Photo of the Week 2026-10-19

 

' PT Autumn II '

Out for a drive along local fall roads 2026, I was able to stop and park the vehicle off to the road to the shoulders and move about freely to work alter compositions the scene provided. Here I've chosen to stand at the crest of a hill and frame looking down the slope into the mist lying in the hollow.

 

Fall is a wonderful time to be out with camera. For a few years now, I've driven some local backroads shooting the fall colours and have always enjoyed the outing. It's something that I plan to continue.

 

DJE 

Photo of the Week 2026-10-12

 

I gave it a couple of weeks after my last drive dedicated to photographing the fall colours, and chose some rural sideroads closer to home one morning ...

 

' autumn arch III '

' autumn arch II '

' autumn arch I '

It doesn't require that I drive far to have some great settings for autumn roads images. In fact most of the roads in the township that borders my home city of Guelph provide great opportunities for the type of images I wanted to make.

 

Even though I may have driven the same road in previous years, there are always changes, trees get bigger, die or get cut by by local utility providers. Colours arrive at different times year over year.

 

As usual, I went kitted up with two camera bodies, each with a different lens choice. On one body I mounted the venerable RF 24-105mm f/4 L, likely my most common lens choice and an great all-round lens. The second body was sporting the (also) venerable EF 70-200 f/2.8 L III on a Canon EF to RF adapter. I love the 70-200 for the additional reach and scene compression it offers when I push out beyond 105mm. It's also tack sharp with speedy and reliable focusing.

 

The three images I chose to present above were all made using the 70-200 at different focal lengths but I also zoomed using my feet (i.e. I moved to alter the composition for each image). The main element in the scene, the arch formed by the trees remained the same but each image tells a different story ...

 

DJE 

Photo of the Week 2026-08-03

 

Last week, we were invited to dinner at our friend's cottage at the very SW tip of the Bruce Peninsula. I've always known that the view of sunset from there would be amazing. Until this occasion, my timing had not been right. With dinner done, we retired to the deck for some wonderful conversation until someone said ... "hey look at the sunset" ... and I was off to grab the camera bag.

 

As I arrived, the ladies were already at the shore, in conversation down on the rock and I heard "where's Doug?", and "over here", "the view is from here" and the like. 

 

' Flying in a V '

I started working the shoreline with the 14-35 wide angle zoom using some rocks and trees as foreground elements before swapping it out for the 24-105 thinking I wanted a little more reach to bring Russel Island more prominent in the frame. 

 

As it turned out, my preferred compositions were made at 24mm from a spot a little further west along the shore. The 1/50 sec shutter speed left the gull blurry from it's motion and mine as I perched a bit precariously on the rock ledge at water's edge.  

 

DJE 

Photo of the Week 2026-04-20

 

Finding subject matter of interest at a rural 'farm equipment & tractor parts supply' location (aka tractor junkyard) with a 105mm macro lens, shooting close up though not necessarily macro ...

 

' constriction '

In addition to taking my infrared modified camera and shooting for high contrast B&W (see the recent images in this album) in the bright sun, I also had a digital body with the Sigma 105mm f/2.8 mounted to see what I could capture with fixed focal length and close up capability.

 

Here is a screen capture of additional processed images likely be posted to my social media streams in the coming days.

 

  

Offering far more than "just old tractors", there are patterns, textures, shapes and colours to explore. The freedom of experimenting and playing with compositions nourishes the creative soul. 

 

From a recent GPG group outing.

 

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 Week 2025-10-13

 

HAPPY THANKSGIVING ! 

 

I spent some time with family over the weekend, in the wonderful setting at Revolves Farms, where autumn has made colourful scenes ...

 

' fall colour outside a window '

The "timber-frame" is a great place to sit and watch morning arrive at Revolve Farms. With sun rising above the eastern treeline, it spills onto treetops outside the window of a favourite seat. Sipping morning coffee and getting the day started with this view is something special.   

 

DJE 

Photo of the Week 2025-02-24

 

A recent presentation on B&W photography got me thinking that it's been a while since I processed or shot anything specifically for B&W. So with that in mind, I had a go at B&W 2 different ways ...

 

1. A reprocessed colour image from a recent post in B&W

 

' B&W maple morning '

 

2. A winter reshoot at the location of a recent post, shot for B&W processing

 

' winter maple morning '

I'm not sure that either work better than the original colour version, but it was an interesting exercise and another part of 'The Journey'

 

... the original ...

 

' golden maple morning '

 

DJE

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 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 2024-04-29

 

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 2024-04-15

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 2024-04-01

 

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 2023-12-11

 

Not long after last week's post, I completed my processing of a set of images that now comprise the series ' revealed '. The series features the magnificent Superior lake-bed colours and shapes at Coldwater Cove, as seen with the use of a polarizing filter to reduce glare and reflection on the water surface.

