Fortissimo On The Hill

Fortissimo is an annual event on Parliament Hill, held on a weekend in July. It is a military ceremony bringing together marching bands from across the country, as well as one or two foreign units. The beat retreat ceremony, as it is called, dates back to the days of walled cities when gates would be closed up at sundown and guards would be dispatched for the evening. The Ceremonial Guard is involved each year, along with other units. This year an American unit took part, hence the Stars and Stripes alongside our own flag on the front lawn below the Peace Tower. I photographed as the ceremony went along, and did some videos, which you'll find in links below.

The bands play individually and as a whole throughout the performance, which is timed to end with the setting of the sun. 

The American group participating was the United States Army Old Guard Fife & Drum Corps, in uniforms dating to the Revolution period. Check out my video clip of them.

The centrepiece of the event is a brass and drums rendition of Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture, accompanied by cannons and the bells of the Peace Tower. A group of reservists based out of Hamilton, Ontario, took part as well, firing their muskets during the performance. I did a video of the Overture here.

Finally after the anthems (click here for that) have been played and the Canadian flag lowered, the bands march off from the lawn one by one.

Twilight In The National Capital

I have some twilight shots to close out the month. I took this on May one evening outside the EY Centre south of the city core, looking west.

This view was taken later in May from the Bank Street Bridge, looking west over the Rideau Canal.

In June, a few days before the first day of summer, I was downtown running an errand over in the Byward Market. I crossed the Mackenzie King Bridge, and the setting sun was over the Canal. This is a mark of how much our perception of the sun's position changes over the year- this is looking to the northwest. No more than a half hour later, I headed back over the bridge- dark brooding storm clouds were moving in, creating a completely different mood as you can see in the following shot.

This I took on Canada Day on my way out of the Canadian Museum of History in Gatineau.

A few days later in July, this was the twilight over the Canal at the Bank Street Bridge once again.

Later in July, I attended the Fortissimo event on Parliament Hill, a military ceremony I'll show you in a few days. This dusk view of Centre Block was among the shots I took that evening.

I took these shots in the first part of August at the War Memorial. The last light of day illuminating the Chateau Laurier particularly stood out to me.

And this view was a few days later, looking over the Rideau Canal again from the bridge.

A Sunset Military Ceremony On The Hill

Before getting started, a note to my fellow bloggers: there has been a Thai spammer, or spammers, getting past spam filters in multiple blogs, especially photoblogs, in the last couple of weeks. If you've seen comments from Srun Por, Ly Heng, or Koi Seo, they're getting into your posts and leaving comments with a spam link. They're even copying and pasting comments from one of your readers and passing it off as their own. I encourage you to delete them and to report them as spam profiles.

To those spammers, whatever fake name you come up with next, understand this: your comments will be sent to the spam folders by me post haste every single time you get past the spam filters. So it won't last long. Go find something else to do with whatever passes for your lives.

Now then, that behind us, let's move on to today's post.

Fortissimo is an annual tradition on Parliament Hill, taking place on a weekend in late July on the lawn. Military bands march together in a sunset ceremony, consisting of the Ceremonial Guard, other members of the Canadian Forces and guests- this year it was a group of retired U.S. Marines and a group from the German military participating. The concept is called beat retreat, a tradition that dates back to walled cities and the closing of the gates at sundown, and features a mix of music, centered around a performance of the 1812 Overture, brass band style, incorporating cannons and the bells of the Peace Tower. I have videos of the event as well: Bagpipes, music from the Pirates Of The Caribbean score, a portion of The 1812 Overture, and the anthems.

After it's all done, there is a march out of the participating troops off the Hill.

City Daily Photo Theme Day: Photographing The Photographer

The first day of each month is a theme day for members of City Daily Photo, and for September, that theme is Photographing The Photographer. Have a look at how other members are taking on the theme here.

Last December, I went over to Gatineau to take in a Christmas fair at the Canadian Museum of History, formerly the Museum of Civilization. I photographed the Christmas tree placed overlooking the Grand Hall, and held one back for this theme, as it featured another photographer and her model.

On New Year's Day, I came up to Parliament Hill, which had been the scene of a big party the night before. A CBC reporter and videographer were prepping a story. I decided that the video camera still qualified as photographing a photographer.

I took this in January during a visit to the Ottawa Convention Centre. A photographer and a model were on the ramp leading up from the ground to the second level.

This is taken in Confederation Park during Winterlude, on the first day of the event in February. Videographers were positioned at the time from several stations, though the reporters themselves were absent. I expect this was set up to do quick spots between one of the officials and various reporters in turn.

The shelters you see in the above shot are set up for the ice sculptures. Those sculptures are irresistible to the photographer. A worker was busy with light set ups on the ladder when I took this shot of another photographer capturing the moment for posterity.

This was another Winterlude shot, taken in the evening. Web cams were set up at various spots along the length of the Rideau Canal skateway at the time, and you could go to the site and have a look at each spot. I decided to photograph one of these cameras while down at Dow's Lake. It looms like a ghost out of the night.

Also at Dow's Lake, I took these shots in May during the Canadian Tulip Festival. Photographers can always be expected to be found around the colourful tulip beds here in Commissioners Park, one of the major sites for the spring festival.

And this one was on the grounds at the Museum Of History, where a photographer was in the background while I was photographing these planters of tulips.

Here are two shots from Glowfair, an annual street festival held in the downtown core in June, a mix of art, music, and entertainment. That included lit up artificial trees that were a magnet for photographers, especially if they had someone to pose for them.

And I finish with this. Fortissimo is an event held on Parliament Hill on a weekend each July for over twenty years now, a military beat retreat sunset ceremony involving several marching bands, including two from other countries. I'll be showing this event in a post in a few days, but the photographer close by among the onlookers made this shot ideal for the theme. The group of soldiers marching out are from a reserve unit out of Hamilton.

City Daily Photo Theme Day: Out Of Focus

The first day of each month is a theme day for members of City Daily Photo, and for November, that theme is Out of Focus, as chosen by Wilf, who blogs from Torino in Italy. You can find out how other photobloggers from around the world are interpreting his choice here.

Back in April I did a series from within the Canadian Museum of Nature here in Ottawa. Within the Earth Gallery, there was a camera display that allowed one to metamorph their face with two different controls, one for changing shape, the other for changing colours. The results seemed suited for this theme (and fitted my weird personality), and so here are the results of my fooling around with the controls.

This one was taken on our Doors Open weekend in early June. I was walking into one of the destinations, had my camera on, and heard the click as I inadvertently took a shot. The blur seems entirely appropriate for this theme.

And this last one is from the Fortissimo event I attended on Parliament Hill in July. The military marching bands were passing by after the ceremony was over, moving quickly enough that they had a ghostly, out of focus feel in this shot.