Canadian Shed – Donnelly, Alberta 1
Canadian Shed – Donnelly, Alberta 2
Enjoying the compression of distance in this favourite image of the Canadian grain shed on the northward approach to Donnelly, Alberta.
Listening to – Neil Young’s ‘Harvest Moon.’
Quote to Inspire – “I have the great privilege of being both witness and storyteller. Intimacy, trust and intuition guide my work.” – Jim Goldberg
Derelict Service Station – Southern Alberta 2
Derelict Service Station – Southern Alberta 3
Derelict Service Station – Southern Alberta 4
Derelict Service Station – Southern Alberta 6
Derelict Service Station – Southern Alberta 10
Derelict Service Station – Southern Alberta 11
Derelict Service Station – Southern Alberta 12
Derelict Service Station – Southern Alberta 14
Beyond the Banff National Park gates, moving east toward Calgary, near the Stoney Reserve a service station with restaurant that had been a thriving business in the sixties, seventies and even eighties is now dormant. An abandoned structure, without windows and gyprocked walls, it now provides temporary and limited shelter from the elements to travellers or hitchhikers or people seeking ‘off-the-grid’ status. The building reminds of characters, scenes and happenings within the ramble of Jack Kerouac’s novel, ‘On the Road,’ of people driven and on the move, of stories shared between travellers that may or may never meet again, of place and places where seedier things can occur. On an adjacent theme, the building reminds of the Life of Chris McCandless in Jon Krakauer’s non-fiction work, ‘Into the Wild,’ and any would-be traveller who aims to explore and take-on the world on their own terms – that traveller could find refuge in this building. Graffiti tags tattoo this building, the building paper to the quill of the traveller’s spray paint. Expressed, here, are the dominant issues confronting each traveller, assertions about justice denied, of perspective not being valued and rejected, of the irony within all that makes the world tick. In all, graffiti’s colour, shape and form pull the witness to the resilient voice of the traveller expressed upon these walls. Here, ‘the writing is on the wall’ about the state of their/our world. Most telling about these travellers and their living so close to the land is the assertion ‘The Desperate Came’.
Listening to – Eddie Vedder’s ‘Hard Sun’ from the soundtrack to ‘Into the Wild.’ Then it’s Ray Lamontagne’s ‘Hold You In My Arms,’ Radiohead’s ‘All I Need,’ the Counting Crows with ‘Omaha’ and Jack Johnson’s ‘Rodeo Clowns.’
Quote to Inspire – “I don’t care so much anymore about ‘good photography’; I am gathering evidence for history.” – Gilles Peress
Mercury 155 Grain Truck – Manning, Alberta
Years on, chrome lines and badging still highlight and brighten detail work on an early fifties Mercury M-155 grain truck at the Manning Pioneer Museum in Manning, Alberta.
Listening to: my daughter skillfully work Adele’s ‘Someone Like You’ on our piano upstairs.
Quote to Inspire – “It’s not how a photographer looks at the world that is important. It’s their intimate relationship with it.” – Antoine D’Agata
1949 Chevrolet Grain Truck – Donnelly, Alberta 1
1949 Chevrolet Grain Truck – Donnelly, Alberta 2
1949 Chevrolet Grain Truck – Donnelly, Alberta 3
1949 Chevrolet Grain Truck – Donnelly, Alberta 4
1949 Chevrolet Grain Truck – Donnelly, Alberta 5
Dented and worn, pitted and cancered (rusting), the hood of a 1949 Chevrolet grain truck continues to hold its shape – lines and curves created some sixty-four years ago.
Listening to: Imagine Dragons’ ‘Radioactive.’
