ANTHURIUM

Again I used my iPad to manipulate a simple image of a very beautiful Anthurium. I should admit though that using some of the apps on the iPad, I did some further work on the computer. The various filters gave this image an old painterly quality, which added to the visual impact of the picture.

EARLY MORNING COFFEE

Occasionally I like to use my iPad to create pictures. A few days ago I had to upgrade some apps and, after downloading, got a renewed interest in, what is referred to as mobile photography or also iphoneography. Artists and photographers use their iPhones and tablets to create their images. So here is one I made after taking asimple picture of my early morning coffee sitting on a little glass table next to my chair. What attracted me first of course was the light and shadow pattern and I should say it worked well in a traditional black and white rendition. But then I started to play with a few apps and I ended with a rather painterly image, which I liked.

SNOW LANDSCAPE, POWASSAN

I have never made a print from this negative. It was shot on 400ISO film which I had overdeveloped at the time, my mistake, but yesterday I had scanned the negative and simply loved the result. The grain added to the feeling of a snowy day, while giving the image an almost charcoal drawing effect.

WINTER LANDSCAPE WITH BARN

Another cold landscape. I hope Linda will like this as much as the one I posted yesterday. It was a beautiful Winter day with ice all over the trees. The light was beautiful and of course I had to photograph this very Wintery and romantic winter scene.

WINTER LANDSCAPE NEAR POWASSAN

This is a more traditional landscape photograph. I still enjoy these old images reminiscent of the old pictorialist tradition of beautiful black and white prints.

DUCHESNAY FALLS, SUMMER VIEW

Today a classic black and white print of Duchesnay Falls in the Summer. In the Spring and Fall of course the view is very different but at the height of the Summer the falls are dry. So this is a different view with the strong textures and patterns of the exposed rocks.

NOT YET

Winter is not over yet. Yesterday morning and to my dismay, I woke up to another nice layer of fresh snow. But at least I see the first signs of Spring. You see and hear the water running and, later in the day, feel the warmth of the early Spring sun.

LONGING FOR SPRING

Mr. Toad is really tired of this cold and snowy Winter. So he came outside to see if Spring has arrived yet but I have a feeling he will have to wait a few weeks longer.But the first signs are promising.

WINTER APPLES

Just seeing the colour of these frozen apples in a very cold landscape made me longing for the first signs of Spring. Today the weather is very nice and definitely a harbinger of the Spring season.

COMMANDA MUSEUM REVISITED

Yesterday i posted a picture of the Commanda museum. I made it look like and old vintage postcard but I liked the colour version also. So her is that colour version of the same image. Which is my favourite? Looking at both images my choice is the colour picture, although I do enjoy the vintage version.

POSTCARD FROM COMMANDA

On our photo excursion last week we stopped off at the Commanda museum. It was closed of course but its still a great building even if it could do with some Restoration. Instead of posting a colour version, which looks fine, I decided to publish a vintage postcard version. I like old postcards and her it definitely fits the subject.

WAITING FOR SPRING, POWASSAN, ONTARIO

Yesterday four of us hardy photographers could not stay inside any longer. All of us are ready for the new season to start. So we made a nice photo  excursion in and around Powassan. This truck looks like it is waiting for better weather too.

WINTER BRIDGE, BONFIELD, ONTARIO

This is a picture I took last Winter in Bonfield. The picture is rich in textures and I kept colour to a minimum reflect the mood of the season. My friend Dan went on the weekend and made a very minimalist image in the same area. His image is very much like a Japanese Haiku poem.

WINTER ROCK, SUNSET PARK, NORTH BAY

An early Winter landscape, not much snow but icicles and the rock in a late afternoon light with some nice highlights on the ice made an interesting composition. It was photographed using Fuji colour film but I definitely prefer the B&W interpretation.

ASPARAGUS

A few days ago I walked into the kitchen and saw these asparagus on the counter. I simply liked the textures, colours and reflections. Sometimes the simplest subjects can lead to some interesting images.

WINTER LANDSCAPE, CHISHOLM TWP

Again an image fro my files. The busy, random composition reminds me of the artwork of painters like Jackson Pollock or Franz Kline. The original image was made using my old Roleiflex, using Ilford HP5 film.

