Where It All Started
BC - Victoria, Oak Bay, Unwinding, Memory, Influences, First Camera
Note: resent because not all originals were sent
Oak Bay
Ottavio’s Italian Bakery
Before I left Nova Scotia, Ray and Francoise gave me a generous gift certificate to their favourite cafe on the island, Ottavio’s Italian Bakery. I am still enjoyed free coffees there years later.
Besides coffee and sandwiches, Ottavio’s has an extraordinary selection of cheeses, a host of fresh breads, and a wall of canned and potted meats and condiments.
A selection of sandwiches, pastries, and gelato to fit your appetite.
The sun drenched deck is a comfortable place to sit on even the coldest of mornings.
Oak Bay Shoreline
At the end of Oak Bay Avenue this walkway leads to Haynes Park on shore.
I met David, a fellow photographer, and we walked along the shoreline. We talked photography as we captured images along the way. The recent storms tossed several dinghies onto the rocks. On a clear day you can see Mount Baker in the distance.
The Unwinding
For the past year I have sent notecards from the Unwinding Collection of watercolour prints to dear friends. Wandering through Ivy’s Books in Okay I found the companion book to the cards. The Unwinding and other dreaming is a collection of fourteen stories that are an apothecary for your imagination.
A Cherished Memory…
We all have places that changed our lives forever, some traumatic and others treasured.
Early Influences
Saw these early influences in Bastion Books. When I was young I spent hours studying the photographs in these and other books.
Some of the photographs are seared in my memory. Their influence has seeped into my own photography. We all stand the the shoulders of those that came before us.
First Camera Ever
I begged Dad as early as I can remember to buy me a camera. The house was full of photography books, and I sat for hours flipping through the pages mesmerised by the images.
Before Dad gave me my first real camera he bought me a Kodak Instamatic 104, in 1965, for Christmas. I was eight years old, I think he wanted to see if I was serious or not.
We celebrated an early Christmas in Virginia and drove the next day to Grandmother’s home in Staten Island, NY. I still remember reading the instruction manual in the back seat of the VW with my sister on the other side playing with her new doll and my baby brother sleeping in the alcove under the rear window behind the rear seat. I was taking photos through the window.
I used up both of my new Kodacolor-X film cartridges before we got to New York. I asked Dad to stop and buy me some more, he didn’t.
First Lesson in Photography: don’t waste film.
Luckily Santa left me more film cartridges under the tree at Grandmother’s. I was more discerning and slipped around the crowded room on Christmas Day taking candid photos of everyone.
The camera had the new Magicube flash which gave me four shots and rotated automatically. After returning home and having the film processed, Dad complemented my compositions and my photographic education continued.
“Keep the sun at your side or back to better light your subject and avoid using flash. Fill the frame. Remember the Rule of Thirds. Avoid placing the horizon in the centre of the image. Look for odd numbered groupings. Include a range from absolute black to pure white in each photo (his first mention of the zone system).”
And so much more. A few years later he gave me the Leica M3 and I began processing my own negatives and printing them. I was hooked.
What I am Reading and Watching…
Morris, Jackie (2020) The Unwinding and other dreamings - watercolour painting illustrate fourteen stories, an apothecary of the imagination.
Disclaimer - Cate Blanchett & Kevin Kline in an Alfonso Cuarón film about vengeance and regret
Gladiator II - Epic production and design sequel.
Small Things Like These - starring Cillian Murphy in adaptation of Claire Keegan’s novella. (Victoria Film Festival)
Sword of Vengeance - “Vengeance is the driving force behind a shadow walker's return to Norman conquered Saxon lands after the Battle of Hastings and a brutal repression of its people by a cruel lord.”
Next post (every Sunday)
I really love that picture of the path at the Oak Bay shoreline.
Also, what did you think of gladiator 2? I loved the first movie and am anxiously excited for the second one (if that's a thing)
I, like most of the world, had that same little kodak instamatic with the flash cube. It banged around in my backpack and took pictures of Paris, Marseille, the Alps, Geneva, and Zermatt the September after high school graduation. When I was back in the Adirondacks showing my mother the pictures, she liked many of them but picked one and said, "Where was this? I really like this one." It was a picture I took across the hay fields in Vermont looking across Lake Champlain at the Adirondacks!