Aways Down the Twin Lakes Hill – Twin Lakes, Alberta
Solitary, a Sunday afternoon motorist returns home northward along northern Alberta roads, descending down the five kilometres that comprise the Twin Lakes hill.
Listening to – Sigur Ros’ ‘Glosoli,’ the Lumineers’ ‘Stubborn Love’ and Ed Sheeran’s ‘Firefly.’
Quote to Inspire – “There is only you and your camera. The limitations in your photography are in yourself, for what we see is what we are.”
Sunset – Whitecourt to Valleyview, Alberta
Poet and fellow photo blogger, Jim from ‘notyethere’ blog highlights the truism that there will be other sunsets – found, seen, discovered and relished. In this instance, I chose to pull the car off the road between Whitecourt and Valleyview, Alberta and capture the sunset. Check out http://notyethere.wordpress.com/ .
Listening to – ‘Across the River’ by Peter Gabriel.
Quote to Inspire – “I guess I’ve shot about 40,000 negatives and of these I have about 800 pictures I like.” – Harry Callahan
Edmonton – from Mill Creek
Edmonton – from the River Valley
Edmonton – Looking Southeast 2
Edmonton – Looking Southeast
The past week presented the opportunity to move around Edmonton and to look at skylines from different vantage points.
Listening to – Mozart’s ‘Requiem, K. 626’ performed by La Grande Ecurie et la Chambre du Roy, Jean-Claude Malgoire, Dominique Visse, Choeur Regional Nord-Pas-De-Calais, Odile Bailleux, Martin Hill, Colette Alliot-Lugaz & Gregory Reihart.
Quote to Inspire – “I am forever chasing light. Light turns the ordinary into the magical.” – Trent Parke
Saskatchewan Drive – Edmonton, Alberta
Edmonton – a cold sunrise, winter lingering on into spring, colours buildings and fog haze in muted and rich tones reminding of Russian narratives.
Bartholomew Scott Blair misses a trade show for book publishers. Boozy Barley Blair, life on a tangent, haphazardly and unwittingly finds himself in possession of serious, sobering prose; the film of this narrative takes you from Lisbon to London to Moscow and to Boris Pasternak’s grave and Dacha in which Dr. Zhivago was written. That world is presented in much the same colours as this Edmonton image. The narrative explores the rambling of Barley’s unanchored heart navigating forward recklessly in hope and unchallenged belief at a time of life when legacy is what should concern him. Barley’s life becomes entangled – verifying story source and author, working within prescribed tradecraft and pursuing relationship. That relationship and possibility change the course of this narrative – hope and promise are honoured.
This Edmonton image looking out to Saskatchewan Drive high above the North Saskatchewan River surprises me in perspective, time of year and colour. These are the familiar tones and colours and climate of my childhood and youth cycling Edmonton city streets or walking and talking with friends. Likewise Moscow’s tones, colour and climate as featured in the film of John Le Carre’s ‘Russia House’ also surprise me because they are so strikingly familiar.
Listening to – Ernest Hemingway’s ‘A Moveable Feast.’
Quote to Inspire – “The camera is an instrument that teaches people how to see without a camera.” ― Dorothea Lange
Butler Grain Bins – Blue Hills, Alberta
Four Butler tin grain bins are placed on the crest of a field near Blue Hills and Tompkins Landing, Alberta, positioned near a range road for ease of access, away from water, able to take advantage of the sun’s heat to dry grain stored within. The bins remind of Egypt and Joseph, a pharaoh’s dream that disturbs and Joseph’s dream reading – seven abundant years followed by seven famine-filled years; at pharaoh’s request, Joseph undertakes and manages Egypt’s grain collection (in grain bins) in the abundant years and oversees grain distribution in Egypt’s lean years. Joseph is a name meaning ‘he who removes my shame,’ a name Rachel gives this first born son of hers following barren years with Jacob (Israel). Joseph is the dreamer whose father, Jacob, gives a coat of many colours. It’s Joseph’s ability to interpret dreams (and to see what’s happening as a visionary) that allows him to serve others throughout his life. Josephs, those who remove shame, feature elsewhere in the Bible story. The Joseph who marries Mary, mother of Jesus is stepfather who extends grace to Mary when she’s found to be pregnant prior to their marriage. The story grows ever-bigger and Mary’s Joseph often guided by dream revelation has a role to play in the lives of Jesus and Mary. Then, there’s the Joseph of Arimathea who provides tomb for Jesus and who removes Jesus’ body from the cross becoming unclean in touching a dead body as the Sabbath begins. Each Joseph removes shame and extends grace into the situation.
Listening to – Chris Whitley’s ‘Dust Radio,’ the Lumineers’ ‘Ho Hey’ and ‘Stubborn Love,’ John Trudell’s ‘Rockin the Res (Live)’ and Congregation’s ‘Don’t Pay No Mind.’
