Friday, October 01, 2021

Bokeh Beach, far away in time...

Endless summer
Grand Bend, ON
July 2017
This photo originally shared on Instagram


Everyone who goes to the beach on a hot summer day does so for unique reasons.

Some folks just want to swim. Others prefer to sit there and listen to the waves. Or feel the wind. Or both.

I'm generally in the soak-it-in category: it's just a great place to sit quietly, a perfect spot to absorb as much or as little as you wish.

And take abstract photos, of course, so that long after you've returned home, one look is all it will take to be transported back to these magical places.

I took this one on a hot July afternoon just over 4 years ago, but looking at this photo today, it may as well have been yesterday.

Score another win for photography.

#grand #bend #grandbend #ontario #canada #beach #throwback #grass #water #sky #color #great #lake #Huron #nature #landscape #everyday #photography #Nikon #nikonphotography #nofilter #nofilterneeded #photooftheday #instagood #lifeinthemargins

Thursday, September 30, 2021

What's with all the orange shirts today?

Never forget
London, ON
September 30, 2021
This photo originally shared on Instagram


If you have any Canadians in your feed, you’ve likely been seeing a lot of orange today.

It’s our country’s first ever National Day for Truth and Reconciliation, a statutory holiday where we remember the child victims of the residential school system. More broadly, it is a reckoning for our country around a history stained with sustained efforts to forcibly assimilate Indigenous peoples.

Also known as Orange Shirt Day, it is an important step toward, if not necessarily righting the wrongs of the past - because history cannot be rewritten - then understanding where we’ve come from so we can work toward building a better, common future that is fair for all.

Lofty goals indeed, and this is a critical step in that journey. But if I’m being brutally honest, it worries me.

Because it isn’t enough, yet there are many who will assume wearing an orange shirt, on this day, is sufficient. Or maybe posting an orange frame around their social media profile photo. Or retweeting the work of others. Or some other easily-accomplished digital activity that suggests solidarity.

There is, of course, nothing wrong with any of these activities. Awareness is, after all, a critical foundation to action. But that’s the problem: slacktivist-social-media responses to real-world issues are so often heavy on symbolism, not so much on action.

And this, on a supposed national holiday where only four provinces and one territory even bothered to legislate it as a day of observance.

Indeed, wherever we live, we will still be wrestling with the action part tomorrow, and every day thereafter. Too many Indigenous communities will lack drinkable water. Or resources to move forward.

What we all do to drive change matters far more to their - and our collective - future long after we’ve taken our orange shirts off and tossed them in the laundry.

#ldnont #EveryChildMatters #NDTR

The grocery store dating scene

Green with saucy envy
London, ON
September 2021
This photo originally shared on Instagram


Grocery shopping remains an exercise in frustration, surrounded as we are by people who haven’t adapted to the new norms of personal space in public places.

I loosely define those norms as follows: kindly stay as far away from me as is feasible.

Yet, strangely, I rather enjoy the in-store experience. Because foraging for food has become a pandemic-era excuse to go on dates with my wife.

We define dates differently in these bizarre times, because grocery stores are pretty much the only places we can reasonably go when we leave the house.

So while I’m busy deking in three directions at once to maintain my personal bubble, I’m also thanking the universe that I get to go on these not-so-grand adventures with someone who finds it funny when I deke at all. And smiles when I lag back because the tomato sauce jars with the bright green lids were talking to me.

We’re learning a lot of lessons during this historically significant moment in time, and the one that keeps coming back to me is the need to find joy in the margins.

Grocery date night - or afternoon, in this case - is just the right kind of margin, and I hope this silly photo from the back of our local Farm Boy store inspires you to look at your own margins.

I’m reasonably sure you’ll find joy in there, too.

