Halifax Waterfront at Night - Queens Marque

 I had the change to wander the waterfront around Queens Marque last night and take a few photos. It was a bit windy and I was using long exposures to smooth out the surface of the water. 

Looking south from the foot of the tide clock.

The tide clock tower at Queens Marque. The lights of Dartmouth reflect off the glass at wharf level and seem continuous as a result.

Looking down from the tide clock tower towards the Queens Marque complex itself.

The roofline of one wing of the Queens Marque complex reflecting in the glass of another.

I was playing with both colour and black & white processing of my images, and for this one at least, I couldn't decide on which I preferred. I like both for different reasons.

Long exposure of the water at the foot of the steps into the harbour.

The tide clock tower is surrounded by metal bars with transparent plastic strips attached that spin in the wind. Hard to see in a smaller image, but there is some ghosting where they spun during this exposure.

It was a bit chilly last night, but at least there weren't too many people getting in the way of my camera!

Early Morning Ships Passing in the Night

The morning and evening commute is a bit dark at this time of year, especially on overcast days, and I managed to capture some ships coming and going in the pre-dawn on Friday. To start, HMCS Charlottetown arrived in port and later went alongside MV Asterix to refuel. Modern cameras are capable of shooting at higher ISOs, and despite from a bit of grain or noise, the images still look great when shot without a tripod.

HMCS Charlottetown inbound.

As Charlottetown was arriving, ACL's Atlantic Star was departing from the Fairview Container Terminal in Bedford Basin.

Atlantic Star outbound.

As a result, I got a nice photo of the two ships passing in the harbour.

Atlantic Star outbound passing the inbound HMCS Charlottetown.

I don't think I typically see a ship's passing at this particular location in the harbour.

Icebreaking tug Polar Circle departs Halifax

The icebreaking tug Polar Circle has been laid up in Halifax for some time this fall, and finally departed the harbour for Boston this afternoon - her departure was perfectly timed for the 4:45 ferry to Dartmouth.

To get these photos of a moving ship from another moving ship, I stopped down to f/4 (the widest aperture for my 70-200mm lens) and I normally leave the camera set to auto-ISO - so in this case, the camera jumped the ISO up to between 5000 and 10,000 depending on the image. While not ideal, even the older Sony camera body that I use managed just fine with fairly natural looking grain at those levels.

Overnighting in Fortress Louisbourg

I'm still editing away at the Tall Ships 2017 images, so I thought I would post this first.

I recently had the opportunity to spend the night within the walls of Fortress Louisbourg, an option that Parks Canada only began offering within the last few years. We chose to stay in Lartigue House, but there were also four tents available within the courtyard of the King's Bastion. 

Lartigue House at dusk. These tents were left over from a previous function, and we didn't sleep in them.

Fortress Louisbourg typically closes at 5 PM daily, and staff usually leave by 5:30, so I personally have never had an opportunity to photograph the fort outside of normal hours. By spending the night, I was able to experience sunset, nighttime, and sunrise - and got to photograph all three.

Sunset viewed from the wall of the King's Bastion. The four tents available to campers can be seen in the background.

Most of the fortress's buildings are locked up after hours, but otherwise we had the run of the fortress, and I went where I pleased. The only real warning we received from staff was to not climb the walls outside of the normal walking paths, because of the 30 foot drop beyond. 

Sunset behind one of the cannon.

At this point mosquitoes made their presence known, and I had to edit quite a few black spots from these images, which I assume were insects because they thankfully don't appear in any of my images the following morning. 

Sunset behind the cannon of the King's Bastion. The nearer cannon was "fired" during demonstrations during the day.

Even once the sun had set, there were opportunities to photograph the fortress at dusk.

Wide-angle image of the fortress at dusk, with the seawall at left, Lartigue House in the centre, and the walls of the King's Bastion to the right.

After getting my fill of shooting at dusk, I retreated inside to avoid the mosquitoes for a while, and had dinner. The interior of Lartigue House is fairly spartan, from modern standards: we had two double beds upon which to sleep, some chairs, a washroom (without a shower, though we were told one will be added for next year), and a small kitchenette with a sink, small fridge, and microwave. The house had the added benefit of not being located right next to the clock tower, which sounded a bell every 15 minutes - we could hear it, but it didn't wake us up during the night. We were also provided with a Coleman stove for use outside if we wanted to do some cooking, and wood could be purchased for the fireplace outside.

