Photo of the Week 2026-06-08

 

A little over a month ago, I met up with a couple of friends and visited a couple of locations on the Hamilton 'Doors Open' weekend back in May. Auchmar (photos available in this flickr Album) and The Cotton Factory (the subject of this post) were our chosen sites.

 

The Cotton Factory, former site of the Imperial Cotton Co. has been transformed into a creative industries complex, with space for workshops, studios for artists and office space for creative professionals. I found the 1900's brick facade full of personality and character to capture in the strong mid day sun. For my exterior shots I used the Canon R5 with a Sigma 35mm f/1/4 Art lens mounted via an EF to RF Kolari drop-in filter adapter (w/clear filter) and I thought it may be of interest to show the complete set to give an idea of what catches my eye at a location like this.

 

' green doors and shattered window '

' light and shadow '

' verte 'n valves '

' verte to go ' 

' blocked door '

' chimney stacked ' 

' traces of whitewash '

' getting from here to there '

' car in the courtyard '

So there you have it, The Cotton Factory exterior, at least some of it, through the eyes of DJE 

  

DJE 

Photo of the Week 2026-01-19

 

A recent meet-up with a 'photo phriend' provided a change of subject matter and caused me to work a little at making images. It had been a while since I'd been in an industrial setting, and interesting as it was, the Niagara Parks Power Station and Tunnel threw down the gauntlet. I'd long had an interest in the historical structures on the Canadian side of Niagara, but these locations were more than I would tackle back in my Urbex / Rurex days.

 

Since it opened in 2021, this now tourist attraction has been on my radar more out of historical interest in the construction and technology than photography. Still I was interested to see what I could capture through the lens. The images can be found on my flickr page starting here and ending with the 'Photo of the Week' image.

 

' Below Horseshoe Falls ' 

My first time below the falls and a wonderful wet vantage point (3 image stitched pano).

DJE 

Photo of the Week 2022-12-05

 

Late last week I received a message from a photo buddy asking if I'd like to ride shotgun while he went train spotting in an attempt to catch his friend during conductor training. The odds of success were questionable but I was happy to play sidekick on a sunny, if cold and breezy afternoon. In the end, we managed to hear some of the chatter from the train on a handheld scanner, but never did manage to see the actual train, or any train at all for that matter :-/

 

' H K F C L '

The H. Krug Furniture Co. Limited factory in Kitchener ON provided some shadow and pattern subject matter so we didn't come home empty handed :-)

 

DJE

Photo of the Week 2020-03-23

Self isolation, social distancing, staying inside, working from home, sheltering in place ... 

Whatever term you choose, it's provided a great opportunity (excuse) for me to isolate at the computer and dive into my archive. Along with recently joining a 'Forgotten Ontario' group on Facebook, this has me revisiting images from past Urbex / Rurex outings. My first "rediscovery" was a series of images I made back in 2009 at the former (now demolished) Massey Ferguson facility in Brantford, ON. Click here to see  the full gallery of images.

Nearing the end of reviewing the almost 200 images, I came across one that had previously not been given more than a cursory look. Whether it's the light cast on the brick wall, the textures, the wonderful colours, the open door or the quirky angles that are just a touch off balancing, I became completely entranced with this one ...

entrance(d)

... so entranced actually that I decided it needed to be printed and framed for the wall.

DJE

Photo of the Week 2017-02-06

Following on the heels of my mid-week post (rant actually) about a favourite piece of digital image processing software not getting any attention from now parent company Google, I wanted to share some images processed in another software product, OnOne Photo Raw. I've owned OnOne Photo through versions 7, 8, 9, 10 and now RAW and have used it infrequently. As powerful an image editing suite OnOne is, I'd previously defaulted to my go-to software, Nik  plugins because I like them so much.

Given that an update to those favoured plugins seems very unlikely, I've begun to familiarize myself with some other choices like Topaz and OnOne in case I'm forced to make a switch at some point. Learning new software can be both interesting and frustrating at the same time. 

While working on some recent images in OnOne Photo Raw to create a dim, gritty feel, I was frequently taken down a dead-end path but found new looks and subtleties along the way. These images were shot while on a break from work, in an area of a facility that has been dormant for several years. I had been meaning to do this for a while and now that it's undergoing some work to bring a portion back to life, I though I better get it done while the dim, dormant atmosphere was still there.

slumbering beast

DJE