Day 304 - Reflections in sharp focus

I don't know. Maybe I play too much with reflections. There do seem to be a lot of photographs on this blog that involve the reflection of one building in the windows of another.

But I'm delighted with this one. A bright, sunny fall day gave me this brilliant reflection of the roof of the barracks building in the windows of the second floor of the stores opposite. I love the colour and the sharpness of the reflected image and the way the windows frame the details from the barracks building.

And I'm pleased with the balance created by the reflected tree branches to the left of the image and the foreground branches to the right. Cool. Not a bad photo taken with the Olympus on full automatic mode.

Day 303 - Snow on the pumpkin

SNOW! On October 30. Fredericton had snow on October 30. Not only that, we had a Snow Fall Warning from Environment Canada, with up to 15 centimetres expected. If the temperature had just be the slightest bit lower, we would have been knee deep in the stuff.

And, if you recall, on April 20 Fredericton had a late-spring snow fall and I just could not believe it. Now, just six months and ten days later, more snow. That officially abridges the seasons out here to just two: spring and winter. No summer, no real fall.

So we end up with this strange combination of fall and winter, together. Leaves littering the ground, caught up in a blanket of snow. Crazy. I went for a walk this morning to try to capture just how it feels to have snow before Hallowe'en and this is what I came up with. First, still ripe maple leaves in the snow.

Then, cedar buds, still brown and not yet burst, with a crown of the white stuff. This shot comes from our front yard, where my newly seeded grass pokes its heads through the new-fallen snow as well.

I don't know how nature responds to its own strangenesses. Will the buds die? Will they refuse to bloom? Or will they simply ignore the snow's brief appearance and continue with business as usual once the sunshine and (slightly) warmer temperatures return this week?

And finally, snow on the pumpkins on the front porch of a house up the street. Snow on the pumpkins! Imagine that. I had to play a little with the aperture and shutter speed to get these shots since the day was quite dim. And I did find that the autofocus tried to find the flying snow flakes rather than the leaf, bud or pumpkin at which I was aiming. But, other than that, easy peasey, from a photographic point of view.

Day 302 - Fallen leaves inhabit the grate

Some days, I walk along through my life with camera in hand and just keep snapping photographs. I don't know what is different about those days but I find that the photos I take often surprise me.

Most days, I set out with an image in mind (I want to capture the wind, or I want to capture fall, or I want a photo of this building or that building or this bridge, etc.) or a beautiful picture just presents itself to me. Those are the normal days. I get home, load the photos onto the computer and choose the best shot of that particular subject.

Then there are days like today. With no real plan in mind, I wander around and take photos of anything that looks visually interesting. Like this grate littered with leaves, or yesterday's stop sign. And quite often, I am surprised and pleased with the result.

In this case, I'm pleased with the way the leaves inhabit the grate and with the fall colours that are present in the shot. I like the mixture of curves and straight lines and the tiny glimpse of the tree's trunk to the bottom right of the shot. This kind of picture is not so much about camera technique but about a way of seeing. That's not often my strong suit but sometimes I surprise myself.

Day 301 - The power of snow storms

Look at that blue lock. Isn't it amazing? It seems to be brand new. And shiny and deeply blue. And it's holding a stop sign closed.

This is one of those New Brunswick things we just can't figure out. All over Fredericton, you find stop signs that have been folded and locked closed. Someone somewhere has the keys and, if needed, can unlock the sign, open it and then lock it open (see the holes centre, on the sign itself, and left, on the brace to which the opened sign will be locked).

We think (and I stress the word "think" because we don't know) that these locking stop signs exist to deal with snow storms and power outages. If stop lights are knocked out, the City just sends workers around to open these signs and attempt to regulate traffic that way. Maybe it's a good idea. But it certainly does speak to the lack of faith we all seem to have in NB Power, doesn't it?

Or maybe it's a healthy respect for the power of snow storms out here in Atlantic Canada! Did I mention we're expecting between six and 12 centimetres of snow on Sunday?

