I have the final results for the attendance to the exhibition. A total of 470 people passed through the gallery doors to view the Landmarks of Haliburton County exhibition. I sold one print and framed print. Over-all I am very happy with the results for my first exhibition.

I would like to thank everyone who came in to view my work and admire my “eye” in how I see each scene through the lens. Thank you to Rails End Gallery for hosting my exhibition and for the Ontario Arts Council for their funding and support!

Thank you everyone and have a Happy 2011!

On November 6th from 2pm to 4pm there was a meet and greet at the Gallery. A good number of visitors and family showed up and I am grateful to everything that came out to view my work. A total of twelve pieces were displayed, 2 in colour the rest are black and white and of varying sizes.

Also in the local papers there was a mention about my exhibition. The County Voice had an especially good write up about me and the photo exhibit. The write up was in the November 25th edition on page 13.

I have also found out that the gallery has sold two pictures from the exhibition. One was a framed picture of the Rails End Gallery and another unframed print of St. Peter’s Church both at a size of 12×18. Once the exhibition is over the orders will be completed, that is the ones that I have to print off.

As the exhibition is coming to a close I hope that if you have not already been in to see my exhibition I hope you do come into Rails End Gallery and take a browse around. Hope to see your name in the registry!

The show will start on November 6th with a “Meet the Artist” from 2pm – 4pm. The show will run till December 19th. I hope to see you there!

Then later on in April there appeared an editorial viewpoint by the editor Stephen Patrick about the wolf issue in the County. People seem to be getting scared over the apparent aggressive behaviours that the “wolves” are displaying. Do these people that have had this encounter know if it really was a wolf? Coyotes have less of a fear towards humans than wolves do. Wolves are very fearful of us humans, and for good reason. We have persecuted them for hundreds of years. Our fear towards these beautiful animals come from our lack of understanding and from a lack of common sense.

Since then two more stories were posted. One in June then another in July. The latest article describes the charges that was laid on the individual by the MNR and that these animals were coyotes. This in itself has raised some eyebrows. These animals are not coyotes. I believe this was printed as coyotes to not raise too much concern over the killings. I personally believe the guy got off easy with the charges that were laid. Should have been way more stiffer. I just hope it doesn’t make people think they will get off easy if they go and shoot a bunch of animals.

To help curb the fear and prejudices over these beauties people need to learn more about wolves and how they benefit nature and the food chain. Wolves weed out the sick, young and old animals which helps maintain the animals like deer or moose. When we start removing predators this messes everything up. We may call it wildlife management but if you look to the past and the present anything that we attempt to manage seems to go by way of the proverbial hell-and-a-hand-basket. It’s a shame really. We need to live with nature and not against nature. If we keep living against nature it will eventually come back to “bite” us in the rear.

I have been printing my selected images for my soon up-coming photography exhibition at Rails End Gallery in Haliburton, Ontario. The exhibition will be during the beginning of this November. I just have to now get them framed. I use a local picture framer Brian Delang of Melbryan House on South Lake Road just outside Minden, Ontario. He is very good at what he does and has a good eye for what I usually like to match the print with frames and mattes. Right now though he is recovering from a major operation and I hope he makes a quick and full recovery.

I have also been printing up my note cards more I think this summer and delivering them to the Rails End Gallery and Highland Images in Haliburton and The Cookhouse at Haliburton Forest. Also at the Forest I have reprinted five wolf images for the Wolf Centre. There will now be a new sixth image of Haida the new Alpha Male. Haida is the black-phase gray wolf at the centre. While I say he is the Alpha Male, that is up for interpretation and observation once breeding season kicks in again. Only one male is allowed to mate with the female and that will be the tell-tale sign of which wolf is alpha.

I have been asked recently to do photograph a wedding and engagement photos. I have agreed and will be delivering a price to the client very soon. I have decided that $800 plus expenses will be my price for the wedding. That will include a DVD of the photos plus about half a dozen prints of their choosing done on my printer. This also includes my time for photo adjustments/editing. As for the engagement photos this will be done around the end of September and I am hoping the fall colours will still be out. As it looks right now, fall might come early this year. I believe $100 per hour would suffice which also includes my time editing and printing plus DVD.

Well that is all for now. I hope everyone had a great and awesome summer! Autumn is just around the corner. I heard September is supposed to be a wetter than normal month…keep that rain gear handy.

Eastern Garter snake tasting the air with it's tongue.

Eastern Garter snake on a large stone of granite.

I opened the gate and there behind the gate laying on the stones was an Eastern Garter snake. I gently picked it up and brought it over to a large rock to photograph it. This was a nice specimen and I am sure I will find some more this summer, or hear about them from my grandmother! Hahaha.

Removing varnish using bio-degradable varnish remover.

Spring has brought new things to me this year. Aside from doing photography I am also working on restoring an old cedar-canvas canoe. So far it’s fun and frustrating at the same time. Slow process of taking out old dry-rotted cedar ribs and putting in the new ones. Eventually it will be finished and ready for a paddler.

In other news, the new website gallery is still in the process of getting implemented. We will be using Coppermine for powering the image gallery. I am currently in the process of doing some spring cleaning with my metadata with my image files and uploading them into each corresponding category on Coppermine. Hopefully soon you will be able to view the new gallery but there is still much to do. I will keep you all updated.

I hope you all are having a wonderful winter and for all you photographers out there…keep up the good work and keep shooting!

Gray Wolf Alpha female.

Another shot of the Alpha female.

A white Timber wolf looking off into the distance.

Well I believe we (my web designer Kevin HumphriesHumphrey) has found a cool little program to add with WordPress. That plugin is zenPhoto. Now it won’t be tomorrow when I get this up and running but hopefully soon. There is a lot to learn about this new gallery program and as for me, it seems to be all french to me. I don’t know squat about CSS coding and the like but for the most part the programming seems to be more into WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get).

Getting the gallery the way I want it to look will take some time for sure but in the end everything will be better organized into categories and should be easier to find photos by using a search form. I don’t know if we will use zenPhoto 100% yet as we are still sporting the idea about using the beast Coppermine, which almost practically does everything but harder to use and code. Wish us luck and hope to see a new gallery in the near future!

So after a couple years trying to get some photographs of mine into the Wolf Centre at Haliburton Forest I have succeeded. Two wolf prints are now on display and are for sale. Hopefully there will be more to come in the future!

On another note I have been busy repairing and varnishing two pairs of snowshoes. They are now drying and should be ready for this weekend to go out and try them. My pair are the Beaver Tail type of shoe and probably around 80 years old and they still look great. The plan is to head out and go snowshoeing with my camera and new camera backpack that I had got for christmas.

While I was at the wolf centre last Sunday I got word that there are three wolf packs running wild on the Haliburton Forest property. I am planning to go out and track one pack to see about getting some photo opportunities. Permission will definitely be needed as this is private property but I don’t foresee any major issues with this. Hopefully a deal can be struck and if I am lucky enough to even see them and get a photo, that could be provided to the Forest. Wish me luck! Who of you have seen wild wolves and were lucky enough to grab a photo?