of a tribute to technology since it is a hand held shot - Look Ma, no tripod! The technology here is in my camera. On the "Hand Held Twilight" setting it shoots at high ISO (6400 in the photo above) which enables a relatively fast shutter speed (1/80 second in this case). High ISO like this usually results in a photo with lots of noise (noise in a photo is like television "snow" or static, random pixels of odd colors). My Sony deals with this by shooting 5 exposures in rapid succession and cancelling out the noise by merging them all. The end result is the photo above. The five exposures are automatic and very fast to minimize blurring due to movement (this camera will take 10 frames a second so 5 exposures take about a half second). It can take multiple exposures at this speed thanks to translucent mirror technology. Unlike normal single lens reflex cameras the mirror does not need to flip up when the shutter is opened because it is translucent (not transparent but clear enough to allow light to pass through). Since it does not need to wait for the mirror to flip up and down between shots, the shutter can open and close much faster.

Night Lights

The Westsong Walkway is beautiful during the daytime but it's magical at night too and part of the magic is these lovely ball lamps that light it. They're probably not the most efficient lighting available but they've certainly got style.

Winter Light

The sun goes down so early now, that our afternoon walk turned into an evening walk, but this makes for lovely light. - Fern Long

Poutine

This is poutine. It's a national favorite, which originated in Quebec. How can you go wrong with french fries loaded with fresh cheese curds (tasting somewhat like mozzarella) and a gravy sauce? We had ours at a little place in Esquimalt called La Belle Patate and it really feels like a little slice of Quebec. - Fern

Elk Lake Autumn

As Fern mentioned a few days ago, the autumn leaf colors this year have been especially brilliant although the leaves are rapidly falling this last week since we've been having hard frosts in the mornings. Here is what they looked like yesterday at Elk Lake in Saanich. This is another example of a lovely little chunk of wilderness within 20 minutes drive of downtown Victoria. It looks so pastoral it's hard to believe that Highway 17 is just behind the trees on the right hand side of the photo.

More Victoria Icons

Yesterday's view from Songhees Point was taken facing west. Today's photo is taken from the same point facing east. It's kind of a junky grab-bag kitchen sink photo but I like it because so many of Victoria's icons are visible - the Johnson Street Bridge in its permanent half up position, totem poles, the ubiquitous seagull front and center, Swans Hotel, the harbour and a few boats.

Westsong Walkway

Songhees Point is a good place to get an overview of Victoria because you can see many of the city's features simply by looking in another direction. Today's photo was taken from the same point as yesterday's but here we are looking west down the outer harbour. That's the start of the Westsong Walkway on the right. When it enters Esquimalt it becomes the West Bay Walkway and in the far distance on the left can be seen the houseboats and sailboats of Sailor's Cove and West Bay Marina.