My photography exhibit, titled “In Berlin”, is now on at the Kitchener Public Library. My proposal was accepted about a year ago so I’m quite happy that it’s finally up and ready for viewing. There’s been a ton of planning to get everything going including selecting and de-selecting and re-selecting images; deciding on what to print on; getting things printed only to realize the printer kind of didn’t know what they were doing so I had to go elsewhere which was sort of a blessing in disguise; being forced to change my framing; even finding titles for the images took more work than I thought. Everything was worth it because, if I do say so myself, the show looks pretty good.

I’ve done a few solo exhibits in the past, but nothing close to this magnitude. There are 18 images in total, all shot during a trip to Berlin in 2008. I had a difficult time narrowing down what I wanted to show, but recently I’ve been trying to force myself to be critical of my own work and what I actually want to show to the public, so this was good practice for that.

I had some postcards printed for the event and I even got some new personal business cards that just happened to arrive about a week before the show started. The photos will be on display for the whole month. There is a reception at the library on Thursday, October 15 at 7:00pm. Come check it out if you can!

Doors Open Ontario was held in Waterloo Region on Saturday that featured a total of 40 sites throughout the region that you could tour and visit. Including one of the pre-visits I did to the McMaster School of Medicine, I managed to see seven different sites this year, which is easily the most I’ve seen in one day. The last few years I was only able to make it to two or three.

My first stop was at Sorbara Law, which is a very short drive from my house. This was probably my favourite site for the simple fact that it was absolutely stunning inside. It’s an old mansion that was once occupied by the Seagram and Bauer families. The folks as Sorbara did a major renovation to the existing building and also built a massive addition at the back of the building to house offices for their lawyers. One of my favourite features of this place was the original blueprints of the house they had framed and hanging throughout. 

The former Waterloo County Courthouse (on Weber Street between Queen and Frederick) and the Gaol directly behind it were my next stops. The old courthouse has been renovated into Region of Waterloo office space and the gaol is home to a couple provincial offences courtrooms. Up next was Uptown Waterloo where I visited both CIGI—I did a few exterior shots here recently—and the Button Factory, which was also running an exhibition featuring one of my images. My final stop was the Waterloo Masjid, not far from CIGI. They were busy with prayer time during the tours, but were still gracious enough to show us around and tell us about their faith.

All in all, it was a pretty good day. It rained in the early afternoon, but judging by the attendance I saw it wasn’t enough to keep people away. I was quite happy to get to as many sites as I did, most of which I’d never seen before. Next year I’ll aim for eight.

A few weeks ago I visited the McMaster School of Medicine for some preview photos for this weekend’s Doors Open Waterloo Region. I was hoping to get to one or two more sites before the big day to get some more thorough interior and exterior images, but that didn’t really work out. Instead I just visited a few places in the evening and did some exterior shots. Included are the CIGI Campus, the Former Waterloo County Courthouse, and Sorbara Law which is housed in the magnificent former home of Thomas and Dorothy Seagram on Union Street in Waterloo.

I’m hoping to hit up the courthouse and Sorbara to see the insides during the event. If I have the time I’ll hopefully be able to stop at a few others. Get out to some sites on Saturday if you can!