I decided to go for a walk and visit a place I had not visited in awhile: the Royal Botanical Garden. I parked the car at the lot by Cherry Hill Gate and walked to the Grindstone Marsh Trail.
Inspired by the images and words of renowned Canadian landscape and nature photographer Freeman Patterson in his book Portraits of the Earth, I walked through down into and through Hendrie Valley with a mind open to renewed wonder and curiosity letting go of the apathy of the familiar and common place.
I used my Nikon D750 and 24-120mm f4 VR G, relying on the sensor quality at high ISO and the vibration reduction of the lens to reduce the impact of camera shake as I was without a tripod.
The sun filtered through the trees creating a mottled mosaic of light and shadow. Even before the sun reached the ground, the wind blew clouds overhead resulting in ever moving shafts of sunlight and changing compositional possibilities.
The pattern of sunlight inevitably creates spotlights that sometimes highlight single objects such as this leaf. The direct sun brought out the texture of the leaf emphasizing the detail of its structure; the spines of the veins supporting the blade of the leaf.
These tangled tree roots on the slopes of the ravine above the Grindstone Marsh Trail uncovered by years of run-off revealed themselves with the patchwork of sunlight. Textures of rough bark contrasted with smooth roots. Contrasts of highlights and shadow. A tangled network giving life to the tree.
The S-curve on a trail can immerse you in a forest, while at the trail head lies a parking lot and a busy street. The corners muffle sound and hide views of asphalt. At the top of this trail was my car with many other cars parked, waiting for their drivers to head back home.
After the RBG, I went to the park off Mill Street in Waterdown along the Bruce Trail as the light compelled me to explore the possibilities of the waterfall on Grindstone Creek. Walking along the Bruce Trail I headed toward the base of the waterfall. I took numerous picture with varying shutter speeds ranging from 1/60 of a second down to 2 seconds. I didn’t have a tripod so I relied on fortuitously placed rocks on which to rest my camera. I used the self timer with a 2 second delay to release the shutter and the swivel screen of the D750 proved to be a Godsend. As I was without neutral density filter, in order to reach the slow shutter speeds I wanted I used ISO ranging from 50 to 100 and set the aperture to as low as f/16, the risk of diffraction an acceptable compromise to get the shot. This image was taken at f/8 and 1/4 second.
Interestingly the Grindstone Marsh in the RBG is fed by the Grindstone Creek in Waterdown, which is where the falls are located. I wasn’t aware of the connection.