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“One of the reasons there are so many terms for conditions of ice is that the mariners observing it were often trapped in it, and had nothing to do except look at it.” ― Alec Wilkinson As winter transitioned into spring and the light coating of snow melted on the lakes, rivers and ponds in the area, some very interesting effects emerged, that I had not previously noticed. Perhaps it’s due to the… Read More
“Every doorway, every intersection has a story.”- Katherine Dunn For any who have not had the opportunity to visit Toronto, there is a wonderful area which used to be the Gooderham and Worts distillery. After the distillery ceased operations, the early 19th century buildings were preserved and it has become a popular destination filled with shops, restaurants, and art galleries. It’s a place I visit at least once a year and always offers 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
“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
“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
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
“Let your soul stand cool and composed before a million universes.” – Walt Whitman Like stars in a dark sky, these maple keys glowed against a shadowy forest. Lit by a late afternoon sun that seemed to spark some inner light, more than just the sunlight itself, these dried Manitoba Maple keys mesmerized me. I stood for a while, just enjoying this scene and considering ways to photograph it in a way… Read More
“Every moment and every event of a man’s life on earth plants something in his soul” – Thomas Merton It’s the simple pleasure of walking by a group of dried flower stalks and seeing something wondrous in them. Among the winter kill, these plants, though dead as well, refuse to lay down. Instead, they stand along the shores, nearly six feet tall, enduring the elements like some wild sentinels. Though cold winds blow, snow… Read More
“I will not be just a tourist in the world of images, just watching images passing by which I cannot live in, make love to, possess as permanent sources of joy and ecstasy” – Anais Nin It is a joy to experience, at the deeper level, some of the scenes I come across in my journey through life. Places my feet have travelled many times, at once become magical with the addition… Read More
The photo title says it all. An image of a pine tree reflected in an ice puddle on the trail. Here we are, early February and much of the scant snowfall we’ve had has melted off, running into creeks or pooling in icy puddles. The light this day was wonderful and lit the pines up with a soft glow. It was this ‘glow’ that attracted me to look closely at the puddle and… Read More
The title is a bit misleading, as the water is not frozen. I took the word frequencies from the delicate ripples in the water and the effect they had on the reflection. The image is actually inverted and I was debating leaving it that way. However, the composition I was envisioning is better communicated this way. You can see a little hint of the shoreline, still coated in ice and snow. The… 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
The words “Seeing the extraordinary in everyday places.” has become a mantra for me. It resonates through my entire being. I’ve said before that I can’t seem to turn it off and would not want to. As I walk the streets or hike the forest trails, I am able to see beauty almost everywhere. So, why would I want to turn that off. It becomes my connection with my Creator, a… Read More
Today, a break from ice water 🙂 I’ve driven past these trees on several occasions and could always see potential for a good photo, but the light has not been ideal. On this particular day, I think the conditions were just about right. It was a bit hazy and the sun reflected brightly from the upper branches. I fiddled with a few different styles for this image and it’s still not quite… 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
I have to admit that I have been to these falls many times over the past few years, but never in winter. The falls are the result of a dam being build to keep and introduced species of trout from migrating too far upstream and eating the eggs of the native brown trout. I’ve posted a few photos of this dam in the past. The winter scene is beautiful, especially in the right… 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
Never the same twice Wonderful patterns in the ice Beautiful randomness of nature Just add water Nikon D300 Tamron 70-200mm f/2.8 @ 200 mm 1/320 sec, f/9.0, ISO 250 For more images like this, please visit my Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/EdLehming or my website http://www.edlehming.com
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
Hearkening back to milder days, as I ride the train through snow filled landscapes to Montreal. This image was made back in mid-October 2015, as I hiked the southern trails of the Secord Forest. I have made many photographs in the area, but as with many of the photos, the light is always a bit different and what seems familiar suddenly transforms into something altogether new and wonderful. This image is a… Read More
I could not think of a better title for this photo. To me, it speaks conflict in so many forms. This day in late December was the transition from an extended mild fall to a bitter, biting winter. The crepuscular rays (yes, that’s what they are actually called), offer a sense of peace in contrast to the tumult of the icy waters below. Crepuscular rays are colloquially known as a Jacob’s Ladder,… Read More
On a cold, dull November afternoon in 2014, I stopped for a few minutes at Burliegh Falls, a set of fairly intense rapids just off Highway#28 in the Kawartha Lakes region of Central Ontario, between Lower Buckhorn Lake, above and Stoney Lake, below. It’s a very scenic location, easily accessible from the road, and therefore, very busy in the summer and early autumn. The rapids, adjacent shoreline, and calm pools below, are a destination… Read More
High Falls, pictured above, is the result of a dam built at the terminus of Baptiste Lake to control the flow of the York River, which begins at this point. The river, while very useful for logging, used to cause catastrophic flooding in the town of Bancroft a few miles below. The dam sits atop a large mass of rugged rock above a valley with steep banks. I would love to have seen this… Read More
While winter has been slow to arrive in southern Ontario this year (we’re in fog and rain right now), that was not the case last year. The image above was made last winter on Ahmik Lake, near Parry Sound, Ontario. It had snowed gently most of the night, partially obscuring the tracks of others and was quite cold, but the day quickly brightened up. At the top left of this image is… Read More
A switch today from my mono posts of late and a look back to a winter past, in abstract. The above is a view through the edge of the forest at Fraser lake Camp, near Bancroft. There was a bit of fog in the air and frost on the branches. The whole scene had a dreamy feel to it. Since the vertical elements were present, I decided to try a vertical pan to… Read More
In November 2014, I was walking along a ridge on the Fraser Lake Camp property, near Bancroft, Ontario and became fascinated with this line of leafless trees on the top of an adjacent ridge. They stood silloetted against the slate-gray November skies, as a narrow beam of bright sunlight lit up the yellow hay stubble just in front of them. The result was a layering of cold blues in stark contrast to the… Read More
A New Year is upon us and already I am a few days behind my goal of daily blogging. I have numerous excuses but have decided to step into this year excuse free and just look forward rather than dwelling on why I did not do something, by simply doing what is required, to the best of my ability, going forward. The purpose of blogging, for me, has multiple levels: Firstly, it… Read More
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