During summer, days are long and sunset is late, so I’m rarely downtown Ottawa after night falls. But as days are becoming shorter, I decided to go hunt for night shots while the weather is still nice.

Last Saturday was one of these days. It was in the mid-twenties and I left home around 7 p.m. to roam the downtown core with my camera. Half of the city had the same idea—by September, we are all clutching at the last bits of summer.

I started on Parliament Hill where the last few tourists were desperately trying to take good night shots of their family in front of the Center Block (not an easy feat when you don’t have any control over the shutter speed). On my way down Wellington Street, I stopped at one of the most scenic spots in Ottawa: the view over the locks, the Ottawa River, Alexandra Bridge and Gatineau in the distance.

In front of Château Laurier, bellboys were busy with a few presumably rich and important visitors who had parked right on the sidewalk. A couple of stretch limos were trying to make the sharp turn back on Wellington—Saturday night frenzy at Ottawa’s most classical hotel.

The Rideau area was, as usual, crowded and dirty. Behind the windows at Tim Horton’s and McDonalds, customers were munching on burgers and donuts, an eye on passengers getting on and off the big red buses spitting out a cloud of dark smoke.

Everybody was eating something at the Byward Market: tables were out on the sidewalk and people were either having a drink, a meal or a snack. The ever popular Beavertail House was packed, as well as the local Shawarma joints, most of them opened 24 hours.

Just before 10 p.m., I ended up at Chapters, waiting for Feng to pick me up. The store was surprisingly busy with late-night readers sipping coffee, sprawled across purple beanbag chairs.

I love night lights!

You can see the complete set of pictures in Ottawa Fall on Flickr.