Marc-o-graphy

Tumblr home of my original photos since 2017! 500px / IG

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Dancing on the Edge

📍 Circuit Gilles Villeneuve ⧉, Montréal, Québec, Canada

I caught this chaotic little moment just as the field compressed into Turn 1 and everything suddenly felt way tighter than it probably should have. Nico Varrone in the #22 Van Amersfoort car had a bit of a fishtail coming back onto the racing line after nearly overshooting the corner, and for a split second it looked like Emerson Fittipaldi Jr. in the #20 AIX Racing machine might end up sharing way more space with him than either driver wanted. Meanwhile, Martinius Stenshorne’s #14 Rodin Motorsport car sat right in the middle of the mess, threading through the crowd like this was all perfectly normal. From where I was sitting, it felt like one of those motorsport moments where everything is happening at once — tires inches apart, tiny corrections at impossible speed, and somehow everyone still making it through.

One of the things I loved about the F2 race was how scrappy and unpredictable it felt compared to the polished calm of the top category. The margins were tiny, the aggression level were high, and moments like this were a reminder that racing is often won in the little battles. Watching a car fishtail itself back into line while another driver commits to the same bit of asphalt is exactly the kind of “that almost went badly” drama that makes photographing motorsport so much fun.

For this frame, I leaned into the sense of compression and chaos with the crop. I deliberately tightened things up to make the field feel crowded and emphasize just how little breathing room these drivers had entering the corner, while also cropping out the top edge of the safety fence that crept into the bottom of the original shot. Compositionally, the staggered placement of the three cars gives the frame motion and tension — Varrone’s #22 pulling the eye from the left, Fittipaldi Jr.’s neon green #20 balancing the right side, and Stenshorne’s Rodin car anchoring the foreground chaos. Shooting long at 300mm compressed the perspective, making the cars feel even more tightly packed than they already were, and the fast shutter speed froze the tiny steering corrections and tire detail right at the peak of the moment.

Camera: Pentax K-3 Lens: HD PENTAX-DA 55-300mm F4-5.8 ED WR 300mm / ƒ/5.8 / 1/1000s / ISO 200 Taken: May 23, 2026

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Aggressive Braking

📍 Circuit Gilles Villeneuve ⧉, Montréal, Québec, Canada

There’s something satisfyingly chaotic about this moment. I caught Isack Hadjar’s #6 Red Bull right as a small mistake turned into a much bigger moment through the Senna curves at the 2026 Montréal Grand Prix. In this shot, the harsh afternoon light catches the smoke from tires after he pushed his car too deep into the corner. He ended up in the paved escape area inside the complex before rejoining after the curves. From Grandstand 12, you get a front-row seat to these tiny racing errors that suddenly snowball.

Montréal is one of the trickiest circuits for braking in Formula 1, and moments like this are exactly why. Drivers hammer from huge speeds into tight chicanes, balancing maximum braking with razor-thin margins for lockups and instability. Tire smoke like this only hangs around for a heartbeat, making it one of those blink-and-you-miss-it motorsport moments. Grandstand 12 is famous for putting fans close to the action through the Senna complex, where aggressive curb use, twitchy exits, and tiny mistakes suddenly become very dramatic.

I got lucky with this one. The camera was set to shutter priority at 1/1000s to freeze the action and I was zoomed out at 150mm. If I had kept the lens zoomed in to it’s full 300mm, I probably would have missed it. Even after cropping to roughly 45% of the original frame, I felt the composition still worked because it follows the racing line and leaves space for the car to move into, keeping some tension in the image. I also dialed in −1 EV exposure compensation to deal with the harsh afternoon light and hold detail in the smoke and reflective bodywork rather than letting highlights blow out. At ƒ/6.3 and ISO 200, I had enough depth of field to keep the whole car sharp while still prioritizing shutter speed for the action.

