TWENTY FIRST CENTURY CANADIAN LANDSCAPE

On our visit to the Ottawa are I noticed two things. First no snow and secondly the increase of solar panels around the farms in the area. I also wish everyone a very happy New year.

WINTER HWY 17

We returned yesterday afternoon from our Ottawa Christmas visit. We had a wonderful time with our daughters, sons in law and of course our grandchildren. I did not take too many photographs, just a few for the blog. Wednesday we had our first major snow storm of the season. The weather was beautiful yesterday but the driving conditions were rather scary. The road surface were pure ice and of course the traffic was quite busy. Not much fun for the driver but we made it home safely.

NO SNOW YET

We still don't have snow. So here is a picture I took at the beginning of the year. I will be away till after Christmas so I wish everybody a very happy Christmas and of course a great New Year. I will be posting again when I return.

WINTER, LAKE NIPISSING

Rain, rain and more rain today. It certainly does not feel like Christmas. So here is another picture I made a few days ago along the shore of my favourite lake.

BIRCH TREES, WATERFRONT TRAIL, NORTH BAY

It was rather late in the afternoon when I tried to photograph some birch trees along lakefront trail. The exposure was too long but i really liked the painterly effect when I saw the image on my screen.

FREEZE UP LAKE NIPISSING, ON

From the day we moved to North Bay I was fascinated with the unending visual possibilities offered by Lake Nipissing. You can keep photographing Lake Nipissing  at any time of year or even day and discover that each image will show a different aspect of this beautiful lake.

LAKE NIPISSING II

Lake Nipissing is slowly starting to freeze up. Walking along the beach I thought about a photograph I saw in the Guardian newspaper. It was the most expensive image ever sold. It was a photograph by the German photographer Andreas Gursky, titled Rhine II . The picture sold for a whopping $4.3 million. So I thought I'll title my picture Lake Nipissing II. Well, I guess I will not sell this picture for a similar amount.But you never know.

SUNSET PARK AGAIN

This image shows the end of Fall and the beginning of Winter. Its still just a dusting of snow but soon everything will be covered in a think white blanket. 

CEDAR TREES, SUNSET PARK, NORTH BAY

Thanks Peter and moremiles for your postings yesterday. I agree that the view of the wintry lake might looks a little dark but I like the dark grey Winter skies, which make for strong graphic images. So today a colour picture of the same area but now in colour. Hope you like this one. By the way, it was bitterly cold with the wind blowing over the lake.

WINTER, LAKE NIPISSING

The Winter has definitely arrived. The weather has been cold but grey. The last few days we started to get some snow flurries so this morning I took a few pictures along the shore of Lake Nipissing. I did not stay long because the wind was very chilling.

ANOTHER DOOR, FREDERICTON, NB

These are the dark days before Christmas. Not a great time to go out and take pictures. Also of course it is a busy time with all the preparations for the festive season. Luckily I still have a few interesting images from our trip. I have a special interest in doors. Maybe its the mystery of not knowing whats behind them. Again here I am also attracted by the various textures and shapes.

COUCH, FREDERICTON, NB

While Visiting a gallery in Fredericton , I loved the elegant shape of this couch in one of the rooms. The bright red contrasted very nicely with the pastel colours of the rainy outside.

BIRCH TREE, WINTER GARDEN

My first Winter image of the season. We had our first snowfall of the new Winter season. I simply took this picture of our front yard with strong patterns of various shrubs and of course the birch tree as the central focal point. I always like the pen and ink effect of the branches contrasting with the white snowy background. It reminds me of Chinese and Japanese ink drawings.

BARCODE, FREDERICTON, NB

I noticed this strange painting on a wall in Fredericton. I looked like a barcode but I just loved the abstract painterly quality. So of course I had to photograph it and here is the final image.

GARDEN ART, NORTH BAY

Last year I posted a picture of a house, which belongs to John Weiss, a well known North Bay artist and educator. Yesterday John gave us a tour of his property.  I loved his garden' which  reflects his great artistic imagination. John decorates his garden with a wide variety of different objects, like some very nice metal garden sculptures or he simply used found natural items like these skulls stuck on walls or on trees and bushes.

DOOR, FREDERICTON, NB

It was a rather drab grey day in Fredericton so rather than taking some pictures of the old and historic buildings, I concentrated on the little alleyways downtown. This picture reminds me of the work by some of the American Abstract Expressionists.

OLD CEMETERY, FREDERICTON, NB

It was a very grey day when we arrived in Fredericton. Luckily it did not rain so we took a walk through the old downtown. Smack in the centre of town we found this old cemetery  dating back to the early part of the nineteenth century. Of course I had to make a few pictures and again felt that black and white made a visually stronger image.

OLD RAILWAY STATION, BATH, NB

This was the old Bath railway station, which now has been converted to apartments. It looked a little sad so I combined a sepia image with the original colour to subdue the tone of the picture.

LAUNDRY, BATH, NEW BRUNSWICK

It has been a few days since my last posting. The time before the snow arrives is a sort of an in between time. So I have not been on little photo trips. Anyway I still have some good images from our New Brunswick trip. Here is a picture I took when driving through the little town of Bath along the St. John river. I brought back the colour of the laundry, which nicely contrasts with the toned black and white image.

OLD HOUSE, NEW BRUNSWICK

I liked this old house. It definitely has character. Of course it is rundown and neglected but it still shows the remnants of a wonderful place when it was newly built.