Moving On

Seneca@York

I never intended to stay this long. It was just meant to supplement my income as I continued to travel and build a photography business. But teaching at college became part of my life. It grabbed me. I started out teaching just one 3-hour class per week. Instantly I was hooked.

It’s magic when it goes well in a classroom. I walk out of class with way more energy than when I went in. The best students push you. They challenge you to be better. Students that are struggling create opportunities to look at a topic from a different perspective. They make you clarify and break things down into smaller bites. I have had the privilege of walking with them, learning from them, and hopefully inspiring them to continue on their own path. There have been highs and lows over my 24-year teaching career. But I can’t think of a more rewarding and enjoyable job than what I have had at Seneca College.

The college has been such a big part of my life. I met my wife Lori there. I began as a student in 1978 in the Electronic Technology program. After 4 years of kicking and screaming, I finally managed to graduate. It is kind of ironic I ended up teaching. I was such a mediocre student. But in the end, it was a great foundation and I went on to have a successful career in the high-tech industry.

The last 24 years I’ve spent teaching at various campuses. I remember my interview with the academic vice president for my full time position. He asked me when my time was up at Seneca, what did I want to be remembered for? I thought for a moment and then I said, “I just want to be remembered as someone who showed up every day ready to teach and give their all. Nothing more, nothing less”.

He smiled and said, “Keep your focus on your students.” I hope I have lived up to that.

In the end, I have decided to move on so I can live without a timetable. When you teach, you are limited to the summer months for travel. When you are a nature photographer some of the best times for travel are spring, fall and winter. I have many unfinished projects on the go and I’m looking forward to working and traveling during the off seasons.

Ron and Lori at the Arctic Circle sign in the Yukon

It will be a big adjustment. I’m sure I will wake up in early September in a panic wondering where my timetable is…

Seneca Avenue Sign

It’s been a great ride!

Away from Home

Fiordland National Park, New Zealand - Click for larger

It’s a funny feeling to be so far from home. No matter how often we travel there are times when you long for your own bed. The New Zealand experience has been interesting. It certainly is a very different culture. I find some of the locals very charming and welcoming. Others are short with us and make me feel very unwelcome, like we are in the way or somehow invading their space. For a country that depends on tourism, it puzzles me when I see someone in the service industry that clearly does not like people. That can’t be good for business. Of course we run into this kind of thing travelling in our country too. Especially when we say where we are from. You can see our fellow Canadians’ backs go up the moment we mention Toronto.

Curio Bay, New Zealand - Click for larger

One thing for sure, New Zealand is a beautiful place.

Sandfly Bay, New Zealand - Click for larger

Haast Beach Sunrise, New Zealand - Click for larger

Where should we go?

Self-portrait at the 60th parallel - Click for larger

After a very long process, I have been granted a Professional Delevelopment Leave. This will free me from my regular teaching duties at Seneca College for the next academic year. I do have a large list of things I need to accomplish over this time but it will allow me to create my own schedule for the next little while.

Seneca@York - Click for larger

It is difficult to plan anything for a leave until you get confirmation. This was my 3rd year in a row to apply so I was not counting on it until I got it in writing. With that milestone behind us we can now make some plans.

Canoe on Georgian Bay - Click for larger

I’m still a bit overwhelmed with all the possibilities. Lori and I have spent the better part of the last 20 years concentrating on Canada. We could easily spend the next 20 years on the same subject and not even come close to covering it all. We will continue to explore and expand our knowledge of our great country but I’m wondering, where else should we go?

Lori at Alexandra Falls, NWT - Click for larger

So I’m asking you, where is your favourite place in the world? Why? What is the best time of year to visit? More to come...

Our Second Book!

We have released our second book. It's called “CANADA a photographic journey”.


This book is a subset of the photographs from our first book called "Canada Through Our Eyes". The new book was created for Seneca College to use as a gift for international visitors to the college or for staff and faculty to hand out as they travel around the globe. It includes an introduction by Seneca's President, David Agnew and closing notes about the College.

Online the new book has already outsold our first one and it is now listed as a Best Seller on the Blurb – Print On Demand website: http://www.blurb.com/bookstore/popular

If you know of anyone who is looking for a unique gift idea for visiting clients and guests, let us know. We would be happy to create a custom Canadian themed book for you. Contact us for details.

