Day 175 - Rise and shine!

I didn't get to post over the last few days as I was in a photography workshop that I helped organize for my photo club at work.  It went off pretty well, although there are no photos from the workshop - it was mostly aimed at complete beginners, but being one of the organizers, I had to be present.

However, on one of the evenings, I took some nice shots of the night lights as I was waiting for the bus back home.  And when I went out this morning, I accidentally deleted all of them! :(  I was really looking forward to seeing how they had turned out, as the preview looked pretty darn good.  Oh, well!

I saw a few wisps of clouds last night and decided that we might have a nice sunrise today.  So, I was out of the house by about 6:30 am, since the sunrise was supposed to be at 7:19.  It was chilly at -1 deg. C, with the chill factor at -5.  But the moment I stepped out of the building, I realized that I was going out for nothing - not a cloud in the sky!  We'd have a normal sunrise, with nothing to add interest to the skies.  I know the birds are mostly gone already, except a few chickadees and starlings.  I almost half-turned to return home to my warm bed.  But then I told myself - "Rise and shine!  'Tis the dawn of a new day!"  And with that, my mood lifted dramatically, and I headed for the riverside.

I set up and took a few shots as the red glow smeared the horizon - alas, nothing inspiring; nothing spectacular.  And I'm a little tired of the same locations.  I definitely need to find some place more inspiring, but the problem is getting there before dawn.  I really have to start doing some early morning driving.

I picked up my camera and tripod, and headed into the thick brambly bushes along the shore.  I knew there was a canoe that I had found lying under some trees, and I figured that the first rays of the sun would hit the boat lying in the underbrush.  I saw the sun peaking out from below the horizon, and I stumbled over some roots and almost fell with camera et al.  Fortunately, I grabbed a tree-branch and steadied myself and also got a shot at the sun, although the image is too cluttered! :(  I could not move around for a cleaner shot of the precise moment the sun popped up.

And then a little ahead, I found the boat! And exactly as I had hoped to find it.  Here are a few of the images from different angles.  

I have a few other shots of birds and squirrels, and some more leaves (I just couldn't resist those leaves!), but I think I will take some time to process them later.  

However, considering the number of times I stumbled over roots, and twisted my ankles (fortunately, not severely), I think for next year, I will buy some good hiking shoes to get into these parts of the terrain.  I can't afford to break either my photography gear, or my mobility gear (read feet, ankles, and other appendages). 

À la prochaine! 

Day 151 - Abandoned boat

I found this canoe next to the river, in a really deep part of the woods on my evening walk.  I processed this in Lightroom 3.

Day 87 - More birds

Two men and their dog gone fishing on the St. Lawrence River.

I spotted two more birds this evening - the common grackle and a couple of cedar waxwings.  I saw a couple of yellow warblers, but it was already too dark and they were too high up for me to snap them.  Oh, well!

This is most likely a lincoln's sparrow, but I'm not completely certain.  

The beautiful colours of the common grackle, captured in the glow of the setting sun.

The cedar waxwing - it very difficult to snap this one as he was hiding behind leaves.  Took a while to get shots clear of branches.  This is the best one I could get.  

Day 68 - Daniel McAllister

Montrealers know who Daniel McAllister is, don't they?

Trivia

The Daniel McAllister was built in 1905-1906, at Collingwood shipyard, and launched in 1907 under the name Helena. The new oceangoing tugboat measured 32,5' in lenght and 7' across at the midship beam.She began her career on the Atlantic coast. The daniel mc allister was placed here after the locks were re built. The boat is sitting on a concrete cradle (visible when the intermediate pool is drained) kinda funny the boat is a sieve, when they drain the canal you see water comming out for hours!!

The tugboat was renamed Daniel McAllister when it was purchased by McAllister Towing Ltd. In 1967, she could often be seen towing Canadian Pacific's large passenger liners - the Empress of Canada and the Empress of England - into the port of Montreal where she ended her career in the 1980s.

The Daniel McAllister is the oldest and largest tugboat to be preserved in Canada and the second oldest oceangoing tug to be preserved in the world.