Algonquin Moose

On Monday September 27th 2010 I trekked up to Algonquin park, coming from Haliburton Forest & Wildlife Reserve where I was staying that weekend. My intention - to shoot Oxtongue Rapids for sunrise, and then venture over to the Opeongo road to see Moose. Well... Moose is exactly what I would see that day, and lots of them!

As the morning proceeded at Opeongo road, I did the usual drive slow up the road and scan left and right looking for any sign of wildlife - like many do every day. Once I reached the lake, it was time to turn around, and then come back the meadow where the new bridge has been built. This would turn out to be the spot of gold. We tracked a bull which appeared to come out suddenly from nowhere. He came to the point in the meadow, and then back towards us to the bridge, then crossing right over the road, and up into the hill where the hydro line was. Obviously he knew this path well, as he had no problem forging his way between a group of photographers and nature watchers that has massed. We would follow this guy for the next couple of hours, as he made another appearance not 20 minutes later into the second meadow. My favourite shot of the day was from his second pose, where he stopped to take a drink of water in the river. The river was nice and calm, and I got the perfect reflection shot - a great nature story ineed! Thank you to the Moose of Algonquin.

Fall Colours Are Coming!

As we approach the end of September, leaves are starting to change all around us! This is my favorite time of the year, with warm days, and cool nights making it wonderful weather for being outdoors. I have also been spending a lot of time on the weekend's this past month up in Haliburton at the Haliburton Forest Wildlife Reserve, where my wife and I lease a campsite, and have a trailer on our site. Last weekend we observed a very nice start to fall colours in the highlands of Haliburton. The forest property borders on Algonquin Park - and from what I observed - I am thinking that the upcoming week will definately be prime time to visit Algonquin park for fall colours.

We may get a nice showing right up until the October 2nd/3rd weekend, but I believe that by Thanksgiving weekend, we may have significant loss of leaves - this is just my prediction - I could be wrong! In any which case --- get outside - and check out the fall colours in your area over the next few weeks - 2010 should be an awesome year for colour.

Have fun, and keep shooting!

July Update

Now that summer is here, and in full swing, I have been spending much more time up north in the Haliburton area. I am developing a series of images from the Haliburton Forest, which I have been shooting for several years. With the 200-400VR in my line-up now, I am also hoping to spend time tracking and shooting wildlife in the forest. August is the perfect month for that, as the mosquitto's retreat, and cooler nights pervail. I am hoping to get a decent Moose image this year -- or at least that is my goal.

Some other project's that I continue to work on include the MILLWORKS project, and I am looking for an exhibition space and/or sponsorship to mount a much larger display of the Millworks images. If you would like to contribute or know someone that I should speak to, please contact me directly. I would love to talk with you. I am also going to be relaunching my self-published Millworks book upcoming in the fall of 2010. Look for more info on that.

As always - you can see some of the latest things I have been shooting at www.flickr.com/lxdesign

Photographers That Inspire!

In a recent issue of Outdoor Photography Canada, I was inspired by a couple of seasoned nature/wildlife photographers. The first was an article titled "Whats in my bag", where a professional wildlife/nature photographer dissects the gear that they carry around. This month was featuring Kelly Funk. I was surprised how closely matched our gear was. He also has the 200-400VR which I recently acquired. His website is www.naturalwonders.ca

The second photographer, of course is Darwin Wigget. I always look at his sunrise or landscape images, with inspiration to achieve a higher standards in my own photography. Darwin is a regular writer for Outdoor Photographer, and I love getting the magazine and seeing what he has to say.

This coming summer and fall, I am going to be concentrating more on my nature/landscape and wildlife work. I will be spending a lot of time at the Haliburton Forest Wildlife Reserve, where my wife and I lease a campsite on Black Lake. I spend many Saturday and Sunday mornings getting up at 5am, and driving up the north road to look for wildlife and/or a nice sunrise spot to shoot at. There are several good locations for sunrise, and I will continue to find more this coming season.

Millworks Lecture / SPOOM Spring Millers Day

Hello Everyone, this is an update as of Thursday June 3rd 2010. There is a lot going on this week!! Starting off with the end of the MILLWORKS II exhibit which was taken down this past Tuesday evening. Thank you to all of those who dropped by to take a look at the images. I received tons of positive feedback. I didn't sell any of the work from the show - so if you are interested in purchasing anything, please feel free to contact me! Keep in mind that I can also do custom sizing, and images.

Secondly, tonight is my presentation to the Beach Photo Club. I will present the body of work that I have spent the last 2 years putting together on the MILLWORKS project. The presentation will run approximately 1.5 hours, and includes a 20 minute slideshow set to classical music. If you are looking for something to do tonight, please feel free to come and listen to the talk. There is a $5 drop in fee for the club - location is St. Aiden's Church - Memorial Hall, 70 Silverbirch Avenue in the Beaches.

