AT THE END OF THE TRAIL

 

The Cranberry trail ends at lake Nipissing. The storm had passed and the sun started to appear between the clouds. Mind you it was still pretty windy and cold.

MINI BLIZZARD

 

Again I missed a few days of posting, so my apologies for my delay. Anyway this week my wife and I went for a hike on the Cranberry trail in Callander. The walk started off pleasant enough but all of a sudden the wind picked up, the snow started to swirl and we were in the middle of a mini blizzard. It cleared up after about ten minutes so all in all we had a very pleasant hike after all.

TREE WITH FUNGUS-BROCKVILLE, ON

A few weekends ago I made a short visit to Brockville. I had never been there and I definitely will make a more extended visit in the Spring and Summer. It was avery dark and gray day so I did not take that many pictures. Lets call it an exploratory visit, but I liked the texture and colour of this tree against the stark pattern of the boarded up windows and door.

SAND AND GRAVEL PIT, NORTH BAY

Last Friday a friend of mine took me to a gravel and sand pit. The snow had covered the are so I walked around looking at the way light formed abstract shapes and patterns in the landscape. I made a few images of textures and shapes in the landscape.

HOARFROST

A change of subject matter today. On Thursday I had to photograph the landscape in our street. For a few hours we had a beautiful cover of hoarfrost. It did not last long because the sun burnt it off quickly but I could not resist making this image.

ANOTHER VIEW

You might be right Rob, it is a good idea for a book. You wonder what the story is behind this monument because as my friend Linda pointed out, it is an unusual pose for this kind of statue.

THE VOLUNTEER, ALMONTE, ON

A subject I am always interested in are the different war monuments you can find in most towns and cities here in Canada. Most of them were originally made to commemorate the First World War  with names and dates of the Second World War added to the base. Many of these monuments are very well made and quite often , as in this one, in bronze. I decided on this angle because it looks as if the soldier is watching for something to happen.

PORCH, ALMONTE, ON

A simple image of a porch today. I liked the very geometrical shapes of this composition. It worked better in colour although the black and white image also appealed to me. In the end I choose the colour because I had posted so many black and white images already.

WINTER, ALMONTE ON

This weekend I had some time to wander around one of my favourite small towns in Ontario, Almonte. I am interested in making some classic black and white images after reading and looking at an old book on small Ontario towns. The book has some great architectural photographs by Ralph Greenhill. His photographs are quite formal but they are rich in texture and more important in atmosphere. His images inspired me to look at  more the formal tradition of photography.

WINTER SCENE WITH OLD TRUCK

One more image from yesterday's trip. Gray overcast  skies add to the atmosphere of true Winter images. Look at the paintings by Pieter Breughel. His Winter scenes nearly always painted Winter scenes with dark gray skies.

WINTER SCENE

It was a beautiful Winter day so my friend Dan and I decided it was time to take more pictures. We set off in a very light drizzle this morning and it felt more like March than January.  We had a great day and we came back with some fine Winter images. In the next few days I will be away so I might not be able to post until next week.I will try though to get and post before next Tuesday when I will be back.

EASTEND VARIETY STORE

There are quite a few of these small independent variety stores around North Bay. Each one display their own distinct character. They add colour to a neighbourhood and of course a necessary conenience.

WINDOW, EMPTY HOUSE, NORTH BAY

Time for another posting. I have been neglecting my blog again so today I wandered around in a different area of the city. I passed this old empty house and thought the window would make an interesting picture. First I decided to post a picture of just the window with the textured weathered siding but I have posted several images of windows and doors. Instead I settled for this picture.

JANE STREET, NORTH BAY, ON

I decided to revive a project on images from North Bay. Quite a few years ago I made a series of images on various sites here in the city. Today was a nice Wintry day so I took some pictures in one of the older areas of town.

WINTER BEACH

Winter has settled in for the next few month. Here is a view from the beach  on LakeNipissing. Not  agreat image but it gives you an idea of our Winter here in Northern Ontario.

FOR JOHN MINKOWSKYJ

This picture is for John Minkowskyj. I have not been out and about shooting pictures so I searched through my old files for some Winter images I had not shown yet. This piture is a few years old and I made it near Waterloo in Southern Ontario. I like these old iron bridges, especially in the Winter, because they add such a strong graphic elemnt to a landscape. Enjoy John and of course a Happy New Year.

WINTER GARDEN

New Years day  brought lots of snow as you can see in this picture I took yesterday.. It has been a busy but very nice Christmas and New Years holiday but now the house is quiet again so time to start thinking of new pictures. In the coming week I hope to produce some new images.