The storm outside my window

Safe inside
London, ON
January 2026
This photo originally shared on Instagram

Remember: storms don’t last forever.

#ldnont #canada #winter #onstorm

The fallacy of bottled water

It only looks green
Toronto, ON
March 2026
This photo originally shared on Instagram

I’ll never understand an industry that takes the world’s most critical resource, stuffs it into petroleum-derived bottles, sells it at a scandalous premium, and tries to pass it off as somehow good for the planet.

Tinting those same bottles green makes even less sense. As if they want us to think it’s been mixed in with a healthy dose of algae.

None of this means I won’t have a little abstract fun with a camera. But still. Weird.

#toronto #canada #water #abstract #stilllife

The beginning of the end of ChatGPT?

OpenAI's decision to shutter Sora and Instant Checkout is more than a simple product announcement. It's a reckoning, of sorts, and the beginning of the end of ChatGPT as we know it.

Read more in my latest #thoughtleadership article - and subscribe to my newsletter for more insight on this and other tech issues of consequence.

Is this the beginning of the end of ChatGPT?

The empathetic schnu

You called?
London, ON
March 2026
This photo originally shared on Instagram

Even though Calli the Wonderschnauzer doesn’t speak English, she’s still rather adept at communicating what matters most to her.

Us.

So sometimes she’ll wander over and sit in our lap.

Or lie down next to us.

Or gently bump her warm, wet nose against the back of our legs.

Or, as she’s doing here, she’ll lie in her bed and stare at us.

She tends to gravitate toward whoever she thinks needs her most.

It’s a dog thing, really, looking out for others first.

Because that’s how she’s built.

Indeed, that’s how they’re all built.

If only we were, too.

#ldnont #canada #callithewonderschnauzer #actofdog #dogsofinstagram

The night gets brighter, reluctantly

Change overhead...
London, ON
March 2026
This photo originally shared on Instagram

The old street lights are dying one by one, their weirdly yellowish glow slowly giving way to the whiter, brighter cast from more modern LEDs.

It makes sense, as the replacements are far more efficient. But as is often the case when talking about progress, we leave something behind.

So as the signature look of our nighttime streetscape slowly evolves, I find myself shooting the old before it winks out forever.

Perhaps it’s trivial, but the small things can be the big things if we want them to be.

Maybe it’s more of a need than a want.

#ldnont #london #ontario #canada #night #sky #streetlamp #streetphotography #photography #apple #iphone #iphone17 #shotoniphone

Air Canada Flight 8646...

Waiting...
Toronto, ON
March 2026
This photo originally shared on Instagram

Horrifying news out of New York’s LaGuardia Airport, as an Air Canada CRJ900 jet landing after a flight from Montreal late last night slammed into a fire truck at over 200 km/h.* Both the pilot and first officer were killed, and dozens were injured.

Preliminary reports suggest air traffic control had cleared the truck to cross the active runway to deal with a United flight that had aborted takeoff due to a strange odour on-board.

Audio suggests controllers, after realizing their error, desperately attempted to get the truck to stop, and to divert inbound flights from landing, but to no avail.

We have flown this exact aircraft type many times over the years, always comfortable in the knowledge that air travel is, by the numbers, remarkably safe.

But statistics mean little in moments like this, and the industry - and the political stakeholders who provide the context within which it operates - will doubtless be forced to look inward to understand how the unthinkable can be allowed to happen.

#ldnont #canada #flight #ac8646 #aircanada

* UPDATE - 9:45 a.m. ET: Note there has been significant variation in the plane’s reported speed before impact. CNN initially reported the plane was doing 130 mph before the collision - which was the basis for my initial note.

Other reports suggest speeds were much lower: around 39 km/h.

WxSpotter Alex shared this from publicly available flight data: “FR24 granular data, showed speed around 110 at 04 Delta, then rapid deceleration and turn into 04 Echo...”

Juice in name only

Let's stick with water, shall we?
London, ON
March 2026
This photo originally shared on Instagram

It feels weird to stick a smartphone into the refrigerated sugary drink display so I can take ridiculous pictures of products that aren’t all that good for us.

