Photo of the Week 2025-09-08

 

Friends suggested a walk out to the Lake Huron shoreline at Alvar Bay Nature Reserve.
I'd been there before in both winter and summer but was interested to return.

 

Difficult to assess scale in this image, the roots of this tree were nearly as tall as me at 6' and show hoe shallow these root systems are for trees lining on the alvar, with little if any soil above the limestone rock surface.

 

' uprooted '

I tried to work a composition to show the entire root system. It was difficult given the surrounding vegetation I had to get in front of yet stay far enough back with the 24mm prime lens I had at the time. 

 

DJE 

Photo of the Week 2025-03-03

 

' rocks 'n reflections on fall pond '

I'm making an effort to get out with camera when I'm home and visiting some favourite locations from the past seems right ... and maybe some new places too.

 

On a crisp, cold fall morning, I decided to go for a drive and see what I could see. Approaching the road to Snyder Flats, I decided to turn in and see how the place might have changed. As luck would have it, there was a little frost on the vegetation and with water temps higher than the air temp there was some mist over the pond to add atmosphere to the scene.

 

' morning pondside '

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

' sun on fall pond '

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I'm working through the many images added to the library since returni9ng from Scotland back in September. These from the beginning of November should tell you I have a few more to go ;-)

 

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 2023-03-06

 

' A visit from Oakley '

Almost 9 years ago to the day, I had my first close encounter with Oakley on the ice of Hay Bay. Today, Oakley made a return visit, or it could be Oakley Jr. given the time gone by. In any event, it was a great experience to see and observe the activity of this critter.

 

Lynn and I had just finished out morning walk with Murphy, which he concludes with a trip "down to the water" (or ice as it is in winter). I hadn't always joined them but since seeing an otter far off across the bay a couple of days before, I made a point of following to see what was going on.

Looking out over the ice, I noticed a far off dark spot and watched it for a while until I saw movement. That was enough to send me back to the cottage for a camera with my longest lens mounted on a monopod. When I returned, I framed up on the spot and made a number of shots from the treeline before moving closer and potentially spooking the whatever it was. I could see it was an otter and wanted to get closer. I re-positioned out on the shoreline where I was quite visible, framed up again and could better see the otter grooming as it lay near what I assumed was an opening in the ice.

It seemed quite content to continue with a wary glance now and then to keep an eye on me. EXIF data from the first series of captures at the treeline showed I was focusing to a distance of more than 150m. After repositioning twice more, I managed to get within 100m but that was as close as I could get in a direct line between me and my subject. I was at the edge of thin ice along the shoreline and took my eye off the subject to assess other options to get closer. When I looked back to the otter it was gone, off under the ice heading somewhere else on the bay. I remained there for several minutes scanning the ice from left to right, near and far without any sign of my subject.

Thinking the encounter was over, I collapsed the monopod and trekked back across the ice to our place, always looking down, my footing (no time to put on ice cleats). As I approached the snow covered shore at our place, I glanced to my left and there was the little bugger had come out of an opening in the ice in front of our neighbour's. Unseen, I froze, raised the camera and grabbed a few hand held shots. Trying to keep stable on the uneven spot where I had abruptly stopped rather than look for something flat, less slippery and risk losing this closer photo opportunity, I cautiously extended the monopod, framed the subject, zoomed in to the max and fired off frames at maximum burst speed. Unsteady and trying both to keep my balance and capture Oakley bounding towards shore at our neighbours, I was spotted. It froze for just a second, turned to stare at me, then hurried back to the safety of water, keeping one eye on me. Stopping for one last look before slipping back below the ice, I was able to grab some final shots with the subject well lit by morning sun over my left shoulder.

 

What a great encounter! Another for the memory bank.

 

Note: EXIF data from this last series of shots indicated a focus distance of just over 40m. I was shooting at 400mm with a 1.4x converter on full frame for an equivalent focal length of 560mm to get the lead shot for this post. I cropped the image about 5% to remove some foreground for better balance but that's about it.

 

DJE 

Photo of the Week 2022-02-21

 

This week, a departure from my foray into infrared, but still something showcasing the wonder of winter because regular followers of my photography know I love winter.

