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. 

FOUND STREET ART

 

One of my ongoing topics of interest is finding different abstract art images while on my photo walkabouts. I noticed this piece of painted plywood leaning against a house on one of the downtown streets. If someone had been around, I would have asked if I could have. It would have been a nice addition to my curios collection.

ANTIQUE STORE, NORTH BAY

 

On a little walkabout in the city, I passed a antique store, which I had visited in the Winter. But this time There was a bizarre looking display on the sidewalk which I had to photograph of course. This little store is definitely worth a visit. 

A VERY WET DAY

 

It certainly was not a great Sunny day. It rained starting in the early morning.   Instead of going on a photo trip, I stayed home to work on some of my pictures from my archive. Well not all day I decided to take some pictures in our garden. Instead of using my camera I continued with a challenge I set myself to start working with my phone camera. It is something I resisted but after reading an interesting article on phone photography, the idea is to start working with this tool and learn how much time it will take to master this rather basic tool.

A TREASURE FROM THE TREASURE MILL

 

Well, as promised, here is the “treasure” I bought last Saturday. I’s a beautiful made puppet. We have no idea where it was made and we have to do some restoration  work to it. For instance the strings are all entangled. This will take some work. The costume however is simply magnificently designed and made. Yes it certainly is a treasure. A wonderful little art work which will enrich our home.

TREASURE MILL, POWASSAN REOPENED

 

It’s been two years but this Spring my favourite store and picture taking place The Treasure Mill in Powassan has reopened and it still is a treasure trove of a wide variety of interesting bric-á-brac. Of  course I could not resist and had to buy a quite fascinating object, which I will show in a future posting. Here a view of just a very tiny but busy display in the store.I would say go and have a look.

SUMMER LANDSCAPE

 

On my way home yesterday I stopped to take some pictures of this dramatic sky. The colour version was fine but thinking about the pictures of Alfred Stieglitz and Edward Weston, two photographers I was reading about in the last few weeks, I planned to make the picture in black and white. It was the right decision. How dramatic, reminiscent of the powerful landscapes of John Turner.

KINSMEN BEACH, NORTH BAY

 

This weekI concentrated on pictures of our garden. It is amazing how lush the garden is this Summer. Today however I decided to go and take some pictures at the Kinsmen Beach on Lake Nipissing. It was very quiet and peaceful. The sky had some dramatic clouds. While I made some interesting images, I concentrated on a group of trees, which, I think, resulted in a fine composition.

GARDEN QUILT

 Lately we became acquainted with the work of a remarkable group of very creative artists, the quilters of Gee’s Bend, Alabama. Their quilts have inspired me to look at my wife’s  garden and seeing how she combines a wide variety of textures, patterns and colours, which are three dimensional tapestries reminiscent to me of the beautiful quilts from Gee’s Bend.

OLD POND

 

I took this closeup of a small pond on the college property. The scene reminded me of  Matsuo Basho’s ,arguably,most famous poem, “ The old Pond —Loud Frog   jumps into  old pond “

FERNS

 

Took some more pictures of the garden yesterday afternoon. My idea is starting with black and white images and then transform them back in colour. Not the original colour of course but give tone the picture. I also do some extensive dodging and burning to isolate the ferns with some added light spots to modulate light and shadows to create a more dramatic effect while isolating the ferns from the background.

GARDEN ART

 

In the nineteen sixties a new form of art appeared called land art. The artists created works of art using natural materials like rocks, pebbles and trees but also a wide variety of plants, flowers and water or ice. However I think land art was a much older art form practiced by gardeners, who used their practical knowledge to create their gardens. My wife is definitely one of those artists. Her main topic is patterns, textures and shapes. I like her continuous changing garden which give both of us great visual pleasure.

SPRING GARDEN 2022

 

A few days ago I took this picture of our front garden. I thought how fortunate I was that my wife is passionate about gardening. I simply love and  admire the result of her work, not mine. Of course I would have annoyed Rudyard Kipling, who wrote his much used and admired quote “ Gardens are not made by singing "Oh, how beautiful," and sitting in the shade”.

FACE MASK, AMSTERDAM

Richard Quinney titled one of his photobooks “Things once seen”, a title I find very appropriate to every photograph. It certainly applies to this image. Walking through one of the busy downtown streets in Amsterdam I saw this mask mounted on a wall of one of the old houses. It is a picture which every time you look at it raises a different meaning to the subject. 

ALONG HWY 63, ONTARIO

 

We are having quite a busy weekend but on Friday we were able to catch a few hours photo taking. Temiskaming in Quebec was our final destination. On our way we stopped to make some landscape pictures. The light was pretty flat so I decided to work in black and white. The scene was rich in textures and TodayI worked on this image, which after some final editing turned into quite a nice dramatic image.

NATIONAL ART CENTRE, OTTAWA

 

Just rereading the book Things once seen by Richard Quincey. I do agree with him up to a point when he says that the photograph is of “what has been”. I believe that it goes further than simply to “attest that what I see has simply existed”. A picture reflects visually what the photographer feels about the photographed subject like his very personal images reflect.

STREET MURAL, OTTAWA

 

A street mural I photographed in Ottawa. The juxtaposition between the painting and the rundown building is what attracted my interest first. Then I liked the various contrasting rectangular shapes and the strong colours, which together made a strong interesting composition.

CHAMPLAIN BEACH PARK, NORTH BAY

A simple composition I took a few weeks ago. I liked the car track on the beach, which made for a rather enigmatic interpretation of this landscape. 

TRACTOR, DETAIL

 This morning I was looking for a picture in my catalogue when I came across this picture I took a few years ago. It is interesting that initially I did not think to spend more time exploring the picture. Contemplating the image on the screen I decided to develop the picture as a rich, textured black and white interpretation. The final result is a picture rich in mood and texture.

FRAGMENTED MESSAGES

 Another city art image, or actually I prefer to use the term found art. What attracted me was the very pronounced textures of the scraps of paper stapled to a utility pole in Toronto. No specific shapes but simply rich patterns and colours.

FOR DAVID BROWN AND DAVID ERNEST

 

Of course, after promising to post more regular on my blog I promptly broke that promise. Well my excuses but what happened is that Spring arrived early and we had to do quite a bit of garden work. We have cleaned up the garden so now it’s waiting for the next phase. Anyway here is a new picture. This time a colour image of my ongoing project street art. It is a particular interest which goes back many years. Visiting cities and towns I always look for unusual art work randomly displayed in streets or small alleys. I like this triptych, which I titled “ elegy for a city” I hope you like it.

SPRING 2022, ICE BREAKUP

 

At last Winter is finished. It has been a very difficult Winter, not just for us but I guess for most people who stayed home. I confess, no I should have spent more time working on my photographs. Maybe it was the example of 

the bears, raccoons and various other animals, smarter than me who spent the Winter months snug in their Winter residence sleeping, oblivious of the cold and snow. Or we could have traveled to warmer climes like several of our friends. Anyway glad Spring has finally arrived.