Turning on the Lights

At the end of the previous post about the Grand Hotel, I speculated that I might try to add lights to the other windows by cloning. Well I gave it a try.

Sunday Morning at the Grand

I awoke earlier than usual on Sunday morning, and after some dithering decided to head out with the photo gear. With no particular destination in mind, I pulled over when I crossed our main street the Grand Hotel. I have often or at least sometimes thought of taking some night photos, and so I stopped.

I have posted of this a number of times in the past, so I won't go on at length, but it was built in 1872 as the Mississippi Hotel and was considered to be one of the finer hotels between Ottawa and Toronto. In the 1950s a fire destroyed the fourth floor and times of disrepair tended to follow. There were many hotels and inns here back in the old days, but this was the finest and the only one that still serves as a hotel.

When we moved here in 2005, it was known as the Heritage Inn but had to close its doors. Subsequent to that, another couple tried to make a go of it, but it looks like it should have a good future as the Grand Hotel.

This first photo is a four-shot panorama. The merged lines aren't perfect. I may try to get a similar shot with a wide angle lens some day, but I still like it overall.

The next shot was taken from about the same vantage point but focusing on the entrance.

Then I moved to get a different perspective. I think I like this one best.

It would have been nice to have all of the rooms lit although people staying there would probably have thought otherwise. I suppose that I could try a significant amount of photoshopping. We shall see.

Cave Extras

I showed you pictures of the cave itself, but I have a few more of the tour in general.

On the way down to the caves, we walked past a view of the Bonnechere River. On the left in shadow are two cave openings which led the the 1853 discovery. While the name, Bonnechere, comes from French, the area was settled primarily by English who pronounce it something like Bon-sure.

We go down a set of stairs into the cave. I shot this at tour's end when we were coming back up.

At the actual entrance, and there are still a few more steps to decend once you are past it.

You've seen inside the cave already so, let's skip to after with the usual touristy photo ops.

Oh ... I almost forgot about the fossils. This one of the many items displayed and discussed before the tour. All the samples that they showed us are local, if not to the cave area itself, at least from the general Bonnechere area.

And here's a gigantic one in the display shop at the end of the tour. They recovered three parts to this creature and have it on a long piece of cloth to show how long it would have been if they had the missing parts.

And ... still one more: a crayfish in the depths of the cave. The only reason I could get any sort of picture at all was that someone was shining a flashlight. There was also a bat encounter which came about just when she was talking about where bats over-winter and how many there used to be. You should have heard the gasp.

The Bonnechere Caves

We've been in this regions for more than a decade now but have never visited the Bonnechere Caves which are located only about an hour away in the highlands.

The first recorded discovery was in 1853. The property was soon purchased and begun to be open to the public.

The caves were flooded at the time, and they still are in winter. The caves are drained every spring, lighting is installed, and the tours begin. Come autumn, they flood the caves again. This keeps them in good condition by preventing erosive freezing and thawing. As a result the condition of the caves remains very stable.

With went with the kids and Shauna and quite enjoyed the experience. Well four of us enjoyed it. Sue is glad that she went but felt a little apprehensive under all of that rock.

The tour was crowded and it's both confined and dark in there, so you get what you can in terms of photos. I just set my camera to 1/60th of a second and let it choose whatever ISO and aperture that it wanted, which meant a very high ISO and a very wide aperture.

But I hurriedly grabbed what shots that I could.

These first 4 show some of the tour guests and the cramped space in some cases. The second one seems to be my clearest shot from the tour.

A few photos without people or maybe just a shadow or two.

On the Rocks at Sunset

Near us, but still on the Mississippi River at Appleton, there is a dam and power installation. Just beyond it, one can walk out on the rocks. I was accompanied by two friends because the footing was somewhat problematic for me and my silly right foot. If I fell on my own, there would be help.

Using my tripod as a cane to some degree, I managed reasonably well and only got one soaker when a rock wobbled when I was almost back to the bank at the end of the shoot. Only my right foot went in, so I mostly emerged unscathed.

I never got to the edge of the rocks where I was hoping to get a clear view of the sunset over the water and had to content myself with shooting from a less advantageous spot. Maybe I will make it to the edge if I ever summon the courage to try again.

Bob and Nick at the spot where we first found ourselves. Bob had a good composition in mind already, so nick and I moved on.

Before I moved on, however, I took this photo of a fisherman. I applied warming and glow filters liberally to get the effect that I was after. I usually try to keep my landscape photos close to reality, often with some enhancement, but sometimes I am moved to be more artistic in my interpretation. After all is said and done, I think this is my favourite result of the night.

With the sun now setting quickly I hobbled to a spot near a drop in height, so I set up my camera there and hoped for the best. While I think it would have been better to find a way down to the edge of the rocks, there was simply no time: not the way I limp and gimp anyway. lol

These were some of my attempts. You can see how the sun was almost down in the first and then below the horizon in the others. Some I've exposed darker and some lighter so you can see into the foreground rocks.

Kids Day 10: The Rest of the Day

This is it, folks — the last of the last day. Having said that, we may go out with them tomorrow. It's just that their mother will be in charge. We shall see.

After the bike ride, we played another game of cribbage. They're still getting onto it but doing well. Danica impressed me toward the end of the game when she was able to count a hand of 16 without help. We were playing partners, and Danica and I defeated Sue and JJ by a very slim margin, and only because we got to count first at the end while they could have actually pegged farther than us.

Then it was off to Riverside Park for a picnic lunch. I set up the camera and placed it on the ground ...

... and got this picture, but I wish that I had focused better.

After lunch and some relaxation, we went for a drive to find the sunflower field that we found at this time last year. Sadly for us, it is a corn field this year.

So on we drove to the conservation area at Blakeney rapids where, of course, Jonathan had to perch on top of the old mill wheel.

But the main thing was the water. Although these are rapids, the water is low this year, so I encouraged them to wade out to the rocks. I wouldn't have done so in a higher water year, but it seemed safe with the water only coming up to their knees for the most part.

I had wanted to get out a way too because some of those rocks might make a nice foreground element for photos, but the rough yet slick rocks underneath were too much for my weak, injured foot to cope with. This discouraged me for a time, but I got involved in taking videos of the kids getting out there and playing. They had a very good time, and we enjoyed it vicariously.

The video is 2 minutes long.




When they were heading back to land, a snapping turtle went by. I can't recall ever seeing a turtle in the water like that, at least not in nature. It was well camouflaged and hard to see in the photo even though I darkened the area around the turtle and brightened the turtle a bit.

Day 10 was a very good final day with the little munchkins, who aren't so very little any more. Who knows when they will no longer want to hang out with their grandparents, so we enjoy it/them while we are able.

Kids Day 10: On the Bikes

You knew this was coming. Didn't you?

After taking 3 posts to go over day 9 of our time with the kids, I have arrived at day 10 — our final day.

The weather had changed for the better, so we were able to get out on the bikes. We took a different trail, a straighter one along an former railway track; the straightness made it only seem longer. Danica's disbelief of this comes at the end of the video, below.

But first, a few pictures.

The trail was once a railway line.

It became part of the Trans Canada Trail, which it says on the little sign to the right. In this area, you can cycle all of the way in Ottawa (and well beyond, of course). Apparently it has recently been renamed to the Great Trail. I don't know why, and our signage, at least, hasn't been updated.

A few more.

This hydro truck was parked in front of our door when we got back home. They were changing power boxes, and the electricity was out, but not for long.

We manged to get our hands on the GoPro again. The clip is almost 2 1/2 minutes long, but give me some credit for cutting it down from almost 1 hour. 😃