Hotel Carvings

Picking up where I left off yesterday, the south side beyond the main entrance at the Lord Elgin Hotel also had ice sculptures.

One more of the sculptures here at the hotel- this bear was outside the main entrance.

There are a number of hotels officially part of Winterlude, and some of them have more than the usual ice sculpture noting them as such. The Metcalfe is nearby, and this ice sculpture is outside. I photographed it some days later.

And the Chateau Laurier can always be counted on to have ice sculptures outside. Here they are.

Lord Elgin Hotel

Winterlude features a number of official hotels that cater to visitors, and one of them is the Lord Elgin Hotel. On the same evening as my recent posts, I was approaching the hotel expecting one ice sculpture. Instead there were several, on either side of the main entrance area. These were on the north side.

This is the one that I was expecting. Each year the hotel has an ice bench carved for photo ops, with a contest held for a stay at the hotel if you hashtag your selfie.

Well, I sat down and took some shots, but these aren't the sort that'll wind up winning a contest. Instead these are the sort of faces I'll make if someone photographs me at a wedding reception. 

Here we have the sculptures out in front of the main entrance. I will pick up from here tomorrow.

White And Violet

Upon leaving the ice sculptures that I finished with yesterday, I stopped nearby at this snow sculpture, erected outside the Chateau Lafayette, the oldest surviving pub in the city, dating back to 1849, hence the year on the back of the sculpture. This is a tribute to the legendary Ottawa Valley lumberjack and strongman Joseph Montferrand, who probably stopped in at the Lafayette in its early years.

This part of the Byward Market has a number of interconnected courtyards. One of them contains some Winterlude exhibits. One of them is an ice sculpture from the European Union.

Items are embedded in the ice from across Europe. I'll be incorporating additional shots into that Purple theme day in May.

Also here in this courtyard were animal silhouettes and video screens with footage of First Nations activities of the far north.

I paused at the entrance to another courtyard area. A woman was taking a photograph before she noticed me.

Frozen Splendour

Yesterday I left off with one Ice Hog shot. Two of them appear in this shot with Winterlude visitors.

I returned my attention to ice carvers at work and the tools at hand. I'll be showing the finished works, in day and at night, before we're through.

Works In Progress

I left off with this sculpture in progress yesterday.

Here we have another in progress. The lighting changed gradually, typical of the lighting when these are finished too. Incidentally, I've already been adding extra takes to upcoming theme day posts for City Daily Photo, as this whole year features theme days based on colour, if you haven't had a chance to look at the list. And the theme day for March happens to be Green, so that's a reminder for my fellow CDP members.

A look at some of the tools on a work table. Yes, that is an iron.

This is the work of two sculptors, one a Canadian and the other an Iraqi.

And this one is done by a pair of Canadians, still at work when I photographed them.

The tool you see here is what they use to pick up individual blocks. 

Another sculpture, and it turned out to be a personal favourite in its finished form. When I took this shot, the two Russian carvers were doing some final touches, as you can see with one of them here.

Today I leave off with this. The Ice Hogs are the Winterlude mascots- an oversized groundhog mascot. There are four of them in all, and they are taken from site to site, posing for photos with people throughout the festival.