Urban and rural Nova Scotia
Parts of the Halifax Metro, South Shore and Annapolis Valley regions
The first weekend of June was my first photography trip with Mathieu Chiasson since October 2020. When I'm with family and other friends, I'm always worried that I might annoy them if I stop to make too many images. But with Mathieu, I know that I’m free to stay in the same spot for as long as I like. Or, if I feel like exploring something different than him, I know that’s fine too. We’ll just meet up again a bit later.
I can’t speak for my travel partner, but street photography in downtown Halifax was what I was mostly looking forward to, while still remaining very much open to the other photographic possibilities that would present themselves during the weekend.
Our first stop at our area of destination on Friday was at The Cottage Cafe in Dartmouth for lunch, which happens to be located next to Lake Banook. There were plenty of rowers on the water as we were driving in, but by the time we finished our meal, most had left. We took a stroll by the water anyway and I managed to make an image that I really like. It’s one of a series of numbered buoys. Circles are a strong element of visual design. And although they are arranged in a rather linear fashion, I like that they are slightly misaligned.
Our next stop was the Halifax West KOA campground in Upper Sackville where we set up camp for the weekend.
Afterwards, we went for a short hike along West Lake at Bell Park in Mount Uniacke.
Then, we returned to the campground for supper. There was a nice little dock at the entrance where I made a few images, one of which is shared above.
In the evening, we visited the Grand-Pré National Historic Site. I’d been there a few times before, so I tried to look for something different to photograph besides the church and the statue of Évangéline.
Saturday morning we woke up early to some fog. We returned to the campground’s dock for a bit, but decided rather quickly to head into Halifax, hoping the fog wouldn’t subside before we arrived.
Well, the port city didn’t disappoint. The fog was present for the earlier part of the morning and provided a dreamy white backdrop. We spent a lot of time on the waterfront, and then we walked around downtown.
Mid-morning, once the fog had lifted, we walked up the hill to visit the Halifax Citadel National Historic Site.
Later in the morning, we stopped by the Lemonade General Store where we had the pleasure of meeting and chatting with Sarah, the owner. Unfortunately, their homemade ice cream was unavailable, but I plan on returning before summer’s end for a nice scoop… or two!
In the afternoon, we had a late lunch at Shaw’s Landing and visited Peggy’s Cove. Interestingly, I only learned this later, on their website, about our restaurant: “Our founding name comes from Mr. Ian Shaw, who originally came to Nova Scotia after tragically losing his daughter in 1998 when Swiss Air Flight 111 went down off the coast of Peggy’s Cove. Mr Shaw stayed in our community for a number of years running Shaw’s Landing as a full service restaurant until he retired with his wife in Spain.”
That evening, we drove around Mount Uniacke hoping to find the ideal spot to photograph the sunset, but we turned up empty-handed on both a nice spot and a nice sunset.
We woke up early again on Sunday and by 6:30 a.m. we had checked out of the campground and were in Wolfville. We walked about downtown and Acadia University’s campus.
My favourite images from Sunday, possibly even from the entire trip, are the ones of the lamp posts at the very top of this post.
Then, we were on the road back home…
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