Christmas Decorations

As a farewell to 2008 and to Christmas (my favourite time of the year), I made a photograph of this neat sign up in Belfountain the other day. Although, it's not a complete farewell to Christmas...My wife is Greek Orthodox and their Christmas isn't until next week so...yeah! =0)

The Cranes In Fog

While waiting an hour and a half for a doctor to see me, I stepped outside the building to do some impromptu fog photography. Thank goodness I had my camera with me! We were crammed in that waiting room like sardines! I wonder if the dark photographs of the past week have anything to do with the fact that I've been out of it since last Friday. I REALLY hope I'm feeling better for week two of my Christmas vacation.

All Roads Lead To The Mall

In my fevered, hacking cough state I managed to join Marina in a last minute shopping spree last night at Erin Mills Town Centre. These footsteps were leading to the Bay entrance across from those condo buildings (if you know the mall you'll know what I'm talking about). Merry Christmas everyone!

Balcony White Out

To keep with the snow storm theme of the past 3 posts, here is what the first day of winter looked like from my balcony. It was so bad at points that it looked like a wall of white outside the window. I love it!

We Three Trees...

The third & last photo made on my drive home this past Friday.

The Storm Through A Windshield

Photograph number two from Friday's drive home from work.

Say Goodbye To Fall

Wow. What a storm. The first real biggie of the year, and it just happened to fall on the last day of school before Christmas break. Luckily my boss (a.k.a. the principal) was thoughtful enough to allow us "long haul" drivers to leave early. I made 3 photos on my hour & a half drive home through the car windows. This was one of them.

Charlie Brown at Christmas

The sun was casting a really nice light on ol' Chuck yesterday, so I felt a little macro photography was in order.

Fish Eye Forest

Actually, I wasn't using a fish eye lens. I made this photo last December & I guess wasn't very impressed with it at the time
because I hadn't seen it again until the other day when I went snooping through past photographs. I'm really pleased with
this final image, and I must have known what I was doing a year ago because it was easy to bring out the detail in the snow
(near the bottom) in post-processing. I really need to get back out to Caledon!

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

It's December, and I have an early Christmas card for all of you! Click Here for the card & to hear my version of "Silver Bells".

Mini Railway Crossing

I went to the "Seasons" Christmas show yesterday at the International Centre in Mississauga, then decided to pop over to the building next store to see the "Christmas Model Train" show. This is one of the macro shots I made.

www.christianstepien.com | www.dagobahproject.com

An Unlikely Trio

I was photographing the toys in my kindergarten classroom to help my students during "clean up time". I thought this one was
funny...I mean, where else are you going to find a giant polar bear hanging out with a lion and gorilla?

Foggy Morning Rooftops

Made two days ago, again from my balcony.

Foggy Morning Street

I had to stay home from work today because I'm feeling really lousy. The good thing is that as I looked out from my balcony I saw
my neighborhood covered in a blanket of golden, morning fog, and I was home to capture it.

Flying Over The City Centre

I actually made this photograph on Canada Day (a few hours before that fireworks photo I posted on July 1st, 2008). I happened to stumble upon it while searching through some older photographs, and there was something about it that just seemed to pop out at me

Fallen Gumballs

This past summer my wife and I had a party at our place, and we had bowls filled with different candies. One particular
bowl was filled with these round gum things. When it was accidentally knocked over, I had a vision...a gummy vision.

Tree Tops & Blue Skies

Just a fall photo I made last week in the Equestrian Village.

Seeing The World Through Her Eyes

Marina & I made our way up to Erin for the fall festival, and on our way back stopped by the Grange Equestrian Village to visit Pay
Day Pleasure and her friends. I have made so many photographs of her that came out great. She's like my horse muse. Quentin
Tarantino has Uma Thurman, Andy Warhol had Edie Sedgwick...I have Pay Day.

Sunset At Lake Wabukayne

Self explanatory.

Trees I Keep Walking By

It's just a small group of trees along the path to the lake, but there's just something about them that I like.

A Plane Over Wabukayne

As I walked around the lake, a plane flew over. 'Nuff said.

Path To A Fishing Hole

Along the banks of Lake Wabukayne you'll find many wandering dirt tracks like this leading to tiny, secluded fishing spots.

The Trees Have Eyes

I decided to take my camera along for a walk around the lake behind my place. As I was heading back I saw these three birch
trees with grass behind them and I knew it would look really great in black and white. What I didn't realize until I looked through
the lens is that the trees were looking right back! I'll admit, it was kinda creepy.

Munchin'

I visited my old friend "Payday Pleasure" last week at the Grange Equestrian Village, and she came over for a bite to eat.

Four Trees

I FINALLY made it out to Caledon after a long, long break last weekend. It felt good. I really love it up there. I know all the back roads like...well, like the back of my hand. It's a second home, and last weekend was a homecoming. My brother and I went fishing for a bit at the forks of the credit, then spent the afternoon driving and making photographs. This is one of them.

The Rough & Delicate

I hadn't given this photograph a second thought until about 10 minutes ago. I made it in Serbia at a house in a neighboring
village. It was in this tight alley between the house and...I believe a garage (that's what the window looks into). I'm glad I found
it again!

