Ottawa Daily Photo: Moon

Showing posts with label Moon. Show all posts

Friday, April 3, 2026

Ends And Odds Around A National Capital

Starting off today, this early February view of the future main branch of the Ottawa Public Library, as seen from the west.

During one of my Winterlude visits to Confederation Park, I photographed the National Aboriginal Veterans Monument. It combines four indigenous warriors with the eagle, the wolf, the bear, the elk, and the bison into a powerful and poignant monument.

Another night, I was passing by the Canadian Museum of Nature. I photographed the statue pair of a mother and baby dinosaur out at the east end of the property, looking oddly fitting in the snow.

I was heading past the front of the Museum. The Queens Lantern is the name of the glass tower. Inside, a model of the Moon hangs.

The purple in some of the lights caught my eye.

They also cast a glow on the main entrance. I'll have another one of these for a theme day later in the year about the colour purple.

I headed beyond, passing the family of mammoths on the west side. We'll be back for a visit to this place in a couple of days.

On yet another night, passing by Ottawa City Hall, I noticed how the Heritage Building was lit up red.

This is a monument in progress, down along the Ottawa River near Richmond Landing. This is for the LGBT community, and should be ready for dedication sometime this year.

Late one afternoon in the latter part of February, I stopped by Billings Bridge to pick up some groceries. The sun was setting in the west, and I took two shots of the western sky, a few minutes apart, first arriving and then upon departing.

For today I finish off with a night photograph of St. Matthew's Anglican Church in the Glebe, taken on a foggy evening in early March. We'll pick up here tomorrow

Sunday, March 1, 2026

City Daily Photo Theme Day: White

The first day of each month is a theme day for members of City Daily Photo, and for March, that theme is White. Check out what others are doing with the theme right here.

For me, this theme evokes winter. Snow certainly looks white- strictly speaking, it's translucent, but our brain sees it as white. And there's no shortage of snow in an Ottawa winter. I went out from home one night in January to the corner shop- with that white sign up ahead above the door. White headlights of a car on the road and the falling snow made the rest of the picture. Walking back headlong into the wind was an issue.

Coming back into my apartment, I took a shot outside to the west. The buildings you can see are government buildings. Completely lost in the snow was a condo tower, out beyond the taller building.

The following night was clear as I passed through the Glebe. The building at center is a community center and former church. The moon was bright and white in the sky.

One day while coming back from the Portage Bridge, I photographed textures in the snow, particularly the drifting.

Snow was falling on another winter day, close to home, when I took these shots.

A couple of days later, in late January, I was passing by the War Memorial, which had snow coating it late in the day as more snow fell.

Passing near the Holocaust Monument one afternoon, I took these two shots of the field beside it, concentrating on the white of the snow, and including the shadow of trees, the lines of other trails, and the texture of the snow itself.

One evening while taking shots for Winterlude, I photographed this ice bench outside the Lord Elgin Hotel. The white spotlight behind it did the trick.

Just up the street, a lot of snow. This is a descending walkway, not shoveled in the winter, with a raised flowerbed, covered in snow.

And I finish with this view of the War Memorial in winter conditions, taken in the area on a snowy day while photographing for Winterlude.

Sunday, February 15, 2026

Canal

Winterlude is the annual celebration of the best season of them all here in Ottawa and Gatineau, and it is very much centered around the Rideau Canal Skateway. 7.8 kilometers of ice are groomed for skaters between the Ottawa Locks and the Hartwell Locks. I do not skate, but I like walking on the ice. I make a point of photographing some of those walks for my Winterlude series, such as a day early in the month when I arrived onto the ice at the Bank Street Bridge, which links the Glebe on the north to Old Ottawa South on the south. Part of the bridge is undergoing some rehabilitation at present.

I started west, seeing the Moon poking through clouds in the pre-dawn light.

Not many skaters this time of day, but I seem to prefer to photograph when the skateway is quiet.

One look back at where I'd arrived- at Lansdowne Park, seen by the condo tower and South Stands at left. And then I proceeded on.

Saturday, February 14, 2026

Garden

Each season, I stop by the grounds at the Canadian Museum of Nature to visit the Landscapes of Canada Gardens and show how they look. Four distinct ecosystems from the country have trees, flowers, plants, grasses, and shrubs here. starting with Boreal Forest as we approach from the southwest.

Evergreens are a signature of the Boreal Forest, which covers a vast swath of the country. This time of year, snow was to be found.

The path leads on.

Prairie Grassland is the central section, with grasses and flowers from that region transplanted here. They are beneath the snow, waiting on spring.

A sculpture crosses the path, an iceberg in steel, made by the late Canadian artist and inventor, Bill Lishman.

Arctic Tundra is the next ecosystem. During the rest of the season, rocks are visible, with grasses and shrubs growing between them, from the far north. Taken from the west side of the property, all we see in winter is the shrubs, bare and waiting on spring.

A park bench bears a plaque dedicated by two visitors. Other such plaques are in cobblestones at the entrances, and largely obscured by snow this time of year.

The last of the ecosystems is on the left side of the path, buried by snow. It is concentrated around a series of three sculptures of mammoths. Entirely appropriate, as the plants come from the Mammoth Steppe- plants of the end of the Ice Age that such animals would have known, and which survive today.

This view includes the Queens Lantern, with a model of the Moon hanging inside.

And one more look at the family of mammoths.