Author: Dale S.
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Exploring an Urban Ecotone and the Edmonton River Valley
The concrete grid of a city often feels absolute. It dictates where we walk, where we live, and how we experience the sky. But nature is remarkably patient. It finds the cracks. It waits in the valleys. I hadn’t traveled to Edmonton with the explicit intention of documenting the intersection of these two worlds. The… Read More…
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The Dark Truth Behind Ontario Land Development and Bill 97
Democracy dies behind a locked vault door. In a recent late-night session at Queen’s Park, the Ontario government permanently blocked the public from seeing how decisions are made about the province’s most vital landscapes. To paddle the sprawling reaches of Lake Temagami—known as dimii-agamiing, or “deep water by the shore,” to the Teme-Augama Anishnabai—just before… Read More…
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The FREE Photography Course
Chasing the Wild Light with Manual Camera Settings I still keep a hard drive full of failures from my early expeditions. It sits on my desk as a quiet reminder of what happens when you rely on a machine to dictate your vision. I remember a slow paddle up a winding, sluggish river choked with… Read More…
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A Brighter Horizon and a Fractured Forest
We are standing on the precipice of a monumental shift. The federal government is advancing the Alto high-speed rail network, laying approximately 1,000 kilometres of electrified passenger track from Toronto to Quebec City. Read More…
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The Ecology of Home, Remote Work Beyond Convenience
When I last wrote about the changing landscape of our work lives back in April 2024, the spring thaw was just setting in. There was a sense of tentative balance. But as the seasons have turned and the frost has returned to the pines, the tone has shifted. The noise of the city is turning… Read More…
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An Unsettled Mshkawji Giizis (The Freezing Moon)
The Anishinaabe call this Mshkawji Giizis, the Freezing Moon. It’s a name that carries weight. It speaks of a hard, honest transition, a time when the land finally shrugs off the memory of warmth and submits to the ice. It’s the stillness of the first true freeze, the locking of the lakes, the silent signal… Read More…
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The Shutter Against the Synthetic Tide
The profession of photography stands at a precipice that looks remarkably like a frontier. For over a century the trade was defined by a simple mechanical pact where light hit a sensor or film to record a moment of undeniable reality. The camera was a witness. Today that definition is being rewritten by software that… Read More…
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Burnt Lands Provincial Park
Situated only a five kilometres from Almonte, Ontario, lies a remarkable testament to ecological endurance: Burnt Lands Provincial Park. This 516-hectare nature reserve is not just a space of natural beauty, but also a crucial ecological site with a rich history and a name that speaks to its past. Admittedly, my young son was less… Read More…
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Granite and Asphalt Collide in the Carp Hills
The geography of the Ottawa Valley is generally predictable. It consists of flat expanses of ancient seabed, rich farmland, and the sprawling grid of the capital city’s periphery. But just northwest of Kanata, the landscape hiccups violently. Rising abruptly from the agricultural plains is a geological anomaly known as the Carp Hills. It is a… Read More…
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Echoes Across the Water: The Stillness (101)
Follow the parallel paths of Alex, a modern escapist, and Nika, an ancient survivor, as they navigate the unforgiving beauty of the Canadian Shield. A serialized work of fiction about the risks we take, the families we protect, and the land that remembers us all. This is the first installment- The hum is the first… Read More…
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