FIREFIGHTER’S HELMET

 

It is quite a lot of fun looking through old files and discovering negatives which I simply forgot about. This negative is quite a few decades old. Actually I took this picture when we just arrived in Canada and I worked for a photographer in Toronto, who did a lot of work for the provincial and federal government. So one morning,on my way to the subway, I passed some firetrucks parked outside an office building. The firemen were busy rolling out the hoses, so of course being a curious photographer I had to take some pictures of course.  I was intrigued by this helmet . You don’t see these anymore and I am certain that they are quite valuable . Thiswas shot using Kodak Trix developed in Agfa Rodinal.

WINTER, LAKE NIPISSING

 

Choosing negatives from my files, remind me of a famous quote by Ansel Adams, “the negative is the score and the image is the performance”. I have to agree with his analogy with music. Each time you make a print of a specific negative you make some subtle and sometimes of course major changes in the interpretation of the negative. A good example is this print, which is made from a old negative but is a very different interpretation from earlier prints. 

LIGHT BEFORE COLOUR

 

The British painter J.W. M. Turner once said light came before colourand as a photographer I have to agree with that statement. Turner of course was a master in painting light and that is one of the reasons I so admire his work. This image is quite old. I made this picture sometimes in the seventees but , because I did not write it down, I simply can’t remember where I took the picture. During this period of isolation and actually compltete lockdown, I gigured this is an excellent time to once again go through my old negatives and start scanning some of them.I came across this negative made with my old twinlens Roleiflex and processed it on my computer. I never printed it before and looking at the result I wonder why I never printed it. It is a wonderful image.

WINTER LANDSCAPE, BONFIELD,ONTARIO

Another picture from yesterday’s photo excursion. Yes it was quite cold with the temperature around -15 C However the sun just appeared above the horizon, colouring the Winter landscape in a beautiful golden hue. Of course it did not add to us feeling warmer but it definitely created a very romantic atmosphere, giving us quite a few nice images.

 

BACK LIGHTING

 What a beautiful Winter day we had. So John, Gerry and I left early on a photo trip. Of course we could not let this day go by without taking photographs. One of the places we visited was an abandoned saw mill. John and I had been there before but of course you always see something new. My first series of pictures were of a large backlit group of old loading facilities. The very pronounced shadows and large shapes made me think of the traditional black and white images by photographers like Edward Weston, Charles Sheeler and the German photographer Albert Renger Patzsch.

WINTER, THE SOUTH RIVER, ONTARIO

 

As I promised, I will be posting more pictures this year. While we are still in some form lockdown, I look at this time as a good period for reflection. My extensive photo archive is simply a treasury of forgotten images like this view of the South River, which I took two years ago. Using a large matt around the image gives it a new visual perspective. 

BARN, STURGEON FALLS

 

Revisiting some of the old sites I have photographed over the years, you see the process of time. Like this barn, which is slowly deteriorating and probably wil be gone in a few years or maybe has collapsed already  since my last visit. It still has character with its strong textures and patterns.

QUILTED ICE HUT, LAKE NIPISSING

 

When visiting the North Bay art winterfest I took a picture of this quilted ice hut on Lake Nipissing. It certainly is a good picture for these dark times when all of us are living in isolation because of the dreaded  covid 19. But I am certain that this year will hopefully bring us a semblance of normal life again. So lets keep our fingers crossed.

WINTER, LAKE NIPISSING

 

Winter has definitely arrived  here in North Bay and surrounding areas. Many parts of Ontario did not or hardly received any snow. Very unusual for this time of the season. I took this picture at the end of the popular cranberry trail in Callander. A black and white version of this landscape is also quite strong. However the colour version was my final choice In a future posting I might use the monochrome version.

