New Brunswick Canada

Ann McRae · August 31, 2006

So we are going in early October. Flying into Halifax, NS to visit an uncle for a day, driving from Halifax to St. John - 5 days in St. John with soccer, but lots of day trip time, and then to Moncton for the return flight home. So I am looking for day trips that include really great photo ops - hope to catch some sweet light somewhere along the way.

cheers

ann

cdonovan · September 28, 2006

OMG i nearly landed on the floor when I saw this!!!!!!!:jawdrop

I am in Moncton myself, and never thought in a million years that there'd be someone travelling to this part of the land for pictures!!!

You're hitting us at a perfect time...the trees are all now starting to change colors, and the ones that have are still very vibrant.

I guess that it really depends on what type of shots you are looking for to make some suggestions. St John has beautiful architecture in the old section, they have a fabulous downtown market open all week, and a park across from the market is phenonomal for people watching as well as birds well mostly pigeons and people interaction, a lot of views even off the transcanada highway are beautiful this time of year, especially around the sussex area, which is between moncton and st john.

Not sure if you have opportunity to shoot much water where you are but there's a huge harbor in St john, the Reversing falls there as well...just google them and I'm sure there's info.

I could go on and on...but tell me what kind of stuff you're looking for and I can better direct you!!!!

Hope I am not to late in seeing this, and that you havne't left already!!!

Ann McRae · September 28, 2006

Great timing - we do not leave til Monday morning.

We are flying in to Halifax to visit an uncle. Will have the ultra fast tour of Halifax, as we only have one day! (Will hit Peggy's cove and the citadel, as far as I know).

Then we need to be in St. John by noon Wednesday. Games are Wed., Thurs and Fri. at noon or 1 p.m. We are staying in downtown St. John and the games are at a private facility east of St. John called RNS.

So, my plans are for as many beautiful landscape photo ops and any possible wildlife/bird shots as possible around the soccer schedule. Could be two outings a day - for sweet light at either end? We have a full free day on Saturday so could go for quite a long explore (maybe go to PEI?). I imagine most other exploring will be around the Bay, and possibly up river a bit.

Glad to know we will be hitting fall colors! Out here we never have reds - only golden aspens. I'd love to get a lighthouse photo and a covered bridge - all the classics.

And will be towing two teenagers and a hubby along on this, so active things to do near the photo ops would be great (whale watching, beach combing, hiking - even tho they hate that word!).

Thanks
ann

cdonovan · September 28, 2006

well, definitly peggy's cove then and the citidel for some classic shots, if you can get down to the harbor front in Halifax, they have some beautiful buildings down there that reflect the water!!!

St John has a nature park where moose have been spotted, as well as deer, but keep your eye open on the open fields when driving you're almost guaranteed a deer sighting this time of year

Peggys Cove will give you your light house shot(s)!!!

I would have to suggest the town of St Andrews for a day trip it's not far outside of St John, not quite an hour and a half, some beautiful opportunities for whale watching there now...the later in the season you go the better chance of seeing the whales...now would be about perfect! One boat that I recommend used to be called the Quary, it's a sailboat, and although they don't use the sails, it's definitly the best boat to be on (read washrooms, a small warm meal and alcohol is served as wwell) It's a fishing community, that has turned touristy, there are beautiful old homes, a humungous old hotel the Fairmont Algonquin that you could take hours to photograph. It's a very wealthy community so everything is kept beautiful and you have some great opportunity to see beautiful things...but instead of taking the highway there i would suggest going the old road, which is still a good road, so don't worry about your car, but there is lots more to see, you come across bays and pastures and hilly areas with beautiful fall colors. Driving all the way to the island in one day and doing anything from St John will be a bit of a challenge, it's approx 4 hours just to the other side of the big bridge, and once you get past sussex the highway is very boring!!!

The island is beautiful but I think that you'll be so limited with time travel that you'd have more opportunities in St Andrews! Definitly things for the kids to do, boutique shopping as well, also a really Cool Candy store with all the oldies that you didn't think existed anymore!!!! Hartland NB has the longest covered bridge in the world...but man what a long boring drive there, and once you are in heartland...that's all that's there!!:giggle
Check out this site http://bridges.nblighthouses.com/ and you'll find maps for the different bridges!
http://www.fairmont.com/algonquin/ that's the hotel in St Andrews...more info on that site about the town as well

All I can say is get up early, 6am ish and you'll have beautiful lighting...early morning finds you with fog from the dew on the grass!!! Absolutly beautiful backdrops of the trees, yup guess it's a cool place to be

Now with all that you must absolutly share you photos!!!!!!:D

Ann McRae · September 29, 2006

Hi again and Thanks very much for the info.

