This week in pictures: “I want them to see it whether they want to or not.”

I like to sit down on the weekend and write these posts, looking for the common thread in the week’s picture and coming up with themes and descriptions. Some weeks, though, the photos defy easy homogenization — they’re just all over the place. This is one of those weeks. Flowers, portraits, strangers and skateboards. Interestingly, and perhaps not coincidentally, my own brain has been kind of all over the place this week, too.

If I had the time to blog properly, I’d have blogged the resolution to my skateboard question a few weeks back. After getting some great advice from a friend who was a skateboarder back in the day, we took Tristan out to fulfill his 10-year-old heart’s desire:

Sk8rboi

“You realize,” I told him, “that I’m only doing this so I can take pictures of you?”

“Sure Mom!”

Sk8r

This sweet family of five came out for porch portraits on the holiday Monday. I’ll have more pictures from their session to share soon!

Porch portrait sneak peek - C family

Dandelions continue to fascinate me. People hate them, I know, but I kinda like them. They are lovely when they’re yellow, and interesting when they’ve gone to seed. I’m going to start a new movement – embrace the dandelion! I mean, sure, I could tend my lawn, but then I wouldn’t be able to take photographs like these!

Oh sure, I could tend my overgrown lawn, but then my photographs would be boring...

I keep looking at this photo and wondering when Lucas got to be so grown up. I take 30 pictures of the child each week, but this one makes me nostalgic for a time that hasn’t even passed yet.

wish

Speaking of old (I know, I stretched on that segue), I love the fact that 180 years after the Rideau Canal was built, they still use these mechanisms to open and close the locks by hand. (I’ve been thinking of writing a few blog posts about the history of Manotick and the Rideau Canal. Would that be of interest to you?)

Lock gear

We’re in our second summer in Manotick, and I still haven’t gotten used to the (wildly overgrown) garden. Every morning this week I’ve woken up to find something new blooming, including these lovely irises. I still can’t look at an iris without thinking of Georgia O’Keefe. Aside from turning irises into erotica, she said, “When you take a flower in your hand and really look at it, it’s your world for the moment. I want to give that world to someone else. Most people in the city rush around so, they have no time to look at a flower. I want them to see it whether they want to or not.”

Iris

And last but not least, this is Charlie. Charlie was fishing off the weir at Watson’s Mill while I was taking photographs of a great blue heron in the water below and we struck up a conversation. I was charmed by the hat and the pipe, and managed to work up the courage to not only ask him if I could take his picture but to ask him if he would sign a model release for me so I might license the picture. I was so surprised and pleased when he said yes that I was almost too nervous to take the picture.

Charlie the fisherman

When I asked him if he would like me to e-mail him a copy of the photograph, he laughed and said, “Oy, no. My wife would kill me if she saw the pipe.” Ha! If you’re reading, Charlie’s wife, please don’t give him hell. He was a treat to chat with.

Author: DaniGirl

Canadian. storyteller, photographer, mom to 3. Professional dilettante.

2 thoughts on “This week in pictures: “I want them to see it whether they want to or not.””

  1. I’d love to hear about the history of the locks and mill! That would be fascinating.

    And, love love love your shot of Charlie. What a great story – captured in one image.

  2. I enjoy all of these haphazard images (cohesion be damned!). 🙂

    “You realize,” I told him, “that I’m only doing this so I can take pictures of you?” Umm….hilarious!! I may or may not have utter these same words to my children (possibly dozen’s of times, *gulp!).

    And for the record…I’m with Charlie’s wife on this one….pipe = yuck!

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