Free night at Sheraton up for grabs

by Alison Brick on

It’s not often that you have such a good chance at winning a free stay at a hotel. Sheraton will be giving away 2,100 one-night stays at 86 locations during its Check-In On Us Giveaway.

You must be able to stay at the Sheraton hotel that you choose on Friday, October 23rd. You’ll be limited to that day for your overnight.

First register online, and then you can enter the giveaway once a day between October 6-9. There’s a chance that you might not win a room at the specific hotel you choose, but you’ll know instantly.

If you don’t win, you can try back the next day, through October 9. The rooms are available on a first-come, first-served basis.

If you win, congratulations–it’s all paid for! The hotel will cover the fees, taxes, and surcharges for the one night, but any additional nights and services will be your responsibility.

The promotion isn’t valid at all of the locations, but it is at 40% of them in the U.S. and Canada–meaning 86 locations. You must be specific and choose one hotel each time that you enter to win.

If the rooms are already booked by the time that you enter, you’ll still be offered a coupon for a room discount.

The promotion highlights Sheraton’s recent renovations. They’ve added or renovated 70,000 hotel rooms worldwide since 2007, and all of the hotels featured in the promotion are either new or newly renovated.

Photo of the Day (9.26.09)

by Brenda Yun on

Having just come from the concrete jungle that is New York City, I’ve come to appreciate the urban landscapes that only large cities can offer. When the sky opens up in bright blue above the towering skyscrapers I have to pinch myself at the great modern progress that the world has made in just a century. There’s something really grand and angular about cities that make them perfect inspiration for photographers.

This particular shot that was taken in Toronto caught my eye because of the great symmetry of the buildings and the cloud positioned perfectly in between. The square shadow on the lower left building adds to its angular appeal, don’t you think?

Today’s Photo of the Day comes to us from bgilbert, a Canadian with a great urban eye. If you have some great travel shots you’d like to share, be sure to upload them to the Gadling pool on Flickr. We might just pick one as our Photo of the Day!

Montreal Musts, To Eat: Liverpool

by Tom Johansmeyer on

Little Burgundy was once home to jazz musicians who fled Prohibition for Montreal to resume “normal” living – or at least get wasted regularly. Now, the pace isn’t what it was in the 1920s, but you can still find plenty of reasons to head over to this part of town. Among the best is Liverpool House, a small restaurant with a profound menu.

From the outside, Liverpool House looks like a neighborhood restaurant, the sort of place I’d find in my part of New York. The signage is subtle, hinting that you should really know about the restaurant already, and the external décor is almost unassuming. Yet, when you step through the front door, the scene changes entirely. The restaurant is overflowing with activity, from guests talking over meals to waiters and waitresses dashing around with plates of delicious food.

Make sure you have a reservation, particularly for peak nights, or you could be waiting for a while. If you don’t mind sitting at the bar, though, you should be able to squeeze yourself in at just about any time. Whether you choose this or to eat at a table, make your first stop Ryan. The bartender, he obviously has his finger on the pulse of this restaurant and can recommend dishes and wine pairings, explain the food in front of you and provide the insights that can unlock a spectacular culinary experience.

I had no idea, for example, that the boar belly I ate was smoked in the restaurant’s back yard … in a smoker the owner built with his own hands (literally welded it together himself). This is why you have to talk to Brian.

The service was prompt without being rushed. I received the courses as I expected them – they didn’t stack up on each other and did not leave me waiting impatiently for the next round. The oysters were from eastern Canada and perfectly delightful, and the boar belly evades any attempt at complete description. The combination of tenderness, texture and taste was perfect, but you’d have to taste it to understand. I also ordered the caprese salad and learned that some of the tomatoes are grown in the garden out back (in the same yard as the smoker). Liverpool House mixes in some of its own tomatoes but isn’t able to grow enough to support the entire restaurant (and the other two – on the owned block – that the owner has).

The star of the evening was the “lazy lobster.” By 8 PM, there were only two left, so it’s obviously a popular item (if you want it, get to Liverpool House fairly early). The lobster is served cracked and on a bed of lobster roe-infused mashed potatoes. Even if it means eating earlier than you’d like, make sure you have reservations that keep you from missing this.

The Little Burgundy neighborhood – and thus Liverpool House – is a bit of a hike from the downtown and Old Montreal hotels, so take a taxi both ways. It’s a bit of a pain compared to the ease of just eating near (or even in) your hotel, but the experience will be worth the 30 minutes (roundtrip) spent in a cab.

Disclosure: Tourisme-Montreal picked up the tab for this trip, but my views are my own.