 

' Left at the Birch '

 

 

With every snowfall, a fresh canvas,

 

 on which nature will paint

 

Be it hard cold edged ice

 

or soft delicate flake

 

The beauty is there to be seen

 

You have only you look

 

 

DJE

Photo of the Week 2021-11-29

Almost the end of November and they're baaaack !!

 

' wary glance '

I recently made some time to visit an area that has provided most of my opportunities to photography Snowy Owls and was again rewarded with sightings ... two separate sightings on two separate days (likely the same bird).

 

This image of a female or immature male Snowy Owl was made on the second day, when the bird was much closer to an accessible vantage point. I was able to get close enough for this highly cropped image (approximately 60% of the original frame height) from my Canon R5 in 1.6 crop mode with EF100-400 LII and EF1.4x III (effective focal length 896mm).

 

There is no substitute for focal length when photographing birds, not just focal length, good glass and high mega pixel resolution all play an important part. I like to photograph birds, in particular, unique species like the Snowy Owls and Bald Eagles I can find near our cottage. If I was more dedicated to bird photography, my expenditure on lenses would be significantly greater. I'm not saying never, but for now I'll stick with the gear I have and get what I can get image wise.

 

Sadly, I've decided that I will I no longer share locations of where I find and photograph wildlife on social media. I've seen and heard of too many instances where wildlife are harassed by over exuberant photogs too focused on getting the shot to the detriment of stressing the animal. I'm not saying that I have no impact on my subjects, but I strive to observe and read the animal's behaviour to know when to move on ... as I did with the owl in this week's photo.  I had spent some time at the side of a busy road close to this beauty when it became evident that other cars were slowing down and my presence I was drawing more attention to the bird. As experience has taught, soon other's would be stopping and ... well, I'll just say it usually doesn't go the way I would prefer.

 

DJE

Photo of the Week 2021-08-02

When I think back a few years to hosting a couple of friends, Alan and Patrick, at the cottage for a photography weekend, I laugh. Not just because we had a fun time, sketching, photographing, telling stories ...

... but Patrick, who is very knowledgeable about flora and fauna, left me with a comment and observation that I am reminded of annually this time of year. It came after I mentioned that I had not been able to find many of the 40 plus species of orchid that call the Bruce Peninsula home.

As I recall, we had just returned from an outing at Sunset Park where low water levels had allowed us to carefully amble and ramble along the shoreline to make photos. Quite casually, Patrick said something like 'you know you have Helleborine out in your driveway'. I must have looked rather unimpressed until he added 'you know that's an orchid'.

I laughed long and hard then, and smile every year when the Broadleaf Helleborine blooms in a number of locations on our property ...

 

Helleborine Trio

 

 

DJE

Photo of the Week 2021-07-26

 

When I picked up a new camera body a few weeks ago, the 24-105 lens I ordered had not yet arrived, so I had to use the new mirrorless body with DSLR lenses via an adapter which was no biggie since I already had it and was good to go.

 

I chose to try out my Sigma 70mm Macro and Sigma 150mm Macro lenses first and have been enjoying my return to close up, shallow depth of field imagery. It should not then be a surprise that my post this week is again a macro / close up image(s).

 

While readying the BBQ for dinner grilling at the cottage, I noticed an interesting subject on the flower-head of the Curly Dock growing in our pollinator patch.

 

white webster

 

I'm always looking at what is growing and living in the patch and noticed this Goldenrod Crab Spider out at the end of the Curly Dock checking things out. At first it was quite still. I used my 150mm macro to capture this image from quite close, then later as it moved around, I re-positioned for a closer shot, near the minimum focus distance of the lens.

Four-Eyes

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It was interesting trying to get sharp images, not only because of the very shallow depth of field, but because the breeze was bouncing the plant around a fair bit. The movement actually caused the spider to fall off the plant ... 

hanging by a thread

 

... to be saved by a single thread of silk, hang there for a bit, then climb back up.

 

DJE

PHoto ogf the Week 2021-04-05

 

Sulphur Spring ... an abstract

 

Sulphur Spring - Reflection

I'd wanted to explore Sulphur Spring Conservation Area ever since seeing the signs for it along the road as we pass near Hanover on our way to the cottage.

