Photo of the Week 2025-09-01

 

Driving north solo recently, I used the opportunity to visit and photograph at a series of historical mill sites in Grey and Bruce Counties. It was a very productive outing photographically, resulting in more than two dozen images I later processed and have or will publish for my ongoing 'Mills of Ontario' project.. 

 

' Arranvale Dam Remains '

As spirit moves me, I research and map potential photo locations for outings such as this using Google Maps. I create 'lists' for different geographic locations and themes. My spirit is stirred when I'm told about a location, see one through others work, or otherwise hear of one, then I note it down or map it at the time.

 

I find Google Maps particularly useful for this because it's always available on my phone providing there is signal and I can use it as a navigational aide for driving. It's been my 'go to' for trips abroad as well as here at home.

 

DJE 

Photo of the Week 2019-03-25

monuments

I've long admired an interpretation of this particular scene as captured by photographer and friend Alan Norsworthy.

Having passed by these remnants of a quarrying operation countless times while walking the trails at what is now Fletcher Creek Nature Reserve, I've never quite been content with my own versions. Alan seemed to have captured something different, something more that was missing in my images. I thought perhaps because of my years working in the industry, familiarity with such structures prevented me from seeing these as objects in an artistic context and I just dismissed them as "ho hum". I think that may be part of it. Often, with things unfamiliar, I'll spend some time and investigate their potential as photographic subjects, exploring different points of view, their form, their interplay with light and shadow. In this case I also think that there was a desire not to duplicate what Alan had captured, to avoid a "me too"

I marked the images I made back in 2013 for another look sometime down the road and have stumbled on them a number of times since but here I am down the road and it's time ...

... coming back to them with a new approach using some gritty post processing techniques and applying a texture, I have found something of my own.

monuments II

monuments III

DJE