Let them eat cake

Before
Laval, QC
December 2018
This photo originally shared on Instagram

I am obsessed with remembering the trivial. If I've read an article online, I need to save the reference in case I want to read it again later. If I've visited the beach, I need a pinch of sand in my trunk to remind me I was there. And if I've eaten something, I often need to take a picture of it. I can't explain why. It just is.

If food is the fuel of our lives, then food photography is, to me, the story of our lives. Or a key part of it. Food has been a point of connection for me and my wife since we met. We shop for groceries together. I hang out in the kitchen while she turns them into virtuoso creations. We debrief over meals. She laughs at me as I try - and fail - to remember where it all goes when we're done.

This seemingly simple chocolate cake pic is symbolic of a week I'd rather forget. We've been back and forth to Montreal too many times to count of late. While my father-in-law continues to struggle with his health, Debbie struggles to do everything she can for a father she's doted over for as long as I've known her. There are no black-and-white answers. Aging is never easy, and it's infinitely worse when your health fails you and you can't get it back no matter how hard you try. Or wish.

Travel far from home means grabbing meals wherever you can, whenever you can find the time. As we have every time we've returned here, we spent much of the week bouncing between a drab hospital and an apartment with barely-functional plumbing.

Which is how I ended up taking this photo, a singular attempt to find some sense of sweetness amid a chapter that offered precious little of it. It took me three-ish minutes to eat, amid a discussion that lasted another 10 minutes before we had to leave, again, for the hospital. Yet through a lens, I managed to freeze that sliver of time when a slice of cake represented the best thing in our lives, if only for a fleeting moment.

#montreal #laval #quebec #canada #google #pixel2 #teampixel #chocolatecake #chocolate #cake #dessert #food #foodporn #instafood #foodie #cakesofinstagram #cakestagram #foodstagram #instagood #foodphotography #instacake #age #aging #health #photography #life #universe #family #is #everything

Independent-minded bird on a wire

Non-conformism at altitude
Laval, QC
October 2018
This photo originally shared on Instagram

When you find yourself in a crowd, you essentially have two choices: Follow it, or don't. It's easier to follow. You explain less. You argue less, too, and even think less because the decisions are pretty much made for you. Just go along with everyone else and everything will work out in the end. Or so we've been led to believe.

If you've followed me for any amount of time, you've likely realized by now that I'm not a follower. I blaze my own path, listen to my own voice. I explain myself a lot, because my path isn't always easy for others to understand. I get challenged, sometimes to the point of argument, and even have fewer friends than would otherwise be the case. Sometimes I stop arguing entirely because there's just too much to do, not enough time to explain myself, and most mainstreamers wouldn't listen, anyway.

There's one bird in this scene that grabs my eye, one bird who seems to have the spunk necessary to turn tail, to point in a unique direction, and in doing so dare to defy the whim of the crowd.

That bird has particular significance today. See, I have no interest in sharing the same year-ending/resolution silliness that now pollutes everyone's feeds. Because every day, not just January 1, should be cause for reflection, thankfulness, and kindness.

But this singular bird seems to want to remind me - and maybe you - why the less popular path is often preferable, why turning your back on others and doing your own thing, your own way, could be, for some, a recipe for a life better lived.

Makes sense to me today, and it'll make just as much sense tomorrow and beyond, all thanks to a nameless bird I happened to encounter in a parking lot far from home.

#laval #quebec #canada #bird #birds #flight #travelphotography #travelgram #photography #nature_brilliance #EarthVisuals #artofvisuals #welivetoexplore #natureaddict #naturediversity #ourplanetdaily #unlimitedplanet #birdsofinstagram #animalsmood #birdwatching #bestbirdshots #birdstagram #birding #instabirds #canon #canon_photography #canonphotography #family #is #everything

Please wash your hands after peeing. Thank you.

Finding beauty in an unexpected place
Woodstock, ON
December 2018
This photo originally shared on Instagram

Notes from the road: It's a dark, cold night, and my wife and I are in the last highway rest stop before home. We've been driving all day, so we're tired, and I'll admit I'm probably slightly cranky.

