City Daily Photo Theme Day: Vanishing Point

The first day of each month is a theme day for members of City Daily Photo, and for September, that theme is Vanishing Point. Check out how others are interpreting the theme right here.

I start with a photograph taken from the archives, taken in December 2013. This is from a bridge near South Keys, looking west near sunset over railroad tracks below, a vanishing point at the horizon.

More recent- taken Canada Day night close to home, where spotlight beams shone in the night, appearing to come out of central unseen points.

Not too far away, but taken on another July day in Little Italy. These are the railroad tracks of the Ottawa LRT that runs north-south between Bayview Station and Limebank. The tracks converge off in the distance.

More convergence of lines- this is Carling Avenue over in Nepean, while waiting between buses.

And not that far from my ultimate destination in Nepean, more vanishing points, both in the distance and much closer to me with this side street.

Vanishing points are about parallel lines converging, and a good example is this work of art in Major's Hill Park. Twist 1.5 is the work of two artists, Alex Wyse and Ken Guild, dating to 1978. I photographed it from several points of view.

Finally, more converging lines- rail tracks, lights, and infrastructure. The LRT descends beneath the city core for the east-west route, and the tunnels at the ends of platforms at stations are ideal for capturing vanishing points.

Crush

In the latter part of February, something made the news here that I'd shared at Facebook. This parking garage was closed off a couple of days after the incident, with fencing surrounding the perimeter.

A portion of the garage had collapsed. It had been noted that support beams were showing signs of stress inside the structure, and those cars that could be removed were removed. Others remain inside. During the night, the collapse happened, thought to be caused by the tremendous weight of a pile of snow, saturated by water and stacked in one given portion of the top level, combined with years of neglect by the ownership. Have a look at a video here.

The parking company that owns the structure is getting understandably a lot of flak for it. I have no sympathy for them. I know someone who worked for them in a management position, and they treated her horribly before sending her packing, so to hell with them.

A partial demolition had already taken place as I passed by this particular morning. Cars still inside cannot be removed at present, by virtue of the fact that the only vehicular exit was right here, where the collapse took place. One wonders how many heads will roll for this.

The damage to this car says a lot.

City Daily Photo Theme Day: Motors

The first day of each month is a theme day for members of City Daily Photo. For February, that theme is Motors. Check out how other people are interpreting this theme right here.

I start with something unlikely, an escalator, but of course these have motors operating them. This one descends deep into the underground LRT Rideau station downtown. The platform is 26 and a half meters below the surface, and this escalator is the longest in the country, at 35.3 meters. I took this shot in late December.

One day in early January I was passing through the courtyards of the Byward Market and noticed this car parked, its owner elsewhere. The contrast with the old wall and the mounted photographs appealed to me. The photographs are called Dodge Away, by Kan Azuma.

Another LRT station in the downtown core, with an incoming train, which has a motor of its own. The LRT system in the city has been something of a debacle for years, sufficed to say.

This one's from the archives, taken in the summer of 2018. This is the ugliest car in the city, and it's still around, and even more decorated these days. Though one does not see it over the winter, so it must be stored away. I saw it last in October or November out and about, lit up. I've long said that when the owner decides to get rid of it, he'll have to pay someone several thousand dollars to take it off his hands. This was taken in the Byward Market.

I was out in Nepean one January day running errands. I got off a bus and saw this pick up truck with multiple bumper stickers. This one got a laugh out of me. Do Transformers have motors?

Another look at LRT trains in the tunnels beneath the core. I got on this one, and took the second shot when I got off.

On another January day, I was at Lansdowne Park during a snowfall. Several emergency vehicles were parked in given areas. No emergency- a hockey game was on that day, with a first responders theme, hence the vehicles. There were set-ups inside for paramedics, firefighters, and police.

City Daily Photo Theme Day: Medicine

 The first day of each month is a theme day for members of City Daily Photo. This month, the theme is Medicine. See how others are interpreting the theme right here.

Saint-Vincent Hospital is a place of medicine, a chronic care hospital founded a hundred years ago. It is close to home for me, but I hadn't been inside since before Covid. It seemed ideal for the theme. I came by on Saturday.

Saint-Vincent is one of two Catholic hospitals in the city jointly administered through the Bruyere organization, which has its roots in Elisabeth Bruyere, a nun who led a mission of sisters to Ottawa in the 19th century and established hospitals, education, and social services and left a huge legacy for the city that endures today. Since 1932, the hospital's location has been here, while its counterpart, the Bruyere, has been in Lowertown.

Within is a large courtyard, once exposed to the elements, but now with a glass roof. The modern touches are fascinating.

An adjoining terrace beckoned me out. Below the heights that the hospital is on- part of the same larger ridgeline that Parliament Hill is on- is Lebreton Flats. The Ottawa River can be seen, with Gatineau on the far shore.

I zoomed in. The back side of the Canadian War Museum is seen here. Off in the distance is the great rise of the Gatineau Hills.

A look westward. The low structure at centre is an LRT station.

I wanted to frame a similar view with the girders of the building.

The pillars are colourful.

Back out the main entrance I went.

Lastly, my medicine cabinet at home seemed fitting for the theme as well. Oral care and a razor blade at bottom, a couple of Tylenol bottles, soap, deodorant, and shaving gel on the middle, and some first aid and additional items on the top. The bag of cotton nose plugs is a reminder of that night in 2021 when I fell and broke my nose.