Photo of the Week 2026-03-09

 

Sunsets over Lake Huron rarely disappoint and when the weather cooperates to open up a view, it can be truly spectacular ...

 

' curtain call '

With the warm temperatures, rain and then sun in recent days, the snow has melted significantly in my neck 'o the province. At home, just the remainder from the deepest piles lingers. The cottage, from what I see on our cameras, is not quite as thawed.

 

For the shot above, the bay was still frozen quite solid all the way out to the channel but I expect to see different when I'm up next. It's early March, so there's still the possibility of some nasty weather yet. She came in like a lamb. How she will go out remains to be seen.

 

DJE 

Photo of the Week 2026-02-16

 

It's time for some "behind the scenes activity" related to my photography. After nearly 10 years, time has come to replace the computer(s) I use for storing and processing my images. While it may not sound like a big deal, it actually is, well at least for the approach I'm taking.

 

Moving to Windows11 from the now unsupported Windows10 is one of the main reasons to take on the project at this time. Another is to get in front of the escalating price of memory chips. I utilize 2 PC's and with some little annoyances cropping up, one sound channel not working and short life on the replacement battery on the laptop, it's time had come. The desktop had started having an issue on start-up now and then that had me beginning troubleshooting actions. With this in mind I decided to update both to remain consistent with Windows 11 for both machines and avoid what could be significant price increases to new stock when current inventories are depleted.

 

The desktop lives in the home "studio" (i.e. basement) and I use the laptop at the cottage or when I'm otherwise mobile. The laptop also does double duty for the personal stuff of everyday life. So in addition to the additional expense in acquiring 2 PC's, there was a fair bit of prep work researching suitable machines before the heavy lifting started. Not wanting to carry over any unwanted baggage from the previous machines, I'm now waist deep in 2 fresh installs of Windows OS and the significant number of applications I use. I'm not rushing the project because the older machines are still working and I have backups of critical files should they be needed.

 

It may sound daunting, but I enjoy learning through the process and it gives me a great opportunity to start fresh. Plus, I like to know the PC's I use and how they work in some detail which is unavoidable the way I approach this.

 

' winter sunscape '

... and this week's photo. 

 

It had been a while since I'd captured sunset across the frozen water of Lake Huron ... supper was timed so that I could spend some time out on the shore with camera and catch some of the colour. There was a heavy band of cloud low on the horizon and whispy high level clouds all reflecting the orange glow of the last sunlight of the day.

 

DJE 

Photo of the Wek 2026-02-02

  

' Singing Horizon I '

' Singing Horizon IV '

Digging into the archive this week for a couple of images made at Singing Sands, BPNP, Northern Bruce Peninsula, back in February 2020 ...

 

I've been reviewing the image catalogue lately, particularly shots that I've processed and marked ready for posting. Some go back over a decade and it's interesting to revisit these waypoints from my journey. Images selected for this week suggest what I might find when I get to the cottage in a few days. Ice stretched far out from shore over the shallow water of Dorcas Bay at Singing Sands, the textures, patters and tones mirroring those in the sky.

 

While locating the image files and seeing the collection of shots I made that day, I encountered of some personal favourites that are now printed, framed and displayed on walls at the cottage. Actually, some of my all-time favourite work. 

 

DJE 

Photo of the Week 2025-08-04

 

I may have dipped back into film photography but I have no plans to abandon digital. They are both part of the process and journey as I continue to explore photographic horizons.  

 

' wildflowers at sunset '

 

' shoreline at sunset '

In summer, the sun sets north of the bay mouth and can't be seen directly from the cottage shoreline. Still, the colours still echo to the south, bringing the scene to life.

 

As I worked on these images a familiarity stirred. Not just of the of the location but of a moment almost a dozen years ago, with a very similar sky, when it was very new to me and a new chapter began ...

 

 

DJE 

Photo of the Week 2025-05-19

 More from the archive ....

 

' May Magnificence '

Almost 3 years ago to the day there was a wonderful sunset over Lake Huron as seen from the shore at our cottage. I captured some wonderful photos and processed and posted one or two. One even made it into the Sunset Edition of my Annual Calendar recently.

 

Last evening, I had no such luck. No colour, heavy overcast skies and a fresh breeze off the water. Hence the dive back into the archive.

 

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 2024-08-26

For the fourth week, I'm presenting images selected from the sunset series captured  over a period of more than 40 minutes on 2024-08-02. The progression of colour and texture in the sky was sublime, subtle across the passing of seconds, dramatic overall.

 

In the final stages, the cloud structure softened as if by the touch of an artist blending bands and patches of pastel ...

' subsequent softening '

 

' subsequently softened '

I am obsessed with the sunsets over Lake Huron as seen from our shoreline. They are stunning from any location and so seductively available with just a short walk down to the water.

Here's a screen capture from my Lightroom catalogue of images illustrating the progression that always pulls me in.

 

 

DJE

Photo of the Week 2024-08-19

A few minutes after official sunset, the cloud structure started to diffuse, softening in the evening sky, as a trio of kayakers return home.

 

' the home stretch '

 

DJE

Photo of the Week 2024-08-12

 

' 'V' for Vivid '

Up at the cottage to make some progress on 'the shed project', there was some time to take in one of those glorious Huron Sunsets. Standing at the shore, as the minutes ticked off, colours in the clouds were intensifying.