WINTER, ALSACE ROAD

 

One of my favourite areas where I like to photograph is an almost magical spot on Alsace Road near Powassan. Over the years I have been there with friends and students on photo trips and many of them returned to photograph the great group of beautiful old maple trees. I took this picture a few years ago but luckily the area has not changed very much since I started photographing there in the early seventies.

BLOWING SNOW, OTTAWA

We spent the very cold long weekend in Ottawa. It definitely was not a great time to look for pictures but I did take a few images like this from our window. The strong backlighting made for some interesting images with beautiful shadows.

AGAIN WINTER ALONG THE WASI RIVER

Thanks for your comment Dianne. I think you and David Ernst would really like the books by Richard Quinney. He is not only a respected  criminologist from Wisconsin but also a great photographer. I learned about his photography when I came across his  photobook "Things Once Seen" at the university library here in North Bay. I was quite impressed not only with his photographs but also his writing. So I simply had to buy that book and in addition I bought his book "A Sense Sublime" This book is almost a repeat of the first book I mentioned and , even though I enjoyed the second one, I prefer "Things Once Seen". It is better designed and printed. However I can highly recommend both books. Check out Borderland Books a publishing company founded by Richard Quinney.

WINTER, WASI RIVER, CALLANDER

A Winter image this time, I took this picture a few years ago along the Wasi river. It was a beautiful Winter day, with just the right light.

THE HIGHWAY BOOKSTORE REMEMBERED

Today a picture of the Highway Bookstore in Cobalt. It is apity that place closed many of us have very fond memories browsing the bookshelves of the Northern Ontario landmark.

LICHEN

I took this picture quite a few years ago in South River. The image of lichen on the rocks remind me of pictures from the universe. The sharp rock appears to split the universe in two.

REMAINS OF A BARN

Again an image from my files. I made a series of pictures of the remains of an old barn or maybe an old house. Light and textures are the strong visual elemnts of this image.

BARN NEAR VERNER, ONTARIO

Sorting through some old negatives I came across some images I took of an old barn between Verner and Lavigne. The original negatives were made with colour negative film. I combined the negatives into a panoramic picture and, using onOne software made into a quite dramatic black and white view.

REMEMBERING THE PARKVIEW HOTEL

Last night I was looking at some of my old prints and then I realized that i never posted a picture of this old North Bay landmark the Parkview Hotel. This place held a lot of memories for many People her in North Bay. It was a great place but like many other old buildings, it now is only a memory.

ABANDONED FARM, NORTH BAY

The old farmhouse at the end of our street looks pretty neglected  yesterday's fog added to the forlorn look of the Winter landscape.

REFLECTION, NYC

Have not been on any photo trip lately. I am working on some other projects but when I was looking for some pictures I needed I got interested in a file with images I made in NYC. So I liked this reflection but I made a few different interpretations of this picture. I made a few in colour, which worked fine but eventually I prefered this toned monochrome image.

BARN NEAR WATERLOO, ONTARIO

Here is the barn where I photographed the cat sitting behind the glass enjoying the sun. It is quite interesting going back through my files and then using the raw files to create new interpretations of an image. It reminds me what Ansel Adams said. The negative is the score and the print is the interpretation. The RAW files are simply the substitute for the negative.

BARN CAT

Again working with some old images because I simply don't feel wandering around in this weather to take Winter images. This picture I made some years ago at the end of the Winter near Waterloo, Ontario. This area has some very beautiful old farms. Outside a barn I noticed some cats enjoying the sunshine. One of them decided to stay in the barn. The barn was old and tomorrow I will post a black and white image of the old farm.

VERY COLD

Yesterday the thermometer read -32º C. Let's say it was rather chilly while the day before we received about 30cm of snow. It kept us busy removing snow. So her is a picture of a brightly coloured amaryllis on our windowsill which added some nice colour to a Wintery landscape.

WINTER FIRE

My apologies for my very irregular postings. This week has been very busy and also it has been very cold too cold to go on my regular little photo excursions. Anyway, my neighbour cut one of our dead trees, which he then burned in the back garden. It was nice to feel the heat in the snow covered, cold landscape.

FIRST WINTER SNOW

Again I am late with posting pictures. Well my excuse is first the busy holidays and now a cold spell, which is not exactly a pleasant time to wander around looking for images. So I sorted through my files and found this image of the first snow fall in the early Winter of 2013. I should have posted this before because it is  quite a strong image of a very simple composition.

