Thursday, October 10, 2024

The green protects us. For now.

Look up
London, ON
October 2024
This photo originally shared on Instagram


Cathedrals weren’t only built by humans.

#ldnont #london #ontario #canada #medwayvalley #forest #trees #gameoftones #texture #naturephotography #landscapephotography #photography #apple #iphone #iphone16 #shotoniphone


Wednesday, October 09, 2024

Casting leafy shadows late at night

In transition
London, ON
October 2024
This photo originally shared on Instagram


Walk through the neighbourhood at night and listen to the sound of the wind blowing through the trees as they gradually shed their leaves before winter.

Look for the shadows amid the pools of light that split the darkness between where you are and where you want to be.

Stand transfixed as they paint stark patterns on the rough concrete.

Thank you for attending my TEDtalk.

#ldnont #london #ontario #canada #street #streetphotography #night #nightphotography #shadow #photography #apple #iphone #iphone16 #shotoniphone

Related:
Shadows on brick, October 2022
Where shadow covers rock, September 2022
Smoke and light, July 2022
Ladders and shadows, September 2018

Tuesday, October 08, 2024

Godfather of AI Geoffrey Hinton wins the Nobel Prize in Physics

Huge news out of Sweden this morning as British-Canadian Godfather of AI Dr. Geoffrey Hinton wins the Nobel Prize in Physics. But what does all of this have to do with Canada, Canadians, and the future of AI? You’d be pleasantly surprised where this might lead us.

I’ll be joining CBC Radio stations across the country between 3 and 7:30 p.m. Eastern to walk through the 5Ws of this groundbreaking announcement.

#AnalystLife

Throwing long shadows in the woods

Those leading lines, though
London, ON
October 2024
This photo originally shared on Instagram


It was a good day to go for a walk in the woods with my kid.

We looked for colour and found more green than anything else - but we concluded that green is also a colour, and it’s lovely in its own right.

We looked for light, and found it wrapped in shadows and textures.

We looked for quiet and found it in abundance. Though the longer we stood perfectly still, the more we heard.

We looked for scenes that triggered our imagination, and we weren’t disappointed.

#ldnont #london #ontario #canada #medwayvalley #forest #trees #shadows #gameoftones #texture #naturephotography #landscapephotography #photography #apple #iphone #iphone16 #shotoniphone

Related:

Monday, October 07, 2024

October 7th + 1

Never again?
Laval, QC
June 2019
This photo originally shared on Instagram


A year ago today, the Jewish people added another date, October 7th, to a history filled with dates we’d rather forget, but can’t.

The butchery of the Hamas attack is almost too heartbreaking to watch, but watch we must so that the world will understand the real story that’s been playing out in the Middle East and the world since long before there was a State of Israel.

Hamas issued an interesting statement in the wake of an attack so barbaric it makes animals look civilized in comparison. They said they’d keep repeating these attacks until the entire country was wiped off the face of the Earth.

This from an organization whose schools teach kids as soon as they can walk to fire a gun and kill Jews, from a terrorist group whose Jihadist goals include wiping out any non-believers, anywhere, who militarize civilian infrastructure as a matter of policy, whose entire raison-d’ĂȘtre is killing Jews, then celebrating their butchery.

I’m not naive. I’m well aware of how Jew-hatred works in the social media age. I’m also well aware of the lovely double-standards that anti-Semites conveniently use to shield themselves from accusations of Jew-hatred.

It’s a fight we’ll likely never win, because peace is not, and never has been, the goal of proxy terrorists like Hamas, Hezbollah, or the Houthis. Nor is it, and never has been, on Iran’s agenda, either. Instead, an evil regime that brutally suppresses its own people has become the world’s foremost sponsor of Islamist terrorism - and the western world happily buys into Iran’s game plan.

So it isn’t something we argue, because even once-moderate voices who preached a form of detente and tolerance now ride the wave of populist hate. This will never end.

So if I disappear into the woods every once in a while to escape from the insanity, now you’ll know why. Do remember, though: after they come for the Jews, they’ll be setting their targets on whoever’s left.

#ldnont #October7 #EndJewHatred #NeverAgain

Celebrating murder, March 2008

Bright light. Dark planet.

Shine on
London, ON
October 2024
This photo originally shared on Instagram


Be the light. Today. Every day.

#ldnont #london #ontario #canada #light #led #bulb #stilllife #macro #monochrome #photography #apple #iphone #iphone16 #shotoniphone

Related:

Sunday, October 06, 2024

The big blurry bus

Journeys...
London, ON
October 2024
This photo originally shared on Instagram


It’s 10:44 p.m., and the city bus cruises through the neighbourhood on one of its final trips of the night.

