Sailing with strangers

A day on the water
Port Stanley, ON
July 2023
This photo originally shared on Instagram

We might think we’re all alone as we get further away from shore. We might be wrong.

#portstanley #beach #ldnont #ontario #canada #greatlake #erie #sailing #sailinglife #sail #boat #sailingphotography #sky #water #waves #nature #nature #photography #landscape #landscapephotography #photography #canon #canonphotography #canon_photography #photooftheday #instagood #nofilter #nofilterneeded

Messages in the driftwood

Washed up
Old Woman Bay, Lake Superior Provincial Park, ON
June 2023
This photo originally shared on Instagram

A piece of driftwood lies, forgotten, on a windy beach at the desolate edge of the world's largest lake.

No one is here to share its tale, where it’s from, how it got here, or anything about the lives whose paths it crossed along the way.

We might assume this is where it ends. But a tiny voice whispers in the winds that rush across the time-worn wood that its next chapter could be its most compelling.

Lesson for the rest of us, perhaps?

#oldwomanbay #algoma #lake #superior #ontario #canada #roadtrip #travel #nature #naturephotography #landscape #landscapephotography #driftwood #wood #texture #stilllife #bokeh #sunset #beach #photography #nikon #nikonphotography #nikon_photography #photooftheday #instagood #nofilter #nofilterneeded #lifeinthemargins

QOTD - On ships, harbors, and safe shelter

At rest
Port Stanley, ON
July 2023
This photo originally shared on Instagram

"A ship in the harbor is safe, but that’s not what ships are built for."
John A. Shedd

#portstanley #beach #ldnont #ontario #canada #greatlake #erie #sailing #sailinglife #sail #boat #sailingphotography #sky #water #waves #nature #nature #photography #landscape #landscapephotography #photography #canon #canonphotography #canon_photography #photooftheday #instagood #nofilter #nofilterneeded

Where I steal my wife's phone...for work

Duelling logos
London, ON
July 2023
This photo originally shared on Instagram

I often use stock imagery in my professional writing, as it’s a fairly quick and efficient means of matching up the right photo or graphic to the story at hand.

But sometimes I just can’t find what I’m looking for. So I’ll pull the camera-camera out and have a little spontaneous photo session on my living room floor.

My wife’s phone is on the left. Mine’s on the right. I was rushing, so I let Mother Nature provide the gentle light and shadows.

I love this photo not so much because it’s groundbreaking. It isn’t. It’s just a couple of logos artfully arranged in the available light by the patio doors. But it emerged from a fun family moment where my personal and professional lives collided, and my family shrugged and smiled as I did my thing and cobbled together something from nothing.

In the end, my article - here - had just the right imagery to accompany it, and my peeps were left with another weird story from a memorable day.

Creative life. Words. Photos. Whatever. It’s what we do.

#ldnont #london #ontario #canada #random #stock #shutterstock @stepsoftware #stilllife #photography #meta #threads #twitter #stepsoftware #nikon #nikonphotography #nikon_photography #photooftheday #instagood #nofilter #nofilterneeded

STEP blog: cybersecurity budgets

By virtually every measure, #cybersecurity budgets are failing to keep up with a fast-evolving threat landscape. As risks and costs soar, CIOs and other technology leaders find themselves fighting for attention – and budget.

My latest blog article for STEP Software explains why this is so problematic – and what to do about it:

Cybersecurity budgets fail to keep pace with intensifying threat landscape

#technology #it #budget

The last umbrella - for now

Never leave home without one
Port Stanley, ON
July 2023
This photo originally shared on Instagram

The beach umbrella series continues.

I’m still not sure where this weird little obsession of mine comes from, but I think it’s fair to conclude that not everything in life needs to be explained.

