I headed up to Penetanguishene and the surrounding area with a couple friends in tow in the hopes of finding some winter inspiration. We had fantastic, sunny weather but there was quite the chill in the air. (Yes, I know its the middle of winter, it should be cold.) The Penetanguishene harbour was frozen over and I noticed this large crack leading from the main docks out toward the opposite shore.
Cracked Ice
Speaking of the opposite shore we did check that our while we were here to see what the town looked like from over there. It’s not very often I see this view and sometimes I forget how pretty the town is. And look at those awesome clouds.
Penetanguishene
One of the other stops we made today was in Hillsdale. There is a beautiful run down mill along the river there. It’s crumbling structure makes me sad that it is neglected but what a photographic find!!
Mill at Hillsdale
Isn’t she pretty? Yeah, I know, I’m weird…I like the old, falling apart kind of things. And so ends another fun day with my fellow photographers and playing in the snow.
Nigel Banks and I headed to the Peterborough area to find us some nifty looking mills. Ball’s Mill, which has been converted into someone’s home, was our very first stop of the day. You’ll notice that the name on the building says Baltimore Flour Mill. The mill is located in the town of Baltimore in Northumberland County thus the name on the building. That said, John Ball bought the mill in 1884 and that is why it is called Ball’s Mill. Confused? I know I am.
Balls Mill
Not too far from Balls Mill is Fowld’s Mill, which surprising has also a converted to a home now. (Okay not really surprising since it seems as though quite a few in the province are now someone’s forever home.) Just behind to the left you can see the old water tower from the now defunct tannery.
Fowld’s Mill
From Fowld’s Mill we headed to two mills located very close together. The first is Lang Mill, now part of conservation area. Your standard looking stone mill on the water built in 1846.
Lang Mill
Up river from Lang Mill sits Hope Sawmill, still in operation today. I say this because there is a lot of sawdust gathered on the side of the building, piles of it..it’s kinda hard to miss. Course you can’t see it in the photo since I found a good angle that cut it out. Don’t worry you are not missing out.
Hope Sawmill
Our day ended too quickly but with four different mills photographed it was time for the long drive back home to see what we had captured.
After a wonderful day yesterday shooting a wedding in Huntsville it was time to head home from our weekend away. Of course that meant I could do some landscape photography on the way. Leaving the town of Bala where I stayed for the evening, I drove past a small lake with a small boat house and had to turn the car around to get a few shots. The reflection in the pond and the towering trees really caught my eye.
The Boat Shed
Back in the day my family had a cottage near the town of Coldwater and I thought it would be a great idea to stop in and see the town again. The town has an old flour mill that has been converted into a bistro. I’ve heard many a good thing about it and I hope to taste some of their offerings one day soon.
The Boat Shed
After spending some time in the town I decided to visit an old neighbour of ours. Unfortunately, they were not home so I decided to head home. The cottages in this area a close to a protected marsh land and I thought I would quickly stop there. The entrance to the marsh had an unexpected guard – an osprey with her offspring (which unfortunately I couldn’t get a photograph of).
Osprey with Nest
I didn’t want to get too close or stress her out too much so I only stayed long enough to get a couple photographs. It was an unexpected surprise and great end to the day to find this beautiful bird with her offspring.
We were up and raring to go for our final day in the Ottawa Valley. Nigel wanted to visit Fourth Chute and if you’ve been following my blog for awhile we visited this one back in the fall (click here to see that post). The parking lots were snow covered but we found a spot but the chute but had to walk up to the cascade upriver of the falls.
Cascade Above Fourth Chute
I love this little cascade more than the waterfall itself. The bonus is the easy access and great views. Fourth Chute was covered with snow and ice which made navigating the strong spots to step a little precarious.
Fourth Chute
We spent quite a lot of time here and I tried shooting some panoramas and some detail shots of the icicles. We did eventually have to pack up and head home but with one more pit stop along the 401 – Molson’s Mill. I had read about it in a book and decided it was easy to access, on the way home and not a bad looking mill to boot.
Molson Mill
As you can see the weather had transitioned quite quickly as we headed south west. I’m actually quite happy it did. I love the blue sky behind the green mill.
As the second day dawned we left behind our posh hotel room and headed for the border. It’s just a quick drive over the river into Gatineau, Quebec and then on towards our first waterfall of the day – Chutes de Plaisance.
Chutes de plaisance
A short hike takes us to a lookout halfway down the falls. I found the view to be pretty good but couldn’t quite get a shot I liked. Further down the slope I took the photo above which shows most of the upper portion of the falls. Continuing down to the the river below the bottom of the falls was mostly obscured with only the a small portion visible. Downriver small islands of ice were caught in the dark waters.
From here we drove back to Ottawa to photograph a couple more waterfalls – Rideau Falls and Hogs Back Falls. Rideau was a bit of a bust for me. There was construction around the area so there were only a couple of viewpoints both of which didn’t give me anything worthwhile. I had more luck at Hogs Back Falls.
Hogs Back Falls
It was still a little restrictive but I worked on getting some close ups along with a couple wide angle views. Rain started to fall not long after we set up our tripods and soon we were all out of inspiration so we piled back into the car and headed to one last spot before packing it in for the day.
Watson’s Mill
Watson’s mill, located in Manotick, was still dressed up in its Christmas attire but by the river side it was all business. I found a spot close to the water’s edge and specifically put these reeds in the foreground to give some depth to the photo. The sky wasn’t very interesting so I left as much of it out as possible concentrating on the rapids in the river with the mill in the background.
