Monday, March 31, 2025

Fun with curved glass

Wonderland for carnivores
Thornhill, ON
March 2025
This photo originally shared on Instagram

More often than I dare admit, I’ll take a time-out from the everyday and take weird photos.

Why? Because life can be hard, and weird photos can be quite the antidote.

And here’s the thing: it doesn’t just work for me, because I can see total strangers crack the occasional smile when they think I’m not looking.

Today’s example comes to us from the meat department of the Sobeys store in Thornhill, just north of Toronto. This particular display feels like an amusement park funhouse, a riot of angles and reflections that present themselves only if we look inside the glass in just the right way.

Maybe it’s a simple escape from the more serious pressures of Planet Earth, or maybe it’s a broader metaphor for life. Or maybe it’s just a strange composition that marks a moment that I want to hold onto.

It can even be all or none of them. It’s the not knowing before the image is even created that makes us pick the camera up in the first place.

#thornhill #toronto #ontario #canada #grocery #store #sobeys #shopping #retail #random #glass #perspective #stilllife #photography #apple #iphone #iphone16 #shotoniphone


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Sunday, March 30, 2025

Step aboard

Follow the light
London, ON
April 2018
This photo originally shared on Instagram

Trains will never not be magical.

That is all.

#ldnont #london #ontario #canada #throwback #viarail #stainless #steel #train #track #perspective #downtown #travel #redlight #reflective #photography #nikon #nikonphotography #nikon_photography


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Saturday, March 29, 2025

Ethereal rays from the heavens

Angled
London, ON
July 2012
This photo originally shared on Instagram

Storms will come, skies will threaten, fear will descend on us all from above.

I’m guessing this is as true in everyday life as it is in everyday photography, which likely explains why I stand transfixed as the threatening clouds move toward me from the horizon.

It’s a moment born more out of curiosity than fear as the formations dance in the sky, leaving ample room for the sun to fight its way through, stubborn rays reaching down to the earth below.

If the skies were less chaotic, they probably wouldn’t be as memorable.

Skies. Life. They’re more similar than we might have once thought. So I take a few more frames before turning for home under the first fat drops of the coming storm.

#ldnont #london #ontario #canada #throwback #sunset #cloudspotting #weather #wx #onstorm #naturephotography #landscapephotography #rays #photography #nikon #nikonphotography #nikon_photography

Related:
Be. The. Light. September 2023
Smoke and light, July 2022
Muted landscape, November 2011
Crack the sky, February 2009

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Friday, March 28, 2025

It only looks frozen

Time, stopped
London, ON
October 2017
This photo originally shared on Instagram

Most kids will happily play in the dancing waters of the neighbourhood splash pad.

Some kids will never really grow up, and will bring their cameras back when they’re older.

It’s how we remember moments that slip by too quickly.

#ldnont #london #ontario #canada #throwback #water #fountain #frozen #gibbonspark #monochrome #photography #nikon #nikonphotography #nikon_photography

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Thursday, March 27, 2025

Play ball again

Field of dreams
Toronto, ON
September 2024
This photo originally shared on Instagram

I’ll admit I’m not the world’s most ardent sports fan.

I don’t religiously watch every game, mourn every loss, or debate every unfair call.

I don’t wear the merch, or hold my breath as teams either battle for a playoff spot or fade into mediocrity.

I don’t dissect each game in excruciating detail, or follow statistics with religious zeal.

I find the notion that “we” won somewhat amusing given “we” weren’t on the field or the ice.

I’m such a non-fan that I often jokingly refer to the entire exercise as sportsing. Because it’s a game, not life and death.

Despite my relative antipathy toward professional team sports that are more business than sport, anyway, I appreciate why so many folks get it.

The mere act of walking into an arena or a stadium is as resonant as an adult as it was when we were kids. These places are beautifully and massively scaled temples of civic life, where countless stories will inevitably play out, and indelible memories will be shaped in the crucible of competition.

And as Toronto’s Blue Jays return to the Rogers Centre for their season opener later today, I’m taken back to my most recent visit there as their last, forgettable and regrettable season wound down.

It was magical then, and it’ll be magical again, regardless of any game’s result or where the team ends up in the standings. You don’t have to be a superfan to appreciate what makes the entire exercise as special as it is.

Maybe none of this is life and death, but it’s still worth holding on to in its own way.

