Flying fish over #LdnONT

Swim, little one, swim!
London, ON
June 2022
This photo originally shared on Instagram

Just in case we’re looking for proof that fish can fly…

#ldnont #london #ontario #canada #sun #sunset #sky #weather #wx #fish #silhouette #walkabout #forest #tree #trees #jaycee #park #nature #naturephotography #landscape #landscapephotography #photography #apple #iphone #shotoniphone #photooftheday #instagood #nofilter #nofilterneeded

PODCAST: Lessons to my Younger Self

I am beyond honoured that Sam East invited me onto her amazing podcast, Lessons to my Younger Self. In this latest episode, we talk about my stroke, and what I learned in the process.

I hope my experience offers up some light to you all, no matter what you've been through in your own life. Enjoy - and when you're done, please subscribe. We'd all be better people if we followed her work.

Find the episode here.

Here's what Sam had to say:

Mensch (noun, Yiddish): a person of integrity and honour. Also the first word that comes to mind when I think of Carmi Levy 🙌🏼

You might know Carmi as the very insightful technology journalist, who's been making appearances on Canadian TV for years. You might not know that Carmi suffered a very unexpected stroke in 2013 - an experience that he doesn’t shy away from talking about. Nope, Carmi leans all the way into life. And the perspective he has, which is the very essence of carpe diem, is one we could all probably lean into a lot more.

Check out my chat with the amazing Carmi Levy wherever you get your pods 🎧 https://anchor.fm/sameast

Technical Producer: Chris Luis

Sound Design: Adam Ketch

Tablecloth abstract

Surreal still life
London, ON
July 2012
This photo originally shared on Instagram

Looks like they’ve found water on the Moon.

#ldnont #london #ontario #canada #throwback #water #droplet #random #stilllife #monochrome #photography #nikon #nikonphotography #nikon_photography #photooftheday #instagood #nofilter #nofilterneeded

BREAKING: Twitter down. World stops.

Twitter is down globally. Let the conspiracy theories fly.

UPDATE - 8:27 a.m. ET - Aaaaaand we’re back. Service is apparently returning to normal.

Which means today’s weird photo is now live on my feed. Priorities, y’know.

Related:

Twitter service appears to return after outage, July 22

Grocery store shelf perspective

Hidden
London, ON
June 2022
This photo originally shared on Instagram

Have you ever wondered what grocery store shelves look like way at the back?

Neither did I. At least until this particular moment.

Typically ordinary, forgettable scene. Different, some would say weird, perspective. There’s a lesson in there somewhere.

#ldnont #london #ontario #canada #green #sobeys #grocery #store #cooking #oil #shopping #retail #selftimer #random #stilllife #photography #apple #iphone #shotoniphone #photooftheday #instagood #nofilter #nofilterneeded

When Schnauzers do Yoga

I wonder what I'll find here...
London, ON
July 2022
This photo originally shared on Instagram

Downward dog.

#ldnont #london #ontario #canada #calli #callitheschnauzer #dog #dogs #actofdog #schnauzerpuppy #schnauzersofinstagram #schnauzergram #schnauzers #dogsofinstagram #instapuppy #photography #apple #iphone #shotoniphone #photooftheday #ınstagood #nofilter #nofilterneeded

Smoke and light

And G-d said...
London, ON
July 2022
This photo originally shared on Instagram

If we do one thing this week, I hope we allow ourselves to have our breath taken away by something we say, do, see, or feel.

And to play around with sunlight, shadow, and a little smoke.

You never know how it’ll turn out, but the process alone makes it worth doing.

#ldnont #london #ontario #canada #sunset #light #smoke #shadows #rays #raysofgod #gameoftones #monochrome #photography #Nikon #nikonphotography #nikon_photography #photooftheday #instagood #nofilter #nofilterneeded

Sharpen your pencils, please

Written
London, ON
June 2022
This photo originally shared on Instagram

A box of pencils sits in the sunny front window of a beloved local art studio.

The mind boggles at the creations that will spring from these humble-looking instruments, the potential they all have when they find their way into an artist’s hand.