Finally, this coming Saturday June 5th is the SPOOM (Society For The Preservation Of Old Mills - Canadian Chapter) Spring millers day! SPOOM will be meeting in the morning at Chaffey's lock/Chaffey's Mill, and the rest of the day will revolve around the Delta Old Stone Mill which celebrates its 200th anniversary this year! At the Spring Millers day, I will be promoting my project, giving out post cards, and talking about the future of the project. I am crossing my fingers that my new post cards arrive in time for Friday.

MILLWORKS II Now on display!

MILLWORKS II, May 5th to 31st 2010 at Tan Coffee, 992 Queen Street West. Now on display, un-officially part of the Contact photography festival in Toronto. This is David's second installation of his Ontario Historic Mill photographic project. Millworks mission is to capture Ontario's milling history through photographic documentary. Come by and see the exhibit!

The Millworks Project turns 2!

I am proud to announce that yesterday was the 2nd birthday of the Millworks Photography Project. On March 24th 2008, I began photographing historic mills as an official project. The rest is history. That first day out on the project, I had taken the day off work, and headed east into the Duham region. It was there that I found Tyrone Mill, and fell in love. I continued on my journey, seeing close to 6 mills that day. (Balls Mill. Cream Of Barley Mill, Vanstone Mill, Molson Mill, Tyrone Mill, and The Brooklin Flour Mill). Since that day, I have probably seen close to 200 mills across the province.

Most of the mills are in different conditions, from falling apart, just parts lying in a river bed, to fully functioning and operational. As I embark on the 3rd year of the project, I am looking forward to discovering many of the mills that I have not seen yet.

MILLWORKS 2

Now that I am back in Toronto, and my contract with the Yukon First Nation's is over... Its time for me to turn my attention to my upcoming exhibition! MILLWORKS 2! This will be the second installation of my historic mill photography project titled MILLWORKS at Tan Coffee shop 992 Queen St. W. here in Toronto during the month of May 2010. I will be announcing more details about the exhibition and a small reception that I am hoping to have. To see more images from the MILLWORKS project, please visit: www.flickr.com/lxdesign and navigate to the Mill project photo set.

Last Day in Vancouver

Today was the last big day in Vancouver. Tomorrow morning I will be heading home. Today was our last show at the O-Zone in Richmond! We had an excellent show as part of the Pan North presentation on the mainstage at the O-Zone. With a modest crowd, it was one of our best lighting shows, with movers, and LED's twinkling above... the performers of YFN did an awesome job! I hope that I will have another opportunity in the future to work with these guys, it has been an excellent experience being here in Vancouver during the 2010 Olympics. I am going to miss this experience.

Vancouver Report: Feb 22nd

Today was a day off.... and how better spend the day, then head downtown to take in the sounds and sights of the Olympic experience. Tonight, I hung out with some friends at the Canada Hockey House, where we watched the woman's hockey team win victorious 5 to 0. What a game! Tomorrow is our show at the Richmond O-Zone!

Vancouver Report; February 21st

Today was the big day of our show "What The Land Remembers" presented at the Aboriginal Pavilion here in beautiful Vancouver.  The day started off early for us with a 6am load-in.  We arrived this morning to connect the microphones and lighting gear which was additional to the provided equipment of the pavilion.  Our shows were at 10am, and on the hour, every how with the last show at 2pm.  The show was fantastic!  And we had easily over 1000 people come over the 4 shows.  This was the highlight of our experience here at the Vancouver Winter Games 2010.  A reception was held afterward for the contingent from the Yukon First Nations.  Tomorrow is our day off, and I am hoping to meet up with my friend Phil who is here working for Sam Robert's, and take a walk in Stanley Park.

Vancouver Update - Feb 20th

I had an excellent day today here in Vancouver! Taking a break in the morning at the house, but then I headed downtown around noon to catch the Northwest Territory show at the Aboriginal Pavilion. There were a couple of performers in the show whom I have worked with before from Iqaluit. The show was excellent, and they got a standing ovation - one which was definately deserved.

I had a couple of hours to waste, so I walked around downtown for a bit. Then I was off to BC Stadium for the Victory Ceremony tonight! That was awesome.. as the Yukon was featured tonight, and the Dakhka Khwaan Dancers from our contingent were featured as part of the entertainment. They did a fabulous job of course... and we didn't end up staying for very long, heading home shortly after the headliner act went on.

Tomorrow we have a very early morning, 6am setup at the Aboriginal Pavilion for our show.

Update: Friday Feb 19th

Today was our first show at the Surrey live site! And the show went very well. We are part of the Pan North presentation at both the Surrey and Richmond live sites. Our next live site performance is on the 23rd in Richmond. We are getting ready for the big presentation however this coming Sunday at the Aboriginal Pavilion in downtown Vancouver. It should be the highlight of the trip!

