2021-07a: Boardwalking
My resolution for 2020 was to take at least one picture every day, and upload a SnapDash post every half-month. For 2021, I relaxed a bit; I've been posting once a month. Since July started so strongly, however, I decided to drop this mid-month post. My photos for this dash all come from the Halifax boardwalk.
I'm starting July with a view of the drunken lampposts, an art installation I first saw in Ottawa but which is now found on the Halifax waterfront. Behind it is George's Island.
Olympus E-PL9: f9, 1/800 sec, ISO 200
IrfanView: Crop, Colour Balance
The is the CSS Acadia, the only surviving Canadian naval ship to serve in both World World Wars. Through her fifty-six years of service, she surveyed much of Canada's Atlantic Coast and also parts of Hudson Bay (The acronym 'CSS' stands for Canadian Survey Ship). Moored alongside the WWII-era HMCS Sackville, the Acadia is a museum ship at the Maritime Museum Of The Atlantic.
Olympus E-PL9: f6.3, 1/600 sec, ISO 200
IrfanView: Crop, Colour Balance
Next up we have two shots of a seagull. On July 06, 2021, I was strolling the boardwalk with my friends Erin and Jamie. Originally I wasn't too interested in the gull, but Erin implored me to photograph it. The moment turned out to be just right to capture an attempt at taking off, and then a successful launch.
Olympus E-PL9: f6.35, 1/1600 sec, ISO 2500
IrfanView: Crop, Colour Balance
Olympus E-PL9: f6.3, 1/1600 sec, ISO 2500
IrfanView: Crop, Colour Balance
As Erin, Jamie, and I finished our walk, we were treated to a beautiful sunset. I was keen to brave the optical challenge of getting the lamp's light and the illuminated clouds behnid. I wasn't expecting to also get the rather tropical-looking silhouette of foliage.
Olympus E-PL9: f6.35, 1/500 sec, ISO 4000
IrfanView: Crop, Colour Balance
Gulls may not capture my eye right away, but cormorants always do. I find something very alluring in the sheen of their dark feathers. On the opposite end, I'm not especially keen on water scooters. That said, when one buzzed the bouy it did make for an interesting picture.
Olympus E-PL9: f6.3, 1/1600 sec, ISO 250
IrfanView: Crop, Colour Balance
Olympus E-PL9: f6.3, 1/1600 sec, ISO 250
IrfanView: Crop, Colour Balance
It wouldn't be Haligonian boardwalking without a stop at The Wave. The sculpture has long been a magnet for children up for a climbing challenge. At first, the municipality tried to discourage climbing. Eventually, they relented. They left the "no climbing" warning to be ignored as it always has been, and added a soft padding around the statue. The only time to see it without cute adornments is early in the morning, as I did on July 07, 2021.
Olympus E-PL9: f7.1, 1/800 sec, ISO 200
IrfanView: Crop, Colour Balance
There is an interruption in the boardwalk. Currently, the Queen's Marque building is under construction, so the part of the boardwalk around it is off-limits. Slightly inland is the 13-storey Dominion Public Building. Opened in 1936, it was Halifax's tallest building for over thirty years. Built in Art Deco style, it reflects the iconic early-skyscraper design of step-backs and reveals. Buildings like this unified the design language of cities; their lineage can be seen in Chicago, New York, Pittsburgh, and Montréal. Few of those, however, have bas-relief ships!
Olympus E-PL9: f6.3, 1/1600 sec, ISO 320
IrfanView: Crop, Colour Balance
Just as a verbal language shifts through the years, so too does architecture! In the same way that the Dominion used the occasional sailing motif, Queen's Marque features some glass cladding of a distinctly Fresnel-lens-inspired design. In the part of the boardwalk currently boarded off, the final touch of the complex is another lighthouse-inspired piece of art. The Dominion set its sculpted sails against the then-modern material of precision-cut stone. Likewise, Queen's Marque features a perforated metal cladding. Perhaps in a century, some holograph-snapper will look at Queen's Marque's walls as a quaint quirk of historical design.
Olympus E-PL9: f5.6, 1/400 sec, ISO 200
IrfanView: Crop, Colour Balance
Olympus E-PL9: f5, 1/320 sec, ISO 200
IrfanView: Crop, Colour Balance
Nearby is the Mitchell House, which was built sometime in the 1820s. Nowadays, it is about 90m from the edge of the boardwalk. When it was built, however, the water was considerably closer. The building is now home to the Strange Adventures comic store.
Olympus E-PL9: f6.3, 1/1600 sec, ISO 320
IrfanView: Crop, Colour Balance
Earlier, I showed the CSS Acadia. This is, by synecdoche, a picture of the HMCS Sackville. Well... It's the ship's propeller. To me, in this picture it looks like a metal bedsheet-ghost. It has a prominent spot just outside the main door of the Maritime Museum Of The Atlantic.
Olympus E-PL9: f3.5, 1/250 sec, ISO 250
IrfanView: Crop, Colour Balance
Not long before I dipped back onto the boardwalk I snapped this picture of some bricks. They started as an orderly set in the pavement, meant to resemble cobbles. Over time, they have been wracked because they make up the driveway to a parking lot. I just thought they looked nifty.
Olympus E-PL9: f6.3, 1/640 sec, ISO 200
IrfanView: Crop, Colour Balance
I'll end off this post with what is surely an emblematic scene of the Halifax waterfront. The composition may not be especially original; I wasn't the only one waiting on the dock to snap it! The result is, in my opinion, nonetheless beautiful. Set against the Angus L. Macdonald Bridge and the doubled Purdy's Wharf office towers, the Halifax Transit ferry Vincent Coleman approaches the downtown terminal.