 

DJE

Photo of the Week 2024-08-05

' blowin' smoke '

 

After a full day of work on the waterside shed, I 5took some time to relax and take in this gorgeous sunset. Over the course of almost an hour, 30 min before official sunset to almost 30 minutes after, I moved around the shoreline for different compositions making a number of exposures.

 

Sometimes it's not until after making the exposure and looking at it on a larger screen, that I see images in the clouds ... I see the profile of a man with smoke coming out of his mouth ;-)

 

DJE

Photo of the Week 2024-04-29

 

Hello darkness my old friend ... 

' enveloping '

Sunset with the ice gone and the water calm ... 

 

The sunlight reflecting off cottage windows on the far side of the bay drew me out from a comfortable chair after a long day of work on the shed rebuild project.

DJE

Photo of the Week 2024-04-22

 

' 2024-03-01 18:16:02 '

 

Still on hiatus from normal photo activities, so enjoy another late winter sunset ...

 

DJE

Photo of the Week 2024-04-15

Odd as it may be, I haven't made any photos yet in April. No I was not among the throngs of photographers that shot the eclipse (a story for another time perhaps), and after returning from a golf getaway before Easter, I've been working my way through images made of sunset on March 1st.

 

' burning feather '

' vanes of fire '

' smouldering aftervane '

After capturing images of the much wider scene, I switched camera bodies to one with a longer zoom lens and concentrated on the unique cloud details of this particular sunset.

 

DJE

Photo of the Week 2024-04-08

 

Still working through the shots from sunset in the icy waters of Hay Bay just over a month ago ... 

 

' spring breakup '

 

Breakups are hard ... but saying goodbye to scenes like this for another year are especially tough ;-)

From a series of images made working the sunset on 2024-03-01

Photo of the Week 2024-04-01

 

Spring may have arrived and we may be entering April, but I am still working on late winter images. In particular, I have a set of images from Sunset on March 1st that have me remembering ... reliving ... a glorious display of fire and ice.

 

' sunset on the wing '

DJE

Photo of the Week 2024-03-25

 

From a November sunset session along the shore of Hay Bay, Lake Huron ... and I perhaps a little photo insight into how I spend my time from arrival to conclusion of the shoot.

When it started ...

' 2020-11-07 17:32:20 '

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The end result

 

' 2020-11-07 17:37:13 '

 

 

While waiting for a final flourish, I worked the scene, zooming in to isolate the colourful horizon with and without distant shore references for context.

 

' 2020-11-07 17:33:16 '

' 2020-11-07 17:33:35 '

' 2020-11-07 17:36:03 '

' 2020-11-07 17:36:44 '

... and that's how it goes, for me anyway.

DJE

Photo of the Week 2024-03-18

 

' 2024-02-08 17:23:04 '

Just over 35 minutes of working this sunset resulted in 60 exposures of which I selected 9 to process and publish online. That's more than one might expect, but my recent mindset had been to create a series showing the stages and progression as I work through positional and compositional variations.

While some of the "old school" might approach such a shoot with one or two exposures in mind (hearkening back to their film days), I scout the scene and make note of locations that might present an interesting point of view and work through as many of those as possible in the time I have.

Above is a screenshot of the RAW captures out of camera. Some followers had previously commented that they enjoyed seeing the range of captures I get from a session like this. It began just before 5:00 pm local, and with official sunset at 5:42, I didn't even shoot until sundown :-/ Oh well, it was time for dinner and the warm comfort of the cottage.

 

DJE

Photo of the Week 2024-03-11

 

' morning pink to the west '

I've been processing the backlog of images made this winter and decided to work with a little colour-grading in Lightrroom Classic. Based on some examples I encountered and liked online, I decided to work on my own blue-tone preset to use as a starting point for my processing.

When I applied the preset to this image, there was still a little pink left from sunrise reflecting in clouds to west and I decided that it should stay, subdued though it was.

 

DJE

Photo of the Week 2024-03-04

Wow! 

 

March already! 

Spring will arrive in just over two weeks and it seems like winter never really arrived here in Southern Ontario. That may please some, perhaps even many, but it causes me concern over what the summer may hold in terms of temperatures and water levels. I expect it will be hot, damned hot and dry, damned dry and that there will be complaints about that, likely from the same group that complains about winter, but I digress ...

 

...  I've not had as much "winter" to photograph this year. Though I've had both stints visiting Matt & Claire at their farm and many more at our cottage, it wasn't a "real" winter this year. Facebook has reminded me of that with memories showing deep snowdrifts along the cottage road and a deck drift from 10 years ago the blocked out view of the bay from the picture window.

 

That's not to say there were no winter photo opportunities, they just weren't as dramatic or intense as I would have preferred. Sunsets always provide opportunity for a striking shot. Not every one of course but I do have the fortune of having a place to see regular end-of-day displays.

 

' burning through the ice '

I submitted the image above to a monthly challenge for a photo group and it was selected as the March banner image for their home page.

https://guelphphotographersguild.com/

 

 DJE

Photo of the Week 2024-02-26

' winter's wide expanse '

Enjoying my relatively recent foray into the realm of ultra-wide angle landscapes, I marvel at the way expansive skies are captured. They appear gathered from the edges of sight, pulled into the frame to compliment the earth below, particularly when I'm photographing along the shore near our cottage. Often, as in the image above, the textures in the sky and cloud mirror the patterns and shapes in the rock above and below the waters of Hay Bay.

I'm looking forward to many more outings with the ultra-wide focal lengths and the opportunity to hone my skills while creating compelling landscapes.

 

DJE