You are invited to peruse one my latest photobooks, Adriatic Cruise. This was a cruise I did in the early summer of 2023 with a three day stint in Venice prior to boarding. I had never seen the stunning Dalmatian coastline befdore nor had I visited the Greek island of Santorini. My brief stay in Venice was a bit peculiar as I concentrated on the outer islands in the Venetian lagoon and avoided the tourist crowds entirely. Never set foot in St. Mark’s square!!
You are invited to peruse my latest photobook, PASSAGES TO INDIA. This book is a compilation of images taken over three decades between the 1970-90s on three separate trips to India. All were shot using primitive (by today’s standards) film cameras. Thanks to the miracle of artificial intelligence image software programs, I have finally been able to bring these images to a print worthy standard.
The title I have chosen is an obvious reference to the great E. M. Foster’s famous novel, A Passage to India. The images displayed are somewhat dated but are a honest snapshot of the India I knew in the latter part of the last century. Enjoy!
Some images from my recent visit to my old hometown featuring West Street which borders the Welland Canal. West Street was once on my paper route. I recall back in the day giving a friendly reciprocal wave to the deck crews of the passing lake freighters such as the Edmund Fitzgerald. Who knows, maybe that’s how I ended up sailing for nearly a decade with the Canadian navy.
Canal Days, West Street, Port Colborne, Ontario
Canal Days is an annual summer festival celebrating the town’s important function as a strategic port on the St. Lawrence Seaway. Featured above is the triple masted schooner Empire Sandy and an American replica of a war of 1812 naval frigate from the days when Lake Erie was on the front lines of the Seven Years war.
Heritage architecture on West Street
VIKING POLARIS
Moden tour ships now ply the waters of the Great Lakes duing the summer months. Port Colborne is now a mandatory stop for passenges who wish to visit Niagara Falls, Niagara-on-the-Lake and the vineyards of the Niagara peninsula in luxury buses. Quite a change from the old days when steam driven, smoke belching, lake freighters would dock here to buy coal from my uncle’s old coal dock!!
Modern Condos
Port Colborne real estate has exploded in the aftermath of Covid as Toronto pandemic refugees found that they could work from home and avoid the daily hassle of Toronto traffic. Penthouse condos with canal views go for more than $1million.
CAPTAIN’S QUARTERS
West Street’s oldest house dating from the 1830s now a comfortable inn.
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Today is the anniversary of the Canadian military raid on the French coastal town of Dieppe. Within hours, nearly 1000 soldiers were dead, wounded or missing in action.
Some old legacy photos from a visit I made some 40 years ago.
I have finally committed images to print in my new photobook, “Passages to India” which reveals photos of my three trips to India. My first was in December of 1970 and my last was on assignment with Canada’s Department of External Affairs in 1993. Much has happened in India since then but my photographic record gives an honest account of the India of that period.
The title is of course a hat tip to the great English novelist E. M. Forster’s famous work, “A Passage to India.” Thanks to the miracle of artificial intelligence image processing software, I have brought old roll and slide film images up to a modern standard.
I welcome you to peruse this book at your leisure by clicking below. (Be sure to expand when prompted for the best viewing experience.) Enjoy!!
Last July 6-7 was the current edition of the Glebe Art in the Garden Tour. The Glebe is the central residential district in Ottawa.I was fortunate to welcome over a hundred plus visitors to my backyard which is in full summer bloom. A very relaxed and hospitable way to meet friends and neighbours and discuss images from the various phases of my life. Many heartfelt thanks to the organizers of this increasingly popular event.
Saipan is the largest island and capital of the Northern Mariana Islands, a Territory of the United States in the western Pacific. Saipan was liberated by the US Marines after the Battle of Saipan in July 1945, thus exposing Japan to direct attacks of the USAF.
Never in my wildest dreams could I have concatenated Saipan with the freedom of Julian Assange.
Today, after 12 years of persecution, which included 7 years of diplomatic immunity in the Ecuadorean embassy in central London and 5 years in Britian’s maximum security Belmarsh prison pending extradition to the United States, Julian Assange was declared a free man in return for a guilty plea on the island of Saipan.
Below is a snap I took of the Ecuadorean Embassy in central London when I was just a dozen yards or so from Julian during his sequestration.I discreetly waited for the uniformed Bobby permanently stationed outside the main entrance to walk out of view while waiting to arrest Julian should he step out into the street.
How we have changed. For publishing the “Pentagon Papers” revealing the misinformation of the US DOD about the Vietnam War back in the 60s, Daniel Elsberg became a national hero. Free speech in the West is now just about extinct.
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Today is Memorial Day in the US. A day for remembering America’s war dead. After watching the restored version of the “Memphis Belle” I couldn’t help thinking of an old neigbour of my family in Lake City, Minnesota with whom I was priviliged to play many rounds of golf. Walt Quarve did not die in the war. He flew with the USAF’s Mighty Eighth out of Bassingbourn in the lush fields of East Anglia that I came to know so well. His plane was shot down exactly 80 years ago to this very day!! What an amazing coincidence!!! Fortunately his crippled Flying Fortress, “Liberty Run”, was able to reach the Swiss border where he spent the rest of the war in internment.
A day’s trip to Chaffey’s Locks and the Opinicon Road yesterday produced a good variety of species. One disappointment was the lack of a Golden-winged Warbler. However, I was able to improve my captures of the following. All in all a good day with good friends.
Once again a flood of Dutch tulips graces the environs of Ottawaand brings forth a wave of personal memorieson this the 79th anniversary of the Victory in Europe.
THE MAN WITH TWO HATS
In the aftermath of WWII, Canada benefitted from a massive cohort of Dutch immigrants. No greater benefit could have been bestowed upon me than that of the Kramers, a childless Dutch immigrant couple who poured their love and attention on us Cub and Boy Scouts teaching us duty, respect and honour in our remote rural community in their new countryof adoption.
This mutual attraction between Canada and Holland started with the liberation of the Low country by Canadian troops. In the above photo you have a physical manifestation in the heart of our tulip festival of the famous photo showing a Dutch man celebrating the liberation with not one, but two hats!!The starvation and tyranny were finally over.
Later in life I would live in London’s Eastend, just a few hundred kilometres from the tulip fields of Holland. My cockney landlady, Ada, would become my third grandmother and recount the horrors of the Blitz. In the Spring, I would labour in her old “Victory” garden, not for desperately needed food but this time to tend her colourful roses and tulips which she thoroughly enjoyed.
ADA & ME, BACK IN THE DAY, EAST LONDON
“Gimme me Max!
Gimme me Max!!“
That’s what Ada would say everytime she saw the old “Cockney Crooner,” Max Bygraves, come on the tele. Here he is belting out a tune that wraps it all together. My personal tribute to both Ada and the Kramers that I’m sure Max now does in person in a much better place.
