The Long List

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays, everyone! I'm sharing my recently complete Christmas video project for all to enjoy. I'll doubtless be updating this project with more detail over the holidays, but I wanted share the video before Christmas. I hope you like it.

Several years ago, I visited the Neon Sign Museum in the daytime with a colleague and had a fantastic time. I thought it would be great to see the Boneyard by night, with many of the old signs rehabilitated and actually working. So, I went with one of my work friends and his wife. It was definitely a worthwhile side trip and a great start to a busy week.

The second weekend in June brought gorgeous weather, and the annual Kawartha Regional Appaloosa Horse Club (KRAHC) summer horse show. I spent the weekend photographing the event in Bethany, Ontario. Check out my story and photos from the event.

Photographing a chain of rocks near my cottage is something I do on a regular basis. Like photography in general, I find it relaxing, but to me, this set of boulders is also iconic of my cottage experience.

For New Years at the end of 2017, we spent the weekend in the North Kawarthas at Viamede Resort, on Stoney Lake. Despite the frigid temperatures (-24 to -18 Degrees C) I braved the outdoors on New Years Eve Day, wandering the grounds of the resort for over an hour, photographing the area in its winter finery.

For New Years at the end of 2017, we spent the weekend in the North Kawarthas at Viamede Resort, on Stoney Lake. Despite the frigid temperatures (- 24 to -18 Degrees C) we braved the outdoors on New Years Eve Day, stopping at Burleigh Falls, and I spent about an hour photographing the falls in their winter finery.

I've just recently returned from yet another successful Excellent Adventure, now in its 11th year. I'm telling most of my story using Adobe Spark in this project.

I returned to Healy Falls with a photographer friend of mine recently, and there was a marked difference in location this time around. Two years ago (2015), I could walk across the entire breadth of the rock shelf, to the other side, without getting my feet wet. But now, in July of 2017, I might have been able to walk 3 or 4 metres from the shore before I risked soaking feet.

This past weekend, my wife and I once again had the opportunity to attend the Kawartha Regional Appaloosa Horse Club (KRAHC) annual show, hosted at the beautiful Saddlewood Equestrian Centre, in Bethany Ontario. Normally, I do take pictures at these events for fun, because, well, horses are just plain gorgeous animals, and this event would have been no different, save for one significant change. This year, the club hired me to take photos at the event.

I recently participated in a two-day student workshop at Full Sail University in Orlando, Florida, created and run by the Adobe Stock team. This was an incredibly valuable event from both student and teacher perspectives, giving them not only theory and practical advice about creating stock content in general, but also in practice, in the form of a hands-on live photo shoot on-location in Florida.

I've recently started digitizing my decades-old slide collection. One of the challenges I've had is dust/dirt/residue on the film itself. This project shows the improvements I've been able to make using Lightroom and Photoshop to clean up the images.

A couple weeks ago, during a cold snap in Toronto, I spent a couple hours in Rouge Park, experimenting more with my newly purchased Variable Density ND filter. 

The final big event at Bellmere Winds is the Labour Day celebration. There's a lot going on during the day for the kids (scavenger hunt, bouncy castles and the like), a resort-sponsored dinner by the pool, and later in the evening, a concert right on our own beachfront! As in the past Labour Day events, we were treated to a live music performance by the Austin Carson Band.  This talented group of young men (including lead singer Austin Capell, a Bellmere Winds employee) played a mix of their own music along with some excellent classic rock and pop covers.

To ring in 2017, we decided to do something different, and stay at Elmhirst Resort in Keene, Ontario to celebrate and relax. Of course, for me, relaxing also means getting out with my camera. Elmhirst is only a very short drive to our own cottage (shuttered up for the winter), so I decided I'd take a tour around the resort as well as spend some time using my newest camera accessory, a variable neutral density (ND) filter. We'll start this little story at the cottage.

In the late summer, our friends Liz and Doug of Mileham Show Horses, invited us to another fun horse competition called the International Appaloosa Futurity Show. It was hosted by Whisper Ridge Ranch, just outside of Norwood, Ontario.

Winter came to Scarborough today. High winds and dropping temperatures forced me outside to finally complete the remaining winter predatory chores. Before dumping the combination of ice and leaves from the bird bath, I had to make a few pictures. A true scene frozen in time. Enjoy!

The days are definitely cooling off and the fall color in my area of Toronto is as much on the ground as it is in the trees. But these conditions still make for great photo opportunities. This collection of images come from both my back yard (over the past couple weeks) and a photo-hike I took in Rouge National Urban Park, a short 20 minute drive from my house.

From one weekend to the next, the autumn colours have exploded up at the cottage. Unlike the previous weekend, there was a lot of sunshine and interesting cloud cover. This past Canadian Thanksgiving weekend, we were treated to some spectacular colours, as you will see below. Some photos are from the cottage resort at Bellmere Winds, and others were captured on couple drives around the Bobcaygeon, Young's Point and Buckhorn areas.

There are a scant few weekends left before we close up the cottage for the season. And while this past weekend was mostly overcast, it provided some great opportunities for capturing fall color. Read on to see what I mean.

This past weekend, I took a different road to the cottage after leaving Peterborough; Heritage Line - which runs right into Keene. As we were driving down this road, even on a heavily overcast day, I couldn't help but realize the scenes zipping by me from the road. I even commented out loud that there were some great images to be made. So, the following day, rather late in the day, I might add, I decided to head back to Heritage Line and make some images.

