Fogtography

August 3, 2009, Grand Manan Island

This morning greeted me with a frequent sight on Grand Manan -- thick fog. When you travel to a coastal island, you have to expect bad weather -- especially this year, which seems to be unusually rainy.

Net Point through the Fog

Our trip to Grand Manan has had more than it's share of fog, and I was not enthused with yet another foggy day. Eventually, I decided to get up and go out with my camera anyway, just to see what would happen.

The house we are renting is right beside one of the island's most photographed sites, the Swallowtail lighthouse. As I was loading the car, I noticed that the lighthouse was visible through the fog, just a faint outline against the grey fog. I picked up my camera and took some photographs, and as I did, the fog began to lift just a bit. I continued to photograph, and after a few more minutes, the lighthouse emerged from the fog, and gave me some superb images.

Swallowtail Lighthouse

After having some fun with the lighthouse, my next stop was Pettes Cove, the cove immediately beside the lighthouse. I didn't plan on stopping, but the fishing weir in the cove caught my eye emerging from the fog, and I decided to see what it would look like against the grey sky and ocean. By now, the fog had just about dissipated, occasionally letting the sun shine through the clouds. The shimmer on the water in front of the weir was fantastic.

Weir at Pettes Cove

Fog can completely obliterate the scenery (at times here, you can barely see across the street), but when it's not quite so thick, it can create fantastic abstractions. On an island like this, you have to be prepared to deal with fog, and take advantage of what it has to offer.

. . . Rob Williams
http://www.robwilliams.ca

Bad weather and landscape photography

Today's Environment Canada forecast for Ottawa

Rain, rain, and more rain -- that's the forecast from Environment Canada. Forecasts are often wrong, especially in the long term, but this forecast is one of my worst fears as a landscape photographer. For some reason, this kind of weather has confronted me quite often this spring and summer.

So, what am I supposed to do? One option is to turn to wildflower photography, which I have done for a couple of weekends. Occasionally, the clouds break, and I can try some landscapes.

Another option is to follow some advice that I've read from time to time: when the the weather turns stormy, head out! Yesterday I decided to get myself out of the house, and do just that. The forecast indicated clouds and showers all day, with a risk of thunderstorms. Just in case there was a break late in the day, I went out to a favourite spot for a short hike, and maybe some photographs.

When I got to the trail, the path was wet, and there were storms in the distance, and as I got started walking, it started to rain. I waited out the storm, and walked down to the marsh.

Mer Bleue marsh

Sometimes you get lucky. Shortly after I arrived at the marsh, the sun broke through the clouds, and lit up the marsh. The storms continued in the background, giving me some beautiful scenes. The only problem was lightning in the distance -- I never got too far down the trail just in case the storm arrived overhead in earnest.

I know that I won't be this lucky very often, but I'll take this kind of opportunity whenever I can.

. . . Rob Williams
http://www.robwilliams.ca

By the way, the images for this post were processed entirely using my Linux machine. Bibble Pro 5 (Preview version 2) was used for raw conversion, and digiKam was used for viewing and resizing. Everything is not as smooth as I would like (this includes more time needed to get used to the tools), but Linux is now a servicable option while my main machine is out at the shop.

The Audacity of the Canal Builders

The Rideau Canal running from Ottawa to Kingston was built between 1826 and 1832 in reaction to the events of the War of 1812. A safe route between Montreal and Kingston was needed, to avoid a vulnerable area of the St. Lawrence River. Although the canal uses mostly natural waterways, the engineers of the time still had a significant challenge, and undertook extraordinary measures to manage the water.

Recently I visited several locks between the Narrows Lock which divides Upper Rideau Lake and Big Rideau Lake, and Jones Falls. The work of the engineers and dam builders in this region is incredible.

The Narrows Lock

The Narrows lock is a pretty location with lakes on both sides, but the lock and dam are somewhat unremarkable. Upper Rideau Lake represents the high point of the waterway. The dam between Upper Rideau Lake and Big Rideau Lake is quite short -- there is a natural narrows here. As well, the difference in water levels is only a few feet, so it's hard to understand why this dam and lock were necessary.

It turns out that there was a lot of hard bedrock leading to the next lock down at Newboro. So, rather than excavate the rock and delay their work, they decided to raised the level of the lake with the dam at the Narrows, to allow ships to pass. Now that's thinking outside the box!

The dam at Jones Falls also shows you the level of engineering and dam-making ability that this group possessed. The dam is immense -- at 60 feet high and 350 feet wide at the top, it was the highest dam in North America in 1831. It is quite an impressive sight.

The Dam at Jones Falls

Colonel By and his engineers certainly had a huge job on their hands, and their efforts are still impressive today.

A good website for the history and description of the canal can be found at www.rideau-info.com, or at the Parks Canada website for the Rideau Canal.

. . . Rob Williams
http://www.robwilliams.ca

Graffitti Art

Graffiti on buildings and other objects is considered a crime of vandalism, and in most cases I agree completely. On the other hand, some of the most interesting urban scenes contain graffiti, and I think it can occasionally cross the boundary into the art world, worthy of being seen and not hidden or removed. I found these two images on one of my recent outings, quite unexpectedly. They are hidden from view, except if you are crawling around under bridges, but I find them quite striking.

. . . Rob Williams
http://www.robwilliams.ca

Recent Work: Lac Bourgeois

Lac Bourgeois, Gatineau Park, Quebec

One of the nice things about spring is that the shoreline of lakes is not yet overgrown, so if you are willing (and able) to walk to the edge, some views are available that are hard to get at other times of the year. Sometimes it involves wading through mud and muck, but a good pair of waterproof hiking boots can get you through!

Other recent work can be seen on my website.

. . . Rob Williams
http://www.robwilliams.ca

Suburban Henge

Strange obelisks at Green's Creek

Recently while walking along a nature trail in the east end of Ottawa, I encountered a series of strange concrete obelisks, obviously decaying with age, complete with spray-painted art and tags.

Today's version of stonehenge? I can only guess at the modern "rituals" that gave rise to these pillars.

. . . Rob Williams
http://www.robwilliams.ca