Sedan Along Path – Valleyview, Alberta 1
Sedan Along Path – Valleyview, Alberta 2
Sedan Among Trees – Valleyview, Alberta 1
Sedan Among Trees – Valleyview, Alberta 2
Away from home, tasks requiring completion fly me southward to Edmonton, Alberta, Friday, one week ago today. My Sunday is a day-long, northward return trek home with my Canon 60D.
In my first years as a teacher, an elder’s coaching presented the predicament of moving through or around brush as analogy for the challenge of dealing with Life’s obstacles. If moving through brush resulted in injury, the better judgment call was that of moving around the obstacle. The key was seeing the situation for what it was. The elder was promoting the path already carved out, the natural path; for him, the established easier route ought to be the path to take. Along the road home, east from Valleyview, Alberta a fifties’ four-door sedan sits, resting and rusting, its rear window absent. It’s placement in a farmer’s field positions it along a natural path that will take it forward through trees. No longer having power to move itself, though, this sedan sits along a path that could have been.
M. Scott Peck, Robert Frost and even the Dead Poets Society’s professor Keating would all promote the road less travelled as the path to take. Perhaps the elder talking to me all those years ago was establishing reality’s balance to such assertion – the road less travelled overcomes obstacles that no one else or, at least, few have encountered. Finding one’s own way throughout one’s Life, personal navigation, is the thing in either case – avoiding the obstacles or seeking the uncommon, unique yet obstacle-laden path. It’s interesting to be referencing the Dead Poets Society again within this photoblog while associating to photos of this vehicle.
Listening to – CKUA Online and the Friday Night Blues Party, Curtis Salgado’s ‘She Didn’t Cut Me Loose’ and Andy T and Nick Nixon Band’s ‘Drink Drank Drunk.’
Quote to Inspire – “I really don’t have any idea about photography, but I take pictures.” – Alex Majoli
In My Back Pocket - Photography 
Well written … and excellent images. Thank you.
Hey there, Mona:
Congratz on being grandma one more time; I’m enjoying your photos of your grandchildren – you are capturing Life and Life’s moments. Beautiful – your grandchildren and images.
Thanks for checking in. 😉
Good photos. Good comments. Just a question – are your photos layered?
Hello …
Not so much layered as a route of edits toward each rendering. Layering can occur when one rendering becomes starting point for next edits – something that has value in dealing with a series of saturations and contrasts. Beyond this, if you’re working with Adobe products you’d be talking about layers and masks; Adobe Photoshop Elements and CS5 work through recipes to achieve effect, something that Canon’s PhotoPlus Magazine provides DVD instruction on within each issue … there’s a Nikon version of the magazine too; both are available throughout the world.
Have you a more specific question? 🙂
No. I’m so much a beginner I don’t even know what questions to ask 🙂
Hey there, …
You’re likely building a stockpile of photos. What might be valuable is some exploration of editing and finding an editing program that not only edits, but lets you explore how to edit. Adobe Photoshop has several programs – the easiest to use is Lightroom. Here’s an article to read through when you have a moment from a photographer, mentor and teacher … I’ve taken a workshop with her (Darlene Hildebrandt) and have worked through some private tutoring with her.
Have a read; copy-paste this web URL into your browser … http://www.herviewphotography.com/2012/09/25/top-10-reasons-adobe-lightroom-rocks.html
I’m interested in how you’ll make out with this. The results in Lightroom are extraordinary while the program is easy to use and allows you to follow your intuition in editing.
There are other programs as well, but Lightroom is editing software I endorse. 😉
Thanks heaps. I’ll certainly give it a try
nice images and thanks for the visit.
Hello Virgilio:
John O’Donohue seems a person of common interest … I’ve enjoyed his four Greenbelt lectures through the past five or six years and been moved to dig deeper into his work and what his work points toward.
I enjoyed ‘I Bow Down’ and winter’s yellow rose – both hold much.
Take care … 🙂
I agree, im a huge fan of lightroom! Once again, fantastic photos and comments!
Hello Kirsty:
Your ‘To Move & To Travel’ photos have me recalling and looking around for my N.C. Wyeth calendars for both ‘Treasure Island’ and ‘Kidnapped.’ And, Stevenson’s quote about travel seems to coincide with many people’s thinking about what’s next in their lives … good.
Lightroom’s ease of use as well as what else it can do make it a natural and solid starting point for good editing of photos – glad to hear that you’re familiar with it and encourage its use.
It was good to see Anne Hathaway’s cottage in your images.
Take care … 🙂
Awesome (photos AND the reference to Dead Poet’s Society!)
Hey there, LB:
I’d imagine that Life on a Bike is often that Life in search of the road less travelled.
It’s quirky to be referencing ‘The Dead Poets Society,’ and professor Keating and to do so for a second time in relation to this same sedan has me considering the ‘why’ within this coinciding coincidence of image and words. Interesting schtuff!
Thanks for looking in. 😉
The Road goes ever on and on
A quote from Tolkien, one of my favourite travelers poems. Whole thing here, http://allpoetry.com/poem/8500003-Roads_Go_Ever_On-by-J_R_R_Tolkien The journey you show in your pictures finds new ways to make me smile. Another great set. Jim
The road goes ever on and on
Down from the door where it began.
Now far ahead the Road has gone,
And I must follow, if I can,
Pursuing it with weary feet,
Until it joins some larger way,
Where many paths and errands meet.
And whither then? I cannot say.
Hey there, Jim:
I’m liking the expectation of meter and rhyme as it meets thought and next footfall.
Perhaps this poem has something to do with ‘Not-Yet-There?’ It seems to fit ….
🙂
What a great quote and post-and I love the images, particularly the top two and how they relate to your theme. Am beginning to explore Lightroom again after abandoning it not long after it first came out-and I am hoping I will be more patient with it this time around. I am enjoying your work a great deal-
Hello, hello Meg:
The quote is about that key photographer attribute – humility. A photographer allows herself or himself to become vulnerable to subject and setting, to become open to what each presents. Then, it becomes seeing what the image is about in editing. Good photographers create the image in two steps – first, they complete a series of scouting shots and next, they return to subject/setting after editing scouted images and digesting what the image can best become, finding the strongest way of seeing.
It is good to read about your return to Lightroom. Find good, interesting presets that will become part of your visual reward in using the program. And, down the line have a look into the Nik Collection of editing tools that plugs into Lightroom … very intuitive tools for editing photos.
http://www.niksoftware.com/nikcollection/usa/index.php?view=intro%2Fmain.shtml
Thanks for looking in and your kind words.
Take care … 😉