Archives
“It emerges from the ground, mindless of timing or conditions. Fresh, spring water wells up from deep underground to begin its long journey to rejoin the sea.” – Ed Lehming I have stood here many time before. It is the source of West Duffins Creek, a small local creek that flows from the Oak Ridges Moraine and empties into Lake Ontario, many kilometers south. It begins as a series of springs within… Read More
“It seems that most tasks are easier and more enjoyable when we have companions to accompany us.” – Ed Lehming This photo was caused by a bit of fortunate timing and my desire to recreate an image I made several years ago. Fortunate timing in that this spring has been quite unpredictable and the regular cycles that I follow are off by a few weeks. My trigger for visiting this local creek… Read More
“Beginning as a trickle from deep in the earth and combining with other small trickles, the creek forms and grows in the dark recesses of the forest” – Ed Lehming Here is another ‘re-imagined’ image of a scene I have tried countless time to do justice too. It’s the headwaters of Duffins Creek, a local creek that flows from the Oak Ridges Moraine to Lake Ontario. I have spent many years hiking… Read More
“Are you tired? Are you feeling that you will not be able to reach your destination? Then all you have to remember is that those who reached their far and hard destinations also felt the same way on their way! Knowing what others felt will give you a great power to complete your journey!” ― Mehmet Murat ildan I was looking for a suitable quote for this image and Mehmet always seems to… Read More
I have several interpretations to the OPEN theme. It could be open to any category of post or it could be the ‘opening’ of something, like a door. In this case, it’s the opening of the natural spring cycle in my area of Canada. Throughout the winter, this large creek lies frozen. Within a few short weeks it transforms from ice to a living place once more (another opening of sorts), as the… Read More
“We must begin thinking like a river if we are to leave a legacy of beauty and life for future generations.” ― David Brower Amidst the exciting rainbow trout run at Duffins Creek, other species of native fish are also in the spawn, including the White Suckers, pictured above, which are mixed among the trout as they work their way upstream. As I was walking the shore, enjoying and photographing the trout, I came… Read More
“When you do or think or feel something, do it with passion. Let it come from the heart. Put your heart and soul in it. And when you do, you will feel a river flowing sweetly through you and especially through your entire life. Life has much more meaning that way. ” ― Angie Karan A painterly image I made yesterday, based on a photo of two trout swimming upstream at the Whitevale… Read More
“Rest is not idleness, and to lie sometimes on the grass under trees on a summer’s day, listening to the murmur of the water, or watching the clouds float across the sky, is by no means a waste of time.” ― John Lubbock When time allows, I like to visit Duffins creek and stroll the riverbank, especially at this time of year. The narrow wooded trail follows the shoreline, through grand cedar… Read More
“Whenever there is stillness there is the still small voice, God’s speaking from the whirlwind, nature’s old song, and dance…” ― Annie Dillard Chilly water flows beneath icicles formed by the spray of the creek below. I found this to be an odd sight. April in my area has been ‘confusing’. We had beautiful sunshine and mild temperatures, followed by a deep freeze, snow, freezing rain, and strong winds, all within a… Read More
“The tree which moves some to tears of joy is in the eyes of others only a green thing that stands in the way. Some see nature all ridicule and deformity… and some scarce see nature at all. But to the eyes of the man of imagination, nature is imagination itself.” ― William Blake I absolutely love the William Blake quote above. It goes beyond simply this image. Number 6 in the… Read More
“No one is without troubles, without personal hardships and genuine challenges. That fact may not be obvious because most people don’t advertise their woes and heartaches. But nobody, not even the purest heart, escapes life without suffering battle scars.” ― Richelle E. Goodrich The dark shape hovers, just below the surface. Defying the rush of the frigid spring waters. Moving neither forward, nor back. Fixed in it’s intent, it’s goal. Progress from… Read More
“I could wade into this river, let my sins drown to the bottom, let the waters carry me someplace far. Someplace with no ghosts, no memories, and no sins.” ― Khaled Hosseini In what has become a springtime ritual for me, since discovering the phenomenon, some 20 years after living here, is walking the shores of Duffins Creek, near the town of Whitevale, and enjoying the annual trout run from Lake Ontario, to… Read More
“A river seems a magic thing. A magic, moving, living part of the very earth itself.” ― Laura Gilpin A few mere weeks ago, this entire scene was filled with ice and snow. A handful of mild days, and it’s all a memory, preserved and recalled in thoughts and photos. Since I don’t live in an area with high mountains and grand vistas, I take great pleasure in long hikes along the local… Read More
