Church has been subject matter for many photos this fall. In Fort Vermilion’s north settlement, a metis settlement, I continue to return to the St. Louis Roman Catholic Church every few weeks and stay for an hour or two. Looking at this Church at different times of day and in two different season(s), I have explored how sunlight envelopes and moves around the Church within a day, I have paid attention to weather, vegetation, colour and shape surrounding the Church, and, I have investigated the Church for what different vantage points would reveal of the Church. The photographic rule followed – attend (see) and intend (work to reveal). Sacred, holy ground – a site set aside for worship. At home, I’ve printed a photograph of the Black Church in the hamlet of Búðir, Iceland. This Church is called the Búðakirkja. In juxtaposition to its surroundings (it sits within a lava field, with mountains far off in the distance) and accompanied by a single hotel, it presents as a surreal Iceland image. Sacred. Each Church shares a common timeframe (Life); they stood in the 19th Century and continue to stand. A friend has a wonderful expression for the Christian. Perhaps he’s sifting through mandate or purpose within the Bible. For him, the Christian is ‘Jesus in the doorway’ … being the neighbor, the one welcoming the stranger, in all – word becoming flesh (holy work).

I have framed photographs and cut mats for the first time this fall. Until this fall, I haven’t been able to frame my photographs myself. The aspect ratio of the photo frames from the photo store would never align with the aspect ratio of my photos. It’s been an issue of crop of the photographs. And, once I understood how the crop impacted and enhanced a photo, the crop became more important than the standard aspect ratio offered by the camera or the photo frame – the 1 x 1, the 4 x 3, the 9 x 16 etc.. The resulting prints have rarely coincided with predetermined photo frame sizes and matting. So, I’ve been cutting mat paper, matting photographs and framing photographs for the first time in nearly thirty years of being behind camera and lens. The first image matted and framed was an image created by New Zealand photographer, Paul C. Smith. Entitled, ‘Holding Hands,’ an image of a family walk along a New Zealand beach came together well, a serene image, a stolen moment that became gift to a friend. With successive framed photos I have come to understand why matte photo paper works best behind glass; matte paper prevents a double reflection you would find with a gloss print.

I have also been learning to shoot with a rangefinder camera. The matter of a double image becoming one in the view finder as it comes into focus reminds of my old Canon T70, but is something more subtle to work through, something more to do with ‘seeing.’ And, I’m working with one lens, a prime lens. So, some limitations. But, a different way to compose a shot, a different thinking to compose a shot. Much of this fall has also involved making sure to get out with a camera, regularly. Regularly can mean once a week to once every two weeks.

I’m not sure all the edits work in the images above. Let me know what you think.

Take care ….

Listening to – Internet radio (CKUA, CBC Vancouver, Fine Music Radio and more); I’ve been through Jody Carrington’s ‘Kids These Days’ and working to understand what different facets of social connectivity offer us who work with students and parents as educators; music has been varied.

Quote to Consider – for parent, educator, student … and photographer (and quoted in ‘Kids These Days’). “Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better (Maya Angelou).”

Making a photograph can work in two ways.

We can plan a photograph. We can walk the scene, find the strongest way of seeing, decide best vantage point, apply craft and engage light and shadow. We compose the shot, arranges elements that will become the photo, exclude elements not serving the photo. We look, see, brood, wait and press the shutter button. Another way we photograph is in response to what is seen in the moment. We react to scene, subject or situation in a photo – what Ralph Gibson calls a ‘perceptual act.’ The experience, subjective, is a moment we sustain in ‘taking’ a photograph … we engage the subject. Taking the photograph draws out connection from us, our understanding, our appreciation. In that moment, we respond with camera and write with light. An image is produced. Then, we move beyond it. The photograph records how we see and what we have seen. With a camera, a photographer becomes a ‘stealer of moments.’

By coincidence, the medieval conceptualization of moment surfaced last summer in a twitter feed I follow. “[A moment is a medieval unit of time. Then, as now, twenty-four hours comprised the day. An hour was one of the twelve lengths/portions of the period from sunrise to sunset. An hour had four puncta, ten minuta, or, forty momenta. Averaging with twelve solar hours, one moment should equal ninety seconds (tweet, Fermat’s Library, 26 July 2018).]” While an actual time frame surrounds the conceptualization of a moment, in contrast, the moment that a photographer finds her- or himself within when creating a photograph can be more a subjective entity, a state of presence without sense of time, something timeless. Within a moment, beauty, understanding, appreciation coalesce into presence. The photographer gathers (or steals) the moment, the photograph’s viewer can return to that moment. It is almost as if the photographer halts time’s progress and encapsulates a given moment, putting boundaries around it in the making of a photograph. And, it’s worth considering that the term ‘moment’ derives from momentum, a trajectory of time moving us forward, moment by moment. A photograph becomes a means to contradict time in our return to former moments, through our backward glance, seeing where we’ve been, what we’ve moved through and to encounter again all that was there in that moment.

