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“Nature is filled with cycles, as one thing passes from this world, another is ready to take its place. Each eager for it’s time in the sun” – Ed Lehming I find myself returning to this place frequently, primarily because of the stark contrasts i find here. The hillside is filled with several standing dead pine trees. By the bleached look of them and the deterioration of the bark, I’d say they… Read More
“Golden light beams forth from the hillsides behind the tall pines, competing with the sunshine at my side; a competition for my attention.” – Ed Lehming This is a scene very typical of a local conservation area that I hike on a regular basis. Every visit I make offers some new scene of beauty that make me wonder if I had simply missed it on a prior passing. There is something along… Read More
“Slowly and subtly , the colours of the world shifted. The bright greens of summer transformed to gold and copper, as the autumn breeze rustled in the tree tops high above. The warm glooming of the summer forest filled with a soft light that brought vigour to my spirit as I partook in the forest freshness.” – Ed Lehming I truly love autumn. Though it’s a time when the forest begins preparations for… Read More
“High above, the raven skims the treetops, gliding silently on wings of dark silk” – Ed Lehming After some time in the woods of Secord Forest, a local conservation area, I emerged into the brightness of an overcast sky and watched two ravens circling above me. After awhile they both perched at the top of trees near the forest edge and began ‘talking’ to each other. Those familiar with ravens will know… Read More
“It’s the unexpected beauty in the most commonplace that often surprises us” – Ed Lehming This has been the nature of winter in my region. The days warm and cool rapidly, causing condensation and wonderful frost patterns on windows. The window here happens to be right next to my desk, so I see the patterns change on a regular basis. It’s especially nice in late afternoon, when the low sun shines between… Read More
“The snow began, as a faint mist, floating in the air, gradually softening the distant trees” – Ed Lehming So it was, that March morning, a day that started out dull, the forecast calling for light snow, which did not seem to materialize as I started my hike. Then slowly, a beautiful and unexpected brightness filled the forest, taking away some of the dull cast of ceaseless clouds that have dominated this… 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 The light in Iceland is incomparable, it possesses a magical quality and softness that simply pervades everything. I think, in part, is was partially due to the time of year, late October, when we visited. The sun never gets up very high and wonderful shadows… Read More
“I am reminded that the most fertile lands are often built by the fires of volcanoes.” ― Ed Lehming On the seventh day of our Iceland journey, my son and I travelled through the high mountain passes at the base of the West Fjords, southward along Highway 60 to rejoin the Ring Road, just north of the town of Bifrost. We were greeted by this spectacular view of a broad valley, filled with… Read More
“Faeries, come take me out of this dull world, For I would ride with you upon the wind, Run on the top of the dishevelled tide, And dance upon the mountains like a flame.” ― William Butler Yeats I can’t say enough about how stunningly raw the landscape in Iceland is. Even on dull, slightly overcast days, there are these short breaks in the cloud where the world is alight with colours, and… Read More
“When you don’t cover up the world with words and labels, a sense of the miraculous returns to your life that was lost a long time ago when humanity, instead of using thought, became possessed by thought.” ― Eckhart Tolle As I continue to review my photos from Iceland, inevitably I come across a collection of photos I have dubbed “The Golden Valley”. I posted one of them a few weeks ago. That… Read More
“How glorious a greeting the sun gives the mountains!” ― John Muir The name Austari – Skógarmannafjöll literally means East Skogar Mountains. I’m still trying to understand the multiple iterations of Icelandic names. These ‘mountains’ are a part of the area referred to by geographers as part of the Table Mountains of Northern Iceland. The whole region is characterized by vast, flat lava fields and these mountains stand alone in this flatness. For… Read More
“I like geography best, he said, because your mountains & rivers know the secret. Pay no attention to boundaries.” ― Brian Andreas Believe it or not, this is a colour photo. The light is heavily filtered by the snow filled clouds that created a significant driving challenge as I was travelling through the highland which separate North and East Iceland. The mountains are part of a long, actively volcanic, ridge that runs from… Read More
“Heiðarfall” – North Iceland “Though we travel the world over to find the beautiful, we must carry it with us, or we find it not.” ― Ralph Waldo Emerson On a day that started out dull, and blanketed in low cloud and with little promise of sights to photograph, we set out on the still icy road which would lead us to a stop at Goðafoss, a much photographed waterfall just off the main… Read More