Day 300 - Crowding the angles of the frame

Did you see that number? Day 300!!! Wow. That means I've made three hundred entries to this blog and posted more than 300 photos. Amazing. With only 65 more days to go, I now feel like I might just make it.

Today's photographs present an interesting example of how you can make a picture more interesting with a few basic camera techniques. I saw these two scooters, adorned with bright orange vests, on the sidewalk outside of Park's Noodle in downtown Fredericton. I like their shapes and their colours and thought they would make a neat picture.

So I took one, just kind of straight on. Just to see what that would look like. Well, as you can see from the lower photo, even if the scooters themselves are visually interesting, the plain old photograph of them isn't.

So I moved in a little closer, turned the camera on a weird angle, and came up with the upper photo.

A much neater picture, isn't it? In the straight-on pic, the scooters look like they're parked, almost asleep. In the angled shot, they're alive and seem to be coming right at you. They fill the frame and have a sense of movement, created I think by the way they crowd the edges of the image and the way their angles intersect with the angles of the frame.

Day 299 - Composition, light and timing

Queen Street in downtown Fredericton looking west from Regent Street. Autumn still offers some dazzling colours (especially when the sun is shining) but there are also an awful lot of bare trees out there.

I didn't have much time to take pictures on my lunch hour today so I only took a few. I was amazed at how brilliant this tree was in the sunlight, even though there was some waiting involved. I was looking for a period, however brief, when two things were true: the sun was, in fact, shining and the road was empty between the camera and the tree.

I'm pleased with the shapes, colours and textures in this photograph. I also like the way the tower on City Hall provides a backdrop for scene. There's nothing special from a camera point of view, however: I took the shot using the fully automatic setting. This photo is more about composition, light and timing. I think all three turned out pretty well.

Day 298 - Photographing the flame

Abstract art in low light. This is a photograph of the flame in the fire place, taken with a shutter speed of 1/80th of a second, much too fast according to the light meter but necessary to freeze the flame and avoid flaring.

With the fall upon us and night-time temperatures dipping below zero, our fire-place is starting to come into play on quiet evenings with friends. We're fairly new to the idea of fire-places but very much enjoying the experience. Not to mention the photographic opportunities it offers.

Day 297 - Red sky at morning (No. 2)

I learned the old saying when I was in the naval reserve: "Red sky at night, sailor's delight; red sky at morning, sailor take warning." I've decided to adjust it as follows: "Red sky at night, sailor's delight; red sky at morning, sailor take photos."

Gorgeous morning colours, taken as I walked to the bus, with the aperture as wide as possible and the shutter fast enough to take the shake out of my hand. Amazingly, despite what the Olympus' light meter told me, the pink sky gave me enough light to get this fabulous photo.

Day 296 - A riverview collage

An interesting collage of elements in a single shot: the water of the St. John River, the walking bridge, the north-side condominium building and the fisherfolks in their boat.

I'm amazed that people still fish for food in the river so near to the city. Although I haven't read any scary reports on the health of the river water, I do know that our dog comes home with extremely itchy skin any time she swims in this area.

The photograph isn't bad however: a bright day allowed for a narrow aperture with a relatively fast shutter speed, giving us both depth of focus and a crispness to that focus.

Day 295 - Birthday by candlelight

The camera is on the table. The aperture is as narrow as possible (f8) and the shutter speed is at four seconds. The only light comes from the candles on the cake.

Neat photograph, I think. The birthday girl is a little bit out of focus because, like any human, she can't remain absolutely still for even four seconds. It's not even that she moved intentionally during that time: the living human body is never completely still, what with the breathing and heart beating and blood flowing.

The flames on the candles are also moving, which gives them that rounded look. Everything else is still, sharp and in focus, making for a really interesting photo. I like the texture of the table cloth and the balance with the two foreground objects (top left and low right). I also love the dramatic lighting from the candles and the reflection of that light in the two wine glasses.

