Iain Leitch Photography

Our latest camping trip was to Murphy's Point Provincial Park on June 19–20. We stayed at site 197, which we'd stayed at before back in 2021. Murphy's Point is great as it's about a 1.5-hour drive from my home in Ottawa, and it's a well-managed and well-kept park. I find there are always people around, but it never books up fully, and the sites are spread far enough apart to make it feel private. We like site 197 as it's a bit on its own, and is right beside a water tap and a short walk to the vault toilets, or a bit longer walk to the comfort station if that's more your style. Once we had camp all set up, we wanted to go for a hike before it rained, as it was calling for scattered storms later that evening. Since my wife and I had been to this park before, we had done most of the trails except for Loon Lake (which is a loop) and McParlan House Trail (which is a there-and-back trail that branches off the Loon Lake Loop). My wife is pregnant, so we wanted som...

 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, ...

 For my birthday weekend, I went up to Marten River Provincial Park for the first time. I had a site right on the water, which made it easy to launch my canoe. The first day I paddled up Marian Creek which is where the first three photos are from. The initial idea was to get all the way to Marian Lake but the creek narrowed, got shallow and had to many log jams to make it all the way up.  After the canoe trip I went on a hike in the park on the Transition Trail. This train is rather long at nearly 5km but was full of things to see including a 350 year old White Pine. During the hike I came upon a large flock of mostly warblers which is where photos 4-12 are from.  The final three photos are just ones I took thought the trip. This includes the water access at the campsite which was foggy one morning, a nice photo of the Canadian Shield and a starry night. Common Merganser Caterpillar Bumble Bee Pine Warbler Pine Warbler Lichen Blue Jay Ruby Throated Humming Bird Vireo of s...

 I recently had the chance to go to Algonquin Provincial Park for a day trip during the week. This meant slightly less crowds at the trail heads. I did two different trails, while at the park, Whiskey Rapids and Peck Lake. Each trail is roughly 2.5ish KM in length and moderate difficulty.  The Whiskey Rapids trail, starts off going downhill really fast, then follows the river for a good distance leading to the rapids the trail is named after, before heading back up to the trailhead in a much more reasonable ascent. On this trail I was able to take a photo of the White-throated Sparrow and the first two mushroom photos. The second trail, Peck Lake is a loop trail that goes around Peck Lake which is rather small and more of a good size pond compared to a lake. This trail had a little up and down but was fairly flat overall. The trail has multiple spots that you can use to go right down to the water and have a look around. The remaining photos are all from that trail.   ...