#ldnont #london #ontario #canada #artventure #art #studio #pencils #sun #shadow #geometry #random #stilllife #photography #apple #iphone #shotoniphone #photooftheday #instagood #nofilter #nofilterneeded

Boxes in the sky

Today's geometry lesson
London, ON
June 2022
This photo originally shared on Instagram

So many lives, all playing out in plain view for anyone willing to simply look up at the ruthlessly similar apartments glowing in the golden hour light.

But can outsiders looking in ever really know the stories of these lives?

Is catching a glimpse from afar ever enough for strangers to ever really know?

Hardly.

Yet we still look.

#ldnont #london #ontario #canada #labatt #park #building #architecture #architecturephotography #buildingporn #architectureporn #urban #city #downtown #photography #canon #canonphotography #canon_photography #photooftheday #instagood #nofilter #nofilterneeded

Save the dolphins!

The problem with fish
London, ON
June 2022
This photo originally shared on Instagram

Years ago, when the environment started to belatedly seep into mainstream consciousness, tuna became a bit of a flashpoint for the cause.

It was no longer just fish in a can. It had to be dolphin-safe, or otherwise certified by the powers-that-be that it had been caught and processed in a way that didn’t somehow harm Flipper and her friends.

We’ll leave the debate over whether this is actually a good thing for another day.

Wait, maybe we shouldn’t. Of COURSE it’s a good thing. Fishing, like so many other human activities, needs to become sustainable. Otherwise, we’re just doing to the oceans and its creatures what we’ve blindly - or maybe not so blindly - done to so many other ecosystems throughout human history.

Humanity has to raise its environmental game. And if it starts with tuna and dolphins, I’m in.

I do worry, however, about the potential for greenwashing, where we wrap ourselves in the packaging of goodness without really doing anything substantive behind it.

We may wear colorful ribbons. Or participate in awareness-raising fun runs on weekends. Or stick a frame on our social media profile. Or buy the clean-and-green version of something because the packaging makes us feel good.

At its most cynical, it can be little more than virtue-signalling. And since dolphin-safe - or the more politically correct “ocean-friendly” label it now wears - tuna led the charge, it’s what I’m zeroing in on today.

Because it’s not as if anyone wishes for ocean UNfriendly tuna.

But when all it is is a label on a box that may or may not be recycled, it’s a sign that we should be doing more than simply putting this product instead of that into our cart.

What that “what” is - what we must start doing beyond reading and sharing lovely marketing platitudes - is the question we mustn’t just answer. But model in our future behaviors.

Flipper would no doubt approve.

#ldnont #london #ontario #canada #tuna #foodbasics #food #environment #green #greenwashing #grocery #store #shopping #retail #random #stilllife #photography #apple #iphone #shotoniphone #photooftheday #instagood #nofilter #nofilterneeded

Macaron madness

All of them, please
London, ON
June 2022
This photo originally shared on Instagram

I find it difficult to resist the visual lure of freshly made macarons under a glass display case.

It’s like art, only you can eat it. And it looks like the product of a unicorn.

Some days, I seriously wonder why they still let me in the store.

#ldnont #london #ontario #canada #farmboy #grocery #store #retail #macaron #dessert #food #foodie #foodporn #instafood #foodphotography #foodstagram #random #stilllife #photography #apple #iphone #shotoniphone #photooftheday #instagood #nofilter #nofilterneeded

Happening upon a curvy cat

The penultimate Jag
London, ON
July 2022
This photo originally shared on Instagram

Hey kids: today’s show is brought to us by the letter ‘E’.

FWIW, this would have been Mr. Hooper’s favorite ride.

And Oscar the Grouch might have been less grouchy if someone had tossed him the keys.

#ldnont #jaguar #etype #oldparkedcars #opc

30 years...

Beginnings...
Chomedey, Laval, QC
July 5, 1992
This photo originally shared on Instagram

The two kids you see here got married 30 years ago today.

And when I say “the two kids”, I really mean us.

It feels like a blink because it has indeed been a blink. Which, I guess, is what happens when you marry your best friend. It feels like it bends time. Makes it slip into history faster, even.

And while we’ve never been blinded to the fact that marriage, like life, isn’t supposed to be easy or guaranteed or automatic, and demands constant attention and care, we’re also keenly aware of just how lucky we are to have found what we’ve found.

