Sunrise. Sun. Fog. Sunset.

In that order.

I'll never get tired of photographing this pier.

A few close shots - consider it a "find the difference" game.

Fort Street, one of the stores with delicacies

Relatively recent installation, part of 12-items series with hands.

Fog in Sidney. 

Yes, that pier again. Sorry.

And to finish, brilliant colors of the sunset at the breakwater.

Best of 2013

Everyone's doing it, right? Selection of the best shots of the past year, 10-12 or so. I did it last year as well, and came to 16 images selected. Let's see if I can restrain myself better this time around.

Well, what do you know... it's 28. So much for that restraint. And I eliminated quite a few of those that made first cut. Whatever remained is what I just can't make myself to remove. As I think of it, it's no wonder that I have this many - between three new lenses and camera, I had a lot of shooting done, noticeably more than in 2012.

Among all the spring flowers, this one made the cut thanks to composition. There were a lot of very colorful tulips it fought and defeated.

Butchart Gardens. This shot is one of my bestsellers for the year.

 This guy (gal?) was one of the first to help me test my new 50-200 f/2.8-3.5

...and this B&W was one of the first with my new 7-14 f/4...

 ...together with this pirate in front of Sidney Pier Hotel.

 One of my favorite serene Sidney sunsets.

Sidney Pier, wasn't easy to pick among those as it always presents photo opportunity.

Fireworks on Canada Day in Sidney.

Interaction between the two elevated this shot from "just another turtle."

 Himalayan Blue poppy after the rain

Great Blue Herons' antics. dances and fishing brought quite a few shots this year, and it was difficult to choose between them. This one eventually looked the most royal.

 Many moon shots run... this one made it to the finish line.

One ferry ride yielded 4 images that I couldn't leave out.

Fall season... don't know how I survived the selection process, try to pick couple of a few dozens...

Too blue not to include:

The most intense fog skewered by sun rays I've ever seen:

Quiet foggy scene:

Rainy downtown in the night:

 Breakwater. Again, one shot of many that were close.

 Butchart Gardens with snow one the ground:

Let's finish with hummingbird that says "hey, it was a good year!"

Snow Day at The Butchart Gardens

Being a rare occurrence, snow brought very different look to the familiar scenes. Different, fairy-tale-like and quite magical. Have to say, it looks much colder than it actually was - suffice it to say, all this snow wasn't there the next morning :)

Since it's such a rare view, it's quite difficult to keep the number of images in the post reasonable. While I do my best to show the best compositions, light etc, the temptation to show some shots simply because they illustrate this unconventional look is difficult to overcome. So, let's compromise: I will try to cull the obvious junk, and you bear with the rest, maybe return to this post another time if you get tired. Deal?

(Little addition for the gearheads. Most shots are taken at ISO 1000, all of them handheld, with shutter speed down to 1/25s)

With that in mind:

The entrance...

...walking toward the Sunken Gardens,

and looking to the right

Iconic view of the Sunken Garden. You know, the viewing platform where you can immediately recognize those who see it for the first time by the AHHHs and WOWs they issue when the view opens. Both ahhs and wows are well deserved, the view IS mangnificent.

Down at the ground level

This is newer part of the Sunken Garden, a path created couple years ago

Back to the "Red tree"

Five Gold Rings pond. Especially majestic part of the gardens with the snow.

Walking around the pond...

...and looking to the right:

Looking back at the pond (you see now the spot across the water from which first two Golden Rings photos was taken)

Ross Fountain:

Never before did I find this bench a subject worthy of being photographed. With snow though it made the cut

These falling lights behind the goose (OK, swan) are difficult to show in a still shot. Had to drop the shutter speed even more to keep the motion effect.

The red light on the tree makes snow look like a cherry bloom.

Hopefully you made it to the end! I will try to keep the number of images down from now. I promise. That I will try. Will I succeed is, well, another matter.