One surviving leaf

Singular
London, ON
January 2026
This photo originally shared on Instagram

Months after this forlorn leaf should have been swept off the branch and into oblivion, it still holds on.

It’s a bit of a stretch to say a humble leaf can be so defiant, but how else can we explain why it continues to flutter in the winter winds while just about all of the others have long since disappeared?

I stand in the bitter cold and wonder about the why of this particular leaf, about the story it could tell if it had the ability to tell stories at all.

And then it hits me: everything has a story, even if we’ll never know what that story is. Because some things are destined to remain mysteries to those on the outside looking in.

#ldnont #london #ontario #canada #medwayvalley #leaf #texture #stilllife #bokeh #naturephotography #landscapephotography #photography #nikon #nikonphotography #nikon_photography

Balconies and angles

Meet your neighbours
Toronto, ON
January 2026
This photo originally shared on Instagram

In my ideal world, neighbours on opposite sides of this delightfully shaped building would sit on their balconies and befriend each other.

In the actual, real world, no one sits on a high-rise balcony during a Canadian winter. So the architectural dance in the sky plays out without an audience.

Still, major chops to whoever decided to build something more inspired than a basic box. Who wanted to create a space where strangers could somehow connect in a space that demands second and even third looks.

Where when the weather warms up, neighbours gather in opposite corners high in the sky and share moments worth remembering.

They say design creates community. Whoever they are, they’re right.

#toronto #ontario #canada #architecturephotography #architectureporn #downtown #geometry #monochrome #photography #apple #iphone #iphone17 #shotoniphone

The curvy tree

Oops
London, ON
February 2026
This photo originally shared on Instagram

I have good news for all those who march to the beat of their own drummer, or as seems to be the case here, look just a little different than everyone else.

I’ve found your tree.

#ldnont #london #ontario #canada #medwayvalley #forest #trees #fog #weather #wx #naturephotography #landscapephotography #photography #nikon #nikonphotography #nikon_photography

Snowglobe in the woods

Stormy
London, ON
April 2023
This photo originally shared on Instagram

I often feel the need to remind myself to look up in the middle of the storm.

Because just as the snow is falling most rapidly and the winds are howling at peak intensity, they’re reminding us that moments of unmitigated darkness and fear can also represent stunning beauty, unexpected wonder, and maybe just a bit of spontaneous hope.

So hold on. Storms don’t last forever.

#ldnont #london #ontario #canada #medwayvalley #winter #snow #forest #trees #naturephotography #landscapephotography #monochrome #photography #nikon #nikonphotography #nikon_photography

Returning to The Suburban

A long, long time ago, I wrote for a local weekly newspaper while pursuing my journalism degree.

The paper was - and still is - known as The Suburban, and its original founders managed to craft a feisty little paper that made a difference in the communities it served.

Decades later, it's a very different place, but it's still kicking. Their longtime columnist, Mike Cohen, was gracious enough to interview me for his podcast, and we had a lovely time catching up. Enjoy!

Cohen in the City Episode 198 : Chomedey‘s Carmi Levy has become one of Canada’s premier tech experts

Fragile ice syndrome

No step
London, ON
February 2026
This photo originally shared on Instagram

In the dead of winter, the river flows gently beneath impossibly thin, near-iridescent layers of ice. I don’t dare step off of the snow-covered shore, and instead crouch gingerly over the scene, careful to avoid falling in.

It’s a surreal scene, shaped by temperature and wind and current and probably more than a smidgen of magic. If I return tomorrow, it will either be changed, or gone entirely. Come to think of it, it’ll probably morph within the hour.

So I gently squeeze the shutter to freeze this single moment, knowing it’ll never again look or feel like this.

Maybe that’s a metaphor for life. Always changing. Always slipping into the past. Sometimes remembered by those who happen to pass by. But not always.

