I spend a lot of time with my head in the clouds, and Lake Superior was no exception. While I didn’t experience as much of the magnificence as I had hoped, I certainly wasn’t disappointed.

Click through for more of the trip diaries…

Day 5
Thunder Bay to Two Harbors, MN
2,169km traveled

There be cheese. One of the big “MUST VISIT” spots on our list was Thunder Oak Cheese Farm just outside of Thunder Bay. The local cheese shop hasn’t carried their goudas lately so we stocked up. There is nothing abnormal about dragging $100 of cheese through one province and three states. At all. After a funny border crossing (shotguns! interrogations! oh my!), we had another slightly rainy and very foggy drive along Minnesota’s shore to our lovely hotel, the Grand Superior Lodge.

Day 6
Minnesota’s North Shore

Apparently my research for this trip was somewhat lacking. For some reason I had expected the North Shore to be a remote wilderness without people or cellular signals (like the 9 hours between Wawa and Thunder Bay. Bring a sat phone, people!). I was mistaken.

There was so much to see and do between Grand Marais and Duluth that I’m already trying to get people to come back for another road trip. And the food? Internet, I died. The New Scenic Café just outside of Duluth was amazing. Ahi tuna tacos? Heaven. Everything else was pretty fabulous but the tacos were so good we went back for lunch two days later.

I also have to say that the people were ridiculously friendly; almost Canadian in their hospitality.

Not only do I want to make sure I’m sending the best quality prints to customers, I also wanted  customers to know where to take their images from portrait sessions for the best results.

As of January 16, 2012, I’ve compared five spots in the city of London to print photos, and while I plan to widen the scope to include more labs, and ones outside the city, I wanted to share the findings so far.

The contenders:

• Henry’s (Moments Photofinishing)
• Black’s Photography
• Forest City Image Centre (CameraCanada.com)
• Costco (Photo Centre)
• Wal-Mart (Photo Centre)

For the test, I used the automatic web uploaders, since it meant I didn’t have to run around the city just to get them to the lab. I also chose to pick up all of the orders, rather than pay for shipping. I always chose “matte” and no border, which was always available as an option.

I set up four 8x10s with a wide range of images covering as many colours and tones as possible. I chose not to have the colour corrected – where available – as I wanted to see my images as I created them, not what their algorithms thought they should look like.

The winner, by a large margin for me, was Forest City Image Centre. Click through below for the good, the bad, and the ugly. Unfortunately I gave up my good scanner when I moved to digital, but if I can gain access to one, I’ll post the comparison photos.

Tell me, dear Internet, where do you print your photos? And what do you look for in a photo lab?

(This is what my tree looks like with my glasses off, or after a few (wobbly shot)glasses of Christmas cheer! )

UPDATE/January 30/2012: some of these images have now been added to the shop!

I’m amazed how people can survive in what I think of as inhospitable terrain. These trees: also amazing.

I have to admit that I don’t blog as often as I feel I should because I rarely have much to say.  I can’t say I’m any different in person; when my friends get together and the talk reaches a fever pitch, I tend to get quiet too. Sit back. Observe. Think.

Maybe for 2012 I can resolve to post more, but say less?

In the meanwhile, find me (with fewer words) on google+, tumblr, twitter and facebook.

And if you’d like to read about days 3 and 4 on the road for this awesome trip north of Superior, please click through.

Day 3
Wawa to Thunder Bay
1,640km traveled

Ontario has mountains? Ok, so they’re not the Rockies but the vistas once we passed Marathon were SO gorgeous. Every few seconds, one of us was exclaiming, “Oh! WOW! Did you see that?” and, “Oh my God, that’s so beautiful!” to the point of ridiculousness. It was mostly cool and rainy so we hightailed it to Thunder Bay as fast as we could, but that doesn’t mean I didn’t stop to make some beautiful images of the foggy forest. Sadly, the wild animal count at this point

Day 4
Thunder Bay

Leaving B to clean what turned out to be a filthy, uninhabitable apartment, C and I took off to Ouimet Canyon and Sleeping Giant Provincial Park. Of course, we didn’t have anywhere near enough time as we thought we would, so we managed to drive a rocky and rough 9km to a scenic lookout at Sleeping Giant, and drive halfway into the park. A warning for all: when they say “rough road” in Northern Ontario, it means “please drive your tank; your sedan will likely not survive.” Definitely one for a return trip though; I could spend days in that park. Ouimet Canyon was very cool – literally – as the canyon floor is covered with rare Arctic plants normally found 1,000km to the north.

Oh, and B’s furniture was due to arrive today but it’s been delayed… for at least another four days. I won’t go into all the details here, but if you’re looking for a recommendation for a long distance moving company, I can tell you who to avoid

UPDATE/January 30/2012: some of these images have now been added to the shop!

Promises, promises… I’d fully intended to have this posted on my birthday earlier this week, and get myself back on track with editing the rest of my own work. As usual, best intentions are met with resistance from the universe and I’m sick for the second time in two months. Good times.

When I came back from this trip, I was sure I hadn’t managed to make any photographs, given that I was responsible for 100% of the driving and there wasn’t always time for detours and layovers or safe places to pull over. However, I was pleased to end up with a solid handful of images that I’m very happy to share with you.

