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Where to begin.

For the past, oh I dunno, 6 years or so, I’ve been on-again off-again documenting life and the people who live them in and around the downtown St. John’s area. More specifically, Water Street and it’s sister streets, like Duckworth and Prescott St.

Recently, I kind of decided it’s time to slap it all together as one single project. So for the past several months — in between paying the bills — I’ve been working on a project…

I call it, Water Street: Environs and Denizens and I’d love it if you’d take some time to view it.

About two months ago I was doing my regular browsing of r/photography over on reddit.com when I happened up on a post from a fellow redditor who’d just inherited his grandfathers cameras.

From the post on reddit…

My Grandpa is cleaning out his house and invited the whole family over to take what we wanted. I found these camera throughout the house. They’re all very common cameras, but they represent sequentially each camera my Grandpa has had throughout his life.

The models: Brownie Target SIX-20, Brownie Bull’s-Eye, Brownie Holiday Flash, Instamatic X-45, Polaroid OneStep, Canon AF35M

I know they’re nothing special, but it means the world to me that my passion for gadgets and photography came from somewhere. Thanks Grandpa!

They’ve got some serious sentimental value for me and the family, but I’m more interested in them getting actually used than I am in showing them off as “Grandpa’s relics”.

After some quick introductions to prove we were both normal individuals and I wasn’t going to get a bomb in the post, we struck a deal. Derek (aka hornflips) dropped them in the mail and about 10 days later they were in my hands. Admittedly, when they showed up I was so busy I’d just plopped the newly received vintage cameras on my shelf. A quick look over as I unboxed them showed a couple were just unusable without modification of some sort. Another is a Polaroid and each frame costs about $2.00 and the last one was a Canon AF35M Rangefinder.

Fast forward about two months to sometime last week. I’ve been doing research into older rangefinders, specifically for something silent and small that’s both easy to use but versatile. As well, a quick focusing and a quality lens was a must. As I researched for a Rangefinder to purchase, I spun around in my office chair and glanced up my shelf. There it was…

A Rangefinder.

There sat the Canon AF35M, nicknamed “Autoboy” by Canon Japan. Launched in November 1979 the Autoboy was Canon’s first auto focus 35mm lens shutter compact camera. With a f/2.8 38mm lens mounted on a small black body, it’s speed and size matched my demands. After a quick clean, I loaded it up with 400iso film and started snapping. It seemed to work. With no way of knowing if it truly was working, I did the only thing any sane photographer would do, I went out shooting the new to me camera.

And here are the results:

Girl reading in the park at the National War Memorial downtown St. John's

Playing chess on the sidewalk near Hava Java on Water Street

Click here to see more pics from this story.

With Christmas, injury and general lack of time over the past couple months I’ve not had much opportunity to shoot for myself. That all changed the other day when I decided to load some 35mm into my Horizon 202 and the ole’ Nikon F. The Horizon is the pano camera, I’m sure you’ll recall and the Nikon is just a regular, albeit one of the first SLR cameras, and on it I’d mounted the speedy 85mm 1.4.

The lack of a meter (the thing which tells you what your settings need to be) in either of these cameras makes life interesting. It makes putting rolls through the developer at the end of the day fun, like gambling! You’re hoping they all come out, but there’s always the chance you got it wrong and you’ll get nothing but over/under exposed negatives. Naturally, I brought along my D3 for when it got too dark for film but I only used it once the lights came on.

Here are the results:

The Portuguese fishing vessel Brites docked in St. John’s Harbour, some of the guys on the deck are speaking to a women on the docks. Shot with the Horizon 202:

Here’s a photo of one of the crewmen, shot with my Nikon D3 a few hours later (it was night time by now).

I then wander up to Water Street where these two visitors (with their dog, his paw is just visible by the man on the right right boot) were begging for change. I didn’t get names, but they one was from Labrador and the other from British Columbia. I bought them a cookie at Hava Java. My last ever purchase at Hava Java’s old location :( This photo above is with the Horizon 202, the one below is from the Nikon F w/85mm 1.4. Don’t remember what the ap/ss was. Sorry. The subtle juxtaposition of young man, begging on the streets as a homeless traveler versus a family walking their little girl out of focus in the background was intentional. I’d initially shot one going the other direction and noticed them behind me so I ran around the other side of my subject and recomposed.

Same set up again, Nikon F, 85mm 1.4

Shoot Harper? Harsh I know, but admit it, we're all thinking it.

From there I made tracks up near City Hall and waited for 20 minutes before someone finally walked up these stairs for scale.

There is nothing particularly special about either of these two photos (above, below) but I like them none the less.

