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