As I walk into the washroom, I notice an unshaven man in a dirty ball cap trying - and largely failing - to do up his threadbare jeans as he walks away from a urinal. As he approaches me, I notice he's headed straight for the exit, and not the bank of sinks.

My eyes lock on his as I silently try to will him to shift his direction and, you know, wash his damn hands after handling his unmentionables. He just as quickly looks away and continues out the doorway. Mission not accomplished.

I'm not one to judge, and I'm not a venom-spewing germophobe, either. But when science explains how simple hamdwashing saves lives, and failure to do so risks them, I get my back up. Be as ignorant as you wish if only you must face the consequences. But when you threaten innocent strangers with your stupidity, we've got a problem.

Fast-forward 5 minutes. After washing my hands for an extra-long time, I emerge only to see my new dirty buddy purchasing dinner from the Wendy's. I realize this just as he hands the cashier his money, and she gives him his meal. I resist the urge to scream.

The photo? I snagged it in an OnRoute bathroom, because I was intrigued to find such a perfect little bouquet in such an imperfect place. Troglodytes aside, you can find beauty anywhere if you take the time to look. Maybe in the coming year we can all try a little harder..

#woodstock #ingersoll #onroute #random #urban #street #photography #public #shoot #shooting #washroom #highway #road #trip #travel #car #auto #automotive #carporn #google #pixel2 #teampixel #stilllife #ontario #canada #family #is #everything

Returning to where it all began

Not-so-mystic pizza
Montreal, QC
December 2018
This photo originally shared on Instagram

This may look like an ordinary personal-size cheese-and-green-olive pizza, and under normal circumstances you would be correct. But I've never been remotely normal, and we live in extraordinary circumstances these days. So as you've likely guessed, this is a special pie.

We came here after a challenging day at the hospital. Beyond Deb's dad's up-and-mostly-down challenges with his health, we grapple with the harder questions of what lies further down the road. She's carrying a lot of weight on her shoulders, and I'm not sure I know how to ease it.

I thought pizza might help. But not just any pizza. Tasty Food pizza, the place where we had our first date. I was 17, she was 16, and I was terrified of making the wrong first impression. Pizza seemed like the safest first-date choice.

In the ensuing 34 years, it's moved across the street, and the photos on the wall have faded a bit, but it still felt familiar as we walked in from the icy cold.

Older, wiser me no longer needed to search for the right word, or worry about a stray olive skittering across the table. I clearly won her heart on that first date, and she clearly won mine. But I still felt reflective, apprehensive even, as we munched and broke down the day that was.

I found myself wishing we could return to that sweet, gauzy time when everything was potential and mortality was a mere word in a dictionary. But we all know life doesn't work that way. Still, even a brief return to where it all began was all we needed in the midst of this particular chapter.

Like I said, more than just a pizza.

#montreal #quebec #canada #yul #google #pixel2 #teampixel #tasty #food #pizza #restaurant #age #aging #health #cherishit #everyday #urban #photography #life #universe #family #is #everything

Mooring...

Hooked
London, ON
December 2018
This photo originally shared on Instagram

Home. Safely. Thankfully.

Wish we could tell you what comes next, but the universe probably has plans of its own.

Onward...

Staring at trees across the highway

Stand tall
Woodstock, ON
December 2018
This photo originally shared on Instagram

We've been spending entirely too much time driving the length of Ontario's Highway 401 lately. I guess I'd be OK with it if the reasons were happy, but they haven't been. When the destination at the other end of the highway is a cemetery, a hospital, a place you'd do anything to avoid, the normal appeals of a road trip with your favorite people seem to lose their lustre.

On this cold pre-Christmas morning, I found myself, again, using photography to find the light in a linear space that otherwise has none. This seemingly ordinary line of trees stood across six lanes of highway at the Woodstock OnRoute service station. The weather, as usual, wasn't cooperating, casting a grey pall over the proceedings and, worse, a slick sheet of dirty ice over the roadway. Thanks to Mother Nature's silliness, it had already been a tense drive, and we had put barely 60 km in our rearview.

