FALL PATTERNS

Again it is a beautiful Fall day. This morning I hiked the trails close to our home. The colours are still magnificent but the leaves are falling fast. The patterns of the leaves and grasses combined with the strong blue colour reflections of the sky made I nice Autumn composition.

TRADITION, OUR GARDEN

It is a yearly tradition to take pictures of our garden. I simply love the Fall colours and each year I can't resist photographing the garden. So here is my yearly Fall garden impression.

SCAFFOLDING, OTTAWA

There is a lot of construction work going on at the National Gallery. Of course, when I go to Ottawa, I always make a short visit to the gallery.I liked this view of all the scaffolding, which made a rich abstract pattern of lines and shapes. This worked particularly well in black and white.

BARN NEAR MUNSTER, ONTARIO

I agree with you Cathy, it is a pity to see these old buildings disappear. It would be nice if some of those old log barns could be preserved. Maybe at some local open air museum like the one in Cumberland.

ABANDONED FARM INTERIOR, OTTAWA

Last Winter I posted a picture of an old log farm near Ottawa, actually it is situated within the city limits. This time I photographed the interior of the old house. The floors were in a deplorable state so I simply took the pictures through the windows. The final result were a set of fine images, rich in texture, colour and shapes.

FALL POND, ASHTON, ONTARIO

We returned yesterday from a trip to Ottawa. I did take a few promising pictures. Yesterday was a very darkand wet day but I managed to get a good picture of this pond with the first signs of the Fall season. The scene reminded me of a rich tapestry of patterns and colours. It is a handheld shot so I had to use a high ISO setting simply to freeze the ripples in the water. 

COLOUR ON A GREY DAY, NORTH BAY

It has been raining quite a bit in the last few days but when I walked by this house in downtown North Bay it cheered me up. I simply loved the exuberance of the bright colours and patterns.

FALL CLEANUP

Again its been awhile since my last posting. The main reason was a problem with my external hard drive, which holds my pictures. It simply stopped  working. Of course I have a backup but I neglected to duplicate my images from the last few weeks. Not very smart of course. I tried everything to get the drive working again. Then, all of a sudden it came to life. Of course I was quite happy. In the mean time I purchased a 3TB drive and now all is well. This picture I took a few days ago when my wife started on her anual Fall ritual, the cleanup. The fun part for me is burning all the dead branches she had trimmed from the various shrubs and trees. The smoke filtered light created this rather romantic image but I love it.

CAGED, TORONTO

Walking along a downtown street in Toronto, I photographed this wooden elephant on display in a store window.He looks rather sad don't you think.

HONEST ED, TORONTO

When we were in Toronto, we had to visit Honest Ed's before it would be closed permanently. It had been decades since we had been there and it actually had not changed that much. The same cheap merchandise was still on sale. I particularly liked these bizarre looking figurines.On second thought, maybe I should have bought one.

ELEVATOR, TORONTO

One morning I stepped into the hotel elevator, during our Toronto trip, when I saw this great sunset right in front of me. Of course I could not resist taking a picture of this imaginary landscape. 

AII WEIWEI EXHIBITION, TORONTO

Yesterday we visited the Ai WeiWei exhibition at the Art Gallery of Ontario. It is a wonderful show which exceeded our expectations. To use our granddaughter's words " its awesome aand very cool". Ai WeiWei is definitely one of the most important artists of the early twenty first century. So, if you get a chance, go and see this great exhibition.

THE FIRST UNMISTAKABLE SIGNS

This morning while walking along the lake I photographed the first unmistakable signs of the coming Fall. I did not post much this week because I received my new small camera, the Leica D-Lux 6 and, as with every new tool, it takes time to familiarize yourself with all the various functions. Each camera is slightly different. I am getting used to it and I am very pleased with the results. The lens is simply superb.

SERVICING ONTARIO, FIELD

It has been a few years since I visited Field, a small community not far from Sturgeon Falls. It saddens nme to see the slow deterioration of many small towns here in northern Ontario. But surprisingly many of these same communities are very resilient and I have noticed new businesses opening up and are doing quite well.

CITY TRAIL, NORTH BAY

It amazes me how many walking trails you can walk in this city. We walked this lovely small trail though a neighborhood not far from our home. It follows a small creek where I made this picture.

McINTYRE STREET, NORTH BAY

What attracted me to this subject of strong simple shapes but what made it interesting was the way the various wires and shadows created an overlay of a variety of triangles turning this picture into a complex and interesting composition.