#ldnont #london #ontario #canada #medwayvalley #winter #forest #trees #thamesriver #stilllife #naturephotography #landscapephotography #monochrome #photography #nikon #nikonphotography #nikon_photography

Life in Hockeyville

Game on
London, ON
February 2017
This photo originally shared on Instagram

The day dawns electric in the Great White North as Canada’s men’s Olympic hockey team prepares to take on the Americans in the gold medal game.

Canadians from coast to coast to coast will be waking up before dawn to catch the game live. Here in Ontario, Premier Doug Ford has allowed bars and restaurants to start selling alcohol at 6 a.m., because nothing says Great Canadian Breakfast quite as effectively as a tall cold one.

This is much more than a mere game. In the context of the past year of increasingly erratic politics leaking over our southern border, it’s not much of an exaggeration to call this a moment of national significance.

Canadians hold hockey more closely to our national, community, and individual psyches than perhaps anyone else. Countless parents in countless towns drive their kids to countless arenas in the early morning darkness. Many of them cling to dreams of this brutal, beautiful game holding some kind of ticket out of this place. Or maybe it’s a senior’s league, playing less for glory than the simple refusal to submit to the ravages of time.

Or maybe it’s the average Canadian fan, sitting on splintered wood bleachers in a frigid arena, or watching the game on TV, or otherwise hitting the pause button on the everyday to watch magic play out between the boards. We all have a role to play.

However this one incandescent game plays out, our hockey culture will be just as integral to our national identity long after the medals are awarded.

Tomorrow morning, a single unsung hero will walk into an empty arena, flip the lights on and take the Zamboni out onto the silent ice. Soon enough those countless kids will tumble in. And new dreams, Olympic ones perhaps, will scrape themselves into the brilliantly cold ice.

Maybe they play hockey elsewhere. But they don’t live it like we do.

Go Canada.

#ldnont #london #ontario #canada #hockey #sports #sportsing #photography #throwback

Pizza mythology

Delicious angles
London, ON
February 2026
This photo originally shared on Instagram

Pizza isn’t necessarily the optimal dietary choice, but I’d hate to go through life without the occasional slice. Or in this case, four slices.

It can be a comfort food, the meal choice that takes us back to moments we remember with the warm texture of nostalgia.

Many years ago, my first date with a really cute girl was at a local pizza restaurant. I fretted mightily over where we should go, and eventually settled on pizza as the least risky choice. No exploding raviolis or dangling spaghetti. No bits of salad stuck in my teeth.

It must have worked, because she married me. To this day we laugh about her never agreeing to a second date after a particularly messy meal choice, but she always gently corrects me, saying I’d get the millionth date no matter what’s on the menu.

Which explains why it’s pizza that grabs at my heartstrings whenever it comes up in the meal roster. It’s one culinary choice that reminds me how it all started, how it’s going now, and why sweet moments in life don’t always come with a dietician’s seal of approval.

I’d choose it again for any date with her, thankful as I’ve always been that I got the second date.

#ldnont #london #ontario #canada #pizza #abstract #stilllife #photography #apple #iphone #iphone17 #shotoniphone

Front door icicle

Not here for long
London, ON
February 2026
This photo originally shared on Instagram

It takes days for the icicle to painstakingly take form just outside our front door.

And only hours for the forces that created it to change their minds and melt it forever.

So before the inevitable arrives, we step outside and spend a little time admiring a seemingly simple sliver of ice.

Because the more we see, the less simple it seems. And the more profound its eventual loss will be.

Why does it feel like this isn’t just a story about an icicle?

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

Seeking refuge amid trees and water

Fallen...
London, ON
February 2026
This photo originally shared on Instagram

Sorry for the tree theme these days. The planet is a harsh place to be for too many of us, so I find myself seeking refuge in places like this.

Where the world can be put on pause for a bit while we wrap ourselves in the quiet majesty of a fog-wrapped valley.

It won’t be long before the sun burns through the murk, but for now, at least, there’s peace to be found away from the pressures imposed by others too distracted to listen to the hushed voices deep in the woods.

