While out on my recent tour of the small roads leading from the North Service road to the South shore of Lake Ontario in the areas East of Grimsby, Ontario, I found myself passing one of those places that I have once again passed far too many times and told myself that sometime I would stop and grab a shot or two. This was ‘sometime’. I pulled over to get off the road (the North Service Road for the Queen Elizabeth way) and parked the car. Luckily, traffic was particularly light, giving me an opportunity to grab my long lense and capture a number of frames. What had drawn my attention this time was the signage on the greenhouses belonging to St Davids Hydroponics in Lincoln, Ontario had been damaged, likely by some of the recent wind storms. The central panel of the the three advertising their product, sweet peppers, was missing. I framed up the remaining panels in the grid forming the structure, and this was the result. The little bird on top was kind of a nice touch. - JW
Date Taken: 2025-02-04
Date PP: 2025-02-04
(c) Copyright 2025 JW Vraets
If you are interested in prints or licensing of any of my images, DM me with a brief description of what you may be looking for.
Tech Details:
Taken using a hand-held Nikon D800 fitted with an Tamron 100-400mm 1:4.5-6.3 DI VC USD lense set to 200mm, ISO110 (Auto ISO), Daylight WB, Matrix metering, Shutter Priority Mode, f/5.6, 1/400 sec . PP in free open Source RAWTherapee from Nikon RAW/NEF source file: set final image size to be 9000px wide, correct perspective and lense distortion, apply Tone Mapping at default levels, slightly increase Contrast in L-A-B mode, slightly warm the image by shifting the Colour Temperature to 5200K, slightly boost Vibrance, sharpen (edges only), save. PP in free Open Source GIMP: use the Levels tool in Auto mode to set a good base tonality and colour balance, use the Contrast/Brightness tool to slightly increase both sharpness and brightness, slightly sharpen, save, scale image to 6000 px wide, sharpen slightly, save, add fine black-and-white frame, add bar and text on bottom, save, scale image to 3000 px wide for posting online, sharpen, save.
Tags: Lincoln greenhouse sign damaged peppers structure long lense Saint Davids Hydroponics Open Source RAWTherapee GIMP Nikon D800 Tamron 100-400mm 1:4.5-6.3 DI VC USD (AF035N-700)
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We have been up to Northern Ontario any number of times over the years and each time we take that trip up Highway 11, as we enter the town of Temagami, I note a derelict building on the South end of town and tell myself, sometime I need to stop and try to get some photos. Well on this occasion it was ‘sometime’. I dropped The Boss off in town to do some shopping while I strolled down to this building and captured a few images. The paint on the concrete building was nearly gone and the door was well past the ‘seen better days’ stage. Loved the look.- JW
Date Taken: 2021-10-13
Date PP: 2025-02-03
(c) Copyright 2025 JW Vraets
If you are interested in prints or licensing of any of my images, DM me with a brief description of what you may be looking for.
Tech Details:
Taken using a tripod-mounted Nikon D800 fitted with an AF-S Nikkor 24-120mm VR 1:4.0 lense set to 35mm, ISO100, Auto WB, Aperture Priority Mode, f/8.0, 1/60 sec. PP in free Open Source RAWTherapee from Nikon RAW/NEF source file: set final image size to be 9000px wide, crop to a 5x7 format by cropping off the left side of the frame, apply perspective correction, slightly darken image overall by setting Exposure Compensation to EV-0.38, enable Tone Mapping as well as Dynamic Range Compression at default settings, brighten overall (slightly) by setting Exposure Compensation to EV+0.30, slightly boost Contrast in L-A-B mode, use the Shadows/Highlights tool to brighten the deeper shadows at the top of the door, adjust colour balance by setting Colour Temperature to 4772K, slightly boost Vibrance, sharpen (edges only), save. PP in free Open Source GIMP: use the Curves tool to darken the bottom-most (darkest) part of the curve and then pull up the mid-tones a little, US the Contrast/Brightness tool to slightly boost contrast and brightness, sharpen, save, scale image to 6000 px wide, sharpen, save, add fine black-and-white frame, add bar and text on left, save, scale image to 3000 px wide for posting online, sharpen very slightly, save.
Tags: Temagami Highway 11 building derelict door paint weathered Open Source RAWTherapee GIMP Nikon D800 AF-S Nikkor 24-120mm VR 1:4.0
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Once again, digging into the archives and brushing off some digital dust, I pulled up an image never processed. I had to decide between a very subtle, pastel colour version of a somewhat more punch B&W/monochrome version a my target result. So, B&W, it was (although I may come back to a colour version for a very different look at some future time). This image was taken at Kelson Beach on the South shore of Lake Ontario at the West boundary of Grimsby, Ontario, back in the day (January 2021) before local bureaucracy elected to make life difficult for photographers in this part of town. At that time the groynes were well along their way to being destroyed by the combined forces of repeated shore ice formations, storms and age. The most damaged ones were only showing about a half metre of their former selves, and in the very cold weather had developed little ice hats or helmets, as seen here. The small details along the horizon are not skyline elements on the far shore but, instead, flocks of water birds well out into the lake. - JW
Date Taken: 2021-01-30
Date PP: 2025-01-30
(c) Copyright 2025 JW Vraets
If you are interested in prints or licensing of any of my images, DM me with a brief description of what you may be looking for.
Tech Details:
Taken using tripod-mounted Nikon D800 fitted with an AF-S Nikkor 24-120mm VR 1:4.0 lense set to 120mm, ISO100, Daylight WB, Matrix metering, Aperture Priority Mode, f/11.0, 1/40 sec. PP in free Open Source RAWTherapee from Nikon RAW/NEF source: set final image size to 9000 px wide, level, crop to 5:7 format to eliminate an ice intrusion on the lower right side as well as balance the composition, convert to B&W/monochrome, apply Tone Mapping at default settings, slightly increase both Contrast and Saturation, apply Haze Removal at a slightly reduced level, apply sharpening (edges only), save. PP in free Open Source GIMP: use the Contrast/Brightness tool to apply slight increases to both, sharpen slightly, save, scale image to 6000px wide, sharpen, save, add fine black-and-white frame, add bar and text on left, save, scale image to 3000 px wide for posting online, sharpen very slightly, save.
Tags: Grimsby Lake Ontario Kelson Beach groyne remnants ice formations ice caps black-and-white B&W monochrome winter Open Source GIMP Nikon D800 AF-S Nikkor 24-120mm VR 1:4.0
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