The journey has had its crazy moments, times where we’ve stared at the ceiling and wondered what we’d do next. But it’s also had its magical moments, where I’d stare at her staring right back at me and I knew all was right with the world, that we’d somehow figure it out. I can’t imagine having gone through any of this without her.

We’ve always been communicators, and it started right from when we met as teenagers, sitting on the phone all night talking about everything and nothing, all at the same time. Or talking on the front porch, also well into the wee hours, about whatever we felt the future might bring.

Or sometimes not even talking at all, often for hours at a stretch, yet somehow sharing more in the silence than we ever could in words.

The communication thing has proved helpful as we’ve crafted a family and a universe of our own. Our kids are so much like her - empathetic, sensitive, creative, driven - and watching them come into their own has been the joy of our lives.

I get that some people search their lifetimes and don’t find it, whatever “it” is. I get that I was blessed enough to have found “it”, her, before I was old enough to fully appreciate what I had. I get that our story is the exception.

And I’ve had 30 years to learn, to figure it out, to pick my way through this life thing alongside someone who gets it, gets me, and finds new ways to get me to love her. I’ve often said I don’t deserve her, and she’s just as often admonished me for even thinking it. She’s right. I should listen to her more often. Working on it.

Soon after we first met, she visited me at the pool - I was a lifeguard, she was a camp counsellor - and we chatted while we were on break. I don’t recall what we spoke about, but to this day I can describe the look on her face, the tone in her voice, the feeling I had that this wasn’t just another idle chat with a teenaged colleague.

I watched her as she walked back down the hall, and I felt a flutter in my stomach. Not a day goes by when I don’t feel that same flutter, that same shoulder-tap from the universe that this - and she - is extraordinary, and I’m immeasurably lucky that she chose me.

30 years on, we’re not “there” yet, which is as it should be. No one knows what may or may not happen tomorrow, but with that telltale flutter in my tummy, I’ll get to figure it out alongside her.

Lucky me. Lucky all of us.

#ldnont #LiveLaughLevy #family #everything

The pigs among us

Where Timbits meet asphalt
London, ON
July 2022
This photo originally shared on Instagram

Fun things come in threes, so I’m finishing off our stuff-dumped-in-the-street series with this.

Except there’s nothing fun about people dumping their garbage in the middle of the road, particularly when it comes from a lousy restaurant still masquerading as some sort of Canadian icon.

Sorry, Timmy, but no. And your customers are apparently litterbugs, too.

I risk sounding like the old man screaming at the kids to get off his lawn, but scenes like this make me sad.

When did people start caring so little?

#ldnont #london #ontario #canada #random #road #street #photography #timhortons #timbits #apple #iphone #shotoniphone #photooftheday #instagood #nofilter #nofilterneeded

Related:

Permanently lost luggage, July 2022

Booted to the median, July 2022

Publish Days - Ink Blog - Garbage Cubed, September 2006

Permanently lost luggage

Going nowhere
London, ON
July 2022
This photo originally shared on Instagram

Let’s continue this week’s photographic trend, namely the silly things people dump either on or beside the street.

Today’s find: lost luggage.

#ldnont #london #ontario #canada #random #road #street #photography #luggage #apple #iphone #shotoniphone #photooftheday #instagood #nofilter #nofilterneeded

Booted to the median

Forgotten
London, ON
June 2022
This photo originally shared on Instagram

A single rubber boot lies forlornly in the grit-filled median in the middle of a four-lane arterial road.

It’s been here for weeks, ignored by the thousands of motorists whizzing by at speeds well beyond the posted 60 km/h limit.

Except us.

Our daughter notices it first during a recent drive home. I barely pick it up in my peripheral vision - I’m driving - and figure it’ll be gone the next time we pass through.

Except day after day, week after week, it’s still there, its red upturned sole fading slowly to pink under the unrelenting sun. So I return to the scene and shoot it - carefully, with a long lens, from the sidewalk.

Somewhere there’s another boot just like it. The story of how they somehow got separated will forever be a mystery, which is perhaps as it should be.

