Night Life

Sometimes I sit out on my front porch and take pictures. There is a lot of activity out there. This summer I had the idea of entering the Ottawa Citizen Driving Section photo contest, whose theme was “Cars.”

I don’t actually like cars, and I haven’t got one, but that doesn’t mean I won’t photograph them. This night I was trying out time exposures. I thought if I could capture some of the feeling of frantic activity on my street corner, my picture might get to be the picture of the week.

I did enter the contest with one of these pictures, the one of the long bus, but the winner was a shot of a little girl with huge sunglasses pretending to drive some kind of derelict muscle car in her dad’s driveway. It was a great picture and I absolutely understand why it won the coveted “pic of the week” honour. It’s hard to compete with a little girl in big sunglasses.

Anyway, I still like my pictures. I’m going to post a couple of them. I like the first one for its moody neon-night feeling, and the second for the blur of the long bus slipping through traffic like a wet bar of soap.

Rainy night

Bus

For the birds

Show-off

Lost Bird

The Sentinel

Lost bird 2
This guy wandered into a porch. I’m happy to report that he got out on his own.

Duck!

AsianFest

This weekend they closed off my street for AsianFest. Here are some people waiting to see a martial arts demonstration. As usual I thought the crowd was more interesting than the show. I especially like the sweet-faced Asian gentleman on the right, and the suspicious man in the white shirt. (Sometimes people just don’t like to be photographed.)

I often feel awkward photographing people. In crowds I sometimes use my camera’s flexible view screen to shoot stealth shots where people supposedly don’t know they’re being photographed, but I notice that a lot of times people know anyway.

Here is one of some people I was supposedly stealth-shooting. They were on a bench in Confederation Park. It’s obvious that the little girl on the left, and the woman as well, knew perfectly well they were being photographed. But I don’t think they minded. I think the little girl looks wise beyond her years.

Sometimes people seem to really like being photographed. These Lebanese protesters at Parliament Hill, for example. I was using the viewfinder, but I couldn’t see very well in the bright sun, and I thought the woman was giving me the finger. It made me feel embarrassed about photographing her without her permission. But when I got home and downloaded the day’s shots I realized she was giving me a peace sign or a victory “V”. I like the kid with the Lebanese flag and the roller shoes. I guess they liked being photographed because they had a cause, but I also think they were friendly people who just liked being photographed.

At Asian Days I bought a triple bamboo plant and ate some bulgogi (Korean beef barbecue, yum!). The triple bamboo is supposed to bring happiness. A double one brings good luck, and five shoots is for wealth. I’d most like to receive happiness.

Here is my happy bamboo, all set to start doing its job: