Photography
I took today off so that I could go out and do a little bit of photography of the fall colours around our little neighborhood. These photos are all taken around Renaud Rd and Anderson Road in the south-east end of the city. I think next week the colours will be even more brilliant, but I just couldn’t wait to get out and capture the fall colours.
We took a drive to Montreal to visit with friends. I knew that they lived near Dorval Airport or Pierre Elliot Trudeau Airport (YUL), but what I didn’t realize was that they live almost directly under the approach to the Airport.
It was very distracting to sit with our friends while so many wonderful planes from all over the world were flying overhead. I finally broke down and grabbed my camera to shoot these planes in the dying light of the day. I used an ISO of 800 to keep the photos sharp, but I can see a bit of noise in the photos when I zoom in.
Hopefully our friends will invite us back again soon. We had a wonderful visit with them and the show above was spectacular.
The next time we go, I will attempt to write down where each plane is arriving from or going to and include that information. There is a great website you can use to view flights in and out of your local airport. It is called www.flightradar24.com
Today we took in the Beechwood Cemetery 24th Annual Historical Walking Tour. The purpose of the tour is to highlight some of the famous people who are buried at the cemetery. I could have filled several pages with photos from the tour it was so interesting.
At each of this year’s highlighted people headstones, several actors would bring that person “back to life”. I would have liked to showcase all the various actor’s but with 150 people in our “small” group there were too many people for me to feel comfortable including on my page. It was hard enough to just get photos of the headstones on their own.
I would really recommend their tours, which are held on frequently. Check out their website for more information. http://www.beechwoodottawa.ca
I have been taking a new route to the office since the beginning of August. For the past 5 years I have taken mostly back-roads and a Parkway to travel from our home to downtown. Our office was re-located to the south east end of town and so now the easiest way to get to work is via the 174/417. It was during my new drive in that I started to notice these Sunflowers along the side of the 174 just before Montreal Rd. The move at the office and life in general kept me from heading out to take some photos for almost 3 week. Here are a few of my favorites and a shot of my wonderful photo assistant.
If you have been reading along since the beginning, you will know that I have Scottish roots.
Maxville, Ontario, a little town of about 900 people that is 45 minutes east of Ottawa, is home to many Scottish settlers from days gone by. Many families, including my own came to the Glengarry area directly from Scotland back in the early 1800’s. My ancestors emigrated from Glenelg, Inverness-Shire.
My ancestors farmed the land just outside of Maxville for several generations before my grandfather moved the family into the town proper to own and run the hardware store. He and several other businessmen put up some money to the help organize the first Maxville/Glengarry Highland games and 71 years on these games have turned out to be one the largest Highland Games in North America.
I have played both the Pipes and Drums in these and other highland games in and around the Ottawa area. But playing the pipes at these games, in front of my extended family was and is still one of my best memories.
Please enjoy these few photos from the games this year
While waiting for one of my daughters to arrive from the U.K. for a summer visit, I spent some time Plane Spotting from the main terminal at the Ottawa Airport.
The Airport’s Official name is Macdonald–Cartier International Airport and is named after two of the founding fathers of Canada, Sir John A. MacDonald and Sir George-Etienne Cartier. The Airport code for Ottawa is YOW or CYOW. The Airport was active as of July 2, 1927.
An interesting fact is that in 1950 the village of Bowesville was expropriated to expand the airport. The current main terminal now stands on the site of the crossroads at the center of the village.
I have always had a fascination with planes and I am a fairly proficient MS Flight Simulator pilot. I hope to spend some more time plane spotting in the future.
So today we travelled north of Ottawa through places that I have heard of most of my life but never visited. Places like Brennan’s Hill, Low, Kazabazua, and Gracefield Quebec. We took Highway 105 all the way from Ottawa past Gracefield and then east over to the south end of 31 Mile Lake. We visited friends at their trailer. The scenery was spectacular and it was a great day to take photos.
We took advantage of the Canada Day long weekend to travel to Mount Albert, Ontario to visit with family. About 4,000 people call Mount Albert home and they call themselves “Mounties” or “Mount Albertarians”. Mount Albert is named after Prince Albert, Prince of Wales (later Edward VII) son of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, in honour of his visit to Upper Canada in 1860.
My Aunt has two beautiful cats. Henry an orange striped cat and Stirling an almost black cat. Henry was a friendly cat, while Stirling never really relaxed the whole weekend. He is even a little skittish with my Aunt and her family. So not to join the Cats of the Internet movement, but Henry was such a cooperative cat, I was able to take several portraits of him. Very photogenic.
I loved taking these photos as I don’t normally take shots with people or things in them. I usually just take cityscapes, landscapes and long exposure Waterfalls. I am really interested in taking aviation photos and more night photos. So stay tuned
Today we took a drive up to Mont Tremblant to meet good friends from Montreal for lunch and an afternoon of great conversation.
Mont Tremblant is about a 2 hour drive from Ottawa and is a year round tourist destination. They have excellent skiing in the winter, a vibrant village, lots of trails to hike, and a fantastic – must do – night walk on the mountain called Tonga Luna.
This past weekend we rented a little cottage on Green Lake. Green Lake is located just a little north of Shawville, Quebec. This area was surveyed in 1792 but settlement did not occur until 1825. Green Lake is the largest lake in the area.
These are a few photos that took as part of my homework assignment while we were at the cottage.
