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

Dawn of a second Decade ...

Committed to continue and looking for the way forward on this journey, a return to the past seemed a good start ...

de' light at dawn

On a morning walk along the Eramosa River, west from Rockwood to the mill ruins and Rockwood Falls, the arrival of light filtering through a thin morning mist provided a wonderful tranquil atmosphere. 

My presence startled not one but two Great Blue Herons into flight at separate locations along the way, prompting me to take note for a return in stealth, prepared with gear that might allow me to get a decent GBH image or two.

Continuing along the trail, memories of past visits played through my mind as familiar scenes and presented themselves. Blissfully lost in the moment, I turned around to see this ... simply delightful scene.

DJE

Photo of the Week 2015-03-23

by the heat of the forge ...

Why an image from 2008 as "Photo of the Week"?

The back story:
I've managed to accumulate a sizable collection of images since witching to digital a number of years ago. My software of choice for storing the collection is Adobe Lightroom (currently version 5.7).

When I started using Lightroom, there were potential issues with larger catalogues so I decided to basically break mine down by year and create a separate catalogue for each year. As I continue to grow my image library it has become a bit cumbersome to switch between Lightroom catalogues when searching for images. So after reading and hearing several items relating to a single catalogue for all images I decided to take on the task of merging everything. 

Now, I currently have about 2.5 TB of total data for my combined images catalogues. I've been using 3TB Seagate drives for storage and backup (3 of them, 1-main, 1-BU#1, 1-BU#2) and a recent report from an online backup service indicates that their experience shows the Seagate 3TB drive has a high failure rate. Given this I also decided to switch over to 4TB Western Digital Red drives for the increased capacity and reliability (one at a time mind you since they're $200+ ea).

The first step in the process was to make sure I was current with my backups ... check. Then I formatted the 4TB drive and labelled it "Master Catalogue" with a main folder for all photos in sub-folders by year. Anyone using Lightroom for their image management should perform file movements and catalogue merges from within Lightroom to retain file location, key-wording, ratings, virtual copy information etc. I checked a couple of resources online (best one here) about how best to do this and it was a good thing because I learned a few new things along the way.

The process of creating one merged catalogue took Most of Friday night and Saturday (while chillin' at the cottage :-) and along the way I randomly scanned through some of the files to remind myself of what I had captured over the years. At one point I came across the image above. It's always been one of my favourites and one of the first prints that I sold. It was made at the Flesherton Fall Fair in 2008 where they had a Farrier Competition. I positioned myself with a burning forge between myself and one of the participants to shoot through the heat wave effect and captured him hammering his shoe on the anvil. No digital trickery here, just using the true scene to create something different.

... now I just need to start creating the backups.

DJE

Photo of the Week 2012-08-27

With the lack or precipitation this year I've watched the level in Guelph Lake continually drop to where it is lower than I can recall in the 25 years since I moved to Guelph. Normally when the lake level drops it's usual amount over the summer, stumps and features along a band close to the shoreline are revealed. I thought this may be a good time to check out the area and make some surreal shots of these normally submerged features.

I made a reconnaissance of the location with Lynn on Friday evening since the pre-dawn hours Saturday were not the time to find the right parking spot and trail to take. To my pleasant surprise, we were treated to a beautiful sunset and reflection on what remained of the calm water surface. I also got my first look at just how much the water level was down. At some points, the man made lake was more like a large puddle. We walked the shoreline (as it is) with Murphy for quite a while until light was lost beyond the horizon and I was able to make a good number of images that will add to my sunset library. Reconnaissance completed, home we went and I prepared my gear for the normal Saturday morning outing crossing my fingers for some fog.

Heading out with a photo cohort at 6am, it was soon apparent that the fog had not materialized to the extent that I would have liked. There was a haze close to the ground, just enough to create a mist on the horizon. We arrived at the location and walked along the muddy grey-brown exposed lake bed finding different elements and scenes to shoot. Then we turned a corner and I saw some algae at the edge of the receding water glowing in a patch of morning's light.

morning glow

Although a Blue Heron and a number of Sandpipers were in this area at various times, I chose to make this image when they had moved on. The lack of something to give scale to the image adds to it's abstract quality. I also shot this from a distance using a long focal length to compress the scene and use the thin layer of clearing haze to soften the details add add to the mood.

DJE

Photo of the Week 2012-08-06

No commentary necessary, just a peaceful scene from my early morning walk that speaks for itself.

morning light beckons

 DJE