BOAT HOUSES, CACHE BAY, ONTARIO

Along the shores of Lake Nipissing we came across a cluster of boat houses. Most of the sheds were not the elaborate boat storage sheds, with a few exceptions, but were put together of a wide variety of  materials. This of course was great for us photographers, who like a great variety of textures and colours. We will certainly return here again at different seasons to make more images of this place.

OLD CURCH, FRONT VIEW

This time I am posting a colour view of the same church. As I mentioned yesterday, I like both black and white and colour. Keeping the colour version more muted I was aiming to create emphasize a view, which reflected a historic perspective of the building.

OLD CHURCH, CACHE BAY, ONTARIO

Yesterday my friend Gerry and I made a return trip to Cache Bay. I had visited Cache Bay a couple of times in the last few weeks on a photo trip. But this time I wanted to make some pictures of this old church which has been abandoned for decades. The weather was just perfect, I like taking photographs on overcast cloudy days and both of us had a great trip , which gaves us some very fine images. My idea was to take black and white pictures however I did like some of my colour images. I did end up using the black and white image of this church, as I had intended to do.

LICHEN

On my daily walk yesterday, I passed this rock covered with lichen.. The light filtering through the foliage created a pattern of light on the top of the rock. The colour was quite green because of the leaf canopy overhead. I took a few close up pictures, but I was not sure if the images would be interesting enough until I downloaded them on the computer. I like the abstract quality of the image, which evokes a sense of mystery.

HEATWAVE

The last few weeks it was very hot and I think everyone was glad when this heatwave finally broke over the weekend, but it still is very dry, even after last night's  thunderstorm, which created a few  forest fires in the area around the city. So when I was looking for an image to post today I thought about this picture of a rusty metal lid on a box just outside the library, which I took last week. It certainly is a good abstract impression of the hot Summer weather.

VERTICAL BLUE AND RED

Concentrating on my subject I look for the abstract in a realistic object or composition. In this particular image I was interested in the red and blue verticals and the strong texture of the wooden background and the more subtle texture of the sandy earth. To give the composition strength I look for the simplest composition,  which  reflects how i perceive the subject.

ABANDONED REVISITED

Last March I posted two pictures from an abandoned sawmill site. Well, yesterday John asked if I would like to go on another visit to the old sawmill. What a difference, the heat wave we have suffered for the last two weeks was still in full force. Wandering around the site was like walking around a large furnace. We still were able to get some very interesting images. My intention was on black and white subjects like this old, I guess furnace, quite an appropriate subject for the  this scorching day. The temperature hovered around 35ºC to 38ºC. Today would have been a better day because the heat wave broke overnight and left us with a far more comfortable temperture.

RESURRECTION, THORN'S FARMHOUSE

Last year the old farmhouse at the beginning of our street was demolished. Of course everybody was sad about the disappearance of the old landmark. All that was left was just a large patch of sand. But nature has its own way of bringing this barren piece of land back to life. Yesterday I stopped to look around and there was a beautiful natural garden with a abundance of wildflowers. It definitely was a a glorious natural garden.

RED LANTERN, MAINSTREET, NORTH BAY

Walking back to my car last Thursday, I looked back and I noticed the red lantern in the window across the street. It made a bright focal point in this strong colour composition.A simple subject but a strong visual image.

BACKYARD WITH TOTEM POLE

Here is a picture of the backyard. It shows a very chaotic but colourful landscape filled with a variety of sheds, tools and other various small work tables with a totem pole as centre piece. 

WELCOME TO CAPT'N MORGAN MAN CAVE

Actually John named the owner Capt'n Morgan because he did look like the portrait on the sign. The gentleman gave us the full tour of his property. He introduced us to some of his friends the rooster and his chickens and a few ducks. Again it is a great place to just browse and take pictures. We certainly will make a return visit.

THE OLD CURIOSITY SHOP

Last Saturday we discovered this odd looking curiosity store along the road near Cache Bay. Of course we could not resist stopping to take pictures. It was a little confusing because one sign indicated the store was closed while the other sign read open. Luckily the owner was outside and invited us in. The place definitely was great fun to photograph but definitely very chaotic. I will post a few more pictures in the next few days, which will give you some idea of this unique store.

OLD MACK TRUCK AGAIN

A rainy day today and a good time to teach myself some new composition techniques using Photoshop and onOne RAW and of course an image from the old MACK truck I recently photographed.  It was quite fun working with the various filters and realizing the enormous variety of images you can create working with these powerful programs. All in all a very fruitful day of learning.

PARKING LOT, STURGEON FALLS, ONTARIO

Yesterday I drove to Sturgeon Falls, which is now part of the community of West Nipissing.  It was a great day for an early morning photo trip. It had been awhile since I walked around this town. Although I did not take many pictures I came back with a few nice images. This picture is a very simple but interesting image made of rectangular shapes and dominated by the colours yellow and blue. I like these very concentrated compositions made of very few shapes and textures.

ABANDONED TRUCK REVISITED

The weather has been too nice to be working inside on my pictures in my digital darkroom.I had posted a picture of this old truck covered in snow in April and promised I would go back to photograph the same truck in the Spring. The landscape looked different and I thought almost as abandoned as the the old artifact. The final result is best in black and white, reminding me of the old pictures from the American Farm Security photographers in the depression years of the thirties.

SOLOMON'S SEAL

The garden is waking up. A couple of days ago I made some pictures of this very graceful Solomon's Seal. The unfolding leaves created a very simple, but visually, beautiful  sculpture, which translated in a black and white image, suggesting some classic Chinese or Japanese ink drawing.

ABANDONED, COBALT, ONTARIO

The building is of course not really abandoned because it is still used for storage but obviously it is not inhabitable. A few days I was thinking, its time to make a photo excursion up North again. Cobalt is a fascinating place with a rich history and every time I go there it has changed. Maybe simply in my imagination but there is a feeling of a certain community vitality. This picture I made two years ago. I had photographed this building before so , looking at the image I thought that it would work best in monochrome and here is the result. It looks like an image made in the thirties by Walker Evans, a photographer whose images of the cities and towns in the USA inspire me.

SPRING CREEK, TEXTURE

Another detail of our Spring excursion along the small creek. I am not interested in photographing water in slow motion to get this, what I call, the cotton wool effect. It looks nice but I think the effect has been overused. I like detail and texture, so I photograph with a very fast speed, which freezes the motion creating rich detail. The effect in the image is quite reminiscent of the detailed night images of the the milky way at night, but in addition I also have the motion of the water.  An effect I enjoy.

SPRING CREEK

Last Monday Dan had invited Gerry and me on a small photo excursion along a private trail. It was a glorious Spring day. No black flies yet to interrupt our walk along a small creek. We pend a few hours taking pictures of the rapids. I concentrated on the textures and reflections of the water because I found the sunlight too harsh, which created too much contrast on the white waves of the rapids But we will return on a day when the light is much softer.

KLOMPEN (CLOGS)

Spring has truly started so instead of spending time on my photography , it was time for cleaning up and working outside in the garden. But I did spend time on going through more of my old negatives. I found some very old negatives which I took in 1960. At that time I visited a clog maker or klompen maker in Dutch. It has been such a long time that I can't remember exactly where I took the pictures. Scanning and processing the images takes quite some time but it is bringing back many memories. The clogs are made from poplar or willow wood. In this picture the painted clogs are left outside to dry. Now back to working on the rest of the pictures.