Within hours of returning from a business trip on Friday, we were in the car, heading to the cottage. There are only a few precious weekends left in the season (it's going by so quickly) that we are trying to maximize our time at the Fortress of Moderate Solitude. Far too soon, those times will be a memory.

This summer, I had the first-time privilege of participating in Adobe's Photo Educators Summit. Now in its tenth year, the summit moves around the U.S. This time, much to my delight, the event was held in Santa Fe, New Mexico, a place I had never been.

It was dreadfully hot and humid from last Thursday until Saturday evening. But, with the conditions improving over the evening on Saturday, I decided to go out on the golf course late at night and try to get some new shots of the Milky way, including ones where I captured the reflection of the Milky Way in one of the golf course water hazards.

Standing on the deck Monday afternoon, while chicken sizzled on the BBQ, I was struck by all the bird and butterfly activity in the strip of meadow between the cottage and the forest. It didn't take long before I was itching to pull out my camera. 

This summer, I had the first-time privilege of participating in Adobe's Photo Educators Summit. Now in its tenth year, the summit moves around the U.S. This time, much to my delight, the event was held in Santa Fe, New Mexico, a place I had never been.

An image I captured a few weeks ago at the cottage, first processing in Lightroom, then painted using Adobe PaintCan.

Last weekend at the cottage, I took a short walk around the back of the resort, near the golf course. I wandered up a hill to one of the greens and stopped dead. As I looked around, I realized I had just found a new location to capture the night sky, with far less light pollution than my other golf course location.

This past Sunday, we had the opportunity to travel a small part of the 386 km Trent-Severn waterway, including a ride up Lock 21, the world's largest (and oldest) hydraulic lift lock. Opened on July 9, 1904, it leaves a dramatic and lasting impression on Peterborough's landscape.

Well, in our case, it's more like, Life Near the Lake, but it's still wonderful to get to the cottage as often as we can. Just a few examples from the past weekend.

We had the good fortune of spending one beautiful, sunny day over the weekend watching the Kawartha Region Appaloosa Horse Club (KRAHC) members compete in the first summer show and fundraiser for the of the season. Beautiful horses and showings all around.

It's been four weeks since we opened the cottage. Our second season on Rice Lake, near Keene, Ontario, and it's shaping up to be a beautiful time. I thought I'd share some of my favorite images so far. There won't be a lot of words with this project. I want you to focus on the start of a new season. Remind yourself that life is all around you. Take it in.

About 2.5 hours from Minneapolis Airport is the town of Brainerd, home to Cragun's family resort and conference center. In late April, Brainerd was my destination for an educational IT conference for MNSCU (Minnesota State Colleges and Universities). It was my first visit to the area and my first appearance at the conference, where I was also to speak. During my free time (when it wasn't raining) I made an effort to walk around the resort a bit, looking for interesting things to photograph.

An early morning trip to nearby Lake Ontario produced some very worthwhile results.

This past weekend, while chilly (or "seasonal", I should say) was a beautiful bright, sunny one. We decided to go for a walk down at the Scarborough Bluffs, only a 10 minute drive from home. I brought along my little Lumix GF7, in case some piqued my interest. And I'm glad I did! While I didn't shoot a lot, the bluffs themselves stood out in such detailed relief, thanks to the clear day, that I had to make a few pictures, including this four-frame panorama. Enjoy!

I recently visited New York for some company training and while my daytimes were quite coccupied learning about new Adobe awesomeness (seriously, this company never stands still), I did squeeze out some moments before the training and during lunch to take some photos. And when my return flight got cancelled due to weather in Toronto, an entire evening opened up for me.

Family Day weekend found us once again at Elmhirst Resort on Rice Lake, in Keene, Ontario. We thought we'd combine the best parts of a winter long weekend, Valentine's Day and an early birthday celebration for me. The Friday night was a clear sky, despite the snow squalls from earlier that day. About 11pm, I decided I'd try to get some night sky shots from off the lake. The resort had cleared and tested an area for ice skating on the lake, so I figured I'd be safe enough in that area.

For Family Day weekend, we decided to once again head to Rice Lake. While our cottage is closed for the winter, we reserved a cabin at Elmhirst Resort, which is sort of becoming a third home (second home being our own cottage, lol). The weekend was also an early gift for my birthday and - coincidentally - Valentine's Day.

Back in the winter of 2006, I made a trip down to an old building on the Toronto waterfront. It never failed to catch my eye when driving along the Lakeshore or the Gardiner Expressway. At the time, I did not know it was the original Sunnyside Bathing Pavilion, built back in 1922. Now it a series of restaurants and cafes and a venue for weddings in the summer.

Our friends, Liz and Doug, owners of Mileham Show Horses, recently invited us up for dinner, and to meet the newest addition to their stable, a pretty little filly named Eve.

A simple, single image project. I was trying to think up something original as a Christmas present for my wife, that I could get created quickly (a photo-book is being planned, but it won't be ready in time for Christmas). The layout was done in Lightroom, text added in Photoshop. Anchoring each corner with a photo of deck chairs was intentional, as was trying to showcase each season and special times of day (or night).

Recently, we closed up the first full season at our new cottage on Rice Lake. It was a wonderful season, and we spent as much time as possible at the cottage. I've posted many singular projects, but I thought it would be fun to pull together a "best of" collection from all three seasons. The cottage season essentially encompasses 3 of the 4 seasons in Ontario - spring to autumn.

Dawn. It can be a struggle to awaken for it, but it is a wondrous time of day at the cottage. So peaceful. The only sounds are the gentle lapping of the water on the shore, and the gradually increasing morning calls of forest animals.