Then and Now: Christmas at The Ledge

There are few things that liven up the holidays more than seeing the The Legislature building in Victoria lit up in Christmas colours. Dad took this shot in 1974.

Here's a Christmas shot of The Ledge I took in 2012.

Slide and Negative Comparison

I mentioned a while ago that my dad often shot with a slide film, but got it developed at a place where he get both slides and negatives back. This was a rare thing, usually most places would offer you one or the other, not both.
And I realize that to most of you under 30, the terms "film" and "slides" are meaningless. But that's another story.
A while ago I published a couple of photos by dad of the fountain in Centennial Square. That original post was scanned from slides. Recently, I discovered the negatives of the same shots. Now you can compare the two. I've done no tweaking to them; these are straight off the scanner. Both hold up pretty well for being 40 years old, but it does look to me like the slides' colour is starting to go a little to the pinkish side, something I found in a lot of dad's old slides.

Negative:

Slide:

Negative:

Slide:

Then and Now: Fountain

Here's a couple of pictures my father took of the lighted fountain at Centennial Square in Victoria in 1974. I assume they were taken at the same time as the set-ups look identical.



Here's a picture I took of the fountain tonight during the Great Freeze of 2013.

Fishbowl

Traditionally, the Victoria transit system makes changes to its service on Labour Day, and 1974 was no exception as the new 26 Crosstown route was introduced, and service to the Gordon Head area was revamped. While much adjusted since then, the basic routing on the Crosstown and Gordon Head service remains to this day. This shot was taken on Shelbourne Street at McKenzie Avenue in front of the University Heights Mall. The greenhouses you can see on the other side of the street through the buses windows are long gone now, replaced by condos. Serving the then-new 28 Majestic route in Gordon Head was venerable bus #794, a 1973 GM "New Look" diesel bus (also known as a GM Fishbowl). It only served Victoria streets 2 years before being transferred to the Vancouver fleet where it served out its days.

1974 Long Beach

So far, I've been mostly going through my father's slides. He liked shooting slides back in the day, because he found a place that would not only develop his slides, but also make a negative out of them, something that was pretty rare. He liked this because he had a dark room in the basement, and would make his own prints, but he could have the slides handy to show to family and friends. Many of the slides are 40 years old, some even 50. Amazingly, many are still in great shape. However, a few look like this 1974 photo of a surfer at Long Beach:

A little on the pinkish side. But with a few clicks of Photoshop, it looks like it was taken yesterday.

Snakes On A Plane...Actually, It's a Fence. And There's Only One Snake

When I was a kid, we used to see these small snakes in the yard all the time. We don't anymore. We usually only saw then in the garden or lawn, but I remember this one. It slithered along the fence, and Dad ran for his camera. He was quite proud of the shot with the tongue sticking out. And rightly so.

Thetis Lake Kayakers - 1974

Today, I have a two-fer for you. Taken from a pair of slides, these two images show kayakers playing kayak polo at Thetis Lake in 1974. I've taken up kayaking in the last few years and kayak at the lake all the time, but I've never seen this many kayaks in the lake at one time! Check out the second picture. You can see that the paddles have holes in them to catch and throw the ball with. You can see that one kayaker has caught the orange ball in the hole in his paddle and is getting ready to throw it.