St Thomas's Future Elevated Park

A couple of weeks ago, the promoters of this park let a dozen or so interested people visit this bridge over the Kettle Creek valley.  The bridge is about a hundred feet above the ground.  When we were let through the access point, we were looking eye to eye with Turkey Vultures that were riding thermals.  So cool.  Speaking of cool, the winds were blowing and the sky was grey.  The visit lasted about an hour and by the end of it, my hands were frozen but not too frozen to capture just a few more shots.

Remembrance Day Service 2015

Until today I'd never been to a Remembrance Sunday service.  The service in Shedden Ontario was nice that the service wasn't fit into the hour before lunch on a work day.  The extended family of a WWII hero was in attendance as his exploits were highlighted.  Young cadets escorted aged veterans thoughout the service.  Everyone looked to the sky for three fly-by's of Harvards.

Cottage Closing Weekend

No sense driving up north on Friday due to rain, we left home in the rain Saturday morning.  The weather soon dried up but as we were pulling off the highway to the cottage road, the skies opened up again.  What to do?  Chill a couple of hours.  The rain stopped and the wind dried everything quickly.  This morning the sky was clear and the sun was warm.  Beautiful day like this made it difficult to close the cottage for the season.

Abandoned in Muskoka

A couple of weeks ago, while driving home from Muskoka, I pulled over several times to capture a few images of abandoned places.

Startrails

Last night while listening to several different performers at the Fred Eaglesmith Charity Picnic most people with a camera were pointing them at the stage.  Not me.  Mine was aimed straight up for 50 minutes.  Six hundred frames later I had a 25 second time lapse video.  The following image is a frame capture of that video.

Perseid Metoer Shower

With all the hype this week of the great Perseid Meteor shower that 2015 was to deliver I didn't want to miss out.  I headed out to the beach near Lake Erie after dark (about 10:30 pm), pointed my camera south then north.

First shot is over Lake Erie with the Port Bruce beacon flashing.  I was using an app for my camera to record a time lapse of the movement of stars.  The process took about 20 minutes taking about 100 separate images.  I didn't like the outcome so I grabbed a single image merge and worked with it.

The second shot was a little simpler; point the camera in the general direction of the milky way, focus (not easy in pitch black) and expose for 25 seconds.

Port Bruce

Last weekend the weather was extremely dramatic so I took a drive down to Pt Bruce expecting a nice sunset. On the way hay bales coaxed me out of the car early.  Later while I was shooting along the shore two young women asked I could take some shots of one of them with her own camera.   After doing so, I asked if I could take a few shots of her with my camera.  Walaa said sure.  Then the light did what I had hoped for and lit up the sky amazingly.  The wind was pushing water up onto the pier and the reflections were an unexpected bonus.

Early Morning Garden

Today we had the chance to revisit Charlie's garden.  When you walk through the pathways you wonder just how much time Charlie must spend keeping everything so tidy and fresh.  All I know is I would never be able to do it.

Tall trees line his property's eastern boundary.  The sun this morning was strong and the trees caused the light to enter the back yard in streams.

Canada Day Fireworks

In Aylmer, Canada Day festivities culminate in a fireworks display sponsored by the Aylmer Kinsmen Club.  People start to gather behind our local area complex about dinner time.  The sky isn't dark until 10 pm. In the meantime there are bands, face painting and lots of food available.

Calgary and Lake Louise

Friday afternoon in the Yellowknife airport is very crowded.  Friday afternoon in the YK to Calgary plane is very crowded.  No carry on suitcases allowed on board.  Even my little knapsack camera case which  met the stated maximum size only just fit in the overhead bin with a little squeezing.

Saturday, my niece needed to be dropped off at her summer job as a counsellor at a summer camp.  My brother, his other daughter and I then drove on the Lake Louise.  After dropping us and the canoe off at a close point to the lake, Keith then had to find a parking spot.  I don't think he'd ever seen the place as crammed as that day.  We launched right off the rocks to the amazement of many tourists.  Paddled across the the lake to what most people would understand as the far end. The three of us then hiked up 300 or 400 metres in elevation, in the bright sunshine and heat.  It took about 2 or 3 hours to reach the "tea room".  We stopped for lemonade and a rest.  Took some shots and then headed back down the trail.  It was so much nicer descending in the cool early evening light.  By the time we got the canoe loaded back on the car, it was almost 9 pm.  One restaurant was open and it really didn't need to be great, it just needed to be food and fast.  It was both.

Sunday, Keith and I drove out to Calgary's municipal water reservoir.  We paddled around it in the bright sunshine.  Found a great blue heron and a huge flock of seagulls.   Lunch at around 4 pm.  Then back to Keith and Tomoko's for a great BBQ pork dinner.

Leaving the Chateau.

Can you see the Chateau in the two above images?
Below are scenes from the tearoom and the walk back to the canoe.

Setting sun and we're back at the Chateau.

Sunday, in Calgary...