Archives
“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
“A world which sees art and engineering as divided is not seeing the world as a whole.” – Sir Edmund Happold The varied and beautiful architecture in New York City took me completely by surprise. It must have been quite the place back in the late 19th century. I love fine details and could spend hours sitting in front of a building like this and drinking in all the fantastic stonework. It’s… Read More
“For me, the camera is a sketch book, an instrument of intuition and spontaneity.” ― Henri Cartier-Bresson Spring thaw, though not officially spring, has begun in southern Ontario. The scant snow and ice of this past winter is releasing it’s captives to open air once more. This scene, which I titled “Left Overs” is so typical of some of the trails I hike on. The local conservation authorities have put great effort… Read More
“Eventually, all things merge into one, and a river runs through it. The river was cut by the world’s great flood and runs over rocks from the basement of time. On some of the rocks are timeless raindrops. Under the rocks are the words, and some of the words are theirs. I am haunted by waters.” ― Norman Maclean The above, is one of my favourite quotes. it simply resonates with me… Read More
“Life is only a flicker of melted ice.” ― Dejan Stojanovic Along the trails lie small depressions, filled with water, and lined in ice. The ground beneath still frozen as the sun gently warms the ground, freeing the scene from winter’s hold. This scene, though it repeats every year, was particularly interesting, since it was such a mild winter and the only significant snowfall happened only a week ago. The result was… Read More
“Have you remembrances, the glimmering arches that span the summits of the mind?” – Khalil Gibran Inside the front doors of the new York Public Library, is Astor Hall, the grand foyer, with it’s high ceilings and barrel arches. When you walk in, you cannot help but look up and around this vast space of bright, intricately carved marble. I can put myself back to a time when this was being built… Read More
“One belongs to New York instantly, one belongs to it as much in five minutes as in five years.” ― Tom Wolfe Just as you enter Times Square from the south, along Broadway. There’s a stunning building amid the business and noise of the modern Times Square with it’s neon lights and larger than life billboards that turn night to day. That building, is the Knickerbocker. MAP This beautiful Beaux-Art building hearkens back to a… Read More
“Everything in New York is a photograph. All the things that are supposed to be dirty or rough or unrefined are the most beautiful things. Garbage cans at the ends of alleyways look like they’ve been up all night talking with each other. Doorways with peeling paint look like the wise lines around an old feller’s eyes.” ― Ann-Marie MacDonald Yes, it’s my second photo this week of this awesome building, but a… Read More
“I get a little romantic about the old Empire State. Just looking at it makes me want to play some Frank Sinatra tunes and sway a little. I have a crush on a building. I’d been in there several times but never to work. I always knew there were offices in there but the face never penetrated, really. You don’t work in the Empire State Building. You propose in the Empire State… Read More
“Life isn’t just about darkness or light, rather it’s about finding light within the darkness.” ― Landon Parham Another shot of the water tanks. I could not help myself. They are everywhere in New York City and I have a strange fascination with them. This image shows the wooden variety and a steel tank on the same rooftop. My other observation about new York City is the abundance of soft reflected light. I… Read More
“The peculiar office structure appears to exercise a strange fascination over some minds, for not only do hundreds of people stand for five and ten minutes at a time looking up at it, but many of those who have detached themselves from the groups are obliged to return in a minute or two to examine the structure from another point of view” – New York Times, 1902 I completely understand what the… Read More
“He has made me wary of chronological snobbery. That is, he showed me that newness is no virtue and oldness is no vice. Truth and beauty and goodness are not determined by when they exist. Nothing is inferior for being old, and nothing is valuable for being modern.” ― John Piper One of the first things that I noticed while walking around New York was the wooden water tanks that topped most… Read More
“Even in its darkest passages, the heart is unconquerable. It is important that the body survives, but it is more meaningful that the human spirit prevails.” ― Dave Pelzer Situated on the north-west corner of the World Trade Centre Plaza, I’m sure this building has some stories to tell, as it sustained some damage during the 9-11 attacks and has a clear view of the Plaza itself. I did not think of the… Read More
