Artist in Residence week in Killarney

8 photographs; 1276 words; 7-minute read

Just south of Sudbury, Ontario is a true gem of a natural area: Killarney Provincial Park. It’s a 500 km² wilderness of pink granite headlands, white quartzite ridges of the La Cloche Range, and conifer-dominant mixed forest ecosystems well away from present-day human influences. If you’ve read my blog for some time, you’ll know it is one of my favourite places to visit and photograph.

For the last week of July, I was invited by the Friends of Killarney Park to be their Artist in Residence. It’s a chance to connect with people interested in photography as well as an opportunity for me to pursue my own work — in a place renowned for its influence on the Group of Seven. In fact, it was protected by the efforts of A.Y. Jackson and the Ontario Society of Artists more than 60 years ago.

Each day at 10am, we would meet at the nature centre or one of the trail heads to spend a couple of hours rambling and talking photography while looking for and creating photo ops. My focus was on seeing photographs and the art of composition. This benefitted both camera and phone users as balancing light and shadow, design and leading lines plus where to stand, sit or kneel all contribute to successful photographs with any camera. Ansel Adams reminds us:

The most important component of every camera is the twelve inches behind it.

Compared to last year, I noticed it was drier, with fewer mushrooms and many mushrooms with split caps. We also had two days of significant wind, though the skies stayed free of wildlife smoke this year. We explored the natural side of Killarney, but also some of the human influences including spending part of a morning exploring the lines, designs, and textures found amongst the 8 or 10 racks of canoes and paddle boards from Killarney Outfitters.

Wednesday evening we gathered at the amphitheatre to explore Ontario’s Natural Gems, a presentation I created to foster awareness of all the many options for visiting and photographing in natural places in Ontario: national and provincial parks, conservation areas, trails, and land trusts.

Protecting what’s important to us

Too often, we take natural areas for granted. They are there and always will be, won’t they? It depends.

Our current provincial government has sold off parts of provincial parks and has stripped endangered species of secure protection. They have also reduced the powers of Conservation Authorities to protect land and protect citizens from flooding.

Not only do we need to be aware of what’s happening, we need to do something about it, such as contributing to Land Trusts to ensure vital natural areas are well and truly protected.

Look at it this way: Golfers think nothing of spending $50 to over $100 for a day at the links. Imagine if our natural areas carried the same price tag! But they don’t. Instead, many are accessible with only the cost of parking your car.

Rather than looking at it as a savings, consider donating $50 or $100 each year to a Conservancy, like the Bruce Trail Conservancy, the Escarpment Biosphere Conservancy, the Nature Conservancy of Canada, and Ontario Nature, or to one of the many Land Trusts that exist across the province. All of these organizations work tirelessly and through thousands of volunteer hours to purchase natural land and manage it on our behalf, in perpetuity. Truly forever!

Remember, every donation comes with a tax receipt, so the $100 you donate costs you as little as $25 as up to 75% can be claimed against your net income.

Over the decades, our governments have done an excellent job of protecting vast areas of land as Provincial and National Parks, but there is much more to be done. Support the work of governments by emailing your MPP (Ontario) and MP, our Premier and our Prime Minister, demanding they do more to protect endangered species and endangered spaces. We can vote at election time, but reminding governments of our personal priorities between elections helps to guide decision-making.

Anyway, that’s enough of politicking for now. Nature itself is apolitical, but protecting nature is not. Be sure your voice is heard!

Many thanks to Jenna and all the Friends of Killarney Park staff as well as the Killarney PP Discovery staff that support the Artist in Residence programming.

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