BIRCH TREE

 

Dark and wet Fall weather for the last few weeks. Its the time for getting the garden ready for the Winter but we still have colour in our front garden. This picture is an almost abstract image of colour and textures. My friend Joe gave me a couple of point and shoot cameras. The camera I am using I am learning to master is a very nice retro point and shoot with a good single lens is an older Fujifilm X100T with a rangefinder. Of course,  point and shoot is a misnomer because it is far more complex than simply looking through a viewfinder, click the shutter and you get a perfect image. It is true if you just set the camera at automatic you get a fairly good image. However for me, results are not very satisfactory. So if you want to improve the quality of the picture to your satisfaction, it becomes quite a bit more complicated when you to start using the complicated menu. This  takes time and practice. I am getting quite comfortable with the camera. My final verdict, it is an amazingly good “ point and shoot” camera.

OLD UTILITY POLE

 

This post is for my friend Kim Vlahovich, who loves rich detailed and textured images. Ou old utility or hydro poles, as they are called here in Canada, are being replaced. I am sentimentally attached to this old pole at the entrance to our driveway. Maybe it is the age of the pole as indicated on the date marked on the nail (19)57’ which makes it sixty six years old. But what ever the age of this pole, I think that Kim will appreciate this detaled picture of this grand old pole.

FALL STILL LIFE

 Some of my friends were wondering about my lack of postings on my blog.So after a long hiatus here is my Fall posting. Its probably the most favourite season of many people. The month of September has been  especially fine this year with the trees starting to colour quite early, at least in our garden. So here an image, almost abstract rich in colour and textures. 

PAINTED CAR

 Sunday night, after early dinner at a very pleasant Lebanese restaurant in Ottawa, we saw this painted delivery car. It is a fine example of painted cars and trucks in Pakistan, where decorating their vehicles have developed into a great new folk art. Wonderful to see that tradition transferred to our country.

SUMMER LANDSCAPE

Lots of rain today. We needed rain because the garden was powder dry. Again looking at some of my older images I thought about some of the great landscape photographs of the late twenties and thirties. This image brought back earlier photo trips around the country, on this trip I visited another favourite spot Wolf lake. A quiet small lake which gave me this almost old fashioned bucolic landscape.
 

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, WASHINGTON DC

 

Another picture from my files. The last few days I haven’t ventured out because of the heavy smoke outside. I made this picture last Fall on my trip to Washington with my daughter. On our visit to the Library of Congress , we had to wait in line for some time . Of course I had my camera with me, looking around or in this case up, I made this rather abstract picture of lines and rich patterns and textures. I preferred the B&W interpretation, which I decided to post because I knowthat my old photo friend David Brown would appreciate that.

OLD TRUCK

 

Two weeks ago we went on our first photo trip of the season. It was a wonderful early Spring day and we traveled toRestoule. I was interested to visit one of my favourite places on Alsace Rd near Powassan. It was a shockwhen I saw this very quiet picturesque farm land turned into a place filled with old car wrecks.  Rusty cars and trucks everywhere and with the exemption of a few interesting old trucks and cars not worth to spend time taking pictures. All in all very disappointed. Anyway I did made a few images which I liked.

ELORA GORGE, ONTARIO

 It has been awhile since my last posting. Well I came out of hibernation this weekend thinking Spring is just around the corner. My mistake, yesterday we were hit by another Winter storm. Hopefully this is our last storm. So here an old file picture, which I took many years ago in the beautiful Elora Gorge. It is an image rich in textures and shapes. What intrigued me however was how the cedars grow on this rock formation with hardly any soil. 

PROSPECTORS TENT, ICE FOLLIES 2023

 

Sunday afternoons visited the art exhibition Ice Follies on Lake Nipissing. Now I confess that I did not see the exhibition at night , which might be quite interesting. So I can only comment on my reaction to the various displays on the lake. Over the years I have enjoyed looking at the wide variety of the many creative art works. I must say that I was disappointed in the overal quality of the various art works on display. The overal show lacked the creative WOW factor. However it was nice to see the work of these North Bay artists.

