Remembering the fallen

Shattered in the snow
London, ON
January 2026
This photo originally shared on Instagram

A tree fell in the forest nearby, and I’m sharing this photo to confirm that it was indeed heard.

The dog and I came across this rather sad scene as we headed home from a longish walk. The tree so completely blocked the path and the entire valley that there was just no way around it. So we turned around and took the long way home.

This isn’t the first tree that’s fallen here, and given the age of some of the giants that still shape the canopy above, more will soon fall victim to gravity.

Of course this is how nature works, but it still felt respectful to stand by its fallen form for a bit and take it in. Calli sniffed at the snow-covered branches while I appreciated its sheer size. Somehow, they seem larger when they lay shattered across the ground.

The long walk home gave us ample time to ponder the cycles that govern life here. They’re never as neat and clean as modern humans might like. But they’ve been playing out for far longer than any of this built suburban infrastructure has been around. And they’ll be a thing long after those houses at the top of the hill decay back into nothingness.

We’ll mourn the trees. The other stuff not so much.

#ldnont #london #ontario #canada #medwayvalley #forest #tree #winter #weather #wx #onstorm #naturephotography #landscapephotography #monochrome #photography #apple #iphone #iphone17 #shotoniphone

Windows 2025

Frozen in place
London, ON
December 2025
This photo originally shared on Instagram

We call it a good shellacking, when an ice storm leaves so much ice on the windows that it’s impossible to see anything outside.

Even better is when the winds are so strong that the frozen streaks on the kitchen windows are angled a few degrees off the vertical. Mother Nature is quite the artist when she wants to be.

As I reach for the camera, my mind races with possibility. As much as I’d like to tote my equipment outside, shooting indoors feels like the safest option. It’s an ice rink out there and I have no intention of tempting both gravity and fate.

So I compose from the inside out, looking for ways to see through an otherwise impenetrable display. The dog lies in her bed and watches me shoot. She’s used to these spontaneous photography sessions, and will often follow me around the room as I play with the possibilities. Such a curious girl.

Today’s results capture a scene that disappears almost as quickly as it was created. Before long, the temperatures rise and the windows gradually clear back up, leaving us with a few pictures to remember what it felt like to be frozen inside.

Sometimes it feels like all we can do to hold onto time before it melts away.

#ldnont #london #ontario #canada #winter #onstorm #ice #abstract #kitchen #stilllife #monochrome #photography #nikon #nikonphotography #nikon_photography

Rocks and ice at our feet

Frozen in place
London, ON
April 2023
This photo originally shared on Instagram

Someone turned up the volume on Planet Earth, and they refuse to let go of the knob. So here’s what I suggest as an antidote:

Put on your warmest clothes and head outside. Keep your phone in your pocket and ensure all notifications are off. This is no time for screens.

Look for something - anything, really - that interests you. Don’t have anything in mind? No worries: just keep looking until something presents itself. Give yourself lots of time, as this is not a race.

Maybe you’ll find something at the end of the driveway, or maybe you’ll have to walk a little ways away. Or far away. Whatever.

While you’re busy scanning high and low, pay attention to your other senses, too. Listen to the winds whispering through the trees, the neighbourhood animals digging for food. Feel the snap of the cold on your cheeks, or the soft touch of the mittens on your fingertips.

Maybe you’ll see something worthwhile - like this weirdly textured patch of ice - or maybe you won’t. The photo ultimately doesn’t matter, anyway.

The point is that you got out at all, and in doing so managed to seize control of the volume knob. Not only did you turn down one chaotic soundtrack, but you tuned into another much more rewarding playlist.

#ldnont #london #ontario #canada #winter #gutter #ice #abstract #stilllife #photography #apple #iphone #iphone16 #shotoniphone

On Venezuela, flight, and appropriate use

Light the burners
London, ON
September 2022
This photo originally shared on Instagram

As the world wakes up to the news that the U.S. has attacked Venezuela and captured its president, Nicolas Maduro, I find myself musing about airplanes.

Military planes, specifically. The kind I photograph at air shows. Or interrupt whatever I’m doing whenever they spontaneously fly overhead. Just because.

In the back of my mind I recognize the duality of these craft. That they are as much instruments of freedom that can defend a nation’s sovereignty as they are weapons of tyranny that can be used to take others’ freedom away. It all depends on the intent of those doing the wielding.

I’ll admit I’m torn this morning because it isn’t yet clear that this qualifies as a just use of an extreme capability. But it is indeed clear that these weapons of war are being used for questionably political purposes by a leader whose fascist aims become more obvious with each passing day.

Every time I stand on the tarmac shooting some U.S. Air Force or Navy craft overhead, I muse about why weapons of war are necessary to maintain a certain sense of peace.

