An icy, successful failure

Blur!
London, ON
January 2025
This photo originally shared on Instagram

Question: what happens when you don’t check the camera’s settings before stepping out onto the front porch to shoot the icicles?

Answer: an unplanned 8-second handheld exposure in all its blurry glory. In other words, an abject failure of a shot.

But is it really?

I was fully prepared to delete this one, just another of the countless photos that understandably never see the light of day. For all the precision of modern cameras, where even in manual mode it’s hard to mess up an exposure, leave it to me to find new ways to screw up a pic.

But the longer I hovered over the image after I imported it into Lightroom, the more I decided I liked it.

It screamed abstract to me, a chaotic mess of light and texture that could only exist in that singular, imperfect few seconds. Or a reminder that not all plans are meant to work out, and it’s perfectly fine to end up far away from your original destination.

So let’s call it a happy accident, then. Or an unplanned failure. Or maybe something I should deliberately shoot for the next time I pick up a camera.

Maybe there’s something to this failure thing after all. Maybe the very word, failure, needs a new definition.

#ldnont #london #ontario #canada #ice #icicle #drip #abstract #blur #winter #weather #wx #night #naturephotography #landscapephotography #doorstep #photography #nikon #nikonphotography #nikon_photography

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Rage, rage against the dying of the light

Deep into twilight
London, ON
January 2025
This photo originally shared on Instagram

It’s been 32 minutes since the sun disappeared beneath the cloud-covered horizon, so I’ve hung around the frozen park just in case the grey skies decide to allow the light to break through one last time.

It’s called hopeless optimism, and apparently I suffer from a severe case of it.

I hold the camera in my hand, my fingers aching from the cold, and while my mind says it’s time to pack it in and head home, my feet decide otherwise, and stay planted in the hard-packed snow.

Suddenly the clouds shift just enough to expose a gentle orange glow in a tiny speck of sky just down by the treeline. It isn’t much, but I raise the camera and snap off a few frames before it winks out for good.

The barely-there light show is over in around 30 seconds, but it turns out to be the only 30 seconds I need.

On the slow walk home, I think about the notion of patience and time. Because if time is the only true gift we’ve all been given, it might make sense to consider spending it with more care. With or without a camera in our hands.

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

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Trampled

After the fall, before the melt
London, ON
January 2025
This photo originally shared on Instagram

Snow isn’t always pristine.

Not long after it falls, it’ll get walked on, thrown, even trampled, its once-perfect surface transformed into something imperfect.

Yet as my boots sink into the chaotic white and not-quite-white mess, I find myself fascinated by the stories being told in the seeming imperfection. Of kids being kids, dogs being dogs, of life being lived in the now before it all melts.

I decide the after is even more worthy of our attention than the before. And stories should be crafted and told before they disappear forever.

#ldnont #london #ontario #canada #optimistpark #snow #frozen #winter #weather #wx #onstorm #abstract #street #stilllife #streetphotography #texture #monochrome #photography #apple #iphone #iphone16 #shotoniphone

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Actual photos on an actual studio wall

On display...
London, ON
January 2025
This photo originally shared on Instagram

I’ve been sharing my photos for so long on a screen that I almost forgot how viscerally rewarding it can be to see them on a wall.

Well, I’ve got some good news on that front: the gracious folks at ArtVenture Art Studio here in London have granted me the privilege of displaying my work in their studio.

19 of my favourite scenes - still-life, street, abstract, and more - will be on display there for a bit, and if you’re in the area I’d be tickled if you dropped by and had a look.

Please say hi to Erica and Hugo while you’re there, and thank them for creating a community hub of artistic excellence that feels like an oasis of creativity in an often turbulent world. I’m humbled to be a part of it.

https://www.artventure.ca/

#ldnont #london #ontario #canada #photography #apple #iphone #iphone16 #shotoniphone

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American Airlines jet collides mid-air with Black Hawk

BREAKING: American Airlines Flight 5342 on final approach to Reagan National Airport collides mid-air with a U.S. Army Blackhawk helicopter. Airline confirms 60 passengers and 4 crew were on-board the aircraft, a CRJ-700. This is bad.

Talking DeepSeek on CBC Radio

#DeepSeek seems to have come out of nowhere, and is rocking the #AI world to its core. What is it? What does it mean for the very future of #tech? Is the app a bigger security risk than #TikTok?

I’ll join CBC Radio stations across the country Thursday morning - starting with @CBCOntMorning at 5:30 a.m. ET - to walk through one of the most consequential tech milestones of our time.

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Ties my father-in-law gave me, November 2023

Icy finger

Pointed
London, ON
December 2024
This photo originally shared on Instagram

Some of us are just a little different than the norm.

Doesn’t make us any less beautiful or compelling, though.

What is “the norm”, anyway? And who decides?

#ldnont #london #ontario #canada #ice #icicle #drip #winter #weather #wx #nature #naturephotography #landscapephotography #monochrome #doorstep #photography #Nikon #nikonphotography #nikon_photography

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Together into the unknown

Partners
London, ON
December 2024
This photo originally shared on Instagram

Walk with me forever, together into the unknown.

#ldnont #london #ontario #canada #optimistpark #fog #weather #wx #gameoftones #naturephotography #landscapephotography #streetphotography #strangers #monochrome #photography #nikon #nikonphotography #nikon_photography

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It, perversely, took a village

No simple sign
Toronto, ON
January 2025
This photo originally shared on Instagram

80 years ago today, the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp was liberated.

