Saturday, 1 February 2025

Dartmouth Ice Festival 2025

It was a cold day in downtown Dartmouth today, which was probably just as well for the 2025 edition of the Dartmouth Ice Festival underway on Portland Street and outside the Alderney Ferry Terminal from January 31st to February 2nd. I've gone down the last two years to try my hand at capturing some of the ice sculptures.


The black & white medium seemed to suit most of these images - I needed to boost the contrast to bring out the features of most of the ice sculpture - although I did process a few in colour.




This bear sculpture is wearing a blanket of light snow from earlier in the day. 






Every time I look at this particular sculpture I can't help but think that ET is making a rude gesture at the record store in the background.




I was fortunate to time this image with the passage of a child in a colourful winter jacket behind the sculpture.



There were several bears.


The lights in the business establishment behind this sculpture added some yellow light to the mix so I kept this one in colour.

Alleyway horse.


Peace sign.


This particular sculpture provided the novel opportunity of capturing the sculptor himself working away behind the block of ice. 

Ultimately, I hope my photographs do justice to the various sculptures that I captured, and many thanks to the sculptors themselves for providing the subject matter! The images can also be found in a gallery on my Smugmug site here


Thursday, 2 January 2025

Bluenose II on the slip

Bluenose II was undergoing her 10-year American Bureau of Shipping (ABS) inspection on the slip in Lunenburg in December and was still on the slip during the holidays. It was a somewhat rare opportunity to see the schooner out of the water, let alone out of the water in the snow.