Eggs, boiled

Perfection
London, ON
June 2025
This photo originally shared on Instagram

A while back I wandered into the kitchen and pointed my lens down at a pot of boiled eggs. Not to worry: the water had long since cooled, and I was not risking a debilitating steam burn.

I do this often, take pictures of stupid stuff. Ordinary things in an ordinary life. Boring, even.

Perhaps the world doesn’t need yet another photo of eggs, but I haven’t done a global inventory, so I wouldn’t necessarily know the math. But that’s not the point.

Stupid pics like this are an escape. That’s the point. As much as I love the photos I make with my shutter button finger, I don’t do any of this just for the image. I do it for the story. Whenever I pull up a photo I took a while ago, I think not of the picture itself, but of the context within which it was shot. I remember where I was, what I was doing, who I was with, how I felt.

Sometimes it makes me feel happy. Other times not so much. But it always makes me feel something. Connected, even, to the life I’ve led.

Photography is something of an escape. When I’m walking through the woods or exploring an alley or peeking into pots and pans in the kitchen, I’m not feeling the pressures of a world on fire.

The staccato thoughts of doubt and stress that gnaw at the edges of conscience take a back seat to the more immediate priorities of light, composition, and storytelling. Nothing matters more than the simple moment when light moves through glass and gets captured forever.

So coming back to those simple moments, using the image as a trigger of sorts, feels like an escape, as well, a reminder of a time when I set the world aside for a bit.

So this time out it’s eggs in water. Tomorrow it’ll be something else. Whatever the somethings happen to be is almost irrelevant. That they were captured at all is the only thing that matters.

#ldnont #london #ontario #canada #eggs #kitchen #abstract #stilllife #monochrome #photography #apple #iphone #iphone16 #shotoniphone

No standing, please

Signs all around us
Toronto, ON
September 2025
This photo originally shared on Instagram

I deliberately disobeyed the sign in order to take this photo.

The Canadian in me feels the need to apologize.

#toronto #ontario #canada #downtown #building #architecture #architecturephotography #buildingporn #architectureporn #geometry #photography #apple #iphone #iphone16 #shotoniphone

Getting the tires dirty

Signs of the road
Middlesex Centre, ON
September 2025
This photo originally shared on Instagram

If I’m not answering my phone right now, it’s because I’m out in the middle of nowhere seeing how dirty I can get my tires.

From the looks of it, I’m succeeding.

Which, as I roll past cow pastures and harvested corn fields, is rather the point of all of this. When faced with the choice between riding and not riding, we ride. When we pick up some grime along the way, we celebrate it.

At least that’s the plan.

Because the bright orange machine I’m now piloting through the countryside was built to be ridden. Hard. Taken places. Enjoyed. Used up, even.

And when I look back and try to remember what I loved most about moments like this, they’ll all have a through line to how I felt. That uncanny sense of gyroscopic balance as the bike gains speed. The wind whistling through the holes in my helmet. The birds singing to each other. The rustle of the leaves overhead, and the crunch from underneath as I roll over them.

I don’t know how far I’ll ride today, but I know I’ll experience it with every sense I have.

Because not everyone can. And we owe it to ourselves to drink it all in as long as we’re able.

Now, back on the bike…

#ballymote #ontario #canada #cycling #orange #TangerineDream #bicycle #instabike #naturephotography #landscapephotography #photography #apple #iphone #iphone17 #shotoniphone

Rhino amid the trees

Fast mover
London, ON
September 2025
This photo originally shared on Instagram

As an F/A-18F Super Hornet belonging to the U.S. Navy’s Gladiators fleet replacement squadron splits the skies over the runway at London International Airport, I find myself thinking about the two birds doing lazy orbits in the distance.

What are they thinking? Is all the noise frightening to them? Or are they simply amused at the strange metallic object designed to mimic what nature has been doing pretty much forever?

We’ll never know, of course. But the moment, captured unintentionally as I panned my lens across the sky, serves as a poignant reminder that we’re always sharing spaces with others.

And sometimes that sharing is a little noisy. Ugly, even. Conversely, sometimes it’s a little more symbiotic, collaborative, kind.

