Snapshot Showcase: Best of 2023

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It’s embar­rass­ing to admit that I’m a lazy pro­cras­ti­na­tor regard­ing per­son­al goals and endeav­ours. I’ve strug­gled with this aspect of myself since high school. This is espe­cial­ly true regard­ing men­tal efforts and intel­lec­tu­al pur­suits such as writ­ing (blog posts, essays, scripts, etc.), doing tax­es (🤢), plan­ning trips, etc. After describ­ing these qual­i­ties to an AI … Read more

Experiencing the Total Solar Eclipse in Prince Edward County

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A partial eclipse seen through clouds.

I’m not an umbraphile; I don’t have the will or the funds to globe-trot every six months dur­ing eclipse sea­son­ing, attempt­ing to catch the best clear-sky view of the Moon’s shad­ow. And despite not try­ing, I’ve been in the pres­ence of four solar eclipses: the annu­lar eclipse of May 10, 1994, the total eclipse of … Read more

Snapshot Showcase: September 2023 in Pictures

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Sep­tem­ber 2023 was one of the warmest and most pleas­ant Sep­tem­bers I’ve expe­ri­enced in south­ern Ontario. Was it a fluke or a sign of cli­mate change? I’ll leave that debate to cli­mate sci­en­tists. It’s always hard say­ing farewell to our short Cana­di­an sum­mers. As some­one who spends more than half the year wear­ing a coat, … Read more

Photowalk in Toronto’s Portlands, Oct 2023

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In Jan­u­ary of this year, I start­ed orga­niz­ing month­ly Toron­to pho­towalks as part of my expan­sion of Expo­sure Ther­a­py’s hands-on pho­tog­ra­phy edu­ca­tion pro­gram. The pho­towalk I host­ed last met in The Beach­es on the after­noon of Sep­tem­ber 30th — one week ago today! These pho­towalks have been rea­son­ably suc­cess­ful at attract­ing a mod­est crowd of … Read more

Algonquin Adventure: Exploring Tom Thomson Lake During COVID-19 in 2020

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Sunset sky and reflections in water on Tom Thomson Lake in Algonquin Park.

A Wel­come Reprieve from COVID Dur­ing the sum­mer 2020 lull in COVID-19, between the ini­tial lock­downs and sub­se­quent waves of infec­tion, Lily and I con­coct­ed a naïve plan for a road trip to the east coast to vis­it the unpro­nounce­able Kouch­i­bouguac Nation­al Park in New Brunswick. We recalled the fond mem­o­ries from our first-ever camp­ing adven­ture on the … Read more

Taking the GO Train With Our Bikes and Dog: A Day of Fun, Food, and Frustration

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Last Sun­day, Lily and I stepped out­side our com­fort zone and took a trip to down­town Burling­ton. The city is a mere 60 km away, which does­n’t make this a ter­ri­bly excit­ing or impres­sive accom­plish­ment. We dri­ve through Burling­ton every time we vis­it Lily’s fam­i­ly in Hamil­ton. So, what gives, and what makes this adven­tur­ous? … Read more

Crown Land Camping near Franklin Island on Georgian Bay

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The “plan” Ear­ly in March, Lily and I decid­ed to get a head start on the camp­ing sea­son by book­ing a few camp­sites ear­li­er than usu­al. We reserved a back­coun­try site on Tom Thom­son Lake in Algo­nquin Park for late May and a spot at the Hon­ey­moon Bay camp­ground in Geor­gian Bay Islands Nation­al Park … Read more

Surviving the Bugs in Algonquin Park: A Backcountry Camping Experience in Tom Thomson Lake

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A forested island in the middle of Tom Thomson Lake in Algonquin Park, Ontario.

Dur­ing the last week­end in May, Lily and I felt the call of the wild. We dust­ed off our camp­ing gear, packed the car, loaded the canoe, and set our sights on Algo­nquin Park. It had been near­ly three years since our last camp­ing trip, and the antic­i­pa­tion was pal­pa­ble. Our des­ti­na­tion? A seclud­ed back­coun­try … Read more