You might not realize that most of the photographs I post here are made in the city. A city ribboned with green spaces and waterways – corridors teeming with wildlife. A different version of city life. An exploration of the narrow tributaries, the wide rivers and the earthy ‘cracks’ someone has thought to leave between all the pavement. You never know what you might find in these spaces because even though we heap constraints on these wild creatures they place no constraints on themselves (Last spring we even had bears visiting).

The Night Heron and the Warbler (above)

Turkey Vultures, Perched and Circling

It’s common to see the odd turkey vulture circling above the green spaces but in the dwindling light of the weekend I looked up to see a tree draped with ten or more of these birds who appeared to be gazing down at me. They are so odd-looking with their red shrunken heads and wide-shouldered bodies. A few of them lifted their wings to the last rays of warm light.

Being Watched by a White-tailed Deer. A male deer with new antlers sprouting over his ears. You can see things are really greening up around here.

Returning

May 9, 2014 | drawandshoot

All those birds great and small…

A great blue heron silhouetted on the budding branches. I love this time of year.

The low hum of spring is now a cacophony of migrating birds sounds. Just in time for World Migratory Bird Day (There’s a day for everything!).

Things Don’t Always Make Sense

May 1, 2014May 1, 2014 | drawandshoot

A discernible fish tale. And a balding house reflected in its own ‘moat’ – who could resist such a structure? The rest is (Photoshop) history…

Spring Shield

April 28, 2014April 28, 2014 | drawandshoot

$Refract2$

This is a place I’ve been wanting to photograph for a while but I’m usually here with a bike and my mountain biking ‘ability’ is not really compatible with safely transporting a camera and riding over rocky terrain. On the weekend I decided to walk the trails instead but the sky was a heavy grey and the light seemed uninspiring for making images.

This Canadian Shield landscape is always beguiling to be in, though, with its lichen-covered granite undulating gracefully between ponds and wooded areas. The images that I liked the best (and have posted here) turned out to be double and triple exposures.

The landscape is still mostly a profusion of lovely browns but if you put your ear to the ground you can hear that the earth’s heartbeat has quickened.

[A series of in-camera multiple exposures]

The Creek’s Edge

April 22, 2014 | drawandshoot

Here we are at the edges again. The creek overflowing onto the rich earth, buds swelling on the tips of branches, patchy tufts of green grass, the sun falling away. This sepia-toned world won’t last too long now.

I had trouble finding a way to mark this particular transition but I kept working at it. A single image wasn’t working so I made some in-camera double exposures. One frame with movement and one without. Sort of like layering a quick sketch and a detailed drawing. Somehow this came closer to capturing the allure of the in-between.

Today is Earth Day, and many of the same issues that fueled the first Earth day in 1970 are just as immediate as they were 44 years ago. We are still on the edges of possibility.

The River’s Edge

April 16, 2014April 16, 2014 | drawandshoot

The river ice is breaking up slowly. Shifting a little everyday in the sun and wind and really coming open where there are strong undercurrents. I was a little surprised to see this snapping turtle floating at the frayed edges of the ice, able to lift its head for air but otherwise shifting with the water like a piece of driftwood, too cold to move. It’s been a long winter for everybody and spring has been tentative. We have land now, though. Earth, mud, grit and weathered grasses. The snow is mostly gone, we are just waiting on the river…

Road Stories 2 ~ the edges of

April 7, 2014April 7, 2014 | drawandshoot

The edges of the city in that in-between light at the edge of the day. It seems too we are in the fray of both winter and spring. But were making progress. It’s okay that it’s not moving along too quickly; I am trying to savour the slow release of the earth and the lethargic inching up of the thermometre.

Transitions can happen so quickly that there are times you can’t get to them. Can’t be in them. They are gone before you arrive. But the edges, they are full of possibilities too.