I think those palm trees are lost.

I’m now in northeastern Pennsylvania, in the town where I lived before moving to Toronto. I’ve been driving back and forth for over five years now, and I’ve made the journey so many times I think the car can drive itself. It takes me 1hr 15mins or so to reach the Rainbow Bridge/Niagara Falls border, I’m in Rochester an hour and a quarter later, then Syracuse another hour later, Binghamton one hour after that, then one hour later I’m in Lackawanna County, Pennsylvania.

Except today. The QEW was a parking lot by the time I reached Burlington, and that’s when I heard on CBC radio that an accident had closed down the Skybridge to Niagara Falls and it would be closed for the rest of the day. Ouch. The car was an oven and making me sleepy, so I did the one thing that would keep me awake and cooled off: detour south and hit the back roads along the shores of Lake Erie. When it’s this hot it’s always better by the water, and I could discover some new places at the same time.

Like Port Dover. I’d heard about it, but I had no idea it would be this popular.

http://www.portdover.ca/

Port Dover

Wow, you’d think this was the Riviera or something.

Motorcyclists love Port Dover — there’s a Harley Davidson shop in a rather prominent location and there’s a Friday the 13th tradition of bikers gathering. That’s about all I knew about Port Dover, only because a friend of mine made a photography book of the Friday the 13th biker rallies.

Off the beach, Port Dover has its own museum and picturesque marinas. I’ll definitely be back when there are fewer people grilling themselves on the beach and it’s not a million degrees.

summertime in Port Dover

sightseeing ship in Port Dover

Lake Erie

Between Port Dover and Port Colborne and Fort Erie, the scenery was more like this:

near Jarvis, Ontario

near Jarvis, Ontario

I almost ran out of gas because the fuel stations were either not easy to find along the last stretch of Highway 3, or they were out of cheap gas, or there was something wrong with the pumps. It was a little touch-and-go there for a while — I think I was running on fumes when I finally got to a station.

By the time I reached the Peace Bridge border crossing in Buffalo, SIX HOURS had passed since I left home when it takes ordinarily just over an hour. Then I drove another 4.5 hours, which was easier than the previous six. And my left arm is a whole shade darker than my right from the sun beating through my window!

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giant chess board at Place Émilie-Gamelin

kid-friendly Montreal Jazz Festival

After so many cameraphone pictures, I need to post some “real” photos this time. I’m nowhere near finished editing and uploading them, so the album will grow.

They can be viewed as thumbnails, a full-screen slideshow in Flickr (the videoclips at the end autoplay), or just sit back and watch them here (the videoclips don’t play):

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St. Viateur

Édouard-Montpetit station

nerve-wracked chess match

roaming performers, Montreal Jazz Festival

Jacek Kochan Quartet

aerial performers (I have to look up their name)

steam and LED lights

Susie Arioli band

sound check for Susie Arioli

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Breakdancers along Rue Sainte Catherine:

Loved these two! David was always a big fan of jug bands, and he introduced an appreciation for them to me. Check them out online: www.jitterbugswing.com

Roaming performers at the Place des Arts:

Saxophonist Allan McLean with the Jacek Kochan Quartet:

Performers at the Jazz Festival:

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Canadian Armed Forces, 2005 Alcan Dragonboat Festival, Vancouver

Greetings from Montreal, where I pulled in at 3am with two 11th-hour rideshares from Toronto, minutes before my host left her apartment and left her keys so I could get in! It was the end of a really long day that started before 5am, on account of working from 6am while my colleague is on vacation instead of my usual half day… a little detail I’d forgotten when I told my German couchsurfers that I’d pick them up at the bus station Thursday morning at 9am!

But it all worked out in the end: I had them drop their stuff off at my office while they toured around the city, and we all went to the house together so I could show them around the neighbourhood. Time seemed to accelerate again once I’d arranged the two rideshares — I didn’t have enough time to eat dinner, I had to drop off the USB cable to the person whose mobile I’d borrowed to use in Portugal, then shower, pack, say goodbye to the Germans and leave for Montreal. Little did I know the traffic on Highway 401 was at such a standstill, even at 9pm, that I could’ve eaten a three course steak dinner right there on my steering wheel. I should’ve known better, there is traffic every time I drive here, even enroute to Quebec City, except the last time when I wasn’t doing the driving.

The amazing part is that after being awake for nearly 24 hours, I managed to find my host’s house at 3am nearly two years after the last time I’d been there. It doesn’t sound like such a big deal when there are maps and GPS, except my phone was nearly dead (that’s the only place I had her number) and I’d forgotten to print out the number and a map — things I do every time I travel for this very reason…

Now, to explore Montreal’s art scene with my camera and meet a bunch of local folk for Canada Day. I leave you with a homegrown video called “Canadian, Please”, which left me wondering: where on earth can you buy a Mountie outfit?

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BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir Toronto

contented cows in Caledon, Ontario

My shoot in Caledon this morning went well! But man, that alarm clock felt early and now I’ve got even more work to finish before I leave for Portugal. I wasn’t quite ready to drive straight home, though, I had to stop for some rural Ontario cow photos and a photo pitstop at BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir Toronto because it was just off the highway. I love that a visitor can pass a cow pasture and an amazing Hindu temple within minutes of each other. (Not just in Ontario, either, this is a common sight in the Vancouver area.)

