WALK WAY, NORTH BAY, ONTARIO

 It has been a very long time since I posted a picture to my blog. Other projects have taken priority but I will certainly return to posting images again. This picture was taken last week on one of our walks through  the downtown neighbourhoods we like to explore. These areas are always an inspiration because there are always new ways of seeing the very familiar cityscapes. This picture was made while walking down one of the various walkways between streets. We enjoy those walkways reminding us of the paintings by a relative unknown painter Albert Frank who loved to walk along the various little lanes in Toronto, which he photographed and made into very delightful paintings.

RAIN

Rain today and yes I had to take a few pictures of hostas again. The two different patterns of the  drops and the lines from the leafs created a marvellous image.

SUMMER TEXTURES

Summer started yesterday, so to celebrate the new season I took some pictures in our garden. The garden is almost pure textures which we enjoy. The garden is predominantly coloured in a wide variety of greens, ranging from light yellow green to a deep forest green. However I decided to render my composition in black and white and yes I think this works quite well. It reminds me of the very powerful images of plants and gardens by the San Francisco photographer Imogen Cunningham.

DIPTYCH

Since the beginning of the pandemic I did not post any image on my blog. Actually I don’t have a good excuse for neglecting my blog. Not that I abandoned photography, far from it. this time was actually a good time to start looking at my past files and thinking about the direction my photography is taking me. Maybe it is my age but I found a renewed interest in my. black and white work. Also as I have mentioned earlier, I am very interested in what I would call my abstract photographs. Here is an example of my latest almost painterly experiments in my photography.

ROOTS

Time for another post. My choice  is a picture of some visually interesting tree roots. I am reading a book on Chinese art, a topic which has interested me for quite a long time. It is the ink drawings with just some light touches of colour, which I enjoy and recreate in this photograph. In this time  of isolation I like using my iPad to work on my pictures. There are some very good apps which allow you to explore different visual effects.

SPONTANEOUS ENVIRONMENTAL ART

Walking along the shore we came across this stacked rock “sculpture”, which I titled “spontaneous environmental sculpture”. I liked the simple elemental aspect. Not just the shape but alsothe colur and texture made a nice added surprise to our  walk.

EARLY SIGNS OF SPRING

Yesterday we went on a short little walk and photo shoot along the shores of lake Nipissing. It is still very early in the Spring season yet here in Northern Ontario. An overcast day which resulted in muted tones ranging from grey to yellow and browns. Actually closer to late Fall tones than the exuberance of the Spring colours of predominantly light green and yellow. It was a nice walk which resulted in a few nice images when I returned home. We are very fortunate living in a part of the country which allows us the freedom in these difficult and restrictive times to still go and enjoy the spiritual healing of simply walking and enjoying nature.

RED DOOR, HAILEYBURY, ONTARIO

Another picture from my file. when I saw this door, I was quite curious about the construction of the entrance to the building. It showed a very generous application of cement not just the entrance but also around the window. Looking at the file It reminded me of some nineteenth century gothic scene. Remembering old wet plate photos from that era I first made a black and white image, which I combined with the original colour file. Then I applied a variety of filters to end up with an early hand coloured final image. My workflow is quite simple, starting in Lightroom then switching to Photoshop to make my preliminary adjustments and finally using the various filters and settings in OnOne.   

CITY SCAPE, MONTREAL, PQ

We are going through some strange times and are housebound of course like nearly everyone else. This is a good time to go through all my books and discovering the work of photographers, which over time I simply lost. One of the photographers I rediscovered is the Italian photographer Gianni Pezzani. Looking at his beautiful hand coloured black and white images. Remembering my own time working in the darkroom. Much of the digital photography is technically superb of course but most of it looks the same and I long for the time when photography was more innovative than what we see today. Of course there are some very creative photographers who have created great work using the computer so I should not generalize of course. 

EARTH DAY 2020

Today is the day we celebrate our earth, the planet we call home. While we are  battling a pandemic , we have to remember another and a much greater problem is the deterioration of our home. This day should also be a time that we have to seriously start working on cleaning up home and it is our only home, which we will lose if we don’t seriously tackle the problems of cleaning up and preserve the air we breathe,  the land we are destroying and the oceans and rivers we keep polluting.  Maybe while we are trying to get this coronavirus pandemic under control we will start realizing that we have to change our unbridled consumerism into a more sustainable way of living. 

