We’ve featured the Barrie, Ontario waterfront before here at It’s About Travelling but that time it included images taken during the day and in warm weather. Today, we take a trip to the dark side with some images taken at night along the shores of Kempenfelt Bay, featuring the downtown of Barrie.
Barrie, Ontario Long Exposure Night Images
My oldest son returned from Laurentian University a few days ago for the autumn reading week that surrounds the Canadian Thanksgiving. He took a bus from Sudbury, Ontario to Barrie and I picked him up there. Always looking for an photo opportunity, I headed over to Barrie a few hours early in hopes of capturing the downtown in some night images. I was really happy with the results.
The air was crisp and a very recently full moon was rising from the east over Kempenfelt Bay and Lake Simcoe. The conditions were perfect and the foot traffic was minimal along the waterfront walkways because of the temperature. There’s nothing overly technical to these images. They’re all 30 second exposures using the Shutter Priority Function on my trusty Canon Rebel T3i. Of course, there’s a wee bit of post production enhancement on each…
Barrie is a city about 100 kilometres north of downtown Toronto via highway 400. Currently, around 140,000 residents live in Barrie with closer to 200,000 in the metro area. This is a city with explosive growth. In 1981, the population was just 38,000. Ten years later, that number grew to 62,000 and in 2001 it was 104,000.
The city is part of Simcoe County and is located on the far northwestern shores of Lake Simcoe, at the tip of Kempenfelt Bay. The Trent-Severn waterway is easily reached from Barrie and the waterfront is home to a large number of boats during the warmer months.
Barrie was named in 1833 for Sir Robert Barrie. The man was in charge of the navy in Canada during the War of 1812. Barrie was incorporated as a town in 1837 and as a city in 1853.
There is a large, metal bird-like sculpture located on the waterfront that didn’t quite make it into any of the chose eight images in this article. However, the first and last image in this article were taken from the base of the sculpture. It is called Spirit Catcher and was created by Ron Baird. Spirit Catcher was moved to Barrie in 1987 after being exhibited at Expo ’86 in Vancouver, British Columbia.
A structure that does show up in several images is the plain looking building with the lit up clock tower on top. This building is the city hall. City Hall was built in 1985 and stands 33.88 metres or 111 feet high. The other, newer structures that encompass the waterfront are recently built condominium buildings that almost all stand at 16 floors.
Barrie is home to Georgian College, a school that boosts the city’s population by 10,000 full-time students. Around 25,000 students attend Georgian on a part-time basis.
Since the 1995-96 hockey season, the city has been home to the Barrie Colts of the Ontario Hockey League. Originally, the Barrie Flyers were the city’s major junior hockey team and stayed in town from 1945-46 to 1959-60. The Flyers were crowned Memorial Cup champions in 1951 and 1953. The franchise was relocated to Niagara Falls and then again to Sudbury where they have been the Sudbury Wolves since 1972-73.
Further south down the waterfront, beyond the marina, there is a beach and recreational area that is home to several summer events and festivals. Major events include Kempenfest and Caribfest. Beyond that is the Barrie Rowing Club, home to regattas throughout the months when the lake isn’t frozen over.
As for the actual photography, it mostly comes down to patience. The camera needs to be on a tripod to prevent even the slightest motion ruining the shot. Manual focus is necessary because most lenses will not autofocus in the dark. Of course, over 30 seconds, everything moves. If you zoom on the trees and boats, you will notice they are slightly blurred. It was a calm night and the waters in the marinas were quite calm but still, there is motion.
Take a look at the Barrie waterfront during the day in the video below. This is made up of clips taken in the summer of 2013.
Barrie, Ontario Waterfront Video
