Day 245 - Fun with fog

Fog represents a great opportunity for the photograph. It adds mystery and texture to a shot, making an average landscape special.

We've had fog most mornings this week but, unfortunately, I'm usually out and on my way to work just after the sun starts to eradicate the stuff, so it's too late for the really great fog photos. That's not to say I'm unhappy with this shot of King's College Road, looking east from York Street in Fredericton. I'm actually quite fond of it. But you can see that the fog in this picture is not pea-soup thick and, in fact, is at this point in the morning receding fast.

Still, I'm happy with the dark intensity of the trees on the left, the foggy figures in the distance and the crispness of the lines on the road. I think it's a nice photo, not an iconic fog picture but not bad nonetheless.

The lower photograph is more of a standard fog shot, this time with the sun serving as the central focal point. I don't think this photograph is as successful as the top one but it's interesting nonetheless. I played with the shutter speed to adjust the amount of light getting in to create the proper contrast between the dark trees and building (the new Fredericton YMCA, by the way) and the bright sky. I wanted the sun (through the fog) to be a crisply shaped ball in the sky and I think I've come up with a decent picture.

Day 244 - Sir Howard Douglas (Old Arts) Hall

The University of New Brunswick campus at Fredericton features the longest continuously serving university building in Canada:a lovely stone building which has been known by many names, among them "King's College", "Old Arts" and its current moniker, "Sir Howard Douglas Hall".

Old Arts was the school's original building when the university began operation on its current site on the hill in Fredericton in 1829. At that time, Old Arts housed classroom space, lab space, office space as well as dorm rooms and a chapel. The chapel, a lovely room on the ground floor, is still in use and contains much of the original furniture.

Photographing Old Arts is not easy. To get a good shot of the front (top picture) you have to wander down the grassy slope in front to a line of trees. Both the branches overhead and the slope below you tend to get in the way of your shot. In this photo, for example, the bottom of the first floor is lost behind the lip of the hill while the dome is obscured somewhat by leaves.

The picturesque entrance on the east side of the building (lower photo) creates challenges because of the close proximity of other buildings and a parking lot. Difficult to get a nice shot of it but well worth the effort. Unfortunately, the west entrance (which offers itself up to your camera) is not nearly as pretty.

And, as for the rear of the building, well, it's not as nice as the front, it is skirted by a busy parking lot and, to get far enough away for a full shot, you have to climb onto the terraced roof of the science library and still deal with wires.

To sum it up, Old Arts is a gorgeous building but just a little bit shy.