I mean, why tell silly stories of silly drinks in silly-looking packaging when there are so many more serious stories to tell?

I think I may have answered my own question there.

It is precisely because I spend the rest of my time on the serious stuff that an occasional escape into some shiny grocery store refrigerators - or paths through the woods, or kitchen tables, or downtown alleys, or… - is called for. Because silly places and silly photos provide something of a reprieve from all that seriousness.

I’m not ignoring the fact that Planet Earth can sometimes - okay, usually - be a terrible place filled with inequity and tragedy. I’m simply trying to find some way to navigate it. As are, I’m guessing, you.

#ldnont #london #ontario #canada #grocery #walmart #refrigerated #retail #photography #apple #iphone #iphone17 #shotoniphone

Rental car airport funhouse

The errors we keep
Miami, FL
March 2026
This photo originally shared on Instagram

Everyone’s photo roll has them: chaotically blurry images that weren’t remotely planned, the photographic equivalent of a butt dial.

This one is the result of a particularly rushed moment in an airport parking garage. We’re returning the rental car, the clock is ticking, and there are countless boxes to be checked before we unload the luggage, leave the keys in the dropbox, and run into the terminal.

Somewhere in the crazed choreography under dim fluorescent lights and crumbled concrete, I accidentally trigger the smartphone shutter.

I used to review my archives and delete botched pics like this one. I called them failures, smudged messes that fell far short of ideal.

But if photography is an echo of life, and life isn’t always perfectly focused symmetry, then shouldn’t our photos sometimes reflect that very same imperfection?

I think they should, and this one feels like a particularly inspired botch, as if the dashboard lights of our trusty Toyota wanted to make us smile one last time before we left them behind.

Mission accomplished.

#miami #florida #throwback #travel #carporn #toyota #blur #iphone #iphone17 #shotoniphone #photography

Scene from a gas station

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

The scene: a gas station not far from home.

I’ve come here to refill the tank with dinosaur remnants because we apparently value mobility, and the dinosaur remnants we bought a couple of weeks earlier have been depleted. Who knew that was even a thing?

I fill the tank and wait for the receipt to come out. As is so often the case, the thermal printer whirs its little heart out, but produces nothing. A “please see attendant inside” message pops up, so off I trundle across the crumbling parking lot to fetch it.

I smile at the attendant as I ask for the receipt for pump 11, trying my hardest to make it a friendly moment for us both. She briefly looks up from her smartphone before she silently taps a few keys and hands me the receipt before returning to playing whatever it is she was playing. She says nothing. I’m guessing the printers at the pump aren’t getting paper refills anytime soon.

I thank her anyway. On the way out I decide to engage in an act of spontaneous abstract photography. Because gas stations aren’t quite the community hubs they once were, and I want to remember what they look and feel like before they disappear forever.

#ldnont #london #ontario #canada #fuel #petrocan #abstract #photography #apple #iphone #iphone17 #shotoniphone

One very cold, lonely tree

It's hoar frost, not...
Dryden, ON
December 2025
This photo originally shared on Instagram

There’s one in every forest.

That stands alone.

That takes a unique path.

That goes dark when everyone else goes light.

Or light when everyone goes dark.

That quietly lays down strong roots.

That bends under the wind. But does not break.

That protects those around them. And is in turn protected by them.

That endures the heavy frost of winter to survive to spring.

So be the one.

#dryden #canada #winter #onstorm #throwback

When choppers patrol the neighbourhood

Someone left the doors open
Sunny Isles Beach, FL
February 2026
This photo originally shared on Instagram

Black Hawk. Not remotely down.

When UH-60Ms fly back and forth for hours because of some cryptically worded message from law enforcement about a “tactical situation” in the region, the only response is to grab a camera and have a little photographic fun.

We live in a weird, frightening, worry-filled world. And sometimes that worry shows up, loudly, within almost touching distance.

Fly safe, friends. Know how thankful we all are for the sacrifices you make.