#ldnont #london #ontario #canada #medwayvalley #forest #trees #fog #weather #wx #naturephotography #landscapephotography #photography #nikon #nikonphotography #nikon_photography

Peering through the fog

Looking for clarity
London, ON
February 2026
This photo originally shared on Instagram

We get fog around here. Thick, soupy fog, especially when warmish weather rolls in and turns the delightfully heavy snow pack (thanks, Canadian winter) into a sublimating mess. It is at once dangerous and captivating.

Yesterday morning dawned with a thick blanket over the region, so the rules of life* dictated a quick, spontaneous walkabout.

I figured the woods would offer up the most optical potential, so down into the valley I went. It didn’t take long for the giant trees to telegraph their story, and before long I was seeking near-parallel trunks either emerging from the fog, or being devoured by it.

There’s no script to any of this. Just get out there and see what grabs the soul. The point is to get out there at all. On this morning, the scene was painted with fog. Next time it’ll be another palette. Maybe another way of seeing the familiar. I’ll know it when I see it.

--
* The rules of life, at least how I choose to see them, are fairly simple. If we’ve been lucky enough to get another day, then it’s on us to remember it somehow. My weapons of choice are cameras and pens (or maybe keyboards), and a good day is always the one where I get to use both.

Your mileage may vary, of course, but the point is to seek scenes and moments out and somehow make them yours. Not a bad way to live, I reckon.

#ldnont #london #ontario #canada #medwayvalley #forest #trees #fog #weather #wx #naturephotography #landscapephotography #photography #nikon #nikonphotography #nikon_photography

Did you know I had a stroke? I know: I don’t look like the typical stroke victim.

February is Heart Month here in Canada, and I was privileged to join Mutsumi Takahashi on CTV Montreal to talk about it.

Because awareness saves lives. Maybe even yours.

When our tech analyst had a stroke

Of course you are loved

Messages that matter
London, ON
February 2026
This photo originally shared on Instagram

Behold my wife’s mug. We’re mug people, and of all the mugs in our kitchen cupboard, it is my absolute favourite.

I made her coffee the other day. Technically, it was on February 14th. Valentine’s Day. When Hallmarkian convention dictates a well choreographed sequence of socially acceptable gestures.

I didn’t choose this mug because of the date, but I did hover over it as I finished prepping the coffee machine, then listened to its gentle burbling as the kitchen filled with the delightful scent of percolation. The graphic stopped me in my tracks, as it always does when I choose this mug for the particular morning’s festivities.

Because we all deserve to be loved. We all deserve to know we are surrounded by those who feel this way. We all deserve to not be alone in this life.

Not everyone can be so lucky. I’m one of the lucky ones, because I very much am. And as much as I don’t need a mug as a reminder, in that moment it felt, I don’t know, comforting to pick up the camera for some kitchen table reflective photography.

I hear the coffee was pretty good, too.

#ldnont #london #ontario #canada #mug #kitchen #shadow #reflective #stilllife #photography #nikon #nikonphotography #nikon_photography

Water comes in many forms

Reflective...
London, ON
February 2026
This photo originally shared on Instagram

Water has no colour of its own, and will happily reflect its immediate surroundings.

Which likely explains why I find myself standing in a deeply chilled valley late in the afternoon looking for inspiration in the nearly frozen creek that runs through it.

Not everything is frozen over. And if I stand just so and look into the fast-setting sun, the gentle waves rolling off the ice clinging to the shallow rocky shoreline seem to form the loveliest reflections this side of a glass factory.

I’ve been here on so many other days that seemed much like this one, yet never have I seen a mercury-like surface quite like this. Weird how that works, no? The familiar serving up something entirely new. As if it was waiting for this single moment.

I explore the scene with my camera, playing with the settings to balance the brilliant reflections against the darker shadows - a dynamic range challenge if ever there was one. When I’m done, I shift just a couple of steps to my left and the scene disappears entirely. I try to move back into position, but the moment is gone for good, now remembered only in pixels on my memory card.