“When you see a fish you don’t think of its scales, do you? You think of its speed, its floating, flashing body seen through the water. Well, I’ve tried to express just that. If I made fins and eyes and scales, I would arrest its movement, give a pattern or shape of reality. I want just the flash of its spirits.” ― Constantin Brancusi I could not believe the colours on the… Read More
“Sense how Even the smooth stones ache With stories of their own In the shuddering light of day.” ― Scott Hastie Emerging from their icy bondage, two stones, or is it three, rest upon their captor, as ice water flows over them. What’s the story of these stones? They sit alone, apart from others. Where did they come from? The pure ice they rest in fills a narrow but deep, steep walled,… Read More
“Let us simmer over our incalculable cauldron, our enthralling confusion, our hotchpotch of impulses, our perpetual miracle – for the soul throws up wonders every second. Movement and change are the essence of our being; rigidity is death; conformity is death; let us say what comes into our heads, repeat ourselves, contradict ourselves, fling out the wildest nonsense, and follow the most fantastic fancies without caring what the world does or thinks… Read More
“By March, the worst of the winter would be over. The snow would thaw, the rivers begin to run and the world would wake into itself again. ― Neil Gaiman Bubbles, trapped in ice, glow beneath the icy waters of the spring thaw, like a wraith, lit by some inner glow. Mid-February this year brings an early and rapid thaw. Cold water flows with life over frozen creeks, softening the shapes trapped below, beckoning… Read More
“How strange that the nature of life is change, yet the nature of human beings is to resist change. And how ironic that the difficult times we fear might ruin us are the very ones that can break us open and help us blossom into who we were meant to be.” ― Elizabeth Lesser I was considering numerous titles for this images. There is a lot happening here. I was considering “Transitions”,… Read More
Elegant in it’s simplicity? Apparently, someone had been throwing rocks onto the ice, hoping for a breakthrough? I returned a few days later to find dozens of rocks littering the ice surface. It turns out that the frost pushed them from an adjacent cliff and the rolled across the ice, coming to rest some distance from their source. Things are not always as they seem. Perhaps this situation is a combination of… Read More
A challenging composition. Part of the ‘trick’ to capturing the motion of water is to create a time exposure based on the speed of the water and the light available. I tend to do most of these earlier in the day, or late afternoon, when the sun is soft and indirect. Last week I found myself, mid-day, looking at these wonderful scenes of water rushing past icy shores and trying to figure… Read More
This was an interesting phenomenon. With a change in temperature, the ice sheets had shifted and the water at this point of the river seemed to have to decide whether to go over the ice or under it. Most of the water went under the ice and seemed to pull at the surface water. The effect, which I tried to capture here, was a vortex of water which rotated on the surface… Read More
Above is another photo of the winter waters of Duffins Creek, north of Pickering , Ontario. It seems the creek had frozen solid to the bottom recently, as water was flowing over the ice in many places. This scene caught my attention as the sun revealed interesting aqua tones in the ice beneath the surface. The ice had tilted slightly, causing a bit of an ebb, or backflow, and created this wave… Read More
It appeared that the water was escaping from beneath the weight of the ice and dancing across the rocks and another more appropriate title did not come to mind. The early afternoon light filtered through from behind me and lit up some of the rocks, creating a beautiful glow on the rocks under the fast moving water. Once more, I tried to convey the sense of movement and urgency by doing a long… Read More
On a particularly nice day in mid-January, I went for a much needed hike along the Seaton Trail, south of Whitevale, Ontario, with my son. The day was an opportunity to enjoy the outdoors and make some photos. The creek was partially frozen over and full of wonderful detail in hues of blue and green. Above is a view of the typical scenery showing ice coverage and flow. The plants are all… Read More
To start this out, I’m stealing a wonderful quote from a fellow blogger spanishwoods. “In my opinion, the most ordinary things, the most common and familiar, if we could see them in their true light, would turn out to be the grandest miracles . . . and the most marvelous examples.” —Michel de Montaigne The above statement resonates with me on so many levels. I don’t live in an area with grand vistas,… Read More
I can’t help but reflect on this verse when I seen this scene on Duffins Creek, just south of Whitevale, Ontario. “They will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit.” The image of this tree, rooted firmly… Read More
Here’s the post that was supposed to happen on Friday, but I was in the Bancroft “no service” zone most of the day and forgot to update this. Another harbinger of spring in our area is Bloodroot. The beautiful white blossom emerges from a “shroud” created by its large green leaves. This particular specimen was found along the shores of Duffins Creek, near Whitevale, Ontario. It’s amazing just how fast it springs… Read More
Ed Lehming Photography 
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