2025 NE Cruise - Halifax, Unusual Statue Cluster

Very interesting what other cultures consider worthy of the time and effort needed to create statues...

2025 NE Cruise - Halifax, Stately Building with Canadian Flag

 

2025 NE Cruise - Halifax, The Bicycle Thief

This display ticks several boxes - a picture of signage through the bicycle spokes, a little bit of bokeh in the lettering, and bright color against a black background.  By the time I got the composition right, Chenjean was a block or so down the boardwalk...

Accidentally stumbled upon this colored pencil rendering of same, along with glowing edges below:

2025 NE Cruise - Halifax, Crazy Lamp Posts

The boardwalk here in Halifax was something to see.  Very fortunately the weather cooperated with us for the duration of the trip.

Scratching my head trying to figure out why one of these lamp posts is laying down.  Due to the curvature of its base, don't think it's broken.  Guess they just wanted one of them to be prone, providing night lighting for those that may be sitting on the bench.

2025 NE Cruise - Halifax, Plant with Leaf Edges

Think I've published this species before, but forget where.  Perfect subject for the Glowing Edges effect in Photoshop:

...recolorized:

2025 NE Cruise - Halifax, Old with the New

A bookmark fashioned from this old obelisk in front of a new, modern building.  Once we disembarked and were in town along the port, there was plenty to see.  Being in early September, when school was in session, most of our shipboard companions were the older types, so we ended up doing pretty much what everyone else did...that is, just walking around and looking at things.

2025 NE Cruise - Halifax, Lighthouse

The proverbial New England lighthouse, taken from the deck of the moving ship.

2025 NE Cruise - Halifax, Retirement Spot on Island

So we're cruising on into Halifax when I spied the perfect post-retirement spot for the wife and me.  Tried using those red chairs to convince her, drawing an idyllic picture of the two of us sitting there just watching the world go by, but it didn't work.

2025 NE Cruise - St John, Unique Cargo Ship

Caught this from the ship on the way out of port for our next stop (Halifax).  I've seen things like this in documentaries but never before in person.  This ship is actually made to sink up to the white line so that it can position floating cargo there in the middle.  Then it raises up again and sails away...

2025 NE Cruise - St John, Pilot Boat

Though I don't like being on small boats, think they're neat and will snap a pic of those that are modern or unique in some way.

2025 NE Cruise - St John, Sand Sculpture

Though it was right there, didn't even notice this sand sculpture until returning to the ship.  A black layer was used to cover over a very busy and unnecessary background.

2025 NE Cruise - St John, Restroom Sign

This makes the cut for a collage of unusual bathroom signs I'll be creating one day...

2025 NE Cruise - St John, Colorful Houses

2025 NE Cruise - St John, Cityscape from Ship

Captured from our balcony on the ship...

2025 NE Cruise - St John, Sidewalk with Cable Shadows

Knew this was a keeper the moment it was captured; could not resist the shadows as they tracked along the masonry in the sidewalk.  There was a busy background that I didn't like, so covered it over with black.

2025 NE Cruise - St John, Wall with Windows for Card

Had to extend the wall a little to fit the promotional card dimensions of 3.5 x 2, then borrowed the text and layer styles from another card.  Am fairly please with the result.

2025 NE Cruise - St John, Wall with Windows

Chenjean was mercifully patient whenever I wanted to stop for a pic, and is getting used to me stopping at the least expected times.  This I did mid-walk while in town on the way back to the ship.  Immediately I thought of using this image in a promotional card, which will be posted tomorrow.  Meanwhile, how could I not play with the colors?

2025 NE Cruise - St John, White Flowers and Garden Patch

This one was gleaned from the same little patch next to the sidewalk.  Says something about a culture that takes the time to cultivate such beauty on public property...

Zoomed-out view of same below:

2025 NE Cruise - St John, Yellow Flower

I do try to stay away from the boring, mundane, cliché-ish photos - which I hereby dub "Old Fogey Pics" - but sometimes flowers and landscapes are just too pretty, if not interesting, to pass up.  Such as this one, which was part of the landscaping next to a sidewalk in town.

2025 NE Cruise - St John Mural

This is likely one of the larger murals you'll find anywhere.  Fantastic artistry and color...

2025 NE Cruise - St John, Focus-Shifted Perspective of Stone Church

 ...and zooming in enables a focus shift of same:

2025 NE Cruise - St John, Stone Church Exteriors

These last two posts of churches in St John are of one we discovered at the end of a long street on the edge of downtown.  It's called the "Stone Church", which is of the Anglican Church of Canada.  While this is a good, straight-on shot of the building, think taking a picture of the church through these trees adds interest.  As a bonus we have a light post in the foreground:

2025 NE Cruise - St John, Focus-Shifted Model Ship in Library

Also in this library was a large model sailing vessel, which was used to create a focus shift between the wheel and "ropes" in the foreground:

2025 NE Cruise - St John, Library Book Display

We were standing on the second floor across a wide expanse in the lobby, so had to zoom in to 250mm for this shot.  The goal was to get close enough to the books to read their titles.

2025 NE Cruise - St John, Library Balloon Girl

As it turns out this library was quite the place, with more than one photo op for the Bigger Cahoona.  The girl was hanging from a wire, which was quickly and handily removed by the awesome and improved Remove Tool in Photoshop.

2025 NE Cruise - St John, Marching Protestors

It became necessary to stop by the restroom before we got to the ship, and a kind person on the street told us that the library was the best place to go.  That's it across the street here, but we couldn't cross right away because of this march taking place.  Don't know if they were protesting or celebrating or what, as the flags and signage didn't specify.  So we waited a few minutes for them to get past, then made our way to relief.

2025 NE Cruise - St John, Old Building Facade

A building we encountered along the way back to the port.

2025 NE Cruise - St John, Apartment Building Through Trees

This was the view upon exiting the church.  Looking at the apartment building through these trees reminded me of this post and this post, both published in 2020.

2025 NE Cruise - St John, Ornate Church Lectern

Probably the most elaborate and ornate lectern ever made...even the bird gets a sash!  Wonder who gets to stand here and speak...

2025 NE Cruise - St John, Focus Shift with Cross and Stained Glass

 ...a focus-shifted pair using some stained glass in the background.

2025 NE Cruise - St John, Church Throne

Is this a throne?  I guess only certain people of high "rank" in the place get to sit here.  I've always had a problem with hierarchy in a church, as the Bible teaches that love is the great leveler of all the playing fields in life, and the "greatest among you shall be your servant" (Matthew 23:11).  Dunno - all these robes and crowns and hats and sashes - and thrones - the "higher ups" in a church get to use sure sets them apart somehow.  Shouldn't we be uniting instead?

2025 NE cruise - St John, Bookmark with Cross

 

2025 NE Cruise - St John, Pulpit of Church Interior

Church interiors are always fun to shoot.  There is often an abundance of color, good subtle lighting, and lots of art in glass, wood and stone.  Pulpits are interesting, as their elevation and degree of ornateness speaks to the veneration of the ministers that stand and speak behind them.  Plus it's a challenge - due to the usually low light conditions it's a trick to keep a steady hand, especially with a slower, middling lens.  I like photographing the insides of churches.

2025 NE Cruise - St John, Church Organ Pipes

2025 NE Cruise - St John, Narrow Window Exterior Shot

 

2025 NE Cruise - St John Steeple Shots

A peek-a-boo steeple shot here plus oblique angle of another below, on a church which we'll enter in the next several posts: