Flying – Nicolas Demers

Holiday Photos: Find The River

As is my wont, I flew back to Ottawa to visit withe the family over the holidays. As is becoming my wont I took photos of the landscape from the plane, both coming and going. On the way over, the weather was completely overcast from Calgary to around Sudbury, but what I got was top-notch; Little towns like Temagami, Lumsden’s Mill, Fort-Coulonge, and Ste-Cécile-de-Masham, towns that I’d never heard of but suddenly became amazingly interesting places I might like to visit someday; islands and lakes like Lac La Pêche and Rapides-des-Joachims; and completely random places like some farm out near Russel, ON.

Shooting all these remote locations was great fun. I felt like a pioneer, exploring the Ottawa River… except going backward.

A couple days after landing, I took a walk up Rideau Canal from Hog’s Back Falls. I hadn’t planned on keeping up the “exploring waterways” theme, it sort of happened. Plus, I know the Rideau Canal like the back of my hand, though it was a long time since I’d gone as far as Hog’s Back. They’re small, but really really nice-looking falls.

Then, a day trip to Montreal with my parents, specifically tooling around Vieux-Montréal. That was great; I don’t think I ever visited that particular bit before; plus I got to see the inside of Notre-Dame-de-Montréal, which was phenomenal. Well worth the $5 tourists had to pay (yes, even to look around and take pictures. They must really be hard up for money).

The flight back was just as interesting. The cloud cover came and went over the prairies (sadly, Ontario was completely out), and I managed to get some good shots of Lake Manitoba (frozen), various rivers, and any number of tiny-ass towns in the middle of nowhere. Plus the Drumheller Badlands, famous for their dinosaurs.

I enjoyed the by-now familiar chore of going over Google Maps and an online atlas of Canada to identify these places; post-processing to remove atmospheric haze, that was less fun. It took me several tries per photos until I got something I was satisfied with. But even then, sometimes I had my doubts. For instance, are the Badlands that yellow? (Google Images says that yeah, they pretty much are). Or some photos were too red, or too yellow… It didn’t help that the Ottawa River pictures took place around sundown, which made everything yellower. Well, I did my best, no use worrying too much about it now.

I felt like a tourist in my home town

I went back to Ottawa to visit my family for the holidays and it struck me—not for the first time—that I was a tourist in my home town. Gone for almost 15 years, coming back once a year on average, gradually lost touch with most of my friends there—but this time, I decided to roll with it, and actually do the touristy thing. Well, it was either that or stay indoors and cower from the winter cold.

First stop, Parliament Hill. I’ve only gone a couple of times, including one school trip, and at least one student protest. Was kind of hoping I could get in, but no, only staff or tour groups were allowed inside. Oh well, I still snapped some photos, then wandered around the Byward Market, the Art Gallery, and Notre Dame Cathedral.

Next day, I hit the Experimental Farm. The weather was fine and clear, though still bloody cold.

And on the flight back, I managed to get some more pictures from the plane. Picking a window seat on the starboard side was a long shot because I didn’t know how good the weather would be, but it paid off. Skies were clear for big chunks of northern Ontario, and bits of Manitoba and Alberta, as well as the Lower Mainland. Score! And once back, I got some experience fiddling with colour levels to remove the atmospheric haze. On the whole, I’m pretty happy with the results.

Purple Mountain Majesties

Sometimes things have a way of working out. Not for the “best” (this isn’t Candide, after all) but for the pretty good.

My flight home from Ottawa was supposed to take place Sunday night, connecting in Calgary. Nothing too special, I’d done it before. Except, what with the Christmas Day terrorist attempt, all airlines were in complete and utter chaos. I was warned that my flight to Calgary would be 2 hours late, so I could (a) stay in Ottawa and fly in the morning, or (b) … hey, there’s another flight going through Toronto, leaving right now.

That’s when the fun began. Long story short, my original flight was canceled, I was put on another flight (also to Toronto) which left a little later. Not a problem, I should still make it in plenty of time. Except I ended up leaving Ottawa over three hours late. Everybody on board missed their connecting flight, and had to be put up in a hotel.

I reached the Westin Bristol Place at about 11:30PM, one of over a hundred cranky fliers. Over two hours later, I was checked into my really quite awesome room. Too bad I had to get up in three hours to catch my rescheduled flight.

And that’s where you could say things worked out. Because my flight from Toronto was pretty smooth. Checkin was easy, security seemed a little more alert but not that paranoid. It even left on time! How about that! Even better: apparently to avoid the jet stream, our plane took a southerly route, heading straight across the Great Lakes as far as South Dakota, then angling up more or less in a straight line to Vancouver. That meant I got to see some scenery I’d never seen before, except in photos and that gay cowboy movie. Too bad there was too much cloud cover for most of the flight except over Montana and part of South Dakota.

Enjoy the rest!

Flying to Victoria

So this weekend, a few friends and I decided to take a day trip to Victoria. The twist was that we’d fly there. It’d be quick and pretty cheap, and (to me) a new experience. Plus, I hadn’t been to Victoria in a while. The upside: it really was quick, just around half an hour from downtown Vancouver to downtown Victoria, and I got to take some killer photos on the way. The downside: those little planes felt really rickety, and we hit a bit of turbulence over the Gulf Islands. Not a lot—I didn’t get sick, though I made sure an air sickness bag was available—but enough to make me nervous. Did I mention I’m afraid of heights? Because I am.

We spent the afternoon wandering around downtown Victoria, and then we took the ferry back like normal people. Oh, and on the way back I used the Canada Line SkyTrain for the first time (from 49^th Ave Station to downtown).

A Mari Usque Ad Mare

A week ago I came back from a trip back east to visit family. It was tons of fun—flitting back and forth between Ottawa, Montreal and Quebec City—and I got to see some relatives I hadn’t seen in years. Plus, I hadn’t been back east in the summertime in ages. As much as I enjoy a white Christmas, going outside without freezing my tail off is nice too.

Our mountains are very pointy
Our prairies are not
The rest is kinda bumpy
But man do we have a lot!

—The Arrogant Worms, Canada’s Really Big

The best part about my flight? I had a window seat, and since the weather was excellent for the most part I got to take pictures of this fair land of mine, from the Rockies all the way to Toronto. After that the weather got too bad, with too much turbulence. And I’ve got to admit: it’s not nearly as boring as I used to think. Sure, the Prairies are flat as anything, but they contain some interesting lakes, rivers and towns. Towns I’d never heard of and probably will never visit, but that’s what makes them interesting. Manitoba and Western Ontario, for their part, are a chaotic maze of lakes and rivers that, well, got a bit boring after a while though I never stopped taking pictures.

I felt like I was exploring Canada with Google Earth, except I couldn’t control where I was going. On the bright side, there was no server lag and the landscape was clear as a bell. The real fun came later, when I looked up my photos on Google Maps. Let me tell you, you haven’t lived until you spent hours desperately hunting for weird lake formations in western Ontario.

Doing the tourist thing in Quebec City was awesome. I hadn’t been there since that trip I took shortly after coming out almost seventeen years ago (gawd, time flies), and I’d forgotten how beautiful the city was, from the ancient stone buildings of Vieux-Québec to the bucolic Île-d’Orléans… and Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupré. Which will be the subject of another blog post soon.

Meantime, enjoy some more photos!