Friday, October 31, 2025

One defiant leaf

Still standing
London, ON
October 2025
This photo originally shared on Instagram

There’s a spot in the woods where the ground always seems to be muddy and mushy. So the community volunteer group that maintains the paths here decided to build a wooden platform to make it a little more accessible.

As I approach it on this autumn afternoon, I notice a single leaf stuck in between the boards. Despite the steady breeze whispering through the treeline, the leaf refuses to budge.

It isn’t much of a leaf. No spectacular colours or textures to speak of. But it stops me all the same. So before long I find myself sitting down on the dirty planks to get a closer look before this leaf, one among the countless, disappears forever.

I take a bunch of low-angled pictures, hoping against hope that they’ll be sharp enough. My once-black jeans now wear enough dirt to make them more grey-ish, but I figure it’s worth it if I can bring something worthwhile home. It’s a quiet argument I’ve had with myself so many times before.

Soon enough I’m back on my way, wondering about the single leaf that the universe left in my path. Sometimes we just have to stop what we’re doing and take a closer look.

#ldnont #london #ontario #canada #medwayvalley #autumn #forest #trees #gameoftones #leaf #texture #stilllife #bokeh #dof #naturephotography #landscapephotography #photography #nikon #nikonphotography #nikon_photography

Related:
Old dead leaf, December 2024
One tough leaf, February 2022
Everything is temporary, October 2016
Before its time, August 2008

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Thursday, October 30, 2025

Brilliance before the inevitable fall

Catching the light one last time
London, ON
October 2025
This photo originally shared on Instagram

The sun was setting. The colours were worth remembering.

Simple as that.

#ldnont #london #ontario #canada #autumn #colours #tree #naturephotography #landscapephotography #photography #apple #iphone #iphone17 #shotoniphone

Related:
A tale of two trees, October 2022

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Wednesday, October 29, 2025

The Butterfly Effect in action

Just above the hard deck
Port Stanley, ON
August 2025
This photo originally shared on Instagram

I’m not a meteorologist or a mathematician, so I won’t weigh in on whether the Butterfly Effect is actually a thing.

But when a single monarch braved the winds over the burning hot sands of a local beach last summer, I thought it would be fun to follow it around for a bit.

There was no real point to any of this: it simply brought me joy.

I hope it has the same effect on you.

#portstanley #beach #ldnont #ontario #canada #monarch #butterfly #sand #texture #naturephotography #landscapephotography #photography #nikon #nikonphotography #nikon_photography

Related:
What bugs you? December 2019

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Tuesday, October 28, 2025

Late night on an empty corner

Cross with care
London, ON
October 2025
This photo originally shared on Instagram

It’s 11:20 p.m. on a lonely stretch of Wharncliffe Road. Not even the Tim Hortons coffee shop is open, its darkened windows overlooking an even darker parking lot.

A crisp autumn breeze scatters dried leaves across the sidewalk underfoot, as the occasional passing car speeds past, its tires thumping over the cracked pavement before fading once more into the night.

The crosswalk has no takers, the traffic lights reflecting off the worn paint as they mindlessly flip from green to yellow to red.

The tedious dance plays out to no one in particular, a story with no audience, repeating itself endlessly.

#ldnont #london #ontario #canada #streetphotography #intersection #nightphotography #photography #apple #iphone #iphone17 #shotoniphone

Related:
Frozen in traffic, February 2018

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Monday, October 27, 2025

Almost roofless

Let's pause...
London, ON
October 2025
This photo originally shared on Instagram

It won’t be long before the forest loses its roof, before the leaves that shade and protect this place fall back to earth.

It happens every year, of course, but it still feels like an ending of one chapter, and a harbinger of the next one that in all likelihood will leave us colder and more exposed.

Does that necessarily make this a depressing thing? As is often the case in nature and in life, the answer depends on who we are and where we stand.

What is certain is the leaves will eventually return next spring. Less certain is who will be on the ground by then to witness it. Or, assuming they’ve been blessed with another season, whether they’ll have the wherewithal to look up at all.