I stood beside the car and zoomed the camera across the highway, looking for something that would help me remember this particular moment of this particular drive. The wind cut into me from the left, and it was at that moment that I noticed the trees themselves had a bit of a lean, most likely because of the prevailing winds that blow in from frame-left. Even here, in this desolately grey landscape ruined by a superhighway, Mother Nature was painting the landscape, making it clear, despite the concrete and dirt and noise and human-powered mayhem all around us, that she was still in charge.

This photo is merely one of countless shots I stole quickly as we moved from there to here. If any single photo has the power to separate this particular trip from the others, I'm hoping this is the one. This, apparently, is how I tell our family's story now.

#woodstock #ontario #onroute #random #urban #street #photography #shoot #shooting #tree #trees #highway #weather #wx #road #trip #travel #car #auto #automotive #carporn #stella #canon #canon_photography #canonphotography #ontario #canada #family #is #everything

Found: An American road warrior in the shadows

Drive, she said
Montreal, QC
December 2018
This photo originally shared on Instagram

In a shadowy corner of the deepest level of the underground parking lot below a massive hospital, a relic of a bygone automotive era sits quietly. The patina of dust on its aircraft carrier-sized hood suggests it's been here a while. Someone loved this car once. By virtue of the fact that it's tucked away here, I'm guessing they still do.

They don't make them like this anymore. Full-sized, body-on-frame, V8-powered wagons were the people movers of an earlier generation, a role since taken over by minivans, then SUVs and crossovers. Woody wagons are even more rare, as if anyone today could believe that a vinyl applique inside plastic frames glued haphazardly to the sheetmetal was once a sign of automotive opulence.

It wasn't and it isn't, yet in the waning days of 2018, in this sad spot under a sad complex of buildings where people like us come for almost exclusively sad reasons, it somehow works.

As soon as I see it, I'm reminded of the woody wagons of my own childhood - including the ones my dad drove. My wife graciously allows me to shoot the wheeled whale while she walks ahead. We're here for her father-in-law, not for spontaneous parking garage shoots, but she more than anyone knows why I need to do this. Because despite the reason for us being here - or perhaps because of it - we need to look harder into the nooks and crannies for moments of joy, for the little things that will replace, if only for a blink, the overwhelming darkness that's settled over us this year.

On this morning, in this dimly lit, grey-tinged place, we found that elusive moment of joy. I hope whoever owns this rolling piece of American history appreciates its ability to make complete strangers smile, remember, and think. Because connectedness takes on many forms, no matter where you may be, or what you may drive.

#montreal #yul #quebec #canada #random #parking #lot #urban #street #photography #shoot #shooting #car #auto #automotive #carporn #buick #roadmaster #wagon #jgh #jewish #general #hospital #google #pixel2 #teampixel #family #is #everything

Waiting, uncomfortably

Have a seat. Or two.
Montreal, QC
December 2018
This photo originally shared on Instagram

If the waiting is indeed the hardest part, I'd like to politely suggest it's because the seats profoundly suck. In fairness, you wouldn't expect hospital waiting room chairs to be as comfortable as a La-Z-Boy recliner. The people who chose and purchased these particular chairs when Richard Nixon was in office likely did so as an afterthought, a last-on-the-to-do-list item before they moved on to their next institutional project.

I appreciate the budgetary constraints all hospitals face, especially ones, like this one, that are founded by the Salvation Army and funded by the provincial government. Those kettles should - and do - fund things we need rather than want, and governments have no business buying La-Z-Boy recliners for hospital waiting rooms. But, still, what I wouldn't give for a reasonably comfy place to park myself while we wait for the next nurse visit, doc consult, milestone in the dreary life of a patient who's stuck here for an indefinite period of time.

Sitting in these chairs as a visitor makes me appreciate the other places I usually sit - office chair, bike seat, car, wherever - so much more. I'm lucky to still have that ability, to not be on the wrong side of the health care curve. There are no guarantees, ever, in life. Some random disease might strike me tomorrow, and I might find myself right back in this place, except this time I won't be a visitor.

But to the extent that any of us can control our fate, can lead the kind of life that gives us the best possible chance of staying healthier, longer, these chairs remind me why that matters as much as it does. When I push my bike off from my driveway, whining the entire time about how early it is and how I'd much rather be lying in bed on an early-morning Netflix binge, I'll think of these chairs, and what I wouldn't do to ensure I never have to sit in them again.