#port #stanley #portstanley #beach #ldnont #ontario #canada #great #lake #erie #umbrella #sun #sky #water #waves #nature #nature #photography #landscape #landscapephotography #photography #canon #canonphotography #canon_photography #photooftheday #instagood #nofilter #nofilterneeded

Related:

Protection from...everything, July 2023

The umbrella theme gathers steam, July 2023

Chasing rainbows at the beach, March 2023

Protection from a hot star, July 2020

Caption This 133, August 2009

Cover me with warmth, November 2007

Shelter from the sun, May 2007

Cover me, January 2007

Burned sky, October 2006

Let's get tanked

Step up
Port Stanley, ON
May 2023
This photo originally shared on Instagram

According to conventional wisdom, an old petroleum storage tank isn’t usually something worthy of a second look, much less a first photo.

But if you’ve followed my feed for long enough, you’ve doubtless noticed I’m hardly conventional. Which leads us to this scene, tucked away, largely ignored, at the edge of a popular beach.

As this is a working port, with fishing vessels coming and going almost constantly, it makes sense that these giant structures would be here. There used to be three such tanks, with a sea-themed mural splashed across the corrugated steel.

Eventually the murals faded, and were painted over with a sobering black. Certainly less festive, but still worthy of a second look.

Because conventional wisdom isn’t always the wisdom we were destined to follow.

#port #stanley #portstanley #beach #ldnont #ontario #canada #great #lake #erie #architecture #engineering #black #yellow #photography #canon #canonphotography #canon_photography #photooftheday #instagood #nofilter #nofilterneeded

Find color in a colourless place

Vision in concrete block
Port Stanley, ON
July 2023
This photo originally shared on Instagram

Always look for color in the margins, in the places where no one else would expect it.

Always remember you’re not anyone else.

You’re you.

Colorful.

Curious.

Unique.

At least this is what I tell myself as complete strangers stare at me for taking an interest in the concrete block building that houses a bunch of washrooms.

Their eyes scream, “Why?”

I’d like to answer that not everything needs a reason. Instead, I smile and find another sliver of color to explore with my lens. #portstanley #beach #ldnont #ontario #canada #great #lake #erie #building #architecture #architecturephotography #buildingporn #architectureporn #concrete #block #color #colour #photography #apple #iphone #shotoniphone #photooftheday #instagood #nofilter #nofilterneeded

The umbrella theme gathers steam

Blue like the sky
Port Stanley, ON
July 2023
This photo originally shared on Instagram

Some days have themes. On this particular day at the beach, it seemed to be umbrellas.

I’m not sure how or even why that happens. You’re out and about and something catches your eye. So you shoot a photo and decide you rather like it. Before long, your brain is seeking out similar scenes, as if repetition brings some form of comfort.

There was no plan to begin with. The day didn’t start out with umbrellas floating through my head. They just wandered in, I guess, and now I’ve got a bunch of umbrella pics to mark a memorable day.

I’d like to think that each person under each umbrella was forming their own indelible memories, as well.

I’d like to think we all have our own way of looking at the world, and our own safe shelter from which to do the observing.

#portstanley #beach #ldnont #ontario #canada #great #lake #erie #blue #white #umbrella #sun #sky #water #waves #nature #nature #photography #landscape #landscapephotography #photography #canon #canonphotography #canon_photography #photooftheday #instagood #nofilter #nofilterneeded

Pondering life outside safe harbour

Perspective
Port Stanley, ON
July 2023
This photo originally shared on Instagram

Stare at a harbour long enough and a few things become apparent:

The sea - or in this case, the Great Lake - can be unforgiving.

So everything here is designed to shelter, to protect, to signal safe haven.

But it all depends on your direction: head toward the horizon and there’s a line where you leave it all behind.

The danger is always just out there.

So we build great things to keep it at bay: piers, breakwaters, lighthouses.

We dredge the water to keep it safe and functional.

We work the waters and the shores to keep it alive.

A community’s way of sheltering from the storm, of creating jobs, of driving opportunity.

Of telling the waters just beyond that we revere and respect them just as we recognize their perils.

But we also need to carve out a bit of a life for ourselves, too.