I toss that one around my head as I make my way out of the woods. I was lucky to have had this moment, in this place. For now, that will have to do.

#ldnont #london #ontario #canada #medwayvalley #forest #trees #cathedral #autumn #colours #canopy #naturephotography #landscapephotography #photography #apple #iphone #iphone17 #shotoniphone


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Sunday, October 26, 2025

31 years and then some...

Everything...
Dryden, ON
May 2025
This photo originally shared on Instagram

You are the one who made us parents, who charmed everyone you met, who taught your siblings that older brothers are always there for them, who has grown into a remarkable husband and father - and the kind of human every parent wishes their kid would become.

As you finish your 31st trip around the sun, we find ourselves wishing we could slow this time thing down a bit, if only to remind ourselves how blessed we are to have you.

Happiest of birthdays, Zach. Keep making every day count. Keep making us all so incredibly proud of who you have become.

#LiveLaughLevy #family #everything

Related:
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4 decades of us, August 2024
32 years... July 2024
On fatherhood, June 2023

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Saturday, October 25, 2025

Play with me, please

Ball?
London, ON
October 2025
This photo originally shared on Instagram

Never miss an opportunity to play with the dog.

#ldnont #london #ontario #canada #calli #callithethewonderschnauzer #dog #actofdog #schnauzersofinstagram #dogsofinstagram #instapuppy #photography #apple #iphone #iphone17 #shotoniphone

Related:
She watches, June 2025
Nap like a dog, June 2025
Dog therapy, May 2025
No joke. Dog. April 2024
Go on, I dare you, March 2025

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Friday, October 24, 2025

Not every leaf is brilliant

Almost forgotten
London, ON
October 2025
This photo originally shared on Instagram

Autumn can be many things. The conventional definition revolves around brilliantly coloured canopies and saturated tones that jump off the screen and into our souls.

Or it can be this less conventional view, an inglorious ending devoid of colour, trampled by the feet of the masses looking everywhere and anywhere else for those eye-searing tones.

On this particular evening, there are no masses walking on the path through the rain-soaked forest. Just me, looking for visual inspiration in the final few moments before the sun sets.

Maybe this isn’t the inspiration most people have in mind when they set out looking for autumn. But who wants to be most people, anyway?

#ldnont #london #ontario #canada #sidewalk #streetphotography #leaf #texture #water #droplet #stilllife #autumn #photography #apple #iphone #iphone17 #shotoniphone

Related:
Dead, wet leaf, October 2025

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Thursday, October 23, 2025

Staring stage left

Together...
Port Stanley, ON
August 2025
This photo originally shared on Instagram

A flock of seagulls isn’t just some 1980s new wave band whose music seems to cross generational divides. It’s also a lesson from the animal kingdom to the human one.

See, these particular gulls, seen on a warm summer’s afternoon on an otherwise abandoned edge of a lakeside beach, are all focusing their attention in the same direction.

No one’s buried in a smartphone, arguing over a parking space, or flexing over who has the nicest ink. Instead, they’re collectively turned into the wind, working together to figure out where their next big worry is coming from, ready for whatever may or may not happen next.

They aren’t distracted. They’re dialed in. Together.

I hear the sounds of the human masses in the distance and wonder why no one else is looking this way. They might learn something.

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

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Wednesday, October 22, 2025

Sun-bathed brick

I
In the golden hour...
Côte-Saint-Luc, QC
August 2025
This photo originally shared on Instagram

As the sun sinks toward the horizon in a Montreal suburb, I find myself walking the streets in search of something, anything before darkness wins its daily battle.

There isn’t much to see, just a whole lot of uninspired late-20th-century brick and a shopping mall parking lot filled with abandoned grocery carts.

Yet just before the golden light is snuffed out for good, it paints the skies with an indescribably warm glow. The uninspired mortar above me comes alive as photons ending their 147 million kilometre journey bathe the tired surface in iridescent energy.

If magic has a visual, this may very well be it.

The show doesn’t last long, just barely enough for me to compose a few geometric frames before night officially arrives.

But it’s enough to remind me that old and tired can still be inspiring, and we only learn these lessons when we choose to look for them.

