Writings, Reviews, Cultural Criticism
Sap runs when it runs and nothing–not even an Easter dinner–can keep a maple syrup man from his work. Here are some shots from last weekend’s maple syrup boil. Above, John Williams inspects the sap lines for leaks. The sap is “encouraged” by a vacuum pump and, if there are leaks, the suction, uh, sucks….
Note that the shots in this post are NOT shots of sunrise at the Williams Farm; they’re shots of Williams Farm at sunrise i.e. I took them all within a few minutes of one another on either side of sunrise. Although I didn’t intend these shots as an illustration of anything, I do think they…
Here’s a sampling of early morning shots taken at the Williams Farm after a good frost. These come from either side of the 2015/16 winter season.
On Sunday morning, we went to the Falls Reserve Conservation Area in the village of Benmiller. We assumed we would see some lovely waterfalls or rapids on the Maitland River as it flows to Goderich and out into Lake Huron.
I’ve never spent much time in Thunder Bay. For me, it’s always been a stopover to somewhere else. But, this year, our daughter moved there to live and now we have reason to visit and explore.
While in Thunder Bay, I paid a visit to the former Saskatchewan Wheat Pool 4A and 4B elevators on Shipyard Road by the waterfront. I have no idea which elevator is 4A and which is 4B. I went in both and climbed onto the roof of the red one.
Photographically speaking, stunning scenery doesn’t do it for me anymore. In the modern world of HDR images, landscapes have taken on a plastic quality. They’ve stopped being interesting. In my view, what redeems landscapes are the other points of interest happening within them.
If I stopped every time I saw a burnt out motel or abandoned gas station beside a highway in northern Ontario, I’d never get anywhere. In May, I stopped at a few choice locations, and bookmarked a few others for the end of the summer when I’ll be passing that way again. The images are inherently dramatic, they raise questions, imply a story.
I drove up to Thunder Bay in mid May. Drove all 1400 km in one day. When I got there, the weather was miserable. They told me it had been sunny for three weeks straight, that it had been a brilliant spring. And then I arrived. It even snowed one morning.
I like to think of the Japanese photographer, Araki, as (among other things) the grandfather of the modern selfie. Photographers have been taking self-portraits since the camera was invented, but Araki makes a regular habit of including himself in his images, and was doing so long before digital photography became a thing.
The sap is running at Williams Farm in Wyebridge, ON. March offers a sweet spot (so to speak) when the temperature rises above freezing during the day and dips below freezing at night.
As a photographer, I’m naturally drawn to a display in the First Peoples Exhibit at the Royal Ontario Museum. It’s a “Mohawk Family Life Group Diorama” composed of plaster figures by an American sculptor who completed them for the museum in 1917.
Photographs from the Royal Ontario Museum:
The entrance to the ROM – Royal Ontario Museum – is a great place to go people watching. People are drawn to the Michael Lee-Chin Crystal, so there’s a lot of tourist gawking going on.
Took a walk around Guelph the other day. Was there to pick up my daughter from school, so didn’t have a lot of time. Just used my little mirrorless camera.