REFLECTION

Walking down the hallway I noticed the reflections of the sunlit hall and room. I am always intrigued by the visual abstractions of reflections. Most of the time we don't notice the strong unusual  pictorial "stopping power" of these simple fragments and details, which JWM Turner calls "pictures of bits".

HAPPY NEW YEAR

Its New Year's day so I like to wish all of you a very Happy New Year.

PORCH, NORTH BAY

The Christmas festive season is over. Our guests have left and , after cleaning up, its time to post another image. Last week I took a picture of this porch. I liked the red and white banners moving softly in the breeze. They added some colour to an otherwise grey Wintery day.

OLD BARN, VERNER

I like to wish everybody who has posted comments and followed my blog a very merry christmas and a great and happy NewYear.

WINTER, LAKE NIPISSING

It is of course still a busy time. Have not gone out to take photographs so Looked in my files and came across this image I made early December 2009. This year , of course we have had much more snow and the lake is frozen. However i liked the picture and decided to share it.

WINTER, MILKWEED

It is quite often the subject, which appears the most uninteresting part of a landscape, which then turn out to give us a very interesting image, full of textures,patterns and colours.

MAILBOX

Just down the road is an old farm. I have posted other pictures of this place but I had to photograph it again in the fog, which was the important element turning this landscape into a beautiful romantic image.

FOG

It was quite foggy today so, of course I had to go and visit some of my favourite sites to take advantage of this weather. I made quite a few nice images but, like this picture, you have to be very careful not to lose the subtle grey tones. It is too easy to go too contrasty, so you simply lose that special atmosphere created by the fog.

SNOW LANDSCAPE, LAVIGNE, ONTARIO

Lots of snow today. Again I am posting a picture from my files, actually going thru my pictures I like many of my older images. I made this picture near Lavigne . Just a touch of colour in an otherwise monochrome landscape gives the image a visual impact.

WINTER LANDSCAPE, POWASSAN

Another image from my picture files. This time a Winter landscape, which I took in 2007. I posted a picture of this farm in colour but I prefer the graphic quality of the black and white interpretation.

WINTER ROAD NEAR PERTH, ONTARIO

Busy times at the moment so I decided to brows my picture files. I took this picture last Winter on a small country road near Perth. I loved the busy textures of the tree and branches reminding me of some of the iprints by the old Japanese print maker Hokusai.

DRIVING HOME

Coming back from our weekend in Ottawa, we drove through some heavy snow squalls. Of course you can expect that at this time of year. While on the road I like to take pictures which are added to my file of road images. It is becoming a quite interesting portfolio.

OLD CAMPER, NORTH BAY

It is a busy time, which has not allowed me to go out and take pictures. Anyway I took this picture a few weeks ago. I have never seen a camper like this one but I liked it so here is the image of this strange vehicle.

STREET ART COMPOSITION, NORTH BAY

It has been a few days since my last posting. It is quite a busy time of course because of the coming holiday season. I did not get a chance to go out on my little photo excursions around town. But here is a picture I took last week. I simply liked the composition so decided to post it.Hope you enjoy it too.

EARLY SUNDAY MORNING

What a difference weatherwise from the last week. This morning I went to get my Sunday paper andd nearly all the snow had disappeared from the streets. It was very foggy but, because of the early hour, driving was easy. there was hardly any traffic . I simply love the muted tones and colours of the misty scenery.

MORE SNOW

We still recieved more snow overnight, thank goodness, not as much as Buffalo, NY received. So to day another snow picture I took yesterday afternoon in downtown. This time I was more interested in accentuating the rhythm of lines and patterns, while still maintaining the feel of the dark wintery day.

SNOW, MAIN STREET, NORTH BAY

It has been a busy time for me, but here is a new posting of a very early Winter day on Main street. Actually the snow has come extremely early and I think we can be looking forward to a very long and cold Winter.

ANN STREET, NORTH BAY

Browsing the photography book section at the university library here in North Bay, I discovered a book by Richard Quinney, an American sociologist, writer, and photographer. I really enjoyed his very personal view on photography in general and of course on his own work. His ideas corresponded with my own views. I can recommend this book to anyone who is seriously interested in the meaning and process of photography