Photo of the Week 2025-02-17

 

Ever since Claire and Matt first led me here, I've been trying to capture the character of this special part of the woodlot at Revolve Farms. The area itself is not overly large, but there is certainly enough space to walk around. The area has no canopy overhead and vegetation is quite varied, large patches of reindeer moss, sizeable low junipers, soft ground. Here and there, these lovely scraggy, ragged, dark coloured trees with little to no leaves mixed with some other varieties of pine, maple and oak. It's a wonderfully soothing place to enjoy and I visit every time I'm at the farm.

 

I always take a camera on at least one walk through the area and have wanted to experience and capture it in a varietal of conditions, snow, fall colour, mist, fog, rain, early morning sun etc. So when we visited the farm last fall, of course it was one of the places I struck out for even though morning light was flat, there was a touch of mist in the air.

 

' craggy characters '

 

This image was captured in vertical (portrait) orientation and contained a fair bit of washed out sky. Thanks to a video on shooting woodlands I found (or rather YouTube found for me), I was provided with some inspiration to 'not look for trees'. I've always found myself trying to get the full tree in the frame when it's likely more about how the tree fits into it's surroundings.

 

In ' craggy characters '  I cropped out the sky and went for a square aspect ratio that shows the bases of three trees leading me off into the distance with moss, lichen and fallen oak leaves at my feet. I could lose myself for hours in scenes like this ... 

A bit of background ... 

This image and a number of others made at the location that day could have quite easily gone overlooked. The date was 2024-10-10, the day/night of the awesome aurora event across the northern hemisphere. After taking my walk through the woods, we departed the farm for home with some hope that I might be able to continue on to the cottage in hope of some dark sky captures of the northern lights. As things turned out, after arriving home another 3+ hr drive mostly in the dark was not in the cards. But I recalibrated and managed to get out to a more local dark"ish" sky area for what very well may be a once-in-a-lifetime experience. That outing spawned a collection of images that I interrupted my stream of posts from the trip to Scotland several weeks earlier. Fast forward to earlier this month when I finished posting the 300 plus images from Scotland 30+ from the Aurora and one or two from the New Year and I had a fair collection of images going back to Oct that I had not even really looked at other than to download and backup the originals. I had forgotten about my shots from the woods that day and were it not for instructions from the Dr. to rest and take it easy for 3 weeks following minor surgery to repair a hernia, I could very well have been out tramping around capturing lovely wintry scenes from home to the cottage. As it is, there has been a lot of time in front of the computer to review what I have and spend time online taking in photographic inspiration. Both led me back to this week's image  and the others from that magical walk in the woods.

 

 

DJE

Photo of the Week 2025-02-10

 

Well this feels a little different ...

 

After 4 months of working through images made during a trip to Scotland last September, I came to the end. Interrupted only thrice since returning, my posts to social media have showcased of images from 11 days of the trip. I first paused for a few days to showcase the awesome images captured during the 'once in a lifetime aurora event' 2024-10-10. The second time was to celebrate the return of Snowy Owls to the Bruce Peninsula after an absence of 3 years, the third, to say farewell to 2024 and ring in 2025 with the annual 'Last Light' - 'First Light' images (though these did not make it to all of my social streams).

 

So it feels different not writing about Scotland, my experiences and my time there. It is a truly magnificent place to visit, the people are incredible (even if some in the tourist hordes are not - such seems the case most places these days). Will I go back? I certainly plan to, maybe for a photo specific visit, maybe more of what I did this go round.

 

Now where am I ... oh ya, back at home in Canada. She's certainly a beauty as well. Let me turn to the images I've been making back home in Ontario. How about we start with a pair of bookends ...

 

' 2024-09-28 08:16:34 '

 

' 2024-09-28 19:23:37 '

DJE

Photo of the Week 2025-02-03

 

On the morning we left Callander and headed for our last night in Edinburgh, I took the opportunity to visit a local woodland trail ... to Bracklinn Falls

 

' Keltie Water Falling - H '

Bracklinn Falls are a series of waterfalls north-east of Callander, Scotland on the course of the Keltie Water.

 

I've followed several Scottish/UK photographers on social media for a while and their work has held great appeal for me. 

 

The woodlands they frequent are quite different from what I'm used to at home in Ontario. Many of the trees have twisting and irregular branches presenting quite a different character.  And then they have such great words for rivers, stream, brooks. Abhainn, burn, bàgh, pow, skye are just a few. Those in Gaelic I have no hope of pronouncing correctly and it all simply adds to the appeal.

 

It was absolutely wonderful to explore this short trail and capture just some of the beauty there If this were near home, I would visit frequently ...note to self: get out more and explore places closer to home.

 

 

DJE

Photo of the Week 2025-01-27

 

Nearing the end of our time in Scotland, we were looking forward to the drive through Glencoe ...

 

' Lagangarbh Cottage '

As timing would have it, our trip was made in glaringly bright mid-day sunshine. Not great for photography and not what I would choose if I were to plan a photography specific visit to the stunning area.

Add to the scenario, roads very busy with tourists (off season now begins in October and perhaps as late as November) and any of the parking areas were jammed full leaving no opportunity to stop at the locations I had planned. Three Sisters ... scratch. Glencoe Waterfall ... scratch. Meeting of Three Waters ... scratch.

Well I'll be dammed if I'm not gonna get a shot of Lagangarbh Cottage! While the traditional spot to stop was chock full, a bit further south I saw a small farm entrance with space for one more, turned sharply and jammed on the brakes to skid to a stop. With a "what the ..." from my passenger I said "I'm at least gonna get one photo while in Glencoe !

 

And here you have it! Lagangarbh Cottage, on the banks of the River Etive with the mountains of Glencoe as a backdrop.

 

DJE

Photo of the Week 2025-01-20

 

' Jacobite Steam Train @ Glenfinnan Viaduct '

Having been thwarted from visiting Urqhart Castle and Loch Ness by lack pre-booking and then finding it at sold out at capacity upon arrival the previous day, I was worried that plans to see another Scottish icon would not pan out ...

I'd scoured Google maps for alternate parking possibilities should the Glenfinnan visitors centre be full and the options were not promising. Not having feet on the ground previously at this location made it a bit of a wild card scenario but we headed out with a "get what we get, see what we see" attitude.

Lady Luck would shine on us, literally, with weather and available parking (lots of it) when we arrived just before 9am. The train was scheduled to cross the viaduct at 10:45 so we had some time but still wanted to be in position to capture the event well in advance. Fortunately we were some of the early visitors to arrive and found our way along a well used route, ultimately finding our perch with over an hour to go.

We passed the time waiting by watching others arrive, the workers maintaining the viaduct structure, and chatting with a lovely couple from SW Ontario who were also on vacation. As the scheduled arrival time approached, I made sure the camera was ready, batteries charged, settings were as desired and trained my eyes and ears to the scene ...

... at a couple of minutes passed 10:45 the train came within earshot and then within view at the far end of the viaduct. Conveniently the train stopped on the viaduct, fired up the boiler pressure and photogenically let out a big belch of white steam as it commenced the crossing for all present to snap and video away.

As with most of the locations we visited during this trip, I was always on the look for something other than the common shot. Unfortunately for photography, there were quite a few maintenance personnel in orange overalls working to maintain the viaduct and scaffolding was in place at various points. Fortunately for this piece of history, Scotland cares enough to take care of it's treasures.

 

DJE