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In the spite of having sort of white Christmas, the warm and rainy weather turned all that white stuff into dirty, slushy mess. Day after Boxing day the sudden rise in temperature (12 degrees C) created foggy opportunity to take some interesting photos.

The stream in the creek was overflowing with water that came from the melted snow due to sudden change in the temperature.

Later I moved to the beach at East Point Park where I had to cut my shoot very short due to the heavy rain that started shortly after my arrival.

For more images in my Photo Gallery from this day click on any image above.

This was our big snow storm that lasted for two days and it provided a hope that it will be our “white Christmas” in a long time.

I always get very excited to be able to enjoy the first fresh snow before it turns into brown slushy mess. So as I was watching the blizzard from my window it suddenly stopped and sun came out. Having my camera ready, I dressed up and headed out. I got rather strange looks in the elevator as people were wondering where this nut is going with his tripod and camera bag.

Well, my destination was my favorite “Morningside Park” since it is the closest one with great selection of subjects to photograph and it takes only 7 minutes to drive there from my home. The driving even at this short distance was rather challenging as street snow removal hasn’t started as yet.

To see more images from this event in my Photo Gallery click at any image above.

All throughout the year I was waiting for sunrises, so one might ask, what is so different about this that is taking a special place on my blog?

 Well, because the week of Nov 3 promised to be the last warm days of fall and thus on Nov 4th I decided to raise early for my last photo session at East Point Beach. It is always exhilarating to welcome the sun over the Lake Ontario. It was worth it in the spite of rather cold wind of the lake. However, I was well prepared with warm clothing, camping chair and thermos of hot coffee.

This event was part of the 90th Anniversary celebration of Czech Independence established by president T.G.Masaryk in 1918.

This event was organized by the Consul General of Czech Republic, Richard Krpac, and Vice-Consul Jiri Slais. Representative of Toronto Council A.Hama conveyed a message from the Ontario Premier. Small number of Czech community attended the event. The raising of flag was followed by a reception.

Today we are all leaving for our home destinations and all we carry with us, are great memories of this wonderful workshop, that not only will reside with our individual interpretation in our memory, but it will also occupy many gigabytes of physical space or boxes of film slides.

Unfortunately, I had to cancel my camping trip in Acadian National Park and return home. Somehow, I couldn’t resist few quick stops of photo opportunity, especially as I was driving between Quebec City and Montreal at dawn. Here are few images and more are in my Photo Gallery (just click at any image).

At 8:00 most of us went to the local Farmer’s Market at Kingston. One of the recomended specialties was to have a grilled salmon for breakfast, what a way to start a day! It was absolutely delicious! 

For other images from the market - click at any of these two images.

Sadly enough, today morning we have the last lecture by Freeman and André and I was touched deeply by Freeman’s last message about our responsibility to be creative.

After, in rather relaxed manner we are finally viewing the fruit of our labour and at noon viewing our projects. My project theme was on concept of WASTE and you can see it in my Photo Gallery. In the afternoon we are presenting 10 of our best images from whole workshop week. Some of these are coming from our daily best of 3, but some are new. There are also 2 extra images from which one will be chosen by André for the poster.

Today we had a choice to go with either Freeman, Terry or André to different locations. I went with André to revisit Hampton to photograph from the bridge and surrounding area. Others went to the church site. There were some incredible composition of light patterns and shapes that I tried to capture. Here are 3 best images that I selected for the critique. Click on any of the images to see other images from this day.

This morning our group went with André to Hampton area and we were chasing the inversion, trying to photograph mist and rising fog over the river. A spectacular views in the spite that they were changing very quickly. Then we moved close to the bridge and lastly to a small church. André was teaching us how to pan and zoom technique to create impressionistic images.

Here are the 3 images and clicking at any will take you to my Gallery with Other Images that didn’t make the selection, but are representative of this day.

Today we went with Freeman to his place at Shampers Bluff. We were racing to catch morning mist and fog as it was floating over the hills and forest. What a magic place, with incredible number of places to photograph and enjoy the solitude if you want. No surprise that Freeman finds there an endless source for his art, in which every day, every season brings a different views. One must see it ! A n absolute paradise for spider web enthusiast !

These are 3 images from this day that I selected for our critique (Other Images are also available for viewing at my Gallery - click at any image).