The week started with a planned family vacation to Meaford up on Lake Huron, a getaway for my wife and our children during the summer holidays a few years ago. It was our second visit and holiday on Lake Huron, the first being to Saubel Beach some years previously when our children were much younger. At that time, we had been in Canada just a couple of years, after living in England and having holidays in India and the beaches in Goa – a very different experience.
I remember my families first reaction after running excitedly onto a Canadian beach, stopping and looking around slightly perplexed… “Where are the palm trees?”. No this is Canada…Canadian beaches have pine trees on beaches here!
I’m not a beach person, I can’t lay for hours on the sand, swim or paddle in the sea, or lake – it’s never been for me. That’s not to say that I don’t enjoy being by the sea or lake, because I do – I enjoy walking up and down the beach, looking for shells, interesting pieces of drift wood, or other stuff that may get washed up. And of course…any people or scenes you may encounter.
We spent our few days in Meaford at a cozy Air BnB, a few minutes’ walk away from the waters of Lake Huron. As I’m the only early riser in our family, I would go out early in the morning with my friend, my camera. Together we would wander along the shore, on different days, the same scene could be very different. On occasion we might meet a fellow early riser.
Always being aware of my surroundings and the light that plays over it, morning light is beautiful, and as I mentioned earlier, two days can be very different and makes more for interesting photography as a result. One morning there, I was presented with a clear blue sky over Lake Huron, the next morning, after a storm during the night, there were dark clouds in the turbulent sky. Both mornings were beautiful and contrasting and fortunately for me gave both pleasure in just being there whilst also an opportunity for divergence in capturing the same scene.
The beaches around the area we were staying were not broad stretches of sand, often they were narrow areas of shingle. Given this, it was chance to make the most of the stones and shingles in the way I composed my images, my use of the available light in an attempt to create images that didn’t look like everyone else’s. Not that I saw anyone with a camera there the whole time we were there.
Our time in Meaford drew to a close and we headed back to Oakville and home. It had been a relaxing few days and I had come away with a couple of decent images.
Arriving home in the early afternoon, my suggested that we go out that evening to the Oakville Jazz Festival. The drive back from Meaford was a good one and not too long, and as we weren’t tired, we decided to go. Once we looked up who would be performing that night – I became a little excited and anxious to go. One of the performing bands was the Trio of Oz, I knew of the drummer, a long time favourite and inspiration to me – Omar Hakim. I also knew of Rachel Z and my wife and I had seen her the previous month performing in Toronto with Sting and Peter Gabriel. Seemed that it would be a good evening and it was to turn out better than I ever hoped for…
We arrived early, the Trio of Oz had just arrived and were setting-up the equipment on the stage, I had seen Omar Hakim play before in London, when I lived there, but I had never seen him up this close and I watched him intently. My constant gaze didn’t go un-noticed, because whilst setting up his kit, he looked up – straight at me and gave me a nod of acknowledgement! I was ecstatic. It was probably around that time that realization dawned on me that I had a good chance to meet him. Oakville downtown is small place – the Town Square is a really small venue, my luck could be in.
And so, it was to be…when he went to his car to get something, I took my chance and introduced myself, he was really friendly and we spoke for a short while, whilst my wife and Rachel Z watched on and smiled…it was only that evening that I realized that Omar Hakim and Rachel Z were husband and wife!
I had brought a camera with me, of course I did! And handing it to my wife I asked her to take photos of Omar and myself, praying that they would be in-focus (sorry Charmaine).
Well, it was a great evening, the Trio of Oz were fantastic, I got to meet an idol of mine, talk to him, have my photo taken with him. In fact, we spoke on three occasions that evening, I took photos up close, listened to amazing people playing amazing music. It was brilliant. What a great end to a fantastic week.