At home this Christmas with my daughter and wife – no miles travelled north to south and back; family safe and physically distanced, family by Zoom call – safe and blessed. Good. Through Saturday (our Boxing Day, 2020), each time my wife and I came into our kitchen we found ourselves marveling at the beautiful result just beyond our kitchen window. In colour ranging from sage to coffee to obsidian, clusters of leaves that still clung from tree branches were edged and covered in heavy hoarfrost. The night before, found High Level shrouded in a dense mist, the right conditions “… when moisture in the air skips the water droplet stage and appears directly as ice crystals on [different objects].”¹ A frost point had been reached creating hoarfrost. In the week that has followed, we got out with cameras, my wife, my daughter and I out into the forest and out into our backyard. These are images of our backyard leaves.

¹ (https://www.accuweather.com/en/weather-news/what-is-hoarfrost/7092 )

Listening to:  Holly Cole’s ‘Neon Blue,’ Tom Petty & The Heartbreakers’ ‘It’ll All Work Out,’ eastmountainsouth’s ‘Hard Times,’ Ruckus’ ‘Same in Any Language,’ Faron Young’s ‘Hot Rod – Shotgun Boogie No. 2’ and Appalachian Road Show’s ‘Don’t Want to Die in the Storm.’ Also listening to ‘Dreamsicle’ from Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit. Still listening to Motorhead’s tribute to David Bowie with ‘Heroes.’ ‘Apocalypse’ by Cigarettes after Sex still reminds of Roxy Music’s ‘More Than This,’ ‘Avalon’ and ‘The Main Thing.’

Liking the soliloquy entitled ‘Peace’ from the movie ‘Any Given Sunday;’ it’s about team (maybe something appropriate for how we close out 2020).

Quotes to Consider / Inspire: (1) ‘Every other artist begins with a blank canvas, a piece of paper … the photographer begins with the finished product (Edward Steichen).’ (2) ‘Photography can only represent the present. Once photographed, the subject becomes part of the past (Berenice Abbott).’ (3) ‘If I like many photographers, and I do. I account for this by noting a quality they share – animation. They may or may not make a living by photography, but they are alive by it (Robert Adams).’

Entering Calgary from the south, you crest a plateau. You see it right where you decide between Deerfoot and Barlow Trails. You find yourself looking out and over Calgary’s sprawl, the possibility of a panorama shot – Calgary’s skyline looking northward and a nudge west to downtown towers. The image has potential. Each time, though, I am beginning an eleven or more-hour drive home, impatient to get the drive done, not anticipating a niggling desire to work this image, needing to wrestle intentions in favour of stopping my vehicle and making the photograph. Do dissonant moments like this happen to you as a photographer – the recognition of a possible photo on the periphery of awareness being met with that other intended thing that needs done?

This Calgary skyline panorama shot will need a tripod and head levelled. The head will accommodate a Canon 5D Mk III via an L-bracket for a telephoto lens, a Tamron 150-600mm lens zoomed in as far as needed. Aperture priority will allow a consistent exposure of f-8 or f-11. Manual focus using back screen magnification will allow me to maintain sharpness among common parts of each image when merging images.  I want most things in this photograph to be sharp and in focus. I will trial two methods for finding focus: first, focusing on an element a third of the way into the scene, and an alternative approach, if the foreground is more than a metre from the lens, focusing on the object in the distance that I intend to be clear and sharp – the towers. Limiting vibration within the camera will involve turning off the image stabilizer. Then, with the camera in portrait orientation, it’s about gathering a series of shots overlapping by a third on each. Depending on how far I have focused in on the scene (and how much the scene fills my viewfinder), the panorama will need three, five, seven or more shots. In terms of composition, I intend to keep Calgary’s towers to the left side of the image – that’s my starting thought. But in looking at the scene, other compositions may present themselves. Here, though, juxtaposition is what this scene calls for – the vertical of Calgary’s downtown towers and the horizontal sprawl of the city and perhaps the broader landscape.

The Rocky Mountains may feature in the background, a welcome element. Cloudwork will add to the image – wisps of Cirrus clouds at dawn. Working through the blue hour and into sunrise may yield a variety of colourful panoramas to work with. Other panoramas are possible along the Deerfoot, each providing a different foreground from which to consider Calgary’s skyline.

So, this panorama of the Calgary skyline needs planning, and it requires me to make time for the making of this shot. A trip to Calgary will need to consider dates, weather and times. Two days in or around Calgary might work – a day to scout and review starting shots and another for final photos. Rest will factor in – while luck favours the prepared, having slept well adds presence to the equation of what the photograph will become. Writing this post is a kind of preparation, allowing me to consider bringing this photograph’s intention to reality.