It dawns on me just how narrow these windows of time can be. And we only get to experience them if we’re precisely where the universe wants us.

Something to ponder, I guess, as I slowly walk back to the life that awaits outside the valley. I’ll have to come back here another day. Hopefully the universe has another plan for me - and my lens - when I return.

#ldnont #london #ontario #canada #medwayvalley #winter #river #reflective #naturephotography #landscapephotography #photography #nikon #nikonphotography #nikon_photography

What thankfulness looks like

Where every day is Family Day
Dryden, ON
December 2025
This photo originally shared on Instagram

We’re thankful for many things today.

That we still have them.

That we get to hear Lilly tell the story of how she woke Mommy and Daddy up to tell them about the fire.

Then grabbed the bag of Royal Gala apples from the kitchen counter and saved them, too.

Thankful for the community of friends, family, and even complete strangers who have opened their homes, sent donations, brought meals, and surrounded them with help and support and love. It is humbling to realize just how kind people can be.

Thankful for all that lies ahead as they rebuild, and rewrite all those next chapters every young family deserves.

Just, thankful.

#family #everything

When fire touches your family

Our son, Zach, and daughter-in-law, Michaela, were woken up early yesterday morning by 3-year-old Lilly: Claira’s room was on fire.

The good news, if there is any, is everyone is OK. Zach ran through the flames, and snatched her from her crib. They were out of the house by the time the fire trucks and EMS rolled up.

They were taken by ambulance to the hospital, and despite some smoke inhalation, seem to be fine.

The bad news: the damage is extensive and the house is uninhabitable. Rebuilding will be a long road of dealing with insurance companies and contractors. It is a nightmare come to life.

We often say it’s just stuff, that it can be replaced, while life cannot be. And that is indeed true here. But, still, that’s our family. We’d wish this on no one.

The word, hero, keeps bouncing through my head. A three-year-old who had the fortitude to alert her parents before the smoke alarm even went off. A dad who didn’t even think about himself as he ran straight into a burning room and grabbed an almost-14-month-old from her crib. A mom who keeps it together for her traumatized family after the unthinkable has happened. The universe is testing them all.

Whenever anyone asks us about them, we tell them what great kids they are. What incredible parents they have become. We talk about the remarkably sweet and insightful kids they’re raising. The home they’ve built around them.

It hurts to imagine the what-ifs, to think about the heartbreak of everything you’ve worked for being put in such peril. But we’re thankful they have the support of family, friends, and community to rebuild. We’re thankful we have them, period.

Off with her coat!

Believe it or not, this is her happy look
London, ON
February 2026
This photo originally shared on Instagram

For close to a month, the temperature here stayed well below freezing. Most days, it was so cold that Calli the Wonderschnauzer ran under the dining room table when it was time to go outside.

We insisted on putting on her coat, which only added to her misery. It’s hard to explain to a dog that we’re doing all of this to keep her safe and warm.

Well, the temperature finally climbed above freezing, so the coat stayed on the hook as we prepared to head out. She didn’t run under the dining table, instead planting herself at the door when she realized the hated purple coat was staying in the vestibule.

She had an extra bounce in her step as we closed the door behind us, almost as if she knew something had changed. I don’t profess to speak dog, but she seemed happier than she had been in a while.

I can’t control the weather, and her much despised coat might yet be needed before this ridiculous winter finally gives way to spring. So we’ll use extra treats to coax her out from under the dining room table, and we’ll offer extra pets and hugs for a girl who deserves happy moments as much as anyone.

It’s a dog thing, I think.

Good girl.

#ldnont #canada #callithewonderschnauzer #actofdog

Remembering a single red leaf

 

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

Not so long ago, vivid colours and textures seemed to be everywhere.

They’re gone now, replaced by a stark landscape devoid of colour and warmth.

But it’s only a matter of time before it all changes again.

I don’t think we’re talking about just leaves.