TAG GRAFFITI, MONTREAL

Being cooped up inside your house or apartment is of course no great fun. you are restricted in your movement and you simply can't grab your camera and wander around looking for new images. But look at it from a positive angle. this is a great time exploring your files and finding some great  forgotten images.

So this picture is from a trip we made in the very early Spring a few years ago to Montreal.
Tagging is the simplest style of graffiti but this reminded me of a quote by Michael Ondaatje from his book In the Skin of a Lion.

"Everyone has to scratch on walls somewhere or they go crazy”

Now back to my files looking for more forgotten pictures.

HAPPY EASTER

I like to wish all of you a Happy Easter. Yes I know times are very trying and frustrated but Easter offers us a message of hope and a reminder that better times will definitely return.

OLD CHURCH, CACHE BAY, ONTARIO

It has been quite awhile since my last posting. Actually I seriously have neglected posting to my blog. Maybe it was the Winter weather or other projects I am working on. I have not been on any serious photo excursions this Winter, but last Friday Gerry and I made a nice trip starting in Cache Bay and ending in Port Loring. The reason we went to Cache Bay was simply to see the state of the old Anglican church, which we had photographed earlier. The church is slowly deteriorating and we suspect that it is beyond restoration and will disappear in the next few years.  It will be a pity to see a bit of local history disappear. 

OLD SAWMILL, CACHE BAY

Time to post another picture. Lately I have been going through some of my old negatives and I came across some pictures I took many decades ago. These are the remains of the old sawmill in Cache Bay. It reminded me of a book I read in my late teens by the British explorer Percy Fawcett  and  his quest in finding the lost city Z, as he named it, in Mato Grosso in Brazil. Nobody knows if he ever found it because he disappeared in 1925. The fictional character Indiana Jones was loosely baseed on Percy Fawcett.

WINTER, SCREAMING HEADS

Time to post another picture. Christmas time is a busy time, but, together with my friends John and Gerry, We took a photo excursion to Screaming Heads. It was a grey Winter day which I like because it allows for some very fine moody photographs like this picture I took of the strange house looking like some fairytale haunted house.

MINER'S HOME TAVERN, COBALT, ON REVISITED

On our return to North Bay last Sunday, I took the opportunity to revisit the Miners Home Tavern again. When I photographed this place at the end of September, I planned to go back to retake the same scene but with snow. I was lucky that Sunday afternoon the snow came almost as ordered which gave me the chance to take this Wintery grey landscape. I think I did capture the mood of Winter in the image.

HAILEYBURY, ONTARIO

It has been awhile since my last posting. Last Sunday Dan, John and I conducted a small workshop as part of our exhibition, which closed that day. So I thought to post this image taken downtown Haileybury. Actually I would call the picture a photo illustration because I manipulated the image using Photoshop and Luminar4, two programs I use extensively.

FALL GARDEN

This weekend I returned to using my iPad again. It has been awhile since I used my tablet to work directly on my photographs. In a few weeks I promised to conduct a short workshop in Haileybury  on manipulating your images using the iPad. Actually it is quite enjoyable using the various apps to create some interesting results. 

RED MAPLE

Right across from our driveway, is a magnificently coloured maple. The Fall is my favourite season. It has of course a lot to do with the great display of colour. Nature is displaying its bright palette reminding us of the austere black and white Winter season.  

PHOTOGRAPHIC EVIDENCE, TEMISKAMING ART GALLERY

For information on opening times check the gallery’s website  https://www.temiskamingartgallery.ca/

MINER’S HOME TAVERN, INTERIOR

Here a picture inside the tavern. I liked the three dimensional art depicting a miner and a view of   Of course I simply love all different types of folk art and this is quite good. Anyway we definitely are planning to visit this tavern again.

MINER'S HOME TAVERN, COBALT, ON

After delivering our photographs for our upcoming show next at the Temiskaming Art Gallery in Haileybury, John and I spent some time taking pictures of course. On our way home we stopped in Cobalt and visited the historic tavern, the Miner's Home Tavern. We had never stopped at this pub but it was definitely worth a visit and on future trips to Cobalt we certainly will visit the tavern again. 

