Mer Bleu

Sorry for the downtime - life caught up with me. Postings are going to be less frequent for a while.

Anyway, this was taken on a family walk through the Mer Bleu last weekend. The Mer Bleu is a wetland just east of Ottawa. Starkly beautiful. A boardwalk has been put in this particular location allowing people to walk through the bog without degrading it. I say "allowing" - "obliging" would be more appropriate, there are big signs everywhere telling people (quite rightly) not to leave the boardwalk and not to bring dogs. Sure enough, there was an idiot family with a dog, letting it run off into the bog, making a horrible mess... I felt I had to say something, so I got it off my chest. So apparently now (said the mum to her daughter) I'm an animal hater.

Details: Nikon D70, 18-200mm VR @ 20mm, f/14, 1/25s, ISO 200. Ottawa, Ontario, 25 November 2006. Placemark.

November rose

Who'd have thought a rose would be flowering in Ottawa at the end of November? Not this November, but two years ago.

Details: Nikon D70, 105mm, f/4.5, 1/160s, ISO 400. 28 November 2004, Ottawa.

Nuts

This is the base of a bridge over the Rideau Canal in Ottawa. I like the way the nuts and bolts echo the pattern of the windows in the Department of Defence reflected on the water.

Details: Nikon D70, 105mm, f/6.3, 1/80s, ISO 400. 21 November 2004.

Manufactured Landscape

I saw an amazing film yesterday: Manufactured Landscapes by Jennifer Baichwal, which follows photographer Edward Burtynsky as he records images of China's industrial landscapes. The images were astonishing, arresting, beautiful and frightening. The film begins with a panning shot through a kilometre-long factory floor, lasting several minutes. I found it a profoundly depressing film, because it implicated the viewer in the creation of these landscapes without judging and without proposing answers. They say it best on the film's site: "What makes the photographs so powerful is [Burtynsky's] refusal in them to be didactic. We are all implicated here, they tell us: there are no easy answers. The film continues this approach of presenting complexity, without trying to reach simplistic judgements or reductive resolutions." I left the cinema aware more than ever that our current political and economic model is totally unsustainable, without having a clue what to do about it personally.

(The film was funded in part by TV Ontario, so any of you who get TVO will probably get to see it eventually - not to be missed!)

Details: Minolta X-500, 50mm, exposure not recorded. Aberdeen, Hong Kong Island, April 1992. Placemark.

More light

Yesterday it was about fiddling with light sources to make an unusual image. This post is about capturing a moment when the light was just right. Seems to me that these are the two approaches you can take to photography: to arrange the lighting creatively and capture the image you had in your mind's eye; or to record the light as it changes, waiting for that perfect moment. Personally I prefer the latter approach. Perhaps it's not as creative as working in a studio. On the other hand, there's something very rewarding about being there when the light is really beautiful, and having your camera handy.

Details: Nikon D70, 18-70mm @ 48mm, f/8, 1/200s, ISO 200. Edinburgh, 28 December 2005. Placemark.

Light

Whoever invented the word "photography" took the Greek words for "light" and "writing" and put them together. Obviously light is the defining element of every photo - no light, no photo - but it can be fun to play around with it. This was an experiment (copying a friend) involving a maglite hanging from a tripod and a long exposure to give the doll a halo.

Details: Nikon D70, 50mm, f/22, 4s, ISO 400. 19 September 2005.

Vote

This was taken in January just before the last general election. Today's another election day, municipal this time. No snow, lots of billboards though.

I tried to vote but apparently one has to be a Canadian citizen, even for municipal elections. Funny, I'm pretty sure Commonwealth citizens get to vote in UK local elections... Oh well. If the bad guy wins by one vote, don't blame me! I tried!

(edit - 9pm - well he didn't win by one vote - he won by a landslide - what has got into Canadian voters recently???)

Details: Nikon D70, 18-70mm @ 20mm, f/20, 1/100s, ISO 200. Ottawa, 21 January 2006.

Behind you!

Link is defending some very valuable treasure, he doesn't realise Ganondorf's pet raptor is creeping up on his blind side. Oh noes!

This was taken as part of a little experiment I undertook to compare colour spaces, using stuff I had lying around (microfibre lens cleaner, box of smarties, the nipper's raptor, and my Link figure - thanks Jiroczech & Ectox!).

