ANOTHER LANDMARK GONE

On this beautiful early Spring day another North bay landmark was torn down. The old Thorn's farm on our street was demolished. it was actually not unexpected butt it was still sad to see the building quickly disappear. It has been there for a very long time and I made some wonderful photographs of the old place. 

SPRING HAS FINALLY ARRIVED

Spring has finally arrived, well I hope so because you never know. But this weekend was simply glorious. I took this picture yesterday morning on the waterfront in Callander. The colour of the scene and the chair simply symbolized the Spring and the promise of Summer.

CAN THIS BUILDING STILL BE SAVED ?

Many people, who saw my posting yesterday, wondered if this old station could be restored. Well of course it is possible but at what cost. I know there are people in Mattawa who are trying to save this historic building. This morning I tried to find images of the station in its glory days and found an interesting picture on the Saskatchewan Archival Information Network. In its hey'day it was quite a busy place.So lets see what happens.

MATTAWA RAILWAY STATION, ALMOST GONE

This morning Dan and I drove to Mattawa to take some pictures. The light was pretty flat on this early Spring day. Actually the correct light for photographing the remnant of the Mattawa railway station. 

The condition of the building could be expressed in one word, sad. I don't think this station could be saved because the cost would be prohibitive. It definitely looks like a symbol of the end of the railway era in Northern Ontario.

LOOKING FOR SPRING

Last week I thought I found Spring but then I lost it somewhere in the streets of Montreal. On my search to find it again, I found this tree, which at least could always remember Summer when looking at the wall.

WALL, MONTREAL, PQ

Walking past an old building being demolished in the old part I had to photograph this texture rich wall. It was the right time. A streak of sunlight added drama to this image, which reminded me of the beautiful pictures you see of the universe. The image fits nicely in my ongoing project of photographic abstractions.

CHAGALL AND MUSIC EXHIBITION

We just returned from from seeing the exhibition Chagall and Music at the Montreal Museum of Art. It was simply a wonderful experience. It is a very large show with 340 works of art ranging from large paintings to drawings, etchings, sculptures, pottery and especially a wide variety of costumes and set designs from various opera productions. All I can say is go and see the great show. well worth a special visit to Montreal. 

FIRST LIGHT IMAGINED

First I like to post this picture. for Dave and Dianne, who like my abstract images. This last few days I have been working on a series of abstracts. I am always interested in the quality of textures, patterns and lines. Maybe its my interest in art ad especially painting. The American abstract artists have always been the artist I greatly admired. Now I started to get interested in,what I refer to as street art. 

STREET ABSTRACT, OTTAWA

Street art, graffiti or murals, is a subject which always interest me when walking around cities and towns. I also like looking for interesting patterns and textures found in cracked walls or pavements. Walking down a street in downtown Ottawa I photographed this richly textured and patterned damaged wall. 

FIRST SIGNS OF SPRING

What a wonderful early Spring day or at least it started to feel like Spring.  Our small harlequin was ready to take his dog for a walk after being cooped up inside these last cold and snowy weeks. Even though we can expect some more Winter weather, we know Spring will soon be here.

SAN FRANCISCO.CA

Lately I feel like the publisher of the old LIFE magazine. The magazine has not been published for decades but the company is publishing quite a few special editions using images from their very extensive picture library. The same with me the last few weeks I have been revisiting my old files and discovering many really fine images I totally forgot about. So her is a picture I took some years ago in San Francisco. I love this type of very richly patterned old buildings like this old downtown condo.

FANCY CAMPER, OTTAWA

Time for some colour, looking through some of my picture files I came across some pictures I took in Ottawa of this fancy camper. Well of course I had to post it because it certainly is colourful. Imagine arriving at a busy campground in this RV, it certainly would be the talk of the caamping community.

JANUARY THAW

Time to post another picture. I have been busy with a few other projects, which have kept me busy, Yesterday I took a couple images I liked. Particularly this one reminding me of the drawings and paintings by some of the great masters of Chinese painting.

