Sandy Hands
A beaver eyeballs the camera on Ward’s Beach, its wonderful little hands treating a tasty branch like a cob of corn.
Beaver Teeth
A beaver displays bad manners chewing with its mouth open and covered in food, tasty branches pulled into the waters off Ward’s Beach.
Mink Sprint
A mink, exposed in the open, sprints to safety across the thinning ice of Blockhouse Bay (click for larger image).
Round is a Shape
An extremely round First Robin of Spring roots around in the undergrowth of Centre Island, signalling the official start of Spring (equinox notwithstanding).
Swan Song
For the final time ever, space shuttle Discovery appears with the International Space Station over the Toronto skyline. Undocked from the ISS the previous day, Discovery and the ISS form distinct trails as the shuttle’s deorbit preparations increase their separation distance. This is a series of ‘stacked’ images, 5-second exposures laid over top of each […]
Future Perfect
Capping a perfect mission and tracking southward, space shuttle Discovery (left) and the International Space Station (right) disappear into orbital sunset over the Centre Island pier, 16 hours before Discovery’s final landing at Kennedy Space Centre.
Cormorant Revealed
The pristine skull of a cormorant gives up its secrets on Ward’s beach. The top half of the bill is hinged just in front of the eyes, and the lower half of the jaw is jointed in almost the same place to help swallow larger prey.
Black Ice Twilight
An inner harbour frozen solid in early February reflects the twilight hues of Toronto, as seen here between Algonquin and Snake islands. When doing this kind of shoot, it pays to have an extra battery kept handy in a warm pocket somewhere. Click image to view larger.
Day Ice
Scrubbed clean by high winds, the inner harbour is nothing but black ice all the way to the city.
Need For Speed
Turning the skyline into a blur, the ice sailboat prepares to break the sound barrier.
Redtail Leftovers
An unidentified bird skull no larger than a quarter is all that remains of a red-tailed hawk’s dinner on Snake Island.
Leading Edge
Soaring high over Snake Island, a red-tailed hawk shows off the tail feathers that are its namesake.
Monumental Willow
The Great Willow glows in the near-infrared, the sky turning almost jet-black under a cold January high pressure system.
Improbable Valentine
Be my valentine: a snowdrop prepares to bloom improbably early in the season, on February 14th.
Approaching Storm
A wounded mute swan sits on the ice pack of the outer harbour, waiting as a winter storm approaches.
The Village
Like an arctic Smurf village, Ward’s beach assumes improbable shapes amidst a February cold snap.
Old Faithful
Another Ward’s beach geyser erupts into strong sidelight. After each session of shooting in -18°C weather, the cameras would be coated in ice and require careful defrosting for several hours near a constant heat source.
Bighorn Gaze
On a completely Island-unrelated note, a bighorn sheep peers through its horns on a July trip to Alberta’s Icefields.
Home Sweet Home
“The Fence”, erected for Toronto’s G20 summit, essentially shuts down the ferry docks on the city side.
G20 Twilight
Marine security restrictions for Toronto’s G20 meeting leave the inner harbour completely empty on the eve of the summit, looking more like January than June.
Old Man T
A toad relaxes on Third St., completely unperturbed by the various cats circling around it a wary distance.
Wet Sky
Easily mistaken for alien tendrils attacking planet earth, lily pads float on the surface of the trout pond as seen from a remote camera on the bottom of the lagoon.