June 2014 – In My Back Pocket

Wabasca River Bridge – Tallcree, Alberta 5

Wabasca River Bridge – Tallcree, Alberta 2

Long hours of tired travel, southward along a back way, High Level, Fort Vermilion, Red Earth, Slave Lake and Edmonton to share time with a father in critical care dealing with his body’s weakening and the stumbles and tumbles associated with later Life. Along the way, to interrupt the hold of travel’s fatigue I stopped when I could to gather images and movement – restorative stuff. The road and bridge over the Wabasca River were the first dry area in June’s rain and served as my first stop. The Wabasca River flows through north and south Tallcree reserves and eventually feeds into the much, much bigger flow of the Peace River. Cloud work, the bridge and the lines within the image – each are elements attracting my eye to these images.

Listening to the Soundtrack to ‘It Might Get Loud’ – ‘Embryo No. 1,’ Jimmy Page, ‘Until the End of the World,’ U2, ‘Sitting on Top of the World,’ Jack White Sr & Jr, ‘Ramble On,’ Jimmy Page, ‘Blue Orchid’ and ‘Apple Blossom,’ Jack White and the ‘Battle of Evermore,’ Jimmy Page.

Quote to Inspire – “The painter constructs, the photographer discloses.” – Susan Sontag, ‘On Photography’

Highway Mists – Twin Lakes, Alberta 1

Highway Mists – Twin Lakes, Alberta 2

I asked my son to stop our truck, here, at Twin Lakes just where you begin a five kilometre descent, a significant change in altitude often accompanied by an equally significant change in weather. Twin Lakes was our first safe opportunity to pull off the road and to use the camera to capture what we’d been seeing. Not quite, London’s pea-soup fog, but fog thick enough for you to hear a vehicle approaching before you would see it. And, northern Alberta is the land of the midnight sun; at 10:30 p.m. the sun has still not quite crossed the horizon to the West (left). There were perhaps ten other, perhaps more dramatic shots before this point in the road that I would have taken, but stopping in misty conditions could have caused an accident. Better to be safe and take shots without peril.

Listening to – ‘On Being with Krista Tippett’ and her 2011 interview with Vincent Harding who recently passed away; Vincent has connection to the Mennonites and wrote some of Martin Luther King’s speeches.

Quote to Inspire – “Imperfect technique has come to be appreciated precisely because it breaks the sedate equation of Nature and Beauty.” – Susan Sontag, ‘On Photography’