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

Rusty freighter at rest

She's been places
Toronto, ON
January 2026
This photo originally shared on Instagram

The CSL Welland bulk freighter sits dockside in Toronto as her crew busily unloads her in advance of her next trip.

Her burnt-orange sides betray years of abuse from being squeezed through locks barely wider than her beam, yet still she sails, quietly powering the industrial economy most of us never bother to think about.

Why am I shooting mournful photos of a rusty boat?

Maybe not everything needs a reason. Maybe I just want to remember what it feels like to stand beside the chilled lake and watch the barely perceptible breeze trace gentle ripples in its waters.

#toronto #canada #lakeontario #reflective #shipspotting

The ice storm comes for my car

Shellacked
London, ON
December 2025
This photo originally shared on Instagram

We’re having ourselves quite the Canadian winter, so scenes like this have become more common than they typically have been.

My inclination is usually to clean the car off so we can get going before we freeze to death, but the visuals are often so arresting - and temporary - that it’s worth a frozen-shut eyelid so we can get the shot.

Because the ice and snow won’t stick around for much longer. But the Canadian in me wants to freeze it in time so eventually we’ll be able to remember what it all felt like.

Maybe that’s a very Canadian trait, too. Or maybe I’ve just been spending too much time in the freezing cold.

#ldnont #ontario #canada #icicleworks #red

Staring out the window

Love me
London, ON
January 2026
This photo originally shared on Instagram

Today needs more dog in it.

Who’s with me?

#ldnont #canada #callithewonderschnauzer #actofdog

Shocking hotel room scene

Plugged in
Sault Ste. Marie, ON
May 2025
This photo originally shared on Instagram

There’s no logical reason for a grown man to get on the hotel room floor for a spontaneous photo shoot involving an electrical outlet and a floor lamp power cable.

It isn’t something that shows up on a shot list or gets included in a vacation trip slide show. No one ever asks to see pics of the floor or any other abstract still-life from an otherwise forgettable hotel room.

Yet it’s this one image that I remember from that time we passed through a distant town in the middle of a long drive to reconnect with family. The fatigue weighed on us as we got ready to continue the journey in the gloom of an early morning in northern Ontario. And amid the rushed preparations to get out and get going, I plunked myself down and took a moment with the camera.

Photography as refuge is a thing. Or at least it should be. Where we get to time-out from life for as long as it takes to freeze the moment before we move on.

The result isn’t remotely conventional or even normal. But no one ever said anyone’s life - or the stories we tell along the way - had to be conventional.

#saultstemarie #ontario #canada #throwback #travel #travelphotography #travelgram #hotel #power #stilllife #photography #apple #iphone #shotoniphone