A YouTube video along with Google Maps helped me find this vantage point for the Calgary Skyline panorama image above. I found my way from the Deerfoot to this location. I parked my truck, loaded camera gear on my back, walked down the hill and set up the tripod and camera. I trialled four panoramas from this location and looked for other possible subjects of interest from this location afterwards. Then, it was about packing up, walking the hill, stowing gear and returning to my homeward drive. This image is one I hope to shoot again as a dusk shot, a night shot and a winter scene in the snow. That planning is ahead of me – something I look forward to.

Listening to – U2’s ‘Who’s Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses,’ ‘Tryin’ to Throw Your Arms Around the World,’ ‘Elevation (Influx Mix),’ ‘When I Look at the World,’ ‘Get On Your Boots (Fish Out of Water Mix),’ ‘New York,’ ‘Magnificent,’ ‘Beautiful Day’ and ‘Grace.’

Quotes to Consider / Inspire:  (1) “If you say there is nothing interesting to shoot, it is you that is not interested (Jon Luvelli).” (2) “I put together artwork like tiny pieces of a puzzle, with hopes of one day seeing the whole complete picture and therefore understanding myself more (Jon Luvelli).”

Again, a fifty-year-old lens, autumn sun in the late afternoon, white glow and crispness of shape.

“You think too much and I bet it kills the magic,’ he says simply. ‘Some things are just instinct and if you try and replace that with thinking they die. You can read and think as much as you want before and after, but in the moment, man, you have to, like, let go (Blue GhostGhost, Art Criticism).’”

Listening to: Pat Green’s cover of U2’s ‘Trip Through Your Wires’ featuring Joe Ely.

An early August morning, cycling the trails in High Level, a time rich with colour, mist, light and shadow.

Quote to Consider / Inspire – ‘Photographs are just light and time (John Green, Turtles All the Way Down).’

Listening to – ‘Turn, Turn, Turn’ as sung by John McCutcheon from the ‘To Everyone in All the World: A Celebration of Pete Seeger.’

I like a song put out by the New Customs.  It’s about photography, memory, and being in the moment that pulls you to a photograph and what that moment pulls from you.  The song is called ‘Chasing Light.’ I like it.

It has been a sunny September weekend. I moved beyond habit and did not go into school today (Saturday). I drove through the region, getting in and out of my truck regularly and framing images in bright Autumn light in the fresh, cooler, windy weather of Autumn. Winter could be here in days, perhaps weeks – something that speaking of seems to hasten. My afternoon was spent driving the road up Watt Mountain. There, blustery cloud work, autumn leaves and gravel roads coalesced into images. Trees surrounding ponds and their reflection on water became images. Bright colours of sunlit flowers contrasted against the shadows of shrubs and trees – they became images, too. Later, Fort Vermilion’s north settlement, ‘Buttertown,’ would reveal bounty in crops ready for harvest and that the grain harvest would begin soon. The day was good for the physicality of being on the land with my rangefinder and two prime lenses.  For me, the freedom to be outside was part of appreciating the immensity of the world outside, beyond my door, beyond my home, beyond my office and beyond all that is school. It’s been about being beyond COVID’s need for physical distancing. And this day has been about gathering and taking home images to edit, consider and recall.  Seeing the world through my camera and lens has made this a good, good day.

Quote to Consider / Inspire – ‘Don’t pack up your camera until you’ve left the location (Joe McNally, The Moment It Clicks: Photography Secrets from One of the World’s Top Shooters).’

Listening to – ‘Chasing Light’ from The New Customs, a song all about photography and photographer.

Train Trestle

The day was a perambulation through southwestern Alberta in February 2020. Arriving the night before after two long days driving from the north and arranging things with my daughter, I had the day to myself with my Canon and Leica cameras before dining, visiting and catching up with her and her time at university. It was a pre-COVID day, days before I needed to attend a teacher convention and like many teachers, I was concerned about COVID becoming Canadian news, then Alberta news and finally, our community’s news. In a month, my students, colleagues and family would be in lockdown. Then a call from our daughter came – university students were being sent home. With me being in quarantine as a precaution, my wife would need to travel the same route I had, collect my daughter from university, and bring her home. I am proud of her for seeing this immense task through.