We will definitely spend time in St. Andrews.

I think we will likely drive east of Saint John a couple of days - hopefully as far as the Hopewell Rocks and/or Cape Enrage.
We will go on the 'river drive' norht east of Saint John.

And we will spend more than one of our days driving west toward St. Andrews and St. Stephen. Travelling for an hour or so at 2 or 3 p.m. should provide lots of opportunities for touring and photos, shouldn't it?

I have the impression we are too late for puffins. Are we too late for whale watching?

Given that you are several degrees south of us, what are typical sunset times now?

Thanks

an

Ann McRae · October 7, 2006

Hi from St. John

So far I can tell you about a few sights we have seen:

Nova Scotia - we stayed with my husbands uncle in Dartmouth for 2 nights and had a day for a whirlwind tour. They planned it and so we started at Pier 21, which was very interesting but not a big photo op. My husbands family landed at Pier 21 when they immigrated from Ireland.

Then we went on to Peggy's cove, along with a billion others! We stopped at West Dover for lunch at a restaurant called Shaw's Landing - I would recommend it highly. Picturesque village, great fish & chips. Peggy's Cove is a beautiful little village. Would have been nice to be there later in the day for some sweet light, but if you want the quintessential, cliche maritime photo Peggy's Cove is the place to get it.

In NB, the games are in the village of Rothesay. Rothesay is on the Kennabacasis River and is it ever beautiful. The games are at a private school right out of Dead Poets Society.

We have spent a couple of mornings walking around uptown Saint John - great old buildings, a nice market, and old cemetary all = photo ops.

We rushed off to St. Stephen and St. Andrews after the first game, but since it is off season most shops in St. Andrews were closed by the time we arrived. Both are lovely towns with old buildings. We stayed on the St. Andrew pier for sunset, again great photo op. There is a light house on the next little jut of land behind the pier that looks great in sweet light.

Yesterday we went to St. Martin and to the Fundy Coastal Drive. We parked and walked in the woods, along to the path to the ocean. We covered most of the park that way, and it was a glorious afternoon to do so. We got down to the water around 5 p.m., low tide and sweet light happening together. Very, very rugged. The tides here rise 45 feet so there is sea weed growing on the cliffs well above your head.

More later.
ann

Ann McRae · October 10, 2006

We leave today. It has been an interesting week for sure. We spent our Saturday (no soccer games) driving to the Hopewell Rocks - highway to Sussex then small highways through Fundy National Park, to Alma for lunch, back to the park to beachcomb, then along the coast. We stopped at Cape Enrage - very rugged land with a lighthouse on it. Then off to Hopewell Rocks for low tide (7 p.m. that day, but you can walk on the ocean floor 3 hours wither side of low tide). We got there at 5:30, and the park was closed. This meant we could not enter the interpretive center but we could still access the shore. The flowerpot rocks are amazing - several stories high, carved by tides and standing out of the ocean floor - really cool. We scrambled to get far enough around the cliffs to have sunlight rather than shade, but from all points there was sweet light on the NS shoreline across the bay. I had given my backpack to the dh when I climbed a set of roocks, and ended up with a full card and the 70 - 200 on board when I was leaving ...and the sky was a great mix of pink and blue. Oh well.

That day was enough driving and hiking for my kids so we have done local things since. We spent one morning checking out the Reversing Falls and Martello tower, then hoped to cross the river by ferry to Long Island, drive up island and cross back before the game. Found out that our 11 year old has a fear of boats! So we picnicked at Rothesay Park - lovely little park/marina. Went back there the next morning for sweet light and got some lovely shots.

Other parents from the team spent the Saturday at Grand Manan Island instead of Hopewell Rocks. I really feel there is so much more to do here than what we have done, but I guess that is always the case.

We fly out of Moncton this afternoon so will be driving along the farmland toward Sussex. Really pretty rural area with farms backed by treed hills. Unfortunately many trees here are dropping leaves already - there was great golds and oranges, but not a lot of crimson red. Don't really know if that is a lack of Maple trees or if they dropped before turning fully.

And FWIW the team took the silver medal.

ann

New Brunswick Canada

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