Two Pigeons in Zajecar

It was back to school yesterday...almost a month since we returned home from Serbia, and almost two months since we arrived. The summer flew.

These two guys were part of a flock that hung around one of the fountains in the centre square in Zajecar.

Marina & A Butterfly

While making photographs of sunflowers (see post from August 15th, 2008), Marina stood beside me and watched as a butterfly
flew around us. She put out her hand and it landed. Standing in the middle of all that space, I think she put it best when she said
"Out of all the places it could have landed, it landed on my hand".

And here's...

...Sandra!

A Bubble & Sandra

Sandra, who's related to my wife in a really long, complicated way so I won't get into it, is a 6 year old Baba. In other words she may be young, but she speaks with an adult's
tongue (so I'm told...I don't understand Serbian!). We were sitting on her veranda in a village called Mirovo (at the base of a
mountain named Rtanj) blowing bubbles, when I thought "Hey! I'm going to make a bubble photo!". If you look closely, you
can see Sandra in the bubble.

Sunflowers & Mountains

To get to a main road from Brusnik, you have to travel along a really bumpy side road for about 10 km. At one point, when
you pass the trees, you come across acres and acres of sunflowers. I had to get out and make a photograph!

The Dunav

We spent an entire day driving along the Dunav (Danube) River, looking across at Romania. In this photo, Romania is on the right,
and Serbia is on the Left. If you look really closely, there's a church right beside the water on the Romanian side.

Rain & The Mountains, Serbia

On our way to the village of Mirovo, at the base of a huge mountain called Rtanj, we drove along side some crazy thunder
storms. Stopping the car every 100 feet it seemed, I'd jump out and make another image of the mountains capped with
clouds. I love this image because of the multiple mountain layers. I counted 8.

Watermelons

During our trip we travelled from Belgrade all the way down to Vranj at the bottom of the country, and no matter where we were
all you had to do was turn your head and you'd see someone selling watermelons. This particular guy was in Sm. Palanka, and I made
the image from the window of my Zastava as my wife's uncle went to buy one.

Gypsy

When we first arrived in Brusnik, we noticed a cat coming around and running away when ever we came near. Apparently it's
owner died a while back, and she's been homeless ever since. We decided to adopt her...we fed her, let her sleep under our cars,
and named her "Gypsy".

Brusnik, Serbia

We're back from our month long trip to Serbia, and it was an amazing experience! The people there were amazing,
and the landscape was unbelievable! I took hundreds of photographs, and I'm just about to begin work on my next
book featuring those photographs.

Here's a shot from the top of Brusnik, the village we lived in with my wife's grandparents. Their's is the first house
you see as you enter the village.

Canada Day At City Hall

Happy Canada Day! This was made about an hour ago at Mississauga's City Hall.

Yonge & Dundas Square

This was made back in early May. Guess where!

Only 5 more days 'till we leave for Serbia!

Peacock

School's out for summer! So you'd think I could post more, right? Nope. We're off to Serbia for a month next Saturday,
so there will be a month long black out. When I get back, though...oh ho ho, wait 'till you see the photos! As my
grandfather says (in his thick Italian accent), "You find out! You find out!".

Inside An Egg

This is the inside of a duckling egg, just after it hatched. It's a duck's eye view!

Duckling: A Portrait

For the past 4 weeks we've been taking care of duck eggs in my kindergarten classroom. Two days ago, 2 of them hatched. This was the first one. This photo was made a few hours after he hatched.

And...on top of that...we've moved into the condo, and I'm back online!

Brown Bear

It was nice to finally be able to take the "Zoomobile" to the Canadian Pavillion, which is all the way on the other side of the Zoo.
It made that walk down and back up the huge hill easier to manage.

On a side note, my wife and I get the keys to our new condo tomorrow, so I probably won't be posting any new photos for a few
days, or maybe a week, or possibly longer (depending on if we get internet access hooked up right away). So...we'll see!

Jellyfish

This was a tough one...hand held, very low light, 135mm lens and no vibration reduction.

Alligator...

...under water. My rubber lens hood popped out while I was shooting, that's why there's a vignetting effect going on, but it
looked kinda cool so I kept it.

An Orangutan...

...contemplating life.

Charles

He's a celebrity around those zoo parts.

Elephants

Yesterday, we braved the cold winds and occasional rain to bring my wife's aunt and cousin to the Toronto Zoo. This was the
first time I actually went to the zoo with a GOOD camera, and I love what came out of the trip. This is the first of many posts
featuring animals from the day.

Looking Down At Skydome

When the dome was built in the early 90's, a competition was held to name it. It took a while, but the name that was chosen was
"Skydome" because of it's retractable roof. Then a couple of years ago, along comes Rogers (a major media company here in
Canada), who buy it out and change the name to the "Rogers Centre". The people of Toronto named that building! It will always
be Skydome to me! There...there's my mini rant.

CN Tower

Well, Marina and I are officially a married couple! It's been so crazy the past couple of weeks with last minute wedding stuff that
I haven't had time to do any photography stuff what so ever. This past Monday however, Marina and I took her aunt and cousin
(in town from Serbia for our wedding) to the CN Tower, and of course my camera came along!

Wheat Field & Tree Shadow

I made this image last July in Caledon, ON. I wasn't that crazy about it at the time, but it's grown on me.