Splashland!

Energy, visualized
Grand Bend, ON
July 2018
This photo originally shared on Instagram

I do this thing when we go to the beach. It isn’t much: I’ll just stand and stare at the waves as they crash into the shore.

As a result, my photo archives have more than their fair share of splashing water and crashing waves pictures.

To some, it may seem repetitive, derivative, or without much purpose. What’s the point, after all, of shooting a dying wave? Don’t we all have enough pictures of chaotic water?

But since I’m the one with my feet in the sand, I figure I get to decide what is or is not worth my time. And staring at scenes like this through glass has always felt like the right thing to do. For me, anyway.

Because there’s a comforting cadence to the process: track, focus, shoot. When one set of waves dies down, check the results and adjust the settings before the next set rolls in. Repeat. Often.

There’s a delightful sense of purpose to it all, because nothing in that moment matters more than what is seen in the viewfinder. The rest of the world gets put on pause for a bit while the water does its thing and my eyes and fingers and brain try to keep up.

I sometimes call it shutter therapy, and while this time we’re focusing on flying water droplets, the subject can be anything, really.

The picture, ultimately, is beside the point. Because we all get to tell our own stories. And we all want to remember what it felt like in the moment.

#grandbend #beach #ldnont #ontario #canada #throwback #monochrome #naturephotography #landscapephotography #photography nikon #nikonphotography #nikon_photography

The forest's in-between season

Waiting for the green to return
London, ON
April 2026
This photo originally shared on Instagram

After the snows melt and before the leaves bloom, there’s a tiny sliver of time when the forest is bare.

So we grab images of it while we can, before everything changes yet again.

It’s a metaphor of sorts for photography as well as for life: get out there. Now.

#ldnont #london #ontario #canada #medwayvalley #naturephotography #landscapephotography #monochrome #photography #nikon #nikonphotography #nikon_photography

What rain leaves behind

Soaked
London, ON
April 2026
This photo originally shared on Instagram

The scene: our driveway.

I’ve been running errands, the usual everyday stuff that needs to get done but is just as quickly forgotten. It’s been pouring heavily for days, the rainfall and flood warnings growing more ominous by the hour.

I should probably head into the house because more everyday stuff awaits, but in between unplugging my phone and scooping up my keys, the deluge intensifies, wrapping the car in a cocoon of sound and fury that, frankly, I rather enjoy.

So I sit for a few minutes, doing nothing more than listening to the thrum against the sheetmetal and watching the ever-shifting puddles on the sunroof. It’s hypnotic.

I make a mental note to fish the good camera out of the house sometime soon so I can shoot the droplets overhead, but then I realize now is preferable to later, and I’d rather not have to sprint through the rain. So I lift the smartphone up and play with the angles.

It doesn’t take long to get what I envisioned, a textured scene that literally has the colour sucked out of it. Almost on cue, the skies relent and the pooled water slithers off of the glass. The moment is over.

I’ll never know if this photo may or may not have been technically better had I captured it with a more appropriate tool. But I do know I did the best that I could with what I had in the moment.

And in doing so, I realize the lesson applies to far more than simple photography.

#ldnont #london #ontario #canada #onstorm #weatherphotography #droplet #abstract #bokeh #monochrome #photography #apple #iphone #shotoniphone

Shmear culture

The before picture
London, ON
April 2026
This photo originally shared on Instagram

Bagels aren’t just glorified rolls with holes in the middle. They’re culinary religion.

Anyone who’s indulged in bagel culture for long enough appreciates the simple joy of picking up a dozen from a local shop built around its own wood-fired oven. There’s nothing quite like the feeling of warmth radiating through the paper bag, followed by the inevitable debate we have with ourselves over taking just one bite before getting home.

The shmear is a critical part of the experience. I could simply call it “cream cheese”, but that would be doing it a disservice, because we’re not just talking about the confection itself. Rather, it’s what we do with it when we drop everything on the kitchen table and get ready for the most memorable shared meal of the day.

Our local bagel store is located within walking distance of our house, a simple reminder of the power of communities still served by people we know and admire. Who are always happy to banter over the different kinds of shmears they have prepared themselves and displayed under glass, and will ask on the next visit if we liked what we brought home.

