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.

MANNEQUINS

Found these two mannequins in a store window in Alkmaar. I was intrigued by their unusual looks. So I had to take their picture of course. Nothing spectacular but a fun image.

SUMMER LANDSCAPE

So far the Summer has been beautiful. On Saturday we made a little trip in the Powassan area.  This is the time of the flowering of various wild flowers turning the fields into great natural gardens. This time the goldenrod are colouring the landscape golden yellow while the great cloudy sky  added a rich pattern of textures to this Summer landscape.

HAPPY AND MELLOW

Walking along one of the busy downtown streets in Amsterdam, I noticed this happy guy standing inside a convenience store. Of course I had to take his picture and he did not object. so here is the picture of one very relaxed customer.

DUTCH LANDSCAPE WITH WINDMILLS

When we were staying in Alkmaar, my wife’s cousin came to pick us up in his boat. So boating along this canal we were floating through a very typical Dutch landscape reminiscent of a Jacob Ruysdael painting.   

VEGETARIAN BUTCHER, THE HAGUE

Yesterday I was reading a news article about the new vegan breakfast offered by Tim Horton. The popular food chains are offering more vegan food choices. When we visited The Hague, I noticed a vegetarian butcher shop right across from the city hall. What of course attracted my interest was the life size photograph of the butcher on the door. It did not look very inviting. 

THE GROTE KERK, BREDA, THE NETHERLANDS

This is the interior of the church in the city of Breda. this beautiful restored church was built in the middle of the fifteenth century. In the nineteenth century Vincent van Gogh’s grandfather was the minister of this church. Vincent was named after his grandfather.

THE MARKET, BREDA, THE NETHERLANDS

It would be very enjoyable having a cold glass of beer in the market of our old home town Breda on this very hot day.

ROMANTIC STREET VIEW, BRUGES

Walking through a living museum like Bruges, it is very enjoyable to see this type of city landscape. Rich in textures and patterns it invites you to take images which reminds you of the large format pictures of the nineteenth century. 

BRUGES CANAL VIEW

It was interesting that when moving away from the prime tourist areas in the city, that not many people walked along the canals or even in the smaller streets off the main shopping streets. 

BRUGES, BELGIUM

The other city in Belgium we visited was Bruges, also known as the Venice of the North. Its a great place if you are interested in history. In the 15th century this city was one of the wealthiest cities in Europe, which   is reflected in the marvellous architecture.  Of course it is a very busy tourist attraction but well worth a visit. We certainly loved it. 

SHADOWS

Today just a simple still life which I took while enjoying lunch in a Brussels Restaurant. What drew my attantion was the shadow on the walll and combined with the quiet table setting, made for a very simple quiet still life.

TOURBUS, BRUSSELS

In the Summer the cities in Europe are filled with tourists. You see tour busses everywhere weaving their way through the narrow, crowded streets in the popular tourist spots. So I make the bus and the reflection in the windshield my main subject, resulting in a colourful composition of a rich variety  of textured shapes.

SHOE STORE, THE GALERIES ROYALES SAINT-HUBERT, BRUSSELS

The majority of stores at  the Galeries Royales Saint-Hubert are chocolate stores. The other store were very high end jewelry, clothing and shoe stores. I was particularly impressed with many of the store windows which were of very minimalist but sophisticated designs. Here is an example of a shoe store window, which showed simply a pair of running shoes. I thought it was quite effective and visually effective.

THE GALERIES ROYALES SAINT-HUBERT, BRUSSELS

Right in the centre of Brussels, you will find one of the oldest shopping galeries in Europe, the Galeries Royales Saint-Hubert. This very beautiful shopping arcade was inaugurated in 1847. The initial idea for this project came from the young Belgian  architect Jean- Pierre Cluysenaer, who was a great admirer of the traditional Renaissance architecture. It is a magnificent building and, of course very popular by visitors to the Belgian capital. What a difference with the shopping malls we are familiar with in our country. 

ARCHITECTURE, BRUSSELS, BELGIUM

These beautiful warm Summer days are excellent for working on my photographs, while sitting on our deck enjoying the peace and quiet in our garden. So here is another picture I took in Brussels. A city which I think is underappreciated in comparrison to the more famous European cities like Amsterdam or even Paris. Wandering along the streets I enjoy looking at the rich nineteen century architecture of the downtown area. What attracts me are the patterns, textures and colours of the various buildings, which, combined with the various perspectives of geometrical shapes make a fine intricate composition.

MURAL, BRUSSELS, BELGIUM

Our first destination on our trip was Brussels. The city is quite interesting with many picturesque neighbourhoods in addition to the well known tourist areas in the down town of the city. Walking down a street, this visually striking  mural contrasted with the more muted colours of the buildings.

SWEET WOODRUFF, GALIUM ODORATUM

A few days ago we returned from a wonderful holiday in Belgium and The Netherlands. But of course it is always great to return to your own home. My wife’s garden is at its very Summer peak. In the back of the garden she has created her own “secret” corner, which is a carpet of flowering Sweet Woodruff. So of course I am posting this image to celebrate our return home.

RUINS, COBALT, ONTARIO

Another picture from the historic town of Cobalt. No, the ruins of the various mine sites are maybe not as famous as the ruins from the Mediterranean or Central and South American civilizations, but they are still very interesting and definitely worth photographing.

