Photo Friday: I Love Photography

My wife isn't going to like this post.

She didn't like last week's Photo Friday, and it was safe for work. But she doesn't like that I attend model shoots.

She likes my photography, even helps me with some post production, because she works for a company that creates photo-editing software. There are two products that she works on, and I love them, and I love it when she shows me great effects.

But my dear wife, who I love with all my heart, doesn't like when I go to a model shoot. She doesn't like me photographing women she doesn't know. Especially, when they're naked.

"You're a perv," she has said. "It's so degrading to the women."

I love my wife, but I disagree.

I love women, but I'm not a pervert. I don't oggle the models. I treat them with the utmost respect, and when I'm looking at them through the lens, I'm focused on the composition of the photo and the lighting. I use their eyes to focus my lens, before I recompose the frame and shoot.

When I'm not working on images, when other photographers in the session are working, I don't stare at the model. If the photographer gets the model to pose in a way that I find artistically appealing, I'll make a note of it and try to recreate the shot when it comes back to my turn. But more times than not, I'm thinking of my next shot.

I don't believe it's degrading to women. The models of our photo group have joined the club to be models. They choose the theme, decide whether they are going to be clothed or not. They make it clear to the photographers what they are willing to do and what they are not willing to do. In talking with the models, I find them to be confident women who truly enjoy what they are doing.

I almost take exception to women who tell other women that what they are doing is degrading. To me, defining women by telling them how they should behave, when they have made a choice, is degrading.

Are women who model for painters or sculptors degrading themselves? For me, they are aiding an artist celebrate the beauty of the human body at its best: the female form. I cannot draw or sculpt. But I can take a photograph. I can see the beauty in women and celebrate it in photographic images. I like to think I take tasteful photos. I don't shoot porn. I don't bring a woman down to a base, sexual object.

I joined the photographer's model meetup group because I want to explore this type of photography. I love all forms of photography.

And if this means that I take a photo of a disrobed woman, I think it's okay.

As long as it's totally okay with them.

The last time I shot at a model meetup, the model, Fredau, was very much in control, pretty much led the shoot. She was professional, and a treat to work with.

And, as today's photo shows, she loved to work with cameras.

Happy Friday!

Dramatic Ending

Not only has this week been the last that I shoot photos for my Bate Island Project, it is the end of Bate Island itself, the way I have known it for this past year.

A couple of months ago, I noticed that some of the mature trees were beginning to shed some of their bark. Because it was winter and none of the trees had leaves anyway, it was hard to determine if they were sick, but I knew that bark shedding was not a normal process. Unless, perhaps, they were sick or dying.

I'm not a tree expert. I don't know if these trees are oak, or ash. I suspect they are oak, only because some of the fallen, dried leaves that flutter across the snow-covered park are of that species.

About a month ago, during one of my afternoon visits, I saw that several trees were painted with a red X, below which a number was also painted. The first trees I saw were numbered in the 20s, but I saw one tree numbered 53.

A shitload of trees were going to be coming down.

This Monday, as I stopped on the island on my way to work, the trees were falling. Not of their own accord, but by about four men with chainsaws, a big truck, and a wood chipper. Some of the trees that I have walked past all year had already been taken down and cut into manageable stumps. Observing the inner core of these trees, they seemed healthy.

Now, they would make excellent firewood.

On my way home on that same day, I once again stopped for my afternoon shot, and the men were gone. But they had been extremely productive. Or destructive. Take your pick.

Bate Island looks like a war zone. Tree trunks and branches litter the pathway to my photo spot. By the end of the week, I will have a clear line of sight from where I park my car to where I set up my tripod.

Bate Island will be a wasteland.

Where I have been turning my back for the last year, few trees will remain. What marks the end of a photo project marks the end to generations of growth.

I couldn't be more sad about ending my project. I wish I had turned my lens around more often.

I have called the NCC, which oversees Bate Island, to find out why so many trees were coming down. Are the culled trees suffering from Dutch Elm Disease (if that is their species)? So many elms have come down across the city. If these trees are oak, have they befallen Sudden Oak Death? The operator for the NCC wasn't aware of the situation but has promised to look into it and call me back.

By then, I fear, very few trees will remain on Bate Island.

Update:

The NCC phoned me this morning to say that the trees that are being cut down are, indeed, ash, and are being culled as part of the citywide plans to stem the spread of emerald ash borer. The trees must be cut down before the temperatures soar and the pests migrate.

