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A Belated Thought of Remembrance
Nov. 21st, 2017 09:32 amOriginally written for the Pen and Paper Workshop...
Cold Air, Firmly in Place – Dwight Williams - 14 November 2017
The cold air stays in place now. November is half done, and the cold air preceding the stronger snowfalls to come is firmly in place. There’s no evading it any longer.
The snowfall mentioned a moment ago is still maybe a few weeks away from properly installing itself across the streets and fields. That can’t be helped. Even allowing for climate derangement and the delays and tempering that it now brings to the equation, that snow will come.
Those of us who travel in this newly returned chill must make their preparations accordingly. There is no way around that need.
When I went downtown to observe the Remembrance Day ceremonies this past weekend, I bundled up. Three above-the-waist layers under the jacket. Gloves. Two under-the-pants layers. Yes, there were also over-socks on top of the compression socks I wear for circulation reasons.
You can argue that I was foolish in taking off the gloves to work cell-phone or camera as I believed the moment required. I usually take pictures of the ceremonies when I attend in person. Sometimes, I’ve posted copies of the images to my Flickr account for the public to look at if it suits them. It usually costs my hands a bit of comfort to do that.
As I write this, I’ve yet to upload those images. I chalk that up to concerns over hard drive space on my computer. You can expect that I’ll figure out a solution in due time. Dumping a few duplicate files here and there isn’t an impossibility.
This year, I took a different vantage. Most years, my chosen spot is along Elgin Street, usually either south or west of the War Memorial. Not this time. The northeastern corner of the square, along Rideau Street. In front of the Chateau Laurier, looking southward. That meant coping with the glare of the sun to some extent.
This isn’t impossible at this time of year for either me or the camera. But it is problematic. You’re warned often enough, by professional and amateur photographers alike, not to aim right at the sun when you shoot outdoors. The sensor can be damaged, burned out. A good thing, then, that I didn’t make that mistake.
Anyway, back to the hands. It did cost me some comfort to get those images. I waited, foolishly, until I’d moved on from the ceremony itself to the Peacekeepers’ Monument to put the gloves back on. There was a bit more wandering after that: from Reconciliation Square – a personal name for the Monument site – to Patty Boland Pub to the ByWard Market Building to Globe Mags and Cigars to lunch in the Rideau Centre. At which point, I decided I was aching too much to not go straight home.
I didn’t get images of the collected wreaths at the Tomb. Sorry.
Cold Air, Firmly in Place – Dwight Williams - 14 November 2017
The cold air stays in place now. November is half done, and the cold air preceding the stronger snowfalls to come is firmly in place. There’s no evading it any longer.
The snowfall mentioned a moment ago is still maybe a few weeks away from properly installing itself across the streets and fields. That can’t be helped. Even allowing for climate derangement and the delays and tempering that it now brings to the equation, that snow will come.
Those of us who travel in this newly returned chill must make their preparations accordingly. There is no way around that need.
When I went downtown to observe the Remembrance Day ceremonies this past weekend, I bundled up. Three above-the-waist layers under the jacket. Gloves. Two under-the-pants layers. Yes, there were also over-socks on top of the compression socks I wear for circulation reasons.
You can argue that I was foolish in taking off the gloves to work cell-phone or camera as I believed the moment required. I usually take pictures of the ceremonies when I attend in person. Sometimes, I’ve posted copies of the images to my Flickr account for the public to look at if it suits them. It usually costs my hands a bit of comfort to do that.
As I write this, I’ve yet to upload those images. I chalk that up to concerns over hard drive space on my computer. You can expect that I’ll figure out a solution in due time. Dumping a few duplicate files here and there isn’t an impossibility.
This year, I took a different vantage. Most years, my chosen spot is along Elgin Street, usually either south or west of the War Memorial. Not this time. The northeastern corner of the square, along Rideau Street. In front of the Chateau Laurier, looking southward. That meant coping with the glare of the sun to some extent.
This isn’t impossible at this time of year for either me or the camera. But it is problematic. You’re warned often enough, by professional and amateur photographers alike, not to aim right at the sun when you shoot outdoors. The sensor can be damaged, burned out. A good thing, then, that I didn’t make that mistake.
Anyway, back to the hands. It did cost me some comfort to get those images. I waited, foolishly, until I’d moved on from the ceremony itself to the Peacekeepers’ Monument to put the gloves back on. There was a bit more wandering after that: from Reconciliation Square – a personal name for the Monument site – to Patty Boland Pub to the ByWard Market Building to Globe Mags and Cigars to lunch in the Rideau Centre. At which point, I decided I was aching too much to not go straight home.
I didn’t get images of the collected wreaths at the Tomb. Sorry.