#sunnyislesbeach #florida #throwback #aviation #sikorsky #blackhawk #flight #aviationphotography #photography #nikon #nikonphotography #nikon_photography

The rivers turns crystal

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

Deep in the valley in the deepest winter, the creek flows almost silently under multilayered ice seemingly laid down by a jeweller.

So we crouch down and take in the scene, intricately painted by invisible forces while everyone else is busy being busy.

No one is busy here. And if we lean in just so, we can make out the gentle sounds of the water flowing below, life playing out in shades of black, white, and grey.

It’ll all disappear as the temperature inevitably rises. But it’s here, now. Which is all that matters.

#ldnont #medway #abstract #monochrome #stilllife

Stores in the neighbourhood

Shop local
Toronto, ON
March 2026
This photo originally shared on Instagram

Toronto is filled with commercial streetscapes just like this one, businesses that have been there seemingly forever, owned by real people with real names, that form the epicentre of the neighbourhoods that surround and nurture them.

They look so plain with their weathered brick and decades-old signage, but there’s nothing plain about them, each block telling unique stories to anyone lucky enough to live nearby.

Today the winds outside are blowing ominously, foreshadowing a storm moving into the region. These icons of the community stand ready as safe havens for all. Maybe a bagel or a quick snack. Or the dream of getting away to somewhere warm. Or a meal from home and a gentle chat over tea.

Whatever’s on offer, it’s difficult to imagine this or any city without anchors like these. That turn out to be the very opposite of plain for those who step inside.

#toronto #ontario #canada #eglinton #architecturephotography #streetphotography #photography #apple #iphone #iphone17 #shotoniphone

Where we visit dead fish

School is out
London, ON
March 2026
This photo originally shared on Instagram

At the back of a crowded T&T grocery store, the frozen fish section is a beehive of activity, crowds of rushing customers jostling for position in front of the artfully laid-out glass display cases.

I spot this particular section and think it would make for a fun spontaneous moment of photography, but one uncharacteristically patient customer has staked out his spot directly where I’d need to be to snag the optimal shot.

He says nothing, interacts with no one, and seems willing to wait as long as it takes before one of the countless fishmongers notices him among the crowd.

Since his nutritional needs rightfully take priority over my silly photography, I’m obviously not getting the shot anytime soon. I turn to rejoin my family. We came here to get groceries, not shoot stupid pictures of dead fish through glass.

Yet as we make our way through the rest of the bustling store, the fish stubbornly stick in my mind. I’m weird like that, like a dog refusing to let go of a bone.

So before long, I scoot back to the fishies and, to my delight, the place is uncharacteristically deserted. As I approach, I preset the camera, my composition plan playing out in my head so as to attract as little attention as possible once I reach the glass.

I rack off three frames in seconds, then disappear before anyone notices I was even there.

This isn’t the first time I’ve shot fish in a store, and it likely won’t be the last. I’ll furtively shoot scenes like this for as long as I’m able.

Because weird is where we go when we’re navigating crowded stores and worlds and chapters, where blink-or-you-miss-it moments of photographic whimsy become places of temporary refuge from the often serious, sad, scary realness that soaks into the everyday.

So we visit the dead fish and smile in the brief moments before we have to get back to whatever it is that’s screaming for our attention.

The real world will always be waiting for us. Sometimes we need a bit of a fishy break from it all.

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

Donut from our daughter

Sweet memory
London, ON
March 2026
This photo originally shared on Instagram

Our daughter ordered an extra donut for me, a “just because” surprise because she inherited the “just because” gene from her lovely mom.

So of course it had to be recorded somehow before it was consumed. Because in my world, tiny moments like this need to be frozen in time.

And with the muted light of a snowy late-winter afternoon filtering just so through the dining room window, I knew we had the perfect spot for a spontaneous photo session.

I wasn’t remembering a donut as much as I was remembering the story behind it. That it’s a Boston cream, my absolute favourite. That cherished snacks have always been a go-to in our family. That this one arrived in our home via kindness.

The donut didn’t last too much longer after this photo was taken. The memory will linger indefinitely.

#ldnont #london #ontario #canada #dessert #donut #foodporn #stilllife #photography #apple #iphone #iphone17 #shotoniphone