Panorama of the interior, from the central room. The bathroom is to the far left, kitchen to the right (door hidden), and the sitting room in the centre. The two bedrooms are to the left and right of the sitting room. The upstairs of the house is used for storage, and is not accessible to visitors. 

Later that evening, I went back out with my camera for some more shooting. The mosquitoes had mercifully decided to pack it in for the night, and I wasn't bothered by them again.

The yard of Lartigue House. I lit the two tents with a single LED flashlight each, though I may have also painted the tent to the right with a third flashlight. The fortress was partially lit that night by the waxing gibbous moon visible in this shot.

The four tents in the courtyard of the King's Bastion. Only three were occupied that night - one party didn't show up - and the family in the tent to the left went to bed early. The brightly lit room to the left is the washroom available to campers.

Tent campers were provided with a tent for up to four people, a fireplace, and a Coleman stove among other things. All guests, in either tents or the house, needed to bring their own sleeping bags.

Another view of the King's Bastion building and courtyard. The yellow glow in the background is from the modern town of Louisbourg. I was lucky to have the Big Dipper well placed above and to the left of the clock tower. The waxing gibbous moon was not very bright, and this image took 30 seconds at ISO 640 and f/2.8 with my Zeiss Touit 12mm (18mm on an APS-C sensor) lens. I was fortunate the the moon wasn't bright enough to wash out the stars.

The moonlight was just enough for this image taken through the tunnel running through the King's Bastion building under the clock tower. Two cannon can be seen on the wall in the background.

This image is looking in the opposite direction, towards the town, and I used a flashlight to paint the clock tower. 

I took this while on my way back to the Lartigue House for the night. This shot looks down one of the streets to the main gate in the sea wall, and the Big Dipper makes a partial appearance in the top left.

Walking the empty streets of Louisbourg at night is an experience I won't soon forget.

I'm not a big fan of getting up early in the morning, but I felt compelled to try my luck the next day with the sunrise - and it was well worth it! After spending a few minutes scouting locations, I finally realized that one of the apps on my phone would provide me with the precise location of the rising sun, and I discovered that one of the streets in the town was perfectly aligned with the spot on the horizon where the sun made its appearance.

The sun rises between the buildings to the left of the image. I may have <cough> deleted <cough> an offending Parks Canada vehicle that appeared at the end of the street.

I really couldn't believe my luck with how well the sunrise lined up with this street.

It took almost every millimeter of my 12mm lens to fit in the entire King's Bastion building and still have room for the cannon and the rising sun. 

The rising sun captured from inside the tunnel through the King's Bastion building.

Once again, I needed my 12mm wide angle lens to capture the light of the rising sun washing over the King's Bastion building - and I ended up capturing my own shadow to boot. Oops. 

Another angle on the King's Bastion building. I had to erase one of the camper's vehicles from the left of the image.

Most of the yards within the town are fenced, and a number have farm animals in them.

I have not yet gone through my daylight images of the fortress, and I imagine they will result in a separate blog post once I have some time to edit them.

Christmas Lights Across Canada

This week saw the launch of the 32nd Christmas Lights Across Canada, with the official event happening on Parliament Hill on Wednesday night. I missed the show the first night because they only ran it once, but last night a flight delay made it possible to show up for the 5:30pm show on Parliament Hill. This audio-visual animated show is projected onto the face of the Parliament Buildings and Peace Tower, and lasts about 13 minutes. The first show is at 5:30pm, and it repeats until 11:00pm. 

Last night featured light snow, and between that, downtown protests, and the visit of US Vice President Joe Biden, the crowd at 5:30 was minimal. It was well worth the long walk to find a taxi afterwards. 

The light snow probably added to the experience by making the light trails visible.

These shots were taken hand-held at ISO 3200 with a small mirrorless camera, so the images are rather grainy to say the least - but at least you can't tell at the size shown here.