AII WEIWEI EXHIBITION, TORONTO

Yesterday we visited the Ai WeiWei exhibition at the Art Gallery of Ontario. It is a wonderful show which exceeded our expectations. To use our granddaughter's words " its awesome aand very cool". Ai WeiWei is definitely one of the most important artists of the early twenty first century. So, if you get a chance, go and see this great exhibition.

THE FIRST UNMISTAKABLE SIGNS

This morning while walking along the lake I photographed the first unmistakable signs of the coming Fall. I did not post much this week because I received my new small camera, the Leica D-Lux 6 and, as with every new tool, it takes time to familiarize yourself with all the various functions. Each camera is slightly different. I am getting used to it and I am very pleased with the results. The lens is simply superb.

SERVICING ONTARIO, FIELD

It has been a few years since I visited Field, a small community not far from Sturgeon Falls. It saddens nme to see the slow deterioration of many small towns here in northern Ontario. But surprisingly many of these same communities are very resilient and I have noticed new businesses opening up and are doing quite well.

CITY TRAIL, NORTH BAY

It amazes me how many walking trails you can walk in this city. We walked this lovely small trail though a neighborhood not far from our home. It follows a small creek where I made this picture.

McINTYRE STREET, NORTH BAY

What attracted me to this subject of strong simple shapes but what made it interesting was the way the various wires and shadows created an overlay of a variety of triangles turning this picture into a complex and interesting composition.

SUMMER, TILDEN LAKE, ONTARIO

It has been a very busy week, so I did not get a chance going out to take pictures. So far the weather has not been great although we had a few days with beautiful cloudy skies. I took this picture at our friends place on Tilden Lake. Its asimple image of rich patterns and strong colours.

GARLIC

My wife left some garlic on the kitchen counter. I loved the textures so I made this simple black and white still life. You don't have to go very to find interesting subject matter.

DOCK, GARDEN VILLAGE, ONTARIO

This is a picture from our last Friday's photo trip to Garden Village. This time I emphasized  the mood of the landscape by reducing most of the detail unlike an earlier posting of the same scene. By simplifying the picture to light and deep blacks I dramatized the approaching rainstorm. 

ALUMINUM BOAT

A simple image of a very damaged aluminum boat. My interest is again working in black and white. Even though I don't make prints in the traditional way I still love the almost lyrical quality of black and white pictures. 

CLOUDS

Last week David Ernest had asked me what program I used to make my black and white images. Well I use the program onOne perfect Photosuite. I am getting more proficient in the use of the various programs but I still have much to learn. For this picture, which I took last week when the skies looked so dramatic, I started first with the Perfect Effects 4 program. I liked the result but then decided that maybe a B&W image would give me the result I was looking for. so there you have my explanation David. 

OLD BARN NEAR GARDEN VILLAGE

On Friday Dan and I returned for some pictures to Garden Village, which I had visited the day before. The sky was quite overcast but still a very nice day for picture taking. On the way we stopped to photograph this old barn. I did get some nice images. Last week I replaced my computer.Of course its always frustrating loading all the programs onto the new computer but slowly I am getting everything back in shape.

SUMMER LANDSCAPE, GARDEN VILLAGE, ONTARIO

What a glorious Summer day it was, so when I saw this scene of Lake Nipissing I just had to take this traditional image. I already wanted this picture in black and white to emphasize the various patterns and textures with just the boat and the dock as the centre of interest.

COCHRANE BLOCK 1911, NORTH BAY

Another building destined probably for demolition. Sad to see the deterioration of the old downtown mainstreet. A trend you can see in most of the smaller cities and towns. Hopefully someone will rescue this old store. 

21st CENTURY ROCK ART

On the road to the local university and college, there is a rock cut and of course students simply can't resist leaving their marks all over the rocks. Over the years the various texts and images have blended together creating some interesting rock art. I doubt if this art will last as long as the prehistoric paintings in various remote parts of the world. 

DIVINE, CHIP STAND, MATTAWA, ON

I had to photograph this chip stand in Mattawa. No I did not try any chips or poutine but judging by the statue of the angle I guess it must simply be divine.

JEAN DE BRÉBEUF, MATTAWA

All around the town of Mattawa you will see various statues of historical figures like this sculpture of priest Jean de Brébeuf. Even though I liked the picture, it did create a problem because of the different textures and patterns blending together without a strong subject contrast. Luckily the blue coloured background  and the red hue of the statue solved the problem.

CHAMPLAIN THEATRE REVISITED

It has been awhile since my last posting but I have been busy with a few projects and again my postings will be a little sporadic this coming week. But today we made a little trip to the town of Mattawa. It was and still is a beautiful Summer day. One of the aspects of Mattawa is the fact that it is one of the very few small towns which still  has a movie theatre. A few years ago I posted a picture of the same theatre but this time I show a better view of what it actually looks like. This year I have to try and make a few interior images, which I will post as soon as I get those pictures.  

BURNT TRUCK, NORTH BAY

Its been a few days since my last posting but I had to spend  some time on other projects. This morning I made a picture of this obviously burned out truck sitting in a parking lot downtown. I did not like the colour interpretation so made a variety of adjustments to get this final result.

OLD BARN, HWY124 ANOTHER VIEW

Yesterday I posted a black and white image of this old barn. I couldn't resist showing another picture but this time a coloured interpretation. Of course its quite a romantic view but I simply liked the mood of this traditional picture.

OLD BARN, HWY124, NEAR PARRY SOUND

This morning I had to go to Parry Sound.It was raining quite hard but on the way back it started to clear up. Of course when I passed this skeleton of this old barn I could not resist taking some pictures. I did not correct the perspective because I felt that the wide angle view simply added an interesting element to the overall image.