DERELICT FARM HOUSE NEAR WARREN, ONTARIO

Photographers are nearly always attracted by old derelict buildings and, I have to admit , that I enjoy photographing these old places. I guess that the attraction is the great richness on textures and patterns. So, when John suggested that we visit this house, which he had photographed a few years ago, I was quite interested in seeing the old place. I was not disappointed so we spend some time photographing this old abandoned homestead. 

LANDSCAPE, SUDBURY, ONTARIO

A few weeks ago I posted a few scanned pictures from my files. In the seventies and eighties I had photographed regularly in the greater Sudbury area. So John and I made a little excursion to see what is left of that really desolate but very interesting landscape. To our surprise most of the area around Sudbury  has changed.The barren rocky landscape has been transformed, which is beginning to resemble the traditional Northern Ontario landscape with predominantly pine trees. John and I found remnant of the old barren landscape  around the Stobey Mine. Its a pity that you are not allowed in on the property because the rock formations are beautiful and we would have loved to wander and explore the landscape. 

LATE SUMMER LANDSCAPE

Going down the street this morning I passed the old Thorn farm property and I just had to stop and walk into the abandoned fields to wander around this beautiful natural garden. It was raining and that created this wonderful soft atmosphere. what a great visual feast.

LOW TIDE, BAY OF FUNDY

I made this picture on a trip to Nova Scotia. it is a scanned image from a  colour negative before I completely switched to digital photography. It is an interesting exploration going through my old files and I will spend quite a bit of time going through all my old files. It promises to be quite atrip of rediscovery. 

YELLOW TRUCK WITH RED MAPLE LEAF

The blue grey colour of the house and the magnificent blue Summer sky with the strong contrast of yellow and red truck, is what attracted me to this otherwise mundane city landscape. I toned the overall colour down to accentuate the brightly coloured new truck.

STILL FOR SALE

This picture is for John and Bob, who both told me that the statue of Christ was still for sale. Last year I posted a picture of the same statue. But I guess the owner could not get the price he would like to get so he is displaying the statue again. I don't think it includes the angle I simply liked the subject and it certainly makes for an interesting garden design.

STREET ABSTRACT

This morning I was looking for some images on the computer, I came across this picture of a wall I photographed quite a few years ago in the Kitchener area. In my photo wanderings I am always interested in abstract painterly subjects. it probably comes from my interest in the visual arts.This complex subject rich in textures, colour and pattern  is a very intriguing image.

FEED SILO WITH RED HORSE TRAILER

Traveling along the road from Cache Bay to Verner, we stopped off at a farm with an interesting feed silo. I had photographed this silo many years ago when it still had a weather vane of a horse. The young farmer gave us a tour of the farm and explaned that his dad designed and built the silo using concrete building blocks which he poured himself using a mould he made himself. It must have been quite a job.

BLUE DOOR 13

Another image of one of the boat sheds in Cache Bay. It is the weathered surface of the wood and metal, which gives this picture such a strong visual effect.

BOAT HOUSES, CACHE BAY, ONTARIO

Along the shores of Lake Nipissing we came across a cluster of boat houses. Most of the sheds were not the elaborate boat storage sheds, with a few exceptions, but were put together of a wide variety of  materials. This of course was great for us photographers, who like a great variety of textures and colours. We will certainly return here again at different seasons to make more images of this place.

OLD CURCH, FRONT VIEW

This time I am posting a colour view of the same church. As I mentioned yesterday, I like both black and white and colour. Keeping the colour version more muted I was aiming to create emphasize a view, which reflected a historic perspective of the building.

OLD CHURCH, CACHE BAY, ONTARIO

Yesterday my friend Gerry and I made a return trip to Cache Bay. I had visited Cache Bay a couple of times in the last few weeks on a photo trip. But this time I wanted to make some pictures of this old church which has been abandoned for decades. The weather was just perfect, I like taking photographs on overcast cloudy days and both of us had a great trip , which gaves us some very fine images. My idea was to take black and white pictures however I did like some of my colour images. I did end up using the black and white image of this church, as I had intended to do.

LICHEN

On my daily walk yesterday, I passed this rock covered with lichen.. The light filtering through the foliage created a pattern of light on the top of the rock. The colour was quite green because of the leaf canopy overhead. I took a few close up pictures, but I was not sure if the images would be interesting enough until I downloaded them on the computer. I like the abstract quality of the image, which evokes a sense of mystery.

HEATWAVE

The last few weeks it was very hot and I think everyone was glad when this heatwave finally broke over the weekend, but it still is very dry, even after last night's  thunderstorm, which created a few  forest fires in the area around the city. So when I was looking for an image to post today I thought about this picture of a rusty metal lid on a box just outside the library, which I took last week. It certainly is a good abstract impression of the hot Summer weather.

VERTICAL BLUE AND RED

Concentrating on my subject I look for the abstract in a realistic object or composition. In this particular image I was interested in the red and blue verticals and the strong texture of the wooden background and the more subtle texture of the sandy earth. To give the composition strength I look for the simplest composition,  which  reflects how i perceive the subject.

ABANDONED REVISITED

Last March I posted two pictures from an abandoned sawmill site. Well, yesterday John asked if I would like to go on another visit to the old sawmill. What a difference, the heat wave we have suffered for the last two weeks was still in full force. Wandering around the site was like walking around a large furnace. We still were able to get some very interesting images. My intention was on black and white subjects like this old, I guess furnace, quite an appropriate subject for the  this scorching day. The temperature hovered around 35ºC to 38ºC. Today would have been a better day because the heat wave broke overnight and left us with a far more comfortable temperture.

RESURRECTION, THORN'S FARMHOUSE

Last year the old farmhouse at the beginning of our street was demolished. Of course everybody was sad about the disappearance of the old landmark. All that was left was just a large patch of sand. But nature has its own way of bringing this barren piece of land back to life. Yesterday I stopped to look around and there was a beautiful natural garden with a abundance of wildflowers. It definitely was a a glorious natural garden.

RED LANTERN, MAINSTREET, NORTH BAY

Walking back to my car last Thursday, I looked back and I noticed the red lantern in the window across the street. It made a bright focal point in this strong colour composition.A simple subject but a strong visual image.

BACKYARD WITH TOTEM POLE

Here is a picture of the backyard. It shows a very chaotic but colourful landscape filled with a variety of sheds, tools and other various small work tables with a totem pole as centre piece. 

WELCOME TO CAPT'N MORGAN MAN CAVE

Actually John named the owner Capt'n Morgan because he did look like the portrait on the sign. The gentleman gave us the full tour of his property. He introduced us to some of his friends the rooster and his chickens and a few ducks. Again it is a great place to just browse and take pictures. We certainly will make a return visit.