1999, BURK'S FALLS

This simply had to be in black and white. The dark grey sky added to the overall mood of the coming Halloween festival later this season.

HIDING

Yesterday was I nice but cool Fall day so we decided to revisit the Screaming Heads in Burks Falls. I was simply curious what it would look like in the richly coloured Fall landscape. Well we were not disappointed. It definitely was worth the trip. All in all we had a very enjoyable day.

BIRCH LEAF

Walked over to the library at Nipissing University and made this image of a single birch leaf laying next to a puddle of water. The blue of the sky and the clouds made a nice dramatic pattern but it worked best in black and white with the yellow leaf giving the image just that extra visual accent to make, the otherwise simple composition, more  interesting.

FALL CREEK

Yesterday I walked to the small creek where I had made some Fall pictures of the colourful leaves I posted earlier. I was curious to see what the landscape looked like after most of the leaves came down. Much of course had been washed away but I simply enjoyed the variety of  textures and patterns. 

EARLY FROST

Early frost and now the rain leave the trees bare. The leaves on the ground are the remnants of the seasons blaze of colours. 

CRABAPPLE TREE

Took this picture a few days ago. I simply love the light, patterns of red crabapples and the overall feeling of a warm sunny fall day. 

NORTHERN ONTARIO MEMORIES

Thanks for your comment Dave. Here is a full view of the rapids on the Wasi river. I like to wish you and your family a very happy Thanksgiving.

FALL, CALLANDER,ONTARIO

This morning I went to callander to photograph the rapids on the Wasi river. Romantic? absolutely but I simply loved the scene. 

YELLOW MAPLE LEAVES

This time I used a  subdued colour palette to render a more traditional view of the Fall colours. I like the strong yellows of the maple leaves which contrast with a background of predominately grey and brown hues.

FALL ABSTRACT

This morning I walked again down the trail near my home and photographed leaves floating down the little stream. This time no filters or plugins but a straight image of reflections in the water. I did intensify the colours using curves. The resulting picture looks more like an abstract painting then a true photograph. 

FOREST GROUND COVER

It will be a few more days before the Fall colours will really reach its peak. This weekend was very nice weatherwise so it was great walking the trails. I took a few pictures and then experimented with layers, blending modes and filters. I liked the result of this image of the forest ground cover. 

RED MAPLE LEAF

It is that time of year again when we take our cameras and go out to capture the annual fall colour fest. The colurs have not peaked yet but yesterday I took a walk on the trails near my home. What interested me were the leafs floating in a little shallow stream. The strong red of the leaf and the blue reflection of the sky combined with the running water made a simple but interesting image.

HERITAGE HOUSE, OTTAWA

Some of the small heritage houses in downtown Ottawa have an almost rural quality. The inviting open garden gate and the morning sunlight made this an almost nostalgic view.

MAILBOXES, OTTAWA

Walking in the downtown area of Ottawa, I spotted these mailboxes on a heritage loghouse. I simply liked the various shapes. 

LIGHT, OTTAWA

An image of light, shadow and texture. Of course in addition to these basic elements, it is perspective which adds to the impact of this picture. By the way, the light around the window is reflected light from the car's side mirror.

FARM NEAR CARLETON PLACE, ONTARIO

Today I worked on some pictures I took recently. When driving from Carleton Place to Almonte I passed this beautiful farm. What attracted me was the two old tractors, which contrasted well with the grey, weathered barns.

OLD POWER STATION, TEMISCAMING, PQ

The old Temiscaming power station is closed but I made this colourful image of the stained old concrete wall. 

PAPER MILL, TÉMISCAMING, PQ

On this dark rainy morning my friend John and I went on a little photo excursion to the small town of Témiscaming in Quebec. It turned out to be a nice trip and I think both of us got some very nice images. I particularly liked my pictures of the paper mill with the steam belching into the grey sky.

SEAGULL, CALLANDER, ONTARIO

Yesterday was a very dull grey day. Actually the light was quite flat but I took this picture of a mural or rather a billboard promoting the Callander museum. It shows the tugboat Seagull, built in 1906, steaming on Callander Bay. 