#montreal #quebec #canada #yul #google #pixel2 #teampixel #catherine #booth #hospital #age #aging #health #cherishit #everyday #urban #photography #life #universe #fortytwo #family #is #everything

Crash aftermath

Ouch
Montreal, QC
December 2018
This photo originally shared on Instagram

First, thankfully this isn't my car. I came across this scene while wandering through Montreal's NDG neighborhood yesterday, so fresh that one of the drivers jumped out from her vehicle as I walked past and admitted to anyone with whom she could make eye contact that it was entirely her fault.

It was bitterly cold and windy late in the afternoon of Christmas Day. My first thought was to scan the scene and make sure everyone had gotten out of both vehicles, and that they were more or less OK (they had and they were.) I also asked if 911 had been called (check), then stepped back as initial shock gave way to understandable anger. As they argued over the details that led to them occupying the same spot at precisely the same time, I carefully crossed the street and began my return trip, hesitant to intrude on their trauma.

I wondered if their insurance companies worked on Christmas Day, if they'd be able to get a rental car, if they'd be able to salvage the rest of what should have been a special day, if they had somehow scarred all future Christmases with a memory they'd rather forget. By the time I had backed away far enough for their voices to have fallen silent, the own voices racing through my head had calmed down, too. No one was hurt, and that was all that mattered. I hope they all soon came to appreciate that simple fact, that gifts of life and health weren't simply limited to this particular day. I hoped they were still able to count their immeasurable blessings.

I slowly walked back to the hospital where my father-in-law has been for months, and likely will remain for, well, we just don't know. My hands ached from the cold, and not even stuffing them deep in my pockets helped. I reminded myself none of this life stuff has a script, none of us knows what comes next, and the best we can do is ride the waves as they roll on past. I quietly wished the two families a few blocks behind me knew that.

#montreal #yul #quebec #canada #random #urban #street #photography #sherbrooke #cavendish #christmas #day #shoot #shooting #canon #canon_photography #canonphotography #car #auto #accident #automotive #carporn #nissan #versa #hospital #family #is #everything

A new world takes shape

So much potential
Laval, QC
December 2018
This photo originally shared on Instagram

About a mile west of my mother's high-rise condo, as the crow flies, a new building slowly rises into the sky. My note yesterday about staring through distant windows and judging the folks on the other side got me thinking about the stories yet to be told in these boxes in the sky. So when I saw this skeleton of a building bathed in the late-afternoon setting sun, I felt a photo was called for.

Those of us lucky enough to grow up in a caring neighborhood appreciate what that must feel like, with neighbors who are so much more than neighbors, who know you, care about you, and are always there no matter what's going on in your own life. You feel indescribably comforted, protected, surrounded, and I was privileged to have lived in just such an area, a short walk to the right of the frame you see here. Canterbury Street was an idyllic oasis of calm, much like every other street, square, and crescent that surrounded it in this equally wistful, leafy suburb known as Chomedey.

For each of us, the world started and ended here, and all it took was a trip into the big city to the south, with its crowded streets, lack of green, and overwhelming noise, to appreciate returning home at the end of the day, knowing your peeps were ready and waiting to play another game of hide-and-seek beside the streetlight near your maple tree.

After this new building in a new neighborhood comes to life, it will doubtless become similarly idyllic for countless families over countless years, with countless stories yet to unfold. Decades from now, I hope they, too, can look back at their time here with similar wistfulness, thankful in the knowledge that their parents chose well, and in doing so influenced the trajectory of their lives in ways mere words can never explain.

For now, it's a construction site. But soon, it will become so much more.

#laval #montreal #yul #building #architecture #architecturephotography #facade #design #buildingporn #architectureporn #road #trip #travel #wanderlust #explore #travelphotography #travelgram #photography #sunset #orange #weather #wx #light #canon #canon_photography #canonphotography #life #family #is #everything

Passing judgment through glass from afar

Windows over the strip
Las Vegas, NV
November 2018
This photo originally shared on Instagram

I promise I'm not a voyeur, but I will admit to standing on sidewalks every once in a while and looking up at the buildings around me. I don't stare inside, of course, but I do wonder about the people who live, largely unseen, on the other side of the glass.

