Photography

Esmaa Mohamoud: To Play In The Face Of Certain Defeat at the Ottawa Art Gallery

Art, Ottawa

The Ottawa Art Gallery has reopened after provincial pandemic restrictions have been loosened and the occupation that took hold of downtown Ottawa for almost a month has ended and you need to go to ASAP because Esmaa Mohamoud’s exhibition ends March 27th! This fantastic exhibition, To Play In The Face Of Certain Defeat draws on imagery from sports to explore the ways in which Black bodies appear and yet are rendered invisible within the spaces they exist. Using athletic equipments the installations and photography “illustrate pervasive, discriminatory behaviours and attitudes based on race, class, gender, and sexuality.”

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Skating on the Rideau Canal

Canada, Ontario, Ottawa, Travel

Winter in Ottawa can be cold, snowy, icy, slushy and just miserable after 3 months in with still more to go. But there is one amazing and fun bright spot in it all, the Rideau Canal Skateway. I’m not a fan of winter. The long nights and endless cold really take their toll on me. Sure snow can be pretty but I’d be happy only to see it at Christmas. Don’t get me wrong, I love Ottawa but we get pretty harsh winters here. Thankfully we also know how to have fun in winter when the 7.8km long Rideau Canal gets turned into the world’s longest skating rink every winter (for as long as the weather is cold enough to keep it frozen). I only learned to love skating a few years ago and I’m still not very strong so I’ve yet to skate the entire length of the canal but the section around Patterson Creek in the Glebe is so pretty that I don’t really feel like I need to. This winter I’ve managed to make it over to the canal a few times and here are some of my photos. Also find my tips for visiting the Rideau Canal Skateway at the bottom of this post!

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Jardins de Métis / Reford Gardens

Bas-Saint-Laurent, Canada, Québec, Travel

With pandemic restrictions starting to loosen up across Canada we decided to take our summer vacation close-ish to home still. Since it’s still not a normal summer we decided just to do a small trip and to try to remain outside as much as possible. What better place to do that than a beautiful garden. I’ve wanted to visit the Jardins de Métis / Reford Gardens in Québec’s Bas-Saint-Laurent region for a long time so we decided to basically plan a little trip around visiting it.

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Summer Evenings in Ottawa

Ottawa, Photography

Another summer of mostly staying close to home means lots of walks around the city. Golden hour walks around downtown Ottawa are the best when the light changes, the weather cools down a bit and people are chilling in the park and on patios. My favourite places are along Wellington Street, Major’s Hill Park, around the National Gallery of Canada and the Byward Market, down along the Rideau Canal close to the NAC and of course the Ottawa Locks by the Chateau Laurier. Here are some snapshots of summer evenings in Ottawa.

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Memories of France

France, Personal, Travel

While going through some old photos I came across slides that my Grandpa took decades ago in Paris, probably in the 1970s. It made me think about my first trip to France about 10 years ago in 2011. I thought it would be fun to share some of my old photos from the amazing trip around France with my family. It was really a dream trip, 3 weeks around France. We started in Paris and then went north to Giverny, Honfleur and Mont Saint Michel. Then we traveled south to the Loire Valley to see chateaux then to the walled city of Carcassonne and to Provence. There were visited Arles, Nimes, Avignon the Pont du Gard and Orange and continued to Nice for some riviera sunshine. To finish off we head back north to Chartres before flying home from Paris again. It’s always fun looking back on old photos and memories from great travels. I’d love to return to France and see more of this beautiful country.

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Spring in Ottawa

Ottawa, Photography

With most things still closed in Ottawa this spring due to the pandemic I tried to enjoy spending time outside, which for me means photographing all the flowers. So here are some shots of spring in Ottawa.

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Saguaro Sunset

Photography, Shop, Travel, United States

Well it’s winter and we’ve probably got at least another month and a half of snowy, cold weather here in Ottawa so I thought I’d look back on some of my travel photos from somewhere warm. While setting up my new photography shop on Darkroom I came across all my saguaro cactus photographs from a sunset hike in Arizona. So to launch my new Darkroom photography shop and to imagine I’m somewhere warm I’m sharing the photos here that you can now buy prints of! Please enjoy!

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Mexico City Travel Guide

Mexico, Photography, Travel

In March I visited Mexico for the first time to eat all the food and see all the art. I’m not a beach/resort person so we visited Mexico City. It was an amazing experience exploring this massive, crazy city. There are so many district areas/neighbourhoods to explore and in 5 days we saw so much of the city and ate so much amazing food.

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Snapshots from Québec City

Canada, Québec, Québec City & Île d'Orléans, Travel

On our way home from a weekend in northern Québec we detoured to historic Québec City for a couple hours to wander the old city. Suffice to say, 3 hours is not enough time and we’ll be back soon to see more of this beautiful place. Until then, there are some snapshots for around beautiful Vieux-Québec.

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Casa Gilardi, Mexico City

Mexico, Photography, Travel

Casa Gilardi is the last private home designed by renowned Mexican architect Luis Barragán in Mexico City. The house was built between 1975-1978 and is still owned by the original family who commissioned Barragán to build it. During our trip to Mexico City in March we visited this special house.

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