Spotted glasses in a crowded restaurant

Bottoms up, for some
London, ON
May 2023
This photo originally shared on Instagram

I learned something new the other night: that you can hold your own still-life photography session pretty much anywhere.

Like in the middle of a downtown restaurant when you’re breaking bread with colleagues and the glasses on the shelves behind the bar manage to catch your attention.

Most rational folks would continue with the meal and leave the glasses be. But I’m far from rational, and I’m thankful to work with a group of kind, understanding, and brilliant folks who just smile when I get a glint in my eye and reach for a camera.

The bar was a busy place, and I was hoping to avoid being kicked out of the joint. So I stood beside our table in the middle of the room and zoomed in on the backlit glasses.

The result isn’t earth-shattering or of the ages. It isn’t even remotely ideal. Just some damp and spotted glasses arranged asymmetrically on a shelf.

But to me it checkpoints a quiet moment spent with some really inspiring people. I’m lucky to do what I do. And I’m equally lucky to have discovered that weird pictures make for powerful memories.

Not getting kicked out of the resto? I’m thankful for that, too.

#ldnont #london #ontario #canada #moxies #restaurant #downtown #glass #stilllife #sepia #photography #canon #canonphotography #canin_photography #photooftheday #instagood #nofilter #nofilterneeded

#IfYouReadOneThingToday - scrambled brain

#IfYouReadOneThingToday, please make it this stunningly written piece about coming back from a TBI. Anyone who’s ever had their brain scrambled, and who lives with the fallout, knows profoundly how this feels.

How to Survive a Car Crash in 10 Easy Steps

A journalist navigates a world forever changed by her traumatic brain injury.

By Anne Lagamayo

Longreads

May 2023

Related:

Other #IfYouReadOneThingToday recommendations

Spiderman would be jealous

Don't look down
London, ON
May 2023
This photo originally shared on Instagram

Superheroes don’t always wear capes. Sometimes they hang from buildings on ropes so the rest of us can have uninterrupted views.

They’d probably just shrug it off if we brought it up - just doing their job, they’d likely say.

But here’s the thing; every job has some kind of meaning, some kind of impact on others. We all leave our mark.

Some more spectacularly than others.

#ldnont #london #ontario #canada #building #window #washers #architecture #architecturephotography #buildingporn #architectureporn #urban #city #downtown #wellington #street #photography #apple #iphone #shotoniphone #photooftheday #instagood #nofilter #nofilterneeded

Sharing a rare selfie

So serious
London, ON
April 2023
This photo originally shared on Instagram

Disclosure: I hate looking at myself.

I rarely watch videos of interviews I’ve done on TV. Even listening to my voice after the fact is difficult. I don’t take many selfies, and when I do, they remain unedited and ignored within my archives.

In fact, as I was first learning the craft of photography, one of my favourite benefits of being the photographer was that I got to hide behind the camera. I often called it my preferred side of the lens.

I still feel that way. My camera is my protector.

As public as my work has become, I’ve come to appreciate just how much of an introvert I really am. I love being on camera, on-air, out there; just don’t make me sit through it afterward.

But every once in a very long while, I’ll take a picture of myself that I kinda like. This is one of them.

I was out running errands, and as I often do when I have a few minutes to kill before my next deadline, I’ll wander around with my camera-camera in search of inspiration.

I’ll often shoot a random photo or two with my smartphone. The time stamp and geolocation information come in handy when I offload the pics from the so-called real camera, and it often gives me a quick image to share with the folks back home.

The evening sunlight was really harsh, so I shot a barely composed backlit image. It wasn’t supposed to be anything more than a throwaway image.

I still hate looking at myself, but I’m strangely glad I held onto this one.

#ldnont #london #ontario #hydepark #canada #random #walkabout #selfie #photography #apple #iphone #shotoniphone #photooftheday #instagood #nofilter #nofilterneeded

Surprise color at our feet

Bursting
London, ON
April 2023
This photo originally shared on Instagram

On a relentlessly grey Sunday afternoon when the cold drizzle seems to drain everything in this valley of its color, a tiny sprout fights its way out of the damp earth and begs to differ.

That something this stunningly green can emerge from something so monochromatic will never not be a wonder to me.

Or to you.

I hope you take the time to look down. I hope you like what you see.

#ldnont #london #ontario #canada #medway #valley #heritage #forest #tree #trees #green #leaf #leaves #nature #naturephotography #landscape #stilllife #landscapephotography #waterphptography #photography #nikon #nikonphotography #nikon_photography #photooftheday #instagood #nofilter #nofilterneeded

Montana bans TikTok

A new #Montana law that bans #TikTok within the state’s borders sets a dangerous precedent for governments and opens the door to further restrictions on freedom of expression.

App bans = book bans, full stop.

I break it all down in my latest blog article for STEP Software:

Montana’s TikTok ban is an appalling line in the sand for freedom of speech

The grasses that anchor us

Hold fast against the wind
Port Stanley, ON
May 2023
This photo originally shared on Instagram

In a forgotten corner of a beach just coming back to life after a long winter’s sleep, wild grasses grow from a dune, protecting it from whatever the lake can throw at it.