Montreal Musts, to stay: Downtown digs at Opus Hotel

by Tom Johansmeyer on

The boutique hotels of Old Montreal are an obvious draw. The neighborhood is charming, with cobblestone streets flanked by art galleries and cute eateries. This is the Montreal most tourists seem to want to visit. But, especially if you’ve been there before, it may be worth trading the old world time for the energy in the downtown area. The Opus Hotel, on the corner of la rue Sherbrooke and boulevard Saint-Laurent is centrally located, not far from a metro station and wraps you in style from the lobby to the pillow.

Upon entering the hotel, you find a carefully decorated lobby. It’s clear immediately that design is a priority at Opus Hotel, and the open concept provides a glimpse of a seating area, away from the bustle of the front desk, where guests can relax, peck away at their laptops, drink coffee and sit either together or apart. The columns provide something of a dividing line between check-in and sitting area, but the concept is reinforced by various forms of sculpture … giving you something to enjoy whether you’re waiting for your key or sipping an espresso on the other side.

Remember to have your key handy when you step into the elevator (security measure for the property’s guests); it will save you a few seconds of fishing through your pocket when you want to get to your room and wash the smell of the plane off your body. The ride is short, and before you know it, you’re in your space for the next few nights, a carefully appointed guestroom that offers plenty of elbow room and design that is sufficiently tasteful and edgy to leave me feeling like Opus Hotel made a mistake in letting me stay there.

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The rooms may vary slightly, with those not yet renovated having a separate room for the toilet. I prefer the post-renovation style, which has the entire bathroom in one room (didn’t like the closet concept). Flop onto the bed – fortunately it was firm enough for me without feeling like a sidewalk, so I think it will appeal to almost everybody – and look up. The ceiling has an unfinished cement look, which complements the soft colors used on the walls.

Dine at the hotel’s restaurant, Koko, at least once. I enjoyed the restaurant a little over a year ago and was excited to see that nothing had changed. The menu – which brings together Asian and continental European cuisine, is tasty, carefully presented and attentively served. The cocktail menu will keep you busy (don’t try them all, at least not in one sitting), but skip the usual after-dinner drinks when it’s time for dessert. Instead, opt for a Canadian specialty such as ice wine or ice cider … or both, as I did (it was worth it, and I’d do it again).

Perhaps most important, I noticed that the staff at Opus Hotel didn’t need to wait for a stupid look to cross my face before offering to help with anything … and they entertained my feeble attempts to speak with them in French. Being able to listen to me butcher the local language with a straight face is pretty much the height of customer service, so it’s unsurprising that they nailed everything else.

If you want to feel like a star, this is the hotel to call home on your next trip to Montreal. You’ll be treated like a celebrity – but without the worried looks about how much damage you’ll cause to the room. And, you’ll feel like one in this style-savvy establishment. A stay at Opus is always a smart move.

Disclosure: Tourisme-Montreal picked up the tab for this trip, but my views are my own.

Through the Gadling Lens: water, water everywhere

by Karen Walrond on

Over the last year or so, I’ve become really intrigued with photographing water — I love how organically it moves, I love all the different forms it takes. And since almost 71% of our planet is covered in the stuff, it makes sense that it would sometimes find its way into our travel photographs.

So this week, with some help from the amazing shots in the Gadling Flickr pool (with a few of my own images tossed in for good measure), I thought we could talk about some of the ways that water can be the focal point of our photographs. I suspect we’re not even going to make a dent in all the ways there are to photograph water, but let’s give it a go, shall we?

1. Movement.

One of the most marked characteristics of water is how it moves — and obviously, it can be a bit of a trick to convey this type of movement through still photography. Still, it can be done — generally by holding the camera very still (even using a tripod, if available), while controlling the shutter speed, so that the shutter stays open long enough to capture the blur of the water. If you have an SLR camera, it means playing with the shutter priority adjustment on your camera (or going fully manual). A couple of beautiful examples:

This great shot, captured and shared by CCB images in Colorado is a beautiful example of capturing the blur of the water — notice how sharp the fountain is (as is, indeed, the ice at its base), but the water itself is blurred to the point of being indistinct, thus conveying the speed at which the water was moving. Beautifully done.

Another great example:

Another wonderful shot shared by fiznatty. Says the photographer: “For the first time, I had a chance to photograph the fascinating harlequin ducks at LeHardy Rapids. Harlequins migrate through Yellowstone in the spring, and are commonly seen at LeHardy, where they surf the rapids and brave the raging waters of the Yellowstone River. With their unique look and daredevil antics, it’s hard not to enjoy watching them.”

I love how the ducks appear to be absolutely still as the water races around them. Great capture.

