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RAIN AGAIN

noreply@blogger.com (Mike de Moree) — Sat, 06 Jun 2026 22:06:36 +0000

Lots of rain here in Kanata. A good day to work on my pictures and even take a few pictures, which I did this afternoon. I liked this picture with rich rain patterns on the window and the dark day creating a mood, which I certainly enjoy. Time to sit down reading a good book while listening to some favourite music.

RAINY DAY, OTTAWA

noreply@blogger.com (Mike de Moree) — Thu, 21 May 2026 00:22:34 +0000

It has been a few days since posting a new picture. This image Took on my mobile phone when we went downtown trying to get into a parking garage. Yes this time the picture was quite abstract. The raindrops on the window and the strong colours created a quite good composition of a dark, rainy day atmosphere.

MAIN STREET CAFE, STITTSVILLE

noreply@blogger.com (Mike de Moree) — Wed, 13 May 2026 01:00:00 +0000

Friday morning we had to go for some errants in Stittsville. I did not have a camera with me, but of course I did have my phone. So when we went for a quick lunch at the Main Street Cafe I couldn’t resist taking a few pictures. It simply is a habit of me to always take at least some pictures.

Changing environment is not that easy. We miss our longtime friends and our familiar milieu. Of course the positive aspect of the move is that I now have will find new subjects for my photography, which I am certain will result in a new way of seeing your surrounding environment. So lets see how my pictures will change.

SPRING REFLECTION

noreply@blogger.com (Mike de Moree) — Fri, 01 May 2026 01:27:00 +0000

Spring has definitely arrived. Yes the last two days were grey and wet days, feeling more like early Fall days. But we had some nice beautiful Spring days. Time to wander around looking for fine photo subjects. This image is more reminiscent of a impressionistic painting. It is a picture without strong subjects but rich in textures and irregular patterns. Your eyes wander first to the iregular pattern of the leaves then you see the strong shape of the the maple tree reflection in the water.

In the next few days I will explain why I always or nearly always post only one image per day.

SPRING, LAKE NIPISSING

noreply@blogger.com (Mike de Moree) — Wed, 29 Apr 2026 13:55:00 +0000

Today's picture is a nostalgia image of Lake Nipissing. It is a visual remembrance of our life in North Bay. Yes we absolutely miss this truly beautiful lake and of course I will post memories of our wonderful time in North Bay.

ABSTRACT

noreply@blogger.com (Mike de Moree) — Tue, 28 Apr 2026 00:03:00 +0000

Last month we visited the Ottawa City Gallery. Surprisingly we had never visited this gallery before and for us it was a great belated first visit. There were some very interested exhibition. Of course I couldn’t resist taking pictures. This was one of the more successful images. It is a picture which Andreas Feininger would identify having strong “stopping power”. The image has, beside the vivid colours, a. strong graphic power vibrating across the surface of the picture.

SPRING SUNSET

noreply@blogger.com (Mike de Moree) — Sun, 26 Apr 2026 18:01:00 +0000

Last night I noticed the strong sunset colours reflected in the lower right windows of the new apartment building across the street. Of course I could not resist taking some pictures.
Initially I wondered why the sunset was not showing in all the windows untill it dawned on me that what I saw was the reflection of the adjacent building and the dark blue evening sky. The image was a delightful strong coloured and patterned abstraction.

NEW APARTMENT, KANATA, ONTARIO

noreply@blogger.com (Mike de Moree) — Sat, 25 Apr 2026 22:09:00 +0000

Time to start posting again. We moved last Fall from North Bay, a small city in Northern Ontario, to Kanata a suburb an satellite community of Ottawa. Adjusting to this totally new environment was quite an emotional disruption to our lives and we are still trying to assimilate to our new suburban lifestyle. Of course I am slowly adjusting my photography to our new way of life. So yes I see my images change. Black and white is becoming more prominent in my photographs. Getting more adapted to living to our suburban life I think I’ll see a new interesting style developing in my photography.

