Two  and a half years ago I went on a photo workshop in the Bruce Peninsula (approximately 300 km northwest of Toronto).  Don Martel was the photographer leading the workshop.  It turns out that Don is a friend of Freeman's and was staying at a cottage on Freeman's property at the same time I was there.   We arranged that I would go with Freeman on Wednesday after the critique session  to his house and I would stay with Don and Evelyn overnight.  The rest of the group was coming up on Thursday morning to photograph.  

20140820_France_0031 1.  Freeman's home is at Shamper's Bluff about an hours drive from Saint Martin.  HIs property was absolutely breathtaking with all of its gardens and hiking trails.

20140820_France_0033

2.  Shampers Bluff is a high, forested, rocky peninsula that juts into Belleisle Bay in the lower St. John River Valley.  It covers 500 acres and about half of the Bluff is now a private ecological reserve belonging to the Nature Conservancy of Canada.  The reserve is Freeman's home as he donated most of the land to the Conservancy in return for tenancy.  Can you imagine waking up to this view every day?

20140820_France_0001

3.  Don suggested going for a hike before dinner on one of the nearby trails.

20140820_France_0001

4.

20140820_France_0036

5.

20140820_France_0001 6. Back to Freeman's gardens.

20140820_France_0001

7.

20140821_France_0061

8.  As you can tell I loved taking photos of the barn and gardens.  The light was constantly changing which made it more interesting.

20140820_France_0045 9.  After  dinner we headed over to join Freeman on his porch to watch and photograph the  sunset.  

20140820_France_0046

10.

20140820_France_0047

11.  It was a such a beautiful night.  

20140820_France_0049

12.  

20140820_France_0051

13.  Don had showed me some light painting photos he had taken of the barn and of course I wanted to try as well.  Light painting is a technique where you set up the camera on a tripod, use the timer on the camera  and then you move a flashlight to create a light source.  It was totally dark by now and there were clouds.  We wanted to try it with the stars so we went inside and came out later on when the clouds had passed by.

20140820_France_0052 14.  It was lots of fun but by now it was getting pretty late and the alarm clock was going off around 5.30 AM or so.  Time to call it a night!