( 2026.05.18 )

The Red Hills of Cheltenham

Cheltenham Badlands, Caledon · 2:25 – 2:53 PM

Half an hour on Ontario's strangest ground — red iron clay rolling like dunes under a flat grey sky, the green woods held back at the edge.

Fujifilm X-E5 · 23mm · three frames · Caledon, Ontario

01 / 03

2:25 pm

The Basin

The whole rusted basin at once, a boardwalk threading the far edge.

Cheltenham Badlands · 23mm · ƒ/5.6 · 1/450 · ISO 64

The Cheltenham Badlands basin of red clay with a boardwalk crossing behind

02 / 03

2:53 pm

Red Dunes

Closer in, the clay rolls like dunes, iron-red and combed by the rain.

Cheltenham Badlands
23mm · ƒ/5.6 · 1/600 · ISO 125

Rolling mounds of red iron clay below a dark green tree line

A ridge of red clay rising into a stand of young pines

( about )

I’m Isabella Zhou. Photography lends me wings toward a dreamland I haven’t found yet, and these journals are what I carry back from the flights. This journal is proof that Ontario keeps a small red desert in its back pocket, kept on a Fujifilm X-E5 with one 23mm lens.

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isabellayifan.zhou@gmail.com