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.

MAIN STREET, MATTAWA, ON

I like these simple buildings , which you find in all the small towns across our country. I took this picture last weekend in Mattawa. The light was quite flat so I worked with a few different filters to change the bright colours and give the scene an almost night like look.

TÉMISCAMING, ABSTRACT

This is a picture from our trip to Témiscaming. It was the weathered and corroded wall with its beautiful abstract of colours and strong textures, which gives this image its strong visual impact.

APPROACHING RAIN STORM

Its been a few days since my last posting but I had some problems with my computer, so it was time to replace it. That ended some frustrations i had with my old computer. it has been quite wet and this is a picture I made of an approaching rain storm.

PLYWOOD SUNSET, TÉMISCAMINGUE, PQ

Visited the town of Témiscamingue in Québec with my friend John. Taking pictures of the old abandoned power plant I noticed a great image or I shouls say three renditions of a great sunset on some old plywood door and window covers.  

DARK AND WET DAY

My friend Dan and I had arranged a little photo excursion for yesterday and of course it turned out to be a very dark and wet day. It did not stop us from taking pictures and actually it is perfect to work in the rain. The colours are very vivid, sometimes too much and you have great reflections. The biggest problem walking the trails along the lake were the mosquitoes. Both of us were pleased with some of the images from our little excursion.

ALONG THE TRAIL, LAKE NIPISSING

A different image today. This time I decided to post a very romantic landscape, which I took a few days ago. It reminds me of one of my favourite books "The Wind in the Willows". It conjures up images of ratty and mole messing about with boats.

RAIN REFLECTIONS

Last Saturday I walked along the waterfront trail. It was raining, which was great for taking photographs of reflections in the water. David Ernest commented how he liked my references to painting and painters in many of my postings. Well I just happened to be reading about the a Quebec art movement from the nineteen forties called Les Automatistes. This movement,  was founded by the Quebec artist Paul Émile Borduas. This group was inspired by the writings of the French surrealist writer and poet André Breton and the American Abstract Expressionism. So the pictures I made this weekend of the rain reflections were the direct result of my interest in the Automatistes movement.

BLUE ON RED. NORTH BAY

An abstract composition, which reminds me of the color field painting, a very popular style of painting originating during the forties and fifties in New York. The Canadian abstract painter Jack Bush was closely related to this painting movement.

THE BIG BANG, THIRTY SECONDS LATER

No I guess its not really an image of The Big Bang, but I liked the graphics on this food truck at the North Bay waterfront.

DRUM, POW WOW 2015, NORTH BAY

One more image of the Pow Wow. A close up of a drum. The B&W image puts the emphasize on the drum and the hands. Some times a monochrome image works better than colour. It gives the picture a far stronger graphic effect.

POW WOW, 2015, NORTH BAY

This weekend the 7th annual Maamwi Kindaaswin festival and Pow Wow is taking place. I simply enjoy this great annual  community festival. It is  a great get together of the First nation community here in North bay. Its is a great festival of colour, dance and music.

ROB'S HAIR LOUNGE, COBALT, ONTARIO

We made a trip to Cobalt yesterday. Still experimenting with the autochrome filters I thought let me try this on a very contemporary subject. It works fine of course with the old antique cars but yes it does work. I like the soft almost pastel colour quality of the old films, which I, sometimes, prefer over the strong digital colours. Of course it all depends on the subject and what like to express about the subject.

CAR SHOW, NORTH BAY

Again, it has been quite some time since my last posting. The reason is simple I am busy with a few other photo project, so I have neglected my blog. Well this image is for Bob, who, like me, is still interested in the old autochrome photographs. He sent a very interesting link with autochrome pictures from the twenties. Yesterday I took this picture at the annual car show on Main Street here in North Bay. I thought this would realy look great as an old colour image from the beginning of the last century.

PATTERNS, TROUT LAKE, ONTARIO

Today a posting of a straight monochrome image I took yesterday along the shores of Trout Lake. Its always a challenge to come back with interesting images from an area, which at first glance, does, visually,  not look very promising. But I managed to get a few nice pictures like this richly patterned water shot. It reminds me of some very early landscapes by the American photographer Edward Steichen.

OLD DELIVERY VAN, KINGSTON, ONTARIO

I photographed this old van, or maybe I should call it an antique van but I am not sure how old it is, in downtown Kingston. Iam still interested in the old colour processes and decided give the image a visual twist by recreating the aged photograph look. Yesterday I mentioned the pictures by Marie Cosindas and she used Polacolor film to get the same aged effects.

BEGONIA II

Still experimenting with Autochrome images, but then I remembered the work of the American photographer Marie Cosindas. She became quite famous in the sixties and seventies with images, which very much looked like the Autochrome pictures of the early twentieth century. Of course she did not use the original autochrome plates but her colour palette was very similar.

CALLA LILY

Victoria weekend has come and gone and what a glorious weekend it was. The weather was perfect for most of the weekend. Last week at our photo group get together, Dianne showed a picture reminiscent of an old autochrome image. The picture sparked an interesting discussion about the autochrome process and how to reproduce the quality of this early colour process digitally. I am still interested in working on the iPAD and found a autochrome app, which does a nice job.The only problem I found is that the grain was too overpowering but you can easily reduce that effect. Using this as a starting point I ended up with this image of Calla lilies.

TRANSFORMATION

Very seldom will I use two pictures in one posting. But this time I simply like to show what happens when an image, the picture of the building, is used as a basis for further experimentation. I am still using my iPad and am amazed with the infinite transformations of a simple image. Is this something I like to pursue further? I am not sure I think that I prefer the straight photographic image, either blank and white or colour, to the manipulated print. of course I where this type of experimentation can lead to new visually great and interesting images.