#ldnont #london #ontario #canada #farmboy #supermarket #grocery #store #sauce #shopping #retail #random #stilllife #photography #apple #iphone #iphone11 #shotoniphone #photooftheday #instagood #nofilter #nofilterneeded #lifeinthemargins

Wednesday, September 29, 2021

A green glow, deep in the woods

Here for now
London, ON
September 2021
This photo originally shared on Instagram


In the deepest corner of the darkest forest, a thin shaft of light pierces the otherwise impenetrable canopy and lights up a single string of leaves.

They glow a brilliant green for a few fleeting seconds before the sun moves on, leaving a gloomy darkness in its wake once more.

We never quite know when Planet Earth will put on a bit of a show, so we'd best get out there and be ready when it does.

#ldnont #london #ontario #canada #medway #valley #forest #green #leaf #leaves #nature #naturephotography #landscape #landscapephotography #stilllife #photography #Nikon #nikonphotography #nikon_photography #photooftheday #instagood #nofilter #nofilterneeded #lifeinthemargins

Tuesday, September 28, 2021

Desperation on Dundas Street

Life on the street
London, ON
January 2020
This photo originally shared on Instagram


A while back, a local business association launched a marketing campaign to boost engagement with retailers in and around the downtown core.

Big, bold, blue "London is on!" signs like this one started popping up everywhere.

I captured this poignant moment on a cold January afternoon on the main retail drag that forms downtown's spine. Dundas Street has seen more downs than ups since its largely-forgotten heyday, and this ironic scene practically screamed at me from across the newly renovated, fancily-bricked flex-street.

I've never been comfortable with this kind of hyperbolic messaging. It feels shouty, even a little desperate, like you're trying to convince people you're once again successful, when every reasonable metric suggests otherwise.

Cold realities have a way of telling stories more truthfully than polished catch-phrases. Indeed, downtown streets may be rougher than we wish, but they don't lie.

#ldnont #london #ontario #canada #throwback #random #urban #downtown #dundas #street #building #architecture #homelessness #streetphotography #photography #photooftheday #instagood #nofilter #nofilterneeded #google #pixel2 #teampixel #lifeinthemargins

Monday, September 27, 2021

Murals? We've got murals.

Art, exposed
London, ON
December 2016
This photo originally shared on Instagram


Once upon a time, I took a drive on a bitterly cold Christmas Day to London's Old East Village. The goal: street photography. Because this, apparently, felt like an appropriate Christmas Day activity.

It's been a few years since I captured this scene, one of many murals that dot the urban landscape in a city otherwise averse to spontaneous expressions of creative brilliance. So I've had enough time to reflect on the strange stories that lead to some of the photos I take.

I'm good with it. Life's short. There is no "right" time for anything. And if we wait for that mythical "right time" - like maybe the day AFTER Christmas Day - we may not get the shot.

So no more waiting, k? Just grab your camera and go. Or do whatever it is that you've been wanting to do.

#ldnont #london #ontario #canada #throwback #downtown #urban #city #dundas #oev #oldeastvillage #street #photography #streetphotography #art #color #alley #google #pixel2 #teampixel #photooftheday #instagood #nofilter #nofilterneeded #lifeinthemargins #family #everything

Sunday, September 26, 2021

Leaves at our feet

And so it begins...
London, ON
September 2021
This photo originally shared on Instagram


Down. But nowhere near out.

Indeed, there’s wonder happening just underfoot.

But we’ve got to look down first.

#ldnont #london #ontario #canada #medway #valley #forest #tree #trees #leaf #leaves #red #green #autumn #color #colors #nature #naturephotography #landscape #landscapephotography #photography #apple #iphone #iphone11 #shotoniphone #photooftheday #instagood #nofilter #nofilterneeded #lifeinthemargins

Behold the epically giant 787

Not to scale
London, ON
November 2018
This photo originally shared on Instagram


Let’s zoom back to November 2018, shall we? To the Before Times. When we idly toyed with our smartphones while jetting from here to there and back, never once cowering within our masks, terrified that our fellow passengers could, you know, infect us.

It was amid one of those blissfully innocent moments that I grabbed this quick photo of the moving map from the seatback display of a 787 Dreamliner descending toward a landing in Toronto.