The world stood by and did nothing - until it was too late. Even cheered those fuelling the hatred.

History is now repeating itself, and we’d be naive for thinking the roots aren’t being laid today, using the very same playbook crafted by the Nazis.

Clearly humanity has learned nothing.

Maybe humanity simply never wants to learn at all.

#toronto #ontario #canada #rom #holocaust #jewish #life #stilllife #photography #apple #apple #iphone #iphone16 #shotoniphone

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Tilt shift at the home show

Life under glass
London, ON
January 2025
This photo originally shared on Instagram

Not everything is as it seems.

What we think we see at first glance often turns out to be something completely different.

But that only becomes apparent after we spend some time to really dig into the details.

It’s just as applicable within the confines of an architectural model as it is in real life.

So we take the time.

Simple, really.

#ldnont #london #ontario #canada @londonhba #lifestylehomeshow #stilllife #tiltshift #photography #apple #iphone #iphone16 #shotoniphone

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Screened in

Meshy
London, ON
January 2025
This photo originally shared on Instagram

I call this one, “Scene from suburbia”.

More precisely, it describes what we get when we choose to focus on the things that are less obvious.

I’ve got to play with screens and lines more often.

Maybe I just have to play. Maybe we all do.

#ldnont #london #ontario #canada #window #glass #screen #focus #geometry #abstract #photography #apple #iphone #iphone16 #shotoniphone

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The prettiest sunsets in the world

93 million miles of light
Grand Bend, ON
July 2017
This photo originally shared on Instagram

They say this place has some of the loveliest sunsets on Planet Earth.

I still don’t know who these “they” people are, but standing just at the water’s edge, my bare toes sinking slowly into the cooling sand, and my eyes watching the sun’s reflections march across the calming waves, it’s difficult to disagree with them.

#grandbend #beach #ontario #canada #throwback #greatlake #huron #sunset #cloudspotting #weather #wx #sky #water #naturephotography #landscapephotography #photography #nikon #nikonphotography #nikon_photography

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Resolving to get out here more often

The winding woods
London, ON
November 2024
This photo originally shared on Instagram

I didn’t make any resolutions before the new year, but if I ever decide to start making promises to myself around major calendar milestones, taking walks in the woods will likely be high on the list.

There’s a peace to these places that can’t be captured in words or images - try as I may. And since there’s ample demand for peace these days, places like this seem to offer up a bit of a refuge from all that stresses us in the big bad world.

There are no headlines here. No deadlines, either. No one spewing hatred. Or intolerance. Or any of the countless other things that make life less joyous than it should be.

Indeed, it needn’t be a forest. It can be any place that offers up an escape. The key is to seek it out. And to remember why we need to walk paths less travelled in the first place.

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

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Mailboxes Etc.

Waiting...
London, ON
June 2024
This photo originally shared on Instagram

Whenever I come this way, I’m usually on my bike, pedalling down this arrow-straight country road at some silly speed, head down, ears listening for traffic, eyes flashing to my rear-view mirror, just in case.

So I don’t have much time to focus on the subtle details of life in the countryside. Like the weather-worn picket fences that line the ditch or the mailboxes that stand lonely sentinel by the front gate.

But today I find myself walking on the side of the road, my feet carefully picking through the uneven gravel, my eyes now lingering over those no-longer-ignored mailboxes and the occasional random dust-covered roadkill. The skies are a washed-out grey, and so is everything underneath it.

I have an hour or so to kill before the next appointment on my calendar beckons, so I slowly plod along the roadside and try to see the things I usually miss.

In the end it’s the mailboxes that stick with me, their iconically geometric forms waiting patiently for deliveries that may or may not arrive.

They are as timeless as country life itself, crucial connectors to a world that often seems so far away from this place of quiet farmers’ fields and the distant thrum of tractors. Lifelines, even, reminders that physical things still matter. Even out here.

Soon enough it’s time to leave this perfectly bucolic place behind and return to the life I know. The next time I’m here I’ll be back on two wheels, moving far too quickly to appreciate the nuances of a part of the world that tells its stories in whispers.

Whispers just loud enough to be heard over the late afternoon breeze rustling the dried corn stalks, telling us we might want to slow it down and enjoy the view.

#ldnont #london #ontario #canada #throwback #nissouri #road #roadside #naturephotography #landscapephotography #streetphotography #monochrome #photography #nikon #nikonphotography #nikon_photography

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Let's make some waves

Energy, visualized
Toronto, ON
July 2024
This photo originally shared on Instagram

It’s time to make some waves.

So let’s do just that, shall we?

#toronto #ontario #canada #throwback #swim #swimming #pool #water #waves #abstract #blue #photography #nikon #nikonphotography #nikon_photography

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Look toward the light

Hope
Pointe Claire, QC
August 2024
This photo originally shared on Instagram

Today is a dark day for anyone who values truth, kindness, democracy, or the rule of law.

So please don’t mind if I revert to the comfort zone that is my viewfinder. Because when I’m staring through it, the only thing that matters is the light flowing through the lens - and how it makes me feel in the moment.

We can’t stop the darkness from casting shadows, but there’s no rule against looking up to the sky and feeling the power of forces that transcend even the most seemingly powerful among us.

Because all power is relative. And sunrises and sunsets will play themselves out regardless of who’s in power.

#pointeclaire #montreal #quebec #canada #throwback #sunset #sky #clouds #cloudspotting #weather #wx #weatherphotography #naturephotography #landscapephotography #photography #nikon #nikonphotography #nikon_photography

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