YFN 2010: Wednesday February 17th

Here is today's report from Vancouver! It was an absolutely gorgeous day here today weather wise in Vancouver. Sunny +10 or more... and a nice day to just relax! After yesterday's marathon walk, I wasn't about to do that again, so I spent half of the day relaxing at the house. We had a very nice "columbian" style egg breakfast made by Diego our sound man. The crew (director, SM and SD) headed off to the rehearsal in Richmond around 12:30pm. I headed to Broadway Camera around 2pm in search of miniDV tapes for the camera.

As it turns out, Broadway Camera was completely sold out of tapes, but there was a Sony Style store directly across the street, and they had ME class tapes, which was perfect! And exactly what I needed.

I then headed to rehearsal to meet up with our 43 performers and crew in Richmond. I got to ride on the "Canada Line" train on my route. An un-manned subway system, which was quite interesting. The train was packed, but that was to be expected given the events going on around town. I arrived in time for the thunderous sounds of the grand finale of our show. We had a very nice dinner at the hotel where our performers were staying, and afterwards headed to the OZone in Richmond to check out the live site where we will be performing the show on the 23rd.

After seeing the live site, we headed back to the house together in a cab, and called it a night. All in all, a nice day in Vancouver.

Day 1 in Vancouver...

Today, was the first full day in Vancouver, and we started off the morning by sleeping in a bit... but that was perfectly fine with us. We headed to the Aboriginal pavilion for 12pm to do a site tour. We arrived with a show just about to commence, so we ended up watching it. It was showcasing the Cree indians of Canada, and it was a good presentation. I was able to get a good idea of the lighting situaiton. The venue is very small, so there is not much we can do, but we are adding some fixture's for gobo's, and that is a good thing.

Once we were done at the pavilion, Alejandro and Diego (director and sound designer) went their seperate way, as they needed to go to the airport to collect some of the gear which was coming in as cargo. Chris and I headed to Yaletown with Chris's friend Phil. Phil worked on the opening ceremony, and will be working on the closing as well as other events throughout the olympics. We had lunch at a very nice restaurant in Yaletown - which used to be an industrial area of Vancouver. It has been converted into an area that reminds me of Toronto's distillery district.

We were thinking of going to the Yaletown live site after lunch, however long line-ups didn't seem attractive, thus we ended up deciding the take the ferry across to Granville island, and checking out the scene over there. While over at the island, I was stunned by the gorgeous view of Vancouver's downtown west area - over near Stanley Park. There was a beautiful mountain range in the background. So I decided to split from Chris and Phil, and headed for a walk to Vanier Park. The view paid off - it was stunning, and got some great photos.

I then spent the next 5 hours or so in downtown Van. I took the ferry over to the mainland of downtown, and walked up Horby. I did a stop into Robson square, where there was quite the buzz. I decided to return, but first - I was flame bound! That's right.... the olympic flame (outdoors). So off I went, and saw, and took pics. Then back to Robson square! There wasn't much going on, so I just sat down for a while, took a load off, and once I was refreshed, headed for the bus and back to the house.

Highlight of the day: The Olympic Flame.

In Vancouver!

8pm local time here in Vancouver, I have arrived! After a 4 hour flight, we have arrived in Vancouver... there were athletes on our flight -- we believe a number of them were curlers from Switzerland, and there was a Croatian cross country skier.

We are settled into the rental house, and looking forward to tomorrow. We are heading downtown to check out the sights and sounds of the Olympic buzz.

VANCOUVER 2010

Hi all,

as of Monday February 15th, I will be on my way to Vancouver during the 2010 Olympics. I am working for the Yukon First Nation's show "What The Land Remembers", which will be featured at the Aboriginal Centre on the 21st of February with 4 shows. We will also be performing the show at two live sites as part of the Olypics in Richmond and Surrey. I will be updating the blog here on my site on a daily basis while I am in Vancouver, and letting you know how things are going over in Vancouver. I am very excited to go and be part of the celebrations, even if only a small part in a much larger event.

David

Millworks Presentation

On Saturay February 6th, David gave a presentation to the "Canadian Tool Group". The presentation was well received, to a full room of participant's from the group. The presentation ran for approximately 1 hour. David would like to thank all of those members of the Tool group that attended the talk. The feedback from the talk will be great for future presentation's. David will be presenting the MILLWORKS project to the Beach Photo Club on June 3rd 2010.

MILLWORKS upcoming presentation.

The Tool Group Of Canada will be hosting David Sweeney on Saturday February 6th, 10:00am at the Victoria Square Community Centre in Markham. David will be presenting images, and some history on favourite mills including the Tyrone Mill, Hope Sawmill, Robert Nesbitt Sawmill, and more.

You can see the advertisement for the upcoming meeting on the tool group's website: www.thetoolgroupofcanada.com

David is busy preparing images for a slideshow, and powerpoint presentation which will last approximately 1 hour. A longer version of this presentation will be presented at the Beach Photo Club on June 3rd 2010.