Iain Leitch Photography

 My brother and I would always go camping as a family when we were kids. Since we've grown up, we still try to go camping together when we can, which averages out to about once per summer. However, this had all been front country camping (car camping). We had never been back country camping together before, so it was time.  When we were planning, we wanted something in the middle of where we each live. Because I'm in Ottawa and he is near Kitchener, we figured that Kawartha Highlands Provincial Park would be a good bet. It's a bit more developed than Algonquin and was only about a three-hour drive for each of us.   I left home around 7 am and got to the EV charger in Madoc around 9:20. I charged for a bit up to 88% and then made it to the access point on Long Lake around 11:20. My brother showed up around 11:50 as he hit some traffic going around Toronto.  We loaded up the boat and were on the water by 12. Our campsite for the night was on Sparkler Lake, it's a ...

 Mid-week in April, my wife and I took a trip down to Montreal from Ottawa to go see Lewis Capaldi in concert. We decided to make a little vacation out of it, as it's not often that we get the chance to head down to Montreal.  We took the train from Ottawa to Montreal the morning of the concert and arrived in town just after 12:30. It was too early to check into our hotel, so we went out for lunch at an Irish pub, that was just a few streets over from our hotel. The lunch portions were huge and very fairly priced.  After lunch we were able to check into our hotel early, which was convenient. We dropped our bags and then walked down to the Old Port, just to wander. We ended up at the waterfront, which was pretty, and then took the subway back to our hotel to relax a bit before dinner.  We went out for a sit down pizza dinner with a friend who lives in town, so it was nice to catch up with them. After dinner we headed down to the Bell Centre for the concert. We were se...

During the month of March, I went out twice to take photos, though only one trip produced anything worth posting. The second trip was more of a bird identification outing. I was hoping to add some new species to my life list, but came up empty.  The first trip, however, was more successful. The opening photo was taken at Rideau Falls in Ottawa. I've visted before on my bike in the summer, but this was the first time visiting in the winter and with my camera. It would have been nice to have my ND filter and a tripod along, but made do with what I had.  The remaining photos in this post are from Bates Island, which straddles the border between Ontario and Quebec. It is a well known spot for surfing during the summer, due to the standing waves, which is what the second photo is of. The third photo is of a Bald Eagle. I had been scanning the water for birds and the trees for owls, when my wife spotted a large bird perched at the top of one of the trees. After circling the tree for...

 This New Year's I set myself a goal of taking photos once a month, as I had noticed that I hadn't been as into photography the past little while as I had been in the past. I thought that this goal would help with that, and it sure has.  The photo subjects have been mainly birds during the months of January and February as they are the easiest colourful thing to find and photography in what are normally quite grey months of the year.  The unfortunate thing about this strategy is that you end up taking photos of a lot of the same species each time you go out, as only so many birds over winter here in Ottawa. Nevertheless you get what you can this time of year and make do. I took most of my photos these past two months in two locations: Fletcher Wildlife Garden here in Ottawa, and then out in the countryside southwest of Barrhaven. The countryside was where I found the more winter-specific species to the region such as the Snow Bunting, Snowy Owl and Lapland Longspur, ...

I wanted to get one more large hike in before winter, so I went back to Frontenac Provincial Park. I had been once already this year, back in September. That time I went solo, as my wife was away on a trip. This time, I was able to bring my wife on the hike. We got a day pass from the Ottawa Public Library (check out your local library — they have so much stuff!) and booked our DVP over the phone, as I couldn’t figure out how to book one with the library pass online. We left Ottawa around 8:45am and got to the parking lot in the park just before 11. We parked at the Salmon Lake parking lot. From there, we hiked down the Corridor Trail until it met up with the Dedication Trail, which we went South on. At the end of that trail, we turned right and continued down towards Doe Lake. From there, we went around Doe Lake and met up with the Corridor Trail again, which took us back to the Salmon Lake parking lot. In total, it was 13.25 km in length and took us 3 hours and 36 minutes to comple...