THE DANCE

On our trip we also made a short stop in Cobalt. Again we made some fine hotographs. We certainly will be going back for a more in depth exploration of the Cobalt area. Over the years I have made many trips to this old mining town and every time I discover new views of familiar landscapes.

INDUSTRIAL LANDSCAPE

This was the first picture I made outside the abandoned plant. My original idea was to take a series of black and white pictures but some of course worked better in colour. I am quite happy with this very bleak black and white interpretation of this industrial landscape.

EMPTY

Yesterday John and I went on our first Spring photo trip. We had a great time and came back with many fine images. One of the places we visited was an old  empty factory. It was an interesting place, even if it was almost empty. John and I took quite a few pictures I like this one because of the strong rectangles and the reflected light from the walls. It was a difficult place to photograph because of the lack of light. Both of us were shooting handheld, so we were using very wide lensopenings and high ISO. we were still surprised with the results.

SPRING CLEANUP , FOR DAVID BROWN

Yesterday was a great day for preparing the gardens for the Spring and Summer seasons. It was also a fine day to have my first small fire. I burned some branches cut from the various shrubs. It was hard starting the fire because everything was very wet but it was a wonderful peaceful day.

SPRING BREAKUP

At last Spring has arrived. The ice on the lake is rapidly breaking up and melting. Yesterday and the day before I took some pictures of the last remnants of the ice. I guess it was my personal celebration of ending of the long and snowy Winter.

CALLA LILY

A friend of ours brought us a beautiful canna lily. It definitely is one of my favourite plants. Many famous artists like Georgia O’Keefe, Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera, just to name a few artists who made many drawings and paintings of this elegant flower and every year I can’t resist photographing this plant, this time in black and white. 

MUSICIANS WALL, NORTH BAY

It has been a long time since my last posting, but after this long Winter, Spring has finally reluctantly arrived . So here an update on the musicians wall by Jeff Marceau on McIntyre street here in North Bay. I had posted a picture titled Gord Downey and Leonard Cohen in October 2017. The wall has been greatly expanded to include many great Canadian musicians and singers.

NATIONAL GALLERY OF CANADA

Visited the National Gallery last Friday to see the Paul Klee exhibit. Afterwards we spend some time looking at some of the work in the various galleries. This minimalist artwork by the American artist Donald Judd was quite interesting. It concists of a series of plywood boxes, which worked particularly well for me when photographed in black and white, especially the strong shadows and wood textures.

GARDEN OF DOLLS REVISITED

This Winter is a good time to revisit some of my old photographs. I spent some time scanning a series of negatives which I took many, many years ago. When on one of our photo trips, my wife saw this odd looking garden filled with a variety of dolls. After asking permission we spent some times taking pictures. The place was quite interesting and we returned again to take more pictures. Initially when you see the garden 

WINTER TRAIL

Saturday was a beautiful day forvtaking pictures. It almost felt as if Spring was getting closer. Four of us went out on a little walk along Chippewa creek. Without snow shoes, we had to stay on the track but, even with that restrain, we had a very good time. I think all of  came with some fine black and whit images.  

OLD RAILWAY STATION, MATTAWA

Just before lunch last Monday, we made a little detour to take some pictures of the old railway station in Mattawa. We have visited this building regularly over the years but now it seems that it is coming to its final stage of deterioration. Soon this building will probably disappear. 

WINTERLANDSCAPE, BONFIELD, ONTARIO

Another picture from our Monday morning trip. The light was perfect to create a strong graphic image with a rich variety of textures.

OH, PLEASE NO MORE SNOW

Yesterday John and I decided to go on a morning photo excursion. Neither of us had been interested in wandering around the area because it has been, and still is very cold. But we could not resist the beautiful fine Winter weather, so we left early. However when we started taking pictures, it was very cold, -17C, but we persisted and by lunch time we had some very nice pictures. All in all quite a good day. I could not resist posting his image because I think everybody is now ready for Spring and please nommore snow.

WINTER LANDSCAPE WITH HORSE

High time to post another picture. We have experience some pretty harsh Winter weather, so I have been looking at some older pictures in my files and yes have been scanning quite a few of my B&W and colur negatives. It is quite an interesting experience looking at some of the old files, which bring back memories of old photo trips from earlier times. Looking at your old files you have a different view of some of these older images and you ask yourself why didn’t I print this negative. Over time I learned that it is a good practice to take some time before processing a negative or digital file. 

PAKENHAM, ONTARIO

The last few days have been very cold, this morning our thermometer read -31 C. So definitely not a good time to go outside to take some fine pictures. Thinking about nice Summer weather, I found this picture I took a few years ago along the shores of the Mississipi river in Pakenham, Ontario. Of course it was a beautiful nostalgic landscape so remembering old pictures from around the beginning of the twentieth century I recreated a landscape photograph reminisent of style of that time.

OLD TRUCK, DETAIL

It has been a month since my last posting. My excuse is that we first had the busy Christmas holiday time, then I worked on some other projects and also the weather lately has not enticed me to go out and wander around looking for photographs and another reason of course is simply procrastination. So time to post a picture of my on going abstract photo project. I took this picture in November just before the Winter hibernation. The strong graphic impact of black and white images is still very important to me. Maybe because that is where I started when getting interested in the art of photography and I do miss working in the darkroom.