SUMMER, TILDEN LAKE, ONTARIO

It has been a very busy week, so I did not get a chance going out to take pictures. So far the weather has not been great although we had a few days with beautiful cloudy skies. I took this picture at our friends place on Tilden Lake. Its asimple image of rich patterns and strong colours.

GARLIC

My wife left some garlic on the kitchen counter. I loved the textures so I made this simple black and white still life. You don't have to go very to find interesting subject matter.

DOCK, GARDEN VILLAGE, ONTARIO

This is a picture from our last Friday's photo trip to Garden Village. This time I emphasized  the mood of the landscape by reducing most of the detail unlike an earlier posting of the same scene. By simplifying the picture to light and deep blacks I dramatized the approaching rainstorm. 

ALUMINUM BOAT

A simple image of a very damaged aluminum boat. My interest is again working in black and white. Even though I don't make prints in the traditional way I still love the almost lyrical quality of black and white pictures. 

CLOUDS

Last week David Ernest had asked me what program I used to make my black and white images. Well I use the program onOne perfect Photosuite. I am getting more proficient in the use of the various programs but I still have much to learn. For this picture, which I took last week when the skies looked so dramatic, I started first with the Perfect Effects 4 program. I liked the result but then decided that maybe a B&W image would give me the result I was looking for. so there you have my explanation David. 

OLD BARN NEAR GARDEN VILLAGE

On Friday Dan and I returned for some pictures to Garden Village, which I had visited the day before. The sky was quite overcast but still a very nice day for picture taking. On the way we stopped to photograph this old barn. I did get some nice images. Last week I replaced my computer.Of course its always frustrating loading all the programs onto the new computer but slowly I am getting everything back in shape.

SUMMER LANDSCAPE, GARDEN VILLAGE, ONTARIO

What a glorious Summer day it was, so when I saw this scene of Lake Nipissing I just had to take this traditional image. I already wanted this picture in black and white to emphasize the various patterns and textures with just the boat and the dock as the centre of interest.

COCHRANE BLOCK 1911, NORTH BAY

Another building destined probably for demolition. Sad to see the deterioration of the old downtown mainstreet. A trend you can see in most of the smaller cities and towns. Hopefully someone will rescue this old store. 

21st CENTURY ROCK ART

On the road to the local university and college, there is a rock cut and of course students simply can't resist leaving their marks all over the rocks. Over the years the various texts and images have blended together creating some interesting rock art. I doubt if this art will last as long as the prehistoric paintings in various remote parts of the world. 

DIVINE, CHIP STAND, MATTAWA, ON

I had to photograph this chip stand in Mattawa. No I did not try any chips or poutine but judging by the statue of the angle I guess it must simply be divine.

JEAN DE BRÉBEUF, MATTAWA

All around the town of Mattawa you will see various statues of historical figures like this sculpture of priest Jean de Brébeuf. Even though I liked the picture, it did create a problem because of the different textures and patterns blending together without a strong subject contrast. Luckily the blue coloured background  and the red hue of the statue solved the problem.

CHAMPLAIN THEATRE REVISITED

It has been awhile since my last posting but I have been busy with a few projects and again my postings will be a little sporadic this coming week. But today we made a little trip to the town of Mattawa. It was and still is a beautiful Summer day. One of the aspects of Mattawa is the fact that it is one of the very few small towns which still  has a movie theatre. A few years ago I posted a picture of the same theatre but this time I show a better view of what it actually looks like. This year I have to try and make a few interior images, which I will post as soon as I get those pictures.  

BURNT TRUCK, NORTH BAY

Its been a few days since my last posting but I had to spend  some time on other projects. This morning I made a picture of this obviously burned out truck sitting in a parking lot downtown. I did not like the colour interpretation so made a variety of adjustments to get this final result.

OLD BARN, HWY124 ANOTHER VIEW

Yesterday I posted a black and white image of this old barn. I couldn't resist showing another picture but this time a coloured interpretation. Of course its quite a romantic view but I simply liked the mood of this traditional picture.

OLD BARN, HWY124, NEAR PARRY SOUND

This morning I had to go to Parry Sound.It was raining quite hard but on the way back it started to clear up. Of course when I passed this skeleton of this old barn I could not resist taking some pictures. I did not correct the perspective because I felt that the wide angle view simply added an interesting element to the overall image.

THIS IS ME WATCHING OUT

I thought this is quite a topical image, which is a reflection on what is happening at this point of history. The black and white rendition of the original colour picture emphasizes a more sinister view.

POWASSAN TREASURE MILL, POWASSAN, ON

What I like about this picture is the very busy, almost abstract, pattern of this store interior. This would make a very challenging image for a puzzle. You would be busy for quite awhile putting it all together.

