Victoria Island, Ottawa

These photos were all taken at/on Victoria Island in Ottawa yesterday. The island is at the base of Chaudiere Falls and at one time there were 14 mills there that drew power from the Falls. The buildings are (almost) all abandoned now but many of the structures remain in tact, from the outside anyway. Despite being "caught" again TWICE, I took quite a lot of shots and here are a bunch of my faves. I'm really glad we found these places!

Prince of Wales Bridge

I headed off this afternoon to the old Prince of Wales train bridge with Brigitte and Chris. It's been abandoned for decades and had a lot of interesting material for photographing. I took several hundred shots but am only posting a few. Brigitte and I had some good laughs at Chris's expense and if he says it's ok I'll post some pics tomorrow of his little camera mishap :)

You can't go to an abandoned location and not expect graffiti and spray paint cans!

The overgrown entrance onto the bridge.

I'm not sure if I love or hate this shot....if you look carefully you can see on the top what remains of the sign that at one time said 'Prince of Wales'.

This is my favourite from the train bridge series (we also went to another location today but I'll save those for tomorrow); the area is so peaceful and serene.

What I think is a seagull feather, stuck vertically to part of the bridge.This emulates how poor Brigitte felt for every second she was on the bridge! She was a good sport though :)

Even all of the wires on neighbouring lines have been cut.

Just as we were about to leave (before all hell broke loose....haha Chris!) we were joined by a couple of teenagers. Using my zoom meant that they never even realized I was shooting them :)

I'd also like to add that it was fun to spend a couple of hours with Kim (and Dave) and Pam this morning while waiting in line for gift certificates at Henry's - it's too bad we all waited so long (well, me not as long as them) for $10 each...haha. Hope you're enjoying your new lens Kim!

Sitting Ducks

I stopped by Mooney's Bay again on my way home from the lab today. Once I move in 3 days (!!!!) I won't be driving by as often so I wanted to stop because it was a nice day; cool and windy but sunny so I was happy! Besides, there's always "material" at the beach for photographing!
This pair of ducks must have had a nest close-by because there was nothing I could do to scare them away (not that I was trying); I didn't find it unfortunately. They just sat with their backs to me the whole time....

I really like water grasses and cattails....

Not a great photo but I had no time to change the shutter speed. I like it all the same....

Mooney's Bay

I spent the day in my office and took a quick stroll through Mooney's Bay park on my way home. People were everywhere, enjoying the sun. I wasn't dressed for the sunny outdoors today so I didn't last long but I did manage to take a few photos. It would have been a perfect opportunity to sneak some people shots but I only had my kit lens with me so I would have had to have been sitting on top of them to get a shot....hence, no people :)

I like this first shot because you can faintly see the rays of the sun over the beach! I couldn't get much closer to the water's edge because just last week the area was flooded so the beach remains quite muddy.

They haven't cleaned all the plant debris off the sand yet...

Trees that are just sprouting leaves...

They're Baaaccckkkkkk!

The ground is still snowy but the geese and seagulls have returned! The goose has been tagged; by who, I don't know.....

Riverside Park Under Water

As you might imagine, with all the snow that fell this year, we're now experiencing some flooding. These photos were taken today along Riverside Drive (Ottawa River). The river has flooded its banks and has sunken the park. In fact, it's very close to running over the road as well and it has not yet reached its peak (which will probably be tomorrow or Sunday). What's worse is that it's pouring rain so that can't be helping the situation. We might be unhappy but the waterfowl seem quite pleased :)

Saturday Randoms

A few randoms from yesterday and this morning....

Brigitte and Craig have lots of wonderful pieces of art in their home; this is a photo of one of my favourites :)

Driving over the Champlain Bridge (between Ottawa, ON and Gatineau, QC) this morning, I asked Brannon to stop so I could get a photo....the sun was beautiful!

Riverside

I went for a quick walk along the Ottawa river today; it was really cold and I wasn't really dressed for it so it was a quick one! It was extremely gray today and now it's currently snowing again....here's what I saw...

I like the different levels of "frozen-ness" in this one.

The water has receded by about 50' from where it would be in the summer; hence, we can see the shells of the zebra mussels that have infested the river.