Maybe something as seemingly simple as a game can bring light to the lives of those who watch.

I’m glad I’m not the only one who still believes.

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

Related:
No fans here, January 2021
Expensive blue seats, October 2017
Done deal, September 2004
'Spos - almost done, September 2004

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Wednesday, March 26, 2025

Talking about 23andMe with the CBC

 As 23andMe seeks bankruptcy protection, millions of customers wonder what happens next. I’ll be joining CBC Radio stations across Canada this afternoon to discuss the risks - and what can be done to minimize them.

UPDATE:


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Meeting the one-eyed fish

Chicken or fish?
London, ON
March 2025
This photo originally shared on Instagram

The scene: Costco, Friday afternoon.

I’ve come here to pick up some fixins for dinner, including one of their legendary BBQ chickens that mercifully haven’t been price adjusted since the second Bush Administration.

I arrive at the chicken counter only to find it empty. Fresh chickens spin hypnotically in the high-tech ovens behind the display, but it’ll clearly be a while before they’re cooked and ready.

In typical Costco fashion, other shoppers are already lining up. Since I have a natural aversion to random lineups - and they’re roasting enough chickens in those ovens to feed a small nation - I decide a spontaneous smartphone photo shoot would be a better use of my time.

The fish freezers are mercifully devoid of people, so soon enough I’m peering at frozen sea bass and attempting to avoid the reflections off the clear plastic. The struggle is real.

I get a few stares along the way, which makes me smile, because photographic joy deserves to be shared, even in concrete suburban warehouses.

Eventually the chickens are ready, and the line-standers snap up their $7.99 bags almost as quickly as staffers can place them under the warming lights. I slowly circle back, looking for more spontaneous moments along the way.

There’s always another chicken to take home. Moments we get to hold onto - however strange they may seem - are an entirely different matter.

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

Related:
Not-quite-forgotten fish, September 2024
An icy fish tale, January 2023
Fish. Stacked. November 2021
Octopus on ice, May 2021

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Tuesday, March 25, 2025

Don't look up

Prehistorically atmospheric
London, ON
November 2024
This photo originally shared on Instagram

Predators are everywhere, even in the skies above.

But if we wait them out, soon enough they’ll be replaced by something else.

And, inevitably, by darkness, then a fresh morning sky.

I’d like to imagine all of this is an analog for hope, both in the sky and anywhere else.

And as threatening as things might look in the moment, everything is temporary, and all skies eventually clear themselves out.

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


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Monday, March 24, 2025

The setting sun burns the stagnant water

Before it evaporates...
London, ON
March 2025
This photo originally shared on Instagram

It’s just a filthy puddle in the middle of a muddy baseball field, a common and easily overlooked scene as winter gives way to spring.

But show up at just the right moment and look at it just so - maybe through a squinted eye or two - and it’s a different story.

The sun can make even the ugliest things look magical. But I’m guessing we have to get out there if we’re going to see anything more than a filthy puddle in the middle of a muddy baseball field.

Otherwise it’s as if it never happened in the first place.

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


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Sunday, March 23, 2025

Stared down by a white goose

It's not polite to stare
London, ON
March 2025
This photo originally shared on Instagram

So I’m walking through the park with my camera when I come across a gaggle of geese in a clearing by the river.

Most of them are Canadian geese, and they’re being their typically ornery, oh-so-un-Canadian selves, pecking at each other for no apparent reason, and hissing to reinforce their point - whatever that point may be.

Among the crowd is a single outlier, a brilliantly white domestic goose. She isn’t so much angry as she is stern, using her piercing stare to keep all the other geese in line. Even the tiny ducks mixing into the crowd seem afraid of her, and stand quietly beside the water, obediently waiting for her next move.

At one point she stops what she’s doing and looks directly into my soul. Perhaps it’s a warning, or a promise, and I’ll admit she kinda frightens me. So I rack off a few frames through my thankfully long lens before I decide no photo is worth the perpetual scorn of an obviously angry bird.

As I slowly walk back to the human-shaped world, I scan the photos on my screen and stop at this one. That stare. I can’t tell what she’s thinking, but I decide it doesn’t matter.

I’ll never know her mood or intention. But for a fleeting second on a muddy riverbank, we strangely connected. I looked into her world and she looked back into mine. We didn’t speak the same language, but I still felt like she was trying to say something to me.

