“Every journey has a beginning. What that journey has to bring, is an unknown, but our attitude in starting the journey often has a great impact on the outcome. I chose hope.” – Ed Lehming

In keeping with my photographic experiments, I have digitally enhanced this one as well. It brings me great joy to see what some of my everyday scenes transform into.

The image I chose today is a few steps in from the trailhead of one of my favourite local trails, North Walker Woods, near Uxbridge, Ontario. I have hiked this 6.5 kilometer circuit hundreds of times over the past two decades. Over this time, the familiar trail has offered me some of my best photographic memories, from bright spring flowers, deep summer greens, and spectacular autumn colours, as well as wonderful winter scenes.

What I have discovered, when entering this forest trail is to always expect something new. The forest is never the same, even on the same day. It is alive and vibrant and ever changing. I know this to be true because I have experienced it. Even on dull days, I come across some new wonder, some subtlety that I had not noticed earlier. The light also plays a lot into this, since it plays differently in different seasons and times of day. A beam of light may fall on an otherwise un-noticed blossom, or cast an interesting shadow across my path.

So it seemed appropriate to use this particular scene for one of my modified images. The digital enhancements serve as a new and enjoyable way to regard my many journeys down this familiar path, now transformed into something wonderfully new. It has, yet again, offered my a new perspective.

iPhone 12 Pro @ 4.2 mm
1/1500 sec, f/1.6, ISO 32