Project 365 - Day 30 - A tourist in your own town

Every once in a while it's good to look at your city or town through the eyes of someone who is visiting.  How many times do we drive through our neighbourhoods and ignore the beauty that first attracted us to the area.  Today, I decided that it would be a good day to do some sightseeing. 

I went downtown to the Trafalgar / Lakeshore area where there is usually a lot of activity and lots of stuff to shoot.  It was very dark out by the time I went, but the Christmas lights are still on the trees (they are white twinkle lights - very nice).   Downtown Oakville is awesome with the mix of old and new, and it is very clean as well.

I happened upon Knox Presbyterian church, the old home base for the Oakville Camera club of which I am a member.  We outgrew the location and had to move last year.  It is a beautiful church.  So out came the tripod and the 24-70 lens, and a shooting did I go.

As an aside, it's interesting to see people actually stop on the sidewalk to allow you to shoot.  I even had a car stop in the middle of the road so they didn't block my shot, even though I was shooting above the sidewalk and road.  It was very nice of them, and I thanked them.

Here's the shot. 

I had to adjust the perspective on this as I was shooting up from the tripod and I don't have a tilt/shift lens.  That adjustment was made in Photoshop.  4 second shutter at f22, and the lens was at 24mm to capture the whole church - I actually had to back into a store entrance to get it all in, as I knew I was going to lose some with the perspective adjustment.

My advice?  Get out and shoot areas you see every day.  Shoot what you think you know, and you will find new and interesting things that you may not have seen before.  Once the weather improves, I will be out a lot.