 

With these two images, getting close with wide angle zoom allowed me to create interesting abstract interpretations using the natural patterns, shapes and colours in the rock of the Canadian Shield. I was left to imagine rough water and waves crashing along this shoreline because on this day there were but ripples on the water's surface.

 

' revealed IV '

 

' revealed VI '

Calm, sunny conditions such as we had are something not too common for late October on the lake that is Superior. 

 

 

DJE 

Photo of the Week 2023-12-04

 

I found that my images from our Retreat visit to Coldwater Cove group nicely into 2 sets. The first featured interesting foregrounds using the rock formations and patterns along the shoreline. This week's image introduces the 2nd set which features magnificent lake-bed colours and shapes, seen through the calm, clear Lake Superior water.

 

I've been eager to get to this set of images since reviewing them on the back LCD of my camera almost 2 months ago.

 

 

' revealed VII '

I really owe our Retreat leader, Andrew McLachlan, a big shout out for calling me out to join him on a large rock outcrop in the water. He asked if I was using a polarizing filter and suggested that with the glare removed, there were interesting patterns below the water. Well there certainly were and much more than that, there were magnificent colours.

A considerable amount of time was spent scrambling around on that rock. Making sure to keep my balance, lest I plunge camera and all into the cold water. Many different compositions were created and I came away with two handfuls that I'm prepared to share. This first image is not the first made but the first that had me thinking WOW!

 

More to come ... 

DJE

Photo of the Week 2023-10-16

 

For me, photographing a sunset is often a process, an opportunity work the scene over a period of time and frequently results in a series of images. Such was the case with last week's ' sun down ' and a number of others from the session. Then I teased that this week's post may provide a look into the process behind it all.

 

In this instance things started early in the day when I checked weather apps for wind predictions. The previous day had been mostly devoid of wind, leaving waters calm. It was predicted to continue through the day and instead of repeating the previous morning's calm water outing, I chose to go search for fall colours fairly certain that I could catch sunset later.

Late in the afternoon, I checked on things down by the shore and began by making a few images of the interesting skies with clouds reflecting on the smooth surface of the bay. It continued as I kept an eye on the changing skies, light and position of the sun, exploring different foreground elements and positions. In all. I shot 45 frames and a screen capture of the RAW files from my Lightroom library will give you an idea of the complete range and how it evolved.

When I shoot sunsets I use daylight white balance to keep things consistent throughout the shoot. With the cloud cover during this shoot, a cloudy white balance would make images too warm for my liking. I always shoot in RAW file format and could change white balance in post if I chose or needed to do so.

 

I mostly shoot in aperture priority mode and use exposure compensation to capture the light levels that I am seeing. As the skies darken, I dial in -1/3, -2/3 and at times -1 EV as the situation dictates. A case can be made for manual exposure and I have on occasion worked in this mode. I just seem to be more comfortable with aperture priority at this point, your mileage may vary.

To explore compositions, I work my way along the shoreline to positions that allow placing the sun centre frame, right third of the frame and also explore with the sun high, middle and low. Options with different foregrounds follow next. I use rocks with sunlight glinting of their wet surface, rocks visible through the clear water and explore leading lines and "s" curves along the shoreline to the extent possible. I've also made a mental note to get in the water and explore vantage points yet untried. Obviously not all options are successful, but the process can have a flow that helps in finding something different. At an unfamiliar location there can be more capture frames and with a familiar location such as out cottage shoreline there can be less.

' calm & composed '

Those interested in seeing all of the images that were selected and processed can check them out on my flickr page beginning with this one and scrolling through the half-dozen or more that I've posted.

Before heading in when I was done, I decided to set up a remote shot with me in the frame and I think it worked out OK but those with a sharp eye will note that I've done some distortion correction from the RAW file seen in the grid above ... such is the case with low POV ultra wide angle shots.

' curtain call '

Let me know if you found this post of interest and I may just work on something similar in the future.

 

DJE

Photo of the Week 2023-10-09

 

' sun down '

Some unusually calm weather over a couple of days at the cottage provided both sunrise and sunset opportunities for photography. Taking advantage, I was again out working the scene along our shoreline using the smooth water to capture surreal reflections.

At 9:10, the sun had just dropped below the horizon, the day's performance was coming to an end, so too was my photo session. It had begun almost two hours earlier as I checked conditions trying to predict whether this would be a photo worthy sunset.

A number of captures were candidates for processing over the following days and now, a week later, my favourite of the bunch has been selected for this week's photo.

.

.

.

 

Teasing next week's blog, I may be giving some insight into my process when working a sunset such as this ...

 

DJE

Photo of the Week 2023-05-01

 

A favourite place to just sit back, relax and enjoy the show ...

 

' best seats in the house '

 

DJE