photographs by daniel ferguson

city vibes

eikonos@gmail.com (daniel) — Mon, 6 Jul 2009 10:00:00 -0500

city vibes

I took this picture with my little G9 camera. It actually has more megapixels than my SLR, but the big difference between SLR and compact cameras is the speed of autofocus on SLR is way faster, reducing shutter lag. Also manual focus on an SLR is so much easier because of the focus ring on lenses. For this shot, I struggled to get the G9's autofocus on the bee instead of the background. I couldn't use manual focus mode because it's buried in a menu somewhere and the bee would have flown away by the time I found it. With an SLR, I'd flip the autofocus switch on the lens, and use the manual focus ring.

feeding the gull

eikonos@gmail.com (daniel) — Fri, 3 Jul 2009 10:00:00 -0500

feeding the gull

farthest distance

eikonos@gmail.com (daniel) — Wed, 1 Jul 2009 10:00:00 -0500

farthest distance

tunnel

eikonos@gmail.com (daniel) — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 10:00:00 -0500

tunnel

Years ago I had a fantastic idea for a novel. Something like an Iain Banks version of One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest. It was to be entitled Abillusia which is a word I made up meaning "without illusions". The story is set in a crowded, heavily built-up place like Hong Kong's Kowloon Walled City with tunnels such as this woven through the accreted honeycomb of buildings -- the kind of city William Gibson and William S Burroughs would write about if they had collaborated. It's a crazy idea and I haven't even described the characters yet. One of these days I'll get around to writing it.

this is an ugly photograph

eikonos@gmail.com (daniel) — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 10:00:00 -0500

this is an ugly photograph

I emailed a city councillor a few months ago about parking lots on the waterfront and received a good response agreeing that parking lots are not a good use of prime waterfront land. I'm not sure whether the city or provincial governments owns this particular waterfront parking lot, but I am sure that the cars and trucks parked here do not enjoy the view of the harbour nearly as much as I do. If you're not familiar with Victoria, the actual harbour is out the right side of this picture behind the trucks. There's a walkway around the harbour where a lot of tourists congregate, but strangely they seem to avoid this bleak paved expanse of asphalt. This space would be much better as a patio for a restaurant or coffee shop where people, not trucks, could sit and enjoy the view while sipping cold drinks on hot days and hot drinks on cold days. Unfortunately though, Canada is a car-centric, anti-social place.

empress reflected

eikonos@gmail.com (daniel) — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 18:39:44 -0500

empress reflected

A shot of the Empress Hotel taken from the docks in the Inner Harbour. I'm a huge fan of good architecture and I really like the style of this hotel. It was built between 1904 and 1908 and renovated a couple of times since then. I'm glad they didn't try to modernize it because modern architecture is crap -- no sense of style and no attention given to real function either.

udaipur

eikonos@gmail.com (daniel) — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 10:00:00 -0500

udaipur

People bathing, washing and resting at a ghat in Udaipur across the water from City Palace.

pushkar

eikonos@gmail.com (daniel) — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 10:00:00 -0500

pushkar

Camels resting in Puskar, with Savitri Temple in the background.

camel wranglers

eikonos@gmail.com (daniel) — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 13:17:17 -0500

camel wranglers

Here's a photo of camels in Pushkar from last year's trip to India.

daffodil in the sun

eikonos@gmail.com (daniel) — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 10:00:00 -0500

daffodil in the sun

Part of what makes the daffodils magical to me is they're only around for a short while before they vanish until the next year. Here's a shot I took earlier this year of the low-in-the-sky Spring sun through a daffodil.