by back from Victoria
All has been quiet on this blog while we were away visiting family and friends in Victoria. We had a late mini-Christmas with our daughter’s family. We caught up with their happy fat chickens and growing kittens which were keeping them close to home. One day we took the granddaughters to Miniature World which we all enjoyed very much and wondered why we had never visited it before in the many trips over many decades that we’ve made to Victoria, even when our own children were young. The grandgirls took numerous photos, as I did (but lost mine, more on that later).
We also had a nice visit with our dear friends. While the guys were out for a cycle tour, Elaine and I enjoyed a truly stunning exhibition of wildlife photography at the Royal BC Museum. No photos allowed here.
Our trip home on the evening ferry was accompanied by frequent toots of the foghorn, ever increasing as we neared the mainland. We could have used that foghorn on our foggy drive home. It was a good trip but it’s always great to be home again.
Regarding photos… I took many around our family’s home, of the lovely low fog movements over the lake, interesting details in the garden, the chickens, and many many at Miniature World. My little old camera was often acting a bit wonky. Once home I was unable to download them using two different cardreaders. There also seemed to be issues with the photo program so I tried another computer. In the end after all the fiddling I lost the photos, probably by removing the reader improperly! That’s a first. My computer and software are ageing, updates are leaving it behind, sigh. We have some work to do there. Naturally I’m disappointed at the loss of photo material ideal for the blog. So, since I do like to illustrate my posts, I’ve chosen the above image from the archives.
January 10, 2015 in Canada and BC, Neat stuff, Photography by Marja-Leena
I am sad that you have lost the photos of your family and their animals. It sounds a fun visit. The photo above is lovely – I love the layering of focus you have captured in the raindrops.
Thanks, Olga. Actually there were few of the family in my shots, I think husband took those with his iPhone camera while I was looking for artistic photographs since it has been quite a while that I’ve been out and about doing that.
Really sad and frustrating, then! If your hard drive is filling up and giving problems, and you have a lot of essential stuff on there I suggest that you put chunks of it onto CD as a precaution.
Thanks for your concern. I’m a little behind in burning CDs and DVDs of my work, but unfortunately these are slowly becoming obsolete with newer technology. I’m just slow in removing them off this machine because I want to tidy up all the duplicates and too many working versions of since finished pieces.
I have a setup that does weekly bootable backups onto an external hard drive, so there is a complete replica of my entire system. Years ago when I had a failure on my previous computer, I was able to run off that backup as if it were the original – a lifesaver which I highly recommend to everyone.
I didn’t mean to get into a discussion of computer issues here, sorry! Perhaps this is useful info for some readers.
ADDED LATER: My techie hubby tells me that the fault was in the photo card as he’d noticed some problem before we went away. It should have been re-formatted, something one needs to do on a regular basis with these, and with drives as well, as they become fragmented over time and usage.
That’s a beautiful picture from the archives – you could have fooled me it was taken last week! I’ve been having trouble with the photo program on my computer as it won’t export pictures anymore, making it necessary for me to search through tiny thumbnails to find the ones I want to use. It’s hard to believe my now four year old computer is out of date but I haven’t been able to do a Firefox upgrade in over a year.
On the other hand my husband just replaced his Mac with a new MacBook Pro machine and it’s not nearly so friendly as the older models. Too much pre-programming for social media and cloud stuff. the screen is nice, though.
I’m delighted to know you enjoyed such a fine time in Victoria. It sounds like you had a great visit as well as a couple of decent ferry rides considering the time of year.
Susan, I’m sorry to hear you are having such problems on your youngish computer! Mine is eight or nine years old but the hard drive is getting very full which, my husband tells me, may be causing problems. I have TOO many photos and all my art work on here! Even though I have them backed up I like to keep them handy on this computer. He’s going to get a new larger hard drive for this so wish me luck that it will solve my problems even though I cannot upgrade many of the programs anymore. Husband’s MacBook Pro is younger and I use it a little when we are away but I don’t care for it.
My problem is that moisture and mold have invaded the lense on my Nikon Cool Pix. Terry tried to fix it but I really need a new camera.
I love miniatures and will be sure to visit Miniature World some time.
Hattie, sorry to hear about your camera. The new ones are getting better and better so I’m tempted by them though my old faithful Panasonic Lumix still works. We have a a fairly new and great Canon SLR but it isn’t as handy to carry around in a purse or pocket.
Then you will love Miniature World. I was surprised to learn it has existed in Victoria for 44 years. Being curious about the history and people who created all these miniatures, I asked if that was available in print or online. The friendly ladies said they are working on it and hope to have a new website for it. The existing one is limited and rather poor by today’s standards.