Ontario eScape

Ontario eScape

For me, Ontario is still an eScape from the day job, even though this is where I live. We often tend to think that you have to go somewhere to find great shots, and sort of ignore our own backyards. There are wonderful places to photograph here, although so far I find you have to look a bit harder than you have to in places like Arizona and Utah, which spoil you and hand you photo ops on a platter. In Ontario, Autumn is especially beautiful when all the hardwoods change colour and is my favourite time of year.

The photographs shown here are just a few of my favourites from a number of different points in time. I generally add the most recent photos at the top of the page.

We traveled up to Killarney Provincial Park in late September 2002 to take in a few days of canoeing. In general the weather did not cooperate photographically, but I did capture one keeper at the western end of Bell Lake. I wanted to try to reshoot this with the sun closer to the horizon, but we never had another day with (a) mist or (b) sunrise -- it was slightly too warm for mist one morning, and the other mornings were heavy storms. Next year . . . I used part of this photo as my Christmas card in 2002

Earlier in May 2002 we traveled up to Manitoulin Island (not really that far from Killarney but a totally different world). Amongst the hundreds of old stacked wooden zig-zag fences I found this old house, which was probably really nice in it's day. Once again I had to accept the weather as it was, overcast -- I would like to reshoot this either in early morning light or with a REALLY stormy sky. Unfortunately the spring of 2002 was much like this, very cool and usually overcast and then suddenly in early June, summer

In April 2002 we spent some time in Algonquin Provincial Park with winter still hanging on. We got up early one morning to catch sunrise at a small creek which was just beginning to melt. That shot did not really quite work in the end BUT in one of the patches of cold open water ice crystals had started to reform and they reflected the warm-yellow dawn sky.

The above photo of ice does not look cold at all. But the ice below, taken on the same trip, makes you feel REALLY cold ! It is am amazing difference.

Presqu'ile Provincial Park is on the north shore of Lake Ontario near Belleville. It has a lot of sandy areas including many nearly overgrown sand dunes. At the same time, it has some wonderful displays of ferns on the forest floor in the springtime. This photo was taken in the middle of May on a bright overcast day. The mosquitoes were on the prowl that day, probably the first day of the year they were out. I like the stark contrast of the lone birch tree nested within all the green ferns.

In 2004 we went up to Northern Ontario to try and catch some fall colours. At the start of the trip we visited Aubrey Falls Provincial Park, an almost forgotten park which is associated with a hydroelectric power dam. OPG (Ontario Power Generation) is required to keep water flowing over the falls in the spring summer and fall (they can generate as much as they want in the winter). The first time we visited here it was quite nice but the weather just was not cooperative and barely any trees had changed. At the end of the trip we decided to work our way back and managed to get about 30 minutes of sun. Not too much fall colour but the red of the rocks makes up for it.

On this same trip we were looking really hard for a stand of birches that had some solid red maples mixed in. One would think this would not be that hard to find but it was. On nearly the last day before leaving for Manitoulin Island we found this grouping. Just what we were looking for, although it was raining continuously and fairly dark so exposure was long. Lucky there was not too much wind so waiting for a quiet moment worked but that meant getting thoroughly soaked.

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