Photo of the Month – June

Posted on July 13, 2015 by Mike Nelson Pedde — 4 Comments ↓

Hi Folks:

June was a busy month for us (and images will show up here eventually!), but the highlight was seeing our younger son get married, in a quiet garden set in a beautiful landscape. The bride and groom were the center of the day, but I did manage to stop Grandy and grandsons (his nephews) for long enough to make this portrait with the cell phone.

Grandy and Grandsons

She’s more beautiful in person; you’ll just have to take my word for it. Remember, if you can’t be with the one you love, hug the one you’re with!

Okay, that’s it for now. Go out and make some photographs!

Hugs,
M&M

P.S. Okay… one more. It was their day, after all!

Bride and Groom… and Nephews!

Photo of the Month – March

Posted on April 10, 2015 by Mike Nelson Pedde — Leave a reply

Hi Folks: March was a pretty busy month for us, creatively, and in more ways than one! More details on that in an upcoming blog post. Between the two of us we made over 750 images in March. To some that’s not a lot, but to someone who still thinks in 36-exposure (and 12-exposure) rolls, it’s quite a bit. Mike’s Fuji camera died in February, so in the moment we’re both using our cell phone cameras and Marcia’s little Olympus point and shoot camera.

We selected two images for the photo of the month – one from each of us. On the left is an image of one of Victoria’s cherry trees in full bloom, made by Marcia. Our cherry and plum blossoms usually start in late January or early February, and there are still a few varieties in bloom now. It’s a wonderful treat every year. On the right is an abstract image of sorts made in nearby Beacon Hill Park. Mike captured this because it was the patterns of the leaves that caught his interest.

Cherry Blossoms – photo by Marcia

Leaf Patterns – photo by Mike

Okay, that’s it for March. Now go out and make some photographs!

Hugs,
M&M

Photo of the Month – Telling Stories

Posted on March 5, 2015 by Mike Nelson Pedde — Leave a reply

Hi Folks:

As a creative challenge our local photography group undertook the following:

“Make photos of a place where something has happened. Then, in one or two sentences, tell us what happened there (even if it only happened in your imagination).

Go to places and pay attention. What does it feel like there? How is the energy? What kind of thing may have happened in that place?

Take the photo, post it, and in the caption, write one or two sentences that tells the viewer what happened.”

The image below was one of ours. You can see the rest here.

WANTED: One Girl. Toddler-size. Must believe in fairies and love sparkles and dancing. Lackadaisical approach to footwear a bonus. Special consideration given to those with matching shoe. No experience required.

Okay, that’s it. Now go out and make some photographs!!

Hugs,
M&M

Soon to be History: A Collaboration

Posted on February 11, 2015 by Mike Nelson Pedde — Leave a reply

Hi Folks:

In the James Bay neighbourhood of Victoria, just behind the Legislative buildings, is a roughly six-acre site that is partly parking lot and partly occupied by a combination of heritage houses and unused/underutilized mid-century modern steel office buildings. On the southwest corner is the Michigan Street Community Garden, an icon in the community since 1999.

The landscape of this area, bordered by Menzies, Superior, Government and Michigan Streets will soon be changing dramatically with the beginning of the Capital Park Victoria project. Two of the heritage houses will remain on their existing sites, three others will be moved to new locations on site and the building containing the Queen’s Printer will remain. The rest will be replaced by a mix of business and residential units, courtyards and pedestrian walkways. The developers are seeking LEED Gold or better in all new construction, and hopefully the builders will do their best to reuse/recycle as much of the existing material as possible. Continue Reading →

Photo of the Month – December

Posted on January 11, 2015 by Mike Nelson Pedde — 2 Comments ↓

Hi Folks:

The subtitle for this post should be ‘The Evolution of G.L.I.T.T.E.R.’ She’s our Christmas tree and has been for the past six years. You can read more about GLITTER, FREIDRICH, FREDERICA, FREDDY and FRED here if you like: Being Green – Celebrating the Holidays.

GLITTER was a little sprout of a thing when we first brought her home, but she’s certainly spread her branches since then, as you can see here (NB: we were away for Christmas in 2013 and so GLITTER didn’t get decorated). That’s the same salt crystal lamp, so you can use it to gauge her growth. With her pot on the floor she comes up to about waist height on Mike, a little higher on Marcia. No need to cut a hole in the ceiling (yet), but she is heading in FRED’s direction. Continue Reading →

Photo of the Month – November

Posted on December 9, 2014 by Mike Nelson Pedde — 4 Comments ↓

Hi Folks:

We’ve been working on our 2015 photo calendar templates here at Chez M&M and they’re almost ready, but we wanted to take a short break to include our favourite image(s) for November. It came down to two and we couldn’t decide, so we uploaded them both. As with October’s Photo of the Month post, we’re using the NextGen gallery plugin to display them. Both images were captured with our (Samsung Galaxy S4) cell phones. The one is an image Marcia captured in Beacon Hill Park on her morning ‘commute’. It was a perfect morning, and very little Lightroom work has been done with this image. The second image is of ‘someone’ we pass often. It’s an example of pareidolia (with thanks to Wikipedia – do remember to support them!) but the wisdom in that ancient eye is unmistakable.

[Show thumbnails]

Okay, that’s it. Now go out and make some photographs!

Hugs,
M&M

Photo of the Month – October in Florida

Posted on November 4, 2014 by Mike Nelson Pedde — 4 Comments ↓

Hi Folks:

We have more than one image for our photo of the month for October, for two reasons. First and foremost, Marcia was able to join her dad and her siblings in Florida, an event that has been a long time in coming. Second, we’re experimenting with using the NextGEN gallery plugin as a way of showcasing images on our blog. This is our first attempt, so be gentle!

Continue Reading →

Photo of the Month – September

Posted on October 10, 2014 by Mike Nelson Pedde — Leave a reply

Hi Folks:

It took a while to pick a photo of the month for September as both Marcia and I did some interesting work last month. I finally decided on the following image, which I call ‘Ascension’. It’s actually a bunch of sea oats I came across, but I used the mirror function on one of my cell phone apps to create the base image, then pushed it around a little bit in Lightroom. I trust you enjoy it too!

Now go out and make some pictures!

Hugs,
M&M

Ascension

Photo of the Month – August

Posted on September 3, 2014 by Mike Nelson Pedde — Leave a reply

Hi Folks:

Summer in this City of Gardens means flowers – with their myriad of colours, shapes, sizes and scents – so it’s fitting that our photo of the month for August should be a flower. This one was captured by Marcia with her cell phone, then pushed around a bit in Lightroom. The backlighting through the petals provides the perfect highlight to the blooms. The flowers will mostly be gone in another couple of months and we won’t see cherry blossoms, hellebores and winter rhododendrons until January or February, so it’s best to appreciate them while we can!

Okay, that’s it. Now go out and make some photographs!

Hugs,
M&M

Dahlia

Photo of the Month – Ancient Forest

Posted on August 6, 2014 by Mike Nelson Pedde — 2 Comments ↓

Hi Folks:

At the end of July we did a two-day trip around the south end of the island, visiting places as various as the Sooke Potholes Regional Park, Fairy Lake, Cowichan Bay, Rathtrevor Beach Provincial Park and the Coombs Country Market. Our favourite place on this visit was Lower Avatar Grove, near Port Renfrew. We arrived just before dusk and didn’t have a lot of time or good light for photographs, but we did have the area to ourselves so we could drink in the quiet. Well, not quite to ourselves… there were the ancients and a passing red squirrel sharing the space with us. Few of the images from that trip have yet been processed, but this one will give you an idea of the place. Continue Reading →