Lake Ontario #5, Toronto Landscape Photograph

This nautically inspired, beautifully curved retaining wall is part of the Toronto Water Treatment Plant in the Toronto Beaches. I made this photograph on my recent trip to Toronto, it was such a gorgeous evening for photography! The weather was cooling off for the day and the sky was clear. So clear, in fact, that we were able to see fireworks across the lake. I know! Pretty incredible! We never were able to figure out if they were in St. Catharines or some place in New York State.

{Lake Ontario #5 is now available as a limited edition print in our landscape photography shop}

Lake Ontario #4, Toronto Landscape Photograph

I used to live in Toronto, did I ever tell you that? It was long before I began my series of Seascape Photographs, it almost seems like another lifetime now. I made Lake Ontario #4 on my recent travels to Toronto, early on the first morning I was there. Ridiculously early in fact. I believe it was some time to the tune of 5am. It’s beautiful to see the city so quiet, to watch it start to slowly wake up as the light of the sun softly bathes the streets. Inspiring and full of happiness!

{Lake Ontario #4 is now available as a limited edition print in our landscape photography shop}

Lake Ontario #3, Toronto Landscape Photograph

Recently some members of our Facebook Community suggested that we check out some spots in The Beaches in Toronto. Well, in June, the opportunity finally presented itself and I was able to take a few days to travel to Toronto purely to make photographs. Such a wonderful trip! I couldn’t have done it without Carren, whom I met ten years ago working at iPIX. She shared her home and her couch with me for my three day visit, and for that I am extremely beholden. Thank you Carren!

Toronto, approximately two and a half hours northeast of London, Ontario

The Beaches is an area in Toronto located just to the east of downtown and it features a beautiful, long sandy beach and a charming little community. There’s a boardwalk that runs from one end of the beach to the other and a dog park where puppies splashed in the water. It was wonderful to see so many people out unwinding by the lake at the end of the day.

I have to admit, I was a little uncertain about being away for three days making photographs in an area that I wasn’t entirely familiar with. So before I left I did some research and drew out a loose schedule of the spots that I wanted to visit and the scenes I wanted to photograph. The very first evening I was there, after a sushi dinner with my friend Danielle, I made my first photograph of my trip. According to my pre-production I was to photograph along one of the piers, running perpendicular to the beach, just after sunset as the day was turning into night.

Lake Ontario #2, Toronto Landscape Photograph

I got there nice and early and I was set up and ready to make my photograph long before I knew the time would be right. As I stood on the pier, staring out across the beautiful water, I saw the beginnings of a bright rainbow forming in the east. Slowly but surely it grew and grew, arching across the sky. What a wonderful sight! And then something I could have never predicted happened, the rainbow arched back downwards right in line with the end of the pier I was perched on! I kid you not!

It was at that very moment that I realized that we make our own luck. If I hadn’t planned to be out on that beach, ready to make minimalist photograph Lake Ontario #2, then I would never have had the opportunity to make Lake Ontario #3. Even if I lived in the area, and I saw the rainbow in it’s early stages, I could not have gotten out there in time to make that photograph.

{Limited edition photographs Lake Ontario #2 and Lake Ontario #3 are now available in our landscape photography shop}