A week to go before the Wii launches - why am I not remotely tempted? What's up with me? This new generation of consoles has really left me cold. I think it's several things, actually: the new control system of the Wii just seems a bit gimmicky to me, and designed for games that rely on reflexes and action rather than puzzle solving and exploration (and I'm rubbish at action games). The aesthetic is cold and futuristic, designed to appeal to men, rather than kids. I understand, but I prefer the look of Tinky-Winky's handbag. And then the games... The new Zelda has ditched the fantastic cel-shaded look of the Windwaker, probably because the fanboys thought it was too childish. I think that's a crying shame. :(

Details: Nikon D70, 105mm, f/3.2, 1/60, ISO 280, tripod. 18 January 2005.

Remembrance

It's interesting how Remembrance Day can mean so many different things to different people and different societies. Here in Canada, the consensus seems to be that 11 November is a day to honour the armed forces and their 'sacrifice'. In Belgium, it's a day on which all good Belgians fly the national tricolour and celebrate the defeat of their invaders in two World Wars. In England, growing up as a child, Armistice Day was first and foremost a day to remember the shocking waste of life in the Great War. In the European institutions, the day is not even acknowledged, dating back to a post-war sense of awkwardness, not wanting to rub the Germans' nose in it (as a German, I find this bizarre).

To me, half-English, half-German, European and a self-styled global citizen, it is important to have a day on which we acknowledge those who died in war, if only to remind us that it could happen to us or our children. The vast, vast majority of war casualties have been innocent victims. Professional soldiers know what they're getting into when they walk into the recruitment office; conscripts and civilian casualties don't. Millions died in the First World War for no reason at all; millions died in the Second to defend certain values. Every one of those deaths was a pointless tragedy. Red poppy or white poppy or no poppy, I don't really care; the best way to honour the war dead is to stop war. This is why the EU was conceived and why we have to make it work. It's why I do what I do for a living. It's why last week's US election results were such good news; and why we shouldn't give up until we've stopped the bad guys.

Details: Nikon D70, 18-200mm @ 31mm, f/10, 1/40s, ISO 200. 9 April 2006, War Memorial, Ottawa. Placemark.

Creative

Ah, Thomas! Thomas is great. This is one of the nipper's favourite toys. I took this shot as part of a little project I had last year: a DIY advent calendar. It's getting near that time of year again, time to start thinking about this year's!

Details: Nikon D70, 105mm, f/6.3, 1/15, ISO 1250, tripod.

Finally!

This long overdue piece of news made me want to find a picture that matched my mood on hearing it. Trouble is, I only recently posted the photo that was most appropriate. This comes close, though: the evening sun shining through the Palm House at Kew. Don't ask me why this matches my mood of relief, guarded optimism that the worst is now past, and naive fantasy that Rumsfeld's next stop will be the dock of the International Criminal Court, but somehow it does. :-)

Details: Nikon D70, 18-70mm @ 70mm, f/5, 1/500s, ISO 250. 31 December 2004, Kew Gardens. Placemark.

Grey

Grey November weather outside, drew my eye to this shot as I randomly flicked through my photo library. It was taken near Tofino, just next to the Wickaninnish Inn.

Details: Nikon D70, 18-70mm @ 25mm, f/25, 1/3s, ISO 200, ND grad, tripod. Tofino, British Columbia, 20 May 2005. Placemark.

Icicles

We went to Montreal this weekend and I came away without a single shot worth posting. Not good! So here's one taken in Quebec City instead.

Details: Nikon D70, 35mm, f/3.5, 1/20s. Quebec City, 16 March 2005. Placemark.

Fear

This is a poor quality snapshot with no artistic or technical merit whatsoever, but I have an excuse: I was crapping myself with fear when I took it. It was taken from the top of the southernmost minaret in the Jama Masjid (great mosque) in Delhi. The view is looking north-west over Chandni Chowk and Old Delhi. The fear was because I have bad vertigo - it's tourism related, I first experienced it in 1988 climbing the spire of Ulm Cathedral. What made this particular experience extra scary was the fact that one had to remove one's shoes while in the mosque, so we had all climbed the slippery marble stairway to the top in our socks. At the top there was no parapet, no safety barrier, and no room. I hugged the floor, whimpering, while my mum gamely stood peeking over the edge, holding onto a pillar. It gives me the screaming abdabs just to think about it. So I'll stop thinking and click 'publish'.

Details: Minolta X-500, 50mm, exposure not recorded. Delhi, December 1997. Placemark.