It was my first time on Boeing’s carbon fibre-bodied wonder, and I had spent most of the trip from Vancouver playing with the trick electronic window dimmers and enjoying the slick software Air Canada had built into its in-flight entertainment system. It’s totally a plane for nerds.

To this day, the sheer size of the virtual plane amazes me. If this were a true, to-scale representation, my hometown of London would have been darkened by our shadow, Independence Day-with-Will-Smith style, and the wings would have stretched hundreds of kilometres between Lake Erie and Lake Huron.

Part of me would like to imagine that this imagery was to scale. And I’d be the guy sitting by the window, waving frantically to my family as I flew overhead.

How hilarious would that be?

#ldnont #london #ontario #canada #throwback #road #trip #air #flight #travel #travelphotography #travelgram #photography #aircanada @aircanada #flying #aviation #avgeek #google #pixel2 #teampixel #photooftheday #instagood #nofilter #nofilterneeded #lifeinthemargins

Saturday, September 25, 2021

Visiting the cathedral in the woods

And breathe...
London, ON
September 2021
This photo originally shared on Instagram


Today was a day to walk in the woods and drink in the green before it evolves into something decidedly different.

As is often the case when we come this way, it felt like a cathedral, of sorts, a quiet, resonant place that seems to compel us to slow ourselves down and turn the voices in our heads off.

The only noise we could hear was the river, still flowing high and fast after this week’s epic rains. Squirrels loading up for the winter and birds arguing over something we couldn’t quite figure out rounded out the soundscape.

Standing in this spot made us feel small in the most comforting manner. We’ll have to keep returning as nature repaints itself over the next few weeks and months.

Because the places that matter most are always evolving. And we’d hate to miss out on any opportunity to tell their story.

#ldnont #london #ontario #canada #medway #valley #forest #tree #trees #green #nature #naturephotography #landscape #landscapephotography #photography #apple #iphone #iphone11 #shotoniphone #photooftheday #instagood #nofilter #nofilterneeded #lifeinthemargins

Hawkeye cubed

Corner velocity
London, ON
August 2021
This photo originally shared on Instagram


Because we believe in fairness, and we've already shown both top- and side-views of this particularly fetching US Navy E-2C Hawkeye, I wanted to end off our little tour of this wicked aircraft with a bottom view.

I can't imagine when anyone would ever fly a plane like this so aggressively, but considering where it spends its life - way out over open ocean, vulnerable to enemy fighters and missiles because it carries no armament of its own - I'm strangely comforted to see it capable of such maneuvers.

Fly safe, friends. And thank you for protecting the rest of us.

#nikonskydrive @airshowlondon @nikoncanada @usnavy #ldnont #london #airport #ontario #canada #SkyDrive #AirShowLondon #aviation #northrop #grumman #hawkeye #hummer #awacs #flight #aircraft #avgeek #aviationphotography #planespotting #instaplane #photooftheday #instagood #nofilter #nofilterneeded #Nikon #nikonphotography #photography #lifeinthemargins #family #everything

Related:

Friday, September 24, 2021

Michael Kovrig and Michael Spavor come home

Finally.



Hawkeye from the side

More antennas, please
London, ON
August 2021
This photo originally shared on Instagram


If one photo of an E-2C Hawkeye is a recipe for avgeek happiness, then I can only imagine what two photos might be.

Come to think of it, no one can place any limits on how many photos we can share on social media, so there's no need to imagine.

Here you go. Side view.

I've got more if you want...

#nikonskydrive @airshowlondon @nikoncanada @usnavy #ldnont #london #airport #ontario #canada #SkyDrive #AirShowLondon #aviation #northrop #grumman #hawkeye #hummer #awacs #flight #aircraft #avgeek #aviationphotography #planespotting #instaplane #photooftheday #instagood #nofilter #nofilterneeded #Nikon #nikonphotography #photography #lifeinthemargins #family #everything

Tossing a Hawkeye around the sky

I've got my eye on you
London, ON
August 2021
This photo originally shared on Instagram


Not every plane has a pointy nose.