The math is easy to understand: Every window here - in this case, a Las Vegas highrise - contains a life, a story, or multiples of same. To each person who lives in each of these boxes in the sky, their story is their world, their everything. Nothing matters more to them, even if it matters not at all to the strangers outside.

We tend to think our own lives are all-defining, and they certainly are. But only to us. Even if this is an accepted fact of modern human existence, I find that differential, the all-or-nothing-ness of it all, somewhat jarring. Relatively speaking, we are a selfish species.

It's an especially meaningful observation in this social media-driven age, where we see so many examples of people judging others, making snap conclusions about what complete strangers should or should not have done, then sharing their views with the rest of the planet.

I guess it's easy to stand on figurative sidewalks and stand in judgment of complete strangers from hundreds of metres away. Or thumb-type wisdom into a Facebook comment thread without ever having met the individuals in question.

But even if fate gave you the ability to visit every unit in this photo and have tea with every person there, you still wouldn't know what really makes them tick, and still wouldn't have the right to judge. We may never know what goes on behind thick panes of glass, but we should always have the foresight to recognize reality is very different than what it might look like from way over here.

#las #vegas #lasvegas #nevada #hotel #building #architecture #architecturephotography #facade #design #buildingporn #architectureporn #road #trip #travel #wanderlust #explore #travelphotography #travelgram #streetphotography #photography #light #darkness #canon #canon_photography #canonphotography #life #family #is #everything

Sentinel over a busy intersection

Life grows here
Toronto, ON
December 2018
This photo originally shared on Instagram

In a window overlooking the busy corner of Yonge and Davenport, someone I don't know takes care of the plant you see here. It's been a busy day here at the Toronto office. I come here weekly to work on an ongoing project with some very brilliant people, so my days here are action-packed, stuffed with learning, and immensely fun.

I move fast from place to place when I'm here, rarely stopping to appreciate the environment I'm in. That needs to change, because this building is historic in its own right, an architectural marvel that's played host to some of the music and media industry's brightest stars. And now I get to work here. Neat.

For a place that was the favorite rehearsal space of a little band known as the Rolling Stones, you might wonder why it was a plant in a window - and not, say, the concert hall 25 steps that way - that caught my eye as I raced to my train home at the end of the day. I wonder, too, because what grabs my brain at any given moment is as much a mystery now as it first was when I was a kid, slowly realizing there was this creative thing burning inside me.

Whatever the origin, I zeroed in on the juxtaposition of this simple - or, perhaps, not-so-simple - and largely ignored plant standing sentinel in a window high above an impossibly busy urban intersection. It felt like a time-out, of sorts, a quiet reminder that despite the chaos all around us, there are tiny spaces all around us that offer refuge from it all. We just have to look for them.

And when we do, maybe we'll want to thank those unknown people who care for them, and ensure there's always a place for us to go when the planet feels like it's spinning too quickly.

#toronto #yyz #yonge #street #888yonge #downtown #urban #building #architecture #architecturephotography #design #buildingporn #architectureporn #life #ontario #canada #google #pixel2 #teampixel #InfoTechRG #InfoTech #itrg #workhardplayhard #bestjobever #hiring #life #universe #family #is #everything

Creating stories, one floorboard at a time

Unseen footsteps
London, ON
December 2018
This photo originally shared on Instagram

It's 7:22 a.m., and I've come into the office early because this is the best time of day to write, to think, to get stuff done before the rest of the world comes alive. But before I get down to the serious work of work, I allow myself a 5-minute detour to walk the halls and be inspired. Because every day should start by deliberately seeking out inspiration, and I'm pretty sure I'll find some here.

It doesn't take long. One flight of stairs up, I step onto this floor. As you can see, it's been expertly restored so that it can support the needs of a modern, tech-forward workforce. But it doesn't hide what it once was, either, and it wears its century-plus of existence with a memorable kind of grace. It serves as a reminder that we walk among history here, and what we do during the day adds to the stories of those who spent their days in this complex of buildings long before we were all born.