Camera: Pentax K-3

Lens: HD PENTAX-DA 55-300mm F4-5.8 ED WR

150mm / ƒ/6.3 / 1/1000s / ISO 200

Taken: May 22, 2026

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Heron at Seal Bay IV

📍 Seal Bay Regional Nature Park, Courtenay, British Columbia⧉

This is a tighter crop from the previous photo I posted of this Great Blue Heron at Seal Bay. I really liked the wider composition with the mountains in the background, but I also wanted to revisit the frame and focus entirely on the bird itself. Cropping in closer puts a lot more attention on the heron’s posture and that slow, deliberate stride through the shallows. The calm water and soft blue tones keep the minimalist coastal feel, but this version feels much more intimate.

Great Blue Herons always look incredibly focused when they hunt. They move so carefully through shallow water that every step feels calculated, and then suddenly they can strike with incredible speed. Up close, they also have this almost prehistoric appearance, especially with the long neck, sharp bill, and those thin head plumes trailing behind them.

Compositionally, the tighter crop changes the balance of the image quite a bit compared to the wider version. Removing most of the mountain backdrop makes the heron the clear subject while emphasizing its shape and texture against the smooth water. I kept the bird slightly off-center with space in front of its direction of movement so the frame still feels open despite the tighter composition. Shooting at 300mm compressed the scene nicely and isolated the heron against the soft background layers, while the low angle helped preserve the subtle reflection beneath its feet. The 1/800s shutter speed froze the heron mid-step, and shooting at f/8 kept detail throughout the feathers and face while maintaining soft separation in the background. The muted coastal light and calm water really helped preserve the quiet atmosphere from the original scene even in this closer crop.

Camera: Pentax K-3 Lens: HD PENTAX-DA 55-300mm F4-5.8 ED WR 300mm / ƒ/8 / 1/800s / ISO 200 Taken: April 18, 2026

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Heron Beneath the Peaks

📍 Seal Bay Regional Nature Park, Courtenay, British Columbia⧉

I spent a good part of the afternoon following this Great Blue Heron along the shoreline at Seal Bay, but this was the frame I really wanted. The heron was already a great subject on its own, but I was specifically trying to line it up with the distant snow-covered mountains across the Strait of Georgia.

Great Blue Herons are incredibly patient hunters and can stay perfectly still for long stretches before suddenly striking at fish or other prey. Seeing one framed against the mountains really emphasized the scale of the coastline and how connected these ecosystems feel.

Compositionally, I kept the heron low in the frame with lots of negative space so the mountains and open water would feel just as important as the bird itself. Shooting at 300mm compressed the distant layers nicely and helped bring the snowy peaks visually closer to the subject. The low angle flattened the water surface and emphasized the subtle reflection beneath the heron, while the calm conditions kept everything soft and minimal. The 1/800s shutter speed froze the bird mid-step, and shooting at f/8 gave enough depth of field to hold detail in both the heron and the distant landscape while keeping that soft atmospheric separation. I dodged the heron a bit to help it stand out against the cooler tones. I also adjusted the framing slightly in post-processing by bringing the mountain peak down a bit to keep the layered backdrop balanced within the frame.

Camera: Pentax K-3 Lens: HD PENTAX-DA 55-300mm F4-5.8 ED WR 300mm / ƒ/8 / 1/800s / ISO 200 Taken: April 18, 2026

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A Long Way Back Up

📍 Seal Bay Regional Nature Park, British Columbia, Canada ⧉

One of the trails leading down to the beach at Seal Bay Regional Nature Park had exactly the kind of lush Pacific Northwest atmosphere I imagined photographing here. The forest felt alive with ferns spilling down the steep banks, towering evergreens overhead, and this large rock awkwardly sitting right along the edge of the path. What really caught my attention was the winding shape of the trail and railing as they disappeared deeper into the woods. It had this inviting “keep going and see what’s around the corner” feeling to it. At the same time, hoping that what was around the corner wasn’t a large furry critter. The hike back up afterward was steep enough that I promised myself I’d start exercising once I got home from vacation.

