SPRING CLEANUP , FOR DAVID BROWN

Yesterday was a great day for preparing the gardens for the Spring and Summer seasons. It was also a fine day to have my first small fire. I burned some branches cut from the various shrubs. It was hard starting the fire because everything was very wet but it was a wonderful peaceful day.

SPRING BREAKUP

At last Spring has arrived. The ice on the lake is rapidly breaking up and melting. Yesterday and the day before I took some pictures of the last remnants of the ice. I guess it was my personal celebration of ending of the long and snowy Winter.

CALLA LILY

A friend of ours brought us a beautiful canna lily. It definitely is one of my favourite plants. Many famous artists like Georgia O’Keefe, Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera, just to name a few artists who made many drawings and paintings of this elegant flower and every year I can’t resist photographing this plant, this time in black and white. 

MUSICIANS WALL, NORTH BAY

It has been a long time since my last posting, but after this long Winter, Spring has finally reluctantly arrived . So here an update on the musicians wall by Jeff Marceau on McIntyre street here in North Bay. I had posted a picture titled Gord Downey and Leonard Cohen in October 2017. The wall has been greatly expanded to include many great Canadian musicians and singers.

NATIONAL GALLERY OF CANADA

Visited the National Gallery last Friday to see the Paul Klee exhibit. Afterwards we spend some time looking at some of the work in the various galleries. This minimalist artwork by the American artist Donald Judd was quite interesting. It concists of a series of plywood boxes, which worked particularly well for me when photographed in black and white, especially the strong shadows and wood textures.

GARDEN OF DOLLS REVISITED

This Winter is a good time to revisit some of my old photographs. I spent some time scanning a series of negatives which I took many, many years ago. When on one of our photo trips, my wife saw this odd looking garden filled with a variety of dolls. After asking permission we spent some times taking pictures. The place was quite interesting and we returned again to take more pictures. Initially when you see the garden 

WINTER TRAIL

Saturday was a beautiful day forvtaking pictures. It almost felt as if Spring was getting closer. Four of us went out on a little walk along Chippewa creek. Without snow shoes, we had to stay on the track but, even with that restrain, we had a very good time. I think all of  came with some fine black and whit images.  

OLD RAILWAY STATION, MATTAWA

Just before lunch last Monday, we made a little detour to take some pictures of the old railway station in Mattawa. We have visited this building regularly over the years but now it seems that it is coming to its final stage of deterioration. Soon this building will probably disappear. 

WINTERLANDSCAPE, BONFIELD, ONTARIO

Another picture from our Monday morning trip. The light was perfect to create a strong graphic image with a rich variety of textures.

OH, PLEASE NO MORE SNOW

Yesterday John and I decided to go on a morning photo excursion. Neither of us had been interested in wandering around the area because it has been, and still is very cold. But we could not resist the beautiful fine Winter weather, so we left early. However when we started taking pictures, it was very cold, -17C, but we persisted and by lunch time we had some very nice pictures. All in all quite a good day. I could not resist posting his image because I think everybody is now ready for Spring and please nommore snow.

WINTER LANDSCAPE WITH HORSE

High time to post another picture. We have experience some pretty harsh Winter weather, so I have been looking at some older pictures in my files and yes have been scanning quite a few of my B&W and colur negatives. It is quite an interesting experience looking at some of the old files, which bring back memories of old photo trips from earlier times. Looking at your old files you have a different view of some of these older images and you ask yourself why didn’t I print this negative. Over time I learned that it is a good practice to take some time before processing a negative or digital file. 

PAKENHAM, ONTARIO

The last few days have been very cold, this morning our thermometer read -31 C. So definitely not a good time to go outside to take some fine pictures. Thinking about nice Summer weather, I found this picture I took a few years ago along the shores of the Mississipi river in Pakenham, Ontario. Of course it was a beautiful nostalgic landscape so remembering old pictures from around the beginning of the twentieth century I recreated a landscape photograph reminisent of style of that time.

OLD TRUCK, DETAIL

It has been a month since my last posting. My excuse is that we first had the busy Christmas holiday time, then I worked on some other projects and also the weather lately has not enticed me to go out and wander around looking for photographs and another reason of course is simply procrastination. So time to post a picture of my on going abstract photo project. I took this picture in November just before the Winter hibernation. The strong graphic impact of black and white images is still very important to me. Maybe because that is where I started when getting interested in the art of photography and I do miss working in the darkroom.

MERRY CHRISTMAS

I wish everyone a Very Merry Christmas and a great and happy new year.

CHRISTMAS AMARYLLIS

The tradition continues. Every year we have flowering amaryllises as our favourite Christmas flower and every year I take pictures of these magnificent flowers. Sometimes I photograph them in colour other times, like this year, I prefer the black and white interpretation. 

TABLE LAMPS

The few weeks before Christmas are certainly a busy time. So picture taking and posting has been placed on the back burner. But last week I walked into a local business and saw this display of table lamps. Of course I could not resit taking some pictures of these whimsical creations. 

EARLY SNOW FALL

Winter has definitely arrived early this year. Last Friday we had a heavy snowfall. In the morning I went to one of my favourite spots at Kinsmen Beach to take some pictures. I was looking for some very minimalist subjects like the these two trees. The background is not the sky but the dark water of the lake which has not frozen yet. A fast shutterspeed kept most of the snowflakes sharp while my large lens opening allows for the snowflakes close to the camera to be completely out of focus, just to add impact to the image.

NOVEMBER SNOW, BLACK FOREST, NORTH BAY

Yesterday we had another big November snowfall. So I took a little trip up the road to the Black Forest. Walking down one of the trails I saw the wind blow the snow from the trees. I liked the effect but of course I was too late to capture the beautiful grey tones swirling around the trees. I waited for quite a long time, of course it did not happen again and then a man came along the trail with his dog. We were talking when all of a sudden a windburst blew the snow right into the scene. I just snapped the shutter not certain I got my shot. Well I got lucky. Here is the result.

REMEMBRANCE DAY, 2018

Tomorrow is remembrance day and I thought that this poem by Wilfred Owens expresses the horror of war and in particular the anguish and pain of the first world war. A note on the  quote from the Roman poet Horace "It is sweet and fitting to die for your country"

PORTRAIT OF AN OLD TRUCK

Last Thursday Dan, Kirk and I made a return trip to the Burks Falls and Magnetawan area. A few years ago I had photographed an old truck on the road to Magnetawan and of course we had to stop to take pictures of this old work horse. Originally it was an old army truck, we had no idea how old it was and it certainly has not been used for many years. It certainly was a great subject for some good images.