Some Favourites from 2023

A Small Sample

Each year as it comes to a close, I assemble a small number of my favourite images and publish them in a Photo Book. This year is no exception. I’ve completed the book, Portfolio 2023 and submitted it to the publisher to print and bind. I’ve been doing this for over 10 years, building a collection of my photographic memories.

Included in today’s blog are five photographs from the book that have not been shared previously. All the other photos in Portfolio 2023 have been displayed in blogs published in 2023.

My first photo for today is the masthead at the top of the post. This bridge, the Claiborne Pell/Newport Bridge, spans Narragansett Bay, connecting Newport and Jamestown, Rhode Island. Newport was the first stop on our autumn cruise, after leaving New York City. The weather was disappointing, confining us largely to bus travel for our exploration of the town. I did get a few shots, including this one from the tender that ferried us to and from our ship’s anchorage in the harbour.

One of the ports-of-call on our New York City to Montréal “Glimpse of Autumn Cruise” was Québec City. In the course of our excursion ashore, we walked through “La Basse Ville”, a charming district below the upper, main part of the city . The next scene caught my eye, a Catholic gift and supply store, Librairie Père Frederic, run by the Nuns from the Monastery of the Magnificat.

I might not have taken this photograph without the presence of the nun painting the window trim. Diligently working away, she definitely adds interest to the picture.

Not knowing her name and not wishing to disturb her, I choose to call her Soeur Pinceau.

This library is one of my favourites, among all the great buildings in New York City. The Stephen A. Schwarzman Building, commonly known as the Main Branch, is the flagship building in the New York Public Library system. It dates back to 1911 and it has a distinguished and storied history. An interesting footnote is its appearance in the 1984 move, Ghostbusters, where it played host to ghosts.

Next, an interesting morning scene taken at Quarry Lake, a recreation area in Canmore. I was fortunate to be there for some great conditions; calm water, reflections, light on the mountain peaks and the flow of cloud over the mountains, fanning out as they moved in my direction.

This is a pair of Neotropic Cormorants that I came across at a pond in our Arizona community. They are members of a family of approximately forty species of aquatic birds, commonly know as cormorants and shags. They are slightly smaller than the Double-crested Cormorants found in Canada.

Weather has not been great for photography recently. I look forward, camera in hand to getting out soon.