Not knowing what to expect, I stopped in recently and did the short hike to the main attraction, the spring itself. Finding it difficult to capture the spring in an image, I went with a shot looking down into the deep water of the spring, catching the reflection of sky and adjacent trees in the hypnotic movement of the water surface.

 

DJE

Photo of the Week 2021-03-08

 

Always on the lookout for wildlife as I travel to and from Tobermory, this time of year has my "eyes peeled" for snowy owls. I usually see at least one, sometimes more. But last week, as we drove out of the hot spot for owl sightings, I was about to take a break from scanning the area to either side of the highway when I noticed something large perched in a tree.

 

Nicely perched, this bald eagle was close enough for me to park roadside and shoot from the vehicle without disturbing it too much. Though it is quite evident that it knew I was there, I did not approach any closer than other passing traffic and got what shots I could without causing it to fly off.

 

I make a point of describing how I approached photographing this magnificent bird because I've seen first hand how others with camera (I hesitate to call them photographers) are far too careless and disruptive in their approach. It's not just about getting the shot. It's about capturing a genuine wildlife moment with as little stress to to the subject as possible.

 

note: these images are 35% crops from the original captures, even with my 7DII, EF100-400 II and 1.4x Extender for a effective focal length of ~900mm

 

DJE

Photo of the Week 2020-12-28

Well, well, well ...

 

I forgot to get a post out yesterday. I think this makes twice in over 10 years that I've missed making a Photo of the Week post on Monday. So here we go, a day late and backdated to yesterday ;-)

 

' Sleeping Beauty '

 

The back-story: I made a solo trip up to the cottage for a single night just before Christmas to check on things and take some items up so we would have more room in the vehicle the next trip. It also gave me an opportunity to scout around and look for photo opportunities without having to be concerned with passengers.

 

The drive up was mostly unrewarding photographically as the weather was quite blah. After cruising some of the secondary roads north of Wiarton, I managed to photograph a Rough-legged Hawk and grabbed a far off shot of a female Snowy Owl sitting on a fence post out in a farm field, but nothing really noteworthy. That day remained heavily overcast and dull so there were not night sky photo opportunities either.The weather forecast was for rain the next day so I planned to take care of a couple of things and leave early morning with enough time to do some Snowy Owl scouting on the was home.

 

I made a mid-morning departure and about 30 min into the drive I decided to pull off the highway to refill my coffee cup from my thermos. Safely on the shoulder of a side-road, I screwed the cap back on the thermos and looked out the side window to catch ' Sleeping Beauty '

 

 

Sleeping Beauty

Talk about serendipity! I'm not sure I would have noticed this bird as I scanned the area to either side of the highway as I drove along, but there she was. Sitting pretty and completely at rest if not sleeping. I watched for almost an hour and she never moved for nearly 20 minutes when she opened her eyes a bit and shortly after began preening.

I particularly like this image because the owl is perched on a rock in a natural environment as opposed to on a fence post, hydro pole or other man made structure. She stands out well against the darker field grass background.

An there you have it ... a day late and well worth it IMO.

 

DJE

Photo of the Week 2020-08-10

Following a recent web presentation for Orchid Fest 2020, I turned my gaze downward on my walkabouts on "the Bruce', not just to watch for the Massasauga Rattlesnakes that seem to be more numerous this year, but to watch for some of the 44 species of Orchid that make their home there.

The season for Yellow Lady's Slipper (large & small) has come and gone this year. And I was surprised to find Striped Coralroot growing on our cottage property a few weeks back, Then a short while ago, thanks to the webinar, I noticed Helleborine growing in several spots around the perimeter of our property.

Helleborine Orchid Flower

Helleborine

 

Helleborine Plant

As you could read in the links I've provided, Helleborine (Broadleaf Hellleborine, Common Helleborine) is found widely over the North-Eastern US and Easter Canada. It's considered a common non-native species that can actually become invasive. Not as flashy as the Yellow Lady's Slipper or Showy Lady's Slipper, it can be easy to miss. The flowers are small (1cm) and generally point downwards making it east to overlook their miniature beauty ... unless you are specifically on the lookout for some of the natural treasures 'the Bruce' has to offer.