FIXING THE ENVIRONMENT

Today people all over the world are marching for urgent action  to the climate change crisis. This picture shows what we are doing to prevent the this catastrophic environmental problem.  

NATURAL WILD FLOWER GARDEN

This morning I took some pictures at the former Thorn farm property at the beginning of our road. It is a stunning and exuberant display of late Summer wild flowers. What a pity that this wild garden will certainly disappear when some developer buys this property.

ABANDONED SILVER MINE, COBALT, ONTARIO

Visited an abandoned silver mine site in Cobalt. It is an intriguing place when looking at the depth of this mine, which came in operation in 1907. You think about the harsh, appalling working conditions of the men mining the silver. Cobalt is hoping to see a revival of their short colourful and thriving silver mining industry if the exploration for cobalt proves to be viable.

MANNEQUINS

Found these two mannequins in a store window in Alkmaar. I was intrigued by their unusual looks. So I had to take their picture of course. Nothing spectacular but a fun image.

SUMMER LANDSCAPE

So far the Summer has been beautiful. On Saturday we made a little trip in the Powassan area.  This is the time of the flowering of various wild flowers turning the fields into great natural gardens. This time the goldenrod are colouring the landscape golden yellow while the great cloudy sky  added a rich pattern of textures to this Summer landscape.

HAPPY AND MELLOW

Walking along one of the busy downtown streets in Amsterdam, I noticed this happy guy standing inside a convenience store. Of course I had to take his picture and he did not object. so here is the picture of one very relaxed customer.

DUTCH LANDSCAPE WITH WINDMILLS

When we were staying in Alkmaar, my wife’s cousin came to pick us up in his boat. So boating along this canal we were floating through a very typical Dutch landscape reminiscent of a Jacob Ruysdael painting.   

VEGETARIAN BUTCHER, THE HAGUE

Yesterday I was reading a news article about the new vegan breakfast offered by Tim Horton. The popular food chains are offering more vegan food choices. When we visited The Hague, I noticed a vegetarian butcher shop right across from the city hall. What of course attracted my interest was the life size photograph of the butcher on the door. It did not look very inviting. 

THE GROTE KERK, BREDA, THE NETHERLANDS

This is the interior of the church in the city of Breda. this beautiful restored church was built in the middle of the fifteenth century. In the nineteenth century Vincent van Gogh’s grandfather was the minister of this church. Vincent was named after his grandfather.

THE MARKET, BREDA, THE NETHERLANDS

It would be very enjoyable having a cold glass of beer in the market of our old home town Breda on this very hot day.

ROMANTIC STREET VIEW, BRUGES

Walking through a living museum like Bruges, it is very enjoyable to see this type of city landscape. Rich in textures and patterns it invites you to take images which reminds you of the large format pictures of the nineteenth century. 

BRUGES CANAL VIEW

It was interesting that when moving away from the prime tourist areas in the city, that not many people walked along the canals or even in the smaller streets off the main shopping streets. 

BRUGES, BELGIUM

The other city in Belgium we visited was Bruges, also known as the Venice of the North. Its a great place if you are interested in history. In the 15th century this city was one of the wealthiest cities in Europe, which   is reflected in the marvellous architecture.  Of course it is a very busy tourist attraction but well worth a visit. We certainly loved it. 

SHADOWS

Today just a simple still life which I took while enjoying lunch in a Brussels Restaurant. What drew my attantion was the shadow on the walll and combined with the quiet table setting, made for a very simple quiet still life.

TOURBUS, BRUSSELS

In the Summer the cities in Europe are filled with tourists. You see tour busses everywhere weaving their way through the narrow, crowded streets in the popular tourist spots. So I make the bus and the reflection in the windshield my main subject, resulting in a colourful composition of a rich variety  of textured shapes.

SHOE STORE, THE GALERIES ROYALES SAINT-HUBERT, BRUSSELS

The majority of stores at  the Galeries Royales Saint-Hubert are chocolate stores. The other store were very high end jewelry, clothing and shoe stores. I was particularly impressed with many of the store windows which were of very minimalist but sophisticated designs. Here is an example of a shoe store window, which showed simply a pair of running shoes. I thought it was quite effective and visually effective.

