Photo of the Week 2022-03-28

 

With winter still close in the rear view mirror, I turn my lens to scenes of an emerging spring. On 'the Bruce' these last few days, that has been a bit of a mixed bag. With accumulated snow disappearing I had expected to focus on something related entirely on the melt, dripping ice, running water or something of the sort.

Then morning came with a drop in temperature and a dusting of snow overnight and the spring melt was halted temporarily. Pools of accumulated snow melt had begun to crust over with ice again, and for a moment, I was back in my winter happy place ...

 

' halted '

The following day saw the snow melting again and waters of the bay opening more as the wind blew in off Lake Huron. One more day and the wind was up and blizzard conditions returned ... welcome to spring, not spring in Ontario.

 

DJE

Photo of the Week 2022-03-21

With spring on the doorstep and a decreasing number of days for snowshoe hikes out on the ice before it gives way to open water, I took advantage of a sunny afternoon ... and of course I took a camera.

 

' ice breaker '

There was much to enjoy as I trekked along the snow and ice covered shoreline. Smaller areas  of open water were beginning to appear in locations where the currents work their way around shoals and exposed rock. Sunlight sparkled off the wind blown ripples of these surfaces. There were interesting patterns and shapes sculpted in the surface the snow by winds off Lake Huron. There were huge mounds out at the edges if the shelf ice further from shore where I dared not tread.

The crunch of my snowshoes on exposed ice became a muted "crump, crump, crump" when I transitioned onto patches of powdered snow. Otherwise the only sounds were from my own heartbeat and breathing. For a while, I sat on an exposed rock and just took it all in.

 

Knowing that this may be the final opportunity for such a trek this winter, I made my way around into China Cove but not before stopping where waves had crashed up driven by the north-west wind as winter strengthened it's grip months before. Now with snow cover gone, melting in the warmth of a bright sunny day, one spot reminded me of a breaking wave frozen in time. 

 

DJE

Photo of the Week 2022-03-14

Revisiting favourite locations at different times of day, in different light, different weather conditions and different seasons provides opportunity to capture some very different images.

I love the view out towards Lake Huron from our location on Hay Bay. Regular followers will recognize it from the many images I have shared here and elsewhere in recent years. So it should come as no surprise that I made several treks out onto the ice this winter in search of compositions of interest.

 

A month ago, I made an image with the setting sun placed behind a crack and thrust up slab of ice. Two weeks later, and at sunrise rather than sunset, I was in that exact same spot, composing images around that same crack and slab of ice.

 

' crack 'n morning sky - H '

 

' crack 'n morning sky - V '

With the sun behind me and obscured by clouds, instead of blazing into my lens, the resulting images are night and day apart. 

 

DJE

Photo of the Week 2022-03-07

Purple and Gold, the colours of royalty

 

' Regal Pageantry '

When I photograph out over Lake Huron, I quite often used a longer focal length to capture at least one image without any of the headlands or islands present. Some time after I began this practice I was introduced to the Seascape photography of Hiroshi Sugimoto, his exploration of the boundary between sea and sky.

"Water and air. So very commonplace are these substances, they hardly attract attention ― and yet they vouchsafe our very existence. The beginnings of life are shrouded in myth: Let there water and air. Living phenomena spontaneously generated from water and air in the presence of light, though that could just as easily suggest random coincidence as a Deity. Let's just say that there happened to be a planet with water and air in our solar system, and moreover at precisely the right distance from the sun for the temperatures required to coax forth life. While hardly inconceivable that at least one such planet should exist in the vast reaches of universe, we search in vain for another similar example.  Mystery of mysteries, water and air are right there before us in the sea. Every time I view the sea, I feel a calming sense of security, as if visiting my ancestral home; I embark on a voyage of seeing." 

                                                                                                                       - Hiroshi Sugimoto

 

I've contributed a number of images to a flickr group "Following Sugimoto" dedicated to the genre, this is yet another.

 

DJE