Quote to Inspire: “Take a moment. What was it you saw when you were moved to pick up the camera? I’m going to pretend I didn’t hear you mutter something about thinking “it looked cool.” Dig deeper. Was it a thought, a feeling, a simple moment when your eyes did a double-take at the intersection of two lines? Was it a lick of light, two blocks of color?” ― David duChemin, Vision & Voice: Refining Your Vision in Adobe Photoshop Lightroom
Grain Bins – Dixonville, Alberta 1
Grain Bins – Dixonville, Alberta 2
Grain Truck Box – Manning, Alberta 1
Grain Truck Box – Manning, Alberta 2
Grain Truck Box – Manning, Alberta 3
Grain Truck Cab – Manning, Alberta 1
Grain Truck Cab – Manning, Alberta 2
Mercury Grain Truck – Manning, Alberta 1
Mercury Grain Truck – Manning, Alberta 2
Mercury Grain Truck – Manning, Alberta 3
Mercury Grain Truck Badge – Manning, Alberta 1
Mercury Grain Truck Badge – Manning, Alberta 2
Mercury Grain Truck Badge – Manning, Alberta 3
Mercury Grain Truck Badge – Manning, Alberta 4
Images this morning are from a farming community in the region that lies between Manning, Dixonville and Blue Sky, Alberta. Grain bins done in HDR with swirling, heavy clouds above and a set of HDR photos of an early fifties grain truck at the pioneer museum minutes north of Manning.
Listening to the Candid Frame – an interview of Niel and Susan Silverman, a husband and wife photographer duo who provide photography workshops around the world; also, Sheryl Crow’s ‘Riverwide,’ U2’s ‘Wire’ and ‘Promenade,’ Roxy Music’s ‘India’ and Christine by Siouxsie & the Banshees.
Quote to Inspire – “On the odd days Auto Tone gets it right I assume it’s using some kind of voodoo.” ― David duChemin, Vision & Voice: Refining Your Vision in Adobe Photoshop Lightroom
Hawk – Valleyview, Alberta 1
Hawk – Valleyview, Alberta 2
Hawk – Valleyview, Alberta 3
On the long drive home to High Level from Southern Alberta I chanced upon a hawk, sitting on an aged farm fence post alongside the highway north, the hawk gazing out to the road – resting and surveying. I drove further, doubled back and parked my truck twenty metres from the hawk. Outside my truck, I was able to get several shots. Because the hawk had not moved and was not disturbed by me snapping photos at the truck I took a few steps toward the hawk, aiming for close-up. At five steps in, the hawk lifted from its perch and flew by me and across the road. These images were taken perhaps ten minutes north from Valleyview, Alberta near the old Valleyview road.
Listening to – the Imagine Dragons’ song ‘Radioactive’ with my daughter, driving her to her dance workshop this morning.
Quote to Inspire – “The cliché comes not in what you shoot but in how you shoot it.” ― David duChemin, Within the Frame: The Journey of Photographic Vision
No Exit – 1
No Exit – 2
No Exit – 3
No Exit – 4
The juxtaposition of ‘No Exit’ against a landscape backdrop seems more an entry into the wilds from which one may not return. And, I note that the image does possess a surreal quality that recalls portions of the memory work accomplished by Jonas and ‘the Giver’ within Lois Lowry’s novel, ‘The Giver;’ this image could serve as cautionary waypoint toward the destination of home in the novel. The novel considers the costs of conformity in a future time. The narrative is one filtering out characters, drawing down to one who has the ability to comprehend, receive and appreciate the collective’s memory found in former times and former ways. This ‘No Exit’ image is taken on an early spring day close to the Rochfort Bridge, a kilometre long train trestle equidistant to Sangudo and Mayerthorpe, Alberta.
Listening to: a preview song, Martyn Joseph singing Bruce Springsteen’s ‘Walk Like a Man,’ a tribute to several songs of Bruce Springsteen.
Quote to Inspire – “A representational photograph says, ‘This is what Vienna looked like.’ An interpretational photograph goes one better and says, ‘This is what Vienna was like. This is how I felt about it.” ― David duChemin, Within the Frame: The Journey of Photographic Vision
Alberta Reflection – Grande Prairie 1
Alberta Reflection – Grande Prairie 2
Alberta Reflection – Grande Prairie 3
Alberta’s Big Sky – 1
Alberta’s Big Sky – 2
Along Northern Roads – Grande Cache, Alberta
HDR – Subject Revisited 1
HDR – Subject Revisited 2
Trestle Bridge – Grande Cache, Alberta
Wet Rock – Banff, Alberta
Wooded Reflection – Jasper, Alberta 1
Wooded Reflection – Jasper, Alberta 2
Wooded Reflection – Jasper, Alberta 3
The following text is excerpt, core invitation to a cousin to interact with me through my photo blog and exposes intentions for the blog and posting.