So either way we look out for each other. Maybe even shift our path around a little to make life a little easier on whoever else may be nearby. Understand them, even.

At least that’s the hope.

#airshowlondon #ldnont #london #airport #ontario #canada #boeing #mcdonnelldouglas #usn #gonavy #fa18 #superhornet #rhino #vfa106 #aviation #flight #aircraft #planespotting #aviationphotography #photography #nikon #nikonphotography #nikon_photography

Where the Raptors and Leafs play

Skylines
Toronto, ON
September 2025
This photo originally shared on Instagram

Wonder plays out over our heads. Some of it crafted by the hands of gifted strangers. Or woven by nature itself.

All we have to do is look up.

#toronto #ontario #canada #yyz #scotiabank #arena #building #architecture #architecturephotography #buildingporn #architectureporn #downtown #geometry #reflective #mirror #photography #apple #iphone #iphone16 #shotoniphone

Peering across the azure waters

Wind power
Grand Bend, ON
July 2025
This photo originally shared on Instagram

Recipe for a memorable day: Stand in the shallow waters of an endless lake, the gentle waves lapping over your ankles.

Point your camera over the water at the wind turbines in the distance, their massive blades spinning silently in the invisible breeze.

Watch the sun paint the water’s surface in varying shades of green under an equally vibrant blue sky.

Throw in some turbulent mud off the lake bottom for good effect.

Trip the shutter once because you never want to forget what this looks like.

Close your eyes and just listen, because you never want to forget what this feels like.

#grandbend #beach #ontario #canada #greatlake #huron #throwback #sky #azure #water #windpower #greenenergy #naturephotography #landscapephotography #photography #nikon #nikonphotography #nikon_photography

Watching it all slip past

Don't blink
Ingersoll, ON
August 2018
This photo originally shared on Instagram

Life can be a blur. Probably doesn’t hurt to freeze it every once in a while. Or at least try.

#ldnont #london #toronto #ontario #canada #throwback #viarail #travelphotography #green #forest #trees #autumn #colour #google #teampixel

First Light, on her

The lens loves her. So do I.
London, ON
September 2025
This photo originally shared on Instagram

I have a bit of an odd tradition whenever I get a new camera. It’s called First Light, and if I’m reading history correctly, photographers borrowed it from astronomers who would make a big deal whenever they commissioned a new telescope.

The tradition is actually a simple one: when a telescope is first brought to life, the first thing they look at is known as First Light. Same deal with a new camera. And since we live in the age of smartphones, where our devices have become our cameras, the tradition applies here. Or at least it does in my world.

This lovely human is my wife, and she’s been my go-to First Light subject ever since I started bringing new cameras home. It makes eminent sense, as she’s my favourite subject, my light, my muse, the one who encourages me to tell stories with pens and cameras even when I don’t feel like picking them up.

I’m a storyteller because of her, so this camera’s story should begin with her.

#ldnont #london #ontario #canada #firstlight #LiveLaughLevy #family #everything #photography #apple #iphone #iphone17 #shotoniphone

High-g turn

Recon flight
Port Stanley, ON
August 2025
This photo originally shared on Instagram

I’m no expert in reading the faces of birds, but if I had to hazard a guess, this particular gull looks especially determined.

It’s easy to understand why, because she’s skimming at some ungodly speed mere feet above the beach, the winds shifting unpredictably, trying to knock her off line as she pulls Gs in search of her next meal.

She’s supernaturally focused on the only things that matter in this moment: survival, staying in the air, keeping predators at bay, hunting down enough energy to live and fight another day.

I can hear the swish of the disturbed air as her wings invisibly turn it into lift, her cries fading as she sweeps past and leaves me behind.

While many might see her as a mere scavenger of the sky, I’d rather see her in a different light. And maybe even learn a thing of two from her singular sense of determination.

#portstanley #beach #ldnont #ontario #canada #great #lake #erie #bird #seagull #flight #naturephotography #landscapephotography #photography #nikon #nikonphotography #nikon_photography

Subway platform in the sun

In transit
Toronto, ON
September 2025
This photo originally shared on Instagram

Is it considered street photography when it takes place below street level?

