2025 NE Cruise - Halifax, Pink Flower Against Green Background

Surprisingly, this picture is relatively untouched...just a bit of sharpening was all it needed.  Made a good candidate for square dimensions, which is why it also made it into the collage published a few days ago:

2025 NE Cruise - Halifax, Flower Used for Promotional Card

Extracted just the foreground flower in this guy, then used it for a promotional card:

2025 NE Cruise - Halifax, Dahlia Varieties

A little collage showing the myriad varieties of the Dahlias - best viewed on a larger screen.

2025 NE Cruise - Halifax, Dahlia Society Meeting Place

As a bonus to the incredible sights offered at the Gardens, this happened to be meeting day for the Dahlia Society of Nova Scotia.  Never heard of a Dahlia, but there is an incredible variety in the species, as well as a number of folks serious enough about them to share with the world.

Meeting tent below, in which most of the following several posts were captured:

2025 NE Cruise - Halifax, Garden Signage

Don't know what this says, but suppose it's French.  Very immaculately cultivated, to the finest detail.

2025 NE Cruise - Halifax, Tree Next to Bridge in the Public Gardens

This is Andrew's birthday - HAPPY BIRTHDAY ANDREW!  He's exactly, to the day, five years older than Allison.  Not planned that way but a blessing, as he's been a great older brother, and a great son, throughout.

2025 NE Cruise - Halifax, Creek and Bridge in Public Gardens

Didn't have to go too far to reach one of the most impressive public park spaces we've ever seen - the Halifax Public Gardens.  Spent as much time as we could here before having to return to the ship.  Gotta love that miniature house.

Oh, and this is Allison's birthday - HAPPY BIRTHDAY ALLISON!

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.