Day 294 - Playing with fire

f8 at 4 seconds. That's what it took to get this photograph of the first fire of the fall season at our house. I tried the shot at 15 seconds, to see what the difference would be, but all the extended shutter speed did was make the flames more fluid, less crisp. And it lightened up the other details a little too much, in my opinion.

Low light photography interests me greatly but I'm not sure the Olympus has what it takes to explore the subject as far as I want. Its aperture range is too narrow (f3.4 to f8) to provide the flexibility I would want. Oh well. I'll push it to its limits and see how it does.

Day 293 - As the Fraser fades

It's hard to take a picture of the Fraser Memorial Building on Woodstock Road in Fredericton without getting a lot of interference in the frame. That's because this lovely old stone building has had so many more modern additions pasted onto it that it's almost lost in the jumble. For example, you can see at the bottom of this photograph the concrete wall that leads to a loading bay underneath the old front entrance.

The Fraser Building started its march toward obscurity when it was incorporated into the old Victoria Hospital, which then became the Victoria Health Centre when Chalmers Hospital was built. I feel bad both for the building and for Fraser him- or herself. As the beautiful old stone building as been renovated into obscurity, so too has the person after whom it was originally named.

Day 292 - The branches' embrace

The framing of this photograph was the challenge. I loved the colours in the leaves and the shape of the tree that bears them but I wanted to find a way to balance the brown and the brilliance.

I wanted to show the tree actually embracing its leaves because that's how it looked to me as I approached: like the branches were actually gathering the leaves in. I'm pleased with the result. I think it's a nicely balanced picture with an interesting texture to it. And, of course, the colours are spectacular.

Day 291 - Front entrance with a natural frame

Another view of the front entrance to Government House, on Woodstock Road in Fredericton.

In this case, I tried to use the natural surroundings in front of the building as a frame for the very nice front steps and door. I would have liked a little more colour in the leaves of the foreground trees but, even with their muted presentation, I think it makes for a lovely photograph.

The challenge in a shot like this is both lighting and focus: you want to close your aperture right down to get as deep a field of focus as possible but you have then to slow the shutter down to ensure that the trees and bushes don't come out too dark. For this picture, I actually waited for a thin cloud to diminish the sun's brightness somewhat, so that the light balance (front to back) wasn't too bad.

I think it worked out quite well.

Day 290 - Home of the Queen's Representative

How can a building get newer? This lovely photograph captures New Brunswick's "Government House" on a gorgeous autumn day. It's a lovely building, true, but what confuses me is how this edifice changed from "Old Government House", the name by which is was known for many years, to just "Government House", its new monicker.

The residence of the province's Lieutenant Governor (the Queen's representative in New Brunswick), Government House overlooks the river just west of the Westmoreland Bridge. I took a number of photos of it from several angles but chose to go with this shot, the postcard shot, because I think the colours are fabulous and the building speaks for itself. No need for fancy camera tricks with this one. Especially on a day like today.

In coming days, I do plan to share with you some of the other photos I took of this building. They're just too good to keep to myself.

Day 289 - Autumn underfoot

Is it possible that the best of autumn has already come and gone in New Brunswick. We had a fantastic weekend a week ago with sunshine and warm temperatures, followed by a series of cold nights: the perfect weather to bring out the colours in the trees.

Then we enjoyed two days of amazing foliage, with some of the most beautiful fall colours I've ever seen. Too bad the rain came, with high winds to boot. That brought most of the leaves down. Now, we have a carpet of colour wherever we go, but rapidly fading colour at that.

This photograph comes from our walk today in the UNB woodlot, where the trees are half bare and the paths are covered with leaves. It's still quite nice, with the leaves crunching underfoot, but it's too bad the colour has come and gone so quickly.

Day 288 - The orange of the pumpkin

I like the lines in this photograph. And the colours. I'm happy with the way the orange of the pumpkin jumps out at you and the way the sunlight and shadow play in the frame.

