Photo of the Week 2020-04-13

Eight years ago I had the opportunity to photograph a now all but gone location. Canadian thoroughbred racing icon E. P. Taylor's Windfields Farm had sat abandoned for a few years and was deteriorating rapidly when I stumbled upon it on a drive south on Simcoe Rd. in Oshawa.

I had heard of E. P. Taylor and Northern Dancer but never much of the famous farm Taylor operated breeding his horses on 6 square kilometres of farmland in Durham Region. It's a fascinating story and piece of Canadian history for anyone who has an interest to dig into it. We all have time now in our cocoons of COVID isolation.

On four separate occasions at the end of winter 2012, I photographed here. Twice from just along the road, capturing the gates, related offices and dwellings associated with the operation. As I became more fascinated with it's story, I decided to probe further and onto the property. Each time I visited, the conditions were different. I was able to capture very different moods. The last visit, on a foggy March morning was my favourite. I spent a few hours there photographing around the property and in the buildings that were open and accessible. Although not readily identifiable as Windfields, the image above is a favourite.

Dark Hedges of Windfields

I set up on the long entrance lane just inside the main gate with my 70-200 f/2.8 on a EOS 50D (camera long gone now) and shot at 200mm, f/4 to compress the perspective and narrow the DoF looking off into the fog. I think the effect creates great mood and an interesting image.

DJE