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.