Every year for as long as we can remember, we've planned to get a pumpkin, carve a pumpkin and display a pumpkin for Hallowe'en. And every year we leave it too late and all the nice pumpkins are gone by the time we go to get one. Not this year. We've purchased our pumpkin early and like so many other households in Fredericton we've put it out on our new front steps to show it off. The evening sun catches it just right and makes it almost glow against the siding of our new front atrium.

I'll take another shot once we've carved it and put the candle in. A nice after-dark photo, with the tripod probably and a long shutter. It will be nice. Hopefully as nice as this photo.

Day 287 - An indistinct bridge

The Princess Margaret Bridge at the east end of Fredericton, still undergoing repairs. This photograph was taken from the north bank of the St. John River, east of the walking bridge, on a sunny afternoon in October.

I'm happy with the composition of the shot but I think the bridge itself is a little bit faded, due to the different light conditions from foreground to background. I probably should have upped the shutter speed to let less light into the camera (my aperture was already at its narrowest) and make the bridge sharper and more distinct. This would have rendered the tree darker, with less detail, but it probably would have made it a better picture.

Day 286 - Joe's Diner and the disappearing pole

Joe's Diner: never been in it but always liked the look of it. Located at the corner of Gibson Street and Devon Avenue on Fredericton's North Side, this little eatery has all kinds of character and one of the neatest (70's era?) signs I've seen in a long time.

One of the things I like about this town is that it hasn't gotten so caught up in the chain-restaurant wave that's swept the rest of the world to have lost its many interesting places to eat. Like Joe's, or the Cabin, or the Hilltop, or many other such places. And we've seen an influx of pretty good East Asian restaurants as well (like Park's Noodles downtown and the Oriental Pearl in the east end), welcome additions to the city.

This photograph of Joe's Diner is no great work of art. I was trying for documentary rather than stylish and I think I got it. And one day I'll actually have to go there and try the food!

Meanwhile, the lower photo comes courtesy of my colleague, Greg, at work. He read my entry for Day 274 ("On cannons and condos"), in which I complained that I didn't know how to remove a bothersome wooden pole from this photograph. A graphic designer of prodigious skill, Greg took it upon himself to "Photoshop" the pole out. It looks great. Thanks, Greg.

Day 285 - Glimpses of Saint Anthony's

Our tour of the North Side of Fredericton continues with this photograph of Saint Anthony's Catholic Church, located on Union Street (or is it Main Street?) near the river.

Once again, my efforts to get a nice picture of this pretty edifice were hampered by a clef of powerlines that run right in front of the church. I got a slightly better wide angle shot of this church than I did of Gibson Memorial a couple of days ago (by standing on the sidewalk directly in front and hoping for the best) but the building still came out looking warped and odd.

So I've decided to go with this shot. I think it captures the essence of the church but only by providing glimpses, isolated bits of the building itself, the sign, the flower bed, the driveway and the tree out front. I actually think it's quite a nice photo after all that. Nice colours, interesting composition, pleasing elements in the frame. Pretty good.

Day 284 - Another view of UNB

A friend told me I could probably get better views of the UNB campus from further east along the north shore of the Saint John River. He was right. You can see the Old Arts Building (far right), as well as a number of other university buildings as they drift up the opposite hill. I can't say I love this shot: it's too wide and the buildings too small. But it does capture the campus, doesn't it?

Day 283 - Spectacular orange with hints of green

Fall has arrived in New Brunswick. With this weekend's spectacular weather, filled with high temperatures, blue skies and miles and miles of sunshine, the leaves have officially gone crazy. The colours are spectacular.

My only worry is, with the strong winds that have now roared in and the rain that's expected by mid-week, they might not be around for long.

That's why I had to get out today to get some shots of some nearby trees in all of their brightness, including this maple tree that's just up the street from us. With the sun on it and the telephoto getting us close, this tree is a spectacular orange with just a few remaining hints of green scattered here and there. The tree also offers a section of dark red but the photos combining both the red and orange leaves, for some reason, came out quite faded in their colours.

