Author: Robb Towns

A few shots from the street after our latest dump of snow. We are starting to run out of places to put it. Thankfully another month or so and it should be significantly reduced or maybe even gone.

Today we took a 2.5 km walk in Ottawa’s west end to see the Snow Bears. What a fun outing it was. The trail was flat and well packed. I am very please to have been able to get out and see these little guys. I wanted to do it last winter but was just not up to it. Great progress!

As promised, back in December, here is some more glass and light photography. The Glass Ball is a piece of Caithness Glass from Scotland that we got as a wedding present and the glass Ducks belonged to my Grandmother. There used to be 4 of them but one fell and shattered into a million pieces.

Did a family photoshoot for Christmas. I don’t normally take photos of people so this was an interesting lesson for me. It was wonderful having everyone over for dinner and having our daughter home from Scotland for the Holidays.

Between Christmas and New Years we rented a cute little AirBnb in Montebello to have some quiet family time. We also took a little day trip up to Mount Tremblant specifically to get some Beavertails.

Steel Wool Photography is something that I have been wanting to try for a long time. The local photography club that I belong to (The Ottawa Shutterbugs) organized an event and the weather while cold, was perfect. They picked a perfect location at the House of PainT. It has lots of graffiti and murals. Unfortunately, I only lasted and hour and a bit due to the cold but I am happy with the results.

The last Luner eclipse for the next 3 years occurred on Tuesday, November 8th between 4:45am and 6:30am. While I didn’t really want to get up at 5am to take photos, I couldn’t miss this opportunity.

The skies were 100% clear, and it was -1c outside. I scared a couple of rabbits that were jumping around on my lawn, but the moon was magnificently red. Here are a few moon and star shots (Orion is just visible above the houses in the dark sky shots)

I have been wanting to try this since the end of June this year. A fellow photographer friend produced an amazing photo with a Lens Ball and a Sparkler. I thought how hard can it be? I have a Lens Ball and I bought some Sparklers for Canada Day. This past weekend, I finally had an hour or so to set up a little studio (I used the shower in our house so that the ceiling fan could remove any smoke or fumes and not set off the fire alarms) to take the photos.

While I am happy with a first attempt, I learned so much while I did this exercise. There will definitely be a round 2 and I think I will also incorporate a beautiful piece of Caithness Glass that we have in the house.

I had a few hours to myself and I was feeling pretty good (my immune condition seems to have settled down a bit — good news). So I ventured out to a couple of new places and a favourite that has been closed for a while due to the big storm earlier this year.

The House of PainT is located under the Bronson Bridge near Brewer Park and Carleton University. It was an UrbanFest where Painters put murals on the bridge support structure. Amazing Talent.

After I was done, I wanted to photography the flowing water (almost waterfalls) behind Carleton U. There was a path from the House of PainT to the location, but unfortunately the area I wanted to get to was closed off for LRT Construction. It was still a nice walk though.

To top off the afternoon, I drove out to the Mer Bleu Boardwalk. It was heaving with people, so I didnt stay long. Still one of my favourite places to go and photograph

Our daughter that lives, works in Scotland (Orkney) and is a well known photographer in her own right, gave us a Christmas Present last year from a company called GUESS WHERE TRIPS. There are many road trips from various cities across Canada (maybe further afield) that you can choose. We chose one from Ottawa called A Walk on the Wild Side. We ended up having a fantastic day out on a journey that took us on a 300km round trip. I hope you enjoy the photos.

First Stop was the Morris Island Conservation Area. Stunning!

The second stop was in Arnprior (Stop at Wes’s Chip Wagon — Super Yummy) where we visited the Galilee Conservation Park

Our Third Stop was in Renfrew, where we visited one of only three swing bridges in Canada.

We finished our day out with a stop at a rustic farmers market in Calabogie and then drove back home via Almonte where we had IceCream.

Where did September go? Today we took a couple of short walks in our hometown of Orleans. One was along the river pathway and another in the heart of Orleans that I never knew existed. We are hoping to do a small road trip next weekend when the leaves should be more spectacular.