Here is the penultimate image from my February photo series: winter scenes. The water of Lake Ontario has frozen into large chunks that, with a little more cold weather, will coalesce into a single solid sheet of ice. A light appears on the horizon to the right side of the image. No, it is not a UFO; it’s an airplane coming in for a landing at Billy Bishop Airport on Toronto Island.
Like the island, the entire Toronto waterfront is built on landfill. The original shoreline was immediately south of the obviously named Front Street. Had I tried to take this photo more than 100 years ago, I would have found myself standing in 10 metres of water. And had I tried to take this photo 10,000 years ago, I would have found myself standing in 40 metres of water with the shoreline well out of the frame on the left side. Those were the days of the Iroquois shoreline when Lake Ontario was considerably larger than it is now.
It goes without saying that had I tried to take a photograph of this scene 10,000 years I ago, I wouldn’t actually be standing in 40 metres of water. That’s absurd. I would be standing in a boat that I had brought with me in my time machine. Whenever you’re going out to shoot, always be prepared. For me, that means bringing an extra time machine in my pack, just in case.
