Thursday, January 3, 2019

The Dawn Rises Upon The Brand New Year

As I ended last year with a sunset theme, it's been my tradition for my first new post of a year to have dawn shots. I start with this take from September. I was up early one Sunday, a couple of days after the tornado that had blown through the area. I went for a walk along Bank Street, going as far as the 417, the freeway that goes along an east-west corridor through Ottawa. Here I paused in a parking lot to photograph the sky as it started getting lighter in the east.


This October shot in the Centretown area featured fall colours illuminated by the first light of day.


This take was in the latter part of November. Here we have a view of Central Park in the Glebe neighbourhood. I've started photographing east and west views of this park for a winter to spring comparative post sometime in late April, as has been another tradition for me in this blog.


Early December brought this view as I passed by Dundonald Park in Centretown.


A few days later and a couple of blocks south, here was the dawn sky.


And a couple of days later the morning sky had this look. The building you see here faces Dundonald Park to the west, and is a former church that has been reshaped into lofts after the congregation moved to other quarters.


A couple of days later, this was the view over Dundonald Park.


Two days before Christmas Day, I crossed over the Mackenzie King Bridge. This was the view of Confederation Park looking towards City Hall.


On the bridge itself, I photographed the Ottawa Convention Centre, aka the Shaw Centre, and its distinctive glass wall, illuminated by the rising sun off to the southeast.


Here we have the dawn view looking over the Rideau Canal from the bridge. The rising sun is hidden here by the buildings at right.


But moving a few metres over and crossing the road gives this view of the landmarks to the north of the bridge- the National Arts Centre, Parliament Hill, the Chateau Laurier, and the government Conference Centre, bathed in the early morning sunlight.

36 comments:

  1. Beautiful shots! Oh, for one thing I am thankful, Germany has no real tornados, it must be frightening!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Good morning William: Great series of early morning shots. Your mention of the tornado reminds me that the apartment building where my oldest grandson lives in Gatineau was seriously damaged, and all the repairs are still not yet complete. Mother Nature packs a punch sometimes!

    ReplyDelete
  3. You made some beautiful photos of the dawn.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Great idea to photograph "the dawns". What were you doing up so early?

    Janis
    GDP

    ReplyDelete
  5. ...and I hope that it is a good year for you.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Beautiful dawns for the New Year!

    ReplyDelete
  7. @Iris: it was a hell of a storm. I remember getting online the following day and finding notices of 'are you all right?' on Facebook. I hadn't known it had been a tornado.

    @David: the tornadoes really hit hard.

    @Marianne: thanks!

    @Janis: in the first case I just woke up early. Pretty much everything after was because the sun was up around the same time. In another six weeks I imagine the sun will be getting up earlier than I will.

    @Francisco: thank you!

    @Tom: we shall see!

    @Nancy: indeed!

    ReplyDelete
  8. That's a nice serie. I think the first one is my favorite.

    ReplyDelete
  9. I enjoyed all your dawn shots. Thanks for sharing them. :-)

    ReplyDelete
  10. I love the naked trees against the sky!

    ReplyDelete
  11. Sunrise and sunset, they are both great times for photos.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Awesome photos and neat idea to show comparisons. You hAVE SOME GREAT DISCIPLINE TO BE UP EARLY TO TAKE SUNRISE PHOTOS.

    ReplyDelete
  13. @Jan: thanks!

    @DJan: you're welcome.

    @Marie: so do I.

    @RedPat: thank you!

    @Catarina: thanks!

    @Sharon: they are.

    @Red: in summer, I will never see the sunrise, barring the possibility of having one of those occasional bad nights when I can't sleep.

    ReplyDelete
  14. Love the sunrise photos...I always liked the shadows of things against the colourful sky.

    ReplyDelete
  15. Lovely photos
    Global warming is one thing, but tornados in Ottawa is unreasonable.

    ReplyDelete
  16. These photos are beautiful. I admire your ability to be up and out at such an early hour.

    ReplyDelete
  17. I really like the colours of your October photo!

    ReplyDelete
  18. Nothing like the cold light of dawn to ge a photo

    ReplyDelete
  19. @Karl: thanks!

    @Jenn: and we get some deep shadows that time of day.

    @Maywyn: it's quite a rarity to have tornadoes here.

    @Michelle: I can't manage dawn shots in July, but this time of year it's about eight in the morning.

    @Bill: thanks!

    @Marleen: so do I.

    @Bill: quite true!

    ReplyDelete
  20. A very nice series of photographs.

    All the best Jan

    ReplyDelete
  21. I envy anyone awake at dawn. These are really lovely, William. All of them.

    ReplyDelete
  22. Yep, Happy New Year, William! This ought to be another fun year of photography. :-)

    ReplyDelete
  23. Beautiful photography welcoming the dawn ~ Divine!

    Happy Day to you,
    A ShutterBug Explores,
    aka (A Creative Harbor)

    ReplyDelete
  24. @Jan: thanks!

    @Jeanie: this time of year dawn is easier to see!

    @Revrunner: thank you!

    @Carol: thanks!

    @Happyone: thank you.

    ReplyDelete
  25. I especially like your late autumn/early winter shots with the silhouettes of the trees with snow. Very pretty!

    ReplyDelete
  26. Your sky shots are super William, and I always enjoy the dark contrasts in the foreground.

    ReplyDelete
  27. Very nice! I think I like early morning shots more than sunset photos. Your weather looks to be rather decent for this time of year. We can't get rid of the heat! It's been in the low 80s for a week now and more to come!

    ReplyDelete
  28. I liked the last picture. It made me feel (a little) warmer.

    ReplyDelete
  29. i was smiling over a comment, u being an early riser ... i think photographers who want great shots will do most things they have to do to get a great shot. fun times. enjoyable. ( :

    ReplyDelete
  30. @Kay: thank you.

    @Denise: so did I.

    @Lowell: we've had a lot of cold lately.

    @Catalyst: hah!

    @Beth: only in fall and winter might I be awake to catch a sunrise. It isn't likely to happen in spring or summer, unless I've stayed up all night.

    ReplyDelete