SOUTH RIVER, ONTARIO

 

Last Thursday my fiend john and I made our very first photo trip of this Spring season. Wonderful day, the weather was perfect, the places we visited were very quiet, I guess in anticipation of the first holiday weekend before the Summer holiday. All in all a day to remember. 

Returning home I looked at my images of that trip and noticed that the majority of pictures were richly textured subjects. Here the combination of strong water textures but also a feeling of movement and of course dramatic lighting..

COTTONWOOD TREE, TEXTURES

I could not resist posting another image of this old tree. Just the texture of the tree bark is magnificent. So if you have never seen it go and visit this tall tree giant. 

EASTERN COTTONWOOD TREE, NORTH BAY

 

This picture of a massive Eastern Cottonwood tree is a good example of how you can simply miss a good photo subject. I must have passed this tree numerous times without noticing it. But two days ago I had lunch with two of my old colleagues and when walking over to my car Stopped because next to the restaurant I saw the largest tree I ever came across here in North Bay. So yesterday I returned to take some pictures of this truly massive Cottonwood tree. What struck me first and foremost was the very strong textured bark. I took some pictures but I know I have to return to explore and photograph this tree in order to create a more intricate portrait of this wonderful massive natural giant.

STAIRCASE, NORTH BAY

Walking along a street in downtown North Bay one evening, I saw this yellow green staircase wedged between two stores. The rich warm colours contrasted nicely with the staircase. 

WAITING FOR SPRING

 

Another cold grey morning today, yes I know we have been spoiled with some very fine warm days this month. But a feast of Spring colours is what I am waiting for. Searching or I should say rummaging through my files I choose this picture taken quite a few years ago in Toronto. What a riot of colours. Just seeing this image makes me quite happy.

URBAN ABSTRACT

 

It is always a challenge to photograph a nondescript subject and make it into visually interesting image. When I saw this uninteresting utilitarian building I also noticed the strong shadows, the various textures and the strong contrast between the different shapes of the flat walls, reminding me of the early work by the Italian Futuristic artist Giorgio de Chirico, whose paintings with its strong sunlight, deep shadows and unusual perspective made him one of the great early twentieth century artists.

CEDAR TREE

 

Another picture from the same area along the Ottawa river. Colour was too distracting so I decided to work in black and white, which was the best way to emphasize the strong textures of the cedar tree bark. I used my iPad and my favourite Snapseed photo app. It is a basic but quite powerful photo app. Especially if you just want to work on your iPad or your mobile phone. Anyway I like the final result of this image.

ALONG THE OTTAWA RIVER

 

Early Spring along the Ottawa river is actually an old image I found while searching my picture files. I never processed this picture before. Actually it is a good exercise searching through older files because you see images in a different time and viewpoint. I liked the dark atmosphere right after some heavy rain. Rich in textures and a slight warming of the overal picture made this simple composition into a more visually interesting image.

ROCK CAMERA

. A few weeks ago our friend Kim Vlahovich  presented us with two of his art works. Kim works exclusively with colour pencils. He draws not only on paper but also on rock like this rendition of a camera. It is an amazing art work done all in colour pencil. Needles to say that I was very happy with this interpretation of a Leica camera.

AMAZINGLY EARLY SPRING

 We are experiencing an amazingly early Spring here in Northern Ontario. Walking along the government dock here in North Bay, we saw three men repairing a boat house and to our amazement one them was  in the water which is of course very cold. Actually the lake is still covered in ice. All I could think was one word crazy.

TIME TO HIT THE ROAD

 

A few days ago I visited one of my old favourite houses or actually now two houses with the most outrageous decoration made of junk. I was a little disappointed because not much has changed since my last visit. However, this tableau reminded me of an angry impatient driver we meet driving along our highways and city streets.

