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You really never know what you will come across in your day. This past weekend I drove to High Falls, the source of Bancroft’s York River and the terminus of Baptiste Lake. The dam there was built to prevent flooding of the town of Bancroft in the spring and features a beautiful, complex waterfall below the dam. There is a bit of a pool of water immediately above those falls. That particular… Read More
Similar to yesterday’s post, this photo was also made at Wendat Pond in the “Golden Hour”. This image took a bit more effort to set up, as I was deliberately trying to get the golden glow of the trees on the far shore as a backdrop and I was not very happy with my first few attempts. The bright glow I saw with my eyes was not being captured by the camera. So,… Read More
You never know what you might come across when you enter a natural setting. Today I took a lunchtime stroll to one of my regular haunts, the Stouffville Reservoir. Near the start of the trail there is a swampy area, where a small brook runs across the trail. This time of year it is particularly mucky and tricky to navigate. Generally, the water flows through at barely a meander and you might… Read More
A slightly different view of the forest for you to ponder. I spend a lot of time in the forest hiking and making photographs. People ask me where I find the wildflowers that I photograph. My response is, “Along the way”. I see them, because I know what to look for, where to look, and when to look, since I have experienced them in previous walks. Many of the flowers only bloom… Read More
Yesterday I talked about the cycles of nature and how wildflower blossoms follow a sequence. I posted a series of photos recently, documenting the blooming of several local wildflowers in a bit of a sequence and noted that the white trilliums should soon begin to show. Alas, show they did! I went back to the reservoir trails today, at lunch, to check on a stand of Trout Lilies, also known locally as ‘dog-tooth… Read More
On the spring theme of the Rainbow Trout spawn that occurs every year in this area, here’s a slightly abstract image of a trout mid-run up Duffins Creek, near Whitevale, Ontario. The image above is a time exposure of a single trout swimming against a particularly strong current at a point where the clear water in the foreground is mixing with water contaminated with clay, caused by the spring melt run-off from an adjacent… Read More
Taken last spring, during a walk along Duffins Creek. Another view of the annual trout run near Whitevale. In places, the trout are ‘stacked’ as they prepare to run up some of the shallower portions of the creek. Last year the creek was especially shallow for the time of year and there were a few deeper pools where multiple fish lined up for their run. I like this particular shot because it has a… Read More
Among my favourite photos from last year. Have you ever driven past a place dozens of times and thought, “I should stop sometime and make a photo of this”? That was the case with these poplars in Pickering. They are at the corner of side roads that I pass several time a year. But, the light is never quite right, or it’s dull and uninteresting looking. On this particular day, I had… Read More
I love watching the early plants emerge from the dead-looking ground in the spring. They follow the same pattern, year after year, whether it’s an early or late spring, the pattern remains consistent, though sometime s compressed or accelerated. This past winter was particularly cold and spring has been delayed by many cold spells. So, I walk through the woods in hopes of seeing those early emergences. I was very pleased to… Read More
Yes, I know, two posts in one day. 🙂 I had the opportunity today, now that it is starting to at least look more like spring, to go for a hike around our local reservoir. It’s a beautiful little sanctuary, with diverse plants and wildlife. The hiking trail offers me a nice place to unwind, and photograph, even during a busy day, because it is so close. I was not expecting to… Read More
During my drive back from Bancroft this past Thursday, I commented to my wife that it looked like and felt like February, rather than April. Spring has been slow to arrive in southern Ontario this year and my thoughts wandered back to November, when I stopped at Burleigh Falls to make a few long exposure photos of the falls there. At this particular time of year I basically have the place to… Read More
This is the second shot of this little fellow. As I mentioned in an earlier post, I was walking along the York River, planning on taking some long exposure shots of the rapids when this mink appeared among the rocks. He tried real hard to avoid me seeing him and I found myself dodging and weaving between the rocks to get a clear shot of him. At one point he even went into… Read More
This plant is, from my experience, the first plant to flower in spring in southern Ontario. It’s also a signal for me that the Rainbow Trout spawn is starting. It’s an unusual plant in that it blooms before it puts out foliage. The bright yellow flowers, that people often mistake for dandelions, form quickly on tough brown stalks and then go to seed. Shortly thereafter, large hoof shaped leaves form, thus the… Read More
On returning from a late day walk last summer, I looked up and saw this unique view of the sunset in Stouffville’s Memorial Park. The sun was just setting and the silhouette of the leaves against the setting sun got my interest. I’m always pleasantly surprised at the beauty all around us, whether grand mountain vistas or a simple tree in a park. You just have to be able to see it. This… Read More
Pinecones on willows? I keep seeing these pin cone-like structures on the ends of sandbank willow branches along Duffins creek and always wondered what they were. They actually are not a natural part of the willow, but rather, the homes of Pinecone Willow Gall-midges (Rhabdophaga strobiloides). These midges secrete a chemical that forces the willow to create these pinecone-like pods to provide the midges food and shelter. The adult midge lays its eggs in the… Read More
With the weather turning warmer in Ontario, I thought today would be a nice day to take a walk along Duffins Creek, near Whitevale, Ontario. It’s spring, the snow is gone, and the Coltsfoot is blooming, so it’s also time for the annual rainbow trout run up Duffins Creek to the Whitevale Dam. The dam was built several years ago to prevent the rainbow trout, which are an introduced species, from eating the native brown trout… Read More
I made this photo a few years ago while travelling to Montreal with my wife and her cousins from California. We spent a day touring Prince Edward County and decide to stay the night in Belleville, Ontario. When looking for a good local restaurant, we were directed to “The Boathouse” restaurant, which sits on Belleville’s harbour. The food was amazing and our stay timed out just right to see the sunset. As… Read More
Now this little fellow was one of this shots you get that you had no idea was going to happen. Last summer I went for a drive to High Falls, near Bancroft, Ontario to get some waterfall shots. On my way out I noticed a nice little pull-off where I could shoot some long exposures of the river and rapids below the falls. As I was setting up, I noticed a flash of movement… Read More
Part two of my November 2014 hike. As I said in yesterday’s post, I was actually hiking to a small grove of trees that I had photographed successfully in the past. The light conditions where not good in that location but it was spectacular on my hike in and out of the forest. The photo above is testament to that. The late afternoon sun was close to setting but bright enough to… Read More
This is a shot of the rapids below High Falls. It is the source of the York River as it flows from Baptiste Lake, north-west of Bancroft. I was taken by the speed of the water (thus the name) and the way the bright sunlight played through the water.
I love doing the effect in camera. With the right light and strong vertical lines, you end up with what looks like a painting and it is never the same twice.
Ed Lehming Photography 
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