A narrow alleyway in downtown Victoria. Canon EOS 7D EF-S 10-22mm at 10mm f/8 1/20 ISO 1250

Victoria, BC has a wonderful old downtown area with some very interesting and narrow alleys. I stumbled on to this as I was wandering through the city and was struck by the graphic nature of the tight brick walls, the plank ceiling and the bare bulb that hung in the middle. I used a wide angle lens to emphasize the enclosing feeling of the alley and the shift in perspective almost makes it feel as though the walls wrap around you. In the original frame the bare bulb light was visible but I cropped it out as the extreme contrast in brightness was distracting. I also really liked the way that the splashes of light on the walls imply the bulb on the ceiling without us having to see it. The exposure was also somewhat tricky, it the camera read the exposure off the bright area in the centre all of the walls would have been very close to black. I used spot metering and took a reading off of the area just this side of the light area and I got a decent exposure. I am still not entirely happy with how bright the opening is but of course at the end of every tunnel…

-Russell Berg