Yet when the tables turn and the intent is no longer peace, it’s difficult to look at these planes, and those who fly them and follow the orders, through the same lens.

#throwback #airshowlondon #ldnont #london #ontario #canada #flyyxu #usaf #boeing #mcdonnelldouglas #f15 #eagle #aviationphotography #planespotting #instaplane #nikon #nikonphotography #nikon_photography

Toasty warm

Before butter
London, ON
January 2026
This photo originally shared on Instagram

Every day, I take pictures. And every day, I write.

I’ll pick one photo, then write a caption for it. I call it a vignette, a small snippet of text that provides some kind of context to the image, and helps explain what was going through my head when I took it.

I started this years ago because I needed at least one moment every day to write something that didn’t have to be pitched, edited, approved by a publisher or a producer, or otherwise run through the machine. It was my one opportunity to write strictly for myself. To scratch at whatever was tickling my mind at that moment. To reflect on the puzzle pieces of the everyday before they were lost to time.

So yesterday, for the first breakfast of the new year, I had toast. Raisin toast, in particular. It’s become something of a morning staple lately, an easy-to-remember go-to that eases me into the day. You can tell that Debbie toasted it because it’s a perfect shade of brown.

It isn’t a spectacular scene by any means, but as soon as I saw it sitting on the glass plate in the diffused sunlight of a Canadian winter, I knew it was worthy of a photo. And a story. About the texture of a quiet morning. About the habits we craft for ourselves. About what it looks and feels like to move through the world.

So before I added the inevitable peanut butter (crunchy, of course), I played with angles and light while my ever-patient wife looked on. She gets it. She gets me.

Sometimes I’ll look back at older entries. They’re like little time machines, lenses into what life looked and felt like long ago. And I’ll wonder why I didn’t start this even earlier.

In a world rocked by big headlines that relentlessly push themselves into our homes and onto our kitchen tables, none of this really registers. No one cares about a guy ruminating over raison toast. No one needs the mundane, or so I tell myself. Yet still I write and shoot and share.

Because even small stories matter. To me, anyway.

#ldnont #london #ontario #canada #breakfast #kitchen #foodporn #texture #stilllife #photography #apple #iphone #iphone17 #shotoniphone

Start with the extraordinary

Brushed
London, ON
December 2025
This photo originally shared on Instagram

The calendar says it’s January 1st, the first day of an entirely new year. Which means a lot of folks think it’s extra special.

I’m going to be a bit of a contrarian. Because in an alternate universe this day might have been the 42nd of Sheepuary. But because this is the time counting system we ended up with, and because humans like clean beginnings and endings, this one sits on a bit of a pedestal.

But hear me out: every day is special. Even when we wake up on the plain as plain can be 42nd of Sheepuary, it means we made it to another day after the 41st. A gift, really.

And we got to look up at skies that may or may not have painted themselves with vapour-formed cotton, or felt the chilling breeze on our faces that may or may not have signalled that those same skies might be on the verge of turning various shades of grey.

If I’ve learned anything in my time here, it’s that the small moments matter a lot more than we might have thought. I’ve also learned we miss those small moments if we’re too busy holding out for the ones seemingly worthy of fireworks.

There’s a ton of in-between that risks slipping away if we assume it’s merely ordinary.

Indeed, nothing is.

So I’ll be the one staring up at clouds and feeling the breeze on my cheeks. On any day.

#ldnont #london #ontario #canada #blue #sky #cloudspotting #naturephotography #landscapephotography #photography #apple #iphone #iphone17 #shotoniphone

Read the sign

If only...
London, ON
January 2021
This photo originally shared on Instagram

This coming year, please resolve to be kind.

That is all.

#ldnont #newyear #kindness #matters

Dogstorm

This isn't happening
London, ON
December 2025
This photo originally shared on Instagram

Dad,

You don’t really think I want to be out here, do you?

We’ve been on enough walks together that you know I’m generally a fan of winter. After all you’re the one tugging on the leash when I get carried away bouncing through the snow and burying my nose in countless drifts.

But my usually sunny Schnauzer attitude hits a wall when you insist on heading out in the middle of a raging blizzard. When the winds reach Apocalyptic levels and my little legs can’t find traction on the ice, it’s time to head inside.

No, I don’t care that I haven’t “done my business” yet. Nor do I subscribe to the notion that specific walks at specific times are mandatory. If the weather sucks, we’re staying in the house.

Capisce?

With much respect and love,

Calli the Wonderschnauzer

#ldnont #canada #callithewonderschnauzer #actofdog #onstorm

Frozen in the fading light

Nature's freezer
London, ON
December 2025
This photo originally shared on Instagram

The weather in our particular corner of the Great White North has been…challenging.