I first shot the BAPS temple three years ago for Doors Open with my Chinon CE-4 film camera.

Official website: http://toronto.baps.org/

My whole set of BAPS photos can be viewed in the slideshow below:

All of today’s photos uploaded to Flickr can be found here.

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I spent a good chunk of the day at Niagara-on-the-Lake, visiting a Vancouver friend who’s in town for a little while. Even though I have a Vancouver phone number and use it to make local calls to friends and family, nothing beats a face-to-face conversation and being able to catch up with old friends I’ve known through my various moves over the years.

I brought my camera in case there was light by the time I left, catching the last bit of it while driving by a vineyard and stopping to quickly take this photo. If you squint, you can just make out the CN Tower and Toronto’s skyline in the background to the right. It would be interesting to get back to this winery observation deck in the spring and summer to get the same shot in different seasons.

I don’t know Niagara-on-the-Lake at all, really, having passed through its historic section only once in my first winter of living in Ontario and not since. I pass through Niagara Falls on a regular basis when I go to the USA and I’ve stayed there, too, but the two towns are nothing alike — Niagara-on-the-Lake (golf course and wine country) makes Niagara Falls look like Las Vegas. Funnily enough, I’ll be here again soon to represent The Brides’ Project at a vintage wedding show, so I’ll be fast-tracking from total stranger to more-than-just-an-acquaintance with Niagara-on-the-Lake in one short week.

It’s been a busy weekend thus far and I’m a little brain-dead. I’m ready to catch up on sleep and recharge before photo-editing through the holiday tomorrow (Family Day for those in Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Ontario).

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Some people love telephotos, but me, I love the wide-angle lenses — the wider the better. Why? To take in more data, more details, more perspective. Sure, there’s distortion, but there’s more to see. Here are some of my favourite wide-angle shots from last Saturday, followed by links to the whole album.

The album, which includes Gatineau Park (Capital Region) on Sunday, is best viewed as a [full-screen slideshow], or just sit back and watch the Slickr Flickr slideshow below:

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I shot over 400 images in Montreal and Ottawa last weekend, but I’ve been waylaid by a compromised immune system that has buckled under the strain of overdoing it work-wise and not getting enough rest while being overexposed to sick people. Thus, I am at home today convalescing instead of at the office-work or editing-work. The lesson here is that if you don’t listen to your body, your body will take its revenge upon you! And mine certainly has, although I’ll leave out the details in case you have just eaten.

Of all the hundreds of images, this one is probably the one that resonates with me the most:

It was the hardest one to take, even though I am a fair distance away. Not hardest in the technical sense, because there is enough light and he isn’t moving, but there weren’t many people around and he would’ve spotted me with my camera instantly if he turned his gaze only a hair to the right. Perhaps he did, and chose to ignore me, I will never know. I have said before that my personality isn’t suited to street-shooting, and it’s not getting any easier with the passing of time. I have already had to give up one street-shooting project partly because of my discomfort (and lack of time). I am too sensitive to make a living as a photojournalist, that is for certain.

So where does the discomfort come from? That they don’t know I’m taking their picture and posting it on the internet? I don’t think it’s just that — I’ve taken street photos of random strangers before without guilt. The inner conflict goes something like: “Is this showing more compassion for them, or less?” Or, “Do they care to be seen this way, or no?” Or, “Is it better to walk on by, or take notice?”

When I was 19 years old, I had a brief stay at a shelter for homeless youth in Melbourne, Australia, where I met people in situations much worse than mine. We lived together, ate together, hung out together. If there was a profile for homeless youth, it didn’t matter whether I fit it or not, I was there. It’s not a situation I wanted to be in, but I got out as soon as I could. For some it lasts longer than a stint here and there. Maybe it’s drug addiction, a lack of parental support, a troubled childhood, an eviction from the home, the influence of others, or simply nowhere else to turn. We all know a criminal record will hurt your chances of finding a job, or making friends. Mental illness will surely have the same effect. What happens to people who are forgotten? They end up in places they don’t want to be…

…and then comes along a person with a camera. That’s where I truly hesitate. Tim Horton’s is a far cry from the street, but I took this picture below at 2 o’clock in the morning when most people his age are in bed. Heck, ANY age! We were there to warm up after a lot of walking, so I can imagine he was there to get warm, too.

If I refer to these people as “The Forgotten”, then these pictures are to remember: that they probably haven’t been living this way their whole lives, that they may have family who — for whatever reason — may not know where they are, and their situations can turn for the better.

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Arrived home from Ottawa in the wee hours, but since I spent most of the weekend in Montreal I’m posting several shots of the one thing I associate the most with this fair city: food! The photo of the antipasto above was taken at Olive + Gourmando in Vieux-Montreal, the ones below were taken in Ottawa from our take-out of smoked meat from Schwartz’s Deli and bagels from St-Viateur. More food pics coming to a screen near you…

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