WINTER PATTERNS

We are on our first steps to the beginning of Spring. Well it has been a rough Winter season with lots of snow and ice. The last few days have been very pleasant with lots of sun and very comfortable temperatures during the daytime. Following David Hockney’s example I did not go far to get some interesting images. So here is an example of my Winter pattern. pictures taken in our garden and on my simple walks around our neighbourhood.

BREADLINE, FDR MEMORIAL, WASHINGTON, DC

 

Looking at my pictures from my trip to Washington last Fall, I came across this image of the breadline by George Segal. What a magnificent rendition of the grinding poverty of the nineteen thirties. Of course what makes this artwork so interesting is the relevance to our own disturbing times.

ALEXANDRIA, VA

 

Last September our daughter Monique took me on a trip to Washington, DC. One of the places we visited was the city of Alexandria, VA, where we stayed for a few days. It’s a place which I found quite attractive,    

Of course we were not the only visitors who were drawn to this well preserved historical city. Walking downtown I photographed this old truck and sculpture of a horse. It was early morning and the golden sunlight created a city landscape with rich colours and texture. The additional pattern of sun flare, added to the visual impact of this colourful Fall scene.

INSPIRATION

 It has been quite awhile since my last posting. Why did I not post? Well, no particular reason, of course I could come up with a variety of excuses but I think the simple fact is that I suffered from lack of inspiration. Then at Christmas we opened a gift , which was a very wonderful book titled My Window by David Hockney. It is a book full of drawings done exclusively on iPhone and iPad. David Hockney is an absolute master using these digital tools. But more than his technical control is his creative approach to a simple subject, his view from his bedroom window. 

Following his idea, I took some photographs of the view from our front room of the Winter garden. I included Hockney’s book contrasting the brightly coloured drawing with the Wintery scene outside. Waiting for Spring would be a good title for this image.

LANDSCAPE WITH HAND

 

Screaming Heads, popular place to visit. Roaming around is quite amazing when coming across various large concrete screaming sculptures or mysterious hands coming from the ground. Of course it is an inviting place for photographers looking for some unusual landscapes filled with mysterious composition of large concrete figures. 

ABANDONED OLD BARN

Found this old dilapidated barn near Levine. Light is what gives this image dimension and drama. The strong textures of the wood surface and the rectangular shapes, makes this a picture with strong visual stopping power.

A GLORIOUS SUMMER

 

Walking home, I marvel at this quiet and yes, romantic Summer landscape. Actually I think the word quiet is not exactly the correct word because the rich textures of the clouds and trees  are a visual, translation of some of Beethoven’s great romantic symphonies.

LOVE LOVE LOVE

 

Sitting here listening to the loud sound and show of a thunderstorm while posting this new picture. I had gone downtown to take some pictures of this street art, which I had seen before but simply forgot to photograph. While I went to take these specific pictures , my next mistake after parking the car was realizing that I forgot my camera. A rather stupid mistake because it meant driving home . Then I was rescued by phone. So I took a few images but the light was wrong. This enigmatic picture is I definitely like.

HOUSE, NORTH BAY

 

A strange, grim looking house. Vaguely inspired by Art Deco style. You simply have to wonder who thought about designing a dwelling like this. Well the original owner obviously was very satisfied with the final result. Looking at the photograph, this image still intrigues me. I guess it’s the stark coloured design of the various graphic elements.

FOUNDATION REMAINS

 

On the same place where I photographed  the landscape from yesterday’s posting, I took some pictures of the remains of an unknown building. I have no idea what it was but I was intrigued by this foundation. This image has a much richer tonal value than the previous landscape. That picture had a stark graphic composition reflecting a feeling of emptiness and loneliness. 

LAKE NIPISSING

 

Last week my friend Dan told me about a little trail leading to the shores of Lake Nipissing, which was surprisingly unknown to me. So yesterday afternoon I decided to go on a little photo exploration walk. It was quite a small area with a few interesting picture areas. Here a result from that walkabout. Just for the interest of some of my photo friends, no I did not add the sky to this image but of course I did some personal interpretations to the picture with a quite dramatic results. I was quite satisfied with the final result  of this print.