#ldnont #london #ontario #canada #throwback #medwayvalley #fallen #leaf #red #autumn #colour #stilllife #naturephotography #photography #nikon #nikonphotography #nikon_photography

Don't cry over spilled pasta

Geometry on the floor
London, ON
February 2026
This photo originally shared on Instagram

Don’t be sad that it fell on the floor and made a mess.

Be glad that we were there to witness it at all.

That we had the freedom and the time to capture it in all its mundane glory.

That this qualified as the most challenging obstacle we had to face on this - or any - given day.

Pasta as perspective. Who knew?

#ldnont #london #ontario #canada #grocery #store #nofrills #shopping #pasta #stilllife #photography #apple #iphone #iphone17 #shotoniphone

Salt, pepper, and life in general

Give them a shake
London, ON
February 2026
This photo originally shared on Instagram

On a bitterly cold winter’s morning, the sun reaches through the window and floods the table with enough light to banish the season - for at least as long as breakfast lasts.

#ldnont #london #ontario #canada #morningbites #salt #pepper #stilllife #shadow #monochrome #photography #apple #iphone17 #shotoniphone

Not quite the Himalayas

Craggy peaks
London, ON
February 2026
This photo originally shared on Instagram

Winter is cold, uncomfortable, and even dangerous.

But it can also be stunningly beautiful, particularly in the corners of everyday life where we rarely venture.

This chilly dichotomy dawned on me the other night as the dog and I set out on a walk. It had been snowing for days, leaving everything in sight covered in a thick layer of white.

At the end of our block, a plow had left a massive pile of jumbled snow behind, jagged blocks casting sharp shadows under the brilliant streetlights, the colour naturally drained from the icy facets.

It reminded me of those drone overflights of majestic peaks, a mundane suburban snow mountain masquerading as something much more substantial. And if you squinted just so, you might be tricked into believing this was indeed something more.

But that’s the thing about the theatre of the mind. What we see within it is substantial if we believe it to be so. Imagination is a wonderful thing, isn’t it?

#ldnont #london #ontario #canada #winter #snow #weather #wx #onstorm #texture #streetphotography #monochrome #photography #apple #iphone #iphone17 #shotoniphone

Lola Granola would be proud

Packaged
London, ON
February 2026
This photo originally shared on Instagram

Life is filled with what I like to call in-between moments, scenes of utter ordinariness that would otherwise fade into nothingness if we allowed them.

Yet sometimes we get a nudge from the universe to remember them, anyway, to snapshot them as a way of journaling the simple moments of what many might deem simple lives.

This latest example is the box of granola bars we brought home from the Costco in the midst of a blizzard, the winds blowing so strongly at one point that the box almost launched itself out of the cart and across the parking lot.

We probably shouldn’t have been out, but with the weather warnings suggesting things would get even worse, we made the very Canadian decision to dig out the car and forage for enough groceries to see us through the storm. It’s one of the ways we batten down the hatches when things get rough.

After getting home and thawing ourselves out, I stopped in my tracks after opening the box and noticing the weird spectacle that lay inside. The patterns and colours strangely spoke to me. So I played dining room table photographer for a few minutes to freeze that particularly dark Friday evening in time.

Because lives are complex things. And some of us are lucky enough to live them out alongside partners who understand the secret language of blizzards and granola bars, and will carefully watch over you as you try to keep boxes from flying away into apocalyptic snow storms.

Because ordinary isn’t really ordinary, nor is simple really simple. And in the end, the stories of the everyday turn out to be the stories of us.

#ldnont #london #ontario #canada #granola #foodporn #random #kitchen #stilllife #photography #apple #iphone #iphone17 #shotoniphone

As day gives way to night

One last blast
London, ON
March 2025
This photo originally shared on Instagram

At the end of the day, the skies come alive with reflected fire that burns brilliantly for just a few fleeting moments before darkness wins the daily, epic battle.

A message from the universe, perhaps, to look up while we still can.

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

Leaving land behind

Destination unknown
Port Stanley, ON
August 2025
This photo originally shared on Instagram

I like to do this thing in winter: pull up pics from the summer to remind myself that the cold and the darkness won’t last forever.