Seal Bay protects one of the last relatively untouched coastal Douglas fir ecosystems in the Comox Valley. The combination of mild coastal temperatures and constant moisture creates ideal conditions for dense fern growth like this, giving parts of the forest an almost prehistoric look. Walking these trails felt a bit like stepping into another world.

I shot this handheld using a wide focal length to exaggerate the depth and winding nature of the trail. The railing works nicely as a leading line through the frame while the large rock helps anchor the foreground and adds a bit of visual tension. For processing, I tried something a little different than my usual approach. Starting from the original image, I created a black-and-white layer with the greens and yellows darkened while pushing the reds brighter, then applied it as an overlay layer. That helped deepen the greenery and tree trunks without making the image feel muddy. I selectively dodged parts of the ferns to bring back some brightness and texture before adding a subtle Orton effect for that soft atmospheric glow. Combined with the cool forest light, it gave the scene the moody I remembered it having.

Camera: Pentax K-3

Lens: smc PENTAX-DA 18-135mm F3.5-5.6 ED AL [IF] DC WR

18mm / ƒ/3.5 / 1/60s / ISO 400 Taken: April 18, 2026

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Hunter on the Shore

📍Seal Bay Regional Nature Park, Courtenay, British Columbia ⧉

One of the first things that caught my eye when I reached the beach at Seal Bay was this Bald Eagle hopping and gliding from rock to rock along the shoreline. It looked completely focused, scanning the tide pools and exposed stones for a meal. The whole shoreline felt calm and muted under the overcast light, but the eagle brought this sudden burst of energy into the scene. Watching it work the beach eventually led me farther down the shore where I spotted a Great Blue Heron which I took several pictures of (here and here).

Bald Eagles are incredible shoreline hunters and opportunists. While people often imagine them soaring high over forests and lakes, they spend a surprising amount of time along coastal areas picking through tidal zones for fish, crabs, and anything edible left behind by the receding water. Canada is home to a larger Bald Eagle population than the United States, thanks in part to the country’s vast and still relatively intact coastal and northern ecosystems. British Columbia is one of the species’ strongest coastal strongholds, with rich marine habitats and massive salmon runs supporting huge numbers of eagles year-round.

I framed this shot to keep the eagle slightly off-centre while leaving space in front of its movement so the image feels active and open rather than cramped. The rocks scattered across the foreground and background help create depth and give context to the shoreline environment the eagle was hunting in. Shooting at 300mm let me stay back far enough not to disturb the bird while still filling the frame with the action. The shutter speed of 1/400s was just enough to freeze most of the motion while keeping a slight natural softness in the wing movement, which adds a bit of life to the image instead of making it feel overly static. The overcast coastal light also helped preserve detail in both the dark feathers and bright white head without harsh contrast.

Camera: Pentax K-3

Lens: HD PENTAX-DA 55-300mm F4-5.8 ED WR

300mm / ƒ/5.8 / 1/400s / ISO 100

Taken: April 18, 2026

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Heron at Seal Bay II

📍 Seal Bay Regional Nature Park, Courtenay, British Columbia, Canada ⧉

I spent a good chunk of the afternoon following this Great Blue Heron up and down the shoreline at Seal Bay, trying to keep pace while staying low and quiet enough not to spook it. Watching these birds hunt is honestly mesmerizing — they move so slowly and deliberately that every step feels calculated. Then suddenly, strike. I was excited when it finally caught a small fish, even if the prize came bundled with a string of seaweed.

Great Blue Herons are incredible hunters and can stand perfectly still for surprisingly long periods before striking with lightning-fast precision. Despite looking elegant and almost delicate, they’re opportunistic predators that will eat fish, amphibians, crustaceans, and even small mammals when given the chance. Their long necks work almost like a coiled spring, which is exactly what lets them spear prey so effectively in shallow water. Seeing one working the shoreline like this always reminds me how prehistoric these birds look up close.