#montreal #cotestluc #quebec #canada #yul #throwback #apartment #building #architecture #sunset #goldenhour #geometry #photography #nikon #nikonphotography #nikon_photography

Related:
Boxes in the sky, July 2022
Disney memories, April 2022
Where brick meets sky, September 2018

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Tuesday, October 21, 2025

The good guys win

Convertible top
Toronto, ON
September 2023
This photo originally shared on Instagram

Canada wakes up happy after the Toronto Blue Jays came from behind last night to win the 7th and deciding game 4-3 over the Seattle Mariners. In taking the best-of-seven American League Championship Series, Toronto earns its ticket to the World Series for the first time in 32 years.

The Jays are indeed Canada’s team, and it’s not much of an exaggeration to say the entire country held its breath before the team pulled off yet another come-from-behind victory. Beyond the stats, this is a story of a remarkable team of remarkable people. Behind the numbers, these are people who inspire. Both on and off the base paths, this is what empathy and selflessness look like - and why these traits matter as much as they do both in baseball and in life.

Still ahead lies a titanic battle against the Los Angeles Dodgers. But whatever happens next changes nothing about the character of a team even non-fans have adopted as their own.

It isn’t often that sports manages to transcend the field of play. This may be one of them, and all of Canada now has even more reason to stand by our Boys of Summer as they make their - and our - field of dreams come true.

Go Jays. Go Canada. Maybe this is now more than just a game.

#toronto #yyz #ontario #canada #throwback #bluejays #mlb #rogerscentre #stadium #skydome #baseball #sports #sportsing #photography #apple #iphone #shotoniphone


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Monday, October 20, 2025

Orange bike on a green bridge

Temporary parking
London, ON
October 2025
This photo originally shared on Instagram

Winter will be here soon enough. So for now we throw a leg over the bike and ride it to places that bring us joy.

And we’ll park it on bridges older than our grandparents so we can linger among the green-painted girders for a while and feel the gentle warmth of the light reflecting off of the wooden deck.

And we’ll smile at strangers and have quick chats with them about the wonderful season before they turn the corner and disappear from view.

And we’ll close our eyes and listen to the breeze in the trees. We’ll smell the slightly moldy smell of autumn as wispy leaves float down and skitter past our feet.

And we’ll watch the birds dance in the skies above. We’ll wonder where they’ll go after the leaves are gone and the snows return, and we’ll wish them a safe journey.

And soon enough we’ll throw a leg over the bike again and push off for destinations possibly known, possibly not.

What matters isn’t where we’re going. What matters is that we set off at all, and stop along the way to remember how it feels.

#ldnont #london #ontario #canada #tvp #kingstreetbridge #thames #river #cycling #cyclist #orange #bicycle #cyclinglife #instabike #photography #apple #apple #iphone #iphone17 #shotoniphone


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Sunday, October 19, 2025

In memoriam...

Reflective
Duvernay, QC
August 2025
This photo originally shared on Instagram

On our most recent trip to Montreal in August, we visited my father’s and in-laws’ graves.

I’ve never believed they’re “there” in any sense of the word, but it still feels right to spend time in this resonant place whenever we’re in town.

They raised us, after all, built homes around us, made sure we made it to adulthood with the tools we needed to succeed in this life thing. And while those memories are woven into our very fabric, there’s a certain sense of connectedness to who they were whenever we come here.

Since this is me we’re talking about, I brought my camera. It’s something my in-laws always enjoyed, from reviewing photos I had just taken from their high-rise terrace to putting up with me when I stuck my lens in their faces, photography had become an integral part of our relationship over the years.

Was it entirely appropriate to shoot artsy pics in a cemetery? Probably not. But my father-in-law in particular would have found it amusing, and would have quietly asked to see the photos after I was done.

It’s a memory I continue to hold onto whenever I pick up the camera and ponder where we’ll go next. Over the decades that I evolved from the big-haired, loud-mouthed teen who kept showing up for Friday night dinners to the son-in-law who built a life with his daughter, my father-in-law not only gently taught me that the stories we craft along the way are worth remembering, but there’s joy in sharing them with others, as well.