HAPPY EASTER

noreply@blogger.com (Mike de Moree) — Sat, 04 Apr 2026 21:39:00 +0000

After many months of inactivity I thought it is time to reactivate my blog. Easter weekend looks like a good starting time, We have moved to Kanata and because all the snow has disappeared, it is also a celebration of the start of the Spring season.

Remembering a series of Easter pictures,which I never exhibited or even printed, looking through my files and found these strange images. The pictures symbolize the modern commercial Easter holiday with just a trace of the true meaning of the Christian spiritual celebration.

So I wish all my friends a meaningful and very happy Easter holiday.

REMEMBERING, THE BONFIELD TAVERN

noreply@blogger.com (Mike de Moree) — Thu, 13 Jun 2024 21:01:00 +0000

The old Bonfield Tavern, yes I remembered this place when I was enjoying a local photo trip with my friends Bob and Rob. We stopped off here to enjoy a small lunch and a beer of course. This tavern was a typical country pub.It is a pity that so many of these rustic establishments have disappeared.

SCRAP YARD, NORTH BAY

noreply@blogger.com (Mike de Moree) — Mon, 10 Jun 2024 18:24:00 +0000

This old abandoned truck was left in a city scrap yard, which I wandered into by accidents when I was looking around for some interesting photo subjects. There were some other vehicles and an assortment of different rusting metal objects left in a city scrap yard. Nothing spectacular but enough for me to take some visually intriguing images.

A WORK OF ART

noreply@blogger.com (Mike de Moree) — Sat, 08 Jun 2024 21:38:00 +0000

One of my neighbours bought this beautiful small car. What a great piece of automotive design. It is in excellent condition, even though it had been in a garage for over thirty years. It is a Sebring MX. I had never heard of this car, which looks like a classic British sports car. Manufactured in the US where it’s still being produced but now with an electric motor according to the information I read on the Sebring owners club in the UK.

OAK STREET, NORTH BAY

noreply@blogger.com (Mike de Moree) — Mon, 03 Jun 2024 14:52:00 +0000

A few weeks ago I noticed how several businesses on Oak Street had spruced up their stores. It made this otherwise drab looking street into a happy, festive cityscape. So yesterday I took some colourful images.It was a grey overcast day, which I preferred for this subject. Sunshine would have created too much textures and shadows, while I wanted to emphasize the colours. Returning home I transferred some of the pictures to my iPad and using and using my favourite photo app Snapseed. So here is the result.

SOUTH RIVER, ONTARIO

noreply@blogger.com (Mike de Moree) — Sat, 18 May 2024 12:06:00 +0000

Last Thursday my fiend john and I made our very first photo trip of this Spring season. Wonderful day, the weather was perfect, the places we visited were very quiet, I guess in anticipation of the first holiday weekend before the Summer holiday. All in all a day to remember.

Returning home I looked at my images of that trip and noticed that the majority of pictures were richly textured subjects. Here the combination of strong water textures but also a feeling of movement and of course dramatic lighting..

COTTONWOOD TREE, TEXTURES

noreply@blogger.com (Mike de Moree) — Sat, 04 May 2024 13:46:00 +0000

I could not resist posting another image of this old tree. Just the texture of the tree bark is magnificent. So if you have never seen it go and visit this tall tree giant.

EASTERN COTTONWOOD TREE, NORTH BAY

noreply@blogger.com (Mike de Moree) — Fri, 03 May 2024 18:25:00 +0000

This picture of a massive Eastern Cottonwood tree is a good example of how you can simply miss a good photo subject. I must have passed this tree numerous times without noticing it. But two days ago I had lunch with two of my old colleagues and when walking over to my car Stopped because next to the restaurant I saw the largest tree I ever came across here in North Bay. So yesterday I returned to take some pictures of this truly massive Cottonwood tree. What struck me first and foremost was the very strong textured bark. I took some pictures but I know I have to return to explore and photograph this tree in order to create a more intricate portrait of this wonderful massive natural giant.

STAIRCASE, NORTH BAY

noreply@blogger.com (Mike de Moree) — Thu, 25 Apr 2024 13:30:00 +0000

Walking along a street in downtown North Bay one evening, I saw this yellow green staircase wedged between two stores. The rich warm colours contrasted nicely with the staircase.

