by janice on June 8, 2011
The summer art festival season has begun. My first show this year was the Orleans Art Festival in the east end of Ottawa. Lovely show, extremely well organized and a pleasure to participate in. Along with 28 artists inside the Shenkman Centre, there were artisans, food venders and a stage for music and drama outside along the closed off streets and inside in the theatre itself. It was a treat not to have to set up a gazebo and grids!
Next weekend I will be participating in the Clothesline Art Sale at Christ Church Anglican in Bells Corners in Ottawa. This is just a one day event and we are hoping for sunny weather. The venue is in their lovely garden behind the church in the ‘gully’. We have the Bohemian Kitchen coming to provide snacks and light lunches and a line-up of musicians to entertain us all.
Later in July I will be a part of the Urbanart show in Minto Park in downtown Ottawa. This is a one day show on July 23 with over 60 artist participating. The theme is art with an urban flair. It should be fun!
So come out and support your local artists. There are lots of talented people to discover and its a great way to enjoy summer.
by janice on July 6, 2010
The Queen was on Parliament Hill on Canada Day…so were about 100,000 other people. Did I arrive early to get a good spot? No, my husband and I strolled up onto the Hill just as the Mounted Police were entering to start the Musical Ride …about 10:30 am. We listened to the music and watched the tops of their flag poles bounce past. After the barriers were opened to allow more people onto the grounds, we surged forwards with the rest of the crowd in hopes of getting an unobstructed view of the stage! Ha! Ha! Ha!
Then we waited.
There was a lot of red.
There were the Snowbirds.
There were many wonderful performers.
I made good use of the ‘live’ feature on my D5000 which allowed me to hold my camera above the crowd to photo the performers on stage. It’s a bit tricky to get the right angle and get it to focus on what you want, and also quite tiring to hold it up for long but I’m only 5’3″ so it was handy.
And… there was the Queen!
I was on the opposite side from the podium where she made her speech so…not so great for photo ops, but after the show she moved to the other side of the stage and I was in luck…I got my much desired photo of Her Highness as well as Prime Minister Harper and Prince Phillip. Using my 55-200mm telephoto lens I managed to just catch her between all the heads in front of me. A little blurring is visible from the heads but hey, I was along way back.
I love this image of the Queen and Prince Phillip back to back, both greeting people, she with her bouquet and he with his fedora behind his back.
I missed watching her enter or leave the Hill area, the crowd was too thick. Wellington St. was teeming with people afterwards. It was a good opportunity to try out my new 10-24mm, wide angle lens.
This was pretty much the view for most of us in the crowd, but all in all, a successful day. And I got my photo of the Queen!
by janice on June 22, 2010
Entering the second lock, 2
Originally uploaded by Janice Saunders
My husband nudged me at six Saturday morning, “Wake up! Lets take our cameras and take the dogs for a walk.” Ok.
After a little detour to Tim’s we headed out Roger Steven’s drive to the Marlborough Forest . At the first trail parking lot the flies swarmed the car. We didn’t get out. So, we tried the trail lot on the other side of the road hoping for a less unpleasant reception. It was a little better and the dogs were really eager to get out and explore. They ran and we trudged along with a cloud of flies buzzing around our heads. I told my husband that this is the way all horror movies start …heading out along a trail with no idea where it goes whilst being harassed by dark cloud of bugs. It didn’t help either that I had only finished half my cup of coffee!
I decided to spend the time playing with the telephoto lens in hopes of capturing some wildlife, mostly birds. I took a number of photos of the male and female warbler but the female or immature bird shots were the best. Hard to catch these little guys sitting still and not obscured by leaves etc. Even though the ponds were the source of all the bugs, they provided some wonderful opportunities to photo the reflections of the foliage on the water.
Later after dropping the dogs back home we headed over to the Long Island Locks. There is always something to photograph there when the locks are in action at this time of year. There were also more birds… chickadees, woodpeckers, osprey, heron, cedar waxwings, and the usual robins and crows. Again, timing and a steady hand are crucial to capture a good photo of small birds that are usually high up in the trees or sky. It is definitely a challenge particularly without the benefit of a tripod.
I used my new camera bag from Lowepro, the Inverse 100 AW, on this outing. It is supposed to be worn in the back but I wore it in front as this is the way I will need to wear it on our backpacking trip, my pack will be on my back already. Having it in front actually gave me super easy access to change lenses and a handy spot to support my camera when I wasn’t using it. It is quite heavy with the 70-300mm telephoto lens attached and resting it on the bag reduced some neck strain.
We returned home safe and sound around noon, a happy ending to a somewhat Hitchcock inspired beginning to our morning.
by janice on May 26, 2010
Sculpture 6
Originally uploaded by Janice Saunders
My usual approach to the Museum of Civilization in Gatineau is through the front doors, then inside to enjoy whatever particular exhibition or Imax movie that has attracted me there in the first place. But this time my approach was from behind via a lovely stroll along the Ottawa river.
I had never seen this fascinating sculpture garden before. It had been transplanted here… ha ha ha…from Montreal.
‘ The exhibition is by Montreal artist, Louis Archambault, 1915-2003. Archambault created “People”, a grouping of abstract figures, for the Canadian Pavilion at Expo 67, Montreal’s World’s Fair. He designed the sculptures on a scale that invites visitors to move among and interact with them. All the figures have simple elongated shapes that form whimsical combinations of human, bird, flower and animal imagery. The theme was perfectly suited to the forward looking optimism of Expo 67.’
You can watch a very dated but still interesting video of the Canadian Pavilion below… the sculpture garden appears at about 14 minutes into the video. The clothes, the music, the technology, the social attitudes expressed, all describe a Canada full of the spirit of youth. Half of Canada’s population was under 25 then, quite a different story today only 43 years later with an aging population instead.
My parents went to Expo 67 when I was 4 and my brother 5, we stayed behind with a sitter. No doubt they viewed and walked through these fanciful creations made of white painted metal. Now they have a permanent home here as an important part of Canada’s history.
by janice on May 23, 2010
Ben’s Wolf Trail photo 3
Originally uploaded by Janice Saunders
Yesterday we hiked the Wolf Trail in Gatineau Park as part of our training for our big trip this summer. This time it threatened rain and I decided not to take my DSLR along as I haven’t yet worked out how I can keep it safe and accessible, but my youngest son brought along his camera… a small Casio Exilim with 12 mega pixels. It is small and light and doesn’t take half bad pictures. He didn’t turn off the date/time feature so this information is visible on the photos at the bottom. I edited them a little in Photoshop Elements but the details and overall brightness of his photos were far superior to the ones my husband took using his Nokia N95 camera phone. You can see his photos and more details about the hike on his blog at http://saunderslog.com/2010/05/23/hiking-the-wolf-trail/
Next hike we are planning to all take along our cameras and do a more controlled comparison between them. I really want to take my DSLR on our big trip but this will be a useful exercise anyways.
This trail has a number of wonderful lookout points over the valley below, more than the very popular Luskville Falls Trail. We ate our lunch at the Tawinda Lookout which is an expansive rocky outcrop above the trees, but there were at least three other flat rock spaces suitable for relaxing and eating. I need to remember to return here in the fall when the trees change colour because the views are beautiful.