Compositionally, I really like how the heron’s body forms this long sweeping S-curve across the frame, leading directly toward the catch. The low shooting angle helps flatten the perspective and emphasizes the reflection in the water, while the soft overcast light keeps the tones muted and natural without harsh shadows. Shooting at 300mm compressed the scene nicely and isolated the bird against the smooth water background, helping every detail in the feathers stand out. The fast shutter speed of 1/800s was a good choice here because it froze the exact moment the heron lifted its catch from the water while still preserving a tiny bit of movement in the dripping seaweed and ripples. Stopping down to f/8 also gave enough depth of field to keep most of the bird sharp from head to tail while maintaining a pleasingly soft background separation.

Camera: Pentax K-3

Lens: HD PENTAX-DA 55-300mm F4-5.8 ED WR

300mm / ƒ/8 / 1/800s / ISO 200

Taken: April 18, 2026

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Heron at Seal Bay

📍 Seal Bay Regional Nature Park, Courtenay, British Columbia, Canada ⧉

I spent a good chunk of time following this Great Blue Heron up and down the shoreline at Seal Bay, watching it move in that slow, deliberate way they have. The beach was incredibly calm that afternoon, with the ocean almost glassy and the distant blue haze across the Strait of Georgia creating this soft layered backdrop. Every few minutes the heron would pause, completely still, then take a few careful steps through the shallows.

Great Blue Herons are the largest herons in North America, and despite their size they can stay motionless for ridiculously long periods while hunting fish, crabs, and small aquatic animals. Their slow stalking behaviour is all about patience and precision. They also have specialized neck vertebrae that let them strike incredibly fast when prey gets close enough. Seeing one this relaxed along the shoreline felt like getting a small glimpse into its routine without disturbing it too much.

Composition-wise, I really liked giving the heron a lot of negative space to stand against. Keeping the bird low and slightly off-center emphasizes the scale and emptiness of the water. The soft gradient of blues in the background creates separation without distracting from the subject, and the subtle reflection in the water helps anchor the frame. Shooting at 300mm let me isolate the heron nicely while compressing the distant background into those smooth layers of colour. The 1/800s shutter speed was fast enough to keep the bird sharp despite subtle movement, while shooting at f/8 helped maintain detail across the feathers and face. ISO 200 kept noise minimal and preserved those smooth tonal transitions in the water and sky. The long focal length combined with the calm conditions really helped create that minimalist coastal wildlife feel. Additional post processing emphasized the layering in the mountains, added sharpness and dodged the body area to bring out details.

Camera: Pentax K-3

Lens: HD PENTAX-DA 55-300mm F4-5.8 ED WR

300mm / ƒ/8 / 1/800s / ISO 200

Taken: April 18, 2026

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Cloud Echoes Island

📍 Qualicum Beach (West Qualicum Beach near Seaside Nature Park – Faye Smith Memorial Pavilion), British Columbia ⧉

There’s something really satisfying about scenes where nature accidentally rhymes with itself. Standing on the rocky shoreline at West Qualicum Beach, the shape of that single cloud hovering over the horizon immediately echoed the silhouette of what appears to be Hornby Island below it, with a faint sliver of the Comox Peninsula visible beyond. The tide being far out exposed all the texture in the foreground: driftwood, pebbles, shells, and the remains of old coastal trees weathered by salt and wind. The whole scene felt calm and spacious, with that crisp spring coastal air and deep blue sky stretching forever over the Strait of Georgia.

Hornby Island is known for its rugged coastline, hidden coves, and laid-back Gulf Islands atmosphere. On especially clear days from the Qualicum area, distant landforms across the strait can stack together visually, creating layered horizons like this one. Coastal driftwood like the logs scattered across this beach often travels long distances during winter storms before finally washing ashore again.

Compositionally, I thought the image would works because everything quietly funnels your attention toward the island-cloud pairing. The dark driftwood in the foreground creates strong leading lines that guide the eye diagonally through the frame, while the large stump acts almost like a waypoint before your gaze lands on the horizon. Shooting at 55mm compressed the distance just enough to visually tighten the relationship between the cloud and the island, helping emphasize their similar shapes. Using ƒ/13 kept details sharp throughout the frame, from the foreground logs to the distant shoreline, while the low ISO preserves the clean gradients in the sky and subtle textures along the beach. The darker framing elements from the trees on the left also help balance the open negative space of the sky.