This man had no issue with my taking his picture. He had an excellent ring on, which was most certainly belonging to some institution or group. I’d love to know what it was. Was a square, shape with black/white background halved diagonally and in the top left it seemed to have a B or a D in calligraphy.

Convenience store on Queen's Road

Even the shop clerks have more style these days. When I worked retail, you would of been fired to not wear uniform, wear a hat, wear a scarf. Let alone stop working for a minute to have your picture taken.

Kids these days. (I am of course just joking).

I made my way back downtown to test out some new techniques with the Horizon panoramic camera. This is from atop Atlantic Place parking garage, looking down at Bairds Cove.

That’s it for now. There are a couple more from this days shooting on another roll that isn’t finished yet. So you’ll see those soon!

Over the past several months I’ve been piling up the rolls of film from my Horizon 202. After getting a couple hours to sift through the negatives and do some scanning, here are the results. All of these pictures are shot on 35mm film, using a frame size of 24mm x 56mm. It’s one of the more interesting cameras I own.

This first photo is from Shallow Bay out near Cow Head on the west coast of Newfoundland. The beach is massive there and it’s so nice, very private and perfect for walking.

This is also from the west coast of the island, it’s Bonne Bay.

This is the beach at Green Gardens. I hiked out to the ocean and then went for a dip in the St. Lawrence. You can see more pictures from that here.

This is a top down view of the beach where I am sitting in the picture above.

This is the Tablelands located in Gors Morne. One of the most amazing places in the world. (above & below)

In Bonne Bay.

Here’s a good friend, Khris Stamp. As you can see, he’s quite good at the stunt-boarding.

Thanks to all the people who have commented and compliments via the comments section at the bottom of this post, via twitter and also through e-mail. It’s great to know that the 8 hours or so I spent getting wet yesterday was worth it.

To see images from the day after the storm go here:http://www.colinpeddle.com/featured/hurricane-igor-lands-in-st-johns-part-ii-the-aftermath/

So today I got up and at around 11am decided it was time to pack up and head out for the day. Somebody has to take the pictures right?

I started off at Quidi Vidi, just to see what was up and I’ll tell you what was up: the water. It wasn’t really windy in St. John’s just yet, but it had been raining since sometime the evening before. Despite warnings from the RNC (our local police), there were a lot of sightseers every where I went. Thankfully, from what I could see, most were keeping a safe distance. From there I swung by St. Pat’s Ballpark to discover the entire outfield was now a swimming pool. Then I made my way downtown to see what people were doing to keep dry… then the wind hit.

A heavy rain falls on September 21st in St. John's

Two people take pictures of the flooding at Quidi Vidi Lake, St. John's

Rennies River well overflown

The outfield at St. Pat's Ballpark, St. John's

Downtown was quite wet, the wind began picking up and the rain got quite sideways at times. Most people were chilling under overhangs or making use of umbrellas. Others just didn’t care (like me!).

There were also quite a number of boats docked in the harbour, including: HMCS St. John’s, a Chilean P61 Navy boat, several large trawlers and others too. A lot of the crew members could be seen dodging the drops on the streets of St. John’s.

A sailor aboard the HMCS St. John's

This man was aboard the Coimbra, docked in St. John's harbour

Some people just stayed inside, like these two enjoying lunch at Atlantic Place, St. John's

Williams Lane was essentially a waterfall down over the steps

Most of the allies and lane ways downtown quickly turned into waterfalls after the 100mm mark was reached. Despite that, downtown was pretty boring at this point so I took off for the outskirts to see what the fuss was.

Waterford Road and Bowring Park:

Waterford Bridge Road near Corpus Christi Parish

I arrived at Bowring Park via Waterford Bridge Rd. It was 100% flooded, quite deep as well.

Waterford Bridge Road near Corpus Christi Parish

At Corpus Christi Parish

This poor guy had to wade through the water to get a pump for the church, which considering it’s proximity — in the middle of the newly laid out river — it was probably darn near floating away at this point.

And then there is this guy, who decided it a good idea to drive, nay float down the river.

He made it just fine and was welcomed to the other side with a rather astounding round of applause from the bystanders.

Then water poured out from his doors and he drove away, surely bragging to his friends when he got home.

The water was very rapid. I don’t know why this issue at this point hasn’t been solved already. Every year we get a rainstorm it floods. I think they need to dredge the river or something.

This person decided not to tempt fate the way the last guy did. Probably for the best.

After I left the Bowring Park area I made my way back through Kilbride — not much going on — through to Mount Pearl and down Topsail to Columbus, stopping at MUN and then back out to Torbay Rd. Traffic in Mount Pearl on Topsail was just nuts due to Blackmarsh being closed, the lights at Commonwealth – Topsail being out and general stupidity by 90% of the drivers out there. Between Mount Pearl and Torbay I saw 5 accidents narrowly avoided… all due to people not knowing how to operate when the lights are out and it’s a four way stop.