“My photoblog’s URL is http://www.lumensborealis.com , written from the point of pseudonym, also most often written at day’s end … a mind saturated, releasing the day; sometimes this can seem very close to the poignant remark made by an Auschwitz inmate in Schindler’s List … ‘I had a complete thought, today.’ Sometimes my posts are good and flow and cohere. But, I’m also editing what I write to limit consequence along parameters suggested by William Stafford in his book, ‘Crossing Unmarked Snow:’
1. The things you do not have to say make you rich.
2. Saying the things you do not have to say weakens your talk.
3. Hearing the things you do not need to hear dulls your hearing.
4. The things you know before you hear them, those are you and this is the reason you’re in the world.
A compelling set of assertions, for any of us, that aims at honourable and integrated Life … a good thing – it’s how I’m aiming to write the blog. Still, in my reading of it there often is opportunity to add more Art within my writing.
The Photoblog – Photography is what the photoblog is about – a photo-a-day kind of thing as intention and as means to grapple with photography and enhance skills; but, at almost two years in I’m only on post 271 and not beyond a year’s 365 posts. The blog is also about responding to each photo or set of photos as starting point to engage the rabbit trail of memory associating to family and times.” And, it often leads my thought to a set of Rimbey farms and my cousins, there.
Listening to – the Candid Frame with Ibarionex Perello in an interview with Will Jax about his Juke Joint photography in the French Quarter of New Orleans; part of the discussion that intrigued was the matter of consent, of giving back, contributing – all parts of what grants access within the exchange that is photography.
Quote to Inspire – “You yourself are unique–you have ways of seeing your world that are unlike those of anyone else–so find ways to more faithfully express that, and your style will emerge.” ― David duChemin, Vision & Voice: Refining Your Vision in Adobe Photoshop Lightroom
Bubble – High Level, Alberta 1
Bubble – High Level, Alberta 2
Bubble – High Level, Alberta 3
Bubble – High Level, Alberta 3
Bubble – High Level, Alberta 5
A first, an orb floating on the air of a summer’s day – a large soap bubble blown by the wind, there and here before popping or being popped.
Listening to – the Candid Photo with Ibarionex Parello.
Quote to Inspire – “Consider this your permission to indulge that inner anarchist. Stop following the path you ought to take; follow instead the one you long to take.” ― David duChemin, VisionMongers: Making a Life and a Living in Photography
HDR – 1947 Ford One Tonne Tow Truck, McLure, British Columbia
HDR – North of 60 Bus Shelter Seats, Valleyview, Alberta
I have had a go at creating two High Dynamic Range (HDR) images in the last while. In landscape images my practice is to shoot with Automatic Exposure Bracketing (creating 3 images in succession -1, 0 & +1) and explore how the images will turn out in HDR. The images are of subjects I have shot before; but, they are not the original image shots included in previous posts. They are ‘also-ran’ images of the 1947 Ford One-tonne Tow Truck from McLure, British Columbia and the ‘would-be’ bus shelter seat, North of 60 style. In both the detail, lines and range of light are enhanced (or at least different).
Listening to – today it’s been the conclusion of Ken Follett’s ‘Pillars of the Earth’ on the long drive home from Edmonton to High Level. The narrative provides glimpse of Monarchy, Ecclesiastical ambition and all that was behind building cathedrals and parishes; the story moves from Life at the local/village level all the way to Thomas Beckett and King Henry and those who contested the throne.
Quote to Inspire – “Vision is that original spark that was ignited within you and made you pick up a camera to capture whatever it is you saw, that made you turn to shout “Did you see that!” only to find no one there–so you created an image to do the telling.” ― David duChemin, Vision & Voice: Refining Your Vision in Adobe Photoshop Lightroom
In My Back Pocket - Photography 
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