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.

Canada 150: The Celebration For The Country

In the lead up to our anniversary year, the government at large had various Canada 150 projects in mind. So too did the cities of Ottawa and Gatineau. And so too did the community; library branches hosted Canada 150 groups with their own ideas for the event in the year or two beforehand. For myself, I decided that my Canada 150 project would be to document the year in the national capital region as much as possible. That included a number of events that were added onto the usual course of the year, and which kept me busy- I was glad to be able to make use of my writer's blog as an additional publishing spot when things were exceedingly busy. 

Today I have a reflection on the year past with more shots of the anniversary year, beginning with this shot taken on Parliament Hill on New Year's Day, 2017. A concert had been held the night before.

One early Canada 150 event the city put on was called Crashed Ice. A speed skating track had been placed along the Ottawa Locks of the Rideau Canal in the weeks leading up to the early March event, and a group of slightly insane speed skaters rocketed down the course on a couple of exceedingly cold nights, much to the delight of onlookers.

Yesterday I made mention of La Machine, the urban theatre event with giant machines facing off against each other among various landmarks in the city. This was from the finale, with the dragon horse proving triumphant over the spider. Both machines are visible here. The event was put on by the city, and proved to be quite a success in how it drew people in.

Populace was the title of an exhibit held outside the Museum of Nature during the summer to mark the anniversary. A pottery guild here in Ottawa placed ceramic feathers, English roses, and fleur-de-lys sculptures in the grass on the east side of the property.

Canada's Table was an event that I covered in the writer's blog, taking place in August on what turned out to be a lovely day. Restaurant owners collaborated with chefs from the region and the country as a whole in a thousand place setting, four course meal on Wellington Street in the shadow of Parliament Hill, an event benefiting charities, yet another celebration of Canada 150. I photographed it as preparations were underway in the afternoon.

On a late June day near this same spot, I happened to be in the downtown core one day when I came across an official function taking place on the street. This was on a national day for our indigenous peoples. Prime Minister Trudeau was speaking, and can be seen in this shot in the center of the shot, above the heads of onlookers. The former location of the American embassy, across from the Parliamentary district, has been turned over to the First Nations of Canada for their use as a cultural center in the heart of Canada's political power, one more step in the ongoing process of reconciliation. I put this photo up at my Facebook page that day, after listening to the Prime Minister speak. It's the first time I've seen him in person, and he is a good speaker. It's nice to have a government leader in the job that you don't have to be ashamed of.

Canada 150 saw the renewal of the permanent gallery at the Museum of History in Gatineau. It reopened for Canada Day, with the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall attending the ceremony. The spaces here have been extensively reorganized with an emphasis on telling the story of Canada from its very beginnings, interweaving the story of indigenous and settlers throughout. I found the end result very well done. This is a wide view taken from my visit. 

Kontinuum was a multimedia exhibit that ran through the summer in what will be an underground LRT station beneath the city core in 2018. Lights and music made for a fascinating walk through what will eventually be typical infrastructure when the east-west system comes online. It felt like a sci-fi movie, and I visited it numerous occasions, especially towards the end of the run as I'd moved into a new place a couple of blocks away.

Ottawa Welcomes The World was an event that ran through the year at Lansdowne Park, allowing embassies from various countries to present themselves to visitors. I found it enlightening and entertaining, visiting many of these events during the year. I posted some of the series at my writer's blog, and others here after the packed schedule of summer had ended. Below are some of the events: musicians on stage during the Ireland event, an artist at work during the Columbia event, and candombe dancers who were part of Uruguay's presentation.

MosaiCanada was another major event, held in Gatineau at Jacques Cartier Park. I attended the topiary exhibition several times, enjoying the sculptures. Two of them are here: puffins and musk oxen, representing two very different parts of Canada.

And I conclude, as I did with yesterday's post, with two images from Miwate, the light show that illuminated the Chaudiere Falls. Canada 150 was an event that will certainly live on in many memories; the anniversary year was quite a milestone, and I enjoyed documenting things as I went along.

Finale

The final event in the Ottawa Welcomes The World series was on the first of December, with Romania as its subject.

Blouses In Bloom was the title for a series of photographs hung here promoting traditional textile craftsmanship in Romania. Photographer Alexandru Zainea and actress Laura Cosoi collaborated for these.

Also on display were art and artisan goods, as well as food and tourism information about the country. 

Among the panels were a series of photographs of St. Matthew Romanian Orthodox Church, which is out in the west end. I shall have to seek it out at some point.

I finish with a view of people at the event. I thoroughly enjoyed attending these embassy events throughout the year. They were informative, educational, and inspired thoughts of travel to the far corners of the world.

Zambia

The African country of Zambia had a turn in the Ottawa Welcomes The World series. The nation is in the southern part of the continent, with some of its neighbours seemingly always in turmoil, but one rarely hears news out of Zambia itself. One of the people I chatted with here noted that the country is peaceful and stable- hence why it never makes the news. She also said that often it is a place of refuge for those fleeing turmoil in those neighbouring countries, like Zimbabwe or the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Zambia is a country with a wealth of natural wonders, set in national parks, with an emphasis on tourism and agriculture. One of those wonders is Victoria Falls, which forms part of its border, and which has its best views in Zambia. There were displays here on the national parks and the Falls, artisan goods, and agricultural crops produced in the nation.

Here we have some of the wildlife in the country.

This eagle, which looked like a bronze, really impressed me.

Elsewhere here were tables of jewelry or displays of richly colourful traditional Zambian clothing.