Building Reflections

Ottawa’s city cen­ter is basi­cally divided into the busi­ness dis­trict and the touris­tic dis­trict. And one thing I absolutely love in the for­mer is the huge build­ings with mirror-like facades.

These build­ings reflect any­thing: the sky, the clouds, other build­ings, passersby…

Ottawa Busker Festival

The 17^th Ottawa Busker Fes­ti­val took place in the same street where the Texas Style BBQ was a few weeks ago. Sparks Street was closed and hun­dreds of peo­ple gath­ered to watch acro­bats, jug­glers and entertainers.

Oh, and for once, it didn’t rain.

The per­form­ers were really good and really engaged the audi­ence, which had quickly gath­ered in the pedes­trian street. Def­i­nitely a great place for street photography!

The Experimental Farm

What a sum­mer! It has been pour­ing every day for the last two months and we are all com­plain­ing about it. Canada is all about the weather: win­ters are long and cold, so we need some nice weather dur­ing the summer.

Mean­while, I’m roam­ing in the city with my cam­era. I took a walk in the cen­tral exper­i­men­tal farm the other day, between two down­pours. The farm is cen­trally located and sur­rounded by the city of Ottawa (that’s how much space we have here!). Thanks to the rain, the crops are grow­ing fast and the col­ors were quite nice.

The Ottawa Locks

A cou­ple of months ago, I took pic­tures of the Locks At Dusk. The water was unusu­ally quiet, offer­ing great reflections.

Last week-end, Gail came to Ottawa and we both took tons of pic­tures on Par­lia­ment Hill and at the locks. This time, we arrived in the mid­dle of the actions: a bunch of boats were cross­ing from the Rideau Canal to the Ottawa River.

Happy Birthday, Canada!

This Canada Day is a bit spe­cial to me since I will become a Cana­dian cit­i­zen this Fri­day. So I walked around, from Par­lia­ment Hill to the Byward, from Rideau Street to Kind Edward, tak­ing pic­tures and enjoy­ing a small burst of patri­o­tism. Hope you don’t OD on Cana­dian flags!

Texas Style

Sum­mer is def­i­nitely here: hot and humid weather, checked. Peo­ple on hol­i­days? Checked. Canada Day and a bunch of cool fes­ti­vals com­ing up? Checked. Out­door BBQs? Checked.

North Amer­i­cans love BBQ. Well, the tra­di­tion is best hon­ored in South­ern US, but Cana­di­ans like it too. And every year, the Sparks Street BBQ con­test attracts a lot of peo­ple. Eleven teams from across Canada and the USA “com­pete” for the best ribs and the best chicken pieces. It is a lot of meat — basi­cally, a veg­e­tar­ian nightmare.

National Aboriginal Day

National Abo­rig­i­nal Day is a day for all Cana­di­ans to cel­e­brate the cul­tures and con­tri­bu­tions to Canada of First Nations, Métis and Inuit peoples

The Locks At Dusk

From May to Octo­ber, tons of tourist flock to Ottawa, includ­ing a lot of Cana­di­ans who want to see what the heck the cap­i­tal looks like. The city is busier than usual as groups gather in front of the Par­lia­ment, around the Byward Mar­ket or nearby the Rideau Center.

In Bloom

Like every year in Ottawa, the Tulips Fes­ti­val put a bit of color in the city.

Ottawa At Dusk

Between 4:00 pm and 5:00 pm, Ottawa changes. Peo­ple are rush­ing to go back home, either dri­ving either tak­ing the bus, some go out for a quiet drink while office build­ings empty out. A slow tran­si­tion which takes place every night.