BIRCH TREE

 

Dark and wet Fall weather for the last few weeks. Its the time for getting the garden ready for the Winter but we still have colour in our front garden. This picture is an almost abstract image of colour and textures. My friend Joe gave me a couple of point and shoot cameras. The camera I am using I am learning to master is a very nice retro point and shoot with a good single lens is an older Fujifilm X100T with a rangefinder. Of course,  point and shoot is a misnomer because it is far more complex than simply looking through a viewfinder, click the shutter and you get a perfect image. It is true if you just set the camera at automatic you get a fairly good image. However for me, results are not very satisfactory. So if you want to improve the quality of the picture to your satisfaction, it becomes quite a bit more complicated when you to start using the complicated menu. This  takes time and practice. I am getting quite comfortable with the camera. My final verdict, it is an amazingly good “ point and shoot” camera.

OLD UTILITY POLE

 

This post is for my friend Kim Vlahovich, who loves rich detailed and textured images. Ou old utility or hydro poles, as they are called here in Canada, are being replaced. I am sentimentally attached to this old pole at the entrance to our driveway. Maybe it is the age of the pole as indicated on the date marked on the nail (19)57’ which makes it sixty six years old. But what ever the age of this pole, I think that Kim will appreciate this detaled picture of this grand old pole.

FALL STILL LIFE

 Some of my friends were wondering about my lack of postings on my blog.So after a long hiatus here is my Fall posting. Its probably the most favourite season of many people. The month of September has been  especially fine this year with the trees starting to colour quite early, at least in our garden. So here an image, almost abstract rich in colour and textures. 

PAINTED CAR

 Sunday night, after early dinner at a very pleasant Lebanese restaurant in Ottawa, we saw this painted delivery car. It is a fine example of painted cars and trucks in Pakistan, where decorating their vehicles have developed into a great new folk art. Wonderful to see that tradition transferred to our country.

SUMMER LANDSCAPE

Lots of rain today. We needed rain because the garden was powder dry. Again looking at some of my older images I thought about some of the great landscape photographs of the late twenties and thirties. This image brought back earlier photo trips around the country, on this trip I visited another favourite spot Wolf lake. A quiet small lake which gave me this almost old fashioned bucolic landscape.
 

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS, WASHINGTON DC

 

Another picture from my files. The last few days I haven’t ventured out because of the heavy smoke outside. I made this picture last Fall on my trip to Washington with my daughter. On our visit to the Library of Congress , we had to wait in line for some time . Of course I had my camera with me, looking around or in this case up, I made this rather abstract picture of lines and rich patterns and textures. I preferred the B&W interpretation, which I decided to post because I knowthat my old photo friend David Brown would appreciate that.

OLD TRUCK

 

Two weeks ago we went on our first photo trip of the season. It was a wonderful early Spring day and we traveled toRestoule. I was interested to visit one of my favourite places on Alsace Rd near Powassan. It was a shockwhen I saw this very quiet picturesque farm land turned into a place filled with old car wrecks.  Rusty cars and trucks everywhere and with the exemption of a few interesting old trucks and cars not worth to spend time taking pictures. All in all very disappointed. Anyway I did made a few images which I liked.

ELORA GORGE, ONTARIO

 It has been awhile since my last posting. Well I came out of hibernation this weekend thinking Spring is just around the corner. My mistake, yesterday we were hit by another Winter storm. Hopefully this is our last storm. So here an old file picture, which I took many years ago in the beautiful Elora Gorge. It is an image rich in textures and shapes. What intrigued me however was how the cedars grow on this rock formation with hardly any soil. 

PROSPECTORS TENT, ICE FOLLIES 2023

 

Sunday afternoons visited the art exhibition Ice Follies on Lake Nipissing. Now I confess that I did not see the exhibition at night , which might be quite interesting. So I can only comment on my reaction to the various displays on the lake. Over the years I have enjoyed looking at the wide variety of the many creative art works. I must say that I was disappointed in the overal quality of the various art works on display. The overal show lacked the creative WOW factor. However it was nice to see the work of these North Bay artists.