The train trestle in this photo is south of Pincher Creek, Alberta. On the other side of the trestle was a sign indicating an Alberta historical site. St. Henry’s Church was at the summit of Twin Butte. A ‘butte’ (French for knoll) is an isolated hill or mountain with steep or precipitous sides that usually has a smaller summit area than a mesa (Spanish for table). I climbed the road in my Corolla. St. Henry’s Church resides on the Twin Butte summit and allows looking out over a vast expanse in all directions. East and north are prairie farmlands. On this day, south and west presented a snow-filled valley stretching toward the Rocky Mountains and a sun-dazzling display of tempestuous winter cloud work making its way over the mountains. I gathered many photos from St. Henry’s Church across to the Rockies and again from the crest of the summit where the road returns down to the highway.

The day was one of the best, last, and most memorable days of photography for me before COVID, a day that offered a collection of photos to edit, share and discuss through social media.

My wife and I travelled through the area a little over a week ago (6 August 2023) from Lethbridge to Magrath, Leavitt, Waterton Lakes National Park, Pincher Creek, Fort MacLeod and Lethbridge. Some photos were taken, but the drive was more a matter of whim, exploration and sharing the world with my wife. The drive remains beautiful, one that draws out intention and wanderlust from me.

Quote to Consider / Inspire – ‘To photograph: it is to put on the same line of sight the head, the eye and the heart (Henri Cartier-Bresson).’

Listening to: ‘People Get Ready (Live)’ from Seal’s ‘Soul Live’ album.

I arrived in Lethbridge.  Calling my daughter, we coordinated our meeting. She had work to complete for an assignment due in one of her university classes the following day.  I would explore southwestern Alberta with my cameras and meet her that evening for a meal at the Firestone Restaurant. Here is a morning image, a winter image along a range of wind turbines between Fort MacLeod and Cardston – a silhouette.

Quote to Consider / Inspire – “Ultimately – or at the limit – in order to see a photograph well, it is best to look away or close your eyes. ‘The necessary condition for an image is sight,’ Janouch told Kafka; and Kafka smiled and replied: ‘We photograph things in order to drive them out of our minds. My stories are a way of shutting my eyes (Roland Barthes, Camera Lucida: Reflections on Photography).’”

Listening to: Mark Knopfler and Emmylou Harris with ‘Red Staggering,’ ‘Rollin’ On’, ‘Love and Happiness’ and ‘Right Now’ from their All that Roadrunning album.

Enjoying this – getting out and away from behind closed doors and seeing the world through with camera and lens – southern Alberta images, February 2020.

Pre-Owned Equipment – Selling It?

What do you do?  Are you in the predicament of wanting to try different cameras?  I have used Canon cameras mainly. I have an Olympus EM-5 Mk II and a Fuji X-100F.  How do you sell or trade off your older camera(s)? There are KEH and B&H Photo that I have bought used equipment from. There’s even MPB. But I have never sold my cameras. What has your experience been like selling cameras? 

Quote to Inspire / Consider – ‘While there is perhaps a province in which the photograph can tell us nothing more than what we see with our own eyes, there is another in which it proves to us how little our eyes permit us to see (Dorothea Lange).’

Listening to: ‘Beachcombing,’ ‘I Dug Up a Diamond,’ and ‘This Is Us’ from the ‘All the Roadrunning’ album from Mark Knopfler & Emmylou Harris.

One of the first images with a fifty-year-old rangefinder 90mm prime lens. A Sunday afternoon image found out near Fort Vermilion’s north settlement in colder October days before snow.

Quote to Inspire / Consider – ‘Always seeing something, never seeing nothing, being a photographer (Walter De Mulder).

Listening to:  John Prine lifting his voice with ‘When I Get to Heaven.’

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A too-long drive finds me having travelled 1200 km one-way, southward on a Labour Day weekend.  I am taking my daughter’s car down to her, at University in Lethbridge.  She and her mother are travelling together in my truck with boxes of personal effects and are ahead of me by a couple of hours.  I have stopped at Fort MacLeod to ease body stiffness and to look around.  I have my range finder camera and a 28mm wide angle prime lens to gather practice with.  I stop at the North West Mounted Police barracks which in non-COVID times would be a tourist site; today it’s closed.  It looks to be an interesting site from outside its walls.

From the barracks, I scan the horizon and find this Alberta Wheat Pool grain elevator. I find my way to it and enjoy an hour of stop and start composition finding. I work through different exposures from all sides of the elevator; my daughter and wife have given me the gift of time that is at my leisure. Good. I have the other 1400 km to travel back home in the next two days. The fun will be in the editing of these images in the months that follow.

Quote to Consider / Inspire – ‘A photograph is usually looked at – seldom looked into (Ansel Adams).’

Listening to: John Prine’s ‘Summer’s End’ (again), ‘Caravan of Fools,’ ‘Lonesome Friends of Science’ and ‘No Ordinary Blue’ from ‘The Tree of Forgiveness’ album.