Photo of the Week 2025-05-12

 

This photographic journey has taken a turn as of late, a return to be more accurate. It's had me very busy reading, researching, remembering, reacquiring ... more on the "for what" in the weeks to come but for now, it has seen me more with book in hand, out checking resources or (mostly) at the computer rather than out with camera capturing new images. 

 

So again, I found myself without recent images ready for regular posting and dove into the archives. There I found a collection of images made back in 2012 on a foggy spring afternoon when I was experimenting with a then 8 year old 8MP camera. I had picked up a Canon 1D MkIIN to see if I wanted to make the jump to their top tier camera body for the integral grip form factor (I decided not to).

 

The resulting images have been marinating on the hard drive since then and I have no explanation as to why, but you can see a select set in recent social media posts on my FB, Insta and flickr. This week's photo is my favourite of the set.

 

' woodland mistery '

My decision to process and present the bulk of these in B&W is likely a result of my recent activities. Processing is not a simple B&W conversion of a colour file but includes manipulation of the bright and dark tones for a look I find reminiscent of orthochromatic films in the past.

 

DJE

Photo of the Week 2025-03-24

 

Revisiting forests and woodlands that I've wandered over the years ...

 

' forest fog after a light snowfall '

 

Here, it's the Arkell Rd woodlands north of Starkey Hill on a very moody late fall morning with lingering fog after a light snowfall the previous day

 

DJE

Photo of the Week 2024-02-05

 

' once upon a clearing '

' a place to meander '

 

On my Boxing Day foggy morning walk, I detoured to check out 'the clearing', a magical spot that caught and has held my interest since my first romp though the woods of the Revolve Farms property.

It's not an area cleared of all trees, but certainly it's character is very different from the adjacent woods.

The ground is soft, a considerable portion of it is covered in reindeer lichen and moss that feels quiet underfoot. Clusters of juniper dot the spaces between trees, suggesting that you meander your way around. 

 

 

 

 

On this day, the clearing was particularly mystical. Fog and barren trees combined with a limited colour palette to create something special that I attempted to capture in camera and bring to these images with some touches in post processing.
 

 

DJE

Photo of the Week 2024-01-22

I know it's a month after but ... In addition to all the love and warmth we shared over several days during Christmas with family, hosted by Matt and Claire at their farm, I was able to get out with camera on a foggy Christmas Day morning and wander around the property ... 

 

'  Christmas Day Fog at Revolve - I '

 ...  while Lynn and I had Fortuna out for her morning runabout. It was a "let's see how 'Tuna is with recall when it's just Lynn and Doug" adventure before we were left in charge for a couple of days while Matt and Claire went to visit with her family.

I'm happy to report that 'little Tuna' was a wonderfully behaved girl from the get go. Fortunately I got to make a number of images that morning because it warmed up and rained for the rest of our time there keeping us indoors for the most part.

 

For the image, I decided to do a touch of colour grading and adjustments to enhance the ethereal feel of the scene out by the barn, looking back towards the house. As an added bonus, here's a collage of detail images I shot inside during our stay.

 

I hope your memories of this Christmas are as wonderful as mine ...

DJE

Photo of the Week 2023-07-17

 

' dissipation - IV '

Returning to the cottage after a short morning walk with Mr. Murph, I headed down to the shore where patches of dissipating fog were creating a succession of surreal scenes over Hay Bay .

 

At times, the sun would be shining almost completely through leaving me in a localized clear area where all could be seen. The fringes of these areas shrouded what was beyond. Other times, the fog was more immersive creating a softening of everything around me except the most immediate. At various points during the experience, patches of blue sky would appear and drift along high in the scene.

I stayed for a while and made quite a number of images which I have edited down to half a dozen or so for a short series called "dissipation".

 

DJE

Photo of the Week 2023-07-10

 

Heading out for Murphy's morning walk, I had noticed the lingering fog and grabbed a camera ...

 

' misty morning pea '

... and I should have also followed my own advice to check / reset camera settings  when done with the previous shoot.

 

As it turned out, I was able to save this image (shot accidentally at ISO 25600) in post with Topaz DeNoise AI software. Given that there was plenty of light and a very well exposed (perhaps too well) image, the noise wasn't as bad as one might expect, but it wasn't good.

 

My morning walk about camera is usually one of my EOS M-Series bodies (M3,M5). The APS-C sensor technology in these cameras is 7-8 years old and not on par with the latest offerings. But it did produce an nice rendition of the ethereal scene that greeted us at the end of the driveway when we turned to walk down the road.