As I put the camera back in its bag, I muse to myself that perhaps this moment has echoes for the human world, too. Maybe we should be looking for moments with those we know will never understand a word we say.

Indeed, maybe communication doesn’t simply involve words.

#ldnont #london #ontario #canada #springbank #bird #goose #flight #naturephotography #wildlifephotography #naturephotography #photography #nikon #nikonphotography #nikon_photography

Related:
Geese aplenty, August 2023
Flight into the wind, September 2018
Your goose is cooked, October 2011
Wounded bird, December 2006

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Saturday, March 22, 2025

Icicles melt in only one direction

No going back
London, ON
February 2025
This photo originally shared on Instagram

Some things become obvious after watching a melting icicle for a long enough period of time:
  1. Gravity moves in only one direction.
  2. It is the law.
  3. Eventually it will claim the entire icicle.
There is likely a greater truth to this, or some kind of broader meaning well beyond the physics of a melting icicle. But it’s too early in the day to ponder such things, and the dog is waiting patiently by the front door.

#ldnont #london #ontario #canada #icicle #droplet #winter #weather #wx #naturephotography #landscapephotography #monochrome #photography #nikon #nikonphotography #nikon_photography

Related:

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Friday, March 21, 2025

Go on, I dare you

Who, me?
London, ON
March 2025
This photo originally shared on Instagram

Strike a pose. Get treats. Repeat.

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

Related:
Sleeping ball of fur, December 2022
Sleepy puppy stare, November 2022
She sleeps, March 2020
A dog's nose knows, March 2020
Dog at rest, for now, December 2018

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Thursday, March 20, 2025

Tracing lines high above

We were here
London, ON
March 2025
This photo originally shared on Instagram

35,000 feet up, a KLM 787-10 paints the evening sky as it makes its way from Chicago to Amsterdam.

It’s barely a half-hour into its planned 7-hour flight, a seemingly routine passage that a diminishing number of people still call magical.

Count me among the magical group. Because nothing about this can ever be routine or mundane.

#ldnont #london #ontario #canada #blue #sky #weather #wx #contrail #aviation #flight #flying #aviation #avgeek #plane #planes #photography #nikon #nikonphotography #nikon_photography

Related:
Chaotic sky, June 2024
Shadows in the sky, December 2012

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Wednesday, March 19, 2025

Running in the sky

Bare under the fading light
London, ON
March 2025
This photo originally shared on Instagram

Bare branches sway in the frigid winter wind under the very last light of the day.

What seems lifeless at first glance is, in fact, merely the universe hitting the pause button for a bit.

For soon enough spring’s warmth will fuel riotous growth on these now-bare trees. And the cycle will continue as it always has.

It’s a reality that seems to hold so much more meaning these days as I return to this very spot and watch carefully for any signs of new life.

For those buds will signify more than new leaves. They’ll represent hope that better tomorrows lay ahead for us all if we’re lucky enough to make it that far.

#ldnont #london #ontario #canada #sunset #cloudspotting #weather #wx #silhouette #bokeh #dof #optimistpark #naturephotography #landscapephotography #photography #nikon #nikonphotography #nikon_photography

Related:

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Tuesday, March 18, 2025

A decidedly shadowy crossing

The light we leave behind
London, ON
March 2025
This photo originally shared on Instagram

Late on a brilliantly sunny afternoon in the river valley, our dog leads the way deeper into the woods.

The bare trees cast ever longer shadows across the path, a subtle nudge to turn for home before we lose the light.

But it’s been a while since we’ve been this way, and Calli the Wonderschnauzer is letting her nose decide where we go next.

I draw my coat a little tighter to ward off the chill as I gently tug on her leash and bribe her with a treat or three to turn around. It takes a few tries before she relents, only to stop once again in the middle of the bridge as she admires the geometric shadows that now paint the concrete.

Dogs don’t normally get much credit for having a curious eye, but ours seems to know what she likes. So we plop ourselves down at one end of the deserted span for some spontaneous play time. I imagine it’s the pattern that first grabbed her attention, so I snap this scene before we continue on our way.

I’ll have to follow her lead more often.

#ldnont #london #ontario #canada #medwayvalley #forest #bridge #shadows #geometry #perspective #naturephotography #landscapephotography #photography #apple #apple #iphone #iphone16 #shotoniphone

Related:
A bridge (not) too far, December 2021
Sun-striped bridge, October 2021

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