Some look...funny. Even, dare we say it, homely.

Yet the laws of aerodynamics, aviation, and naval warfare take precedence over the final form of a thing. And considering how critical the airborne early warning (AEW) function is to those who fly into harm's way, this is one of the most beautiful machines to fly off of a carrier deck.

Seriously, that giant radar dish is a work of art.

To oversimplify the importance of the Northrop-Grumman E-2C Hawkeye, it is the eyes and ears of the fleet, a high-altitude air traffic controller with a God's-eye view of the battlespace. It's roughly the Navy's equivalent of the famous AWACS, a precious asset that literally controls everything it can see. Without it, those pointy jets fly blind.

And my goodness, can they be thrown around the sky. Which, on reflection, only enhances its worth.

Because pleasant surprises are always more beautiful than the obvious stuff - in aviation, and well beyond.

#nikonskydrive @airshowlondon @nikoncanada @usnavy #ldnont #london #airport #ontario #canada #SkyDrive #AirShowLondon #aviation #northrop #grumman #hawkeye #hummer #awacs #flight #aircraft #avgeek #aviationphotography #planespotting #instaplane #photooftheday #instagood #nofilter #nofilterneeded #Nikon #nikonphotography #photography #lifeinthemargins #family #everything

Thursday, September 23, 2021

12 years without dad

A familiar face
London, ON
September 12, 2009
This photo originally shared on Instagram


I lost my dad 12 years ago today.

This is one of the last photos I took of him, just weeks before he died. Likely the last time I stuck my lens in his face.

Sometimes I’ll look in a mirror and see bits of him in me. Sometimes I’ll say something and realize I’m echoing either what he might have said, or how he might have said it.

Which is weird, because for much of my life before he died, I was the typical kid who bristled at comparisons, who turned left when mom and dad said right, who pursued a path - writing, creative, media, nerd - that was decidedly different than what most parents of that generation liked to brag about to their friends.

I was the square peg in my family’s round hole, and I’m not entirely sure I was ever able to bridge that divide.

Still, I turned out fairly ok. He did the best he could, with whatever he had. I could have done far worse in the growing-up-in-modern-times sweepstakes, and the past dozen years have given me ample opportunity to reflect on the foundation he both built for me, then helped me build still further, on my own.

It’s what parents do. And he, like his youngest son, was far from perfect. But he accomplished his mission. And then some. And for that and more, I’m thankful.

12 years can pass in a blink if you let it. Indeed, any length of time can feel impossibly short, especially when you spend it wondering about the why.

There is no answer to this why. Only a lifetime of memories I feel compelled to keep alive in spaces like this.

#ldnont #throwback #family #everything

Waiting for the leaves to fall

Nature's carpet
London, ON
October 2020
This photo originally shared on Instagram


Yesterday was a special day up here in the Northern Hemisphere, as summer quietly gave way to autumn.

You're forgiven if you missed out on it, as changes of season don't tend to announce themselves in any obvious manner. They just...happen.

But if you spend any time outside, you can feel it in the air. The temperatures are easing back from their summertime highs. The humidity is over. The jackets come out. The shorts get tucked away.

The Canadian in me knows what comes next: snow. But living in dreaded fear of weather isn’t my jam. Enjoying what we’ve been given today, on the other hand, is.

And the landscape is about to redraw itself, which means lots of quality time wandering the woods with a camera in my hand so I can snag more scenes like the one you see here, taken last autumn. I hope you end up doing the same.

[But wait…there’s more…]

I keep re-reading the intro to this entry, and before I sign this one off, I'd like to correct myself. Because while yesterday was a special day because of the change of season, pretty much every day is special if we choose to perceive it as such.

So let's enjoy it. Because soon enough, it’ll be gone.

