Houses 3

Today's images of houses are from a variety of places around the Avalon Peninsula. The first house was in Conception Harbour. As I was photographing the house and barn, two people came out and started a conversation. The lady wanted me to take a photo of her sitting in front of the red barn; which I did.

The second house is in Chapel's Cove and I liked the yellowish-beige traditional style home. That colour used to be common but I don't see as many these days.

The white house with colourful windows caught my attention as I drove through one of the communities nearby. Unfortunately, I don't remember which community!! I guess my memory isn't as good as it used to be. :

The fourth house was in Mitchell's Brook. This looked like a brand new home, but it may have been an older home that was being renovated.

The last house this morning was in Haricott, St. Mary's Bay. I'll be interested to see this house when I make a trip down there this summer.

Houses 2

As most of you know, I've been photographing houses for several years and occasionally will photograph houses more than once. Today you will see two photos of the same houses taken nearly 10 years apart. These two houses are next door to each other and I haven't passed by there in years. Last fall I decided to make a trip to photograph them again and was surprised at the changes!!

It was sad to see the windows boarded up and broken, the paint peeling off and no signs of life. I am certain I have slides of the same houses taken in the 80s - nearly 20 years before the oldest ones I am sharing this morning. When I get to scanning them, I may add to these sequences.

I find it interesting to look at houses and outbuildings as I drive around smaller towns in our province, especially if I have been to a community before. I often see that some houses have deteriorated a lot while others have been fixed up and still others are gone forever. I plan to take a few photo trips this summer and revisit some of the communities I photographed in the early 2000's. If I look at photos of communities before I go, it may help me see changes over the last decade. I am certain to get future Photos of the Day when I make those trips.

Houses

It's been a few weeks since I sent photos of houses so I am returning to that theme for a few days. St. Shott's is a small town located on the southern tip of the Avalon Peninsula. I photographed the town on a bright sunny day in the summer of 2002. I enjoy photographing old houses, especially when they are brightly coloured.

The house in the first photo is half white and half blue, an interesting choice of colours. I have photographed several houses that are painted two, and an occasional one that is painted with three different colours. Author Farley Mowat described multi-coloured houses in his book, The Boat Who Wouldn't Float, and hypothesised that people did this years ago because it was hard to get paint in the outports and they used whatever clours they could find. I am not sure how accurate that is, but there are still a few multi-coloured houses around these days.

I liked the fence made of twigs in front of the house in the third photo, especially considering that there are few trees around this part of the province.

The bluish-green colour of the house in the third photo really stands out on the barren landscape. In recent years, people are using plastic siding on their houses which is changing the character of the older houses.

Dance of the Sea Spirits 3

This morning I am sharing portraits of the young dancers as they finished their dance in the graveyard next to one of two churches overlooking the sea. It was raining pretty hard by then as you can see in the two close-ups. I have uploaded b&w versions of the portraits as well. This will be the last in this series for a while.

I have some b&w photos of the dance on line at: http://www.lanephotography.com/cbn/brigus/steps/steps_through_time_01.htm

Dance of the Sea Spirits 2

The Dance of the Sea Spirits represents the spirits of fishermen who have died at sea. It is an interesting dance that occurs on the rocks overlooking the ocean and happens at the same time as another dance that occurs in the church yard right next door. The first time I photographed the pageant, I missed this dance, but photographed it every time since.

I have some b&w photos of the dance on line at: http://www.lanephotography.com/cbn/brigus/steps/steps_through_time_01.htm

Dance of the Sea Spirits

This morning I chose photos of the Dance of the Sea Spirits, part of the Steps Through Time pageant held in Brigus each summer. Most years I photograph the entire pageant, but the Dance is one of my favourite pieces. Some years there may be one or two dancers, but when there are three, it is very moving. Today's photos are close-up views taken before the dance began while the dancers were sitting very still on a cliff overlooking the sea. The entire dance lasts about 3 or 4 minutes and it started to rain just as the dancers were about to begin the dance.

Over the next day or two, I will share more images of these dancers. I have some b&w photos of the dance on line at: http://www.lanephotography.com/cbn/brigus/steps/steps_through_time_01.htm

Osprey

I have photographed ospreys in Florida, Nova Scotia and here in Newfoundland and Labrador. I often see them flying over my house, but because of the trees, they are not in view for long. I find it interesting that this species of birds live all over the world, in just about any habitat where there is a steady supply of fish. Today's photos were taken within seconds of each other as the osprey circled overhead during one of my walks in Florida.

I used my 70-300mm lens at maximum zoom, then cropped for closer views. This particular bird was circling a small pond and I had to follow it as it soared overhead, compose the shot, and shoot at the same time. My camera shoots 3 images per second and I was shooting as fast as I could. I was pleased with the results - the lighting was good and most of the shots were in focus.

Spring 10

This will be the last of the Spring Series, even though I have several more photos that I wanted to share. The photos over the past 10 days were all taken on my trip to the mountain on April 4, 2010. There are so many more signs of spring now ....

When I started my Photo of the Day on New Year's Day in 2003, I had no Idea I would still be sharing photos in 2010. In the beginning, I sent one photo per day with a short comment about it. Now I have settled on 3 images for the email version and 5-10 photos for my Blog, which I started in 2006. I just checked and the Blog has been accessed 17 438 times since I put a counter on it three years ago. My Blog Stats show that each visitor views at least 2 pages (I have 10 posts per page) so someone is viewing a lot of my photos there. I keep stats on my web site as well and I have had millions of hits; one month alone there were over
900 000 hits.

The themes for my Photo of the Day vary but recently I have been sharing more photo essays or series of photographs on a variety of themes. I am enjoying this approach and will continue it for another while.