The dog’s nose is deeply buried in the overgrown grass beside the boulevard, and she can barely be bothered to look up as the diesel-powered engine briefly breaks the silence before fading away into the inky darkness.

I shoot a single frame as the people-mover floats past us, its fluorescent lights spilling out onto the cracked asphalt below.

There’s no way to know who’s on board or where they’re headed, but it still feels right to wish them all safe passage before I tug gently on the pup’s leash and turn for home.

#ldnont #london #ontario #canada #street #streetphotography #night #ltc #transit #nightphotography #photography #apple #iphone #iphone16 #shotoniphone #photography

Related:

Saturday, October 05, 2024

Hoping for light in the new year

Watercolours
London, ON
October 2024
This photo originally shared on Instagram


According to the skies, 5785 began much like 5784 ended - with light from above casting hope to those below.

That word: hope. Sounds lovely in theory, but it doesn’t always translate into real change on the ground.

The hatred will be just as real in the coming year as it was in the last. Children will still be raised to vilify the so-called “others”. Ugliness will show up unchecked in our communities, forcing its targets to pull the covers on ever more tightly. And the cycle will continue anew.

It is for this reason that I don’t share generic happy new year messages on my feed.

Because nothing ever really changes. And it seems futile to cut-and-paste the same empty words year after year, only to realize nothing in return.

Instead I’ll continue to look to the skies and hope its light will eventually begin to shine on those who preach darkness.

#ldnont #london #ontario #canada #roshhashana #jewish #newyear #sunset #cloudspotting #weather #wx #optimistpark #naturephotography #landscapephotography #apple #iphone #iphone16 #shotoniphone #photography

Related:
Random straw poll, August 2023
Sunset test shot, July 2023

Wednesday, October 02, 2024

Wood, texture, and light

Shine on
London, ON
September 2024
This photo originally shared on Instagram


When a shaft of morning sunlight bounces off the gently aged wooden dresser, the only choice is to reach for a camera.

The light won’t be around for long, after all.

Makes me wonder if this might be an analogy of some sort.

#ldnont #london #ontario #canada #wood #stilllife #macro #light #sunlight #photography #apple #iphone #iphone16 #shotoniphone #photography

Related:
A kiss in the washroom, February 2018

Tuesday, October 01, 2024

Shadowy cyclist

Ride while we still can
London, ON
September 2024
This photo originally shared on Instagram


One ride: good.

Two rides: better.

So a shadowy selfie is called for. Because every journey, no matter how seemingly trivial it may seem, deserves an accompanying memory.

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


Monday, September 30, 2024

Ride even when it's miserable

Pause for reflection
London, ON
October 2021
This photo originally shared on Instagram


Sunday dawns grey, wet, and miserable, which threatens to throw a wrench into my elaborate plan to ride my bike.

In the grand scheme of things, a simple bike ride doesn’t really rank. In the cold light of a planet in crisis, one person pedalling through the neighbourhood is as trivial as it sounds.

Yet I still stare out the rain-flecked window and ponder my next move. I’m not yet willing to give in to Mother Nature.

So tea gets made, bananas get eaten, water bottles get filled and the bike gets prepped. Soon enough, I pedal off, the slick leaves on the damp streets singing their seasonal song as my tires roll over them.

It takes a few kilometres to find my rhythm, but by the time I’m feeling my groove, the mist gets pushed out by a growing wind, the skies brighten ever so slightly, and the puddles begin to evaporate. It isn’t glorious, but as October looms, it’s good enough.

We don’t have many days like this left this year, and since I lack the iron stomach to ride on snow and ice, I have to push to get out there now, even when it’s wet and gross and it would be just as easy to stand down for the day.

It’s a lesson in compromise, an acceptance that conditions for cycling - like conditions for anything else - are always subject to countless forces well beyond our control, and as a result will never be as ideal as we’d like.

But still we get ourselves outside into the mist, where the dampness soaks through and makes us question why we’re here.

But that very discomfort is probably the thing that makes it so worthwhile. It’s like experiencing the darkness first so we can particularly appreciate the light.

Or so I convince myself as I lean hard into the next turn and smile madly at the ensuing g-forces.

This life thing. Not always comfortable. But staying inside and avoiding it seems like such a lost opportunity.

So we ride anyway.