Camera: Pentax K-3

Lens: HD PENTAX-DA 55-300mm F4-5.8 ED WR

55mm / ƒ/13 / 1/500s / ISO 100

Taken: April 17, 2026

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Shoreline Encounter

📍 Qualicum Beach, British Columbia ⧉

A walk along the shoreline at Qualicum Beach to photograph the seals, turned into an unexpected encounter when this young deer wandered onto the rocky beach. It moved along the waterline completely unfazed, occasionally stopping to look around before continuing down the shore.

One frame catches the deer exploring the shoreline, another freezes it as it ran across the stones with surprising speed and balance, while a third caught it glancing back towards my wife who was sitting farther up the beach.

Black-tailed deer are common across Vancouver Island ⧉ and have adapted well to living close to towns and beaches. They’re excellent swimmers and are often seen moving between forest edges, shorelines, and residential areas in search of food. Along the coast they’ll sometimes feed on washed-up seaweed and other shoreline vegetation. Despite their calm appearance, they stay alert constantly — the twitching ears and quick glances in these photos are a good reminder of how aware they are of everything happening around them.

These shots lean heavily on subject isolation and timing. Using a long telephoto lens compressed the background nicely and helped separate the deer from the shoreline and water. The shallow depth of field in the first image creates a layered scene with the deer sharp in the foreground while the distant figure stays soft enough not to distract. The side profile images work well because of the clean horizon and open negative space around the animal, while the running frame benefits from a fast shutter speed that freezes the motion cleanly without losing the sense of movement. Shooting from a lower angle also helped keep the perspective more intimate and natural.

Camera: Pentax K-3 Lens: HD PENTAX-DA 55-300mm F4-5.8 ED WR 300mm / ƒ/9 - ƒ/10 / 1/800s / ISO 200 Taken: April 17, 2026

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Break the Surface

📍 Qualicum Beach, British Columbia ⧉

I’d been taking photos of a group of seals rafting offshore for a while when I noticed one further out that kept launching itself out of the water. I tracked its position for a bit, finger on the shutter, eyes locked on the viewfinder. Sure enough, it broke the surface again, sending up a splash in that bright midday light.

Seals like this (likely a harbour seal) are incredibly agile swimmers and can launch themselves out of the water like this either to catch prey or just as a form of play. Scientists still debate how much of this behavior is functional versus just fun. They can hold their breath for up to 30 minutes, and their streamlined bodies make them perfectly built for these quick, powerful bursts.

From a shooting perspective, this was all about readiness and reach. I was zoomed all the way in at 300mm to isolate the action from the shoreline, compressing the background into those soft blue gradients. The fast shutter speed froze the splash and motion cleanly, while the smaller aperture helped keep enough depth of field to hold the subject despite the distance. I slightly underexposed to preserve the highlights on the water, which also gave the seal that darker silhouette against the reflective surface. It’s one of those shots where timing matters more than anything, you just have to be ready.

Camera: Pentax K-3

Lens: HD PENTAX-DA 55-300mm F4-5.8 ED WR

300mm / ƒ/14 / 1/1000s / ISO 100

Taken: April 17, 2026

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Qualicum Beach Seals

📍 Qualicum Beach, British Columbia ⧉

I stepped out of the car and before I even saw anything, I could hear them. Out there in the haze, just a line of silhouettes breaking the calm surface, a group of seals hanging. The water was glassy with soft ripples, and everything was wrapped in that cool coastal haze that softened the background hills into layers of blue. Even though they were far off, those little fins and heads popping up kept pulling my attention back.