Not everything needs an answer, after all. But I do hope whoever wore this lost boot - and the other one, of course - is doing all right. Because even if we can’t know the back story, we can at least hope that it’s a happy one.

#ldnont #london #ontario #canada #wonderland #road #boot #street #photography #canon #canonphotography #canon_photography #photooftheday #instagood #nofilter #nofilterneeded

Under the hockey arena roof

I should have been watching the game
London, ON
April 2022
This photo originally shared on Instagram

You never know when a monochrome mood will hit, where every photo seems to trend toward black and white.

It took me years to stop looking at monochrome as a stripped-down, less-than cousin to color.

Because when you stop and think about it, black and white are colors. So are the limitless shades of grey in between.

And when we choose to look at the world through this kind of lens, we may end up seeing things we might have otherwise missed.

Shades, tones, whatever. It’s a perspective thing. And the choice is always ours.

#ldnont #london #ontario #canada #hockey #budweisergardens #knights #goknightsgo #photography #canon #canonphotography #canon_photography #photooftheday #instagood #nofilter #nofilterneeded

The wires that light us up

Somehow, it all works
London, ON
June 2022
This photo originally shared on Instagram

Power to the people.

Literally.

#ldnont #london #ontario #canada #hydro #electric #power #wellington #road #hospital #victoria #lhsc #monochrome #photography #canon #canonphotography #canon_photography #photooftheday #instagood #nofilter #nofilterneeded

Related:

Parking lot power trip, May 2021

Rebuilding the sky, March 2019

Morning skies never get old, October 2018

Electrical infrastructure and geometry, May 2018

Shoes that dangle in the sky, December 2009

Bridge to a hopefully healthy outcome

Walk this way
London, ON
June 2022
This photo originally shared on Instagram

No one ever really wants to visit the hospital unless the reason is to meet a newborn.

But if you’ve got to go, a few surreptitiously captured photos along the way can help cut the tension.

At least that was my theory as I wandered across the pedestrian access bridge on my way to an appointment. I figured a few seconds spent composing something - indeed, anything - would help me get rid of the sick feeling in my tummy.

It didn’t work, but I had to try all the same.

And now you’ve been there, virtually, with me. Which I hope helps you if you ever have to take a similar journey.

#ldnont #london #ontario #canada #hospital #victoria #lhsc #monochrome #photography #iphone #shotoniphone #photooftheday #instagood #nofilter #nofilterneeded

Related:

Empty hospital conference room, January 2019

Empty wheelchair in a long hallway, January 2019

Old man in a forgotten window, January 2019

Waiting, uncomfortably, December 2018

Teletubby takes over a hospital, October 2018

A hallway you don't want to visit, October 2018

Fun with gurneys, October 2004

Celebrating an imperfect nation

A tattered symbol
London, ON
April 2020
This photo originally shared on Instagram

The Great White North celebrates Canada Day today, and as we blow out 155 candles on our national birthday cake, I’m feeling a little reflective.

Canada is far from perfect.

We committed historic wrongs against the Indigenous people who called this land home long before anyone else.

We inherited and encouraged the xenophobic colonialism and stifling patriarchy of our British overlords, and to this day fail to do enough to stamp it out.

We look the other way as an entire province codifies racism in the name of French language purity.

But here’s the thing: no country is perfect. Just as we accept the flaws in significant others and friends without necessarily writing them off entirely, we must apply the same logic to our country. Warts and all, this is home.

And we’re all responsible for understanding its past, and using that knowledge to forge a better future.

So don’t mind me if I fail to blindly salute the flag today, or wrap myself in unmitigated-yet-shallow platitudes of Canadiana. Patriotism extends far beyond removing our hats during the national anthem, as if worshipping some abstract ideal makes us better people.

It doesn’t. Not today and not any day.

So I’ll take today to ponder not only what I love about this place, but what I don’t. And what I’ll be doing to help bridge the gaps between where we are and where we need to be.

#ldnont #london #ontario #canada #canadaday #ohcanada #madeincanada #iamcanadian #fêteducanada #holiday #mapleleaf #photography #Nikon #nikonphotography #nikon_photography #photooftheday #instagood #nofilter #nofilterneeded