On this morning, the recommendation was herb and garlic cream cheese. And when I got home and opened it up, I was struck by the texture, made not by a machine, but by someone I know. Who took the time to walk me through their various offerings before recommending the herb and garlic.

Sure, the shmeared bagel was fabulous. But I’ll remember the conversation, the texture, the moment, far longer than anything else.

#ldnont #oldbagelhouse #shoplocal #monochrome #stilllife

Monochrome masonry

Another few bricks in the wall
London, ON
March 2026
This photo originally shared on Instagram

The bricks weren’t going anywhere.

Just sitting there, as they had been for decades, baking in the sun or freezing through the winter.

Perfectly aligned, as they had been since the moment an unnamed mason crafted them into permanence.

I could have shot them anytime, but I ended up choosing this given night to wander on over and have a closer look.

I probably have too many brick pics in my archives. But I don’t think anyone’s keeping count.

I’ll probably return here again, in future, to add to my haul.

Same scene, different time. We think nothing ever really changes. That would be wrong.

#ldnont #london #ontario #canada #architecturephotography #buildingporn #architectureporn #brick #lines #geometry #optimistpark #nikon #nikonphotography #nikon_photography

Where trees wear their scars

Imperfectly perfect
London, ON
February 2026
This photo originally shared on Instagram

Trees wear their scars out in the open, sharing stories of past trauma for anyone who bothers to slow down for a closer look.

Humans, not so much. Our scars often remain unseen, holding stories known only to us.

Something to ponder, perhaps, when we encounter others. Assume they have scars. Assume their stories remain untold. Have some empathy.

#ldnont #canada #medway #monochrome #stilllife

Balconies and angles

Meet your neighbours
Toronto, ON
January 2026
This photo originally shared on Instagram

In my ideal world, neighbours on opposite sides of this delightfully shaped building would sit on their balconies and befriend each other.

In the actual, real world, no one sits on a high-rise balcony during a Canadian winter. So the architectural dance in the sky plays out without an audience.

Still, major chops to whoever decided to build something more inspired than a basic box. Who wanted to create a space where strangers could somehow connect in a space that demands second and even third looks.

Where when the weather warms up, neighbours gather in opposite corners high in the sky and share moments worth remembering.

They say design creates community. Whoever they are, they’re right.

#toronto #ontario #canada #architecturephotography #architectureporn #downtown #geometry #monochrome #photography #apple #iphone #iphone17 #shotoniphone

Snowglobe in the woods

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

I often feel the need to remind myself to look up in the middle of the storm.

Because just as the snow is falling most rapidly and the winds are howling at peak intensity, they’re reminding us that moments of unmitigated darkness and fear can also represent stunning beauty, unexpected wonder, and maybe just a bit of spontaneous hope.

So hold on. Storms don’t last forever.

#ldnont #london #ontario #canada #medwayvalley #winter #snow #forest #trees #naturephotography #landscapephotography #monochrome #photography #nikon #nikonphotography #nikon_photography

Fragile ice syndrome

No step
London, ON
February 2026
This photo originally shared on Instagram

In the dead of winter, the river flows gently beneath impossibly thin, near-iridescent layers of ice. I don’t dare step off of the snow-covered shore, and instead crouch gingerly over the scene, careful to avoid falling in.

It’s a surreal scene, shaped by temperature and wind and current and probably more than a smidgen of magic. If I return tomorrow, it will either be changed, or gone entirely. Come to think of it, it’ll probably morph within the hour.

So I gently squeeze the shutter to freeze this single moment, knowing it’ll never again look or feel like this.

Maybe that’s a metaphor for life. Always changing. Always slipping into the past. Sometimes remembered by those who happen to pass by. But not always.

#ldnont #london #ontario #canada #medwayvalley #winter #forest #trees #thamesriver #stilllife #naturephotography #landscapephotography #monochrome #photography #nikon #nikonphotography #nikon_photography

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

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

Clearing a path

What accessibility looks like
London, ON
January 2026
This photo originally shared on Instagram

Small things aren’t all that small after all.

For example, the paved path that winds through the nearby woods. For years, it wasn’t maintained during the winter, so as soon as the snow began to accumulate, it became an icy no-go zone for most.

Which was a little sad, because the path is a popular route for families walking to the nearby school, as well as anyone else just trying to get away from traffic.

