31 Day Photo Challenge - After Dark - Day 5

Today's photo challenge is "After Dark", which means anything after sunset, but what do I take a picture of? I Googled "after dark photo challenge" and the first result was Digital Photography School: After Dark: Weekly Photography Challenge, they offered the following suggestions: a portrait, a cityscape of a night skyline, fireworks (too bad this challenge wasn't on Canada Day), the moon, or pretty much anything and to tag the photo with this hashtag, #DPSNIGHT. Since it's summer, I had to wait for sunset, which according to the Weather Network was at 20:53 this evening.

In the meantime, my bestie, Vicki came over this morning at 9:00 am and we went to the Beechwood Farmers Market that started today to check out the goods. I bought some local strawberries and a small strawberry-rhubarb pie for tomorrow's dessert. I'm not sure why it's called a Farmers Market when there were only two farmers selling stuff and they didn't have very much to sell at this time of year especially after seeing what's available at the Byward Market and the Parkdale Market. Yes, there were strawberries from one farmer, and the other farmer sold lettuce, spinach, garlic, and currants. Mostly, it was vendors selling bread, desserts, sauces, and other goodies.

We decided to go to Ola Cocina for breakfast, but it was too early and they were still closed, so we went to our favourite place in the 'hood, Da Bombe. We sat outside for breakfast and saw this horse drawn carriage go down the street. Then we went to the grocery store for things we couldn't get at the Market and I bought some flowers for my hello planter.

After my morning outing, I tried taking Nutmeg for a walk, but she was not interested, at all. Instead we played for a while, ate an apple, and then another walk before my afternoon outing. I saw Maleficient this afternoon and the CGI - special effects were amazing. At times, I thought Angelina Jolie's acting was over the top. The battle scenes were good, but short. I'm still trying to decided what I thought of the film. Perhaps my opinion is jarred because I am tired today. While I was playing with Nutmeg, it occurred to me that I could use a tea. I filled the kettle up with water, but instead of placing it on the burner and turn the stove on, I opened the fridge door and was about to place it on the top shelf when it donned on me what I was doing. Apparently, I really needed that tea.

After the movie, I took Nutmeg for another walk. She's a dog and dog need walks and sometimes they are extremely short, some are medium length and some are long. Besides, walking is good for me too. We haven't had very many long walks lately because of the heat and humidity. English bulldogs do not handle the heat well and it's hard on their breathing. Some of our walks end up longer than they are meant to be since a lot of people like to meet Nutmeg, pet her, and talk to her in baby talk. Nutmeg loves it and wants everyone to pet her and scratch her rump. The little girls on my streets always yell out, "Hi Nutmeg!" and will stop what they're doing and ask me if they can pet her. Nutmeg loves the attention and is very calm and good with kids. She always tries to give them a kiss at some point.

I watched the Netherlands - Costa Rica Fifa World Cup quarter-final match today and discovered the referee's whistles, and crowd cheering on TV scared Nutmeg. She was practically sitting on my face while I watched the game, until she calmed down next to me and slept. Some people were cheering for Costa Rica to win since they were the underdogs and they were fantastic this year. However, I wanted the Dutch to win because they dominated the game and I liked them. Not sure yet who I will root for in the semi-finals.

Sunset was finally approaching and it meant it was time to go in search of "After Dark" photos. I put on my helmet, placed the headlight on my handle bars, attached the rear light to the waist of my pants, put my camera, iPhone, and wallet in my small bag and set off on my bike. I biked to downtown Ottawa along Sussex, then Wellington and thought about stopping at Parliament, but for some reason I kept going and headed towards Bluesfest next to the War Museum. I hopped on the path next to museum and went just past Bluesfest to snap some picture of the river and a bit of Quebec on the other side of the river.

After Dark Photo - Ottawa River 1

After Dark Photo - Ottawa River 2 - View of Gatineau

These pictures weren't quite what I was looking for for my "After Dark" photos, however, it did give me the chance to play with the settings such as the exposure and ISO on my camera. I use a Canon PowerShot SD870 IS Digital Elph and it's a point and shoot camera. Once these pictures were snapped, I hopped back on my bike and head back towards the Bluesfest and noticed all the people sitting on lawn chairs or the side walk on the opposite side of the festival. They can't see the performers, but they can hear everything and for free. As I biked along Wellington heading towards downtown, I stopped to take this picture of the street lights and the cars going by. Too bad the traffic wasn't heavy for it would have made for a better shot of blurry tail lights. I found using the manual mode and different exposure helped slow down the shutter speed. Really not sure how else to slow the shutter speed on this camera.

After Dark Photo - Wellington Street - Blurred Lights

I kept biking on Wellington and stopped to take pictures of the Rideau Canal. My first couple of pictures of the canal had a weird glow blur or circle in the picture. Not sure how that happened. I discovered that the picture would turn out blurry if the ISO was higher than a 100. Maybe that's my camera or the exposure wasn't set right. Eventually, I will figure this all out and will get the hang of it. The canal is very pretty lit up on both sides.

After Dark Picture - Rideau Canal - ISO 100

I also stopped to take pictures of the main block of the Parliament. I love the architecture of the parliament buildings and its stone carvings. I also love that people can walk around on the grounds, hang out, and sometimes you will see a soccer game on the front lawn. I am pleased with both of these pictures, but for some reason the sky and the building in my final picture really grabs me. Parliament looks grand and proud in this picture. You be the judge. On my return bike trip home, I stopped at a nearby Tim Horton's and had the strawberry shortcake donut. It was so yummy and perfect after a 14km bike ride.