Seals are super social animals, and what I was watching here is a classic “raft” where they rest together at the surface. Those flippers sticking up are not random, they help regulate body temperature. Seals can sleep in the water like this and even keep half their brain awake to stay alert. They are also excellent divers and can stay underwater for up to 30 minutes, though they usually surface more often when they are just relaxing or feeding.

From a composition standpoint, I leaned into minimalism here. The seals form a thin horizontal line across the frame, almost like a visual punctuation mark breaking up the expanse of water. Shooting at 260mm, about 390mm equivalent, compresses the scene and pulls the distant shoreline closer, stacking those hazy layers. The cooler tones and reduced contrast from the haze add to the mood instead of taking away from it. I cropped tighter in post to remove distractions and emphasize that subtle rhythm of shapes. I also applied some sharpening to help bring back detail lost to distance and haze. The negative exposure compensation helped me preserve highlights in the reflective water while keeping the seals as strong silhouettes.

Camera: Pentax K-3

Lens: HD PENTAX-DA 55-300mm F4-5.8 ED WR

260mm / ƒ/10 / 1/1000s / ISO 100

Taken: April 17, 2026

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Black-bellied Plover

📍 Seal Bay Regional Nature Park, Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada

Just a lone plover doing its thing along the tide line while everything else feels quiet and still. The water had this smooth, glassy look with soft ripples stretching into the distance, and those patches of seaweed and rock really grounded the scene in that classic West Coast shoreline feel. I caught the bird mid-step, totally focused, like it was locked in on its next meal.

This is a Black-bellied Plover in non-breeding plumage, which is a lot more subtle than their bold summer look. Watching them feed is fun too, they’ve got this pause-and-scan rhythm before making a quick move. They rely a lot on their eyesight to spot tiny invertebrates, and despite looking delicate, they’re built to handle some rough coastal conditions.

For this shot, I was zoomed all the way out to 300mm, which helped isolate the bird nicely while keeping a bit of the environment in the frame. I went with f/10 to get a bit more depth of field than usual for wildlife, making sure more of the bird stayed sharp without losing that soft background. Shooting from a low angle really helped the composition, it adds that immersive feel and keeps the perspective intimate. The 1/500s shutter speed was enough to freeze the motion cleanly and reduce camera shake; and keeping the ISO at 200 helped preserve detail without introducing noise. In post, I placed the bird slightly off-center with space in front to give it room to “move,” which adds a bit of natural flow.

Camera: Pentax K-3 Lens: HD PENTAX-DA 55-300mm F4-5.8 ED WR 300mm / ƒ/10 / 1/500s / ISO 200 Taken: April 20, 2026

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2025 Tumblr Top 10

1. 49 notes - Apr 23 2025, Valenciennes, France

2. 27 notes - Apr 25 2025, Valenciennes, France

3. 24 notes - May 29 2025, Plantagenet, Ontario, Canada

4. 22 notes - Apr 26 2025, Valenciennes, France

5. 21 notes - Apr 13 2025, Valenciennes, France

6. 21 notes - Jan 1 2025, Plantagenet, Ontario, Canada

7. 17 notes - Apr 24 2025, Valenciennes, France

8. 17 notes - Apr 11 2025, Paris, France

9. 16 notes - Aug 12 2025, Lefaivre, Ontario, Canada

10. 16 notes - Jun 10 2025, Vankleek Hill, Ontario, Canada

Created by TumblrTop10

These were my top 10 for the year. I shot a lot more but didn’t have much time for post-processing. Oh well, maybe I can catch up in 2026.

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In the Glow of the Dragon Boat Lantern

📍 Ontario Place ⧉, Toronto, ON

This was taken at the Chinese Lantern Festival held at Ontario Place in 2007. Among the many lantern displays, this dragon boat stood out with its detailed design and bright colors. It floated in a pool surrounded by illuminated lotus flowers, and the reflections on the water made the whole scene feel layered and rich. The mix of saturated reds, golds, and greens looked great against the dark night sky, and the reflections in the water really added to the atmosphere.