Well, this year, saner heads seem to have prevailed, and a city tractor has been doing an admirable job keeping things fairly walkable despite this being a winter for the ages.

It seems ridiculously trivial to call this out, because certainly there are more important things in the world than whether or not a walking path has been plowed.

But on a day when fascist brownshirts murder another protester in the streets and fascist leaders shamelessly craft their own twisted narrative, I need to put the blinders on and focus on gentler moments closer to home.

We all find our own ways to cope. Some of us need to go for walks in the woods.

#ldnont #london #ontario #canada #winter #snow #weather #wx #onstorm #texture #streetphotography #monochrome #photography #apple #iphone #iphone17 #shotoniphone

Finding peace in the snow-covered woods

Look more closely
London, ON
December 2022
This photo originally shared on Instagram

Planet Earth has become particularly noisy. Some might say overwhelmingly so.

So we look for the quiet. In places where the fallen snow gently turns down the volume.

If only it could last longer.

#ldnont #london #ontario #canada #medwayvalley #winter #forest #trees #naturephotography #landscapephotography #monochrome #photography #canon

Related:

The tree that fell in the forest, January 2026

Visiting the fallen in winter, February 2025

The fence that looks back in time, August 2024

Fallen trees aren't really dead, October 2023

Back to green, May 2022

If a tree falls in the forest... March 2022

The giving tree, September 20202

Rotting in plain sight, March 2012

Touch tone memories

More than mere numbers
Toronto, ON
January 2026
This photo originally shared on Instagram

This is how we once kept in touch.

Loose change in our pockets and familiar, time-worn buttons under our fingers.

They were everywhere, then.

Always at the ready if we needed a lift home. Or some help. Or just wanted to hear a friendly voice on a dark night.

Now, the buttons are virtual, and the entire phone, reduced to a sliver of glass, has replaced the change in our pockets.

Yet every once in a while, the past whispers to us from a dusty payphone lingering in a shadowy, forgotten corner.

An echo, perhaps, of the indelible connections we once made.

And still do, if we’re lucky.

#toronto #ontario #canada #payphone #streetphotography #texture #stilllife #monochrome #photography #apple #iphone #iphone17 #shotoniphone

Related:

The vanishing pay phone, August 2024

Electrical indifference, August 2024

The analog information age ends, March 2024

Retrotech in a hotel lobby, November 2019

Calling up the past, July 2019

Payphones still exist! February 2018

Payphone against a concrete wall, August 2017

Mountains in the snow

Shaped...
London, ON
January 2026
This photo originally shared on Instagram

The winds have been busy this week, carving abstract scenes in the snows at our feet.

The low-angled light has been busy, too, carving soft shadows behind the ridges, highlighting the textures of the tenuously anchored snowflakes in deepening shades of grey and blue.

Even now, the surface is reshaping itself, the soft sounds of the shifting snows barely detectable under the rush of the steady late afternoon breeze.

None of this will last. Between warm temperatures, sniffing dogs, and playing children, it’s only a matter of time before all this disappears.

I wonder who will remember it. And whether they’ll smile when they do.

#ldnont #london #ontario #canada #snow #winter #weather #wx #onstorm #abstract #stilllife #texture #monochrome #photography #apple #iphone #iphone17 #shotoniphone

Related:

Windblown... December 2025

Winter's last gasp, April 2025

Miniature mountain range, March 2025

Waves in the snow, February 2025

Tracks in the snow, February 2025

Trampled, January 2025

Snow kidding, February 2022

Textured snow across the street, February 2022

Cycling through the sky

Don't look down
Toronto, ON
September 2025
This photo originally shared on Instagram

We’re all on some kind of journey. May as well enjoy the ride.

#toronto #ontario #canada #throwback #humberbay #arch #bridge #cycling #instabike #monochrome #photography #canon #canonphotography #canon_photography

Related:

Pedalling through the late autumn air, November 2025

Orange bike on a green bridge, October 2025

Drop bars for the win, July 2025

Bridge parking, June 2022

Follow the tracks home - part 2, June 2021

Today was a day... June 2021

Main span, September 2006

The tree that fell in the forest

Shattered in the snow
London, ON
January 2026
This photo originally shared on Instagram

A tree fell in the forest nearby, and I’m sharing this photo to confirm that it was indeed heard.