Maybe it matters and maybe it doesn’t, but when I found myself on a subway platform in Toronto earlier this week, I felt the need to remember the experience somehow, regardless of what it might ultimately be labelled.

The glazed windows had turned the mid-afternoon sun into a gentle glow as it landed on the well worn brick platform. The only other person in the station checked his phone as he silently walked past, oblivious to my presence.

Who he was and where he was headed will remain unknown, which feels rather appropriate in a place where everyone is in between here and there, and no one seems willing to take the time to look around.

This is what they might see if they did.

#toronto #yyz #ontario #canada #ttc #subway #eglintonwest #station #transit #streetphotography #monochrome #photography #apple #iphone #iphone16 #shotoniphone

Riverdale Park vista

Touch the sky
Toronto, ON
September 2025
This photo originally shared on Instagram

Sometimes we just have to look at the familiar from a new perspective. Words to live by, I think.

Toronto, je t’aime.

#toronto #ontario #canada #yyz #riverdalepark #sunset #cntower #building #architecture #architecturephotography #buildingporn #architectureporn #skyline #photography #apple #apple #iphone #iphone16 #shotoniphone

Toronto alley detour

Always look to the sky
Toronto, ON
September 2025
This photo originally shared on Instagram

Toronto is a city of many things, including alleyways. They’re everywhere, and they’re glorious.

I spent the day in Canada’s largest city yesterday, and as I walked from appointment to appointment, I found myself on a particularly crowded downtown street. The mid-day sun was beating down on the ground, the white concrete reflecting it back and adding to the last blast of summer heat.

I needed a break, and ducked into a shady alleyway for some quieter reflection. It was as empty and still as the mythical kingdom of Duloc in the original Shrek, where if you closed your eyes you could almost feel the silence. Century-old brick buildings loomed overhead, casting soothing shade on the narrow lane below, their oversized windows reflecting tiny hints of their rich history.

Still-newer buildings loomed far above, threatening to engulf all that had been built below. Time apparently moves forward relentlessly, even here in the shadows.

I walked the crumbling asphalt that passed for pavement as long as I could, until the clock and the map told me it was time to double-step it to my next meeting. Somewhere nearby, another alleyway lingered quietly, waiting for my next visit.

#toronto #yyz #ontario #canada #building #architecture #architecturephotography #buildingporn #architectureporn #downtown #alleyway #queen #john #streetphotography #apple #apple #iphone #iphone16 #shotoniphone

Fish on ice

Why hello!
London, ON
September 2025
This photo originally shared on Instagram

I’ve got this thing about eating things I recognize. So, no, this fish won’t be finding its way home anytime soon.

But refusal to eat something doesn’t mean it doesn’t fascinate me photographically. So when the fishmonger at the back of the grocery store goes on a break - chatting with the lady in the cake department, from what I can tell - I make my move.

It doesn’t take long to compose the shot and get back to the very serious business of shopping. Those eggs won’t pick themselves, after all.

There’s no pressing need in our world for yet another photo of a fish on ice under glass (for what it’s worth, this isn’t my first fishy rodeo.) But most of my photographic output can easily be classified as unnecessary, and I have no intention of removing my finger from the shutter or otherwise missing out on trivially unnecessary scenes like this one.

Because some part of my brain believes that somehow, somewhere, there’s someone who will come across this photo - or others like it - and smile. Or think. Or pause. Or all three. Or whatever.

Photography, to me, then, is the relentless pursuit of the unnecessary, an endless effort to make friends and strangers alike stop for a bit and reflect on life. Because there’s enough seriousness out there already, and maybe some unnecessary, frivolous fun under the glass fish section glass - or anywhere else - may be just what we all need.

Maybe it’s a little more necessary than I might have thought.

Either way, this fish needs a name. Suggestions welcome.

#ldnont #london #ontario #canada #grocery #store #sobeys #shopping #retail #frozen #fish #stilllife #photography #apple #iphone #iphone16 #shotoniphone

When sunsets arrive earlier

Abstractly smudged
London, ON
August 2025
This photo originally shared on Instagram

Folks who live in the Northern Hemisphere often lament this time of year because the days are getting shorter and cooler.

But I’d rather imagine there’s a bright side to every darkness, namely the fact that we don’t have to wait as long before the setting sun puts on its inevitable show.

