Archives
“Returning to a memorable place is so refreshing, but we should not dwell there. Life has so many new memories for us to make.” – Ed Lehming I did want to revisit this place and moment one last time. As I mentioned in a previous post, this is one of those opportunities we need to take whenever possible. It was a peripheral image that I made time to experience and I continue… Read More
“Autumn’s bright colour makes everything bright” – Ed Lehming This long-dead tree sits along the roadside leading to my daughter’s house. In most seasons it stands as a stark memorial of a once wonderful maple tree. Every year it deteriorates a bit, dropping limbs and shedding bark. There is not much left other than the trunk and a handful of branches. I do notice every time I drive by it because it… 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
“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
“When you rise in the morning, give thanks for the light, for your life, for your strength. Give thanks for your food and for the joy of living. If you see no reason to give thanks, the fault lies in yourself. “ – Tecumseh The inevitability of trees, and all life on earth, is that they eventually fall, through age, disease, or human intervention. The latter is the case in this image…. Read More
“Beauty can be seen in all things, seeing and composing the beauty is what separates the snapshot from the photograph.” ― Matt Hardy I thought this was an interesting scene, as it presented itself to me during a hike this past Saturday. The tree had both catkins, the parts that produce pollen, and fruit at the same time, on the same branch and I can’t recall if I have ever seen this before. It… Read More
“Voiceless it cries, Wingless flutters, Toothless bites, Mouthless mutters.” ― J.R.R. Tolkien I think I’ve photographed this tree about a dozen times. Sometimes, it’s still and brightened by a golden sunset, other times, it’s filled with birds, darting to and fro. But on this occasion, the strong winds of a hot summer day tossed it’s branches from side to side. I took the opportunity to capture this motion through a long exposure… Read More
“God draws near to the brokenhearted. He leans toward those who are suffering. He knows what it feels like to be wounded and abandoned.” ― John D. Richardson A scene from along the roadside in rural Ontario. When I see stuff like this , I wonder what the story is. How did this old car get to its final resting spot under the canopy of the ancient maple. Did it just die… Read More
“A lie has many colours, while white is the only faithful colour of truth.” ― Munia Khan This year has been an interesting shift for me, photographically. I tend to lean towards natural places, such as forest trails, rivers, and lakes. This year I’m finding myself also taking in more man-made gardens and cultivated flowers. Perhaps this is because I’ve been spending more time in my own backyard and going to botanical… Read More
“If you take a flower in your hand and really look at it, it’s your world for a moment.” ― Georgia O’Keeffe Until last weekend, I did not know these existed. I love dogwoods and have made many photos of the gorgeous Sierra Dogwoods of California’s Yosemite National Park as they gleam bright white against the dark pine forests. The first time I saw a photo of them, I knew I had… Read More
“It is spring again. The earth is like a child that knows poems by heart.” — Rainer Maria Rilke A final visit to the magnolias of Edwards Gardens in Toronto, at least for this year. I so enjoyed my day of walking the grounds and enjoying all the wonderful flowering trees. This is a great time of year. There are splashes of pinks, purples, whites, and purple among the new foliage in… Read More
“Spring returns, resplendent in pinks and white. Trees and shrubs glow in the sun, bedecked in bright blossoms and pale green leaves. The world awakens; the eternal cycle repeats. – Ed Lehming As I mentioned in my last post, I have not been to this botanical gardens since I was a young child. It was so nice to see all the blossoming trees. I was especially surprised to see redbuds, since I… Read More
“If you change the way you look at things, the things you look at change.” – Wayne Dyer April is a strange time to visit a botanical garden, since there are no blooms to enjoy. Yet, if you look closer, vestiges of last year remain in tones of brown, gray, and yellow. Yet, amid shrivelled shells and dried branches, hints for life begin to emerge. I can’t recall the variety of tree… Read More
“Breathe light into your body – breathe light into your Heart – Breathe light into your mind – Breathe and OPEN! Breathe and remember that you are all LIGHT – Infinite LIGHT -Blessed LIGHT- open your heart and SHINE ON!” ― Angie Karan When the elements align, I recognise just how fortunate I am. I’ve also become prepared for many lighting situations which would have challenged me a few years ago. The… Read More
“The tree which moves some to tears of joy is in the eyes of others only a green thing that stands in the way. Some see nature all ridicule and deformity… and some scarce see nature at all. But to the eyes of the man of imagination, nature is imagination itself.” ― William Blake I absolutely love the William Blake quote above. It goes beyond simply this image. Number 6 in the… Read More
“To my mind, a picture should be something pleasant, cheerful, and pretty, yes pretty! There are too many unpleasant things in life as it is without creating still more of them.” ― Pierre-Auguste Renoir Happy Easter! I wanted to try something new, something that satisfied the creative in me. I love paintings and have many friends who are extraordinary painters. My gift is photography, which offers me a similar outlet, but rather… 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
There is an interesting stretch of highway in eastern Ontario, where the road follows the unusual topography, consisting of many long ponds between low strips of granite. When viewed from above, it’s like a large series of wrinkles in the earth’s crust. The bare rock and water filled valleys are so different from anything else along that road that it made me pay attention to it. Among those rocks and ponds are numerous… Read More
Not the most catchy title in the world, but that, essentially, is what this is. A bunch of maple keys, hanging from a tree at the Secord Trailhead. The tree was laying on its side, but I’m not sure exactly what happened to the tree to put it in its current state. What struck me as odd, was that the keys, or seeds, were still attached to the tree at this time… Read More
I wish I could paint. There are so many scenes that I see on a regular basis and say to myself, “That would make a beautiful painting”. Especially if the light is just a bit off and I envision the image a bit different. That was the case with this photo I made a few days ago. All the elements were just right, the light was soft from the west and a… Read More
I can’t help but reflect on this verse when I seen this scene on Duffins Creek, just south of Whitevale, Ontario. “They will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit.” The image of this tree, rooted firmly… Read More
One of the wonders of photography, that I have noted before, is the fact that I can walk past a scene dozens of times and nothing ‘grabs’ me. In this case, there is a nice stand of poplars along one of my favourite hiking trails. I’ve photographed it many times and the results were “average”. I knew it had potential for a great photo, but conditions and lighting were never quite right… Read More
September, the month where some days convince you that summer will last for weeks, yet others are stern reminders that change is inevitable. This holds true this year. After weeks of above average, sweltering days, the temperature plummets and we layer on hats and sweatshirts, wondering if this summer has passed us by. The saving grace, for me is the gradual change of colours. The once verdant trees begin to shift to… 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
I think everyone has, or knows of, one of these iconic ‘lone trees’. My friends and family will certainly be familiar with this one, which stands on the top of a hill at Elgin Mills and McCowan Road in Markham, Ontario, across from the Markham Fairgrounds. I have seen many photos of this beautiful maple tree and it’s not so perfect twin. On this particular day in mid-December 2014, a storm was clearing,… Read More
Ed Lehming Photography 
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