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“The voice of beauty speaks softly; it creeps only into the most fully awakened souls” ― Friedrich Nietzsche Bright rays of sun reflects off the tree lined hillside within the Durham Forest. Patches of light shine in golds and silvers, lighting up patches of leaf littered ground and pockets of bright green undergrowth. I found some areas of the forest strangely devoid of undergrowth this year, which struck me as odd during… Read More
“This life is yours. Take the power to choose what you want to do and do it well. Take the power to love what you want in life and love it honestly. Take the power to walk in the forest and be a part of nature. Take the power to control your own life. No one else can do it for you. Take the power to make your life happy.” ― Susan… Read More
“Winter is the time for comfort, for good food and warmth, for the touch of a friendly hand and for a talk beside the fire: it is the time for home.” ― Edith Sitwell This image, made on the same day as yesterday’s post, this view of the beech lined trails of one of the East Duffins Headwaters trail system, near Uxbridge, Ontario, is a testament to the beauty that can still be experienced in… Read More
“Do you know how there are moments when the world moves so slowly you can feel your bones shifting, your mind tumbling? When you think that no matter what happens to you for the rest of your life, you will remember every last detail of that one minute forever?” ― Jodi Picoult As I mentioned on a previous post, I had the opportunity this past weekend to get back on the trails,… 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 At first, this image was in my ‘discard’ pile. The bend and tilt of the trees bothered me… Read More
Here is this week’s 52 Week Photo Challenge: Week 1 – Black and White. This is another new challenge that is starting up from The Girl That Dreams Awake. If you don’t know her, you should check out her blog. I was saving this image for one of my daily posts but could not resist putting it out for this challenge. I’ll post it again at a later date with the story behind… Read More
“The strongest oak of the forest is not the one that is protected from the storm and hidden from the sun. It’s the one that stands in the open where it is compelled to struggle for its existence against the winds and rains and the scorching sun.” ― Napoleon Hill Though I saw no markers, my map showed this to be a cemetery, further investigation, this was actually the Old Lakeshore Road and it was… Read More
“Did you not look upon the world this morning and imagine it as the boy might see it? And did you not recognize the mist and the dew and the birdsong as elements not of a place or a time but of a spirit? And did you not envy the boy his spirit? ” – Jamie O’Neill Another image from my 2013 visit to one of my ‘sacred places’. The experience of spring… Read More
“To dwellers in a wood, almost every species of tree has its voice as well as its feature.” ― Thomas Hardy As I walk the trails, I can’t help but be amazed at the colours and textures of the stumps and standing dead trees along the way. I’ve started a collection of these aged and aging forest statues, each so unique in its appearance, yet somewhat similar. Some are recognizable as wood, while… Read More
“Given the right lighting, all the colors in the world can be seen in a white object.” – Michele Cooper This time of year tends to be fairly challenging as far as finding interesting things to photograph. The ground tends to be muddy and accessing some areas is tough. There’s also the prevalence of browns and grays with very few bright colours. Yet, if I look around, I can still find some… 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
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
This photo was made in early November and autumn had settled in comfortably, for an extended stay. The days had already shortened enough to bring out amazing, bright colours, but the air was warm and comfortable. Best of all, the bugs were gone; even the dopey fall wasps. Along a minor path of the south-east corner of the East Duffins Creek Headwaters trail is this beautiful grove of maples, interspersed with beech trees. The maples… Read More
It’s a very rare occasion where you can return to the location where you made a good photo and try to make it better, especially a landscape photo. A few years ago I made a photo of a horse grazing in this same spot. That photo has been very popular and was featured in the North Hastings “Destinations” guide. A local tourist publication. I even sold a few larger prints of it…. Read More
I find myself going back to my photo abstractions frequently. They bring me great pleasure, in that I never know quite how they will turn out. Don’t get me wrong, these are very deliberate photos, and I have a vision in my mind of the outcome. But, the random elements; light, speed, colours, and focus, all add their own unexpected twist to the final composition. Case in point with the image above, I… 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
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
Another one of my “Trees” series of photo abstractions. This photo was made four years ago, at Fraser Lake Camp, near Bancroft, Ontario when I was just starting to play with this technique. I re-edited it last year because I was not happy with the ‘feel’ of the image. Again, it comes down to the strong vertical elements and good light. In this case, I was following a game trail and looked… 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
Now that it is finally warming up, I thought I’d take one last look at how this past year’s winter came in. November was fairly mild and offered one light snowfall that quickly melted away in town. The day of the melt, I decided to go out to one of my favourite local trails (East Duffins Headwaters) to get some vertical pans in a grove of trees I have enjoyed on a… Read More
Ed Lehming Photography 
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