One year ends, another begins...

Dig in
London, ON
October 2013
This photo originally shared on Instagram

Today I complete another orbit around our nearest star.

If memory serves, I didn’t have much control over the process. One fine Monday morning, I simply went from a quiet life to a much more chaotic one. It was so traumatic that I couldn’t walk or talk for years.

In the end, though, it all seems to have worked out rather nicely. I’m surrounded by folks who love me. I get to tell stories about technology that (hopefully) help others. I see the world through glass and take photos that (hopefully) help others see more and see differently. I cross paths with brilliant people behind mics, cameras, and keyboards who inspire and teach me to be an even better storyteller. I believe I make people laugh - with me, at me, whatever. I wake up every day simply thankful to have been given another.

And that’s the thing about birthdays: they are days like all others. Sure, maybe with a little more cake and singing and pomp and circumstance. But I was given today just as I hope to be given tomorrow. And on any given day I’ll be just as thankful to wake up to all the gifts I’ve been given, no matter what the calendar might say.

I will, however, always seek out more cake. Because we all deserve sweetness any day of the year. Please go out and seek some, as well. It tastes so much better when it’s shared.

#LiveLaughLevy #birthday #family #everything #lifeinthemargins

Cinematic history under the dome

Stories were told here
Toronto, ON
May 2025
This photo originally shared on Instagram

This is the Cinesphere, which was the world’s first permanent IMAX theatre when it opened in 1971.

Now closed for renovations, the triodetic dome wears its years with a somewhat tired grace that betrays its legacy as a launchpad for a once-state-of-the-art example of Canadian technology.

It sits silently on an artificial island in Lake Ontario, part of Ontario Place, itself a once-shimmering example of future-focused public space now being rebuilt as a spa for silver-spooned friends of the province’s Premier Doug Ford.

The grift, here and everywhere else, is real. And under a cool, damp sky, it’s easy to feel pangs of regret at what’s been lost. But this once-gleaming inspiration could yet gleam again if we allow it.

Because hope is a difficult thing to give up. Here and everywhere.

#toronto #ontario #canada #yyz #cinesphere #dome #ontarioplace #building #architecture #architecturephotography #buildingporn #architectureporn #downtown #monochrome #photography #nikon #nikonphotography #nikon_photography

Toronto streetscape on a Sunday morning

Life happens here
Toronto, ON
May 2025
This photo originally shared on Instagram

King Street West, Toronto, Sunday, 9:49 a.m.

City streetscapes have a spirit all their own, don’t they? I should wander them more often, preferably with a camera.

This photo is a reminder to myself to do just that.

#toronto #ontario #canada #building #architecturephotography #buildingporn #architectureporn #urban #city #streetphotography #photography #apple #iphone #iphone16 #shotoniphone

Trippy-looking tea on an important day

Resonantly steeped
Toronto, ON
May 2025
This photo originally shared on Instagram

The scene: Sunday morning in a charmingly crowded brunch restaurant. We’ve come here to celebrate our daughter’s first 5k run.

It’s what we do in our family, and I’m soaking in the conversation at our table as she excitedly shares stories from the road. It’s a day we won’t soon forget, nor would we ever want to.

This being Toronto, the tables almost overlap each other, and I’m also catching snippets from the trio of strangers next to us. It’s an amusing signature of a big, crowded city, where lives and stories and conversations seem to intersect at will, and silence is never really much of an option.

The server brings me my tea, and in my distracted state I completely forget to put the tea bag into the water to let it steep. My lovely wife quietly pauses the discussion to remind me, which leads to a random moment of tabletop still-life tea photography. I think I even saw one of the strangers beside us crack a smile.

I’m reminded that our daughter is a complete badass worthy of our limitless pride, that delightful bagel places can be found in the most unexpected places, and that spontaneous storytelling is woven into my little family’s DNA, even if it looks a little weird to others.

Thanks to Dahlia the runner, yesterday we got to write another chapter in the story of us. I’m fascinated to see what we end up writing on the blank pages that await.

#toronto #ontario #canada #torontolife #torontomarathon #gta #yyz #restaurant #whatabagel #tea #stilllife #abstract #photography #apple #iphone #iphone16 #shotoniphone #family #everything

Orange bike and a long train

Rest stop
London, ON
April 2025
This photo originally shared on Instagram

Spin your legs in the quiet of an early morning.

End up far from home by the time the sun warms the earth.

Stop along the way to give silent thanks for the miraculous machine that makes it all possible.

Sounds like a reasonable recipe for a good day. Maybe even a good life.

#ldnont #london #ontario #canada #cycling #orange #TangerineDream #bicycle #instabike #photography #apple #iphone #iphone16 #shotoniphone

One last look before the sky disappears

Like a prayer
London, ON
April 2025
This photo originally shared on Instagram

It won’t be long before the bare branches high overhead become lush with green, the sky crowded out by an annual riot of renewed life.