SUMMER LIPS, POWASSAN, ON

Walking into the "Powassan Treasure Mill", I thought that this display symbolized the beginning of Summer. Of course I guess we will have to wait a few days but here is my celebration of the Summer holiday season. It is also a good image to welcome Jorie Sharpe, who joined my blog's Friends List. 

FRIDAY AFTERNOON, TROUT LAKE, ON

Yesterday we visited our friend Bob. It was a very pleasant afternoon sitting on his deck overlooking Trout Lake, enjoy some good conversation and of course a nice glass of wine and beer. 

VENTILATOR, CALLANDER, ON

I hope that Linda, Pat and Rob will enjoy this picture. They liked yesterday's image because of the strong colours. This picture was taken about two weeks ago at the old abandoned house in Callander. Its the type of subject matter I enjoy. I look for subjects with strong designs and colours, which make for images with strong visual appeal. Its the type of Photograph with qualities which Andreas Feininger referred to as impact and stopping power.

ALMOST GONE, LAKE NIPISSING

Yesterday I, while taking pictures along the South shore of lake Nipissing, I came across a few remnants of an old discarded boat. Hardly anything was left but enough for me to get this colourful image.

SAM'S PLACE, NEW LISKEARD

Just above the entrance to Sam's Place in New Liskeard, you will see these two figurines looking down onto the people entering this local watering place. I liked the expressions on the faces of the figurines. 

WATERFRONT TRAIL, NORTH BAY

Yesterday on our walk, we decided to follow the trail along the lake. The beautiful lush green reminded me of the old paintings and drawings from the 18th or early 19th century. So in the afternoon while it rained I loaded some of the pictures on my iPad and simply played with a variety of apps till I got the result I had in mind when I took the pictures.

THREE WINDOWS, NEW LISKEARD

Another picture from our New Liskeard trip. I just liked the display of the three windows. Also I like to wish all the fathers a happy Fathers Day. 

HOMEMADE, NORTH BAY

Walking downtown I saw this homemade camper. It is quite ingenious and I simply loved the design. Of course I had to photograph camper. Just think about all the camping memories.

APARTMENTS, NEW LISKEARD, ON

On our lttle photo excursion, a few days ago, we stopped in New Liskeard, where I made a series of pictures of this old, I guess apartment building. I have no idea how old the building is but I did make a few interesting images. 

RAILWAY STATION, TEMAGAMI, ON

Yesterday we took a little trip North. We never really know where the car will take us so North it was. In Temagami I took some pictures of the old railway station. In the beginning of the last century I bet this was a very important and busy place. The many tourist who had cottages and Summer homes on the lake had to come in by train. There are no passenger trains in Northern Ontario so this station is the only visual memory  that remains of these great Summer holidays.

HOSTA, CURVES

The weekend has been very busy with family visits.Of course I did not spend much time taking pictures, except of the family. I did manage to make a few more images of the hostas and the series is becoming quite interesting. So here is another hosta picture. Hope you like it.

HOUSE, CALLANDER

A black and white image of the old, empty house in Callander, I preferred the black and white interpretation of the house rather than a full colour picture. 

WALL, CALLANDER, ON

Itis easier of course to photograph a subject which is visually interesting or pleasing to see. But taking pictures of subjects, which at first sight, are not very interesting offer a special challenge for a photographer. When I walked into this empty space, which looked to me like a workshop, I took a quick look and almost left. Then I noticed various interesting details and different angles of view. When I left I made several interesting images, well interesting to me, like this plywood wall. It had colour perspective and textures. all these elements combined made a visually good picture. 

EMPTY HOUSE, CALLANDER, ON

Yesterday was a pretty dreary, grey day when I went out to take some pictures. I had noticed this house before but never stopped to take pictures. The house was empty ad I thought lets see if I can get a few interesting images. Even though the place was locked up of course I did manage to get quite a few good photographs.

ENGINE 503 REVISITED

While still staying with the topic of the railway, I used one of my pictures from the old steam engine 503 to explore the visual possibilities of the program I just purchased. I am still finding my way around the program but, frankly, I am quite pleased with the final result. 

END OF AN ERA

Here in North Eastern Ontario we We are witnessing the end of a historic era. The railway is disappearing from the area. The railway tracks are actually removed so all that will be left are just a few remnants to remind us of the historical importance of the railway for this part of the country.

MAIN STREET, NORTH BAY ANOTHER VIEW

I have regularly posted pictures of Main Street here in North Bay. The challenge of course is to make the picture visually interesting. So of course I have boosted the colours and I used the parked car as another visual element in the composition.