Art on the Beach

….art installations on the rocky shores of  Lake Ontario 

Much of the beaches in Col. Sam Smith Park in Toronto are man made and made with landfill. Large of chunks of concrete and rebar and lovely old bricks  line the shores of the park and the lake. Over the years people have lined up the bricks and laced them onto the rebar to create interesting sculptures. A couple of weeks ago during one of my walks along the beaches I noticed this interesting sculpture made with rebar and bricks.78-D6-EB0-E-A6-D3-42-B9-862-D-E4-BE98-AEC198

Yesterday I took a similar path when I went for my daily walk and specifically looked for this same sculpture. As with most pieces of installation art in nature it was no longer there. I did see another piece that I think was mostly created by nature but it did seem to have some human involvement.776-DA3-ED-0060-44-E3-B02-A-0-D16-F671007-C-1-201-a

I was inspired to try my own hand at making a piece of sculpture with found objects. The rocks and bricks had such interesting colours and had been worn smooth from the crashing waves. In the second photo you can see that I used bits of wood, seashells, speckled stones and a piece of scrap metal. Can you see the face?
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A Photo a Week – Up in the Air

…thanks to Nancy Merrill for hosting the Photo a Week Challenge

Interesting challenge this week with so much being ‘up in the air’ so to speak. I took the phrase literally and posted photos of things in the air.68-A2766-E-A87-A-4198-BB6-C-FB8-BD26-ADD7-F-1-201-a
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Cee’s Black and White Photo Challenge – Words that end in ‘ock’…..

…thanks to Cee for hosting the Black and White Photo Challenge

Hammock
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Rock Monument
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Flock of Swans
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Beach of Rocks
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Smartphone Photo Challenge – Week 9 – Mood

….thanks to Maranto Photography for hosting the Smartphone Photo Challenge

The mood here is serene and calm. I tried to capture the warmth of the setting sun even though the temperatures were hovering around freezing. I added more saturation and vibrance to this photo.5-D85-FA51-D92-C-4280-8490-BAAE7-B9-CEF5-C-1-201-a

For this one I added more contrast and vibrance. This intensified the colour of the water and helped to make the foreground and swan stand out more. Capturing the swan between the branches gives this photo a bit of a mysterious mood.
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The Benefits of Rising Early

….quiet and the sunrise

I’m normally a night owl and don’t tend to wake before 8:00 in the morning. Today, however, I had to drive my daughter to the airport so I was up at 6:00. It was still dark when we left the house shortly after 6:30 but on my return I could see an orange line along the horizon. It was bitter cold but I decided to venture out of the car when I reached the park at the end of our street and I started to take a few shots of the sky over the lake. In the first shot you can still see the moon in the sky.

The waves and the freezing temperatures created some beautiful natural ice sculptures along the shoreline.E7B43E5F-0B53-490E-83FD-E4AC6F110422496C5289-472A-4D03-A68B-6844B6AB3975_1_201_a7E2AFCC5-971C-4AD8-B7D9-092809E17755

Just when I thought it couldn’t get better the sun actually came up over the horizon line. It was spectacular.7B363C3D-5798-4FDA-B640-6EEA1DDF7C36_1_201_aCCB01B98-BBD6-4D39-B25F-AFF65AC88C47_1_201_aD2D94931-BC7E-4DBF-B8C5-025F53BC2249_1_201_a

An Icy Morning Light

….thanks to Becky B for hosting January Squares

I had to get up very early this morning to drive my daughter to the airport. The plus side of this favour was that I was up early enough to see the sunrise. I loved playing around with different angles and was fascinated how the morning sun reflected off the icicles along the shoreline.D341AC28-4E26-4DBF-AC3F-A49B86AF0464_1_201_a

Morning Light – January Squares

…thanks to Becky B for hosting January Squares

The other morning the rising sun was so bright that it actually woke me up. I was so excited to see the sun come up over the lake because I’m normally sound asleep when this happens.C89CB475-97AF-49D6-887A-03587F441189