Someone built a fence here, so long ago now that nature has almost consumed the original structure.

Still, it stands its ground.

Still, there’s beauty in the desolation, a whisper, even, of small gestures designed to make the planet a better place for those who come next.

#port #stanley #portstanley #beach #ldnont #ontario #canada #great #lake #erie #sunset #sky #grassea #nature #naturephotography #landscape #landscapephotography #photography #apple #iphone #shotoniphone #photooftheday #instagood #nofilter #nofilterneeded

Related:

Long grasses blowing in the wind, December 2022

Oil tanks in our midst, November 2022

Listening to the grasses in the wind, March 2022

Bokeh Beach, far away in time... December 2021

Returning to the sun-drenched grasses, August 2021

Lake Huron peeks through the grass, September 2017

Someone didn't read the sign, September 2016

The shifting sands of time, September 2008

Return to a shrouded beach

Forces of nature
Port Stanley, ON
May 2023
This photo originally shared on Instagram

The Sun struggles to be seen through choking particulates from the Alberta wildfires.

The land is burning thousands of kilometres away from here, yet the strange combination of physics and meteorology means we can smell the faraway forest being consumed.

Indeed, nothing is far away anymore. Videos and headlines of disasters in places we’ve never been will soon enough give way to tangible evidence of them much closer to home. At the tip of our tongue, even.

And on the edge of a Great Lake, the sky is painted a fuzzy shade of tightly tinted off-yellow, the Sun becomes a muted orange smudge, and countless visitors to this place ask each other why. That none of them looks it up on the supercomputers in their pockets is the tragic irony of how Planet Earth looks like this in the first place.

Climate change touches us in all sorts of ways. The surreal beauty of this particular moment is apparently lost on the majority of those walking the sand beneath the beautiful, eerie, tragic spectacle. It shouldn’t be.

#port #stanley #portstanley #beach #ldnont #ontario #canada #great #lake #erie #sunset #sky #water #waves #fire #climatechange #nature #naturephotography #landscape #landscapephotography #photography #apple #iphone #shotoniphone #photooftheday #instagood #nofilter #nofilterneeded

Neptune's final orbit

Strictly temporary
London, ON
March 2023
Originally shared on Instagram

A couple of months ago, I shared a photo and a story from the Neptune Diner, a lovely local restaurant.

Today it closes forever.

The lesson, then, is simple: don’t let me write about your businesses, as I am apparently the kiss of death for them.

Kidding aside, The Neptune will be missed. The owners decided it was time to move on, to sell the still-popular place and clear the decks for new entrepreneurs to follow their dream at a downtown corner that’s been feeding souls for 70-plus years. And soon enough, an innovative Mexican resto will open its doors in this storied location.

Why hello, Green Power Ranger
London, ON
March 2023

Doubtless the new spot will find fans of its own as it spawns new flavours, stories, and memories.

Doubtless the winds of change will continue to sweep over all the spots that endear themselves to us.

Doubtless we’ll want to experience them before they become memories, reminders that nothing lasts forever, even if we wished they would.

#ldnont #london #ontario #canada #richmond #food #foodporn #diner #burger #random #restaurant #stilllife #street #photography #apple #iphone #shotoniphone #photooftheday #instagood #nofilter #nofilterneeded

Related:

A memorable evening at the Neptune Diner, March 2023

The friendly yellow diner, March 2021

Scene from a diner, March 2018

Scene from outside a diner, October 2017

Scene from a diner, March 2013

Restaurant tabletop memory, December 2007

Scenes from a diner, February 2007

Green Coke, January 2007

Diner memories, August 2006

Escape from a dying wave

Splash squared
Deerfield Beach, FL
February 2023
This photo originally shared on Instagram

Waves spend most of their lives alone and ignored - barely visible as they cross immense stretches of open ocean.

Only in their dying moments do they attract our attention as they roll into view and rise spectacularly above the surface before crashing out into nothingness.

All that time and energy and effort turned into a blink-in-time moment that, even then, may or may not be noticed. All that investment, gone in less time than it takes to read this sentence.

I’m pretty sure there’s some kind of analogy here, a lesson we can take with us as we leave the waves behind and walk off the beach, the sand clinging stubbornly between our toes. But it isn’t immediately clear to me.

We’ll just have to return another day, perhaps, so we can greet another set of waves as they complete their journey and turn into memories.

#deerfield #beach #florida #vacation #throwback #travel #atlantic #ocean #green #blue #gameoftones #waves #landscape #landscapephotography #nature #naturephotography #photography #canon #canonphotography #canon_photography #photooftheday #instagood #nofilter #nofilterneeded

Memories of icy mornings

Before the melt
London, ON
March 2023
This photo originally shared on Instagram

The nights here have been unseasonably cold all week, to the point that we’ve been digging out our hoodies and woollies to stay warm. It’s a Canadian thing.

Also a Canadian thing: complaining about the weather. So understandably Socialmediastan has been filled with all manner of commentary about how unfair it all is.