Day 282 - If you can't beat'em

Gibson Memorial United Church on, you guessed it, Gibson Street in Fredericton is one of several beautiful churches on the city's North Side.

It is also one of the hardest to photograph thanks to the many power and other lines that run in front of the building and the length of Gibson Street, all the way to Marysville. I tried very hard to find a way to get a picture of the church while eliminating (or at least minimising) the impact of these many thick wires. No chance. No matter where I stood, no matter what focal length I used, there were always wires.

The closest I got was one photo, taken at an extreme angle, that had no wires but still the heavy shadows of the wires running across the building. Of course, I could have waited until the sun moved or I could have gone back on a cloudy day but the angle was so severe that the building looked distorted. No longer beautiful. Just weird.

On the theory that "If you can't beat'em, join'em", I decided to try to find a way to make the wires contribute to the effect of the photo. Did I succeed? I think so. By focusing only on this single spire, with the wires dark and heavy from bottom to top, I think I've created an interesting composition that complements, rather than detracts from, the beauty of this detail of the building.

Day 281 - An urban farm

The Neill farm that fronts on McLaren Avenue in Fredericton's North Side is one of those charming little oddities about this capital city. At some point in the past, this farm was just one of many in this area but today, with the slow growth of this town, the Neill Farm is an agricultural oasis in the middle of a great deal of development.

In this photograph, I tried to capture that fabulous tree and the beautiful farm house while framing out the city that's encroaching on all sides. I think I did a good job of it. This looks like a traditional farm with no real surprises. But what you don't see in this shot is the new subdivision that has been built just outside the frame to the left, the older neighbourhood that borders the farm just to the right of the house and the completely developed area that separates the front of the farm house from the Saint John River probably a kilometre away.

We were introduced to the Neill Farm when we first starting looking to buy a house here in Fredericton. Our agent talked about how much it added to the neighbourhood but warned that, as time goes by, more and more of its land might be developed. It's an amazingly beautiful relic of times gone by and I hope it remains for a long time to come.

On a photographic note, check out the difference in the colours between the top and bottom photos. I'm impressed with how much deeper the blue of the sky and the green of the lawn became in the lower shot simply because I upped the shutter speed a little, allowing in slightly less light so that today's bright sunshine wasn't able to bleed some of the colour away.

Day 280 - Finding fall in Fredericton

This is the best I could do in trying to find fall in downtown Fredericton. For some reason, I thought the colours would be everywhere but, instead, I found only patches of brilliance in some trees.

With the wind blowing quite strongly and a blanket of clouds still in the sky, the trick with this photograph was keeping the shutter speed high enough to freeze the moving leaves (1/100th or faster) while still keeping at least a decent depth of focus, all the while making sure I was getting enough light into the camera.

No easy task, I tell you. Once I got that all puzzled out (to be honest, I just waited for one of the brief moments of sun), I had to decide again how close to get to the subject. In this case, I decided I should keep the angle fairly tight, to give some detail in the leaves and show clearly the contrast in colour between the green and the red. I actually think it turned out quite well.

Day 279 - Charlie Brown could tell you

This photograph is a tribute to my favourite comic strip character, Charlie Brown, who seemed to have a knack for putting his own kites in just this precarious position.

We've had a cold, windy and wet time of it here in Fredericton these past four or five days and I wouldn't be surprised if this scene is the result of some daring but foolhardy scheme to fly a kite in the howling winds of our most recent storm. I had gone out on my lunch hour, intent on taking pictures of the beautiful colours of fall here in New Brunswick, but, finding none, I wound up with this fun little snapshot instead.