And on this particular evening, the show was a particularly memorable one. It felt like an impressionist’s art show. Or a child dragging random colours across the page.

Whatever this smudged mess was, it arrived earlier, which gave me more time to stand in awe and drink it in.

Tonights’s sunset will be earlier still. We should go.

#ldnont #london #ontario #canada #optimistpark #sunset #cloudspotting #naturephotography #landscapephotography #photography #nikon #nikonphotography #nikon_photography

The valley comes alive

Splashed
London, ON
October 2017
This photo originally shared on Instagram

Some trees are in a rush to explode in colour, while others aren’t.

We each live at our own speed, after all. A lesson I suspect is as true in everyday life as it is in the forest.

#ldnont #london #ontario #canada #throwback #medwayvalley #autumn #colour #trees #leaves #gameoftones #naturephotography #landscapephotography #photography #nikon #nikonphotography #nikon_photography

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#FindTheLight, Part 2, October 2020

The ravine gets painted again, October 2019

Reflecting by the water... October 2019

A Raptor flies in anger

When thrust is vectored
London, ON
September 2025
This photo originally shared on Instagram

Dear sky,

I own you.

Sincerely,

Raptor

#airshowlondon #ldnont #london #airport #ontario #canada #lockheedmartin #usaf #f22 #raptor #aviation #flight #aircraft #planespotting #aviationphotography #photography #nikon #nikonphotography #nikon_photography @airshowlondon @flyyxu

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A Raptor generates its own clouds, August 2021

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Where birthdays are special

That face...
London, ON
March 2025
This photo originally shared on Instagram

Every day with Debbie is worthy of celebration, but some days - like today - are extra special.

See, it’s her birthday, and she taught me long ago that birthdays deserve to be celebrated. And so we shall.

It’s no stretch to describe her as the foundation of our family. Our gravity, even. She has answers to every question, sure, but beyond that she’s always so…present. She’ll be there no matter the time of day or whatever else she may have going on at the moment. She shows up and puts the needs of everyone else before her own.

Before meeting her, I had no idea what unconditional humanity was like, or how it felt to be connected to someone who led with empathy. She’s like the wingman who always has not just my six, but everyone in our tightly knit family. If we call her Goose, at least you’ll know why.

And as special as today is, I promise we’ll all feel the same way tomorrow - and will make sure the celebration doesn’t end just because the calendar says so. Some folks, after all, deserve it a little more.

Happiest of birthdays, my sweet.

#LiveLaughLevy #ldnont #london #ontario #canada #happy #birthday #birthdaygirl #happybirthday #life #family #everything

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Another year. Another reason to celebrate. September 2019

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She completes another journey around the sun, September 2017

I get another year with her, too, September 2016

Another year... September 2015

Her best-ever birthday present, September 2013

Another day, another year, September 2011

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28 years later...

Celebrate the little things
London, ON
February 2025
This photo originally shared on Instragram

Before she became all the things she is today, she was our kid.

And as I held her tiny, squirming form for the first time 28 years ago today, my only wish was that she would turn the limitless potential every newborn has into a life of purpose.

28 years on, purpose is Dahlia’s middle name. And creativity. And drive. And honesty. And humour. And love of family.

She appreciates the preciousness of time, and looks out for others even if they aren’t always looking out in return. She inherited her mom’s innate kindness and made it her own.

So as we celebrate her birthday, I can’t help but think back to that first moment I held her, all bundled in pink, and wished those wishes every parent wishes for their kids. 28 years on, she’s doing a pretty good job making those wishes come true.

Happy birthday, Peanut. Keep making the world your own.

#LiveLaughLevy #ldnont #london #ontario #canada #happy #birthday #birthdaygirl #happybirthday #parenthood #life #family #everything

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21 trips around the sun, September 2018

20 years of Peanut, September 2017

19 going on... September 2016

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9/11 + 24

Trusted canopy
London, ON
September 2025
This photo originally shared on Instagram

Today is a hard day for so many people, and for so many reasons.

24 years since 9/11. Or 24 hours removed since the high-profile political assassination of Charlie Kirk and the ensuing tsunami of conflicting rage online. Or any number of other frightening headlines that somehow burrow their way into our once-inviolable sense of personal safety and security.

