City Daily Photo Theme Day: Look Down

The first day of the month is a theme day for members of City Daily Photo. For July, the theme is Look Down, a theme selected by Stuart, who you can find at Amboise Daily Photo. You can see how others are interpreting this theme here.

I started choosing several of these over the last few months. On Easter Sunday I was up on Plaza Bridge, and looked down on the empty Ottawa Locks of the Rideau Canal. People crossing the closed lock at the top made an ideal photo subject.

Nearby, but more recently, I was passing by the War Memorial when I looked down at the sidewalk. This directional arrow pointing north is embedded here. I've passed this spot countless times and hadn't noticed it until the spring.

I paid a visit to the Museum of Nature in late March and featured a series on it back in April. It's a place I'll be visiting again today as part of Canada Day celebrations. The central atrium from the fourth floor seemed right for the theme.

I have recently been doing a series on Doors Open, an event here in Ottawa that took place on the first weekend of June, and which I'll be getting back to in a few days. One of my stops was the Supreme Court of Canada, where the initials of the building can be found in this mosaic on the lobby floor. 

My last shot is from Parliament Hill, and the Centennial Flame, which stands out in front of Centre Block. It was created for the centennial year, 1967, and features crests and dates of the provinces and territories at that time surrounding the flame. Nunavut, which was organized in 1999, is absent. This particular crest is for the province of Newfoundland and Labrador, which came into Canada in 1949. It's fitting for today, as this date marks the centennial of the beginning of the Battle of the Somme. On that day, the Royal Newfoundland Regiment were among the Allied forces sent against German lines. Of the nearly eight hundred soldiers in the regiment, 110 survived unscathed, and only 68 of them were available for roll call the next day. The regiment was nearly wiped out within minutes, and the effect on Newfoundland, which at that time had been a separate British colony, still resonates to this day. You can read more about them here. There will be a ceremony marking that anniversary at the War Museum today.