March 4, 2012 – In My Back Pocket

Dunvegan Bridge HDR 1 (Reduced Size)

Dan Kameka, an artist and photographer in Alberta’s Peace Region has spurred me forward in this never-done photograph that I captured yesterday. I first became acquainted with Dan Kameka’s photography works at Grande Prairie’s Trumpeter hotel; there, I saw two eight-foot photographs, one a retro-green grain elevator (possibly United Grain Growers) and a second image of farming machinery from former times, a beautiful cluster of a Fargo grain truck with granaries now disused in a snow-dusted, winter fallow field.

That was ten years ago. Two years ago I found smaller versions of the same images for sale at Picture Perfect Frame & Gallery in Grande Prairie. In the set of images displayed I found two or three photographs by Dan Kameka that intrigued me because I wondered how they’d been taken. Of special interest was a Dunvegan Bridge photograph which intrigued because the riddle of working out where the photograph was taken from has stayed with me through these two years. The shot I have taken is likely taken at a point close to the location Dan would have used in capturing his image of the Dunvegan Bridge. Yesterday’s never-done was about riddling this through and then daring to navigate to the site which presented its own challenges, a task taking me from my car to the site and back in ninety or so minutes; it’s only been in the last two months that I’ve known how he probably had done it.

About this photo – this photograph associates to another I’ve posted entitled Alberta Fissure. It is the complement to this image and is taken from a point behind the far left of this image and it looks down the valley from the high left through to the expanse of the valley to the right in this image. This photograph is one of several high dynamic range (HDR) shots I’ve created with automatic exposure bracketing; but it is the first in which cloud cover accentuates significantly adding drama. In this picture I’m impressed with the zoom lens compression of distance. The bridge itself is one kilometre long reaching over the Peace River at a narrower point. The extrapolation then is that from the point I’m standing at taking the picture to the top of the S-curve on the other side of the valley is a distance of perhaps two to two-and-a-half kilometres. It would take a car travelling at 100 km/h about one minute to travel from the top of the S-curve to the point at which I stood near the highway incline. A significant distance is captured in this photograph.

Thank you Dan for those beautiful, intriguing photographs that capture my wonder and memory; you’ve had a hand in spurring me on not only with this photograph, but with my photography.

Listening to – Sarah Masen’s The Valley, Ziggy Marley’s Love is My Religion and Willard Grant’s Evening Mass.

Quote to Inspire – “There are always two people in every picture: the photographer and the viewer.” – Ansel Adams

Fairview Horses and Lamas - Fairview, Alberta

Saturday – a day to get out and about with my camera, a day not to sit still in front of my computer editing or writing, a day to use for breaking out of the box in terms of subjects photographed, a day to push my never dones … finding that which I haven’t yet photographed. Most of us in the northern hemisphere are no doubt in kindred spirit, waiting in what seems a long-suffering stance for spring’s thaw, a thaw that the Woodland Cree assert brings with it a thaw in people’s inhibitions. This period of time prior to spring’s full-on melt is notorious for people’s crumbling inhibitions and for people saying what’s really on their minds. In this season, one’s behaviour and how it’s judged tends to count for more than legitimate investigation of the inner life that produces it – it becomes easy to fall prey and victim to other’s perceptions. It’s a season when minor social injuries can occur, when a spade is often inaccurately called a spade, when you can be caught having said a wrong thing, when the day before can look just like the day you’re presented with, a time when it can be difficult to see the forward movement toward and into spring. It is a smart time, however, to focus and pursue a never done, to break out of your mould and to extend yourself into new reaches of growth, learning and practice. Saturday’s endeavor has been about finding new subjects to photograph, subjects I rarely photograph … but ought to. Here, four horses and three lamas are the subject of the photograph presented here. Three and half hours into my southward drive toward Fairview, Alberta I encountered the animals on the west side of the road in the last ten kilometres traveling into Fairview. The day was warm with wind and temperatures hovering around freezing. Snow was melting, light was bright and intense and the day’s heating of the world caused dramatic interplay among the clouds being created, shaped and blown around – a windy, tempestuous start to our March, 2012.

Listening to – Eric Clapton’s Unplugged Album; songs drawing attention Before You Accuse Me, Tears in Heaven, Walkin’ Blues and Malted Milk; also listening to Martyn Joseph’s Far From Silent album – songs standing out include Good Man, The Mayor of Candor Lied and All this Time.