The event itself was a cultural exhibition inspired by the traditional Chinese Lantern Festival, which is usually celebrated in China at the end of Lunar New Year, around February or March. Anyone who has stood on the shore of Lake Ontario on a cold February evening would have come to the conclusion that this time frame would not be favorable to hosting this type of event. So, while this version took place in late summer and early fall, it drew on many of the same artistic traditions: elaborate lanterns, mythological themes, and references to Chinese dynasties and folklore. Displays like this dragon boat were part of a broader showcase meant to share elements of Chinese culture with an international audience.

This was taken with my very first digital camera, the Olympus C-2040Z. Before this camera, I'd only shot on film. It was a compact with a surprisingly fast f/1.8 lens. This allowed me to shoot handheld, no tripod, just working with the available light. I focused on capturing the full shape of the dragon head and structure while letting the surrounding water and floating lanterns fill out the frame. For a handheld shot from an early 2000s camera, it held up better than I expected.

Camera: Olympus C-2040Z

Lens: Built-in

13.2mm / ƒ/2.3 / 1/50s / ISO 137

Taken: September 2007

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Red Koi Dreams

📍 Ontario Place ⧉, Toronto, ON

The scene is pure magic. A family of glowing koi lanterns dance over water at the Chinese Lantern Festival, lighting up the night with their vivid reds and oranges. Shot back in 2007, this moment still feels so alive. The reflections are doing half the work here, creating this surreal double-world that makes the fish look like they’re swimming in light instead of water.

Shot handheld, in the moment, with a little point-and-shoot Olympus. It’s one of those captures where everything just came together.

In Chinese symbolism, koi (or carp) often represent abundance, prosperity, perseverance, and strength. A famous legend of a carp swimming upstream and leaping the Dragon Gate to become a dragon gives it added weight as a symbol of overcoming trials. Because of the Chinese homophone between “fish” and “surplus / abundance”, fish are often used in festival art and decorative motifs to evoke wishes for prosperity. In lantern displays, koi lanterns can invoke these layered associations—vibrancy, hope, and the struggle toward light.

Composition-wise, it’s all about rhythm. the repetition of the koi shapes, each posed slightly differently, plays beautifully against the dark water and glowing reflections. The reflections are compositional elements in their own right, doubling the impact and leading your eye right across the frame. Post-processing was essential: Topaz Photo AI handled the high noise from the early digital sensor, and Affinity Photo's inpainting cleaned up stray elements for a tidier frame, subtle edits that keep the focus where it belongs.

Camera: Olympus C-2040Z

Lens: Built-in

12.8mm / ƒ/2.3 / 1/80s / ISO 400

Taken: September 2007

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Migration Stop on Lake Ontario

📍 Toronto, Ontario, Canada

We were wandering away from the bright lights of the Chinese Lantern Festival at Ontario Place ⧉ in 2007 when we stumbled onto this: dozens of Monarch butterflies clinging to a tree branch, completely still in the dusk. We had no idea what we were looking at until later: a migration roost. These little guys were likely resting up before crossing Lake Ontario. A quiet corner of the park, no one else around, and this surreal moment with nature doing its thing.

Monarch butterflies travel up to 4,000 km from Canada to their overwintering sites in Mexico. Along the way, they need places to feed and rest—especially near big water crossings like the Great Lakes. Toronto’s waterfront parks, with their trees and native plants, provide just the kind of safe haven they need. Monarchs usually roost together at night in clusters like this, especially during their peak migration in September. Pretty amazing how they find these spots year after year.

Shot this using flash in low evening light, which helped highlight the rich tones of the butterflies and crisp details in the leaves. The dense clustering on the branch adds texture and movement to the composition, while the darker background isolates the subject nicely. I wasn’t thinking about technique much in the moment, just trying to capture something rare. But that makes the photo feel even more special in hindsight.

Processed with Affinity Photo v2 and Topaz Photo AI.

Camera: Olympus C-2040Z

21mm / ƒ/2.6 / 1/100s / ISO 112

Taken: September 8, 2007