Photo of the Week 2015-12-28

I can't recall if I have featured images by another photographer here on my blog, perhaps one by my father or maybe one that I found inspirational. I really should go back through all of the posts from the over six years I have been blogging (that's over 300 blog posts) to review where this photographic journey has trod.

This week I am going to feature a photograph made by someone else. Not someone standing with me, using my camera, or helping me make an image of myself in some far, or not so far away location but someone who may not be "into" photography the way I am. As far as I know, they may only take "snapshots" to record family events like birthdays and vacations ...

On Christmas morning past, as I sat waiting to open gifts while Lynn took Murphy out for his walk and Jordan slept upstairs, I sat down with my iPad to check my Facebook page and post a Merry Christmas message to all my friends. In doing so I noticed I "had mail" and checked my inbox to see a message from Holland. I smiled and thought how nice to receive a Christmas message from the family that hosted my parents when they visited in 1995. The Zandvoorts, Jan & Ina, have kept in touch over the years, and have been very generous in providing any information available regarding my grandfather who is buried in Holten Canadian War Cemetery, not far from where they live.

Recently, on Facebook, I had seen photos and short videos posted of the annual Christmas Eve candle lighting ceremony at Holten. I find it moving that the Dutch continue to honour those who lost their lives liberating Holland in the last stages of WWII. The images of the cemetery at Holten touch me deeply. I have plans to visit Holten in the next couple of years and make my own images but as beautiful and moving as it is, my visit will not be on Christmas Eve, there are other dates of significance that I must capture ... so I was overwhelmed with emotion when I opened the photos attached in the email from Holland showing my Grandfather's grave (front corner) during this year's candle ceremony. 

I posted the originals to FB on Dec 25 as they were ... here, I've taken some artistic liberties ... 

Holten Christmas Eve Candles 2015

EJGE B67380 -  Holten Cemetery 1-A-1

DJE

Merry Christmas ! (Photo of the Week 2015-12-21)

Just a few more days until Christmas !

I want to wish everyone a safe and happy holiday season.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year from me to all of you, and if you don't celebrate Christmas as I do, please do not take offence. I warmly welcome your respective holiday wishes and I thank you in advance.

DJE

Photo of the Week 2015-12-14

... actually a photo series this week

Having surrendered the cottage to one of our sons, I was looking closer to home for a trail to explore this past weekend and had noticed a comment from fellow blogger, the Furry Gnome on one of my recent posts. He mentioned the Hanlon Creek trails he used to roam and that gave me an idea to revisit the area, but those plans were short lived.

During the week I reached out to friend and regular photo companion Alan, thinking we would be able to get out for a photo walkabout while I was in town, but he had other plans. Then late in the week I started thinking of how to fit in a facility visit for work during an already packed schedule next week ... and came up with the idea of taking care of it on Saturday knowing I could find some trails near Celadon to explore instead of the Hanlon area. I pocked Forks of the Credit Provincial Park. It had been years since I had been out there and it was time for some hiking and photography.

kettle lake shore

With another tip of the hat to the Furry Gnome, when selecting this location, I had envisioned making a series of photographs along the trail much as he does periodically for his blog, Seasons in the Valley . 

Shortly in to my hike, I came across this kettle lake less than a kilometer from the car. Drawn to the lines of the trees across the lake, reflecting on the water in the still hazy air of the morning, I stopped and started to assess the scene before me.There was a section of shoreline that my eye kept returning to, from a clump of birch trunks to an old broken snag by the shore. I got lost in the process, formulating my approach, moving a few steps right, forward, over there and then back. Almost in a trance, oblivious to anything else around me, I worked the scene, framing it up in trial compositions, exploring several of the details. Then I was done, having made several images I was back and aware of other things, I could hear the voice of a child coming closer as he rode on his father's back enjoying the trails. The came down the trail and as they approached ... "see anything interesting", the mother asked.

... "always, there's always something interesting to see", I replied.

More ...

kettle lake shore II

kettle lake shore III

kettle lake shore IV

I hiked the area for aout 2 hours making additional images along the way, but it was the first scene and those first images that stuck out when I returned home and uploaded to by image library.
 
DJE 

Photo of the Week 2015-12-07

After some business meetings in Ottawa recently, I was out for a quick dinner and then over to the Parliament Buildings to see the first night of the annual light show for the Christmas Holidays. There were fireworks, a choir singing and the projection of Christmas scenes on the main building facade. We arrived a little late, and I was still able to get a few quick shots of Centre Block lit up in the festive spirit, but it was the smoke clearing from the fireworks display and the crowd pouring off Parliament Hill through the gates and onto Wellington with traffic still flowing that caught me photographer's eye. It looked more like crowds fleeing a fire than families who had come in the Christmas spirit to listen to the choir and see the lights.

Christmas Crowds

Here's what the light show looked like with the smoke clearing off in the night breeze.











DJE