#port #stanley #portstanley #beach #ldnont #ontario #canada #great #lake #erie #sun #sky #water #waves #nature #naturephotography #landscape #landscapephotography #photography #canon #canonphotography #canon_photography #photooftheday #instagood #nofilter #nofilterneeded

Mackie's picture window

Inadvertent reflective selfie time
Port Stanley, ON
July 2023
This photo originally shared on Instagram

Scene from a beach.

Say it 10 times fast.

You’re welcome.

#port #stanley #portstanley #beach #ldnont #ontario #canada #great #lake #erie #mackies #restaurant #nature #nature #photography #landscape #landscapephotography #archirecture #reflection #window #selfie #photography #canon #canonphotography #canon_photography #photooftheday #instagood #nofilter #nofilterneeded

Shared by Tourism London

Honoured to have one of my photos shared by the good folks at Tourism London.

Tourism London Instagram link here.

Meta launches Threads. I write.

Meta's wannabe-Twitter-killer app, #Threads, is already setting social media records and spawning lawsuits. But will it stick around for the long haul?

In my latest article for the STEP Software Inc. blog, I break it all down:

Is Meta Threads a Twitter killer? The answer may surprise you.

#socialmedia #twitter

And in case you're still Twittering, I tweeted it here - only to have Twitter's algorithm bury it deeper than the Marianas Trench. Coincidence? Sure. 

Protection from...everything

Cover me
Port Stanley, ON
July 2023
This photo originally shared on Instagram

Protectors are everywhere.

We just have to look for them.

#port #stanley #portstanley #beach #ldnont #ontario #canada #great #lake #erie #umbrella #sun #sky #water #waves #nature #nature #photography #landscape #landscapephotography #photography #canon #canonphotography #canon_photography #photooftheday #instagood #nofilter #nofilterneeded

Straight lines at the end of the pier

Geometry lesson
Port Stanley, ON
July 2023
This photo originally shared on Instagram

The scene: Port Stanley’s main beach. We’ve come here for the day because it’s our anniversary and it’s become an anniversary tradition to get sand between our toes whenever we mark another year together.

Weird, I know. But that’s us.

Inevitably, I’ll wander around with a camera for a bit, and yesterdays’s trip was no exception. The winds took me to the pier, then after I negotiated an epic field of geese and poop and arrived at the very end of the structure, the winds disappeared and left the shimmering heat to bake the white painted concrete to a delightful crisp.

Which means between the sweat pouring down my egg-shaped head and the brilliant, hazy sun bleaching the entire scene, I couldn’t see a thing. Great conditions for a photo sesh, apparently.

Still, I wanted to remember what it felt like to be there, so I blindly stumbled around with the camera while I silently cursed the weather. At first glance, this photo is a simple study of straight lines. But nothing - in photography as well as life - is ever really that simple. There’s always a story leading up to the moment, a journey, an experience that is often very much yours and no one else’s.

Indeed, anyone can shoot straight lines - even these. But we all follow our own path to get here. And we all have different, unique, important stories to tell.

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

31 years of us

Always find the funny
Laval, QC
July 5, 1992
This photo originally shared on Instagram

31 years ago today, she married me.

31 years ago, we were both very different people - so very young - yet who we are to each other, everything, hasn’t changed one bit.

31 years ago, I pinched myself that I had married up in the world. Still do. Every day.

31 years ago, the future seemed so limitlessly bright. It still does, only in much more vibrant tones.

31 years ago, we had only just begun to write our story. Today, we often like to reread the parts of that story that we’ve since created. That’s why we smile so much.

31 years ago, we hadn’t met our kids. Hard to imagine a world without them.

31 years ago, we had our entire family around us. Today, we’ve lost some of them. That time thing.

31 years ago, “Sickness and health” were just words. Today, we’ve lived them.

31 years ago, we were just figuring out who we were. We still are - and always will be - but we’ve learned how to do it in lockstep.

31 years ago, she finished my sentences. Still does, only more precisely.

31 years ago, the world was a very different place than it is today. But we’ve navigated it together, which is the only thing that matters to me.

31 years ago, she laughed with me. To this day, every day we find excuses and opportunities to laugh together. Even if the days themselves can sometimes be hard.

