Hi Folks:
We thought we’d do a themed post for May’s images. Although Marcia is mostly renowned for her flower photography, she does in fact shoot a wide variety of other work as well! As we’re both big fans of clouds and cloud watching, we thought we’d use clouds as the basis for our photos of the month. Marcia’s first.
Hi Folks:
For Mother’s Day this year we traveled up to the Okanagan to celebrate with Mike’s Mom. We had two days together so we got to treat her to two different places!
Hi Folks:
Eek! Already mid-May and we haven’t done a Photo of the Month post for April yet! Just so much happening in this town… At the end of April we had the opportunity to go out to Finnerty Gardens at the University of Victoria and wander around for a couple of hours. We had a great time. There’s one place in the gardens where four saplings have grown together, and where the stems join they form a perfect bowl. Victoria’s spring rains filled the bowl with water, and falling camellia flowers completed the scene. Here’s Marcia’s image!
Okay, that’s it for now. Go out and make some photographs!
Hugs,
M&M
Hi Folks:
Last Saturday was our fourth Free Hugs session for 2017, and it also marked a number of firsts! Our usual procedure is to arrive at the Homecoming Memorial, doff extraneous gear, coats, etc, retrieve our Free Hugs posters from their tube, then Marcia assumes her (most glorious) hugging position while Mike makes a few images. That done we wait for the first huggers to arrive. The intervening time has ranged up to several minutes, but in our last few sessions we’ve broken records for the time it takes for our first hugger. At our last session we had someone stop within seconds of getting ready, and we joked that the only way to beat that would be for someone to show up before we were ready. Well, it happened! Not only did we have our first hugger arrive before Mike had a chance to make any photographs, we had someone waiting in the wings so to speak as well! After that surprise we joked that the only way to beat that record would be for people to be there waiting for us before we arrived!!
Continue Reading →
Hi Folks:
Last week marked the 8th annual Victorious Voices Festival here in Victoria! We missed the first two years, but we’ve been stalwart supporters of the event ever since. If you want to read our previous posts on this amazing creative blending of people and talents, you can find them here. Back in 2013 Mike wrote his first (and so far, only) slam poetry piece in honour of the courage of the many young people who perform during this event. If you’re interested, you can find that here. Continue Reading →
Hi Folks:
Hoppy Easter Hugs, 2017
Saturday of this past weekend was the second chance we had to go out hugging this year, and the weather was perfect – both for those out and about enjoying the day and for us! We were out for about 2½ hours and hugged people from an additional 5 countries! So far this year we’ve met hugging ambassadors from 15 countries – 56 countries in total over the 8 eight years we’ve been doing this. In addition to the hugs we continue to appreciate the smiles, the waves, bicycle bells, car beeps… even the neighs of the carriage horses! And this past Saturday another first, as one man came running forward, arms wide, and jumped up into Mike’s embrace, allowing himself to be spun around and around!! We do so love our hugging sessions. Continue Reading →
Hi Folks:
As two fools for spring (and pretty much everything else), we thought it was appropriate we hold our first Free Hugs session on April 1. Truth be told, we had hoped to be out earlier but had to wait on the weather…we certainly had a perfect day for it!!
This is our eighth year of hugging Victorians (and others). Yesterday we hugged people from 10 countries; so far we’ve hugged people from 56 countries (that we know of). Every hug is unique and special, and we appreciate the stories from those who stop to share. We also wanted to offer a shout out to our first huggers of the day (who arrived within 10 seconds of our unrolling the posters), the mass of hugs we received from the group touring from China, the little boy who is a self-professed hugger, the dog hugs (and face lick), the honks and waves from passing motorists and the carriage drivers, our favourite pedicab driver, the air hugs from across the street (and those who crossed the street to get hugs), the cyclists who stopped for hugs, and the best compliment of the day, from the man who said, “Thanks for helping to tear down the walls between us.” It all meant a lot.
Last year was our biggest hugging year ever. We’ll do our best to top it this year! So if you’re over by the Homecoming Statue at Ship Point and you see us there, stop by for a chat, a wave, a handshake and even a hug! Or two… 🙂
Hugs,
M&M
P.S. (to Stephanie, good luck with your thesis!!)
Group Hug
Hi Folks:
One of the things we love about Victoria is that there are always so many things to do (we have to choose from at least eight events that we know of for this Saturday). In February we like to participate in ‘Be A Tourist in Your Own Hometown‘, and as part of that we invested several hours at the world-famous Butchart Gardens. We even got shuttled there in CVS Tours‘ EV550 electric bus!
February was also bitterly cold (We had snow! In February!!) but being the brave pioneers that we are, we soldiered on. Because of the cold the flowers this year are severely retarded, but we had a wonderful time. There wasn’t as much colour, but still lots to see.
So, Marcia’s image first. In addition to the gardens, Butchart also has an inside floral display, which was packed full with orchids and so many different species of flowers of all shapes and sizes. There was our colour! Amidst the hustle and bustle of all of that beauty she found this quiet point of reflection:
Overflowing With Beauty
NB: Mike suggested several other (and equally fascinating) titles, like ‘One Good Urn Deserves Another’, ‘Taking an Urn for the Better’ and ‘Urn, Baby, Urn… Disco Inferno’ but she rejected them all in favour of her own idea (heavy sigh).
Since Marcia’s image was all about stillness, Mike’s was all about movement. Within the gardens there’s a building that houses an old-fashioned carnival merry-go-round. The children (and adults) riding on it had a lot of fun. Unfortunately there’s no way to capture the squeals and giggles in a still image but they’re there nonetheless.
Trans-Dimensional Fun
Okay. That’s it for today. Now go out and make some photographs!
Hugs,
M&M
Hi Folks:
January was somewhat of a month of recuperation for us, and as such we didn’t make a lot of images. We did get out some, however! As always, Marcia’s image is first. This is a close-up image of some frost (uncommon for Victoria) on the glass of a bus shelter. Marcia loves her flower photography and although we did have flowers blooming in January, today we’re presenting some ‘frost flowers’ instead.
Frost Flowers
This second image is Mike’s and shows the reflection of a Garry oak tree in a tidal pool in Victoria’s inner harbour. In more ways than one, the branching patterns are ‘returning to the sea’.
Returning to the Sea
Both images were made with our phones, and both were pushed around a bit in Lightroom.
Okay, that’s it for today. Now go out and make some photographs!!
Hugs,
M&M
