Ideas, Experiments, And Successes

Early concepts for flight were imagined by men such as Roger Bacon, Francesco de Terzi, and Leonardo da Vinci. A model of a flying boat as thought of by de Terzi is seen below.

Stories of those who are reputed to have experimented with flight are below.

The Montgolfier brothers invented the concept of lighter than air flight with the hot air balloon.

As the 19th century headed towards its end, inventors in various parts of the world were trying to figure out how to put a heavier than air machine into flight. It was just a matter of time. Models of a couple of concepts are below.

It was Orville and Wilbur Wright who made the breakthrough at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.

This is a model of their Flyer I.

Alexander Graham Bell was fascinated by the concept of flight. This is a model of his design, the Cygnet. The real thing didn't get off the ground.

 

City Daily Photo Theme Day: Smiles

 The first day of each month is a theme day for members of City Daily Photo, and for February, that theme is Smiles. See how others are interpreting that theme right here.

I'm relying in part on archive shots, starting with this one taken at Arts Court downtown in 2015 during Nuit Blanche. Allison Blakley, a member of a local dance company, did a performance piece through the night at Arts Court and gave me this shot following one of those performances, with a splendid smile.

2017 was the 150th anniversary of Canadian Confederation, and there were multiple events to mark the occasion that year in the city. One of those events, running through the year, was Ottawa Welcomes The World, held at Lansdowne Park in the Glebe. It was a series of events held by embassies to showcase their countries. One such occasion for Columbia featured this woman, Pilar, part of a chocolate consortium, with a bright smile.

Another occasion, profiling the country of Uruguay, featured candombe dancers with bright smiles and high energy.

Another event held that year was MosaiCanada, which was done over on the Gatineau side of the Ottawa River in Jacques Cartier Park. Part of the park hosted large topiaries in 2017 and 2018. They included a majestic First Nations version of Mother Earth with a gentle smile.

Doors Open is an event usually held here in Ottawa at the beginning of June. We'll see if it happens this year. In 2019, I happened to be at the National Arts Centre on stage and took this shot at the right moment, with a woman at the conductor's position holding the baton.

And then there's the smile. In 2019, the Canada Science And Technology Museum, another of our national museums, hosted an exhibit marking the 500th anniversary of the death of Leonardo da Vinci, examining his art, inventions, and concepts from a scientific perspective. That included an in depth analysis of his most famous painting, presented in multiple visual spectrums, with a look beneath the surface of the work, and an actual sized replica of the painting, front and back.

What is Mona Lisa smiling about?

Now for some fresh shots, these brought out smiles or laughs from me. First, this sheet I've come across showing the proper and improper way of masks in the Covid era, Gotham City style.

This is in a restaurant window in Centretown.

And this is the front billboard for a church in the Glebe.

Hello, Beastie

Coming out of the bird gallery at the Museum of Nature, there are a series of display cases with live critters of the creepy crawly, insect and arachnid variety. Such as this.

And its distant cousin.

I headed out into the Queens Lantern. To make up for the above, here are some of the stained glass windows in this part of the museum.

And more takes on that Moon suspended in here. We'll move into another gallery space tomorrow.

But leaving off today, it's the theme day for City Daily Photo, and the theme is Shopping. You can find others interpreting this theme right here. My initial idea for the theme is not possible under current restrictions, but it occurred to me that I had an alternative, and in keeping with museums. Below are two items I've bought in the last year at museum gift shops, on my rolltop desk at home. The cup at left is from the Canadian Museum of History, and incorporates the beautiful mural Morning Star by First Nations artist Alex Janvier onto it. The second is from the Canada Museum of Science And Technology, featuring a sketch and writing of Leonardo da Vinci on it. Leonardo was the subject of a major exhibit at that museum last year.

City Daily Photo Theme Day: Best Of The Year

Happy New Year! For the first theme day of the year, City Daily Photo members choose favourite shots of the year. You can see how others are choosing their favourites at this link.

The National Capital region is blessed with several national museums. I often go to the National Gallery of Canada. One of the treasures here is the Rideau Chapel, a convent chapel moved here before the building itself was demolished. It is a work of art in its own right.

There are a series of courtyards in the Byward Market that I like going through. One February evening I was passing through. It's the presence of the woman in the shot that made it stand out for me.

February is also the time of Winterlude on both sides of the Ottawa River, and in the Byward Market, ice sculptures were on display. They were particularly vivid at night, with spotlights shifting colours on them.

May brings another festival to the region, the Tulip Festival. Both flowerbeds in these two shots are at Dow's Lake, where the biggest site of tulips is to be found.

Doors Open is held here on the first weekend of June, and this year I happened to pass through the National Arts Centre for a backstage tour. Here on the stage inside the largest of the performance spaces inside, the woman at the conductor's place is what made this shot memorable for me.

This shot was taken on Canada Day from Plaza Bridge looking over the Rideau Canal. 

During the summer I visited the Canada Science And Technology Museum for the first time. At the time it was hosting an exhibit on Leonardo da Vinci, examining his inventions, knowledge, and art from a scientific perspective. Mona Lisa, of course, was part of all that, with several copies of the painting in different exposures as part of the exhibit. As always, her smile kept her secrets.

Elsewhere in that museum, in the permanent collection, are several steam engines, including this one.

There's a pub in the Glebe area that often has funny chalkboard sayings out front. This one is from the fall.

On an October visit to the National Gallery, I photographed Dancer, by the Italian sculptor Antonio Canova. It's my favourite sculpture in the Gallery.

On this same visit I took this shot of Bernini's bust of Pope Urban VIII. Tomorrow we head over to the Quebec side of the Ottawa River to see some of my favourites from there from the last year.

Perspectives Inside The Museum

I've shown you this building before. The old Dominion Observatory stands out at the Experimental Farm, where astronomical work was done for many years. It featured into the astronomy area here in the museum.

Here we have a survey map of Prince Edward Island, the smallest of the Canadian provinces.

I wanted some wider perspective views inside the museum.

Here we had the entrance to the Leonardo da Vinci exhibit.

Turning around gives a view of the theatre space ahead, where regularly through the day, short documentaries are shown or presentations made. When not in such use, images are projected onto a screen.

Such as Paris at night.

Or the Arabian peninsula.

Looking at the map of the museum, I realized I had missed one section- here it is below. It focuses on sound technology, and we'll have a look tomorrow.