MERRY CHRISTMAS

 

Christmas Eve and the right time to post a my Christmas image. I chose this image of one of my most favourite subjects, an old maple tree, which I have photographed since the early seventies. So here is my visual 

AGGREGATE PIT, NORTH BAY

 

A few years ago I visited an aggregate business  not far from my home. In the Winter of course, the only landscape is quite stark . everything blanketed in snow contrasting with the exposed, strongly textured gravel and sand. It is a great place to photograph because of the stark simplicity of the landscape. White and black interspersed with beautiful textures and patterns. 

WINTER LANDSCAPE, BLACK AND WHITE

 

It is the busy time before Christmas.Last week I designed and mailed our Christmas card which took up some time, but all the cards have been sent. So on Saturday my friend Gerry invited our friend John and me to go on a little photo safari. The weather forecast predicted a nice sunny day but of course it was quite overcast. Not a great problem because I overcast skies in the Winter. It makes for nice moody Winter shots with strong graphic images. We had a great day visiting some of our favourite spots. I decided to concentrate on black and white pictures. So here one example of that trip.  I hope you like it.

WINTER LANDSCAPE, COLOUR

 So here is the promised colour interpretation. Rob gave the black and white image 10 out of 10, so I am interested which picture he prefers. I used the word interpretation because I used a variety of filters and adjustments to create the Winter mood I was looking for. The enormous changes in the various photo adjustment programs gives me the same freedom as painters have to create the image to your own artistic interpretation.

WINTER LANDSCAPE, POWASSAN, ONTARIO

 

Again a. picture I took a few years ago in the Powassan area. It was a difficult decision which image to choose, so I decided to publish both interpretations. Today I start with the monochrome image, tomorrow the colour interpretation. Each image reflects the Winter season and both show a different aspect of the cold season. I feel that this image reflects a strong graphic meaning of the Winter season. But lets look at the colour picture and maybe this will decide my view of which picture is the one with the most impact.

DRAMATIC SKY, LAKE NIPISSING

 

Last Friday afternoon I made a visit at one of my local beaches here in North Bay. It was a pretty somber grey Fall day. But I was lucky because just when I arrived the sky started to open up at the horizon. Of course that was all the change I saw but it made for a pretty simple but dramatic picture, which, after I turned this simple landscape into a black and white image, became quite a visually impressive image.

FIRST SIGNS OF WINTER

 

This photograph was quite a challenge for me. The original is an old and I mean old, Agfa  slide. This type of film has a pretty limited life span. The colour was faded and showed discolouring on the edges. So, after scanning, I decided to turn the image into a monochrome picture and I am quite happy with the result. I took this picture early on a cold November morning and I like dark moody quality. Then I made some rather subtle changes with a LUT filter, which you can create yourself, to enhance the overal tone of the final image.

OLD BOOTS

 

About time to post another image. Again I have been rummaging through my files and liked this picture of old boots at one of my favourite places to visit the Powassan Treasure Mill. Its a fun place to take pictures.

The boots were black with the centre pair brown. So I turned the original colour image into a monochrome picture and then simply masked out the brown boots. It just added a contrast to this richly textured image.

 

COMPOSITION WITH COW PORTRAIT

 One of the places I visit, is a famous local house which is decorated  with all kind of found and collected junk. But lately it does not look that interesting any more. Everything looks neglected and deteriorated. Still, I did take a few pictures and liked this painting of a cow surrounded by some typical Canadian objects like old snowshoes, skates and hockey sticks. Again I prefer the monochromatic interpretation.

FOUR BRICKS

 

Composition with four bricks. The original was in colour but, after some study, I decided to turn the image into a monochromatic picture. Then I brought back the colour in the bricks to make them prominent in the composition and I liked the result. It definitely made the image visually stronger.

REEDS AND REFLEXIONS

 Another black and white image, which I took a few years ago when taking pictures around Munster, Ontario. It is a simple subject of reeds and its reflexion in water. I like the contrast between the detailed textured reed contrasted by the strong black and white reflexions, which look like a Japanese ink drawing.