Photographic trip — TimothyBentley.Photography

The trip from Toronto to the Thousand Islands is a photographer’s delight. This year, Esther and I set out in mid-June, departing the Mimico Cruising Club on our boat Second Wind.

After an hour out on Lake Ontario, I saw the first opportunity for photography. A bank of fog had gathered along the shoreline, where the cool air was meeting even cooler air. To my eyes, the city was perched in the sky, sitting atop that thin layer of mist.

As always, the length of the first leg of our trip was a puzzle. Will we feel tired out early, and stop at the scenic Scarborough Bluffs? Will we push on further to Frenchman’s Bay, next to the Pickering nuclear power station? How about Whitby, where there’s still an aroma of mystery about its secret second world war spy camp?

Or maybe Port Darlington, site of the other nuclear reactor on Lake Ontario, the surrounding waters so warm that boats congregate to catch the abundant fish? Or Newcastle, where we once sheltered when a line storm blew our boat in circles?

As we passed each port, we checked in with ourselves and decided we weren’t tired enough to stop. Although the wind was at our bow, we were comfortable, powering along between 2 and 5 miles from shore, depending on the contours of the lake.

The hours passed, and the shoreline remained almost invisible, with only the taller buildings in sight. The mist seemed to elevate the landscape and colour everything in shades of grey-blue.

St. Mary’s cement plant over the continuing mist

One of the greatest challenges for a photographer on a boat is the constant motion. Every picture may have to be taken multiple times, as the point of interest bounces from top to bottom, side to side.

On a wide-angle shot like this image of the St. Mary’s cement plant, only a few exposures are necessary. But when zoomed in on telephoto, I sometimes laugh out loud at the ridiculous composition of my shots. It’s not unusual to require a dozen exposures or more before I have something pleasing.

As we travelled east along the lake, the autopilot was performing the minute-by-minute work of keeping the boat on course. Still, we kept a careful watch, although realistically on this June day, it was almost unnecessary. The lake was deserted, hardly a boat to be seen all day long.

Evening approached and the sky coloured beautifully, even as the mist persisted, and I was able to capture some of the beauty we were experiencing.

Our last potential stopping place after this long day was Cobourg, which in any case is one of our favourite ports. It has a decent marina, a lovely ambience, an attractive main street with historic buildings, ice cream, a butterfly park, and a waterfront trail.

So we persisted, and at mid-evening traversed its big protected harbour.

The bad news was that we couldn’t be assigned a slip because the marina office was closed. Thinking it better to ask forgiveness later than to wish we had permission now, we took a chance and tied up at an empty slip.

Check-in the next morning turned out to be uneventful. We were allowed to keep using the slip, and for the next two days we wandered the town on foot and followed the trail, enjoying some rest and recreation, the delight of release from big-city life.

And did I mention ice cream?

Truthfully, we didn’t realize how tightly coiled we’d been until we began to unwind. Now we were ready to set out on the next leg of our voyage. The weather was still cool, but we’d gotten used to wearing warm clothing.

Once on Lake Ontario again, there were few options for landfall; Trenton would definitely be our next stop. Along the way, we passed the lighthouse on High Bluffs Island with its swirling masses of gulls.

The challenge I faced, photographically, was that the birds are tiny compared with the landscape and the lighthouse. But look for them below, and you’ll see a thousand.

Soon afterwards, we turned into Presquile Bay with its bird sanctuary and left the lake behind. As always, the water was shallow, the weeds often reaching to the surface and sometimes fouling our prop.

But there’s a lot of beauty too. The bay is home to hundreds, maybe thousands, of swans.

If photography from a moving, rocking boat is a challenge, tracking creatures in motion like these is particularly difficult. In a matter of 5 seconds, I had only a few opportunities. This time, I struck it lucky, capturing a beautiful moment.

Although the navigable channel in Presquile is pretty narrow, it’s well marked with buoys. Threading our way among them, we reached the entrance to the Murray Canal. Dug in the nineteenth century, it was a major pathway for industrial materials, but today it’s purely recreational.