I can’t share this one with him anymore, but I’m comforted by the notion that while we had him, he appreciated the simple joy of an image that told the story of us. And as long as I’m able to capture them, here in a cemetery or wherever else we happen to be, I’ll continue to bring the camera to places it probably shouldn’t be brought.

#laval #duvernay #montreal #quebec #canada #throwback #cemetery #photography #nikon #nikonphotography #nikon_photography #family #everything

Related:
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Remember me, February 2018
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Remembering why, November 2008
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Saturday, October 18, 2025

Looking into the windows of strangers

No one is home
Côte-Saint-Luc, QC
August 2025
This photo originally shared on Instagram

From the outside in, there’s no way to ever know what goes on behind each of these windows.

Which is as it should be. We all deserve our privacy, after all.

But that’s the funny thing about windows. They still invite us to wonder about the unknown. To respect the trials and triumphs of strangers navigating life quietly amid spaces they call their own.

Indeed, don’t we all deserve spaces to call our own?

#montreal #cotestluc #quebec #canada #yul #throwback #apartment #building #architecture #monochrome #photography #nikon #nikonphotography #nikon_photography

Related:
Boxes in the sky, July 2022

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Friday, October 17, 2025

Sculpted cat

Hanging out with the dogs
Toronto, ON
May 2025
This photo originally shared on Instagram

Berczy Park is a magical little place in downtown Toronto, with a showpiece fountain dominated by 26 cast-iron dogs, all staring at a bone high up in the middle.

It is a delightful spot carved out of the shadows of skyscrapers, and it invites everyone who visits here to linger and wonder. It is the very best in placemaking.

The visionary designer, the late Claude Cormier, who along with his team crafted this space in close consultation with the city and the surrounding community, also threw in two cats and two birds.

And while all the dogs are focused on the bone, this lovely feline is zeroed in on the birds.

I wish I could still have a conversation with its legendary creator to understand the story of why. But I’d like to imagine it’s a silent message to those who visit here to follow our instincts, and not the crowd.

Meow.

#toronto #yyz #ontario #canada #berczypark #throwback #downtown #urban #city #art #artofdog #artofcat #sculpture #streetphotography #apple #apple #iphone #iphone16 #shotoniphone

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Thursday, October 16, 2025

Riverbank reflections

Standing guard
London, ON
October 2025
This photo originally shared on Instagram

There’s a place deep in the woods where the thick tree cover beside the river gives way to a bit of a clearing. I like to occasionally stop here and listen to the soft hush of the lazily flowing water, and stare at the reflected canopy growing out of the opposite bank.

I’m not seeing anything particularly new or spectacular here, but that’s not the point. I think of this spot as something of an anchor, a familiar place that’s always there, where the rest of the world can be put on hold while I watch trees shimmering across the surface of the water below.

We should all have a place like this.

#ldnont #london #ontario #canada #medwayvalley #autumn #forest #trees #thames #river #reflective #naturephotography #landscapephotography #photography #apple #iphone #iphone17 #shotoniphone

Related:

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Wednesday, October 15, 2025

Anchors in the wind

Strength in numbers
Port Stanley, ON
July 2025
This photo originally shared on Instagram

Sometimes I’ll wander over to the edge of the beach and watch the dune grasses sway in the breeze.

I’m usually alone, because who else would want to stare at grass? I get it, it’s freaking grass.

But even forgettable slivers of organic matter can have a story. And far away from the crowds and the surf, a compelling story is being told.

It’s a story of survival, of deliberately planted grasses digging roots in the sand and standing against the winds that would wipe all of this out.

It’s a story of partnership, of working together to create greater collective strength and resilience.

It’s a story of humility, of getting the job done, quietly and in the margins, while the rest of the world is busy with being busy.

So, sure, this is just a stupid picture of grass. But standing alone listening to the green blades away in the wind, I couldn’t help but think that they were trying to tell me something.

