Category: Photography

Five years ago, I got some of my favourite photographs of Parliament Hill, as seen over the tulip beds behind the Canadian Museum of History.

Though I’ve taken many, many, MANY photos of the tulips and the Parliament Buildings since then, I thought this would be a good year to go back and revisit those iconic shots with a better camera, a better lens and frankly, better technical chops.

It’s a bit longer of a walk from where I’m working now to the History Museum, but I showed up for work early to buy myself some extra lunch hour, ate my lunch early at my desk, and set off with my camera into a perfect spring day.

It’s been about a week since the flooded Ottawa River crested, and parts of the foot path that had been submerged just last week were clear and dry.

(I quite liked this shot from last Tuesday, the day the flood waters crested. None shall pass on this submerged multi-use path behind the Library and Archives buildings!)

When I crossed the Portage Bridge, the waters were still high and raging. The sound of rushing water was still powerful – but not as intense as last week.

As I crossed over to the Quebec side and picked up the multi-use path on the other side of the river, there were clues to which perhaps I should have paid more attention. But, I did not.

You’d think this would be a clue to which I should have paid attention.

The water was washing right up on to the path in a few spots. Still, I did not take the hint.

You’d really think this would have been a sign of things to come. (Get it? Sign? I slay me.)

Nevertheless, she persisted. And what she found when she finally arrived at the back lawn of the History Museum, looking out over the still-swollen Ottawa River and the Parliament Buildings beyond, was one sad little tulip, and the remains of a tulip bed that had been, until very recently, completely underwater. Ottawa’s great flood of 2017 was not kind to the flower beds.

Alas, poor tulips, I knew them well.

I guess we’ll have to wait until Spring 2018 to revisit that iconic tulip shot from behind the History Museum. If anybody needs me, I’ll be on Parliament Hill. They chose it for its elevation – the flood waters never came anywhere near these beauties!

I miss not working downtown anymore mostly because I miss creeping around with my camera. I’m sure the two most-photographed buildings in my archives are Watson’s Mill in Manotick and the Parliament Buildings, and I’m not sure which one would come out ahead quantity-wise. So when I had the occasion on Sunday morning to do a little poking around on the grounds of the Museum of History (after being unceremoniously chased off the grounds of the neighbourhing Kruger plant by a guard with a marked disinterest in my artistic pursuits) I was in my happy place.

There’s nothing I like more than finding a new and interesting way to take a photo of a familiar subject. I’d been looking for reflections of the Parliament Buildings on the melting river ice but they were patchy and didn’t have the effect I wanted. I love this one, though. This is my kind of selfie!

Beautiful, right?

The light was flat and grey but that helps emphasize the interesting shapes in the foreground here, I think.

More shapes – I think this could be better but I can’t quite figure out how. Vexing. I have said many times in my head recently that I am simply not a landscape photographer.

I upgraded to a desktop computer from a laptop recently, and had to upgrade all of my software, too. It was as traumatizing as you might imagine, but jumping from Lightroom 4 to Lightroom CC has opened up a world of neat new features, including dead easy panorama stitching. This is ten or so photos merged together.

And finally, to wrap everything up, a selfie and the Parliament Buildings reflected in the History Musueum’s windows — as a pano! This is nine images stitched together.

Like most people, I’ve found the past few days troubling and stressful. Getting out to play with my camera was truly a balm on my soul. I’m so grateful to have this creative outlet, and to live in such a beautiful and photogenic city!