Travelog I: Seattle

June was fairly busy for travel and I did manage to get out and shoot.  And all of that has been languishing on my hard drive since.  Little time to do anything with them.  Starting to peck at it and it appears I’m moving in reverse.  Starting with my most recent trip to beautiful Seattle.  Always enjoy it there.  These were taken during gaps in company meetings.  No rhyme, or reason, or structure.  As usual whatever caught my eye while getting some fresh air.
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Olde Ottawa

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.


Urban Photowalk

In the interest of getting some fresh air, moving my feet, and logging some camera time I took a brief walk around The Forks.  Great little section of the city with all sorts of things to shoot.  Was looking for details more than anything else.  Nothing exciting, but worth a lunch break.

First up some industrial space on Waterfront Drive.  Right next to this spot are new, modern condos.  That alone would have made for an interesting image and something I should revisit in the future.  Not sure how I’d frame it.  What is on display in a couple of these shots are some contrasts between the somewhat downtrodden facade of this industrial building wall and the artwork that adorns it.


And moving from something falling apart, to something snazzy and unbelievably modern coming together: The Canadian Museum for Human Rights.  Over budget and behind scheduled it’s a source of much controversy.  But WOW will it look amazing when it’s done.  So many photographic opportunities.  I already have in mind long exposure work that can look amazing.  What caught my interest this time around wasn’t so much the whole structure but rather the lines and contours of these details under construction.  I’ll admit a major shortcoming of my photos is too much detail and not enough context – need to add that to the Skills Development List.  I guess the first step is admitting you have a problem.


A little further in and the the brightly hued stucco of the Manitoba Theater for Young People (or “MTYP” as all the cool kids say) was an eyegrabber in the bright sun.  Shape, texture, and color.  That’s it.


Some more bits and bobs from the area.  Look up, look down, look around.


Finally, a quick run through The Forks Market to grab some chow on the go.  How cool is it to have an antique fruit truck indoors?  A Detail Hound could spend all sorts of time on this beauty.


Always good to look, better to see.  Even for just a short while.

Reinterpretation

I never experienced the chemical darkroom.  The hassles, the chemicals, the waiting, the trial and error.  None of it appeals to me.  I’m sure those who slaved under the red lights and noxious fumes have a unique appreciation for today’s digital darkroom.  The ease of revisiting and playing around with previous work is unparalleled.  Something that was fairly “meh” first time around can find new life.

Such is the case with today’s entry.  Experimenting with some different approaches to black and white conversions with Silver Efex Pro and for whatever reason thought back to this image taken early last year at the Winnipeg Art Gallery.  I had originally posted about the unique geometry of the building here, but was never that satisfied with the image.

Here’s Round 2 – an absolutely different interpretation but I like it much more.  The tones and textures that I’m toying with these days have a lot more density.  Something worth printing.



Or perhaps it’s just a case of the tail WAG’ing the dog.  See what I did there?
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