One Million Kilometers

Road Across Reed Lake - Click for larger

That's how many I figure we have driven so far in our lives. If you calculate mileage for the average vehicle we've driven, it costs about $10 for every 100 kilometers for gas. So let's do the math... that's $100,000 spent in gas. I have spent another $100,000 or so for the purchase of the vehicles. Add in the service, insurance and upkeep and we are probably looking at $250,000 so far. How about the cost of flying, ferries, train rides etc?

Old Truck - Click for larger

It costs a lot to travel. Time, money and wear and tear on your body add up over the years.

We make our decisions about how we travel based on costs and practicality. Could we afford an RV or a truck camper?

RV at Summit Lake - Click for larger

Yes we probably could. Would we be more comfortable with something like this? Of course we would. But it would triple the fuel used. All this weighs heavy on my mind. I don’t know a better way to do what I do: making photographic images of Canada. We drive and camp in a van sacrificing a bit of comfort for the sake of gas mileage. But is that enough? I love to visit the wild out of the way places we find in Canada. I wonder though at the impact we are having on the earth. My images, so I’m told, encourage and inspire people to travel.

Highway 60 - Click for larger

But do my images inspire them to preserve and protect the environment? We all want to have our cake and eat it too. I hope someday soon there will be a solar powered 4X4 pickup truck capable of hauling a camper while rolling down the highway at 120 kph. Until then we will need to make the best choices we can.

Muncho Lake Campsite - Click for larger

So what else can we do? My vegan friends tell me that reducing the amount of meat I eat will reduce my negative effect on the environment much more than driving less. But after giving up meat for a few years I found myself craving steak. I don’t want to eliminate meat altogether again but certainly could cut back.

Cattle - Click for larger

We have made changes at home. Our new high efficiency furnace uses much less natural gas and with a tankless water heater we only heat water when we need it. New widows in the basement and second floor have also improved the energy efficiency of our house.

Abandoned House - Click for larger

Maybe we should go back to travelling by bike. I could get a trailer to carry the camera gear although it might be tough on mountain roads.

Nanjing, China Street - Click for larger

We will continue to travel and work. It’s what we do. At the same time, we need to find new more efficient ways to get to where we need to go.

Dreaming of Home

We have driven over 20,000 km by now. We are weary and dreaming of home. The places we have passed through are a blur. The bad memories are fading. The good memories are growing stronger - like the wolf at the side of the Dempster avoiding my gaze and my camera. In Dawson I didn’t bother to wash the mud off the van even though I passed right by the most used car wash in the country. No, I just let the rain slowly reveal the license plate. We are so privileged to live in Canada.

Quetico Provincial Park - Click for larger

I need to do more to protect it. We undervalue and overuse everything.

Osprey - Click for larger

It’s been a wonderful trip. Sometimes I wake up and think I’m already home. My bed, my shower and all the comforts waiting there. But still, it’s out here where I really feel alive.

Sand River Beach - Click for larger

By the time you read this, we will have had some down time at a northern beach and made the long drive home. The dream of the next trip has begun.

Stormy Weather

I'm sitting in a Motel in Jasper watching the rain turn to snow. A group of 10 guys on Harley Davidsons from Wyoming are waiting out the weather. They are in good spirits in spite of the snowstorm they drove through to get here. They reminded Lori of the movie “Wild Hogs” but I think these guys are the real deal, not wannabe bikers like John Travolta. I chatted with one of them at breakfast. He said the trip up the Icefields Parkway was miserable. I found it hard in a van. I can’t imagine what it would be like on a Harley. Blowing snow, sleet and rain mixed with gusts of cold wind.

Motorcycles - Click for larger

We felt a bit overcharged for the room. The restaurant’s food was well below average. Can’t win them all I guess. We stopped at a place with cabins before we stopped here. They wanted $190 for the night. I’m a photographer, not an Oil Barron. We continued on to this place that shall rename nameless. It was a bit cheaper but not cheap. Some day I think I will write a book about all the bad places we have stayed. I will probably need a lawyer though so on second thought, maybe I will just keep a list of places I will never ever stay at again. It’s not a very long list thankfully but we have stayed in some winners. (See Lori’s previous post that mentions the dead lizard.)