The dog and I came across this rather sad scene as we headed home from a longish walk. The tree so completely blocked the path and the entire valley that there was just no way around it. So we turned around and took the long way home.

This isn’t the first tree that’s fallen here, and given the age of some of the giants that still shape the canopy above, more will soon fall victim to gravity.

Of course this is how nature works, but it still felt respectful to stand by its fallen form for a bit and take it in. Calli sniffed at the snow-covered branches while I appreciated its sheer size. Somehow, they seem larger when they lay shattered across the ground.

The long walk home gave us ample time to ponder the cycles that govern life here. They’re never as neat and clean as modern humans might like. But they’ve been playing out for far longer than any of this built suburban infrastructure has been around. And they’ll be a thing long after those houses at the top of the hill decay back into nothingness.

We’ll mourn the trees. The other stuff not so much.

#ldnont #london #ontario #canada #medwayvalley #forest #tree #winter #weather #wx #onstorm #naturephotography #landscapephotography #monochrome #photography #apple #iphone #iphone17 #shotoniphone

Related:

Visiting the fallen in winter, February 2025

The fence that looks back in time, August 2024

Fallen trees aren't really dead, October 2023

Back to green, May 2022

If a tree falls in the forest... March 2022

The giving tree, September 20202

Rotting in plain sight, March 2012

Windows 2025

Frozen in place
London, ON
December 2025
This photo originally shared on Instagram

We call it a good shellacking, when an ice storm leaves so much ice on the windows that it’s impossible to see anything outside.

Even better is when the winds are so strong that the frozen streaks on the kitchen windows are angled a few degrees off the vertical. Mother Nature is quite the artist when she wants to be.

As I reach for the camera, my mind races with possibility. As much as I’d like to tote my equipment outside, shooting indoors feels like the safest option. It’s an ice rink out there and I have no intention of tempting both gravity and fate.

So I compose from the inside out, looking for ways to see through an otherwise impenetrable display. The dog lies in her bed and watches me shoot. She’s used to these spontaneous photography sessions, and will often follow me around the room as I play with the possibilities. Such a curious girl.

Today’s results capture a scene that disappears almost as quickly as it was created. Before long, the temperatures rise and the windows gradually clear back up, leaving us with a few pictures to remember what it felt like to be frozen inside.

Sometimes it feels like all we can do to hold onto time before it melts away.

#ldnont #london #ontario #canada #winter #onstorm #ice #abstract #kitchen #stilllife #monochrome #photography #nikon #nikonphotography #nikon_photography

Related:

Icy driveway surprise, February 2025

Driveway icicle works, February 2023

As the snow begins to fall, January 2021

Ice storm from the inside, February 2019

Driving in a frozen wonderland, October 2010

Splattered window, May 2010

Wordless Wednesday - Snowflake nation, March 2009

Airport parking at night

Level up
Mississauga, ON
November 2025
This photo originally shared on Instagram

In the shadowy corners of Canada’s largest airport, a parking structure casts harsh white light across the filthy snow-covered roads that feed this city within a city.

Nobody comes here to stay. Everyone is so focused on getting somewhere else. Just leave the car in a dusty spot, then forget it’s there. If transience could be imaged, this is what it would look like.

But even transient spaces deserve the occasional second look. If only to remember the places we never occupy long enough to care.

#toronto #yyz #pearson #airport #ontario #canada #night #monochrome #photography #apple #iphone #iphone17 #shotoniphone

Related:

Rusty yellow stairs, August 2025

Poking my lens into another alley, May 2025

The most beautiful stairwell of all, March 2024

Stairway to not-heaven, February 2023

Climbing a long staircase, April 2022

Red stairs to somewhere, July 2019

Sitting in the subway late at night, May 2017

Light of the season

Shine on
Dryden, ON
December 2025
This photo originally shared on Instagram

The tiniest bulbs often put out the mightiest light.

Perhaps that’s a lesson for us all.

#dryden #ontario #canada #monochrome #abstract

Related:

Be the light, please, July 2025

Deliberately blurred, February 2025

Rudolph leads the way, December 2023

Finding the light far from home, October 2022

Light the world around you, December 2019

The meaning of lights, January 2019

Bokeh and color, March 2018