To spread the joy around, I’ve divided up the sights of Superior between the things that made me swoon the most: rocks, water, sky, flora…. and the fog. The glorious, all enveloping fog. We get so little fog in Southern Ontario that I completely reveled in it while traveling. I think it’s related to my obsession with Katya Horner’s spectacular fog photos. Anyhow, I hope you enjoy…

If you’re looking for a few trip details, please scroll through to the bottom and click through.

Anyhow, I was thrilled to see I’d already written up a little trip diary when I returned nearly three months ago. If you’d like to know more, click through.

Day 1
London to Cambridge to Sudbury
533km traveled, many, many more to go.

The trip almost didn’t happen. I’d been sick and not eating for a week and worried that I wouldn’t be able to withstand 3,000km of driving, and saddened at the prospect that I couldn’t hike. But somehow, I managed not to kill us on the busy highways and we landed, exhausted, in Sudbury.

Day 2
Sudbury to Wawa
1,198km traveled

A lovely day and a lovely drive. Our GPS, Larry, harangued us when we decided to take the route that would have us traveling lakeside. We stopped at Agawa Rocks to see the petroglyphs, and failed. Not only did I nearly die of exhaustion, trying to hike a whopping 400m of rocky, steep paths without a significant meal in over a week, but the water was too choppy to actually get out and SEE them. Ah well, next time. After a brief stop in Old Woman Bay to see the sun set, we hit the road, stopping in Wawa. I saw stars like I’d never seen before in Southern Ontario, even in the outer reaches of Peterborough. I am smitten.

Who knew motels could have three double beds? While the décor at the Northern Lights Motel was definitely reminiscent of 1970s cottage chic, everything was clean and serviceable. We had a wide screen TV with HBO so we didn’t have to miss True Blood on the road, and the hosts filled each room with little things that a traveller might need, like elastic bands and band aids. I also learned a lot about Wawa from the fun fact sheet posted on the back of the bathroom door.

Stay tuned for days 3 and on

In album work in progress (5 photos)

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In album work in progress (4 photos)

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That pretty much sums up my summer vacation, and for once it was spent exploring the beauty that is practically in my backyard.

Ouimet Canyon (l) and the view from Thunder Bay Lookout at Sleeping Giant Provincial Park (iPhone/noir app)

I’d never been north of Sudbury, and then I had been too young to really appreciate it, so I was thrilled at the opportunity to see northern Ontario. Dropping B off at college in Thunder Bay quickly snowballed into the Lake Superior Circle Tour for us.

The view from near Two Harbors, MN (iPhone/noir app)

My only regret? We were constantly chasing time. Next time – and there will be a next time soon – I’ll take my time, and go back to all those spots I have earmarked along the way. With so many hours of travel time, and two days spent in Thunder Bay, we never really got a chance to hike or get off the beaten path. Or any path. But even from the highway, it was beautiful.

A few iPhone photos from the road

As a bookclerk in Thunder Bay laughingly told me, “Most people in Ontario don’t think anything exists north of Highway 7.”

I’ll be posting the “real” photos in the coming weeks, just as soon as I’m able to work my way through them, along with some longwinded entries about the places we visited

Thanks for coming by!

There’s a chill in the air that wasn’t there before. The light coming into the garden is coming in at a different angle. The car is covered in dew when I get ready for the day. Winter may not be quite on its way yet, but the summer is definitely trying to make way for autumn.

But what a summer it’s been!

I haven’t been updating the website or facebook in what feels like forever, and it’s been glorious. In between major projects, lovely clients, and a healthy dose of insanity at work, I’ve found time to hang out with friends – new and old – on local patios, visit farm stands, and read, read, read. I couldn’t have asked for a better 2011, truthfully.

This summer, the School of Graduate and Postdoctoral Studies brought me on for images for their viewbook and website after viewing my work with Schulich Graduate Studies in the winter. Many thanks to Wes at SGPS and Janelle at Schulich!

I had the opportunity to photograph a local restaurant, Mykonos, and their tasty dishes for their new website which is still under construction. Best part – I got to test out some of the food and it was delicious. Thank you to Colin and all of the lovely folks at the restaurant for a great afternoon.

I worked with the immensely talented (and funny) Mark Payne on the photos for his newest album. Mark’s most recent release contains selections from the production of “Simply Grand” featured at the Starbright Summer Theatre Festival in August of 2011, at the Imperial Theatre in Sarnia, ON.

And last, but certainly not least, have been the lovely friends and family who have trusted me with their maternity, baby, family, graduation … and wedding photos. This weekend I had the pleasure of photographing the wedding of two dear friends. Since the day was structured in an unusual manner, I got to pop home before the ceremony to print and edit a couple of photos and surprise them with a quick print.

Many, many thanks to everyone who has made 2011 such a great year.

And finally, what’s up next…..

That’s right, 3,200km of road trip fun with my bestest friend… and her kid brother, who we’re driving up to college in Thunder Bay. After we dump – er, I mean drop – him off, we take off for our own adventure around Lake Superior. Wish me luck – I hope to come back with many memory cards full of beautiful photos.

If you’ve made it this far, you totally deserve a cookie Come by any time and claim your prize.