So as I followed our dog through the neighbourhood last night, I couldn’t stop thinking how blithely unaware of all of this she was. That she felt as safe and secure on this walk as she has on every other one since we first brought her home. I watched her happily moving from one spot to another, her nose relentlessly sniffing for whatever it is that brings a Schnauzer joy.

Then we came across this tree, and I decided to take it in while her nose did its thing. This single tree, already blazing with colour amid neighbours yet to get the message. Deeply rooted in the earth at the edge of a park where generations of kids and families have played over the decades it’s been here. And like our dog, blithely unaware of the blaring headlines that portend tragedy and instability.

This tree, like our dog, is by design incapable of hatred. Also like our dog, this tree prioritizes life over everything else. The more time I spend on the other end of the dog’s leash, or under the shade of this tree and others like it, I wonder why humanity can’t be more like them. Why we seem driven by what divides us. Why we’re so quick to condemn. To judge. To hate.

24 years after 9/11 and 24 hours after Charlie Kirk, we still haven’t learned. We likely never will. So I’ll be hanging out with the dog under this tree. You’re welcome to join me there.

#ldnont #london #ontario #canada #tree #autumn #colour #September11 #NeverForget #911 #optimistpark #naturephotography #landscapephotography #photography #apple #iphone #iphone16 #shotoniphone

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The blue ball of happiness

Let's play
London, ON
August 2025
This photo originally shared on Instagram

I’m wandering through the dining room when I notice something under the table. Our dog, like the perpetual child that she is, has once again left a toy where it likely doesn’t belong.

While Calli the Wonderschnauzer is quite well trained, and responds to a wide range of hand and voice commands, putting her stuff away when she’s done with it isn’t really her thing. Which, frankly, is exactly the way it should be. She’s a dog, after all, and this little bit of underfoot chaos is part of the deal we all make when a pup becomes part of the family.

Yet I can’t stop staring at her beloved blue ball sitting on the floor reflecting the Sunday morning light streaming through the patio doors. And soon enough I’m reaching for a camera, dropping to the floor, and composing the scene playing out between the light and shadow.

And as I try to avoid bumping my head on the table, I smile at the notion of spontaneous magic playing out at our feet courtesy of a dog who just wants to enjoy her time on this planet.

Because we can either feel frustrated at the mess, or blessed that we had a mess to play with in the first place.

You know where I stand.

#ldnont #london #ontario #canada #actofdog #blue #reflective #stilllife #photography #apple #iphone #iphone16 #shotoniphone

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Plane race to Minneapolis

Azure drag race
Port Stanley, ON
August 2025
This photo originally shared on Instagram

Two tiny dots trace thin white lines in the impossibly azure sky, racing almost silently to the most exotic destinations I can conjure up in my mind.

I crane my neck to watch the plane trailing twin contrails slowly reel in the smaller aircraft before they both disappear into the haze toward the horizon.

After they’re gone, I take a quick look at a flight tracking app. The leading aircraft was a private Embraer Phenom 300 business jet doing 412 knots at 40,000 feet. The trailing aircraft was a Delta A220 doing 454 knots at 36,000 feet. They were both heading to Minneapolis, with the private flight scheduled to touch down 4 minutes after the Delta.

I immediately regret pulling out my smartphone, because not everything that crafts magic in the heavens needs to be explained. Some things are best left unsaid so they can remain the mysteries they once were.

#portstanley #ontario #canada #blue #sky #contrail #aviation #flight #flying #aviation #avgeek #plane #photography #nikon #nikonphotography #nikon_photography

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Galaxy quest 2.0

On the runway with Fred
London, ON
September 2025
This photo originally shared on Instagram

There’s something deliciously mind-blowing about being in places we normally wouldn’t be allowed.

Like this runway at London International Airport, which like most runways would be quite off limits to the average human during routine operations.

But the rules during an airshow - in this case Airshow London - get set aside so organizers can park aircraft on some of the runways and taxiways for plebes like us to gawk at.

And gawk we did, because that’s what avgeeks do when they’re around planes.

