Airport and iPhone
- At June 02, 2012
- By Jay
- In iPhone, Travel
1
Never ceases to amaze me how convenient it is to have a camera in my phone. And wireless access to post stuff from the seat of my plane.


Light is Light
- At May 14, 2012
- By Jay
- In iPhone, Travel
0
Nice light is nice light. Doesn’t matter what it’s illuminating. Even an in flight breakfast menu can look interesting.

Olde Ottawa
- At May 10, 2012
- By Jay
- In Travel, Urban & Street
1
Too many photos, too little time.
It’s like the hangover after the party. I very much enjoy exploring with my camera while travelling, but the problem is dealing with the frames afterwards. There’s downloading, editing and selecting, cataloguing with metadata and keywords, and of course fine tuning. Not able to leave well enough alone every image gets the personal touch.
My camera doesn’t develop everything – I do. The burden of the RAW shooter.
And so I find myself scheduled to head back to our nation’s capital next week and realize I have a batch of images circa my last trip there {cough – November 2011 – cough} that have been in purgatory. It seemed fitting that I finally get around to doing something about that as there were a few I quite liked.
And so we start the day with fairly crappy weather. Didn’t much care as I knew I’d be spending it with my colleague in the hotel working over some stuff. Looked outside and grabbed my camera to capture this rather cold and dreary view of Parliament.
The remnants of that first snowfall (which in typical fashion occurred during the few days I happened to be in town) quickly started melting and provided some contrast against the concrete walkways and tunnels along Rideau Ave.
These stairs offer all sorts of shooting opportunities. No shortage of line and form and perspective. Parked myself down low to grab this, and then dragged the shutter to get some movement from passers by. One shot is just about the geometry of the stairs, the other catching the sense of movement of passers by. Still can’t figure out which one I prefer.
A little further along and there’s yet some more stairs. Too much of a good thing, perhaps? These make their way down to the Rideau Canal, with an abstract archway thrown in for good measure. Always enjoy shooting detail that most simply ignore.
While I’ve been to Ottawa before I’ve actually never gone down to the canal, famous for being the world’s longest skating rink (although many in Winnipeg would debate that as we – I say “we” as if I had anything to do with it – actually beat them a couple years back but with much controversy). And just popping over to Wikipedia I just learned that the Rideau Canal is also the “oldest continuously operated canal system in North America.”
There’s much to see along the canal and makes for a nice walk. There’s very cool architecture and stonework…
…and of course docks aplenty leading into the canal…
The actual canal mechanisms – I’m guessing lock gates – are heavily weathered and make for great texture and monochrome fodder…
So lots of cold concrete. But there’s warmth to be had as well. The leaves had fallen as this was late autumn, but were still loaded with color and contrasted against the stripped trees.
And despite all the rock and stone along the canal there were still plants trying to make a go of it…
As was this runner, getting some fresh air along the walls of the Chateau Laurier Hotel…
All in all it was a nice way to unwind at the end of the day and get some air. Eventually made my way to the airport for the evening flight home. Comfortably checked into the lounge and waiting for my flight, with a beverage in hand if I recall, I noticed this great sunset lighting up the sky. Too bad my fellow traveller was engrossed with her e-mail. Missed a beautiful show.
Toronto Travel Trilogy
- At March 03, 2012
- By Jay
- In Travel
0
Just back from a quick three day trip to Toronto. First in some time. As always had The Camera with me but really was too damn lazy didn’t have the opportunity to do much shooting. But in the interest of generating something, and going with a theme of three (three days, three photos) I offer a trilogy of travel from the lounge to the tarmac to the air.
Blue is Nice
- At September 23, 2011
- By Jay
- In Color, Travel
1
I’m on a printing kick right now and have been focusing on our trip to France last year. As I write this a crisp print of this image is rolling off on a 17×22″ sheet of luxurious photo paper. I captured this during our trip into amazing Nice last June. It wasn’t long after leaving the airport that I assigned blue as the color of this beautiful city. And stopping at a light alongside the boardwalk I looked out onto this scene and quickly framed and snapped from the taxi. For whatever reason I think of Pete Turner when I look at this. Not because of the specific color, but rather the vibrance of it along with the fairly minimal composition. Immediately became one of my favorites.
And as I finish writing this my print is complete. Gotta love the digital darkroom.