Wherever you step today, I hope you'll look down and think about those who came before, and the stories they would tell if you had the opportunity to meet them.

#ldnont #life #519ldn #kingandridout #345ridout #universe #downtown #urban #building #architecture #architecturephotography #design #buildingporn #architectureporn #brick #lines #life #ontario #canada #google #pixel2 #teampixel #InfoTechRG #InfoTech #itrg @nicholsonsheffieldarchitects #workhardplayhard #bestjobever #hiring #family #is #everything

Learning the (woody) ropes

Historic strength
London, ON
December 2018
This photo originally shared on Instagram

Moving into a new building - a house, an office, wherever - is a lot like forging a new relationship. Everything is pristine, wondrous, with new discoveries around every corner. Your first steps are tentative, halting. You don't quite know where you are, where you're going, or how to find the things you both want and need. You're hyper-aware of everything around you, afraid to forget even the tiniest detail lest you need to refer back to it sometime in the future. You feel like what you do now will color what happens down the road.

I've definitely been in hyper-aware mode since we first moved over here. Four weeks in, the space is slowly becoming familiar, and the aimless wandering and looking for where key people sit has started to ease off. But like any relationship, there isn't some magical point in time and space where you're suddenly "there", where you've crossed some kind of imaginary line beyond which you've achieved everything you set out to accomplish.

I see that as an entirely good thing, mind you. Hitting a plateau - in an office, in a relationship, in life, wherever - would be kind of boring, and I can't imagine not feeling that pressure to go further, to open new doors, to learn. When those voices inside our respective heads go silent, the correct response isn't to simply accept the silence. The correct response is to push back, to kickstart the wheels that make those delightful noises in the first place. Hence this photo of what engineering looked like a century before most of us were born.

I'm learning much from this new place, and the people with whom I've been privileged to take this journey. I'm learning to keep looking, keep exploring, keep asking, to stay in hyper-aware mode for as long as I possibly can. Fascinating how a seemingly simple office move can become an analog for life in general.

#ldnont #life #519ldn #kingandridout #345ridout #universe #downtown #urban #building #architecture #architecturephotography #design #buildingporn #architectureporn #brick #lines #life #ontario #canada #google #pixel2 #teampixel Info-Tech Research Group #itrg @nicholsonsheffieldarchitects #workhardplayhard #bestjobever #hiring #family #is #everything

The fire just outside my front porch

A nice start to the day
London, ON
December 2018
This photo originally shared on Instagram

No one ever has enough time in the morning. From the moment you wake up, shower, get dressed, walk the pup - not always in that order - grab breakfast and shoot yourself out the door, the clock is ticking, and you stop moving at your peril.

Yesterday morning was different, as the sky was putting on a bit of a show as I stepped onto the front porch and pulled the door closed behind me. It stopped me dead in my tracks, and I alternated between looking at my watch and the sky, calculating in my head how much time I had left, and how long it might take to run back inside, get my camera and grab a few fast frames.

The math didn't quite work out - any delay would mean more traffic, more rushing, less time to settle in at the office and methodically plan for the day - but I wasn't really focused on math at that point. Logically, I could have waited for another day. But it wouldn't have been this particular day, this particular moment. Keep pushing off opportunities like this one to another day and eventually you run out of days.

So inside I went to fetch the DLSR, because the smartphone just wasn't enough. I stood on our front porch and took 18 frames in just over 90 seconds, but it was the first one that ended up being the keeper. The ensuing morning was slightly more rushed because I ignored the adult voices in my head, but I ended up with a frozen-in-time moment that would have otherwise been lost.

Playing with my camera on my doorstep probably wasn't my smartest call yesterday, but when you think about the preciousness of a single day, the definition of "responsible" starts to shift. I guess it took a blazing sunrise to learn the difference.

#ldnont #landscape #sunrise #orange #red #light #day #night #sky #skies #fire #weather #wx #clouds #tree #trees #silhouette #Nikon #nikonphotography #nikon_photography #dslr #instagood #photooftheday #family #is #everything #london #ontario #canada

2 years...