ANOTHER MAGICAL SNOW DAY

A fresh load of snow made this day into another magical snow day. Of course i had to clean up our driveway and then other commitments prevented me of going out to take pictures. But not before I took some pictures of our backyard.  

A BEAUTIFUL SNOW DAY

Yesterday was just a wonderful day for taking pictures. I like the older part of the city and the reason is that, unlike in the new suburbs and developments, it is the trees which give a neighbourhood character, which is quite often lacking in our cities suburbs.

WINTER

I titled this image simply Winter. A few days ago on our walk along the city streets I took this picture of this beautiful maple tree. The light was of course quite harsh but I liked the image which has the quality of a pen and ink drawing. Adding some colour softened the strong contrast of the picture giving it a watercolour effect.

THE END OF THE HOLIDAY SEASON

The holiday season is finished. All our visitors have returned home and our home is again unusually quiet. It was a wonderful Christmas festival. Good company, excellent food and lots of laughter. But now i am also glad to be back to our quiet life and will be back posting regularly on my blog and on Facebook. The days are getting longer, with the promise of Spring. of course the Winter will continue for a few more month. 

CHRISTMAS 2016

It has been quite awhile since my last posting, but the Christmas season is always a very busy time for everyone. However today I like to wish everyone a very merry Christmas and a wonderful New Year. After the holiday season I promise that I will post again on a more regular basis. Enjoy the holidays.

SNOW

Yesterday we received our first serious snowfall. So I decided to return to Champlain Park to see what the landscape would look like in the snow. I was a little disappointed because I had expected the sandbank to be covered in the white stuff but no the wind was quite strong, which had blown the snow off the surface but the water was very textured of course which I liked. So here another dramatic black and white of the same landscape I posted yesterday.

CHAMPLAIN PARK, NORTH BAY

This image is for all my friends who love the classic quality of black and white photography. Yesterday was a dark rainy day, just the type of weather I like to take black and white pictures. I love the landscape photographs by Bill Brandt, Robert Frank and Josef Koudelka. Too many landscape photographs done digitally are technically superb of course but as David Hockney said in an interview they are boring. In other words they lack soul. I like the traditional images with all its deficiencies like grain for instance. 

A GLORIOUS FALL DAY

It was exceptionally warm yesterday. So of course I made a little walkabout around the lake. The water level was quite low so I walked onto the large sandbanks and took some pictures with the intention of turning them into some black and white images, but after I looked at the results, the colour images were definitely stronger. I especially liked this photo because of the strong impasto quality of the foreground texture.

BLOWING WIND

Last Friday , walking along a trail along the lake, I made a series of pictures of the strong wind blowing from the lake. This image was my favourite showing the gusts of wind seemingly blowing from different directions creating interesting patterns and textures.

COLOURS OF NOVEMBER, FOR DAVE BROWN

This picture is for Dave Brown, who loves this place but since he is living in southern Ontario, makes it a little bit more complicated visiting this wonderful place on Lake Nipissing. So when you come again to North Bay, we can go out there and take some more great images Dave. I titled this picture "colours of November" because this month has a very special quality, which is unique to this part of the year. The colour hues are browns, grays and some dark reds. 

TOTEM POLE (detail), MUSEUM OF HISTORY, OTTAWA

This is a black and white picture I took on our last trip to Ottawa. Most of the museum is under renovation for next year's celebration of Canada's 150th anniversary but I still enjoy seeing the large totem poles in the great hall. These magnificent and monumental sculptures definitely belong to the great works of art.  

NOVEMBER, SUNSET COVE, LAKE NIPISSING

Yesterday I made a trip to my favourite little cove on the South shore of Lake Nipissing. It was a nice early November fall day. Not much colour left just the brown tones of the pine needles. It was a very quiet day, which i enjoy. All in all a nice satisfying day wandering around and making some nice images.