#ldnont #london #ontario #canada #throwback #medway #valley #heritage #forest #leaf #leaves #nature #naturephotography #texture #gameoftones #landscape #landscapephotography #photography #Nikon #nikonphotography #nikon_photography #dslr #photooftheday #instagood #nofilter #everythingchristian #lifeinthemargins #family #everything

Wednesday, September 22, 2021

Kindred spirit across the bridge

Got the shot
Laval, QC
June 22, 2019
This photo originally shared on Instagram


When the world around you feels irrevocably sad, a random encounter with another street photographer could be just the ticket.

I spotted this gentleman from the other side of the bridge as I wandered my old neighborhood looking for inspiration through glass. Nice to know I wasn’t the only one.

I hope he found as much satisfaction in his photos that day as I found in mine.

#laval #chomedey #montreal #yul #quebec #canada #throwback #promenadedesiles #roadtrip #road #trip #urban #street #photography #photooftheday #instagood #nofilter #nofilterneeded #Nikon #nikonphotography #nikon_photography #lifeinthemargins

Tuesday, September 21, 2021

The day-after-election hangover

Be heard
London, ON
September 2021
This photo originally shared on Instagram

Not much of a photo this time out.

Then again, I don’t have much of a story to tell today. Canadians went to the polls yesterday just over a month after the minority Liberal government called a snap federal election in the middle of the pandemic.

Never mind the fact the prime minister had earlier said no one wants to vote during a pandemic. He saw an opportunity to perhaps turn his party’s minority into a majority, so he pounced.

Canadians had other ideas, of course, and as the snowglobe of election night data settles out, we’re right back where we started: another Liberal minority, and if history is any guide, another trip to the polls within a couple of years.

I could whine, but I won’t. Many folks have called this a wasteful and cynical exercise, and perhaps they’re right.

But here’s the thing: democracy is, by definition, messy. It is imperfect, dirty, and illogical. But no one ever said distilling the will of millions of people would be anything but.

It’s the best system we’ve got, and looking around the planet at the alternatives, I’ll happily dive into whatever disgusting mess the often-opportunistic, power-hungry politicians who lead - or wish to - lead us have cooked up.

Because it’s beautiful in its own way. And while those who choose to participate in the process are human, and fallible, the thing that sticks with me is exactly that: they choose to participate in the process. They serve. I may not agree with their world view or their politics. But they’re still putting themselves out there.

And being a part of this far-from-perfect process by having my voice heard through the simple stroke of a pencil is a privilege I’ll never take for granted.

It’s the least we can all do, and I’ll happily do it again when the next election is called.

#ldnont #london #ontario #canada #election #elxn44 #cdnpoli #vote #itsourvote #democracy #apple #iphone #iphone11 #shotoniphone #photooftheday #instagood #nofilter #nofilterneeded #lifeinthemargins #family #everything

Monday, September 20, 2021

On learning what you love

"Study hard what interests you the most in the most undisciplined, irreverent and original manner possible."

The view from my handlebars

Show me the way
Thames Centre, ON
September 2021
This photo originally shared on Instagram


Grab life by the handlebars.

Point them where you want to go.

Start pedalling.

Don’t stop till you get there.

Assuming you stop at all.

#thorndale #thames #centre #ontario #canada #cycling #cyclist #cycle #bicycle #bike #cyclinglife #random #roadside #stilllife #photography #apple #iphone #iphone11 #shotoniphone #photooftheday #instagood #nofilter #nofilterneeded

Sunday, September 19, 2021

Jet fighter photobomb

Now I know why they call it special
London, ON
August 2021
This photo originally shared on Instagram


Don't you just hate when you're minding your own business on a taxiway and you get photobombed by a Hornet?

#littleplaneproblems

#nikonskydrive @airshowlondon @nikoncanada #ldnont #london #airport #ontario #canada #SkyDrive #AirShowLondon #aviation #pitts #S2BSpecial #boeing #mcdonnelldouglas #cf18 #hornet #fighter #flight #aircraft #avgeek #aviationphotography #planespotting #instaplane #photooftheday #instagood #nofilter #nofilterneeded #Nikon #nikonphotography #photography #lifeinthemargins #family #everything