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.

         I was invited by my son Adrian to take photos during Peter North Stars payoff floorgame game at 7pm at Toronto West Collegiate. It’s a high school near Landsdowne Ave and College Street located at 330 Lansdown. Ave.  It was a new experience for me since I never shoot a sport event. Since I couldn’t use flash to take pictures, I have used fast 2.8 70-200mm lens and 1000 ASA speed. For more pictures click on the image to see them in my Photo Gallery.

           Finally after a year and 300 million the AGO (Art Gallery of Ontario) unveiled its new face and in these 3 days ( Nov 14-16) 80,000 people visited the Gallery.

The Transformed Art Gallery of Ontario is Toronto native Frank Gehry’s most recent building, and his first in Canada. Hallmarks of his AGO design include dramatic sculptural staircases, the warmth of Douglas fir used in the Italian Gallery. His bountiful use of glass is providing the galleries with natural light and in some way gives a connection to the city.  Thus it opened the world to 110 light-filled galleries featuring more than 4,000 new and perennial favourite art works.

     I have managed to spent all three days coming to the Gallery and enjoyed again my favorite old and new collection of art work.

Here are some images from this event (unfortunately, no camera is allowed inside, which I hope will change in time to follow other world class galleries that permit to take pictures without a flash).

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.

Antarctica and the North Pole Presentation by David McEown at Royal Ontario Museum on October 30th, 2008 at 19:00-20:30 yesterday was fantastic. It provided an annotated view of David’s many visits to Artic and Antarctic regions of the world that spanned over many years of his travels. It was a multimedia presentation showing his art work, photography and video accompanied by his commentary and accompanying music. His passion for the arctic region, its landscapes and people was evident in his paintings, photographs and comments. It is my great wish to join him on one of his trips one of these days.

http://www.artistjourneys.com/

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.