REMEMBERING, THE BONFIELD TAVERN

 

The old Bonfield Tavern, yes I remembered this place when I was enjoying a local photo trip with my friends Bob and Rob. We stopped off here to enjoy a small lunch and a beer of course. This tavern was a typical country pub.It is a pity that so many of these rustic establishments have disappeared. 

SCRAP YARD, NORTH BAY

 

This old abandoned truck was left in a city scrap yard, which I wandered into by accidents when I was looking around for some interesting photo subjects. There were some other vehicles and an assortment of different rusting metal objects left in a city scrap yard. Nothing spectacular but enough for me to take some visually intriguing images.

A WORK OF ART

 

One of my neighbours bought this beautiful small car. What a great piece of automotive design. It is in excellent condition, even though it had been in a garage for over thirty years. It is a Sebring MX. I had never heard of this car, which looks like a classic British sports car. Manufactured in the US where it’s still being produced but now with an  electric motor according to the information I read on the Sebring owners club in the UK.

OAK STREET, NORTH BAY

 

A few weeks ago I noticed how several businesses on Oak Street had spruced up their stores. It made this otherwise drab looking street into a happy,  festive cityscape. So yesterday I took some colourful images.It was a grey overcast day, which I preferred for this subject. Sunshine would have created too much textures and shadows, while I wanted to emphasize the colours. Returning home I transferred some of the pictures to my iPad and using and using my favourite  photo app Snapseed. So here is the result. 

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.