Snapshot, perhaps, but not so easy to get. First there was the positioning issue: where should I stand to get the best possible angle on the kite? Then there was the problem of light: the bright sky behind the kite demanded a much faster shutter speed and usually I prefer sky over just about anything else but, in this case, I wanted the colours of the kite to come through so I slowed down the shutter and allowed the sky to bleach out. And of course, finally, I had to decide on the zoom level: did I want a close-up of the poor kite among the branches or would a longer shot do better to establish the situation and the height at which the kite found itself perched?

I ended up going with the most distant shot I took because I liked the way this photograph demonstrates the power imbalance in the battle between tree and kite. The tree is tall, broad and strong while the kite is small and fragile. Guess who won? Charlie Brown could tell you.

Day 278 - The dog with the hairdo

You know? I think I dated this girl in the 80s. Isn't that the craziest hairdo you've ever seen on a dog?

I caught this little animal tied up outside the Radical Edge in downtown Fredericton. I like the way she sat, framed by the sign and its pole, with the tree as a background. I think she's a poodle although she might be some kind of poodle cross. With what? I'm not sure.

This was a classic blink-and-you've-missed-it kind of photograph so the focus might now be perfect. The dog sat and looked up only for a moment, then went back to sniffing Travis Tritt on the poster above her. Is it a great photo? Probably not. But it's fun and funny and I just can't get over that dazzling hairdo. The dog's owner came bounding down the steps of the shop just after I snapped the picture but I don't think she was too bothered: I'm sure the dog wows lots of people.

Day 277 - The berries of the mountain ash

There was a small mountain ash tree on the front lawn of one of our elderly neighbours when I was growing up. I remember be fascinated by the bright orange berries that popped out at the end of the summer, providing ample ammunition for attacks on friends and siblings alike.

We have four mountain ashes on our property here in Fredericton and I am still very fond of them, no matter how terrible a mess they make when the berries fall. Forester friends tell me that this breed is a "weed tree" in that it is not native to the area and grows fast and free whereever it seeds itself. That's fine. Mountain ashes are weed trees. But they're pretty and, for me at least, filled with both memories and, from time to time, cedar waxwings.

Day 276 - Angry Beavers

I'm not sure anything more needs to be said about this sculpture (in concrete, no less) of two angry beavers that sits in Officers Square in downtown Fredericton.

They're beavers on a mission alright but I have no idea why anyone would want to sculpt them with such angry expressions nor who would want to buy the sculpture and place it in a public place. Is it a protest against the devastation we've caused to the natural world? Are these beavers mad because we've taken their habitat and poisoned their water? I don't know and they're not telling.

Day 275 - The contrast of banners and stencils

You've seen those banners before. The ones in the background, framed by the arch of the metal sign. I posted a photograph of them months ago when they first went up. This time, I've tried to use the bright sunshine to create an interesting effect: shooting the banners from a distance, through the stencil archway-sign so that the foreground is dark and the banners and their brick buildings are bright and clear.

I'm quite pleased with the result. I think this is a well-composed, nicely lit photo with plenty of visual interest. I have to laugh, however, at the single wire that runs across the top of the image: that's classic Fredericton. A beautiful view marred by wires, poles or construction. It happens every time.

For the record, that's the New Brunswick College of Art and Design with the banners. I took a number of exposures of this photo and ended up choosing the darkest. That always seems to be my preference: dark and rich photos.

Day 274 - On cannons and condos

I worked very hard to get this photograph right. I just wish I had the technical ability to airbrush that telephone pole out of the way.

Although I doubt that anyone living in that condo building across the river is at all afraid (or even aware, probably), it really looks like this cannon is aimed directly at their homes. The big gun is located on Officers Square, a part of the historic Garrison District in downtown Fredericton, and once provided the young town with much from all kinds of foes, including the French, the Americans and even the Aboriginal peoples who were forced from their lands to make way for European settlement.

I doubt this cannon ever had the power to fire a projectile all the way across the river (which is really very wide in this area) but I may be wrong. I don't think the condo dwellers have anything to worry about, at least. And it's amazing what a really narrow aperture will do for your depth of focus!