Gratitude – I am indebted to New Zealand photographer, Paul C. Smith, who surfaced this consideration with his comment about a photographer being ‘a stealer of moments.’ Thank you, Paul for your stunning work and photographic sensibilities. Good, good schtuff! To readers, here, check out Paul’s Youtube videos, Instagram feed and find him on Facebook – it’s worth your time.

Words to Consider / Inspire – “I just want to make a picture [so] that the subject of the picture is essentially my perceptual act. I do not want the subject to support the content. My relationship to photography is the content, not the subject. The subject is merely a pretext. If you take a horizontal frame [landscape] you’re essentially triggering an allegorical or narrative reference – cinema, television, photojournalism. Turn it [the frame] vertically and many tensions are discoverable. I am interested in how we perceive photographs (Ralph Gibson).”

Listening to: Jim Croce’s ‘Time in a Bottle’ and Billy Joel’s ‘This Is The Time.’

A colder day in High Level, Alberta – perhaps -35C; steam rises from one of the two lumber mills.

Quote to Consider / Inspire: ‘The camera is an instrument that teaches people how to see without a camera.’ – Dorothea Lange

Listening to: U2’s ‘I Still Haven’t Found What I’m Looking For.’

Two winter homestead images from back in November. In each liking the light and colours.

Quote to Consider / Inspire: ‘My interest in photography is not to capture an image I see or even have in my mind, but to explore the potential of moments I can only begin to imagine.’ – Lois Greenfield

Listening to: U2’s ‘Who’s Gonna Ride Your Wild Horses.’

Looking back through images to this one – a float plane descends to its harbor runway in Vancouver, British Columbia. An Easter vacation with family in Vancouver – a memorable time.

Quote to Consider / Inspire: ‘A camera is a SAVE button for the mind’s eye.’ – Roger Kingston

Listening to: Dave Matthews’ ‘Old Dirt Hill.’

During last October’s Kelby World-wide Photowalk, I snapped two different shots of a retro-green work shed along Ragged Ass Road in Yellowknife. When looking back to my photowalk photos, I recognized that it might be possible to stitch them together in a Panorama in Adobe Lightroom Classic. It worked. It does have curious distortion. But, it worked. Good.

Quote to Consider / Inspire: ‘You might be a photographer if … your eyesight from staring at the computer has gone for F11 to F1.8.’

Listening to: Bruce Springsteen’s ‘Streets of Philadelphia’ and ‘Brilliant Disguise.’

Having a look through photos for the other images, the other possible edits from last September’s jaunt up to Indian Cabins, Alberta. Liking the light, shadow, colours, lines and textures of these burial houses and the narrative(s) that can be gleaned.

Quote to Consider / Inspire – ‘Circumstantial light considers not only all the properties and behaviors of natural light, but also how that light interacts with the objects around [you], so that [you] can transform those objects into light-shaping tools.’ – Roberto Valenzuela

Listening to: Taylor McFerrin’s ‘Degrees of Light.’

A sunny morning, early in January with my daughter. A breakfast, then dropping her off at her university dorm. From Lethbridge, I travelled along roads taking me from Coalhurst to Standoff, Cardston and Waterton Lakes National Park, then up to Pincher Creek and back home to Edmonton. Enjoying the play of light and shadow in the cloudwork of this day.

Quote to Consider / Inspire: ‘What I like about photographs is that they capture a moment that’s gone forever, impossible to reproduce.’ – Karl Lagerfeld

Listening to: Gord Downie’s ‘Introduce Yourself;’ a song reminding of my father coping with Alzheimer’s disease.

Bighorn sheep take advantage of a windswept, mountain meadow to graze.

Quote to consider – ‘One doesn’t stop seeing. One doesn’t stop framing. It doesn’t turn off and on. It’s on all the time.’ – Annie Liebovitz

Listening to: Joni Mitchell’s ‘This Flight Tonight;’ a surprise to find that a Nazareth song I’d listened so often to in my teens was penned, strummed and sung by Joni Mitchell.

-30C and lower temperatures – a day beginning at 2:00 a.m. with a drive from Edmonton south and west, a day at Abraham Lake and into Banff National Park.

Quote to consider – ‘The camera makes you forget you’re there. It’s not like you are hiding but you forget, you are just looking at so much.’ – Annie Liebovitz

Listening to: Vampire Weekend’s ‘Harmony Hall.’