31 years ago, I worried about being enough for her. Part of me always will.

31 years ago, I made a promise. Every day since, I’ve done my best to keep it.

31 years ago, we knew we were bashert. Fated. Destined. The universe hasn’t let us down on that one.

I love this girl and all we are and all we’ve built. If I knew then what I know now, I’d change nothing.

Happy anniversary, my love. Thank you for just being you.

#montreal #ldnont #blink #LiveLaughLevy #family #everything

Flowers for Algernon

In perfect bloom
London, ON
July 2023
This photo originally shared on Instagram

Long weekends rule. Until they’re over.

So here’s a fiercely pretty flower to stare at while we wait for the caffeine to do its thing. Our dear friends grew it - they’re magically gifted that way - and they kindly allowed me to go nuts with my lens.

Which is my way of saying you’re about to be spammed with more flower photos.

Sorry.

#ldnont #london #ontario #canada #flower #flowers #flowerstagram #flowersofinstagram #flowerphotography #nature #naturephotography #garden #art #plants #macro #stilllife #photography #Nikon #nikonphotography #nikon_photography #photooftheday #picoftheday #instagood #nofilter #nofilterneeded

When paths cross in the sky

Strangers passing overhead
London, ON
April 2023
This photo originally shared on Instagram

Hundreds of people on two separate aircraft fly at near-supersonic speeds toward faraway destinations, tracing near-perfect lines across the equally perfect blue sky.

Thanks to fate, weather, and an unseen algorithm buried deep in scheduling software, their paths momentarily cross.

Even if they’re never aware of it.

#ldnont #london #ontario #canada #blue #sky #weather #wx #cloud #clouds #cloudspotting #contrail #aviation #flight #flying #aviation #avgeek #plane #planes #photography #apple #iphone #shotoniphone #photooftheday #instagood #nofilter #nofilterneeded

Play with the leaves

Natural texture
London, ON
June 2023
This photo originally shared on Instagram

Always take the opportunity to play with leaves and light and texture.

And anything else, for that matter.

Because autumn is inevitable.

#ldnont #london #ontario #canada #tree #trees #green #leaf #leaves #texture #light #nature #naturephotography #landscape #landscapephotography #stilllife #photography #nikon #nikonphotography #nikon_photography #photooftheday #instagood #nofilter #nofilterneeded

Canada Day for some

Don't worship me
London, ON
April 2020
This photo originally shared on Instagram

The calendar says it’s July 1st. Canada Day. Our country’s 156th birthday.

Cue the fireworks, the wearing of red and white merch, the flag-waving, and the annual jingoistic proclamations of national pride.

There, we good?

Now, let’s get real.

Canada is a wonderful country, full stop. It ranks highly on too many global lists to count, and outsiders generally like us. More realistically, it’s a pretty decent place to raise a family, grow a career, and live the kind of peaceful, opportunistic life that citizens of other countries can only dream of.

But we’re far from perfect.

Canada’s history of treating its Indigenous peoples with contempt and cruelty is well-known. We haven’t always been as welcoming to outsiders as we should have been, and the undercurrents of racism and white supremacy run strongly from sea to shining sea.

So forgive me if I don’t join in the blind flag-waving in equally blind support of a national ideal that has never existed. Those who thump their chests and brand themselves patriots, after all, probably never understood the meaning of the word. And likely never will.

I worship not the flag, but the ideals inherent in everyone who lives and/or comes here in search of a better life. I cheer not the rote words of the anthem, but the sentiment they represent for those of us who sing the song, however ignorantly.

This notion of naked pursuit of empty words - constitution, nation, liberty, freedom, whatever - as a free pass to do whatever we want to anyone who gets in our way, damn the consequences, will never feel right. It isn’t who we are.

So while I celebrate the day, I choose to do so not because of some flag that waves in the wind, but because of the people who will, hopefully over time, work toward a better country that treats everyone as they deserve to be treated.

We’re not there yet. So we keep trying. As we must.

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