Such a pretty boy
London, ON
August 2016
This photo originally shared on Instagram

Two years ago today, we said goodbye to this little fella. Frasier was our first dog, and we were pretty lucky his path crossed ours.

When we rescued him as a scraggly 8-month-old, we knew it was one of the most illogical decisions we had ever made, a leap into Miniature Schnauzer-hood, and all the insanity that comes with the breed. They're smart, stubborn, loud, and filled with enough energy to run a small city. If you want easy, Schnauzers aren't for you.

His background added even more challenge, as we knew he had been abused and neglected. He didn't speak English and we didn't understand dog, so we never told us in so many words, but the quirks that stuck with him for the rest of his life made it clear his first few months weren't good ones. I lost count of how many times I choked back tears when I imagined what he endured. Who does that to a dog? We'll never know, and it'll always bother me.

Still, he was a sweetheart who put up with the limitless love that three growing kids can give. He was enormously patient, and never tired of being picked up, dressed up, hugged, or fawned over. I'm sure he loved it.

His diabetes diagnosis at 4 was a turning point for our kids. They took charge of his insulin injections, and cared for him with a maturity that exceeded their years. They grew into better people because of him.

We brought home another Mini last year, and I suspect Calli would have had a good time with her big Schnu-brother. I suspect he would have loved her, too. We'll never know, but that's not the point. What matters is that we had him at all, and despite the fact we never have them for as long as we'd like, they still manage to permanently imprint themselves into the our family fabric. That alone makes the lost sleep, expense, and worry worth it.

We miss you, little buddy, but are immensely thankful we got to share your life for as long as we did.

#ldnont #Frasier #FrasierTheSchnauzer #Calli #CalliTheSchnauzer #LittleMissCalli #puppy #puppiesofinstagram #dog #actofdog #miniatureschnauzer #schnauzer #schnauzerpuppy #schnauzersofinstagram #schnauzer_planet #petstagram #london #ontario #canada #life #universe #family #is #everything

Venturing into a dark alley

Art Attack
London, ON
December 2018
This photo originally shared on Instagram

I needed some alone time in the middle of the day yesterday, so I put on my woolies and took a walk downtown. The steel-grey sky was streaked with fast-moving, low clouds, and the cold wind cut through my coat, the dampness reminding me that winter hasn't even officially begun here, and it only gets worse with each passing day.

I hadn't been here in a while. I've always been comfortable downtown, and I know the streets well. But in the few short years since I last worked in this part of town, much has changed. Construction has redrawn parts of the landscape, while the cruel realities of the economy have wiped away some familiar stores and people. I was due for a catch-up.

The core is crisscrossed by countless alleyways, and I'm of two minds when I pass by. On the one hand, they can be frightening spaces, with discarded needles never more than a footstep away. They're a stubborn example of the rotting underbelly of this city, the part many of us wish we could forget, but can't. You enter these spaces at your peril, and you keep your eyes and ears wide open when you do.

On the other hand, they're threatening to us only if we allow them to be. And artists have been increasingly reclaiming them, with extensive murals that tell stories that need to be told. If only we choose to venture down those dark laneways and take them in.

On this cold afternoon, I overcame my admittedly overblown fears and took that walk. I'm glad I did, because whether or not this aligns with our collective beliefs in what a city should look like, it's integrally connected to our life here. We ignore it our peril.

#ldnont #urban #wall #art #graffiti #streetart #graffitiart #mural #urbanart #drawing #artwork #graffitiporn #streetstyle #artist #design #random #street #photography #photooftheday #instagood #brick #alley #alleyway #downtown #google #pixel2 #teampixel #london #ontario #canada

Taking in the new office

Brick, mortar, and light
London, ON
November 2018
This photo originally shared on Instagram

I work for a pretty inspiring company, surrounded by some pretty inspiring people. We moved into a pretty inspiring new building a few weeks ago, and I've been busy grabbing little photographic snippets here and there as we've all slowly been figuring our way around.