There was something surreal about standing on a runway in the shadows of a plane, the C-5M Galaxy, so large that it seemed to have its own gravity.

But in the moment, as I thought about how to compose the scene, it was the painted lines that literally jumped out at me. I crouched down and felt them, rough and warm, and imagined how well engineered everything here had to be to bear the weight of the massive cargo plane just off to the right. So of course a weirdly distorted geometric photo was called for.

As I write this two days later, the airshow has come to an end, the Galaxy has flown home, the runway has reopened, and humans are justifiably no longer allowed in this forbidden place. I was lucky to have had the fleeting opportunity to stand in the shadows of giants and simply soak it in.

#airshowlondon #ldnont #london #airport #ontario #canada #Lockheed #C5 #Galaxy #aviation #flight #aircraft #planespotting #aviationphotography #photography #apple #iphone #iphone16 #shotoniphone

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6 years of family...

6 years today, and you’re both just getting started.

We are so proud of the family you’ve grown, the home you’ve built, the careers you’ve pursued, the connections you’ve made. And we can’t wait to see what joys you’ll craft in the years to come.

We love you beyond words. Happy, happy anniversary.

#LiveLaughLevy #dryden #ontario #throwback #wedding #anniversary #parenthood #family #everything

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Their first... September 2020

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The tip of the electronic spear

The nose that reflects
London, ON
September 2025
This photo originally shared on Instagram

The TC-135W Stratolifter has quite the lovely nose. It’s designed to mimic the RC-135 electronic intelligence planes that the trainees who learn the trade on this bird will eventually fly.

There are two examples of this very special airframe in the world, and those who fly them will eventually take on unspeakably dangerous missions in hostile airspace far from home.

Elint is part genius, part sorcery, and part courageous belief in keeping enemies at bay using nothing more than collected data.

A gorgeous nose to lead the way certainly can’t hurt.

Fly safe, friends.

#ldnont #london #airport #ontario #canada #AirshowLondon #aviation #usaf #boeing #tc135 #stratolifter #aviationphotography #planespotting #instaplane #mirror #photography #apple #apple #iphone #iphone16 #shotoniphone

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Monochromatically webbed

Give us strength
London, ON
August 2025
This photo originally shared on Instagram

The scene: a pedestrian bridge high over a river whose water level is so depleted anyone could walk across on the exposed rocks.

The heat and humidity under a scorching summer sun are tempered somewhat by winds so strong it’s a wonder the spiderweb hasn’t yet been blown away.

Yet it manages to hold its own, its battered strands flapping madly back and forth as the winds hum between the rusted steel beams, the spider nowhere to be seen.

I think to myself this is a masterpiece of natural engineering, a stubborn act of defiance amid overwhelming odds, an almost invisible example of life managing to find a way despite it all.

It’s almost perfect in its imperfection, and I imagine the master who crafted it returning soon to spin another chapter, another message to the universe that our stories aren’t over until we say they are.

And even then…

#ldnont #london #ontario #canada #springbank #spiderweb #naturephotography #macrophotography #stilllife #monochrome #photography #nikon #nikonphotography #nikon_photography

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The storm that races the darkness

Something wicked this way comes
London, ON
September 2025
This photo originally shared on Instagram

Maybe the skies didn’t blaze with beauty this time.

Maybe the sun hid out behind an approaching storm front.

Maybe everyone rushed home before the first rains fell.

Maybe the colour was sucked out of the scene.

Maybe it was still worth witnessing.

Wait, maybe it wasn’t a maybe thing at all.

#ldnont #london #ontario #canada #optimistpark #cloudspotting #weather #wx #onstorm #naturephotography #landscapephotography #monochrome #photography #apple #apple #iphone #iphone16 #shotoniphone

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When storms move in, April 2025

Running in the sky, March 2025

Monochrome is a colour, too, November 2024

After the last leaves have fallen, November 2022

Finding beauty in an ugly world, May 2022

Where the trees paint the grey sky, February 2022

Stripped tree. Blue sky. November 2021

Under an angry sky, August 2021

Revisiting the scavenger of the sky

Yes, I'm pretty. Sort of.
Port Stanley, ON
September 2025
This photo originally shared on Instagram

It was a sea gull day at the beach.

