Trevor in Montreal

Trevor at Concordia in 3-D

I'm in Montreal to pick up my son Trevor at his downtown apartment and take him back to Toronto. He's studying Environmental Geography and has one more year to go.

Dutchman's Breeches

I stopped off in Prince Edward County today on my way to pick up my son Trevor in Montreal. A quick survey of the hardwood forests revealed a big display of spring wildflowers: trout lily, spring beauty, may apple, trillium and dutchman's breeches by the thousands. Few people know about these early bloomers and in a couple of weeks they'll be gone!

Blue Morpho

a frame from Fresh Perspectives

I made this composite image today for my new 3-D show called Fresh Perspectives, which I'm planning to debut this summer at the NSA 2011 3-D convention. The Blue Morpho butterfly doesn't fly at night and doesn't usually sit with his wings open. But this one did in Costa Rica for a stereoscopic photographer! The 3-D version is below.

bono

Watched a Youtube video of Bono singing on 'Spectacle' tonite. Shot this for fun with my iPhone. Then emailed it to myself and did a screen capture before uploading here. 

Bono and I... and others... were interviewed by the CBC about 3D movies a couple of years ago. There's a clip on my homepage.

Canoe Museum

While working on a new 3D slide show to take to the NSA 2011 3D convention this summer, I came across this image of a  bronze sculpture that sits in the foyer of the Canoe Museum in Peterborough Ontario. The sculpture embodies the spirit of adventure of the voyageurs in early Canada. The map was part of the museum display, I just added the halo effect. The Canoe Museum, which tells the story of canoes from around the world, is well worth a visit. Below is the 3D version in cross-view format.

Easter Bunny

While watering my garden, a couple of years ago, five little bunnies scampered out from their nest under the thick foliage. They didn't like getting wet! With a little patience I was able to approach them with my camera to snap a few images before they headed for cover again. Happy Easter!

Spring Ephemerals

Responding to the warm sunny weather, I went to the Bruce Trail today to photograph our woodland spring flowers. Blood root, blue kohosh, dutchman's breaches, coltsfoot, toothwart, wild ginger, meadow rue, hepatica...  I found seven native species blooming near the trail. Their miniature perfection, so startlingly colourful and brilliant, stands in contrast to their crusty, dry surroundings. Beautiful! Life declares itself anew once more.

Hepatica

Wild ginger

Blue kohosh

Earth Day

Killarney, Ontario

May each of us find a way to reduce our impact on the environment, so as to pass on a healthy and vibrant biosphere to future generations. Happy Earth Day!

Leadership Guelph & Wellington

I dropped by Guelph's City Hall today to photograph the participants in the Leadership Program offered by the Volunteer Centre of Guelph/Wellington. Over the course of a year, participants learn about community, leadership, and how they can strengthen both. Sounds like a win-win situation!

Skunk Cabbage

Skunk Cabbage, April 2003

The skunk cabbage is our earliest flowering native plant of spring. Strange to behold, they look like they belong on the set of Avatar rather than in our forests. They grow in wet areas, sometimes right out of the snow by generating their own heat. Later in the spring they are unrecognizable, growing huge green leaves before disappearing completely until the next spring.

Wolf

Haliburton Wolf Sanctuary, August 2010

While renting a cottage in the Haliburton Highlands last summer we took the opportunity to visit the Haliburton Forest and Wild Life Reserve and signed up for the canopy tour. In the afternoon we visited their Wolf Sanctuary, a 15 acre enclosure, and just happened to visit on the day that the wolves were being fed. Fascinating! The wolves are fed moose skins and frozen beaver carcasses on random days about once a week so that they don't become conditioned to expect food at a certain time. The pack's hierarchy comes to the fore as the alpha male and female eat first.

The House of Tough Debate

House of Commons in 3-D

The House of Commons on Parliament Hill in Ottawa is the main arena for political debate in Canada. The people who stand up and debate here have to be prepared for aggressive counter-arguments to be made. Not showing up because your audience might disagree with you is not an option here.

I mention this because I attended the first of three candidates' debates in Guelph this evening. It was sponsored by Guelph's Coalition for Social Justice and all the candidates were there... except Marty Burke, the Conservative. Perhaps he decided that this audience would be hostile to his opinions, which I've heard are hard-right, and took a pass. The Liberal candidate, Frank Valeriote, was the one debater who was passionate about social justice issues and had a good grasp of the facts. He has my support.

Cold Welcome

Tree swallow in Morriston

The swallows are back, but what a welcome! I watched them swoop and skim over a pond while an April squall howled around them. It was pretty nasty weather for anyone or thing outdoors in Southern Ontario today.

