Healey Lake, Hawkesbury, Ontario 9.28.09

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As promised, here are a number of fall photos taken by webcam of the Southern Ontario area. I’ve adjusted a few for brightness and the very first one of  Healey Lake to amplify it a no-so-natural but I think, pretty way.

It was my plan to have a webcam trained on the trees and lake of Maple Lake but security issues presented themselves and I had to rig things that the cameras keep an eye on the most mundane areas surrounding the cottage. May as well make best use of the 2-year contract for high speed Internet, right?

These scenes are lovely however and they give you a good sampling of various regions in the rather large southern Ontario area.

Thanks to the Weather Network’s Weather cams.

Cheers!

Last night–around 10 p.m. when spouse and I were walking our little dog around our neighbourhood I noticed that over the past couple of nights the ponds and rivers have frozen up almost completely. With December fast approaching we are heading into some of the more disagreeable weather we have each year. We don’t usually get much snow in December but the temperatures–and the wind become quite uncomfortable.

So today it was no surprise to see that every web camera in Ontario that I usually peruse showed a scene including snow and/or ice. And while I can still look out and see green grass on the hill near the road, I can see no green save for the evergreen trees in the photos of Ontario taken today. Thank goodness for evergreens.

Lake Nipisssing, North Bay

Mountain Trout House, Kawagama (photoshopped*)

This camera illustrates a frustration that will only most likely grow deeper as the weather gets more severe.

*Much of this photo was obliterated by brown scum on the camera lens. Therefore the sky is completely photoshopped, as well ad some of the snow. I tried to make it look as I think it looks but still, I  must ask the question of Mountain Trout House. You’ve gone to the trouble of setting up your webcam and getting it featured at a couple of web camera websites on the Internet. You have a business and you’d like to show off the beautiful area that surrounds it, right? They why pray tell, can someone not go outside and clean the filthy lens to your webcam?

That goes for you too, Halcom Communications in Haliburton. You do a disservice to the town of Haliburton, a town whose lifeblood is tourism dollars, by having either your camera “down” (not available for viewing) or dirty or crooked or some combination of these. Why are  you trying to promote business with a crap webcam?! Iknow this to be a fact as my spouse checks every day from his super fancy high-powered work computer and he never, ever gets a good shot of the Haliburton “Eye In The Sky.” If that’s an eye in the sky, then it’s a blind eye.

Perhaps I sound a bit cranky but these two webcams in particular are what I’m offered as choice when I want to see webcam photography of “Maple Lake, Ontario.” I’m an action-oriented person and since I have Internet at the cottage–right now–right this minute I’ve decided to try to finance a webcam to capture Maple Lake. I’ll put it in next summer and run it through the summer (hopefully) so I can get an idea of the in’s and out’s of doing so. I’m also tempted to contact these guys who do a consistently fantastic job with their webcam offerings:

Reach Harbour, Lakefield

(Click photos to enlarge)

..and ask for any tips or suggestions. I can see that they are using a fisheye lens but beyond that am not sure what they are doing right. Not leaving the camera exposed to the weather is probably job one./end rant.

Penetangore River, Kincardine, Lake Huron

Calabogie Ski Hill Peaks Resort

(Click photos to enlarge)

Toronto Island

Boler Mtn. Slope, London

Blue Mountain

I know this is going to sound shocking but I have never made a video with my camera and in fact have not shot video of any kind in about twelve years. Not shocking? Huh. I’ve purposely stayed with still pictures because I wanted to ‘get good’ at taking them and the format appeals to me more–usually. But to get a little slice of the Lake for my parents, who were not able to go this year, I broke down and took a couple of short videos. “Not that bad,” you say? (‘Cept the audio–holy mackerel what’s with that?) You should see the outtakes. lol.