THE GALERIES ROYALES SAINT-HUBERT, BRUSSELS

Right in the centre of Brussels, you will find one of the oldest shopping galeries in Europe, the Galeries Royales Saint-Hubert. This very beautiful shopping arcade was inaugurated in 1847. The initial idea for this project came from the young Belgian  architect Jean- Pierre Cluysenaer, who was a great admirer of the traditional Renaissance architecture. It is a magnificent building and, of course very popular by visitors to the Belgian capital. What a difference with the shopping malls we are familiar with in our country. 

ARCHITECTURE, BRUSSELS, BELGIUM

These beautiful warm Summer days are excellent for working on my photographs, while sitting on our deck enjoying the peace and quiet in our garden. So here is another picture I took in Brussels. A city which I think is underappreciated in comparrison to the more famous European cities like Amsterdam or even Paris. Wandering along the streets I enjoy looking at the rich nineteen century architecture of the downtown area. What attracts me are the patterns, textures and colours of the various buildings, which, combined with the various perspectives of geometrical shapes make a fine intricate composition.

MURAL, BRUSSELS, BELGIUM

Our first destination on our trip was Brussels. The city is quite interesting with many picturesque neighbourhoods in addition to the well known tourist areas in the down town of the city. Walking down a street, this visually striking  mural contrasted with the more muted colours of the buildings.

SWEET WOODRUFF, GALIUM ODORATUM

A few days ago we returned from a wonderful holiday in Belgium and The Netherlands. But of course it is always great to return to your own home. My wife’s garden is at its very Summer peak. In the back of the garden she has created her own “secret” corner, which is a carpet of flowering Sweet Woodruff. So of course I am posting this image to celebrate our return home.

RUINS, COBALT, ONTARIO

Another picture from the historic town of Cobalt. No, the ruins of the various mine sites are maybe not as famous as the ruins from the Mediterranean or Central and South American civilizations, but they are still very interesting and definitely worth photographing.

THE DANCE

On our trip we also made a short stop in Cobalt. Again we made some fine hotographs. We certainly will be going back for a more in depth exploration of the Cobalt area. Over the years I have made many trips to this old mining town and every time I discover new views of familiar landscapes.

INDUSTRIAL LANDSCAPE

This was the first picture I made outside the abandoned plant. My original idea was to take a series of black and white pictures but some of course worked better in colour. I am quite happy with this very bleak black and white interpretation of this industrial landscape.

EMPTY

Yesterday John and I went on our first Spring photo trip. We had a great time and came back with many fine images. One of the places we visited was an old  empty factory. It was an interesting place, even if it was almost empty. John and I took quite a few pictures I like this one because of the strong rectangles and the reflected light from the walls. It was a difficult place to photograph because of the lack of light. Both of us were shooting handheld, so we were using very wide lensopenings and high ISO. we were still surprised with the results.

SPRING CLEANUP , FOR DAVID BROWN

Yesterday was a great day for preparing the gardens for the Spring and Summer seasons. It was also a fine day to have my first small fire. I burned some branches cut from the various shrubs. It was hard starting the fire because everything was very wet but it was a wonderful peaceful day.

SPRING BREAKUP

At last Spring has arrived. The ice on the lake is rapidly breaking up and melting. Yesterday and the day before I took some pictures of the last remnants of the ice. I guess it was my personal celebration of ending of the long and snowy Winter.

CALLA LILY

A friend of ours brought us a beautiful canna lily. It definitely is one of my favourite plants. Many famous artists like Georgia O’Keefe, Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera, just to name a few artists who made many drawings and paintings of this elegant flower and every year I can’t resist photographing this plant, this time in black and white. 

MUSICIANS WALL, NORTH BAY

It has been a long time since my last posting, but after this long Winter, Spring has finally reluctantly arrived . So here an update on the musicians wall by Jeff Marceau on McIntyre street here in North Bay. I had posted a picture titled Gord Downey and Leonard Cohen in October 2017. The wall has been greatly expanded to include many great Canadian musicians and singers.