So off we go to stand amid the cathedral-like forest and stare up into the deep blue sky before it disappears for the season.

Everything has a cycle, and this place is no exception.

Are we looking up often enough before the next wave of change redraws the view? What do we see if we do? What do we miss if we don’t?

#ldnont #london #ontario #canada #medwayvalley #forest #trees #cathedral #canopy #bluesky #naturephotography #landscapephotography #photography #apple #iphone #iphone16 #shotoniphone

Potatoes, sea cows, or both?

That friendly face
London, ON
April 2025
This photo originally shared on Instagram

I wasn’t explicitly looking for potatoes that sorta looked like manatees, but I’m not disappointed that that’s what I seemingly found on an otherwise uneventful visit to the fresh produce section.

Now, does the world actually NEED a photo of a potato that looks like a beloved sea cow? Up until I shot just such a photo, my answer likely would have been a resounding no.

But here’s the thing: I think we could always use a little more whimsy in our lives. And based on my cursory assessment of the current state of the planet, that collective need for whimsy is more urgent than it’s been in a while.

Besides, the very word, whimsy, just sounds so lovely. Say it with me: whimsy.

See?

Whatever you have on the go for today, I hope it includes something weird, whimsical, or both. I hope it makes you smile precisely because of its seeming insignificance.

Because whimsy is never truly insignificant. And manatees and manatee-like tuberous vegetables are always worth a second look.

#ldnont #london #ontario #canada #grocery #store #sobeys #shopping #retail #potatoes #vegetables #stilllife #photography #fruitography #apple #iphone #iphone16 #shotoniphone

CN Tower under a stormy sky

Standing tall
Toronto, ON
April 2025
This photo originally shared on Instagram

Never stop reaching for the sky.

Even if it’s a little stormy.

#toronto #ontario #canada #yyz #cntower #building #architecture #architecturephotography #buildingporn #architectureporn #urban #downtown #city #skyline #photography #nikon #nikonphotography #nikon_photography

Bowled over

Reflectively awaiting their fate
Toronto, ON
April 2025
This photo originally shared on Instagram

Lots of lessons to be learned in this scene:

• We’re stronger when we stand together, even if it seems as if the world is always trying to knock us down.
• We’re capable of reflecting as much light as we receive. Maybe even more.
• The more games we play the more scarred we become. But that’s what makes us unique. And lovelier.
• Someone’s got to lead, but we all play crucial roles and positions.
• Even when we fall, we get back up.

I’m sure there are more, but it’s time to throw the ball and see where it ends up. Some things we can control; others we can’t.

#toronto #ontario #canada #bowling #bowlinglife #bowlingpins #reflective #photography #nikon #nikonphotography #nikon_photography

Shadows on a sidewalk

Absence of light
London, ON
April 2025
This photo originally shared on Instagram

Canada awakens this morning to a new political chapter, and depending on who you speak to it’s either cause for celebration or an excuse to start day-drinking.

But if we’re being brutally honest, I’m tired of it all. The meanness, the lying, the prioritzation of me over we. So I hope no one minds if I take a bit of a photographic detour, to a moment on Sunday afternoon when the shadows of overgrown grasses caught my attention as I walked beside the river with our dog.

As context, I’m always looking down when we walk together, because Schnauzers have this terrible habit of eating everything in sight. More than once we’ve arrived at home with Calli the Wonderschnauzer hiding a large chunk of rotisserie chicken in her mouth, and we’ll politely avoid discussing the other, um, stuff that she’s ingested along the way.

So as I’m policing my dog’s snout, I’m also taking in the random craziness that urban/suburban life leaves by the side of the road. Inevitably, photos are taken.

This particular pic strikes me as a perfect counter to the overwhelming influence of our current political snowglobe, where waves of breaking headlines turn into fuel for celebration for some, and limitless despair for others, depending on which colour sign you had on your lawn.

In contrast, these grassy shadows are hardly influential. In fact, nobody notices them unless they’re looking straight down. They aren’t even real: just reflected light blowing in a stiff breeze on a sunny late afternoon. Soon enough a lawnmower will eliminate the grasses behind the shadows, and no one will remember they were ever here.

I’m guessing those screaming headlines are strictly temporary, too. Nothing lasts forever. Perhaps this is as it should be.

#ldnont #london #ontario #canada #cdnpoli #election2025 #medway #shadow #grass #stilllife #apple #iphone #iphone16 #shotoniphone #photography

Elections Canada and the disappearing website

I’m staggered to see Elections Canada struggling to keep its website up and running ON ELECTION DAY.

Feels like a failure to capacity-plan, and Canadians deserve to know why this was allowed to happen.

https://elections.ca

#Election2025 #canada #electionscanada

UPDATE 9:28 p.m. Eastern:

Elections Canada is sharing an updated URL that they’ve set up to handle overflow traffic from the main site. It’s loading for me, though YMMV:

https://enr.elections.ca/National.aspx?lang=e

Canada decides

Walk this way for democracy
London, ON
October 2019
This photo originally shared on Instagram

Canada votes today. At least we’re supposed to.