Which explains today’s photo taken from a beach, as a single sea gull headed out into the limitless skies over Lake Erie.

I remember what it felt like to stand in one place, my feet sinking slowly into the warm sand, watching this solitary bird disappear from view. While I logically knew she was a masterful flyer, I still found myself wishing her safe flight and an equally safe return.

I’ll never know if my wish was fulfilled, or where she ended up. But I’d like to think she, too, found light and warmth, and she’s safely weathering the current winter weather.

Part of me also wonders if I’ll see her again on my next visit to the shore. I’ll never know that, either, but life well lived doesn’t always involve getting every last answer to every last question. It’s perfectly acceptable for birds like this one to leave a little mystery in their wake.

#portstanley #beach #ldnont #ontario #canada #lakeerie #bird #seagull #flight #naturephotography #landscapephotography #photography #nikon #nikonphotography #nikon_photography

The two sides of a foggy morning

Focus harder
London, ON
December 2024
This photo originally shared on Instagram

What the fog takes away in visibility it returns to us in sheer clarity.

It removes extraneous detail from the scene so that we can instead focus on the things that truly matter.

It even silences the overwhelming noise that pollutes our senses so the quiet voices have a chance to finally be heard.

What originally started out as a simple photo of a tree at the edge of a foggy park seems to have turned into something else entirely.

#ldnont #london #ontario #canada #tree #fog #winter #weather #wx #optimistpark #naturephotography #landscapephotography #silhouette #monochrome #photography #nikon #nikonphotography #nikon_photography

Praying in a different kind of cathedral

Reverent
London, ON
February 2026
This photo originally shared on Instagram

Not all cathedrals were built by humans.

Some of them were carved, drop by drop, out of the very ground at our feet.

Or planted by unseen forces long before we arrived.

Or shaped by the winds that carried life in from distant lands.

Or maybe it’s all of the above.

However this place was formed, it’s a place worthy of worship.

Because belief takes many forms.

And standing in silence in this reverent place feels like the right way to connect with the things that matter.

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

Deep in an all-too-quiet valley

Hushed season
London, ON
February 2026
This photo originally shared on Instagram

Weeks of significant snowfall and historic cold have transformed the river valley, thick layers of snow covering every tree, an equally thick layer of ice now hiding the flowing waters.

It’s eerily quiet here, as if winter has switched off the mic and shushed all who visit this place.

The late afternoon sun is quickly sinking into the western sky, the last remaining light fading from the surface of the snow, lengthening shadows turning ever deeper shades of blue.

A tiny stretch of remaining open water reflects an equally tiny sliver of residual light, one last act of defiance against the forces that continue to dominate this ever changing landscape.

Spring will come soon enough, but for now it is the cold that owns the narrative, that pushes all others aside. Power may only be temporary, but in the moment, it’s the only thing most of us see and hear.

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

Toothy frozen fish

Please shoot my good side
London, ON
January 2026
This photo originally shared on Instagram

The local grocery store has a fully stocked fish section tucked way in the back, usually staffed by a fishmonger who knows more about things that swim than just about anyone.

And as much mad respect as I have for the fish experts among us, I don’t want to have to explain to them why I would like to shoot still-life photographs of their frozen, departed friends.

I don’t eat things that are remotely recognizable, after all, and fish heads on ice very much qualify as things I’ll never add to my cart. So I’d hate to waste the staff’s time in conversation, knowing full well I wouldn’t be buying their wares.

So when the counter was unstaffed during yesterday’s grocery run, I seized the moment and quickly composed a few images through the dirty glass.

Every photo has a back story, a narrative unique to the person who takes it, a chain of logic that’s been taking shape in the shooter’s head for years, or even decades.

So we shoot the fish and tell the stories. Even if we have to bend the rules a little.

#ldnont #london #ontario #canada #grocery #store #sobeys #shopping #frozen #fish #stilllife #photography #apple #iphone #iphone17 #shotoniphone