We drove through some of the most spectacular scenery on the planet on what must be one of the top 5 drives in the world. We couldn’t see a thing. It has been moody, glum at times and ever so often spectacular light. We are still enjoying it. It’s not always easy. The other day, I was trying to make something of the pitiful light I had. I stopped at the side of Waterfowl Lake in Banff National Park. Just as I set up, it started to rain. Lori came out with an umbrella to help keep my equipment dry. I dragged my camera bag over to get it under cover. It was open and my brand new 24-105 mm lens (the one I had just replaced because my old one just gave up the ghost) the brand new, never been used still squeaky clean right out of the $1400.00 box rolled out of the bag and was rolling toward the lake. It stopped about 2 inches from complete disaster. It gently rolled up to a rock and sat there. I dusted it off, put it on the camera and got back to work. As my friend Hal once said to me when his camera toppled over, “hey, if it can’t take it, what good is it?”

Sh-t happens.

Banff National Park - Click for larger

If you do this long enough, you will drop stuff. You will fall and scrape your knee, twist an ankle. It has taken me a long time to learn how to do this, the travelling photography/massive road trip thing. The nagging self-doubt and the inner noise in my head that is all things good and bad never stops. You learn to listen to your real voice, the creative one that never ever rests.

Mount Chephren, Banff - Click for larger

Life is good!

Friendly Manitoba!

The trip is going nicely. We finally made our way out of Ontario. It’s such a big Province; it takes days to get to the northern border. As we approached Kenora, we drove through some flooded areas on the road and stopped in to take some photographs in Rushing River Provincial Park.

Rushing River Provincial Park - Click for larger

It rained so hard the night before we were happy to be in a motel.
We travelled to our friends Frieda and Dennis Fast’s place in Kleefeld Manitoba. Both are wonderful photographers. I had the pleasure of sharing a trip to the Seal River in northern Manitoba with the Fasts last November. (See previous posts) We arrived mid-afternoon and had a great visit talking non-stop through dinner. They took us for a drive through the Tall Grass Prairie Preserve and we photographed Western Prairie Fringed Orchids. It is the only place in Canada this endangered flower exists.

Western Prairie Fringed-Orchid - Click for larger

The next morning we got up early and worked the Tall Grass Prairie while Dennis and Frieda ran some errands. We dropped in to see Christie and Laura who work in the preserve, had a good chat and then headed back to have brunch with the Fasts. It was another good meal with endless conversation. They are such great hosts!

Our next major stop was the Chaplin/Morse area of Saskatchewan. This area off Hwy 1 is packed with birds and wildlife. We camped at Morse. This is not a quiet place to camp. It’s clean and well looked after but it’s right on the train tracks and the freight trains come through all night long with horns-a-blasting. Makes for interesting dreams though. I love working this area. There are not many people and you can work right from the car with little interruption from other vehicles. We see thousands of Avocets and some still are nesting.

Avocet on Nest - Click for larger

From Morse, we headed to The Great Sandhills of Saskatchewan. Unfortunately it was raining so hard and the roads were so wet, we didn’t get in to see them. We wanted to photograph this area again and we wanted to see the signs they put up using some of our images. If you have ever driven in Saskatchewan “Gumbo” you will understand why we didn’t risk the roads! Maybe we can drop in on the way back. On the way south from Leader, we stopped at this old one room schoolhouse - The St. John’s School Historical Site.

St. John's School Provincial Heritage Site - Click for larger

We continued on to Dinosaur Provincial Park in Alberta. It’s hot and buggy. Lots of mosquitoes! After getting a campsite we scout for the evening shoot. We do a hike after diner. It really is an interesting landscape but the bugs!

Hoodoos - Click for larger

We have decided to move on tomorrow. Too many bugs and too many screeching kids! We will head to Calgary to replace my ailing 24-105mm lens and then head to the Rockies.

It’s a Big Small World!

Finally we had everything packed into the van and headed out the driveway around 2 p.m.