You'd think that with this cold weather, the devastating creatures would have frozen to death!

Thanks to Paul at the NCC for getting back to me.

Further update:

When I returned to Bate Island, this afternoon, to take my project photo, I chatted with some of the workers, who were loading chunks of ash trunks into a truck. They showed me borer holes in the wood and told me that the larvae was hibernating within. Only the chipping process, he informed me, would ensure their demise.

He believes some 5,000 trees have been cut down, recently, in the Ottawa area.

Wordless Wednesday: Hello, 49!

The Road to 50

Where one photo project ends, another begins.

This week brings the end of my Bate Island Project. My last photo will be taken on Friday, as I head home from work. Over the weekend, I will select the best shots and compile a short video to show the changing weather, the changing seasons, the changing light. The bush, so poorly positioned in the foreground, which was my guide when the cityscape was obscured by fog and snow, will sprout buds, grow leaves, colour, and lose those leaves.

No more will I keep an eye out for creepy guys and wacko ladies. I'm not saying I'll never take another photo on Bate Island, but I'll never feel compelled to.

But before the Bate Island Project ends, another project will begin. Tomorrow, I turn 49. It will be the last year in my 40s. And I thought that to mark this close to a decade, one of the best decades of my life, I would take on a true 365-day project.

I call it The Road to 50.

I will take a selfie of myself, every day, until my 50th birthday. I will try to be original with each shot, doing something unique for each day. That, on top of the fact that I hate taking photos of myself, will be doubly challenging.

But take heart: I won't be posting the photos every day on The Brown Knowser. They will be available on Flickr.

Where In Ottawa: The March Edition

Okay, I'm going to talk a lot about a location in Ottawa, but it is not the answer to this month's challenge.

Let me be clear on that point.

One of my greatest memories of my grade-12 graduation celebration was the dinner and dancing at the top of one of the city's prestigious hotels, one with a revolving restaurant, where, over the course of the evening, I could look out and see all of Ottawa laid out below me.

NOT the location of
this month's challenge!

Today, that is the location of the Ottawa Marriott.

Which is not the location of this month's photo challenge.

So, you may ask, why did I even mention it?

Good question.

This month, as my Where In Ottawa challenge has gained a larger interest and more recognition, the Ottawa Marriott has partnered with me to present a marvelous giveaway. The first person to successfully identify the location of this month's photo will come away with the following:

• A one-night, weekend stay in a traditional guest room at the Ottawa Marriott for up to 2 adults and 2 kids, including access to the indoor pool, sauna, fitness center, and Kids' Zone.

And now, the fine print and rules of the game:

• The giveaway is open to anyone, including winners of previous Where In Ottawa challenges.
• If you were with me when I took the photo, you cannot play.
• All guesses for the challenge must be submitted in the Comments section for this post. Answers submitted by Twitter, Facebook, e-mail, or other means will neither qualify nor receive a response.
• If the location of the photo isn't identified today, a clue will appear at the top of the right-hand column of The Brown Knowser. A clue will appear each day until the challenge is solved.
• The giveaway is valid for one year and is subject to room availability. Blackout dates may apply.

That's it. And now, here's this month's photo challenge. Sorry about the quality of the image: I shot it from far, far away (I don't know if that's a clue, but it's on me).

Think you know Ottawa? Prove it!

And my warmest thanks to the Ottawa Marriott. Whether you win the giveaway or not, consider visiting this landmark hotel. Stay a night or two. Get up to their revolving restaurant and look out on this great city. Like them on Facebook, and follow them on Twitter and Instagram. 


Update:

After one hour and nine minutes, the challenge had been solved. I didn't see that coming. The folks at the Marriott and I were hoping to stretch this month's challenge out, but you showed that you were keen (I had more hits on this post in the first hour than I usually receive for the first few days). Several people told me that they knew the location, but they told me through Twitter, and so I didn't respond. A couple of you correctly guessed on this post, but the first person past the post was Bethany Harpur.

Congratulations, Bethany! You correctly identified the location as Immaculata Catholic High School.

Oh, the clues I planned to weave.

Next month's challenge, over which I am determined to leave you stumped, will also feature a fabulous giveaway. What giveaway?

You'll have to tune in on Monday, April 7.