WAITING FOR SPRING

noreply@blogger.com (Mike de Moree) — Wed, 24 Apr 2024 12:15:00 +0000

Another cold grey morning today, yes I know we have been spoiled with some very fine warm days this month. But a feast of Spring colours is what I am waiting for. Searching or I should say rummaging through my files I choose this picture taken quite a few years ago in Toronto. What a riot of colours. Just seeing this image makes me quite happy.

URBAN ABSTRACT

noreply@blogger.com (Mike de Moree) — Mon, 22 Apr 2024 00:57:00 +0000

It is always a challenge to photograph a nondescript subject and make it into visually interesting image. When I saw this uninteresting utilitarian building I also noticed the strong shadows, the various textures and the strong contrast between the different shapes of the flat walls, reminding me of the early work by the Italian Futuristic artist Giorgio de Chirico, whose paintings with its strong sunlight, deep shadows and unusual perspective made him one of the great early twentieth century artists.

CEDAR TREE

noreply@blogger.com (Mike de Moree) — Fri, 19 Apr 2024 18:43:00 +0000

Another picture from the same area along the Ottawa river. Colour was too distracting so I decided to work in black and white, which was the best way to emphasize the strong textures of the cedar tree bark. I used my iPad and my favourite Snapseed photo app. It is a basic but quite powerful photo app. Especially if you just want to work on your iPad or your mobile phone. Anyway I like the final result of this image.

ALONG THE OTTAWA RIVER

noreply@blogger.com (Mike de Moree) — Mon, 15 Apr 2024 22:39:00 +0000

Early Spring along the Ottawa river is actually an old image I found while searching my picture files. I never processed this picture before. Actually it is a good exercise searching through older files because you see images in a different time and viewpoint. I liked the dark atmosphere right after some heavy rain. Rich in textures and a slight warming of the overal picture made this simple composition into a more visually interesting image.

ROCK CAMERA

noreply@blogger.com (Mike de Moree) — Thu, 07 Mar 2024 13:57:00 +0000

. A few weeks ago our friend Kim Vlahovich presented us with two of his art works. Kim works exclusively with colour pencils. He draws not only on paper but also on rock like this rendition of a camera. It is an amazing art work done all in colour pencil. Needles to say that I was very happy with this interpretation of a Leica camera.

AMAZINGLY EARLY SPRING

noreply@blogger.com (Mike de Moree) — Tue, 05 Mar 2024 14:27:00 +0000

We are experiencing an amazingly early Spring here in Northern Ontario. Walking along the government dock here in North Bay, we saw three men repairing a boat house and to our amazement one them was in the water which is of course very cold. Actually the lake is still covered in ice. All I could think was one word crazy.

TIME TO HIT THE ROAD

noreply@blogger.com (Mike de Moree) — Wed, 22 Nov 2023 18:38:00 +0000

A few days ago I visited one of my old favourite houses or actually now two houses with the most outrageous decoration made of junk. I was a little disappointed because not much has changed since my last visit. However, this tableau reminded me of an angry impatient driver we meet driving along our highways and city streets.

BIRCH TREE

noreply@blogger.com (Mike de Moree) — Mon, 16 Oct 2023 12:52:00 +0000

Dark and wet Fall weather for the last few weeks. Its the time for getting the garden ready for the Winter but we still have colour in our front garden. This picture is an almost abstract image of colour and textures. My friend Joe gave me a couple of point and shoot cameras. The camera I am using I am learning to master is a very nice retro point and shoot with a good single lens is an older Fujifilm X100T with a rangefinder. Of course, point and shoot is a misnomer because it is far more complex than simply looking through a viewfinder, click the shutter and you get a perfect image. It is true if you just set the camera at automatic you get a fairly good image. However for me, results are not very satisfactory. So if you want to improve the quality of the picture to your satisfaction, it becomes quite a bit more complicated when you to start using the complicated menu. This takes time and practice. I am getting quite comfortable with the camera. My final verdict, it is an amazingly good “ point and shoot” camera.