#portstanley #beach #ldnont #ontario #canada #grasses #naturephotography #landscapephotography #photography #nikon #nikonphotography #nikon_photography

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Tuesday, October 14, 2025

So Meta announced updates to its Instagram Teen Accounts earlier today. Good on them, but it's still not enough - not even close. My latest article for my newsletter subscribers is now live.


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Shadows on the forest floor

Reach further
London, ON
October 2025
This photo originally shared on Instagram

I got lost in the woods yesterday, so the setting sun reached out of the western sky to find me and point me toward home.

#ldnont #london #ontario #canada #medwayvalley #autumn #forest #trees #gameoftones #rays #naturephotography #landscapephotography #photography #apple #iphone #iphone17 #shotoniphone

Related:
Sun-striped bridge, October 2021

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Monday, October 13, 2025

Freeze (wet) frame

One time only
Delray Beach, FL
December 2017
This photo originally shared on Instagram

Time moves at one speed, in one direction. There are no buttons for pause, stop, or reverse.

So we freeze moments where we can. Before they slip behind us, into memories that we grip tightly lest they disappear for good.

This life thing, like water jetting out from of a fountain, is often messy, or unpredictable, and can be difficult to understand. I can’t explain the physics of this captured moment. But I can appreciate it all the same, and feel lucky that I was there to witness it at all.

#delraybeach #florida #throwback #water #fountain #frozen #travelphotography #travelgram #vacation #Nikon #nikonphotography #nikon_photography


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Sunday, October 12, 2025

Bay Street from above

No game today
Toronto, ON
September 2025
This photo originally shared on Instagram

It seemed amusing to me that the very epicentre of Canada’s financial district, Bay Street, was virtually empty in the midst of the morning rush.

I’m sure it was a pure coincidence that corrected itself with gordian knots of typically Torontonian traffic mere seconds after I continued on my merry way, but it felt worthy of a photo all the same.

Familiar places doing unfamiliar things. That’s a thing, apparently.

#toronto #ontario #canada #yyz #scotiabankarena #architecturephotography #streetphotography #landscapephotography #downtown #photography #apple #iphone #iphone16 #shotoniphone

Related:
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No more games, August 2019

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Saturday, October 11, 2025

Dead, wet leaf

Still worth a look
London, ON
October 2025
This photo originally shared on Instagram

If I’m being blunt, autumn has thus far been a bit of a bust here in the Great White North.

A relatively dry summer has sapped the colours from the leaves, and even those with a bit of shade just aren’t as vibrant as they usually are.

Yet I’m still taking walks in the woods. Still looking for whatever it is that will inspire me to lift the camera up and freeze the memory.

Because if all we’re doing is looking for the brilliant reds and oranges, there’s a whole lot of leftover spectrum that we’re missing. If our focus is only on that which we expect to see, then we’ll never be ready for the unexpected.

Or so I convince myself as I frame up another shrivelled example from a season everyone else would rather forget.

Maybe I’m weird, then, but in my world no season is forgettable. So I peer into the margins of the forest and find the things that would otherwise be ignored. Maybe the leaves are trying to teach us a lesson.

#ldnont #london #ontario #canada #grass #floor #fallen #leaf #water #droplet #autumn #colour #stilllife #naturephotography #photography #apple #apple #iphone #iphone17 #shotoniphone

Related:
Wet, fallen leaf, October 2024
Blink and you'll miss it, September 2015

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Friday, October 10, 2025

Reflecting the tower

Mirror, mirror...
Toronto, ON
September 2025
This photo originally shared on Instagram

Icons don’t always show themselves directly. Sometimes they hide behind blind corners and peek out when we’re ready to see them.

#toronto #ontario #canada #yyz #cntower #building #architecture #architecturephotography #buildingporn #architectureporn #downtown #reflection #mirror #photography #apple #apple #iphone #iphone16 #shotoniphone

Related:
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Big buildings, September 2009

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Thursday, October 09, 2025

Old MacDonald had a farm...

The day has already begun
Ingersoll, ON
September 2025
This photo originally shared on Instagram

It’s 6:48 a.m. and we’re speeding down the highway on our way to the big city to the east. The sun won’t rise for another 18 minutes, but already the sky is calling out to the farms below.

