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.