STORE WINDOW, OTTAWA

Walking along Dalhousie Street in Ottawa, I saw this installation showing images of famous and not so famous women from prehistoric times to the present. I found it interesting because a few years ago, in the National gallery, I had seen a similar but a much larger installation made with news and advertising  photographs. So maybe that art work was the inspiration to this display.

CITYSCAPE, OTTAWA

We just returned from a very enjoyable tie in the Ottawa region. I like to photograph different cityscapes. Not the great buildings but the alleys and obscure backstreets. What attract me are the textures, colours and perspectives in scenes like this nondescript passage. The day was quite grey and dreary just the weather I quite prefer because the colours are quite rich and the reflections add some great textures.

ESCAPING THE SPIDER

I think what really fascinates me, as a photographer, is the surreal quality of the place. Every time I  visit the site I get some very surrealistic images. When I was working on this image I could think about a variety of titles, which, ever time, would change the meaning of the picture. 

MR. PUMPKIN, ESQUIRE

One of the guest to arrive to arrive early is the esteemed Mr. Pumpkin, Esquire. He simply loves these annual Halloween parties and certainly would not miss this biggest event in the city.

GETTING READY FOR THE PARTY

Halloween is less than a week away but here the guests are already arriving. it looks like its going to be quite a bash. In the next few days I will be publishing some images of some of the distinguished guests.

FALL STILL LIFE

Just before getting in the car in the Killarney provincial park I saw this still life of leaves and fungus. I made a couple of pictures but I thought the colours were a little too strong so I reduced colour, which placed more emphasize on the rich textures.

FALL COLOURS, KILLARNEY PROVINCIAL PARK

Yesterday we made a Fall colour trip to Killarney. It was a magnificent day and the colours were certainly at their peek and ever since  the park has been made famous by the Group of Seven, the area has been immortalized by numerous artists and of course photographers. I took this picture on the shore of Lake George but I simply wanted to have another colourful Fall image. The clouds, the reflections and the colours reminded me of some of the work by the very popular American illustrator and painter Maxfield Parrish, who worked in the early and middle of  the twentieth century. 

FALL GARDEN ABSTRACT

It rained today and of course every photographer knows that the rain will really intensify the colours. Walking in the garden, which is preparing itself for the Winter, I made a series of images of the decaying plants. It simply was a richness of colour and patterns forming some beautiful abstract compositions. 

RUST DEMON

On our last little photo excursion we found this old truck quietly decaying underneath some trees. On top of the rusting hood we saw this small  figurine mounted on the hood,surrounded by rust and smiling triumphantly while raising his fist. I named him the rust demon. 

DRAMATIC SKY, LAKE NIPISSING

Yesterday's black and white image of Lake Nipissing was quite popular. I still miss working in my darkroom. Seeing the print appear in the development tray is very magical, but I adapted to working on the computer I learned that you can still get that magical feeling when working with an interesting image. I made this picture last Sunday afternoon at Sunset Park. The sky was very dramatic so I hope you will enjoy this picture as much as yesterday's posting.

CLOUDS, LAKE NIPISSING

Yesterday afternoon we walked along the waterfront trail. It had been quite some time since we had been there. I took quite a few pictures of the lake. For me it is quite an inspiring landscape and the interesting view was almost monochromatic. The only colour was the blue of the sky, which, visually, did not work for me so turning it in a strong, almost abstract, black and white  image with strong patterns of clouds and textures of water ripples was the final result.  

FALL COLOURS, POWASSAN, ONTARIO

It was a wonderful but busy Thanksgiving weekend but last Friday a few of us made alittle photo trip to the Powassan area. Surprisingly the colours were still not at their peek but of of course we made some fine images. I consider the Fall colours and sunsets the low hanging fruit for photographers. Every year you have to go and enjoy this natural colourful spectacle. The big problem is trying to approach the very familiar subject from a different visual angle. I like the early nieteen century British landscape painters, whose work  inspire me when I make my Fall landscape images.

