Photo of the Week 2026-09-28

 

I've always enjoyed taking a drive to see and photograph the fall colours as the leaf canvas changes here in Southern Ontario. Timing is not difficult even with the rapid change that happens some years. It's also not difficult to find a location since the change is literally all around here where I live. The challenge for me is making the choice, getting it into the schedule and getting out because it seems there is always the next day ... until there is not and colour is gone for another season. This fall, I decided to get an early start and with a plan for a few other outings before colour withers to winter.

 

This first outing may have been too early, at least for the distance that I ranged from home. The destination was Beaver Valley near Kimberly and I knew peak colour would not yet have arrived but there would be something to photograph.

 

' September Shades I '

' September Shades II '

' September Shades III '

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 I enjoyed the drive north from Guelph, beginning along sideroads east of Guelph, then Fergus and west of Luther Marsh. I hit Grey Rd. 4 and headed east through Flesherton to Beaver Valley Rd. and turned north. Though the beginnings of fall were evident, there wasn't much in the way of orange and red colour yet so I settled in to capture some of the lovely late morning light spilling thorough trees over the field grass and vegetation. 

 

The images above were made where a small branch of the Beaver River runs under Grey Rd. 7 near 'Old Baldy' just off Beaver Valley Rd. That's as far as I went before turning around and taking some dirt tracks back towards Flesherton.

 

DJE 

Photo of the Week 2018-10-22

Photography featured prominently in my plans as I approached retirement, as did the cottage and enjoying the outdoors. For me these are year round pursuits. Fortunately the cottage is a 4-season structure and I'm not yet phased by rainy days or the winter here in Ontario.

So when planning to replace having a company vehicle (for 33 of my 35 year working career), I decided on a 4x4 truck that would let me haul 'stuff' to the cottage, you know wood for odd jobs, tools and such, in addition to hauling me and my photo gear anywhere I go. It is also great for exploring back-roads Ontario Spring, Summer, Winter or Fall ... ahhhhhh Fall ...

On a recent solo trek north for some fall colour photography, there were many stops, some U-turns and when the sign said "This road not maintained", how could I resist?

Now I had barely started down this one-lane dirt 'road' when the sun came out and the colours just exploded.

Off the Beaten Path I

The road itself was in decent shape with just water puddling in the low spots here and there so the truck was a convenience as opposed to a necessity, but it sure let me forget about whether I should keep going or not.

Off the Beaten Path II

While stopped at one point, I made a couple of shots with the truck in the frame ... it was barely even dirty from this adventure, but then I wasn't blasting through the puddles, mud and gunk ... this time.

DJE

Photo of the Week 2018-10-15

With a 'fall colours' outing planned by the local photography group, there was a solid option of staying closer to home over the weekend ...

... but points north were calling, and though unsettled weather dumped rain frequently enough to seemingly catch a photographer whenever they were out of the vehicle, I managed enough images to feed this and a number of future blog posts. 

Such it is that the autumn season has to offer outdoor photography. The greatest challenge proved selecting a single image for this week's post ... and so I decided on one from the first planned stop from the trek north.

Rocky Saugeen - Autumn Mill Pond

I'd been wanting to stop and visit this location again ever since capturing the scene in winter several years ago with an image that long time followers may recall.




I'm glad I finally made plans to stop on this trip, and the sun even worked hard to make an appearance to cast some golden glow while I was stopped shooting. This is one of those locations that begs for a return visit to capture the scene through the seasonal changes, certainly fall and winter to my eye anyway.

I'll be revisiting my library of images to screen for other locations that deserve return visits to capture changes through the seasons or over time. I'm sure there may be a few I've overlooked.

DJE

Photo of the Week 2014-11-24

I read a lot about photography. I also listen to photography podcasts while driving for work. This provides quite a bit of information to take in and as you can imagine, a lot of it is repetitive, some contradictory, some garbage, some really useful. In a small portion I pick up some gems.

I was reminded of one of the gems recently, while going through my images selecting candidates for this year's Christmas card ... and then again a short wile after while I was reading an online article. It has slight variations, basically the suggestion is to go through your images some time after they were made. Some say not to look at your images for a few days, weeks or even months because the emotional attachment from the experience, holiday, event, etc. will fade and you will be able to look at the images more objectively. Others suggest that you should not bee too quick to purge those unfocused, slightly off, badly composed or exposed disappointments, that you should return to the photos sometime later. The thought here being that your processing skills or creative vision could change or improve and alter your opinion of a previously discounted image.

This was somewhat the case for me as I was reviewing images for the card. Here's the background from the time as I recall it today.

Almost a year ago, heading to the cottage with a couple of friends for a few days of winter photography, we were driving on Grey Rd 3 approaching Hwy 21. It had been dull and heavily overcast for our morning drive until the sun broke through and kissed the ice covered branches of the trees out across the field ... we stopped the car and scrambled to get our shots before the magic disappeared.

As luck would have it, I wasn't able to get into a position to compose and "hide" the utility lines running through the image. These kinds of visual disturbances in an image bother me. The light lasted only a minutes at best and the magic was gone. On my initial review of the files I was very unhappy that the lines were there and discounted the image as a candidate for any further consideration.

Roll the clock forward almost a year, and as I was scrolling through the image catalog I stopped and looked again. With different emotion, I decided that I could and would do something with it. Some quick Photoshop to touch up the upper wire (now gone) and a distant communications tower and I'm OK with this. One lower line is still there but not so much of a distracting intrusion as I once felt it was.

sun kissed

DJE