As background, over the years I have captured many photos of these scavengers of the sky. Probably too many. Actually, definitely too many.

I’ll often spend at least part of the day trying to freeze them in pixels. It’s rather cathartic to chase them around through glass, as in that singular moment nothing else matters.

I’ll end up with countless botched images, blurred, badly composed, ill-lit, or all of the above. And maybe, if I get very lucky, I’ll bring home one image worth sharing.

In a way, it’s somewhat like life itself, where we try lots of different things, fall ingloriously in the sand countless times, and hopefully count one win among them all.

That number would be zero if we never tried at all. So still we try.

#portstanley #beach #ldnont #ontario #canada #great #lake #erie #bird #seagull #flight #naturephotography #landscapephotography #photography #nikon #nikonphotography #nikon_photography

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The right side of a bird, literally, August 2024

Tracking the shoreline, August 2024

Birds on a hot tin roof, August 2024

Soaring seagull seeks the sun, June 2024

Meeting seagulls in desolate places, June 2024

Soaring seagull seeks the sun, June 2024

A tern turns into the wind, February 2023

Birds of a together feather, February 2023

You're a berry good bird, July 2022

Poetry in a clear blue sky, June 2020

Two birds, only one can win, September 2015

Where shall I fly today? January 2012

Back to school in chalk

Hope from a stranger
London, ON
September 2025
This photo originally shared on Instagram

The chalk angels have been at it again.

In advance of kids both here and across the country returning to school today, some kind strangers spent a lot of time and a lot of calcified sticks of colour drawing inspirational messages on the sidewalks and walking paths near the neighbourhood school.

I came across them on the weekend, cheerful inspiration every few metres, and a reminder that good people still exist.

These very same sidewalks have been spray-painted with swastikas and hate-filled screeds on multiple occasions over the past year or so. The perpetrator has been arrested three separate times, and in March he received a 182-day jail sentence.

I’m struck by the materials used in both cases: chalk for the good stuff, paint for the graffiti. While the paint ostensibly sticks around and the chalk washes off with the first rain, I’d like to think the inspirational messages are the ones that will stick longer in the minds of the kids who walk these paths.

Good always prevails over evil. It has to. Our kids are counting on it.

#ldnont #london #ontario #canada #sidewalk #chalk #backtoschool #signs #stilllife #streetphotography #photography #apple #iphone #iphone16 #shotoniphone

Related:

Mr Kotter was right all along, September 2024

A mural struggles to be seen, August 2024

Spray-painted swastikas in my neighbourhood, August 2024

Chalk it up to art, August 2023

The rainbow connection, May 2021

I keep seeing signs, April 2020

When chalk circles disappear, April 2020

Seeing signs, everywhere, March 2020

Sidewalk, chalk, and a dog, September 2018

Little boy at play, March 2010

Wordless Wednesday - a chalk circle moment, June 2008

Footsteps in the sand

Traces...
Port Stanley, ON
September 2025
This photo originally shared on Instagram

On a crowded beach under some of the last rays of summer, countless footsteps serve quiet witness to time well spent.

These traces won’t be here long, as soon enough others may overwalk the shifting sands. Then autumn’s winds, winter’s snows, and spring’s rains.

If it’s true that we all leave traces of having been here, it is just as true that those traces are far from permanent. Shifting sands may seem particularly ephemeral, but even granite monuments to our having been here will eventually succumb to the forces of time.

And even while they survive, who will remember the stories they tell?

Still, we do what we can to leave the right kinds of stories behind. Because even in the wisps of blown sand there are impressions of kindness just waiting for the future to gently grab hold of. Because footsteps persist long after they cease to be visible.

#portstanley #beach #ldnont #ontario #canada #greatlake #erie #water #sand #texture #stilllife #naturephotography #landscapephotography #apple #iphone #iphone16 #shotoniphone #photography

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Let's skim the sand, June 2024

Surf's no longer up, February 2023

Mountain range in a Great Lake, September 2020

You're shooting the wrong way, moron, January 2020

Pondering the impermanence of beach sand, November 2017

Caption This 4, February 2007

Vacation images - sandy ground, July 2005

A child's playground, November 2004