DJE

Photo of the Week 2020-06-22

Slippers ... slippers ... slippers ...

Spring is a wonderful time on 'the Bruce' with the wildflowers making an appearance to add splashes of colour along trails, in the woods and along the roadways. Special among these flowers are the orchids and their most common variety the Yellow Lady's Slipper. They emerge and delight for only a brief period before fading and ultimately dying off for another season.

Over the last couple of weeks, I spent some time capturing the Yellow Lady's Slippers I see in the area close the cottage, before they wither and disappear for another year.

burgundy sepals

fading beauty

DJE

Photo of the Week 2020-03-09

Shooting as much as I do, it's easy for images to slide further and further back into lesser seen sections of the catalogue. I've taken to flagging images in various ways in an effort to minimize this. Some are flagged for future processing, others are processed and flagged as candidates for posting, still others, the best, are flagged to be printed.Still, some fall through the cracks and it's a pleasant surprise when they are "rediscovered".

Recently while performing some file maintenance on the image catalogue recently, I spotted shot that I had planned to work on but, as happens, had found a crack. Perhaps because it is and infrared capture that typically needs some processing to evaluate properly, I had not flagged it, perhaps because I was focused on another series of images. I can't recall.

"Rediscovered", I immediately flagged it and later processed it with standard Red-Blue channel swap, cropped in the Golden Ratio and processed it with a little contrast tweak.

Spring Creek - IR

This week's photo was captured one morning while exploring the backroads of the Bruce Peninsula. After making some conventional exposures of the scene, I used the infrared modified EOS M to capture this scene with 590 nm filter. 



DJE

Photo of the Week 2019-12-02

"Variety is the spice of life"

... I find this to be true in my photographic life.

When people discover that photography is a passion for me, they frequently ask me what I photograph. My usual response is something like "mostly nature, landscape and wildlife", though in truth, I enjoy photographing just about everything.

In the past month alone, I have photographed a variety of subject matter, with a variety of cameras, in a variety of styles. Travel, Documentary, Nature, Wildlife, Landscape, Street, and Infrared are all genres that my photography has touched in a short few weeks. Photography really is a 'Journey' for me, an enjoyable, sometimes whimsical, sometimes frustrating, always enlightening journey.

Here's a sampling of what I saw through my lens in November 2019. None of these have been shared prior to this post, though others from the respective outings may have ... enjoy.

Alan Doyle

not so shy

As my 'bio' reads: "My library of work could be described as a somewhat eclectic collection but primarily covers the outdoors, landscape, nature and wildlife. I make images of scenes and subjects that move me visually, sharing them with others through my photographic fine art prints and online."

To everyone who follows me on the 'journey' offering encouragement and comment, I sincerely thank you. To those who don't yet, I invite you to follow along.



DJE

Photo of the Week 2018-03-19

Sometimes the urge to post the most recent images can be hard to resist ... very hard. An sometimes there is a little help in resisting that urge. This week that happens to be the case, with '"help" coming from two sources. 

With over a thousand frames from an early morning outing to capture the Tundra Swan migration to sort through and cull, there was not enough time left in the day (or night) to get through them all ... and I didn't want to grab one for the photo of the week without going through the full process.

So what we have for this week is inspired by some recent reading on wolves and coyotes. Those readings spoke to the nature of ecosystems, the role that wolves and coyotes play, and their unfair persecution. I went rogue in my processing as I looked for a way to convey the sense of fragility that I was left with ...

fragility

DJE

Photo of the Week 2017-10-16

On a recent trip into Owen Sound, I made a point of visiting Indian Falls Conservation Area to check out the fall colours. It was a weekday and nary another visitor was to be seen along the trail or river ... how serene peaceful it was.

It's only a 10 min hike up to the falls, and I had about an hour before I had to get going back to Tobermory, so I took my time hopping off the train now and then to check out upstream views of the creek. There's a point where the formal trail heads up a set of stairs to ascend the gorge, continuing on to the viewing area for the falls. In recent years, a collapse of a limestone section on the north side of the falls has prompted the erection of safety barriers set further back and the traditional observation area so I chose to make a couple of quick exposures and return to the river bed and push upstream on the unofficial trail.

