Off Hours - Reflection on the third week of 52

Here is the description for the Off Hours theme:

You’ve seen the pictures before: a bunch of people dancing and drinking at the bar; the riverfront crowded with joggers and rollerbladers; the hall packed with wedding guests or business types. These spaces seem so exciting. You find yourself thinking, I really want to be there - right now. But I want you to forget all that. This week’s theme is all about those hives of activity, energy, and creativity when they are snow covered, dark, empty, or closed. You can’t be on all the time. This is your opportunity to capture these places when they are off.

Play ball! by Lauritabonita123

Though Windsor isn’t a seasonal town, nor many Essex towns, when the temperatures plummet along with heaps of snow, aspects of it shut down. Even the time of day can determine whether a space is filled with screaming (hopefully in excitement) children and docked boats, or if the geese have taken over and the docks are filled with ice and nothing more. That was the challenge this week. To capture these spots when they are empty and dark, but hopefully not in a depressing way. I just wanted to explore Windsor – Essex in its off hours.

Closed for the season by Frank Shepley

Frozen Docks by Patrick Firth

Playgrounds and docks were featured, but also empty parking lots and buildings. In spite of these spaces being lonely of people, they certainly were not devoid of a colour and beauty all to themselves, and I commend all the vibrant photographs that came in and the people who captured them.

Children Playground - Off Hours by Lupita Amaya G.

Puddles to Ice 1 by Kate Klinck Photography

I look forward to the next theme’s pictures, week four’s Black and White. Consider this an invitation as well. If you want to talk about what you are taking a picture of, or the story behind how you got it, feel free to send it along to essex.masqueATgmailDOTcom, or include it in the description of the photo on Flickr. I know each one of these photos has a story behind them, and I am sure many would be interested in reading them.

All the best, and happy shooting.
Again, feel free to contribute on the Flickr and Facebook sites.

#52weeksofWE - Black and White, Theme 4 of 52

 

You may get home with a memory card full of photos (or a roll of film?) ready to be uploaded onto your computer and tweaked with an editing program – each of them filled with the vibrant pinks, golds, and blues of nature. Then you think, I am going to bleed all of those colours out and make a really nice black and white composition that will be the envy of all my friends and coworkers. However, you may come across that photo where you automatically go to drain out all the colour, and find that, hey, there was never any colour to begin with – you are attempting to squeeze blood (of the most vibrant red) from an inherently black and white stone.

That is the challenge this week. Can you find some detail, some place in Windsor or the County where you need to edit as little as possible, that you can still call “black and white?”

Check it out on Facebook and Flickr

Where there's smoke ... - Reflections on the second week of 52

Here is the description of the second theme:

… there isn’t always fire. Something about smoke (clouds, vapour, etc) in the winter strikes me as especially beautiful. It just seems more crisp, defined. And on my commute into work, which takes me through west end Windsor by Windsor Salt, there is a lot of it. Sure, you may cringe about what is causing and being effected by the less than natural clouds, but they do lend themselves to being captured by a person with a camera. Feel free to be creative with this one as well. Is there some way you can play on the expression “where there’s smoke there’s fire” with this week’s photograph? If you choose this route, please provide a brief description so we can all enjoy your unique take on this theme.

Though my favourite part of the drive in and out of Windsor during my commute is travelling along the Detroit River - a landscape either dotted with boats or choked with ice - the inspiration for this week's theme really came from the second leg of my journey; once you round that bend coming out of Lasalle, heading towards the now vacant horse track, you find yourself in the midst of smoke stacks and train tracks and - now - cut down trees. Just like Chemical Valley was to me growing up in Sarnia, ON, these industrial spaces can have an aesthetic quality unto themselves. I shy away from using the word "beauty," but maybe that's just my hookup (although I doubt it is).

 "Bridge in between" by Zee1977

I wasn't the only one to capture some of this aesthetic of industry in Windsor's West End. There is something about these huge billowing forms hanging heavy above the city-scape, more menacing than sublime, that makes for a powerful photo. Although I chose to use a different composition for this week's theme (a smudging kit smoking on the edge of the Detroit River with the smoke of U.S. industry in the background), two of my shots that ended up on my photostream were direct captures of this.

 "Smoke Screen, West Windsor, ON" by Pat86

Even as I wrote the first part of this blog post, some of my fellow challengers were composing wonderful shots that did not have anything to do with the menacing aesthetic of the smoke stack. Instead, we were treated to Christian's minimalist and colourful smoke formations, and Lupita's vibrant blue / purple smoke in a glass. 

"Smoke" by Christian Kuong

"Nice Blue Purple Smoke" by Lupita Amaya G.

"Smoke" by Lauritabonita123

I really liked the variety of this week's submissions, from the landscape to macro, from grey to colourful. Enjoy the pictures on this blog post, but also go to Flickr and Facebook to catch the other shots and further updates from #52weeksofWE. Happy shooting!

#52weeksofWE - Off Hours, Theme 3 of 52

You’ve seen the pictures before: a bunch of people dancing and drinking at the bar; the riverfront crowded with joggers and rollerbladers; the hall packed with wedding guests or business types. These spaces seem so exciting. You find yourself thinking, I really want to be there - right now. But I want you to forget all that. This week’s theme is all about those hives of activity, energy, and creativity when they are snow covered, dark, empty, or closed. You can’t be on all the time. This is your opportunity to capture these places when they are off.