Focus on Nature Workshop

Sadie & Skye

Workshop participants

Focus on Nature, a group I'm volunteering with, held their first nature photography workshop at Guelph's Arboretum today. The young participants learned the basic principles of photography and composition, as well as developing an appreciation of nature. They produced some marvelous images that were shared in a slide show at the end of the day. A short history lesson on 3-D photography was part of the program, with my old stereoscope being a popular item to look through and experience images from another era.

The Cracker

Hamadryas sp.

In April last year I was fortunate enough to visit Iguazu Falls on the border of Argentina and Brazil. Butterflies were everywhere and often landed on me to taste the salt on my skin. This one is called a Cracker because of the clicking sound it makes as it flies about.

Frank Valeriote, M.P.

Opposition Lobby, Parliament Hill, December 2010

I went canvasing door-to-door in Guelph today on behalf of our Liberal candidate Frank Valeriote,  a good friend and a great guy. He serves his community well and deserves to be re-elected. In this photo Frank is seated on the left with lobbyists from the Canadian Diabetes Association. Here in the Opposition Lobby, Members of Parliament can meet visitors, have lunch, make phone calls or just take a break from their seats in the House. Over Frank's shoulder is Marc Garneau, Canada's first astronaut, who is now an MP from Quebec. We had a brief chat about 3-D cameras on the Space Shuttle.

Alligator Anaglyph

Baby Gators, December 2010

There's no way to tell how big these 'gators are. Even in a 3-D image, which this is, you can't really tell. Well these young ones are about two feet long, living in an open display at a mini-golf park in Clearwater, Florida. Let me know if you need a pair of anaglyph 3-D glasses to see this properly and I'll mail you a pair.

Window frost

Prius window, Jan 10, 2011

Just found a series of images, forgotten in my image library, that I'd  taken one frosty morning last January. The crystals rose up off the surface of the car's windows. They grow in 3 dimensions!

Alma, New Brunswick

The Parkland Village Inn

My sister Karen called me today from Alma New Brunswick to say she's back from her winter stay in Florida. She and her family own a hotel in Alma called The Parkland Village Inn (pictured above) that sits right beside the harbour overlooking Fundy Bay. The hotel and restaurant are open from Mother's Day until Thanksgiving and make a great stop-over if you're traveling the Fundy Trail. If you plan to stay over, book early! It's a very popular spot.

Enamel on Silver

An image of the lovely enamel designs on the side of an Indian prince's silver-plated carriage, surreptitiously taken at the Maharaja exhibit at the AGO earlier this month.

Happy Birthday Gail !!

GK, Queenston Heights, 2011

Today I'm celebrating the 60th birthday of my lady Gail. It's a perfect day for lovers here in Niagara-on-the-Lake.

The Birds are Back

House finches

Brown creepers, dark-eyed junkos, common redpolls, the birds are coming back! I'm an avid birder and do my best to capture images of them when I can. I've set a bird feeder close to my studio window in hopes of getting a good shot or two. Perhaps I'll share a few of my favourite images over the coming days in celebration of their return.

Rice Paper Butterfly

A visit to the Cambridge Butterfly Conservatory is wonderful experience at any time of the year. It's a great escape from the cold weather we been having lately.

The Lawn Ornaments

 Local Flockers

There have been a lot of wild ducks and geese passing through Coronation Park on Lake Ontario recently: bufflehead, oldsquaw, goldeneye, to name a few. But these guys, the Canada geese, live here by the lake year round. In winter they wander up into our neighbourhood and onto our lawn looking for nourishment. Gail has nicknamed them 'The Lawn Ornaments'!

Ice Dance

ice on window

Can't believe it snowed last night! By morning it was gone.

Blackwood at the AGO

detail of copper plate

On a visit to the Art Gallery of Ontario yesterday, I was impressed by the work of Newfoundland artist David Blackwood. This image captures the fine detail of his etchings on a copper plate used to make his famous print Fire Down on the Labrador. Visit the AGO soon (exhibit runs to June 12th) or go to the exhibit web site to see the final print and more of Blackwood's work.

Zinzi

Zinzi de Silva, 2004

I made a print today of this image and framed it as a birthday gift for my friend Paul de Silva. It is a portrait of his daughter Zinzi taken a few years ago. He had admired the image when he saw it on my laptop some time ago and I made a note to print it for him one day. Glad I finally did! The portrait captures the confident serenity of a young woman with a great future ahead of her.

April Fool

South China Sea, 1970

After Thailand and Malaysia, Paul and I got real jobs working as technical crew on an oil exploration vessel in the South China Sea. It was a six-week gig that earned us enough money to get home in time for second year at York University. While I look like I'm deep in thought, I'm probably just trying to ignore my sea-sickness! Photo by Paul de Silva.