The Photo Gallery

02/16/2024

Embracing the serene beauty of fresh snow in the city! ❄️☃️

09/27/2022

Hubby found some time to start snapping pics again ❤

Where seasons meet. Facing northwest on a fall evening so crisp that you can almost tangibly grasp the cool freshness of the chill in the air while simultaneously bathing in the warm glow of slanting summer sunshine.

09/27/2022

Where seasons meet. Facing northwest on a fall evening so crisp that you can almost tangibly grasp the cool freshness of the chill in the air while simultaneously bathing in the warm glow of slanting summer sunshine.

08/05/2021

In Carleton Place just outside of Ottawa you will find yourself walking into the past heydays of Ontario’s Mississippi River textile milling industry. A dotting of towns preserved in their 1800s architecture so beautifully that Hallmark movies are regularly filmed in these quaint little towns. I spent this evening exploring both the village and my new lens hoping for a decent sunset and instead settling for golden hour light diffusing through heavy clouds and captured this shot of their Town Hall, with some lush grass in the foreground and a beautifully mirrored reflection in the mighty (little) Mississippi River.
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07/29/2021

Fireball. Thoroughly soaked I slogged my way through the Byward Market, my fellow travelers also caught unawares, ducking under sheltering overhangs and skipping over puddles. As I made my way towards the Interprovincial Bridge that connects Ottawa to Gatineau I couldn’t help but notice that there was no visible break in the clouds that would allow the sun to peek through. Hoping the clouds would shift I began taking shots of the bridge as soaked passers by dodged around me, the fool with a camera and an umbrella desperately hunched into the wind. Then it happened for a count of 3 seconds there was a brilliant red smoky sun - 3, 2, 1 gone! The smoky haze due to hundreds of forest fires had turned the sun a brilliant diffused red, like a hot poker in the sky, and I caught this shot of a lone traveller as the bridge metal and wood work reflected that glow of red, splashing across the puddles and I knew it was going to be a picture worth every slippery, squelchy step I took in my sandals.
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07/26/2021

Was it worth getting soaked to the bone in the storm last night? Yes.

There were two storms, one on the Quebec side (photos coming soon) and one on the Ottawa side. As the Ottawa storm pushed through, the clouds opened up above us and caught the fire smoked sun reflecting off the clouds. It was gone faster than it appeared. I wiped my camera off and kept going. Ending the night with some Piccolo Grande.

Tom Rollins - Ottawa photographer, selling canvas prints and other signed tourism photography photos. Museum prints and canvas professionally wrapped over a frame. Gallery called The Photo Gallery

07/24/2021

As summer passes, the positioning of the Milky Way will shift it’s point in the night sky to allow for photo captures prior to 3 and 4am - and closer to midnight. In a few weeks my wife and are heading to Quebec City for a few days where I hope to get some clear, starry nights before the midnight hour as I am not a night owl, and 3am photo shoots do not agree with me.
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This photo is a compilation of a long night on the Vimy Bridge. The long exposure on bridges can be particularly troublesome as bridges are designed to move for structural integrity - meaning, every car and truck that crosses it creates a vibrational shimmy. Lots of patience, and plenty of failure.
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07/20/2021

A summer afternoon walk turned a little chancy as I made my way up towards Nepean Point. Determined to beat the storm, I braced into the oncoming winds, pressing on in the opposite direction of the crowds of sightseers streaming away from the lookout point and amphitheater. Dodging the first few raindrops, an imminent warning of the downpour yet to come, I paused in my doomed climb to take this picture. I resumed the upward trek only to be hit by a deluge not 10 steps further, making the choice to head for shelter a little too late to avoid a through soaking despite all my attempts to run between the raindrops.

07/10/2021

I am always on the look out for interesting trees and especially roots from trees. This past spring the Ottawa river was particularly low and exposed this trees roots for what could have been the first time in many years. I happened upon them by accident but they are now one of my favourite. This combination of rock and roots create a captivating photo that I can’t believe comes from a local spot in Ottawa.

07/06/2021

Reopening. In 2019 Gatineau Park’s most prominent look out closed due to a retaining wall collapse. Covid hit not long after and often our provincial border which divides Hull/Gatineau from Ottawa shut as well. This spring the lookout refurbishment was completed and when the border officially reopened I headed across the Ottawa River to tour the park, after a little detour in the picturesque village of Chelsea. I found myself drawn to the precipice where Canadian Shield abruptly ends and Ottawa valley begins - The Champlain Lookout, which never fails to impress and though there were few clouds in the sky and the view was a smidge on the hazy side, the trek was well worth the effort after all, “what are men to rocks and mountains!” Indeed, one felt rather small with the vista laid bare,the suns rays brilliant and unobscured by clouds seemed to touch every leaf and rock and tree, chasing shadows from each crevice almost causing a washed out effect in all its brilliance.