Approximately a week ago, I attended the Johnson Street Festival in Victoria.

It was a very fun and interesting fashion event, where local businesses on the 500-600 block of Johnson street showcased their best items. As I walked from store to store, all I could think about was how much I would like to stop at every store and buy every single item that was my size.

However, when I didn’t have my eyes set on the beautiful garments, accessories, and shoes that were displayed outside of every boutique, I was busy taking photos of people, places and clothing.

As far as photography goes, this event was a great experience for me to test my photo skills. Ian of IMS Photographic lent me one of his cameras,Nikon D200 10.2MP Digital SLR and Nikon 50mm f/1.8D AF Nikkor Lens and showed me how to use it. The reason he lent me the small and light lens is because it is much easier to handle it when going on the bus and walking around (No way you could find a decent parking spot in Victoria on a VERY busy festive Saturday).

I really challenged myself as a newer photographer by setting the camera to “M” and gradually adjusting the settings of the camera to fit the lighting situation. Although the weather was beautiful and sunny, it was not the best lighting scenario for photography. As soon as I thought I had the settings correct, the lighting changed on me, and I had to change the f stop, shutter speed, and exposure compensation to match it. I’m not complaining in any way though, since I like a challenge, especially when it has to do with photography. 🙂

Above: Photos of Miss Hiccup of the Fringe Festival. Miss Hiccup is looking pretty awesome with all the flowers…nice and colourful!

Above: These guys are pretty cool. They are coffee shop owners and they love what they do. It was great to see.

Above: These girls are dressed like princesses and they look gorgeous! I wish I was able to get a better shot.

Above: This dude has got some skills! Awesome! It was very hard to catch him as he was moving. He kept on going in and out of the frame…and I missed the part where he did a back flip. I had to have the shutter speed fairly high to catch his movement.

Above images: The crowds were gathered everywhere for various reasons. Some came to see the skateboarders, others came to watch people doing yoga, some were fond of the dunk tank, and still many others came to see the dancers pulling off some wicked moves.

Above: Who wouldn’t want to see a beautiful young lady dancing?

Above Images: Only a very small fraction of all the awesome clothing items that were displayed by the boutique owners.

Above: Waiting and relaxing.

Above: This gentleman is about to point his camera and take a photo. I was hoping to get a photo of him taking a photo…haha

Above: Yes, he was a gentleman, and his face has character.

Above: These guys are in a contest with Virgin Mobile to win free rent for a year. Help support Victoria Youth. Please click here to show your support by voting for them.

Above: The colour orange suits her. It’s bright, it’s awesome, and so I took a photo. 🙂

Above: Probably the youngest skateboarder in the group that was performing. Look at the concentration and the focus involved as he is about to go up the other side of the ramp. I just had to get this shot!

Above: Hulahoop girl…looking awesome!

Above: Great face!

Above: Gotta love that camera. It was great seeing people taking photos all over the place.

Above: These girls were serving awesome tea and handing out coupons.

Above: Shot inside a boutique. Lots of beautiful stuff in there that I couldn’t take photos of.

While I was walking around from store to store, I met a few boutique owners that will probably be doing interviews which I will be featuring here.

By the end of the day, my feet were aching from all the walking. As I walked up Douglas Street and headed towards home, I witnessed a thoughtless driver turning the wrong way onto Pandora Ave (a one-way street). Luckily, no one got hurt…

Thank you,
Aviva

The other day, I decided to go for a walk downtown Victoria, to see if I can find any interesting people to photograph. Unfortunately, the lighting wasn’t the greatest, and the camera that I was using is only good for snapshot quality images. However, a heavy professional camera would have been impractical for the day, as I was shopping, and walking around in the scorching heat.

I was walking up Government street, and right as I was about to turn onto Johnson Street to go check out some of the local boutiques, I spotted a beautifully dressed tourist, and I approached her.

She was from Santa Barbara, and was on vacation in Victoria (good choice!). She stated that her colourful dress was Italian, and that instead of paying $350 for it, she paid $80. Additionally, her beautiful Mariano Orlandi purse only cost her $200 as opposed to $600. She got her stunning high heel shoes at Nine West. Nine West, from what I’ve seen, often have deals on shoes. 🙂

Above: Tourist from Santa Barbara.

The next image was taken as I was walking down Douglas Street on the same day.
The girl had just walking out of a cafe, and I took a quick snap of her because I liked the colourful dress that she was wearing.
Below: Local girl walking down the street.

Both ladies were flattered to be approached for a photo.
I am definitely hoping to get out more often, and photograph more people, wearing clothes that I like. 🙂

Cheers,
Aviva