2. Light

Of course, another great characteristic of water is the way it reflects light. Often, however, even though we appreciate the light in water, we don’t always make a point of shooting the light, rather than shooting the water. A couple of examples about how this is done:

Notice in the image above, it’s not the water that’s actually in focus, it’s the light sparkles that are so beautiful captured and shared by jonrawlinson. If, instead, he had focused the ripples on the surface of the water, this photo could’ve easily turned into just another shot of a pool. Instead, it’s a rather stunning shot of light.

Another example:

In this image of a garden hose, I didn’t want to capture the movement out of the hose, so much as I wanted to capture the reflection of light on the water against the brilliant blue sky. And so in this case, the shutter speed was set to as fast as I could make it go, and I had my husband hold the hose up into the light, and I grabbed the shot. The result is that the water almost looks frozen; however, the light is the focus of the shot.

3. Power.

When you’re confronted by tons of gallons of water crashing in front of you, it’s pretty hard to ignore the power that water is capable of. Here are some great examples of how to capture it.

I love this shot shared by Ylwstonegirl98. Oftentimes, when you’re in the vicinity of a waterfall, the temptation is to step back and capture the full length of the waterfall, so that the scenic setting around it also makes it into the shot. By all means, do this; however, don’t underestimate zooming in close to really show the volume of the water that is crashing to the river below. This amazing shot by Ylwstonegirl98 is such that I can almost hear the roar of the falls.

Similarly, this shot, shared by Patrick Powers and captured in San Clemente, California, is pretty great as well — after all, is there any more clear communication of the ocean’s power than the image of a surfer being thrown around like a rag doll? Fun, exciting shot, here.

4. Reflection.

If you ever find yourself face to face with a body of absolutely still water, pay attention to how it might be acting like a mirror, reflecting everything above it. I have to admit that it’s often hard to remember that when you’re framing a shot, you don’t just have to take a photograph of everything above the water, the fact that the water is mirroring everything makes it twice as beautiful. One great example:

The shot of above was shared shared by bovinemagnet, taken in Melbourne, Australia. It’s framed beautifully, so that the lights above the water are mirrored below — as is the beautiful deep blue hue of the oncoming dusk. Wonderfully framed.

And lest you think you need a deep body of water to make this happen, check the shot below:

This image, shared by PDPhotography in Toronto, Canada, was made simply using a puddle on the top of a roof deck. So remember: you don’t need a glacial lake to make the reflection work, any still body of water will do nicely.



5. Up close.

Admittedly, my favourite way to shoot water is using a macro lens, and shoot tiny water droplets. I love the way that the surface tension of raindrops makes them almost defy gravity, and look like little crystals. The following images were taken after area rainstorms:



Had I taken the shot above from farther away, you would’ve seen a rather unimpressive, bedraggled, seen-better-days spider lily. But by getting close up, you notice the beautiful little raindrops, and the same bedraggled petals add a splash of bright red colour.

In the image above, I love how you can see the grasses behind the flower reflected upside down in droplet hanging from the petal. It was hard to focus on such a small space, but I’m thrilled it worked.

Notice the surface tension I was talking about, and how it makes the tiny raindrops cling in almost perfect spheres on the clover, above.


6. At the surface.

Another great way to shoot water, particularly if you’re at a beach, is to take a waterproof camera (or place your camera in a waterproof housing), and shoot images taken simultaneously below and above the water’s surface. This is great for shooting snorkelers, or kids, or if you’re as crazy as our own Willy Volk, lemon sharks:

See? CRAZY.

(But admittedly, some pretty spectacular shots.)


7. Kids.

And finally, there is truly nothing more fun than shooting kids playing in water. When there’s a lot of splashing going on (as there is in the fountains of Discovery Green in Houston, where I shot the following two images), the trick is to just set your exposure and other settings to shoot images of the kids (because, let’s face it, when there’s splash water, kids are not going to want to sit still while you try to adjust your shutter speed to create the lovely feathery flows that you see in (1), above). Simply take photographs of the kids having fun, and let the water do its thing:

So that’s it — and again, I’m sure there are lots of other ways to shoot water, and we’ve just — pardon the pun — skimmed the surface. If you’ve got any other great ideas or links to your water shots, I’d love if you’d share them below. And as always, if you have any questions or suggestions, you can always contact me directly at karenDOTwalrondATweblogsincDOTcom – and I’m happy to address them in upcoming Through the Gadling Lens posts.

Karen is a writer and photographer in Houston, Texas. You can see more of her work at her site, Chookooloonks.

Through the Gadling Lens can be found every Thursday right here, at 11 a.m. To read more Through the Gadling Lens, click here.