This upstream view of Indian Creek caused me to stop, find a place to sit and take in the peaceful surroundings for a while before continuing upstream.

Indian Creek III - Fall 2017

I made a few similar images on the upstream trek, each conveying it's own sense of calm and serenity. I hope you enjoy looking at a couple of them as much as I enjoy recalling my visit to Indian Falls.

Indian Creek - Fall 2017

Indian Creek II - Fall 2017

DJE

Photo of the Week 2017-06-05

Driving north for the weekend, I was eager to see if the orchids had begun to bloom since our last visit. Only a week ago there was hardly a suggestion of their presence. Even those leaves that had begun to push up, reaching for sunlight, precious few. With "everything 2 weeks behind", as Lynn frequently comments, I wondered if this year's Orchid Festival (June 2-4) on the Bruce would be a bust. Encouraging signs started to appear along Hwy 6 when we had passed Dyer's Bay Rd. Here and there, tiny splashed of yellow were visible along the road allowance. There was hope ...

Though seemingly not as numerous as in past years, at least yet, those familiar splashes of yellow became more frequent the further we drove. On a morning walk after overnight rain had freshened the vegetation making greens appear more lush, I encountered a number of yellow beauties including this bunch posing at the base of a stump (painterly effect chosen to present something a little different).

Posing Beauties

DJE

Photo of the Week 2017-02-27

I'm eager to get out and shooting with my recently converted EOS M camera body. Winter conditions are not ideal for IR, so I spent some time this weekend looking through the limited number of shots made with a Canon G6 Point & Shoot that was converted a few years back.

Not only was it fun to be reminded of my initial exploits into IR, but also of a visit to one of the favourite places I have visited. Killarney ON is a place that found it's way into my heart and spirit, thankfully refusing to let go. The beauty of Killarney needs no enhancement ... but that's not to say one can't portray different interpretations through a variety of media and techniques. 

Chikanishing Trail, Killarney - An Infrared Interpretation

I feel the gentle pull of Killarney ...

DJE

Photo of the Week 2017-02-20

This week's photos are more about the experience around the photo rather than showcasing a single image that I'm pleased with ... quite the opposite actually. I wish I'd been able to get a lot closer to capture a stunning image of the activity I experienced on a gorgeous sunny winter afternoon.

The background ... it begins with me heading into the cottage after a short walk with Lynn  and Murphy. I'd been fighting a cruddy cold, coughing, sputtering, wheezing, sniffing and generally feeling crappy since Thursday. Tired out from the walk, I decided to go in and rest for a bit, while Lynn headed down to sit in the chairs at the shoreline and take in the sunshine.

She had taken the binoculars with her, as she often does now, and soon there was a knock at the picture window and some words that were just mumbles through the glass. But she turned and seemed to hurry back down to the shoreline so I figured there was something to see. I grabbed my 7DII with the 100-400mm and went down to see what was up.

It turns out she had spotted a Bald Eagle flying along the far side of the bay and by the time I managed to get out there I figured it was long gone on it's search for a meal ... not so. Lynn managed to spot it again perched in a tree along the far shore and directed me to the spot.

Even with the longest lens I had, there would be no close ups given the distance so I settled into a chair and we watched the eagle for well over an hour. We saw it fly from the tree to the ice, where it caught something (fish likely) and had a meal before flying to perch on top of an ice mound. As it sat there we scanned around and we both noticed some other activity that turned out to be a family of three otters bobbing in and out of the open water. Apparently there was a meal in the area and eventually I was able to capture a scene with with all the payers in one frame.

3 Otters and an Eagle

Yes there's actually and eagle out there ...

an Eagle ... crop

 Yes there is actually a family of 3 otters out there ...

3 Otters ... crop

 ... and yes I'm wishing I had a longer lens but even 600mm @ $10,000 wouldn't have gotten the image that I wanted in this case so I'll save my money.

One final image as I followed the eagle over onto the ice flow where it had another meal and then flew back to perch on the ice mound for a while before taking off for who knows where.

touchdown

... what a memorable experience.

DJE