Morning mist was lingering between the trees on either side. Sun was rising and burning through the fog, quickly as a matter of fact. So quick that when I checked the exposure in camera, reset the ISO to 'Auto" and went back to re-shoot the image, mist had disappeared further don the road and the moment was gone. But I still had this ;-)

Note to self: follow your own advice :-O

 

DJE

Photo of the Week 2021-03-01

 

I used to be up and out early with camera(s) on weekend mornings back when I working. Life has changed in retirement, the urgency to get up and get out is not there as it once was. It's easy to feel like there is more time for such things. Coffee and a relaxed start to the day are more the norm these days and I just don't make it priority ... but when I do manage to get up and out early, images like this make it more than worth while.

 

Winter Farmhouse in Fog

Note to self: Maybe set a couple of days in the week to get up and get out early for photography ;-)

 

DJE

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

Photo of the Week 2020-03-02

A variety of looks and moods just by seeking out all that a location has to offer during a single outing ...

When the day started crisp and cold with traces of frost on everything out the front window, I knew I had to grab some gear and head out. There were a number of locations that came to mind so I just started driving and eventually chose to visit some favoured spots along the Grand River, west of Inverhaugh.

Hoping to find frost covered scenery, I wasn't disappointed as I turned onto the road heading down to Wilson Flats. The sun was still low in the morning sky, highlighting the frost rimmed branches of trees and anything else in the low lying flood plain.

The question was "where to start". There were so many options for what to shoot and I certainly didn't want to loose the magical atmosphere after the sun had climbed higher in the sky. So I took a deep breath, looked around and just start shooting ...

framed in frost

frosting on the cake

frost flower - in blue

 

steam frost

 

Grand Winter Pano

All images were shot in a 45 minute window, only "steam frost" was shot a short drive from the others, all made at Wilson Flats within a few hundred meters of each other just looking in different directions. 

DJE

Photo of the Week 2019-12-16

fog in the forest is simply magical ...

tangled forest

DJE

Photo of the Week 2019-11-18

In wrapping up the series of images from my late October woodland outing here are a couple of images where I selected a tighter crop, either by using longer focal length or getting in closer to the subject scene. 

Sometimes it can be hard to see the trees for the forest, not just the other way around as the familiar adage goes. Keeping this (these) in mind while out in search of images gives the photographer yet another tool for the creative toolbox.

On this particular October morning, I was in awe of the the grander scene, the sunburst through the sparse fall canopy and my compositions were wider, including broader look at the scene. Having already made a good number of this type of exposure, I began looking for something different, recalling my original intent to develop my woodland photography further, push myself to another level, my vision began to narrow in.

I had made a commitment to be somewhere else and my magical time in this place was approaching it's end as I focused in on an area of the forest between two larger trees where the sun's rays were streaming in through the mist.

framed in the mist - I

framed in the mist - II

I'm quite pleased by the results, although these are quite different from others in the Foggy local woodland morning 2019-10-28 series.

I'd be very interested to hear anyone's thoughts, likes, dislikes and comments on any of the images in the series (click the link above to a Flickr album of the complete set). The November 4 post is the only image that had made it to this blog before this post and not everyone may want to go to Flickr, so I'll conclude this post with a collage showing all of the images ...

DJE

Photo of the Week 2019-11-04

Words from a post two weeks ago ...

"Fall is a great time to get out and work on forest scenes here in Ontario, and then it can be almost too easy when fall colours are at their peak. Pointing the camera almost anywhere when you're in or near a forest can result in some striking photos. The colours are always inspiring and it's great getting out to bask in the forest, taking in the sounds, the sights, the smells and it's healing goodness ...
... As I strive to translate what I feel into a finished image, it's taking quite a bit of work, quite a bit of time and ... I just don't have anything ready to share for this week's photo. But soon, I hope." 

This week, I think I have something ready.

Recently I had decided to get out more, specifically to work on my woodland photography. A foggy fall morning provided a great opportunity, and, after a good while of being preoccupied by just the glorious combination of sun and mist in a local wood lot, I got down to it. The original goal was to create something more purposeful, more compelling, more than just a pretty snap of the sun and mist. I wanted to work a composition that spoke differently of the woodland, one that told a story.

sign post

Working alone for the most part, I find it very helpful to study the work of other photographers. Sometimes this is simply viewing their images but with all that is available today, I'm finding YouTube to be a great resource. Often as I work through my image catalogue, downloading the latest shoot or editing a particular image, I have a YouTube video playing. It could be music, it could be a comedy skit, often it is something from another photographer.

These guys have been my latest inspiration ...

Simon Baxter   Thomas Heaton   Adam Gibbs   Gavin Hardcastle 

Thanks lads !