The Loaded Van

We drove north on Hwy 400/69 stopping at Nobel where Lori took over driving. A little north of Pointe Aux Baril traffic stopped. A woman parked at the side of the road said there was a bad accident and the road would be closed for another 6 hours. If we wanted to continue, we would have to go back to Parry Sound, go east to Sundridge, north to North Bay and then head west on Hwy 17. At that point, I thought it best to just camp for the night and try again in the morning. We drove back south to Killbear and got a campsite at the edge of the beach. Very nice. We had a bite to eat and then I wandered over to the rocks to take a few snaps. I was shooting a landscape when a man and woman with a little girl came by. The woman and the girl sat right in the middle of my scene so I asked them if they minded if I take their photo. She looked unsure and asked her husband if it was ok. He said, "Sure", and Lori asked them to sign a release. I shot quickly as the light was changing. My 24-105mm lens is acting up. It gives an error. Seems the contacts between the lens and camera have a problem. In spite of all that, I think I got a good shot.

Killbear Provincial Park - Click for larger

When I handed the man my release he looked at it and said, “Scarborough eh? Do you know Marc Crabtree?”
"Yes I do!" It's a small world. After chatting with them for a while Lori and I headed back to camp. We played a little cribbage and then went to bed. Sleeping in the van worked really well. There is lots of room and it is surprisingly comfortable. We just need to make sure it’s level next time!

The next 2 days we spent on Manitoulin Island. We had a nice visit with Lori’s Mom.

Canola Field on Manitoulin - Click for larger

The Farm

On Thursday we drove to Pukaskawa National Park. After setting up camp we lazed on the beach. What a great way to spend Canada Day. I love this place. It’s so rugged and beautiful. After dinner at our campsite we walked back out to North Beach. It had clouded over but I shot anyway. It was very dramatic.

Pukaskwa National Park - Click for larger

Pukaskwa National Park - Click for larger

The back of the van makes a good platform for doing backups!

Doing Backups

The next day we moved on to Sleeping Giant Provincial Park near Thunder Bay. Our campsite was so tiny there was barely space to squeeze the van in beside the picnic table. Good thing we didn't need to pitch a tent! After dinner we shot the cliffs at the edge of Lake Superior.

Cliffs in Sleeping Giant - Click for larger

From Sleeping Giant, we headed to Lake of the Woods. It was stormy so we got a motel with WiFi. Nice to be inside when it’s stormy outside!

Tomorrow we will head further west. Our next major stop will be the Tall Grass Prairie Preserve in southern Manitoba.

Planning

It's my favourite part of travelling - looking at maps searching for interesting places to go. I get a calendar out and plot our course and think about where we want to be and when. We start to buy things like a cargo container for the roof of the van and camping stuff. We need a new dining tent and I would like to get some new camera accessories. Nothing major, just some little things. Oh, and I need new hiking boots and maybe another pair of shorts. I have recently replaced my worn out Tilley hat. It was guaranteed for life so the store replaced it for free.

The Worn Out 20-year old hat - Click for larger

We talk endlessly about our trip. I enjoy the planning as much as the trip. It’s kind of like buying a lottery ticket and then planning on how you will spend it except we really get to do this!

I make lists. Lists, it turns out are very important. Without them you forget stuff, you get to remote places and look for something as mundane as black pepper for your morning eggs and can’t find it. We usually do a short trip in the spring. It helps us refine our loading technique for the van and get a sense of what we need and what needs replacing. Lori is the van arranger/rearranger. She just has a way of sorting things out so they are accessible. When you travel as much as we do, things wear out much faster. Most people use a tent for 3 – 4 weeks tops per year. We might use ours 10 – 12 weeks per year.

The Tent - Click for larger

The Dining Tent - Click for larger

We will need guide books on birds, plants, and flowers, with us along with maps and travel brochures, and notebooks and pens for our journals.

We also need to look after things at the house. We have great neighbours and family members who look after our mail and check on the place regularly. As far as worrying about valuables in the house, well, they are all with us in the van. Cameras, lenses, computers, they all get loaded up and make the trip with us. We turn off the water, empty and turn off the fridge.

I have 2 Mac Book Pro laptops, 3 TB of storage, cables, power cords, battery chargers, cleaning supplies, tripods and filters. All have a place, all will be used. It takes three backpacks for camera equipment.

Bear spray. Still need to get some bear spray...

Bear Warning Sign - Click for larger