FALL, KINSMAN'S BEACH, NORTH BAY

Have been busy the last few days but here is a picture I took last Monday along Kinsmans Beach. it was a glorious day so I took a stroll along the beach and saw this little branch with bright yellow leafs floating in the water. It made a nice image with strong textures and colours.

FALL PAGEANT

The annual Fall pageant has returned. The leaves are changing colour rapidly and I expect the colour spectacle  will be at its peek just in time for the Thanksgiving weekend. Its the time that everybody goes on the ritual photographic walks. So enjoy.

PRAYER GROUP

Another image from my visit to the Iron Work store in Picton. When I saw these praying buddhas, I had to photograph them of course. But back to the idea of starting a discussion about the changes and the future of photography. We could set up a group in Facebook where we can discuss our concerns and also of course how we feel about the new trends in photography. Some of us are not on Facebook and might be reluctant to join. So in addition we could start a blog as well. Let me know how everybody feels about this idea.

STILL LIFE WITH CHEVROLET APACHE

This picture is for Dave, who still likes the classic way of creating photographs. He has raised some very interesting issues regarding the new directions in photography. Concerns I share with him and will discuss with him further. So here a classic B&W image of an old 1959 Chevrolet Apache, which looks as if it has not moved since the early sixties.Hope you like this image Dave.

CANADA GEESE, PRINCE EDWARD COUNTY, ONTARIO

When we were in Prince Edward County, we made a quick visit to the Sandbanks Provincial Park. I had never been to this park before and I certainly will be returning to the area agin for a more extensive picture taking trip.

BARRELS, PICTON, ONTARIO

Wandering through a winery I photographed these barrels in one of their storage areas. It was the light which attracted me. Actually it had a sort of nostalgic atmosphere which I liked.

IRON WORK STORE, PICTON, ONTARIO

Driving into the town of Picton, we noticed a large store which sold exterior and interior decorative furniture like iron fences, large wooden tables and a variety of strange sculptures. It is quite a big establishment with several buildings again filled with pottery, ceramic and wooden sculptures. For a photographer it definitely is a unique place and a visual goldmine. The various objects on display are not of great artistic quality but a source for some very interesting images.

BIRD HOUSE, PRINCE EDWARD COUNTY, ONTARIO

After walking back from the restaurant at the hotel we were staying, I found this old little birdhouse in a corner of the hotel garden. I took a few pictures and here is the final result. I have to say I always enjoy this type of funky subjects.

TALL SHIPS, BROCKVILLE, ONTARIO

We just returned from a wonderful family event, which we celebrated in Prince Edward County and in Brockville. Actually we only spent Friday evening in Brockville where we had a wonderful cruise on one of the tall ships.It was a very pleasant evening which included a dinner and entertainment. Here crew members are lowering the sails on our return to port. It is certainly an event which we hope to repeat next year.

LATE SUMMER REFLECTIONS

It was a beautiful late Summer day today. You could feel the first inkling of Fall in the crisp morning. air. On our walk I made some pictures of the very colourful reflections in the water of Chippewa creek. The images have a strong abstract quality, with beautiful patterns, textures and of course strong colours.

RESTORATION, ASHTON, ONTARIO

I am still interested in working in black and white. Maybe it is nostalgia remembering the many hours I spent working in the darkroom. Anyway this is a picture I took this Summer in the village of Ashton, which is now part of Ottawa. I remember this house as a rather nondescript building until this Summer I saw someone is doing some major renovations and restoration on this place. Of course I never realized that it was not an old brick house but actually a log building.I am curious to see the final finished product.

OPEN ROAD

September, the holidays are over, so its a great time to hit the empty road. 

LATE SUMMER TRAIL TEXTURES

While walking down a trail looking for interesting landscapes I looked at the rich textures of the grasses and plants right in front of me and realized that interesting subject matter is  around you if you simply look at your immediate surroundings