DOLL, CALLANDER, ONTARIO

This afternoon I visited a small antique store in Callander. The store is closing at the end of the month and most of the antique artifacts have already been sold. But I was intrigued with this old doll. Many years ago I made a series of pictures of a garden, which was decorated with different dolls.  The resulting images were quite intriguing so this image brought backsome memories for me.

PATTERNS, OTTAWA

Which photographer could resist this subject. A rich composition of different patterns. It worked best in black and white. The colour image had a few distracting colours which diminished the overall visual quality.

EARLY SIGNS OF FALL

These leaves are actually not the first true signs of Fall but on our way back from Ottawa , we stopped in the Ottawa chinatown district. We noticed that the area is changing rapidly and when I passed a store, which was being renovated I noticed these dried leaves in the window. For me they were the harbingers of the coming season.

HAIRSTYLING, NORTH BAY

One of the many small barbershops in this city. This one has been around for a long time and is obviously popular by men like me who need a simple haircut with a minimum of styling. The colour version of this picture was fine but the black and  white version was visually the stronger image. I wont be posting for a week because I will be out of town. 

TEXTURED WALL, NORTH BAY

Just a simple picture of a "richly textured" wall, which I saw on one of my photowalks a few days ago.

OVERPASS AND ONR YARDS, NORTH BAY

A North Bay city landscape, which will change considerably when the government goes ahead and sells the ONR. This will have a great and, I would say, a very negative effect  on the economy of this city. 

PRIMARY COLOURS, GAS STATION, NORTH BAY

The strong Summer sunlight enhanced the bright primary colours red, blue and green.

PEELING PAINT TREE

The peeling paint on the side of a shed looked like some strange tree. I preferred the black and white version because the paint was a flat gunboat grey against a dark background. It lacked the contrast of the true monochrome image.

RAPIDS, AMABLE DU FOND RIVER

On our trip to Mattawa we made a little detour to Eau Claire, where I made this picture of the rapids. The colour picture was fine but the black and white version became an almost abstract image of various patterns and textures, which made this a far more interesting interpretation.

FENCES, NORTH BAY

One my daily walk through the neighbourhoods of North Bay, I took a made this image of garden fences. The pictures worked best in black and white, which reinforces  the contrasting patterns and rhythms of the pickets.

MATTAWA RAILWAY STATION, COLOUR VERSION

As I promised yesterday, here is the colour interpretation of the same image. This is a more romantic view, personally I prefer the more gritty view of the black and white picture.

MATTAWA RAILWAY STATION, ANOTHER VIEW

When going on this trip to photograph the old station, I had already envisioned to make a series of black and white images. I felt this would emphasize the decay of the building in a visually stronger way. Yes the colour images worked so tomorrow I will post the same picture in colour.

RAILWAY STATION, MATTAWA, ONTARIO

Yesterday, together with  my friends Dan and John, we decided to make a little photo excursion to the town of Mattawa. This small community is situated on the Ottawa and Mattawa rivers and in earlier days was quite an important in the early history of the fur trade in Canada. The town is quite picturesque and at one time had a very busy railway station, which is in such a poor deplorable state of neglect that I think this historical building will certainly disappear in the next few years. I decided to use black and white images to show very sad state of this once important station. 

BURK'S FALLS, ONTARIO

It was a toss up between the black and white or colour version. Eventually I felt that the black and white was visually stronger. What attracted me was the conversion of all the telephone and hydro lines to the Burk's Falls Art Centre. It seemed as if it was an all important centre of communications.

REFLECTIONS AND SHADOWS

It was a beautiful Summer day so ,while enjoying a nice afternoon on our deck reading and talking I made some pictures of reflections and shadows' which were right in front of me. The textured surface of the glass table top added to the very painterly effect. After downloading the images to my computer, I simply liked the abstract and somewhat mysterious results.

INDUSTRIAL MINIMALIST SCULPTURE

I agree John, for instance this grouping of metal pieces reminded me of some of minimalist sculptors who used this type of industrial material in their work. When I saw this I knew I had to photograph this because it reminded me of a drawing by the Japanese Zen Budist monk and artist Sengai. Of course Japanese design  influenced the ideas of Minimalist art.  

CURVES IN RED AND BLUE

Back to colour again. On our wanderings through town I photographed these metal shapes. The curves and textured background formed a interesting abstract composition. 

