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“Into the woods I venture, always pleased when I encounter new and unexpected sights.” – Ed Lehming I was pleased to be back on the forest trails again today. Last weekend was a tough hike, with melting snow and slush making ever step an adventure in balance, even with my cleats on. Today, the forest floor was coated with a fresh coat of snow and temperatures and re-frozen the slush of last… Read More
“On even the coldest winter days, the warm glow of the beech leaves radiate with a warmth that makes my very soul glad. I cannot help but smile with joy when I am blessed to be among them.” – Ed Lehming I’ve posted about the beauty of beeches in the winter on many occasions, yet I continue to find myself drawn to them. They provide me an inexplicable sense of joy in… Read More
“Water slowly percolates from the ground, joining with spring run off. Drop by drop, a meander is formed, winding gently through the valley, nourishing all along her shores.” – Ed Lehming This sun-filled valley represented more elements of my hike this past Thursday. The water, freshly emerged from a wetland spring behind me shimmers with life and energy. I can almost hear its gentle babbling in the photo; blue skies reflected on… Read More
“Seasons blend and confound, spring is fall and fall is spring; my senses are overwhelmed by the shear beauty of the confusion.” – Ed Lehming I spent most of the day out on the trails yesterday. The forecast was for milder than usual temperatures and the day exceeded expectations. I spent the day outdoors in a long sleeved tee shirt, with my sleeves rolled up. The sun shone brightly above and had… Read More
“In the space between old and new, a transition takes place, the path I follow puts me between both and I can partake in both without having to chose” – Ed Lehming This is another very familiar scene to me, transformed into something slightly different. The trail depicted here runs along the edge of a plantation pine forest. The forest slopes gently to the north, with the trail running westward, creating an… Read More
“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… Read More
“Winter hikes on cold days offer me time for quiet reflection, bright sunshine, and solitude” – Ed Lehming More and more, I find myself our hiking on even the coldest days. As the COVID pandemic continues to affect our world I’m finding the natural places around me to have become ‘discovered’ by more and more people trying to get outside and active. This has meant that the once quiet places I have… Read More
“Delicious autumn, I could revel in her warmth and colours for months and not get tired of it. Like a leaf suspended above the ground, I move in her breezes, lost in her splendour.” – Ed Lehming Such a simple thing, yet so much a part of the whole experience. This maple leaf, caught by chance on a cedar branch, hangs suspended above the forest floor, warm autumn light making it glow… Read More
“The surprises light offers are endless” – Ed Lehming Today’s image has a direct connection to the one I posted yesterday. Namely, the interesting colours that winter can offer. This is the first image I made as I embarked on a 6 km hike at a local conservation area. I used my standard camera setting for my deliberate camera movement pans, but this image was slightly overexposed. I would normally have deleted… Read More
“Nature amazes me still. Some changes are so gradual that you barely notice them while others happen in the blink of an eye.” – Ed Lehming Last week I took a much needed break at lunch and headed for a quick walk through the woods at North Walker Woods. For those who follow regularly, you will know that this is a place I like to go to quite frequently. It’s close to… Read More
“Sometimes life is hard … so we have to squeeze it, touch it, play with it, and make it soft like a dough! Now it’s soft enough to be shaped in any way we want! Keep moving, touching life, as this will keep it smooth and fun!” ― Karina Fonseca Azevedo This photo as sat in my draft folder for many months. I made it with my iPhone, as I hiked a… Read More
“Taking time in stillness is an essential part of my every day. It saves my sanity, it grounds and centers me. I can carry that peace with me wherever I go.” ― Akiroq Brost Welcome once more to a moment in the forest, this time a warm, dry, and largely mosquito free sojourn into the green. As I hike these trails, often 10-15 km at a time, I pass many wonderful scenes and… Read More
“Shafts of delicious sunlight struck down onto the forest floor and overhead you could see a blue sky between the tree tops.” ― C.S. Lewis Light does some amazing things. As a photographer, light is everything and my eyes are quite tuned to the unique characteristics of light. Anything out of the ordinary resonates with me and automatically draws me to it. This was the case on a hot and rainy hike this… Read More
“If we had no winter, the spring would not be so pleasant: if we did not sometimes taste of adversity, prosperity would not be so welcome.” ― Anne Bradstreet As I mentioned in my previous post, the beginning of spring was more like an extended winter. It was the kind of year where you wonder if it will ever warm up, but it eventually does. But, spring proper, has been delayed. As I… Read More
“And this is how the forest changes, one step, one day, one moment at a time. ” ― Ed Lehming The time of change is at my doorstep. Though flurries still fill the air from time to time, the inevitable change is palpable. Paths once completely ice covered are now more passable. Mud and leaves fill the spaces between, and the ice slowly recedes. Even the evergreens are a bit brighter, as the sun… Read More