Submit to Flickr, Facebook, or email your picture files to essex.masque@gmail.com

Bridge and Tunnel - Reflections on the first week of 52

Here is the description of the first theme:

If you mention “bridge” and “tunnel” in the same sentence to a Windsorite, especially throwing in the definite article ‘the’ before either word, there will be little doubt as to what you are referring to. It is written all over town – Bridge Street, the now retired lights of the Tunnel BBQ. However, now is your chance to be creative and expand your appreciation of those feats of engineering we use to span such things as streams, railways, trolls, and roads – or delve beneath streams, railways, trolls, and roads. Here is your opportunity to celebrate anything from the lowly single plank of barn board spanning a shallow ditch in the County, to the majestic two pieces of barn board strapped together and spanning an even deeper ditch (and beyond), with the lens of your camera and your love of all bridges in tunnels in our fair city / county.

I had no expectation for this week, largely because this is my first time doing this, and it being the first theme. One scenario was that every one of the 29 challengers would submit a shot of a piece of barn board across a ditch in the county with some person in a troll costume underneath. The next scenario,  there would be one person flooding the "system" with Ambassador Bridge shots. Extreme thoughts maybe, but at least it makes the blog post a little more exciting.

 Kate Klinck Photography

In reality Week One was closer to the second scenario, and yet I couldn't be more pleased with the participation. It being the most photogenic of the bridges of Essex County, the great blue behemoth that does so much to define who we are as Windsorites / Essexians (?), draws photographs like moths to a giant blue candle. There were some beautiful shots, details and creative viewpoints and weather that sunk steel and concrete into a strong mist.

 Bridge (1-52) by Lupita Amaya G.

Honourable mentions were a shot of a tunnel, lights marching into a winter scene and sky, tunneling through the snow (braving the cold), and - ahem - my own shot that captured a figure working beside a train under a bridge. I had considered this ravine previously, knowing several bridges spanned its steep depths. Those precarious sides, snow covered and treacherous, really called into question my dedication to getting the shot I had originally considered. Fortunately I was able to zoom from one bridge to the other, and capture a moment when two figures - strange to each other - were caught with the stationary train, dormant in the snow. Many of the other shots I took showed how busy the bridge was with automobile traffic, but I liked the one that appeared a bit slower, a bit more human.

 Christian Kuong

 Bridge and Tunnel by Me

I am really looking forward to the next fifty-one weeks, embracing the motivation to really devote myself to creating a decent shot every week. I also look forward to the contributions of my fellow challengers and hope it provides some inspiration for creative expression. Happy shooting!

#52weeksofWE - Where there's smoke, Theme 2 of 52

… there isn’t always fire. Something about smoke (clouds, vapour, etc) in the winter strikes me as especially beautiful. It just seems more crisp, defined. And on my commute into work, which takes me through west end Windsor by Windsor Salt, there is a lot of it. Sure, you may cringe about what is causing and being effected by the less than natural clouds, but they do lend themselves to being captured by a person with a camera. Feel free to be creative with this one as well. Is there some way you can play on the expression “where there’s smoke there’s fire” with this week’s photograph? If you choose this route, please provide a brief description so we can all enjoy your unique take on this theme.
Please use the hashtag #52weeksofWE. If you can use the theme and take a shot this week in keeping with a photography challenge!
Go to the Flickr website to submit.
Submit on Facebook.
Or submit via email: essex.masque@gmail.com

#52weeksofWE - Guidelines

(Let this photo I took a while ago ease you into my tyrannical rules for the Photo Challenge)

 

Though I hate to impose these I can see myself getting overwhelmed if I don’t. I am going to lay out some highly encouraged guidelines to hold true to the fun of a photography challenge. Read through and let me know what you think.
1. You may submit one picture per week. This can be to either the Flickr page, the Facebook page, or to my email, or to all of the above, but it should only be one picture that keeps in line with the theme of the current week. You may notice that you are allowed to post two pictures per week in Flickr. This is so that if you submit a photo late one week, and then a new one early the next, that you are able to submit when you want.
2. In keeping with the photo challenge, I would strongly encourage you to take a new picture (even if you have a photo that fits the theme from before). Therefore the shot should be taken sometime between when the theme is announced on Monday morning and the Sunday afternoon of the same week.
3. Include the #52weeksofWE tag on your photo
4. Refer to the discussion entry posted on January 5th, 2015, entitled “Here We Go,” for permission requests.
If you have any questions about these guidelines, please either send me a Flickrmail message, or contact me at essex.masque@gmail.com

#52weeksofWE - Bridge and Tunnel Theme, 1 of 52

If you mention “bridge” and “tunnel” in the same sentence to a Windsorite, especially throwing in the definite article ‘the’ before either word, there will be little doubt as to what you are referring to. It is written all over town – Bridge Street, the now retired lights of the Tunnel BBQ. However, now is your chance to be creative and expand your appreciation of those feats of engineering we use to span such things as streams, railways, trolls, and roads – or delve beneath streams, railways, trolls, and roads. Here is your opportunity to celebrate anything from the lowly single plank of barn board spanning a shallow ditch in the County, to the majestic two pieces of barn board strapped together and spanning an even deeper ditch (and beyond), with the lens of your camera and your love of all bridges in tunnels in our fair city / county.
Submit to any of the following sites, and make sure to include the hashtag #52weeksofWE on your photo if you can. I will accept pictures until Sunday afternoon, with the new theme to appear Monday January 12th, in the morning.

Flickr: 52 Weeks of WE
Facebook: Essex Masque
Twitter: @EssexMasque
Email: essex.masque@gmail.com