A few weeks ago I was on my way to work, just leaving home. I noticed as I closed the front door that a very small (less than one inch long) wolf spider was seeking shelter from the rain on our front porch. I had my camera with me, and took five minutes out of my morning to snap a photo of the little guy. I won’t post the photo large here as some of you may be arachnophobic, just click the thumbnail to see it bigger:

The poor spider was probably quite frightened, a giant predator is trying to trap it and blind it with the light of a thousand suns. Anyhow, I got the shot I was looking for and went on my way. The spider survived its close encounter and hopefully is now preying on mosquitoes an other annoying flies.

It was an interesting way to start my day.

Last weekend Brent and I traveled just outside Cookstown to visit an old cemetery from the 1800s. He had been there before, and thought it would be a great place to explore and take a few photos. It was really a beautiful forgotten place:

Some of the stones were interesting and gave a very valuable insight into the people that first settled this land. There was a grim reminder of Diphtheria, which claimed six children in an outbreak in the early 1900s. Another monument was for a woman that lost her life on “The Asia”, a ship that sank in a hurricane on Lake Huron in 1882. 122 of the 124 passengers lost their lives. The shipwreck was never found. Some monuments had rather unusual quotes on them as well, like this one:

The writing reads “Not Dead But Gone Before”. Quite an odd thing to say, and the only thing that jokingly came to mind was a vampire.  I researched the quote and found that is was from an ancient Greek comedian that lived 450 – 388 B.C.: “Your lost friends are not dead, but gone before, advanced a stage or two upon that road which you must travel in the steps they trod.”. Brent translated this to be “You’re next, don’t be too smug”. Very interesting to find!

It is amazing what you can learn about the history around you from those that came before – even if they can no longer tell their stories.

The night sky fascinates me. The fact that there are billions of stars in our galaxy, and billions of galaxies… it makes me feel humble looking up at the sky and realizing how small we are. I took a remarkable similar photo to this recently, during a full moon. I wanted, however, to really capture the stars. I went back to get the photo I was looking for :

A sky filled with stars on a crisp spring evening, such an amazing view. My experiments weren’t over though. I wanted to try my hand at star trails. Stars in the night sky move over time, and this can be recorded with very long exposures. They all swirl around the north star; the north star was always used for navigation because it remained fixed in the sky. A nearby field provided me with the perfect landscape for a 37 minute exposure:

It was an amazing evening for photography. Spending time under the stars, quietly contemplating is something everyone should do once in a while. It is always wonderful to spend time with nature and capture its beauty.

This year for Easter we went to Oakville to visit my aunt Cynthia and uncle James, and my little cousins Easton and Maddyx. I hadn’t been there in a while, so it was a really great visit. It was quite the gang we had there, many smiles and great conversations, not to mention the food! It was a wonderful Easter, and so great to see everyone again. One of the highlights, however, was when Maddyx decided to join in the ball hockey game on the street as the goalie:

It was a great light-hearted evening. Many more photos below!

So I have had a few opportunities to breathe some fresh air and capture the emerging spring. I traveled to a local marsh area (Minesing Marsh), which was unfortunately very flooded. However, this gave many animals a little more freedom, like this little guy:

I also had a chance to get out hiking on the Easter weekend. I hiked through part of the Bruce Trail near Devil’s Glen, and here’s a vertical panorama I took of the spring run-off flowing down the steep hills in the area:

It is wonderful to be surrounded by nature, it is great relaxation and exercise, and a great escape for my photography. More photos below!