The passage for boats in the canal is blocked by bridges at Brighton Road and Carrying Place. But it took only a VHF radio call on channel 14, and the operators swung the bridges out of the way, briefly interrupting the automotive traffic.

Esther deposited the modest passage fee of $5.50 in a basket at the end of a pole held by the bridge operator.

Normally, when I’m focussed on taking pictures, Esther’s at the wheel, or we’re far from other boats, and the autopilot is steering. In this narrow canal, I had to remain at the wheel, so I had to take particular care not to careen into cement while adjusting my composition.

The Murray canal was a delight as always, wide enough that two boats can pass each other, but narrow enough that we had a strong sense of motion. (By contrast, far from shore out on the lake, it often seemed as if we were crawling along.) Birds sang, daisies bloomed, the woods and marshes were beautiful, and passing boaters waved friendly greetings.

Five miles on, the canal opened to the Bay of Quinte. To our south lay the island of Prince Edward County, and to the north mainland Ontario.

We headed into Trenton’s marina, which is modern and appealing, and tied up for the night. We had lots of time before bedtime for a much-needed walk and a delicious takeout meal.

After yet another cool night, we awakened to the pleasant surprise that the weather was beginning to warm. We left the marina as soon as we could dress, and headed east along the Bay of Quinte.

Depending on our level of ambition, this leg of the trip would leave us several choices to end the day. We could stop at Belleville or Picton, or at one of several anchorages along the way.

But we had lots of energy and kept going past them all, until we reached Prinyer Cove.

Prinyer is a Prince Edward County bay that’s wonderfully protected against wind and waves because it’s so long and narrow. While it is extremely popular at the height of summer, now in mid-June we could see scarcely a boat at anchor.

Once we’d anchored, we took the dinghy to shore and walked to a country road, with the sun falling low, in a sky laced with interesting clouds. As we approached, a lone mailbox waited by the edge of the road.

Grain fields and a mailbox in Prince Edward County

When I’m photographing birds on the fly, I have only split-seconds to get the framing right. In fact, I have to discard many of my shots because all they show is tail feathers – or the empty sky.

On the other hand, the nice thing about shooting landscapes is that there’s often time to put together a pleasing composition.

I thought the mailbox standing by itself wouldn't be terribly interesting. So I moved around with the camera, at length including the yellow bush in the frame, to balance out the photograph while focusing attention on the mailbox.

In the quiet of the next hour, walking down Long Point Road, not a single car passed us. We enjoyed the vista of vast grain fields, occasionally broken up by deep forest. This picturesque old barn caught my eye, with my favourite model in the foreground.

Charmed by the interplay of light and shade, I returned after a while to capture another image.

Esther and I enjoyed a long walk, before returning to the boat for a sunset supper and sleep.

The next morning we arose, happy to find the air warmer still. We hauled anchor, navigated out of Prinyer, and left the County behind. Although the temperature had changed for the better, wind was still at our nose.

After a few hours motoring, we caught sight of Kingston with its historic Martello tower forts.

Past Kingston, the Thousand Islands split the St. Lawrence River into three channels. We chose the Bateau Channel, the northmost, which is narrow and very protected.

Majestic summer homes overlooked our passage. Car ferries crossed unexpectedly, requiring us to idle till their cables had sunk deep enough in the water that they wouldn’t snag our keel. And we encountered the faux-antique Island Queen tour boat loaded with visitors.

After several hours on the channel, we began to see hints of our destination, the tall masts at Gananoque Marina. Soon we reached our dock and with a great sense of relief, tied up. Finally, we felt, we were home for the summer.

A few days later, a Strawberry Moon rose from the horizon, the first full moon of summer, peeking out at us between dark clouds.

Strawberry moon peeks out between clouds

So now we’re settled, tying up at dock or anchoring beside the islands, meeting local artists, and looking forward to an afternoon show of my photography in late July at Gananoque.

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Summer Voyage To The Thousand Islands