Richard Marvin Grove

A Small Payback, An Ode to Victoria Lake Richard Marvin Grove

What a pleasure it has been to visit Camp Madawaska, on Victoria Lake, for the last few years. Along with other guests we bask in the glory of Northern Ontario. Camp Madawaska is a slice of heaven that holds the sky filled mirror, Victoria Lake, that in turn holds an ecologically untouched, majestic, tree covered island known as Weston Island. Victoria Lake is fed by the Opeongo River that flows directly from Algonquin Provincial Park into the loon skimmed, moose trudged, deer wandered lake. Stars sparkle there in the unpolluted black night sky. Wolves yowl their dissonance in the distant echoing hills while bears keep their invisible distance. Thank you Genny for the wonderful opportunity provided to us. Photography has been one of my passions since the age of thirteen with the purchase of my first single-lens-reflect camera that was encouraged and 1/2 sponsored by my artist, nature loving, father, Marvin Grove. Back in those dinosaur days of film I timidly shot one precious picture at a time. The longest moments would be spent focusing on a subject until I was convinced that I was not about to waste the costly film and processing. The valuable lesson of composition grew out of my restrained student budget.