“Once you have traveled, the voyage never ends, but is played out over and over again in the quietest chambers. The mind can never break off from the journey.” ― Pat Conroy This image, while slightly darker than some of my prior posts, represents so well my typical experiences on the trail; bright sunshine streams between the branches light above, the canopy has a slight yellow tinge, as the days shorten, there are… Read More
“As the years pass, I am coming more and more to understand that it is the common, everyday blessings of our common everyday lives for which we should be particularly grateful. They are the things that fill our lives with comfort and our hearts with gladness — just the pure air to breathe and the strength to breath it; just warmth and shelter and home folks; just plain food that gives us… Read More
“Let me bring you songs from the wood: To make you feel much better than you could know Dust you down from tip to toe Show you how the garden grows Hold you steady as you go Join the chorus if you can: It’ll make of you an honest man.” – Jethro Tull Strangely, the Jethro Tull song that I chose for my quote kept going through my head for much of… 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
“In times of stress, the best thing we can do for each other is to listen with our ears and our hearts and to be assured that our questions are just as important as our answers.” ― Fred Rogers Many times, I find these ‘secondary’ photos. Meaning, photos I had not set out to make. In this case, I had gone out to photograph local wheat fields, see yesterday’s post “Abundance“. As I… 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
“You think winter will never end, and then, when you don’t expect it, when you have almost forgotten it, warmth comes and a different light.” ― Wendell Berry Warm, merely describes the spectrum of the light, certainly not its effect on the surroundings. Once more, this winter, I find myself drawn to the trails, despite the bone chilling -20C temperatures. Despite a few days above freezing, winter was swooped back and locked the… Read More
“We must leave this terrifying place to-morrow and go searching for sunshine.” ― F. Scott Fitzgerald Though the forest image above is far from terrifying, at least for me, it can be a dark, foreboding place to many people, especially when you look deeper into the forest, as the tree trunks weave ever tighter and form a dark wall. Yet, even this wall has a gap and the sunshine pours through it, streaming… Read More
“Melancholy were the sounds on a winter’s night.” ― Virginia Woolf I thought I would do something a bit different and revisit a time and place I talked about yesterday, but from a slightly different angle and as a slightly different composition. This lone oak tree is perhaps the most photographed tree in this area. Even to the untrained, it just calls out ‘Take my picture.” As I said in yesterday’s post, this… Read More
“Beauty is seeing a flower bloom in a garden or in nature. Artificial is seeing that same flower try and grow in a vase of water.” ― Anthony T. Hincks The only words that came to me as I gazed across the horizon, while driving home from a concert last night, was that it looked like a gloaming false dawn. As you can see from the image, there are streaks of blue and… Read More
“May it be a light to you in dark places, when all other lights go out.” ― J.R.R. Tolkien I can almost put myself in a Tolkien story when the elements combine to produce scenes like this. The forest seems imbued with its own stories of wonder. The more time I spend in the forest the more I become aware of this phenomenon. I have stood in deep spruce groves and witnessed a… Read More
“I cannot endure to waste anything so precious as autumnal sunshine by staying in the house.” ― Nathaniel Hawthorne Even at this time of year, days away from the first official day of winter, I’m enjoying the sunshine of autumn. Especially this time of year when it is so bright and crisp, yet seemingly scarce, making it all the more precious. As I spent a few hours out on the trails last weekend,… Read More
“There is a crack in everything. That’s how the light gets in.” ― Leonard Cohen Truly, a crack in the clouds, and that’s how the light gets in. Despite the snow-covered ground and a cold snap to the air, a warm and wondrous light shines through the treetops, setting the beech leaves along the trail alight with gold. It’s scenes like this that keep me coming back to the woods. Well, it’s more… Read More
“I wonder if the snow loves the trees and fields, that it kisses them so gently? And then it covers them up snug, you know, with a white quilt; and perhaps it says, “Go to sleep, darlings, till the summer comes again.” ― Lewis Carroll The first real snow has dusted the trails, changing the landscape and light. The temperatures have dropped and I expect this dusting will be the start of several snowy days…. Read More
“Because you don’t notice the light without a bit of shadow. Everything has both dark and light. You have to play with it till you get it exactly right.” ― Libba Bray As I’ve said many times this past year, it’s amazing what we see and don’t see, or rather notice. In the case of these poplar trees, which I have passed through immeasurable times, the camera picks up on light changes that… 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
Ed Lehming Photography 
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