DJE

Photo of the Week 2018-10-08

Fall colours arrived quickly on the Bruce Peninsula this year and they're not done yet, not even at their peak.

orange overhang

Regular treks on the 250 km route from home to cottage in Tobermory provide an opportunity to watch the progression as hardwoods change into their fiery colour ensemble while birch, aspen and poplar take on their autumn yellow tones to contrast against the rich dark greens of the cedar, pine and spruce.

A foggy fall morning was perfect for a detour on along side-roads with a mind to photograph the essence of this time on the Bruce. Along Emmett Lake Road, there were maple beginning to blaze orange among the mixed forest at roadside.

With windows down, a slowed pace and numerous stops, taking in the ambience set the tone for my day on the Bruce.

DJE

Photo of the Week 2018-08-13

In a post two weeks ago, I wrote about having the patience to stay with it when conditions are changing. Continuing to explore the changing light and mood of a scene to capture more of what it has to offer can result in wonderful images, not imagined at the outset.

silken sunset

Having completed capturing the Chi-Cheemaun ferry arriving and departing Tobermory through a dense fog bank, my reason for venturing into the village one evening, I could have simply packed up and headed back to the cottage. Deciding to stay for whatever developed allowed me to let myself drift into the creative process. Constrained only by how the scene evolved while there was enough light to photograph, I explored compositions cropping in, pulling back wide, and anything between as the sun fell, light dissipated, fog shifted.

Apart from the satisfaction of getting some nice moody images, it was soothing to get into that so often elusive state of creative flow ... to spend more time there *sigh*

DJE

Photo of the Week 2018-07-30

Conversation with other creatives is inspiring and rejuvenating, a great way to rekindle the fire and often providing a shot in the creative arm.

So it was recently when a friend dropped in for a visit while in my 'neck of the woods'. She brought along a couple of her travelling companions and we spent an evening reconnecting, getting acquainted and sharing thoughts on a number of subjects, some artistic. At one point, my friend brought up the subject of this blog and was very complimentary regarding my writing (thanks Sheila) and I admitted to her that some of my recent posts were getting short on writing content and I felt I was getting lazy with my posts..

While this blog is mainly about showcasing my photography, it is also a journal of sorts, a collection of  thoughts and experiences from my journey, Our conversation reminded me of this and comments by some who have enjoyed my ramblings. It's been good for me to, so it's time to put time back into the writing aspect for those followers and for me. Those who just want to see my images, well they can just look and don't have to read.

---

This past week I decided to spend some time up north at the cottage by myself, something I'd been looking forward to as the "retirement chapter" of my life opens. Up there It's always easy to slide into a easy pace, even more so I wonderfully found with weekend or vacation confines no longer whispering in the margins.

When fog rolled into the bay in front of the cottage the scene changed constantly, from light mist diffusing the view to the far shore, to a thick fog curtain, sun, then no sun. After watching throughout the latter part of the day and after dinner, I decided to head into the village for the evening arrival of the Chi Cheemaun anticipating I might catch it arriving through a fog bank and that I did, staying until it departed again ... but I found myself compelled to stay even further, to watch and continue photographing as the sun dropped lower and lower behind the bank of fog ... this ended up being the most creatively satisfying part of the shoot.

day into night

Moving along the shore, looking out over the water as the light, colours and reflections morphed as the sun dropped further and further, I shot wide then tight, I framed landscape and then portrait. Always seeking that magical combination and finally I found it, something different that I had initially set out to capture but more.

In retrospect, I am again reminded that the act of getting out to shoot, more often than not, leads from one vision to another and takes me further on this journey.


DJE

Photo of the Week 2018-05-28

Most images don't come to me, I have to go out and find them.

Huron Fog Bank

... returning from a midge fly and black fly shortened photo outing down the highway to capture roadside wildflowers backlit by the evening light, my eye was scanning around as I tried to think of somewhere else to suitably scratch the photographers itch.

It can be challenging when the itch strikes and nothing to photograph is at hand or immediately comes to mind. When I got the itch Saturday, I decided to wait until after dinner when the setting sun would backlight some patches of Indian Paintbrush that have started blooming along the east side of Hwy 6 about 30 km south of Tobermory.

While I was able to make some images there, I wasn't prepared for the swarming midge flies and black flies, so I made it quick and headed back somewhat unsatisfied. Rather than pack it in, I kept looking and thinking of where else I could go. The answer came as I approached Tobermory and noticed fog at the end of Hwy 6 (the Gap) and thought of the potential for an image over the water with backlighting from the setting sun.

... itch scratched.

DJE