WINTER BERRIES

I simply liked the bright colour of these berries adding colour to the predominantly black and white winter landscape.

IT'S COLD

This morning when I got out of bed, I checked the thermometer and it showed a temperature of -38º C. I almost crawled back in bed. Definitely not a time to venture outside.

WINTER LANDSCAPE, CUMBERLAND

Another start of a new year, but ithe beginning is rather chilly with temperatures hovering around -30ºC. Not exactly a great time to venture outside looking for pictures. So here is an image I made over the Christmas holidays at the small but wonderful outdoor museum in Cumberland. A simple image of a very textured tree contrasting with a steady rhythm of maples in the background.

MERRY CHRISTMAS

Two more days and again it will be Christmas. So I like to wish all my friends a very Merry Christmas and of course a Happy New Year. Enjoy the holidays.

CHRISTMAS LIGHTS, ORLEANS, ONTARIO

Last night we took a walk though one of the most decorated streets here in Orleans. Needless to say it was quite crowded but kids simply loved it and actually so did the adults.

WINTER NINEBARK

It has been and still is bitterly cold. Not a good time to wander outside to take pictures. So sitting at my fireplace reading very wonderful book about Chinese art. Looking at some of these very fine drawings I took some pictures of various shrubs in our garden making my own pen and ink images reminiscent of  Chinese drawing styles.

IT IS COLD

Its cold today. This afternoon we went for a short walk and I mean short. The thermmeter read -20ºC but it felt closer to -25º. The lake is definitely frozen, as you can see. I just took a few pictures and then quickly back to our warm home.

SOO,OLD BOX CAR, MATTAWA

On our visit to Mattawa last week, we stopped at the railway yard. There is not much left because most of the railway is now history. In the yard were a collection of old box cars which offered some great opportunities for some wonderful abstract images with  strong textures, colours and patterns.

JUST A HINT OF COLOUR

Busy days before Christmas. Anyway here is another picture from our last photo trip. I made an almost monochrome image with just a hint of colour.

PERSPECTIVE, OTTAWA RIVER, MATTAWA

Yesterday I went on a great photo trip with my friend Gerry. We wandered along the country roads and ended up in Mattawa on the confluence of the Ottawa and Mattawa river. The light was just fine for some good Winter images. We made some pictures of the bridge but when I wanted to go to the covered part on the middle of the bridge, Gerry discouraged me because he was worried that we would be in trouble if a train would come rolling down the track. So we decided to go for lunch before continuing our trip.

WINTER TRAIN

The last few days of November. Well I guess these  are the days before Christmas, nearly always grey and cold. but also very busy days preparing for the annual Christmas season. I made this picture while doing some shopping downtown. Just a little red of early dusk adds some colour to an otherwise monotone landscape.

LATE POSTING

It has been a long time since my last posting. This week has been quite busy, so I did not get a chance to go out and take pictures. I am working on a few other projects. I made this image a few weeks ago and I love the rhythm of the red and green patterns. It reminded me of Paul Klee's theories on music and abstract art.

FIRST SNOW

Today we received our first big snowfall of the Winter season. We made a little tour but at times the snow squalls made driving quite tricky especially on the country roads. I did manage to get this picture which looked like an old pen and ink drawing.

TWO BARNS

I took this picture a little earlier in the week. The two barns show character,so I immediately thought of black and white. Mind you it will work in colour but I will have to explore this landscape further after a first snowfall. So I will be going back there to hopefully get some more interesting images.

EARLY WINTER LANDSCAPE, BONFIELD

This morning I made alittle trip to the Bonfield area. We received a dusting of snow but actually not enough to get some nice early Winter images. The sky was overcast but later in the morning the sun started to appear and just when I passed this landscape the sun put a "spotlight" on the birches and fields. Again I preferred the black and white interpretation over the original colour rendition.

QUARRY

Another picture of my photo excursion to the quary. I like this image because its quite dramatic especially the black and white rendition.

QUARRY NEAR ASTORVILLE, ONTARIO

Yesterday, it was a beautiful warm late Fall day. So I went on a little photo tour to a stone quarry near Astorville. The strong textured shapes of the boulders, which reminded me of the prehistoric stone circles in Europe but also of the great sculptures of Henry Moore. I did get a few excellent images from this trip, which I will post the next time.

CURVES, WATERFRONT, NORTH BAY

This morning I downloaded the beta version of the new onOne software Normally I don't like to advertise products on my blog but I know that people are interested what software I used. The final result of this picture reminds me of the black and white photographs of the British photographer Bill Brand, who is one of my favourite photographers.

REMEMBERING HITCHCOCK

Last week, walking past this house, I thought about the Film Noir movies of the forties and fifties. I especially enjoy the films made by Alfred Hitchcock, even though he was not strictly a Film Noir director. Anyway when I reviewed my pictures I took last week, I remembered the old Film Noir movies and felt that the image reflected the photographic style of these very popular movies.

ABSTRACT, McINTYRE STREET

Today was a typical grey November day, so I decided to post a picture I took a few days ago of some graffiti on McIntyre Street here in North bay. I liked the bright red painted line contrasting with the crack in the wall. In this series of abstract images I concentrated on photographing closeups rather than the full graffiti.