“Poetry is not only dream and vision; it is the skeleton architecture of our lives. It lays the foundations for a future of change, a bridge across our fears of what has never been before.” – Audre Lorde The ‘Oculus’ is the odd, skeleton looking building left of centre. It is part of the connection between the New Jersey PATH transit system and the New York subway systems that intersect at the World Trade… Read More
“I can’t stand a naked light bulb, any more than I can a rude remark or a vulgar action.” – Tennessee Williams I noticed these awesome light bulbs while waiting for our play, Chicago, outside the Ambassador theatre on West 49th Street in New York. The coffee shop is Caffe Benne, part of the Crowne Plaza Hotel. MAP What really attracted me to them was the variations in bulb type and colour temperature…. 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
“She turned to the sunlight And shook her yellow head, And whispered to her neighbor: “Winter is dead.” ― A.A. Milne My favourite, for now, patch of Elecampane. Lit by the warm afternoon sun along the Seaton Trail. There is something appealing in the orange remnants of the blossom in contrast to the gray, dried steps. The vestiges of the former blossoms glow brightly in the sun while the dry steps remind… 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
“One must know the so-called ‘lesson of a downpour.’ A man, caught in a sudden rain en route, dashes along the road not to get wet or drenched. Once one takes it for granted that in rain he naturally gets wet, he can be in a tranquil frame of mind even when soaked to the skin. This lesson applies to everything. ” – Yamamoto Tsunetomo Above is a photo from the past… Read More
“No reason for a feverish rush For we will all arrive in the same place At the right time. Justice will be served. There will be no better or worse, No big and small, no rewards, no punishment, No guilt, no judges, no hierarchies; Only silent equality.” ― Dejan Stojanovic The image above could be a churning ocean or a stormy beach, but it’s a small section of creek below the falls… 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
“Ice contains no future, just the past, sealed away. As if they’re alive, everything in the world is sealed up inside, clear and distinct. Ice can preserve all kinds of things that way- cleanly, clearly. That’s the essence of ice, the role it plays.” ― Haruki Murakami, Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman A temporary reprieve from the cold of winter, hinting at a more prolonged thaw and the promise of spring ahead. Ice… Read More
“The magical way the wintertime warms you up is through its frozen beauties!” ― Mehmet Murat Ildan Yesterday, was a spectacular day! Here we are in mid February and the temperatures hit 12° C. The light was glorious and the outdoors beckoned me. So, with camera bag in hand, I set out to enjoy the day and see what it would reveal to me. Since the temperatures last week were around -30°… Read More
“We gaze continually at the world and it grows dull in our perceptions. Yet seen from another’s vantage point, as if new, it may still take the breath away.” ― Alan Moore Winter wears on, some days are bright and clear and others dark and dreary. Yet, through it all, nature lives on and builds crystal sculptures on frames of wood, grass, and stone. At the right time of day, the sun… Read More
“…I hear the sounds of melting snow outside my window every night and with the first faint scent of spring, I remember life exists…” ― John Geddes It’s mid-February and our first significant snow has fallen and begun to melt within a few short days. Beneath the thinning blanket of ice and snow, water writhes, flows, and drips, only to be frozen briefly by the chill of night and released once more by… Read More
“Constellations shine with light that was emitted aeons ago, and I wait for something to come to me, words that a poet might use to illuminate life’s mysteries. But there is nothing.” ― Nicholas Sparks My first foray into astrophotography. Wow! There’s a heady handle! I’ve seen so many spectacular images of the Milky Way and constellations that I was determined to try my hand at this. So, with tripod in hand,… Read More
“As you simplify your life, the laws of the universe will be simpler; solitude will not be solitude, poverty will not be poverty, nor weakness weakness.” ― Henry David Thoreau Simple beauty, oft passed by. This little cascade is right next to the highway outside of Gravenhurst, a small town in Ontario, Canada. I noticed it on my way to the cranberry marshes in Bala and decided to stop there on my… Read More
“Look at all the things around you, the immediate world around you. If you are alive, it will mean something to you, and if you care enough about photography, and if you know how to use it, you will want to photograph that meaningness.” – Paul Strand I am reminded daily that I live in a living world. That world envelops me, nourishes me, sustains me. My eye picks up on subtle colours,… Read More
Ed Lehming Photography 
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