It doesn’t need to, of course, because the farmers have already been at it for hours, quietly working the earth so the rest of us can eat.

We’re blessed in southern Ontario with some of the most productive agricultural land on the planet, and as I stare out the passenger window, one farmstead after another slips past, lives of purpose playing out in the shadows of commuters too busy to notice.

I remind myself how lucky we are to live here, to be surrounded by endless stretches of farmland.

Except they’re not endless. And they don’t just run themselves. Someone drags out of bed at oh-dark-stupid o’clock and risks life and limb to feed the flock, nurture the crops, and bring it all to market. Someone in the shadows goes without sleep and safety so the rest of us never have to think about where it all comes from.

The least we can do when we whip by at triple-digit speeds is look into those same shadows and feel some gratitude before the unseen heroes of modern life disappear into the rearview.

#ingersoll #ontario #canada #sunrise #farm #farming #sky #highway401 #naturephotography #landscapephotography #photography #apple #apple #iphone #iphone16 #shotoniphone

Related:
Random straw poll, August 2023

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Wednesday, October 08, 2025

The view from the forest floor

Nature's roofer
London, ON
October 2024
This photo originally shared on Instagram

Protector of the forest. Protector of us all.

#ldnont #london #ontario #canada #medwayvalley #autumn #forest #trees #gameoftones #yellow #cathedral #canopy #texture #naturephotography #landscapephotography #photography #apple #iphone #iphone16 #shotoniphone

Related:
The sheltered forest, February 2025
Sun-kissed cathedral, October 2023
Back to the woods, October 2021

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Tuesday, October 07, 2025

October 7th + 2

Light always wins. Hopefully.
London, ON
October 2025
This photo originally shared on Instagram

The world is a dark place, especially today.

So if we do anything today and every day, let’s be the light.

It vanquishes the darkness.

If we allow it.

Related:
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Monday, October 06, 2025

Power up

Structural
London, ON
October 2025
This photo originally shared on Instagram

I’ll remember this one more for how it was captured than for how it looks.

The moment starts out like so many others: I’m busy going about my life - on this particular morning, riding my bike on a path through London’s east end - when I see something that makes me pause and wonder: a high-tension electricity tower, one of countless such examples dotting the fringes of the neighbourhood.

I think to myself that nobody pays attention to them until the lights go out. So I stop the bike and ponder a reasonable means of paying attention.

Now, it’s an unseasonably hot and humid morning (in October!) so I’m ready for a bit of a break before finishing the ride. I lie back on the soft grass directly beneath the tower and like what I see. Before long I’m skittering a few centimetres this way and that to find the absolute centre of the scene.

Other cyclists roll past and ask if I’m ok. I assure them I am, and thank them for their kind concern.

Eventually I find the sweet spot, take the shot, then get back on the bike. Blades of dried grass are stuck in my shoes, my helmet, and from the itchiness around back, my shirt, as well. I smile at the inadvertent reminder of another strange photographic moment in a life seemingly filled with them.

Worth it, I tell myself, as the breeze grabs the itchy blades of grass from my clothes and scatters them behind.

#ldnont #london #ontario #canada #hydro #electric #perspective #geometry #engineering #tvp #cycling #cyclinglife #instabike #photography #apple #apple #iphone #iphone17 #shotoniphone

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Sunday, October 05, 2025

A Meadowlily moment

Spanning the years
London, ON
October 2025
This photo originally shared on Instagram

I visited an old friend this morning.

And by old friend, I mean an old bridge. Because I’m weird, I’ll occasionally drop in on the historic spans that dot the southwestern Ontario landscape.

I wish I could explain why.

This one, Meadowlily Bridge, has been around for 115 years, and was lovingly restored around a dozen years ago. I try to get here by bike every once in a while, because for reasons I don’t quite understand, I derive a strange sense of comfort when I’m up close and personal with the steel and the rivets.

In the middle of a wander, it’s a perfect place to stop for a snack and listen to the gentle river below. On this sunny morning, I’m not alone, with a steady stream of joggers, cyclists, families, and even a guy on an electric single-wheeler.