The word "new" is a bit misleading, as the building - or more precisely buildings - is over a century old. It sits on the western edge of London's downtown core, and it is deeply tied to the history of this city and its business community. After buying it, our firm spent a couple of years painstakingly stripping it down to its brick-and-rafters bones and reimagining it as a space worthy of a 21st century tech company. Three weeks after we first moved in, we're still having hallway conversations about how much we all love this place, about how it has changed the way we work for the better.

Architectural heritage is baked into Info-Tech's DNA. The building we just moved out of, known as Oakwood, was built by the one-time mayor of London between 1880 and 1882 before he left town under a cloud of suspicion. After buying it from a church, the company lovingly restored it into a revered example of preservation done right. Our Toronto offices, the former Masonic Temple, hosted concerts by Led Zeppelin and Frank Sinatra, and was the favorite rehearsal space for the Rolling Stones. It, too, has had its interior carefully repurposed while still retaining its architectural history.

We can't spend all of our time staring at the brickwork, of course: Work needs to get done. But that sense of place and sense of business purpose are closely, linked, making for a lovely place to spend the day pulling letters into words and words into works that inspire others to exceed their own potential. That sense of architecture-driven inspiration is a nice bonus.

More to come...

#ldnont #life #519ldn #kingandridout #345ridout #universe #downtown #urban #building #architecture #architecturephotography #design #buildingporn #architectureporn #brick #lines #life #ontario #canada #google #pixel2 #teampixel Info-Tech Research Group #itrg @nicholsonsheffieldarchitects #workhardplayhard #bestjobever #hiring #family #is #everything

When the forest disappears from view

Cardiac imagery in the woods
London, ON
December 2017
This photo originally shared on Instagram

Like many natural phenomena, there's a lesson inherent in the fog, and it's a simple one: Get yourself out there, now, because it'll be gone in a blink, and you never want to wonder what might have been.

Don't miss out on the wonder simply because you wouldn't take the time to stop what you were doing and move yourself a little.

On second thought, maybe this lesson isn't limited to an easily understood weather event. Maybe there's more. Maybe we should drop the maybe. Note to self: Explore further; self-limit less.

#ldnont #naturephoto #nature #naturephotography #landscape #photography #fog #foggy #Nikon #nikonphotography #nikon_photography #dslr #medway #valley #forest #trees #nofilter #nofilterneeded #photooftheday #instagood #monochrome #grey #tone #toneitup #agameoftones #london #ontario #canada

Fun in the fog with a dog

I am Groot
London, ON
December 2018
This photo originally shared on Instagram

We live in the so-called "other" London, the smaller one, on the wrong side of the ocean, without the cool accent or the royals or the giant ferris wheel.

But the Canadian London has a Thames River, streets named Oxford, Dundas, and Wellington, and it gets fog. Often. And when it rolls in, as lovely as it is to look at you'd be wise to stay inside for your own safety.

The pea soup embraced us last night, a gloriously thick, comforting blanket that seemed to swallow the sound as well as the light. And since puppies need to be walked, we didn't have much choice, so out we went.

We clearly differed in our perception. I slowly walked on the sidewalk, head on a swivel as I drank in the radically repainted landscape around us and my mind raced thinking of ways to somehow capture it.

Calli the Wonderdog was less than impressed, and whimpered non-stop the entire time we were out. I don't speak dog, so I'm not entirely sure what was bugging her, but I can surmise it had something to do with the blurry optics and insane reflections.

Still, she gave me enough slack on the leash to steal a few quick photos as we circled the neighborhood, the pink safety light on her leash pinging in the murk like an airport landing beacon.

I'm sure she won't appreciate the Scooby Doo-esque menace of this normally ordinary-looking maple tree, but I am grateful she gave me the incentive to get out there in the first place. Because we walk past this tree every day, and I'd never seen it in quite this way before. Little did our pup know that she was helping me stretch my view of the world around us.

#ldnont #Calli #CalliTheSchnauzer #LittleMissCalli #puppy #puppiesofinstagram #dog #actofdog #miniatureschnauzer #schnauzer #schnauzerpuppy #schnauzersofinstagram #schnauzer_planet #petstagram #life #universe #google #pixel2 #teampixel #fog #weather #wx #monochrome #family #is #everything