Forgive me for being contrarian, but there’s nothing unfair about a little frosty weather. Unfair is kids going to school and never coming home. Or not having a school at all.

I’m sorry, but having to pull on a pair of gloves to ward off the chill doesn’t strike me as remotely unfair or worthy of a public-facing entitled screed. Privilege, health, fairness, whatever are never guaranteed to any of us.

Besides, chilly weather makes for seriously pretty scenes. Frost warnings notwithstanding, it didn’t get cold enough to freeze the gutters this week. But it did motivate me to revisit the photo series I shot a couple of months ago when the temps were even chillier and the woollies weren’t yet tucked away.

Perspective is an amazing thing. I wonder if this planet would be a better place if we practiced it a little more often.

Cold or warm, we owe it to ourselves to try.

#ldnont #london #ontario #canada #trowback #water #ice #frozen #winter #walkabout #weather #wx #nature #naturephotography #abstract #xray #stilllife #photography #apple #iphone #shotoniphone #photooftheday #instagood #nofilter #nofilterneeded

Painting patterns in the pool

Stitched
Boca Raton, FL
February 2023
This photo originally shared on Instagram

Nature isn’t always as random as we might have thought.

#bocaraton #florida #vacation #throwback #travel #swim #swimming #hotel #pool #water #waves #pattern #geometry #abstract #blue #water #photography #canon #canonphotography #canon_photography #photooftheday #instagood #nofilter #nofilterneeded

#IfYouReadOneThingToday - Collaboration grows up

We’re way beyond Zoom Bombing. Collaboration tools like #zoom and #MicrosoftTeams are much more mature now than they were when COVID first hit. But are we using them properly?

In my latest STEP Software Inc. #STEPthoughts blog article, I take a closer look:

Collaboration tools hit their stride in the post-COVID age

Branched life

Stand strong
London, ON
April 2023
This photo originally shared on Instagram

Life is a tenuous, precious thing, isn’t it?

#ldnont #london #ontario #canada #medway #valley #heritage #forest #tree #trees #nature #naturephotography #landscape #landscapephotography #monochrome #photography #nikon #nikonphotography #nikon_photography #photooftheday #instagood #nofilter #nofilterneeded

Empty jam jar on a kitchen table

Sugary, transparent geometry
London, ON
April 2023
This photo originally shared on Instagram

We continue to play with our food, even after we’ve scraped the very last bits of overpriced kosher for Passover jam from the bottom of the jar.

Lousy jam. Cool-looking piece of glass. A quiet round of shutter therapy at the kitchen table.

Not a bad combo, after all.

#ldnont #london #ontario #canada #cherry #jam #jelly #food #foodporn #random #kitchen #stilllife #photography #nikon #nikonphotography #nikon_photography #photooftheday #instagood #nofilter #nofilterneeded

Theatre in concrete and grass

Low-angled, edge-on
London, ON
May 2023
This photo originally shared on Instagram

The scene: It’s 9:21 at night, and I’m following Calli the Wonderschnauzer around the neighborhood. As often happens, she’s taking her sweet time because her snack time is still 39 minutes away and there’s probably still a bunny or two to bark at.

We come across an interesting scene on a sidewalk not far from home, where a Jeep with no one inside is idling in a driveway across the road.

[tangent] London has had a no-idling bylaw for years that’s supposed to prevent this kind of planet-unfriendly stupidity. Alas, no one has ever received a ticket for violating the bylaw, and Londoners will often sit for hours in their still-running cars. Silly, selfish Londoners. [/tangent]

The truck is casting brilliant while light clear across the street. The overgrown grass in the boulevard catches some of it and throws wonderful shadows across the pockmarked concrete.

I may be saddened by the needless addition of carbon emissions into our atmosphere, but I’m not too annoyed to ignore the photo opp playing out at my feet. So while the dog grazes nearby, I compose and shoot the surreal scene just before the owner returns and kills the lights.

As the dog and I make our way back home, I have some quiet time to ponder the meaning of this moment.

I conclude that despite the fact that we live in a highly imperfect world, filled with highly imperfect people, all that imperfection can still have its own surreal beauty.

We just have to be willing to root around in the overgrown grass and crumbling concrete to find it.

#ldnont #london #ontario #canada #walkabout #nature #naturephotography #shadow #grass #concrete #texture #sidewalk #abstract #stilllife #monochrome #street #streetphotography #photography #apple #iphone #shotoniphone #photooftheday #instagood #nofilter #nofilterneeded

Bricks crumble in the sun

Forgotten history
London, ON
April 2023
This photo originally shared on Instagram

Battered and bruised, it stands despite whatever the world has thrown at it.

Someday it will crumble into a memory.

But not today.

#ldnont #london #ontario #canada #hydepark #building #architecture #architecturephotography #buildingporn #architectureporn #urban #city #brick #texture #perspective #street #streetphotography #photography #nikon #nikonphotography #nikon_photography #photooftheday #instagood #nofilter #nofilterneeded