COMMANDA MUSEUM, COMMANDA, ONTARIO

It was a truly beautiful Summer day, so with my two friends Bob and Rob, I continued my little project of visiting the small local museums in the area. This time we went to the Commanda Museum, which is a wonderful restored general country store. Of course they have all the very similar artifacts you will find in every other small museum, but what sets this one apart is interior. Its definitely worth a visit and you can have simple country lunch.

IMAGINARY BEASTS

No, in this city and, I guess in most small communities, you will not find many examples of great graffiti art. Most of the graffiti here are simply inarticulate scribbles. But sometimes you will find some images, which inadvertently have some artistic quality. When I photographed this detail of spray painted scrawls, they reminded me vaguely of some prehistoric rock paintings.

OLD COMPASS, NIPISSING VILLAGE MUSEUM

Another interesting object I photographed on my recent visit to the Nipissing Village Museum. I was told that this compass was found in a farmer's field. It is a beautiful instrument, which makes you wonder, who would lose something like this.

CASH REGISTER, NIPISSING MUSEUM

This picture is for Moremiles, who was wondering about pictures from the Nipissing Museum. well yesterday I made a trip to the museum and had a nice tour of the three buildings. The museum is full of artifacts dating to the late 19th century till after the 1960's. Of course I had to photograph this very ornate cash register. it was surrounded by a lot of other artifacts so I decided to make a black and white image with the register in colour otherwise everything would have blended together losing the visual impact of this Rococo style register.

ROOSTER

Last week we were visiting our friend Susan. She loves rooster and has quite a collection of roosters. You find them everywhere around her  house. I saw this one in the kitchen and simply had to take a picture of this rooster tucked away in a corner.

AT THE WATERS EDGE

I made this picture at the boat launching ramp at the waterfront. It reminds me of the image I did last week of the empty store with the flat rectangular shapes and the strong primary colours. In this image its the contrast between the strong geometrical shapes and the painterly textures of the water which gives this picture its interesting visual impact.

OLD BARBER SHOP, CALLANDER MUSEUM

Yesterday I visited the Callander Ontario Museum to take some pictures for my photo project on the small museums here in North Eastern Ontario. This display is the original Dufresne barbershop from circa 1900. It was the barbershop of Eugene Dufresne, whose son Alex Dufresne dnated the shop to the Callander Museum. Photographing this display posed a slight problem because of the large mirrors. Also the space is small so I made a composite image. I did not remove any of the objects because I wanted to preserve the view visitors would have of the shop as it is on display.

LICHEN

Texture, lines and perspective are the main elements in this image of lichen on a rock outcrop along the shores of Lake Nipissing. I prefer  the black and white version over the colour image. Colour was distraction of the basic elements I wanted to emphasize.

GARDEN WITH WINDOW

Last week I passed a garden in the downtown area and saw this interesting window with what looked like a collage of different abstract landscapes. I asked if i could go into the garden to photograph this window. It was difficult because the vegetable and flower beds were right underneath the window but I liked the added effect of the branches, which added another interesting element to the overall design.

VINTAGE CAR, NORTH BAY

I can't resist photographing antique and vintage cars, so when I passed this fine Meteor parked in front of a house on one of the downtown streets. I liked the wide angle image the best.

SUMMER, PINK LAWNCHAIR

The pink chair on the pink coloured patio is what attracted me to this outdoor still life.

GIRL WITH BLUE BALLOON

Yesterday afternoon I walked by this primitive picture of a girl with balloon. I had photographed this drawing before but did not like the final image. So I re-photographed it and I think this time I prefer the result.

EMPTY STORE, NORTH BAY

Yesterday morning I had to do some shopping and when I stepped out of the car I was struck by the bright colours of the empty store. The scene had the quality of a color field painting. But, for me, the  bleakness of this city scape is quite alienating.