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


Sunday, September 29, 2024

Airshow photobomber

Meanwhile, high overhead...
London, ON
September 2024
This photo originally shared on Instagram


Remembering the day the Red Arrows got photobombed by a Dreamliner.

Timing is everything, apparently. In aviation as well as in life.

#airshowlondon @airshowlondon #ldnont #london #airport #ontario #canada #skydrive #redarrows #raf #redarrowsmaplehawk #hawk #boeing #nikon #nikonphotography #nikon_photography #aviation #flight #aircraft #avgeek #aviationphotography #planespotting #instaplane #photography

Related:
Bombs bursting in air, January 2022
Return of the Snowbirds, September 2021
Crashed dreams, May 2020
When Snowbirds fly, December 2017
Airshow! September 2017

Saturday, September 28, 2024

A hurricane covers the continent

Lines of salmon and pink
London, ON
September 2024
This photo originally shared on Instagram


A giant storm from far away painted soft salmon lines in the sky last night.

It’s difficult to believe that something capable of crafting such unique magic in the skies is just as capable of destroying lives across a dozen states to the south of us.

It’s an achingly real display of the duality of nature, a sad reminder that we’re all connected somehow, and we’re all at the mercy of whatever blows in from afar.

#ldnont #london #ontario #canada #sunset #cloudspotting #hurricane #helene #weather #wx #onstorm #optimistpark #naturephotography #landscapephotography #apple #iphone #iphone16 #shotoniphone #photography

Related:
Chaotic sky, June 2024
Muted landscape, November 2011

Friday, September 27, 2024

Do you see the dinosaurs in the sky?

Leapers, maybe
London, ON
September 2024
This photo originally shared on Instagram


Stand on the ground long enough and stare into the sky and we’re bound to eventually see something in the clouds.

Or not.

I may have seen galloping dinosaurs on this particularly fetching evening last week, but my imagination might have just as likely been playing games with me. Hard to tell.

Countless times, I’ll pick up my camera and head out, only to arrive at my favourite big sky viewing spot and see that the clouds have shifted and the show is over.

I return home with no photos, or maybe I took a few boring ones - which will never be shared.

When I first started these weird photo wanders, I’d be disappointed. I felt I had wasted my time, strived for something and failed to bring it home.

I’ve evolved my thinking in the years since, because no effort is ever a waste. Even a boring sky is better than the alternative of no sky at all. The time spent in search of that elusive something is always time well spent, even if that something turns out to be a nothing.

Because even nothings are something. Something good, even.

And what matters isn’t necessarily what we may or may not have seen, but the fact that we looked up at all and tried to see it in the first place.

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


Thursday, September 26, 2024

Deep in the green boggy woods

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


Soon enough the green canopy that protects the forest will turn all sorts of colours before disappearing entirely, leaving the floor open to whatever blanket winter chooses to lay down.

So we pause amid the quiet to take in the lush shades.

For all of this, like all of us, is merely temporary.

#ldnont #london #ontario #canada #forest #tree #trees #water #green #reflective #siftonbog #nature #naturephotography #landscape #landscapephotography #nikon #nikonphotography #nikon_photography #photography

Related:

Wednesday, September 25, 2024

The trees that bend but do not break

Ready for anything
Deerfield Beach, FL
February 2023
This photo originally shared on Instagram


As I write this, Tropical Storm Helene is churning through the Gulf of Mexico, and is projected to make landfall late Thursday as a hurricane somewhere on Florida’s Gulf Coast.

I took this photo last year not far from there, beside a beach, the palm trees swaying in the light breeze of a typical sunny afternoon overlooking the Atlantic Ocean.

I stared at those trees for a while, admiring their ability to gently absorb the energy from the sky. And when the winds picked up, they still stood their ground, whispering just a little louder as they danced high above the ground.

They’re built for it, these trees. They take whatever gets thrown their way. They bend, but they do not break.

I think of friends and family now preparing for the storm’s arrival, wondering what the sky might bring next and hoping they’ve done enough. Anyone with a connection to this corner of the planet understandably worries about those now in the storm’s path.

I hope at some point the folks on the ground look to the palm trees and realize that they, too, just like the trees, are built for this. They’re stronger than they look, and they’ll bend into whatever blows their way, then bend back after the storm has passed.

It’s what humans do, whether storms come from the sky, or from some other place.

#deerfield #beach #florida #throwback #travel #atlantic #ocean #palm #trees #landscapephotography #naturephotography #canon #canonphotography #canon_photography #photography

Related:
Urban palm tree forest, February 2019
On golden palm, February 2010
Palm Pilot, December 2008