MIDLOTHIAN CASTLE, BURKS FALLS, ON

The artist Peter Camani turned an old nineteenth century farmhouse into his own imaginary fantasy dwelling, which he named the "Midlothian Castle. 

SCREAMING HEADS, BURKS FALLS, ON

Yesterday we went with friends to see a site called Screaming Heads in Burks Falls. We had never been there and thought it would be interesting to visit. The artist Peter Camani is the creator of the very massive project. He made over one hundred concrete sculptures of screaming heads, hands trees and horsemen. in addition he has a wide variety of geo domes. It is worth a visit and for  photographers it certainly is a very interesting place. The subject matter for me is best translated in black and white. So in the next few days I will show a few more images. I definitely will go back because this was simply an exploratory visit.  

APARTMENT BUILDING, SOUTH RIVER, ON

The weekend was busy with large and small visitors from Ottawa, so I did not get a chance to post some new images. I am still interested working in black and white. Rediscovering black and white photography, which I always loved, is quite exiting and actually brings me back to my early photographic  roots. This picture of an apartment building in the town of South River works better in monochrome. What makes the image is the black line on the road surface.

ELLSMERE BROS SAWMILL, TILDEN LAKE

A long time ago I read a book on industrial archeology in Britain. The topic interested me because  of course we have many old remains of our own industrial past here in Canada. So when I find a site like this last remnant of the Ellsmere Bros sawmill in Tilden Lake I simply have to record it. Again I think a black and white image reflects the historical past of this remnant of a once thriving mill.

VISIT, TILDEN LAKE, ON

This week we visited our friends Dwayne and Susan in Tilden Lake. We had such a wonderful evening that we stayed overnight. In the morning we went for breakfast at a local eatery, which looked as if it had not seen any changes since the fifties. So here an example of the decor, which can be classified as "country rustic". 

FOR DAVID ERNEST

My interest at this moment is definitely black and white photography. David has always preferred black and white over colour images and I can understand that. When I learned photography many decades ago it was of course black and white and this has always been more important to me than colour. Oh yes, colour has of course its own strength but the monochrome image has an almost  poetic quality. So maybe I have come full circle. So I am happy that David is enjoying these black and white images.

MAPLE CAFE, SOUTH RIVER, ON

John Minkowskyj's comment about classic photographs made me think about traditional black and white photography. I looked at the images by the old masters like Paul Strand, Walker Evans and Edward Weston just to name a few of my favourite photographic artists. So here another image, which shows the richness of traditional black and white photography.

MOOSE, SOUTH RIVER, ONTARIO

Even though I think that the inspiration for this moose sculpture in South River were the the moose, paintings and sculptures by the canadian artist Charles Pachter, I still enjoyed this very Canadian symbol. 

BARNS NEAR CORBEIL, ONTARIO

Another image of my "nostalgia" series. I took this picture yesterday morning just before the rain started  near Corbeil, Ontario. I liked the strong textured surfaces contrasted by the lush Summer vegetation. It reminded me a little of some of the pictures made in the thirties and forties by the American photographer Paul Strand, which he took in the Gaspé, Quebec. 

NOSTALGIA

Today a different image, which I titled nostalgia. The old farm on the corner of my street is beginning to show signs of neglect. So, when I drove by the place this morning I thought it would make a nice picture reminiscent of the old sepia toned images from the late eighteenth or early twentieth century.

BLUE, LAKE NIPISSING

Reducing a composition to a few elements strengthens the impact of an image. Just one strong colour and the curved line of white marker balls, which divides the picture in two different patterns are the design elements of this image. 

COLOUR AND SHAPE

What attracted me was  the interplay of the flat colours and shapes, which formed a visually interesting composition. 

GUARD CAT

I titled this picture guard cat because this makeshift fence looks like it needs some additional protection. What is behind the fence I have no idea but I liked the various bits and pieces of this fence. 

OUTDOOR DINING

This picnic area simply intrigued me so of course I had to photograph this rather grim urban landscape. I cannot remember seeing anyone using it except when I was ready to take the picture someone of course walked up to the table so I had to ask if he could wait till I made the image. The visual elements of the shadows and cables adds to the overall impact of the composition.