After the major ice storm that rolled through just after Christmas, another epic system - a possible bomb cyclone - is threatening to turn the next couple of days into a smorgasbord of freezing rain, high winds, and epic snow.

It’s a very Canadian thing to batten down the hatches in advance of heavy weather, so yesterday’s mission was devoted to stocking up on essentials and ensuring we can easily shelter in place for the next few days.

I’ve also been taking the camera out for some neighbourhood walkabouts, because I want to remember not only what all this looks like, but what it feels like. I have vivid memories of winters growing up in Montreal, where snowbanks and drifts reached the roof of our house. I have similarly vivid memories when our kids were little and lake effect storms paralyzed the city, leading to epic snowpeople-building sessions on the front lawn.

In the end, weather isn’t worth complaining about. We can’t change it, so we may as well just suck it up and feel the moment. And when storms repaint the landscape, it feels right to find ways to add another marker on our personal life calendars.

#ldnont #london #ontario #canada #onstorm #icestorm #winter #night #bokeh #naturephotography #landscapephotography #photography #nikon #nikonphotography #nikon_photography

Ice storm chaos

Bushed
London, ON
December 2025
This photo originally shared on Instagram

On the surface it looks like chaos, wild branches coated with ice, sagging dangerously as they jangle against each other in the strengthening breeze.

Come to think of it, it’s chaotic below the surface, too.

Which is precisely why I can’t look away.

Human nature, I suppose.

#ldnont #london #ontario #canada #onstorm #icestorm #winter #naturephotography #landscapephotography #photography #nikon #nikonphotography #nikon_photography

When ice coats the trees

Frozen for now
London, ON
December 2025
This photo originally shared on Instagram

When an ice storm paints the region with danger, the right thing to do is likely stay inside until everything melts.

But curiosity is a funny thing. It compels us to look when we shouldn’t, to continue when we should likely head back, to set aside the danger for a bit because we just can’t imagine missing the show.

And what a show it turns out to be as the brutally grey skies slowly turn blue and then black. As the street lights awaken from a day of power failures and add their own surreal twist to a landscape already teeming with surreality.

So I head outside and walk like a penguin under branches encased in brilliantly lit glass. The ice crunches under my feet as overloaded trees bend precariously under the load. The wind picks up and sends another chaotic sculpture crashing to the ground.

My head keeps telling me to head back inside. My heart keeps me outside just a little while longer. Because wonder doesn’t come without risk. And it never lasts as long as we wish it would.

#ldnont #london #ontario #canada #onstorm #icestorm #winter #naturephotography #landscapephotography #photography #apple #iphone #iphone17 #shotoniphone

Airport parking at night

Level up
Mississauga, ON
November 2025
This photo originally shared on Instagram

In the shadowy corners of Canada’s largest airport, a parking structure casts harsh white light across the filthy snow-covered roads that feed this city within a city.

Nobody comes here to stay. Everyone is so focused on getting somewhere else. Just leave the car in a dusty spot, then forget it’s there. If transience could be imaged, this is what it would look like.

But even transient spaces deserve the occasional second look. If only to remember the places we never occupy long enough to care.

#toronto #yyz #pearson #airport #ontario #canada #night #monochrome #photography #apple #iphone #iphone17 #shotoniphone

Light of the season

Shine on
Dryden, ON
December 2025
This photo originally shared on Instagram

The tiniest bulbs often put out the mightiest light.

Perhaps that’s a lesson for us all.

#dryden #ontario #canada #monochrome #abstract

Trippy hotel room lights

Redacted
Dryden, ON
December 2025
This photo originally shared on Instagram

I’m not one to make resolutions, but if I were so inclined, I’d resolve to capture more abstract scenes hidden within the everyday.

Like this one.

I came across it in a hotel room far from home. And while we waited for the heater to beat back the minus-6-bazillion-degree temperatures outside, I found myself admiring the wall-mounted lamps.

The graphics spoke to me, whispering shades of Tron, the IBM logo, and Ikea - albeit without the meatball lunch special. Some unknown designer somewhere had clearly read the creative brief with care.

So of course some random photography was called for. Not because it made any sense, but precisely because it did not. Because random moments both close to and far from home are often punctuated by the strange things we see in the margins.

And I’ve apparently made it my mission to slow those moments down and peer into those margins more than might seem reasonable.

At the very least, I end up with a memorable photo. But we all know none of this was ever really about the photography, anyway.

#dryden #ontario #canada #hotel #abstract #stilllife #monochrome #photography #apple #iphone17 #shotoniphone