Day 242 - Weird mushrooms

Now those are some weird mushrooms. Like umbrellas blown inside out. I blame Hurricane Irene.

Day 241 - It's not nice to fool...

I walked to work on Monday with the Olympus in hand, intending to document the damage done to the good city of Fredericton by the winds and rain of Hurricane Irene. I felt a sort of guilty disappointment when I found little damage at all, but for the odd planter blown over or tiny branch on the street. So I decided to do a bit of a mockumentary, photographing the "damage" as evidence of how overblown (pardon the pun) the hype preceding the storm had been in NB.

How ironic it was, then, that Irene turned around and knocked out the power to our house (and our entire block) for 36 hours, robbing me of my ability to post my sarcastic response to her unexpectedly weak assault on this city. Just when I wanted to make fun of her, she took away my forum for doing so. At least or a day and a half. She left us living with candles and flashlights. We had to move all our food to the freezers and fridges of friends. Ahh, as the old commercial said, "It's not nice to fool [with] mother nature". Or Hurricane Irene.

Now, the power is now back on and the iMac is purring so I don't have to waste all those nice shots of the "carnage" Irene left in her wake. Other than the power outages that left about 50,000 New Brunswickans in the dark for anywhere between two and 36 hours, all the damage I could find is represented in these four photographs, snapped as I walked to work.

Overturned potted plants (and this photo shows just one of the two I saw), a toppled basketball net, fallen barricades and a couple of broken branches were, thankfully, the only real damage I could find. As for the photos themselves, I like the first and third best. They both have nice compositions and interesting colours. I'm not sure the basketball net pic works as art and the branch just seems to blend into the background.

Day 240 - Blue sky and Robbie Burns

A rather strange photograph of the statue of poet Robbie Burns that stands outside the Beaverbrook Gallery in downtown Fredericton.

It's a fairly nice statute and it's located in a nice place, with plenty of grass and trees nearby and the river in the background. But what has really drawn me to this photo is not the statue, the grass nor the trees but that beautiful blue sky with its cotton-ball clouds. I just think it's so beautiful.

And, with Hurricane Irene bearing down on the Maritimes right now, a lovely blue sky is worth remembering. We might not see another one for a while.

Day 239 - Photographing frustration

I chose this photograph for today's blog entry for two reasons: 1) I like it; and 2) it sums up for me the experience of trying to photograph Fredericton and its beauty.

I like it because I think it has nice balance and composition, with the layers of the foreground, river and background creating an interesting effect. I'm pleased with how the tree to the right serves to connect the land at top and bottom, bridging the river, and with how the port-a-pottie blends with the massive black sewer tubes in the foreground.

On the other hand, it is an image of frustration. Here we have a wonderful view: a gorgeous church in the distance, a lovely sky, a flowing river and beautifully shaped trees both near and far. And it's ruined by the manmade chaos in the foreground.

My experience of attempting to capture Fredericton's beauty is captured in this photograph. Lovely buildings, beautiful landscapes, impressive natural wonders, and yet in almost every situation someone has done something to mar the loveliness. Usually, it's hydro wires that get in the way. Less often, it's construction of this kind. But there's always something.

So, on this occasion, instead of allowing myself to seethe with frustration at yet another fantastic shot ruined, I decided to make my frustration the subject of the photo.