“I love the scent of winter. I love the scent of winter enough to suffer the cold for it.” ― Tiffany Reisz It’s been a while since I posted, it’s also been a while since I’ve had anything to share. The cold snap finally eased up to the point where a reasonable person could venture out for a while. It’s felt odd, being cooped up and not making photos. So, I finally got… Read More
“Thank goodness for the first snow, it was a reminder–no matter how old you became and how much you’d seen, things could still be new if you were willing to believe they still mattered.” ― Candace Bushnell As my hike last weekend proceeded, the day warmed up just enough for the exposed patches of snow to melt, leaving only traces in the shadows, but enough to remind me that more is going to… Read More
“The Sun will rise and set regardless. What we choose to do with the light while it’s here is up to us. Journey wisely.” ― Alexandra Elle This is my final image in the “Spirit of the Spruce” series. One of the primary and surprising elements to this series has been the bold patches of light which show in each image; some more, some less. That, to me was the ‘spirit’ of the… Read More
“We went down into the silent garden. Dawn is the time when nothing breathes, the hour of silence. Everything is transfixed, only the light moves.” ― Leonora Carrington Indeed, only the light moves, and it appears in waves, as mid morning sunlight streams between the branches, warming the chilled November air. This was the scene that spread before me last weekend, as I took advantage of a sunny Sunday morning hike. Though the… Read More
“Blue offers up a tranquility which belies its true appearance.” ― Anthony T. Hincks This second post today is outside of my “Golden Paths” series, but part of the same timeframe. Exiting from the bright, golden forest, I found myself sitting on the bank of a pond, simply drinking in the sun’s warmth and enjoying the afternoon light. Next to me was this milkweed seed pod, burst open and dispensing its cargo of… Read More
“Living with love for all humankind and worshiping nature’s immense beauty cures heartache and restores bliss. Respecting the splendor of nature awakens us to the beauty inscribing our own humanity.” ― Kilroy J. Oldster Every now and then, a quote just ‘fits’ the photo so well. The ‘aliveness’ experienced at moments like this, standing on a trail and bearing witness to such simple marvels is a spiritual experience. Even looking back on the… Read More
“Art doesn’t give rise to anything in us that isn’t already there. It simply stirs our curious consciousness and sparks a fire that illuminates who we have always wanted to be.” ― Kamand Kojouri Deeper into the woods the path winds, the canopy ablaze with brightness and surreal colour. Ahead, a wall of shimmering orange and yellow, like ethereal flames, dances in the breeze, amidst dark tree trunks, filling my eyes with the… Read More
“… as we travel again between life and death, Waking and dream, blinking, while layers within layers, None better, none worse, unravel and knit up before us . . .” ― Jay Woodman The next image in the “Golden Paths” series, takes us a few more steps into the forest. Among the remaining greens, bright splashes of yellow, orange, and red burst among the branches. Surprisingly, for this time of year, the greens… Read More
“Fall has always been my favorite season. The time when everything bursts with its last beauty, as if nature had been saving up all year for the grand finale.” ― Lauren DeStefano The beginning of my “Golden Paths” series, is literally, a beginning. As I entered the trailhead, on a beautiful fall day, I was greeted by this scene, as I entered into autumn an a largely yellow and orange dominated kaleidoscope of… Read More
“The forest stretched on seemingly forever with the most monotonous predictability, each tree just like the next – trunk, branches, leaves; trunk, branches, leaves. Of course a tree would have taken a different view of the matter. We all tend to see the way others are alike and how we differ, and it’s probably just as well we do, since that prevents a great deal of confusion. But perhaps we should remind… Read More
“There are no dead ends in life’s journey; there are no crossroads, no forks in the road. People who chose not to see reality, see the world as a tangled maze of intersections, forks in the road, and dead ends. These are illusions of people who follow the well trampled wide path woven out by others. This is not their true path. Life’s true sojourn reveals a long winding narrow path that… Read More
“It is easier to tell a person what life is not, rather than to tell them what it is. A child understands weeds that grow from lack of attention, in a garden. However, it is hard to explain the wildflowers that one gardener calls weeds, and another considers beautiful ground cover.” ― Shannon L. Alder As I mentioned yesterday, it’s been too long since I had the opportunity to go for a… Read More
“It is strange how new and unexpected conditions bring out unguessed ability to meet them.” ― Edgar Rice Burroughs Many-coloured Polypore, to be more precise. Finally, after several weeks, waiting for the ice to come off the trails and for some of the muck to dry up, I hit the trails today. My goal was to find some sign of new life. I was let down on that front, much of the forest floor… Read More
“I just like to be alone sometimes, no I’m not angry, no I’m not sad. I just like to be alone. It’s how I recharge” – Unknown I’m still finding myself reflecting on some of the wonderful moments of late December 2016, including the many solitary hikes on our local trails. I was amazed that there were no other hikers out on several beautiful days after Christmas. The trails had obviously had use… Read More
Ed Lehming Photography 
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