The sad reality is only 62.6% of eligible voters bothered to cast a vote in the last federal election, in 2021, according to Elections Canada. I’m rather certain that there’s significant overlap between the 37.4% who stayed home and folks who whine the loudest on social media.

So here’s the deal: please vote.

See what I did there? I said please, like a good Canadian.

This could very well be the most pivotal election in our country’s history. We face an existential threat to our future thanks to our neighbours to the south, and nothing short of all-hands participation in the process will ensure we have what it takes to push back against the orange-make-upped menace and assert our national sovereignty.

Even more significantly, countless Canadians fought and died for our right to vote. We tarnish their sacrifice by not doing our part.

If you’re a non-voter, please don’t try to excuse it away. It takes just as much time to come up with an excuse as it does to mark a ballot. Please don’t complain about long lines and paper-based election processes. If that’s your greatest hardship on a Monday, then you’re doing better than most.

Please also refrain from complaining about the candidates, the parties, the broken system, the whatever. The system isn’t broken. Canada isn’t a failed nation. A little adversity does not give us all a free pass to avoid being part of - and ensuring the continued health of - our democracy.

Engage. That’s it. Be a part of the process. Vote for whoever moves you: the only wrong decision is to not be a part of the process in the first place.

If you still, against all logic and empathy for your country and your fellow citizens, decide to stay away from the polls today, your silence for the remainder of the new government’s mandate clears the decks for those of us who took the time and made the effort.

#ldnont #london #ontario #canada #throwback #election #cdnpoli #vote #elxn #canadavotes #google #pixel #teampixel

Broken tree, broken world

Life goes on, differently
London, ON
April 2025
This photo originally shared on Instagram

We’d be forgiven for thinking the world is a little broken today.

Or maybe it’s a lot. Hard to tell sometimes.

So please forgive me for sharing this rather desolate image of a rather desolate tree, of something that once magnificently reached for the sky but is now reduced to shattered splinters grazing the earth.

Perhaps the optimists among us see this as the start of something new, the fuel for future renewal as new life takes root among the deconstructed remnants of the old.

But I’m not an optimist. Not today, anyway.

#ldnont #london #ontario #canada #lapulapu #tvp #rosspark #tree #landscapephotography #naturephotography #texture #monochrome #photography #nikon #nikonphotography #nikon_photography

Trains to nowhere

Ribbons of steel
Toronto, ON
July 2017
This photo originally shared on Instagram

We’re all on some kind of journey.

Sometimes the path is clear.

Sometimes not.

#toronto #ontario #canada #throwback #gotrain #metrolinx #upexpress #steel #train #track #perspective #downtown #travel #photography #canon #canonphotography #canon_photography

Related:

Back on the rails, sort of, August 2024

Off the rails, August 2024

Forged in history, April 2014

Ribbons of steel, January 2024

Standing on rails on a blistering hot day, April 2023

Follow the tracks home, June 2021

Wherever the tracks may lead, July 2020

No humping, March 2020

Tracks melting in the sun, June 2019

Headed home by train, January 2019

The silver bullet pulls out, July 2018

Hudson's Bay fades to black

Almost gone
Toronto, ON
April 2025
This photo originally shared on Instagram

Nothing lasts forever, not even controversial icons of a shared history that predates the country.

Not everyone remembers The Hudson’s Bay Company in the same way. For every fuzzy mental image of multistripe point blankets and pilgrimages to see Christmas window displays in giant downtown stores, there are mirrors that reflect a different reality. Of abuses of Indigenous communities at the hands of colonial oppressors.

And yet, the impending implosion of the 355-year-old retailer represents another inflection point in Canadian history.

Books will be written about how The Bay ended up here, how generations of retail leadership ebbed away in the face of shifting demographics and technologies, about how its final chapter under private equity ownership echoed the trajectory of so many other companies who were strip-mined for the benefit of short-term-focused investors. So I certainly won’t try to document it all here.

But late on a Saturday night, I walked out of one of the largest malls in Canada and felt compelled to stop and take in the logo, likely for the last time.

This was a force that dominated Canadian life for as long as any of us can remember, and its disappearance marks another milestone on a path toward an uncertain future where icons are ever more difficult to find in the night sky.

#toronto #ontario #canada #yorkdale #hudsonsbay #thebay #retail #building #architecture #architecturephotography #buildingporn #architectureporn #night #photography #apple #iphone #iphone16 #shotoniphone

Related:

Emptiness at the edge of suburbia, May 2022

Empty downtown storefront, March 2022

Empty store late at night, November 2021

Convenience store at night, April 2021

Kentucky Fried Abandonment, March 2021

Abandoned strip mall, June 2020

Tim is still dead, February 2020