I snapped pictures of the damage along the way. This person stalled at the overpass for the Goulds bypass. People going all over the place.

Mount Pearl:

Two people push their car through the water after it stalls

The Waterford River was backed up at the bottom of Park Avenue in Mount Pearl as well. The council worker strongly advised me not to get to close because it looked like the bridge was about to go — though in the end I don’t think it did. (below) This persons house, next to the bridge, now featured a swimming pool in their front yard! Unfortunately, their car was in the pool so they’d need to get it cleaned first.

While I was shooting these pictures above in Mount Pearl the wind really picked up. This is when most of the big trees started breaking around town and when I genuinely felt concerned for my own safety. Debris began blowing from behind (branches, cones, general stuff that was large, rocks, etc.) and I had to take cover behind a light pole — praying it didn’t suddenly break. I jogged back up the hill towards Topsail, the wind was so strong it literally took my breathe away.

As I said, at this point the wind had really picked up. Random stuff was blowing and catching everywhere. Stopped at the lights to get on Columbus Drive, small rocks began pelting the side of my car.

I cringed every time I saw someone in a fancy BMW or Merc.

Memorial University:

When I got to Memorial University I discovered the construction site had been turned into a blender for the slightly weighty sheets of insulation which lay about. These are not leaning against this car above, they’re glued there by the strong winds. A few moments later they’d take flight too. That’s a 4×8 sheet of something flying a good 100~ feet in the sky. This wasn’t a one off, stuff was flying all over the place.

I decided not to hang around.

Despite the danger a few students were out teasing the wind and also tempting fate. I kept waiting for this guy to take off as the wind lifted him upon tipped toes.

Torbay Road:

A NL Power worker speaks to the homeowner who lost his tree

After a perilous drive up Torbay Road I decided to drive to Portugal Cove via Indian Meal Line. CBC 640AM was saying Indian Meal Line was blocked by a tree… it was not, but the remnants of downed timbre was very apparent.

A tree blocks a lane on Indian Meal Line as a NL Government truck passes

A man clears the remains of a fallen tree on Indian Meal Line

Thankfully most people on Indian Meal Line still have fireplaces so the downed trees was just an excuse to fire up the stove. Any trees which were felled by nature were chopped up by the locals right away.

Portugal Cove:

In my short time on this earth I’ve seen some swells of our coast but none compare to the water in the bottom of Conception Bay on September 21nd 2010. The waves, not spray, the waves were so high the tops were hitting Atlantica (that red building at the top of the picture above). A lot of onlookers here and the effort to get out was definitely worth it.

The crazy thing is that this is happening at the bottom of the bay — that’s amazing. It’s one thing to see this kind of action out at Cape Spear or up in Flatrock, but in a very sheltered bay such as Conception Bay?

St. Philips was just as dramatic. The waves were breaking against the two wharfs, coming right over top of them and back into the sheltered marina. The foam was being picked up by the wind and thrown inland 50 feet or more. You’d see little drop of goo just flying through the air, it was something else.

Being that I was soaking wet and hungry I doubled back to the house and got some soup, a change of clothes and left again for Bannerman Park where there was some devastating news about the ancient trees in the park.

Bannerman Park:

I remember when Hurricane Juan hit Halifax taking down a lot of trees in Point Pleasant Park and Public Gardens. My sister told me that people were walking around the Public Gardens in sorrow and disbelief that all of the old storied trees were gone. It takes a lot for these trees to get to the size they are — a lot of luck and a lot of time.

It was a very sad sight to see the amount of damage Igor caused in our beloved Bannerman Park.

I spoke to the man whose house this tree was threatening. He’d been without power since noon with no sign of it being restored any time soon. He’d lived there for some 40 years and had never witnessed anything like this.

Bill looks on as a fallen tree looms above his house on Military Road

I figured I’d better take a look around the area to see what else happened.

Debris covers Military Road near Bannerman Park

I don’t know if this pole was always leaning like this or not, but it looked pretty odd and probably is about to break.

Circular Road tree damage

Damage on Rennies Mill Road

Suddenly on the horizon was a thing we’d not seen all day in the sky: color! The sun made an appearance albeit a very brief one just long enough to show us that it’s still there.

The sun sets with a purple hue over the city of St. John's on Military Road

The sun sets with a purple hue over the city of St. John's on Bond Street

The power is out on Duckworth Street

There wasn’t much power in the city as I drove home. Most of downtown was dark, as was 90% of Torbay Road and surrounding area, including Torbay itself.

Lights out in Torbay, NL during Hurricane Igor