SPRING 2022, ICE BREAKUP

 

At last Winter is finished. It has been a very difficult Winter, not just for us but I guess for most people who stayed home. I confess, no I should have spent more time working on my photographs. Maybe it was the example of 

the bears, raccoons and various other animals, smarter than me who spent the Winter months snug in their Winter residence sleeping, oblivious of the cold and snow. Or we could have traveled to warmer climes like several of our friends. Anyway glad Spring has finally arrived.

HO! HO! HO!

 

HO! HO! HO! I guess it’s the season to be jolly.

TOM THOMPSON SHACK, KLEINBURG, ONTARIO

 

I took this picture a few years ago while visiting the McMichael Art Gallery in Kleinburg. It is the shack where Tom Thomson used to live in Toronto from 1925 till his death in 1917. Of course the shack has been photographed numerous times but I concentrated on the light and the complex patterns of vertical lines and the rectangular shapes of the doors and windows.

HISTORY

 

This morning I am reading in my morning paper about the big COP26 get together in Glasgow, I came across my picture of the old Thorn farm here in North Bay. The farm is gone now. All that remains is a picture reminding me what it looked like. 

FALL, LAKE NIPISSING, ONTARIO

 

An image of strong patterns, shapes and textures. It is a very elementary picture reflecting a strong dramatic view of Lake Nipissing. 

LAVASE RIVER, NORTH BAY

The lastgeving days we enjoyed some beautiful late Fall weather. We visited some of the city parks. This picture, I took along the Lavase river in Champlain park. Most of the leaves of course were already gone.But I was interested in the patterns of the trees and the reflections in the water.I am happy with the result of the final monochrome image.

HAPPY THANKS GIVING

 

 

To all my followers, I wish you a great Happy Thanksgiving. We have very colourful Fall season and of course for all us photographers it is tradition to go on our colour photo tours. This picture I took yesterday in our garden, which has lost many of its leaves. However we still have much colour in the parks and trails in the North Bay country side.

FALL GARDEN

 

The Fall palette is at its peak. Yes it is very wet but this of course increases the colour saturation. I prefer photographing the Fall colours on overcast days or, even better, when we have soft rain. Actually I don’t have totravel far because our garden displays a full range of Fall hues. Simply woderful.

MORNING LIGHT, TEMISCAMING, PQ

 

Walking through a small tunnel in Temiscaming I photographed the light reflected on the rusty wall. Of course it just was a subject I could not resist. When I downloaded the file on my computer I simply turned it so it became an imaginary landscape.

OLD RAILWAY STATION, MATTAWA, ON

 On Monday John, Gerry and I visited Mattawa to take some pictures of the old railway station, or I should say the remnant of the old station. We were shocked to see the final state of this once busy station. It is sad to see how this building has been totally abandoned to the point that it would bestookt costly to restore. Thanks to neglect a community is losing one of its historic buildings.

FALL YELLOW

 

Fall has definitely arrived. The trees are turning rapidly to bright red and yellow. This picture of intense yellow coloured ragweed reminds me of some of Turner’s great landscape paintings.

FALL COLOURS

 

No black and white image this time, but a Fall colour image. Yes the trees starting their annual colour festival. Actually this picture was taken a few years ago when our friend Gerry took John, Dan and  myself on a little trip on the South River to take some pictures. The colours were spectacular. Sitting in the back of the boat I took a series of images of the boat’s wake which turned into some very nice abstract photo “paintings”.

CLOUDS AND WAVES, LAKE NIPISSING

 

Last Tuesday morning my young grandson Ewan invited me to go and take some pictures together. Of course I agreed and both of us went down to the lake. It was a gorgeous sunny day. It was the beginning of a great little photo trip and Ewan was enjoying himself taking pictures together with his grandfather. Both of us are looking forward to go on many future photo trips.

TEMBEC PAPER MILL, TIMISKAMING, PQ

 

This photo was made during a September trip to the village of Timiskaming in Quebec. It was a very early trip but well worth getting out of bed early. When my friend Dan and I arrived at the town the sun was just rising and the fog started to lift from the River. The clouds combined with the smoke from the mill made for very dramatic landscapes. Actually I think in another two weeks it might be worth another early morning visit.

SUBWAY STATION, NEW YORK

 Again an old image but this is a picture from my New York portfolio. Revisiting your older picture is a very interesting journey because you see the image from a new perspective. The black and white interpretation is a much more abstract view than the original colour version.

QUEBEC CITY, PQ

 

Still not traveling far, so I am simply traveling through my files. When visiting Quebec City I was intrigued by this simple note scribbled on a wall in the old city. Looking at it again I have to wonder what is the story behind this note. You can feel the anguish and perhaps anger expressed by this simple message. A simple image but the words give this picture a powerful meaning. 

TREE SKELETON, RESTOULE PROVINCIAL PARK

Every year we go for a picnic with our friends Bob and Pat. So yesterday we decided to go to the Restoule Provincial Park. We found an empty picnic table next to the river where we enjoyed a wonderful outdoor lunch. 

Right across the water I noticed this dead tree, which was almost bleached white. The background was a dense pattern of very green trees, which obscured the shape of the old tree. My first idea was to turn the final picture into a pure monochrome image and yes, I did like the result but then started to add a duo tone to the image and again I enjoyed the final picture, which I decided to post.

OUR GARDEN

 

Our garden or actually I should say, my wife’s garden, because after all it is her beautiful creation. I simply get the enjoyment out of her hard work. The garden also inspires me in making my photographs. This image is a interpretation of the evening view just when darkness gives this mysterious view of the textures of the different plants and the light dissolving into the darkness of the forest.

SOUTH RIVER, ONTARIO

Last Friday, our first photo trip since lockdown. What a great day. We, Gerry, john and myself decide to drive to South River and we had a wonderful time. Good discussions on a wide variety of topics, a great lunch and above all some fine picture taking. I stil like working in black and white.
 This time I added a sepia tone to this image, which I think  strengthens the visual impact of this landscape.

MAINSTREET, NORTH BAY 1974

 

Now this is a trip back in time. This morning I came across some old negatives I took in the seventies. Quite a trip through memory lane.  Downtown  North Bay had three movie theatres, Mainstreet was the primary shopping centre until the new malls opened. That was the end of a lively downtown. Of course there are still some great stores on Mainstreet but it is a far cry from the busy shopping crowds you would see on Saturdays in the seventies when we just arrived in the city.