There’s something to be said for banning traffic from historic structures and making them centrepieces of human-powered walkways - in this case the Thames Valley Parkway - and environmentally significant areas. As I absorb the quiet energy of this spot, I have all the proof I need that it works.

Soon enough it’s time to head home, so I get back on the bright orange machine and crank the pedals up to speed. As the green Warren truss disappears in my rearview mirror, I remind myself to not let so much time go by before the next visit.

Those rivets must be magnetic in more ways than one.

#ldnont #london #ontario #canada #tvp #meadowlily #thames #river #cycling #cyclist #bicycle #cyclinglife #instabike #photography #apple #apple #iphone #iphone17 #shotoniphone


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Saturday, October 04, 2025

Getting reflective by the beach

That Mackie's view
Port Stanley, ON
August 2025
This photo originally shared on Instagram

I don’t take all that many selfies, as I figure the world has enough images of me as it is.

But I have a thing for anything involving reflective windows, with bonus points if they’re at or near the beach.

None of this has to make any sense, mind you. We each like what we like.

So whenever I’m down by the lake, I’ll stand near Mackie’s, the iconic resto facing Port Stanley’s main beach, and use its just-as-iconic facade as a photographic muse.

This isn’t the first landscape window selfie I’ve taken here, and that’s entirely by design. Because every time we return here, I want to have at least one memory of standing in the sand and feeling the warm wind in my face, of what it sounds and smells like in that singular moment.

Photos are mere springboards to memories. So we take them over and over. And we hold onto them, the images and the memories, as tightly as we can.

And if the only way to get the shot is to sneak into the reflection, so be it.

#portstanley #beach #ontario #canada #great #lake #erie #mackies #glass #geometry #reflective #photography #nikon #nikonphotography #nikon_photography

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Friday, October 03, 2025

In the middle of the river

Strange place for a walk
London, ON
September 2025
This photo originally shared on Instagram

The scene: I’m walking our pup through the woods when we approach the river and realize it’s become little more than a trickle.

What was once a fast-flowing stretch of water is now a wide expanse of erosion-smoothed rocks that are just begging for a little exploration. Calli tugs at the leash, drawn no doubt by the smells of the riverbed. I’m happy to follow her lead, and soon enough we’re midway between the exposed riverbanks, the birds in the branches overhead not quite knowing what to make of it all.

She sniffs the stones for a while before apparently deciding she’s done, then looks up at the surreal scene of a river that no longer exists, seemingly just as confused as the birds. She stares back at me with that sweet look of a Schnauzer, so I lean in and rub just behind her ears.

Because not everything needs to be explained, in English or in dog, but it’s always the right time to make nice to those who matter most.

#ldnont #london #ontario #canada #medwayvalley #calli #callithethewonderschnauzer #dog #actofdog #schnauzerpuppy #schnauzersofinstagram #schnauzergram #dogsofinstagram #instapuppy #photography #apple #iphone #iphone16 #shotoniphone

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Wednesday, October 01, 2025

Somewhat straight lines and ice cream

Where's my ruler?
St. Thomas, ON
August 2025
This photo originally shared on Instagram

We come across so many things in day-to-day life that don’t seem to merit much attention beyond that first glance.

I’d argue an industrial-looking building designed with a ruler might be one of those things; forgettable elements not worthy of much beyond basic recognition.

But stand and stare long enough and details seem to subtly present themselves. The brilliantly blue sky above, the dents and scars below, and the tiny rivets seemingly holding it all together.

There’s a story here, a history of what was made, who made it, and how their lives played out, day after day, year after year. Standing on the outside looking in, one can almost make out the echoes of a now vanished past.

But we have to stand there in the first place, to take second and third glances at things just about everyone else would ignore.

We tend to judge things based on their aesthetic. Looks, apparently, determine whether something is worthy of additional scrutiny.

Things. Buildings. People. It’s all the same, really.

#stthomas #ontario #canada #shaws #building #architecture #architecturephotography #buildingporn #architectureporn #geometry #streetphotography #photography #nikon #nikonphotography #nikon_photography

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