Quote to Inspire – It should be the aim of every photographer to make a single exposure that shows everything about the subject. I have been told that my portrait of Churchill is an example of this. – Yousuf Karsh
Cattails and Snow, High Level, Alberta 1
I’m liking these cattails and the lengthening curves of the snow in which they are set.
Listening to – Tim Reynolds fret a number from the Live at Radio City concert with Dave Matthews, ‘You Are My Sanity’; then it’s Dave Matthews and Tim Reynolds with a Neil Young tune, ‘Down by the River.’
Quote to Inspire – “I really don’t have any idea about photography, but I take pictures.” – Alex Majoli
1 Buttertown Home – Fort Vermilion, Alberta 2
2 Buttertown Home – Fort Vermilion, Alberta 1
3 Farm Buildings – Guy, Alberta 1
4 Farm Buildings – Guy, Alberta 3
5 Farm Buildings – Guy, Alberta 4
6 Farming Buildings – Nampa, Alberta 2
7 Farming Buildings – Nampa, Alberta 1
8 Ford & Mercury Trucks 1
9 Ford & Mercury Trucks 2
10 Icicle – Tompkins Landing 1
11 Icicle – Tompkins Landing 2
12 Icicle – Tompkins Landing 3
13 Icicle – Tompkins Landing 4
14 Icicle – Tompkins Landing 5
15 Icicle – Tompkins Landing 6
16 Black and White – Cattails, High Level, Alberta
17 Former Highway Construction Vehicles 1
18 Former Highway Construction Vehicles 2
19 Bus Lanes at Night – High Level, Alberta
A cluster of B-side photos remain – Fort Vermilion’s former times Buttertown homes, winter farming scenes (equipment and buildings, deposited in their last left locations, ‘medias res’), icicle lens edits and former MacKenzie highway construction vehicles. It’s this winter’s tail-end, a time to close winter out … and get-on with spring.
Listening to – Edie Brickell & the New Bohemians’ ‘What I am,’ U2’s ‘All Because of You,’ Cat Stevens’ ‘Morning Has Broken,’ Depeche Mode’s ‘Policy of Truth,’ T. Rex’s ‘Bang a Gong,’ Wang Chung’s ‘Dance Hall Days’ and Neil Young’s ‘Cinnamon Girl.’
Quote to Inspire – “Success is what happens when 10,000 hours of preparation meet with one moment of opportunity.” – Anonymous
Cattails – High Level, Alberta 1
Cattails – High Level, Alberta 2
That day – not in Church, in the first warmth of spring’s sun; snow, hip-deep … all your weight, leaning forward, shifting snow, inches at a time … to these snow-surrounded cattails. A beautiful, sunny spring Sunday with my Canon 60D.
Listening to – Alice in Chains’ ‘Heaven Beside You,’ Amiina’s ‘Rugla,’ and Angus and Julia Stone’s ‘Big Jet Plane.’
Quote to Inspire – “A good photograph is knowing where to stand.” – Ansel Adams
Sunset – Dusk – Peace River, Alberta
For a second time, a Peace River, Alberta sunset arrests my attention. This photo is an image exposed incorrectly, but one that has been shot as a RAW file; editing is able to rescue the image returning it to Life and intention – a sunset shot. Earlier this fall on a day when we (my family and me) had been to Peace River for a day’s outing, the day’s return journey began at sunset; we in our vehicle making the long five kilometre climb westward out of the Peace valley and enjoying an array, scatter and stir of cloud work – hues deepening, then diminishing. A sight to have caught as a photo, this sunset … but just as easily enjoyed by each of us for what it was; there will be other sunsets (we do live in Alberta). As an entity, the immediate follow-up to sunset is dusk, light that softens as it leaves, light that colours as it diminishes – in photographic terms it de-saturates (withdraws colour). As an entity, dusk is intermediary between the stark, factual reality of daylight and that part of Life that occurs in the unseen. As an entity, dusk seems to be a visual reminder of transience – at sunrise dusk is a part of how we enter the day; at sunset dusk moves us from our day into night. The day’s movement is a part of our forward Life movement reminding us of our impermanence.
Listening to – Snow Patrol’s ‘Please Just Take These Photos,’ The Eagles’ ‘Seven Bridges Road,’ Don Henley’s ‘Sunset Grill,’ The Cars’ ‘Good Times Roll,’ Cheap Trick’s ‘Speak Now or Forever Hold Your Peace,’ The Verve’s ‘Bittersweet Symphony,’ and U2’s ‘Crumbs From Your Table.’
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
Homestead – Peace River, Alberta
Homestead I
Homestead II
Homestead III
Sedan – Sunrise Beach, Alberta
In learning piano, here in Canada, students will often learn and be taught how to play using music that is leveled within music books. At year-end you can challenge an examination to receive recognition of your level of skill. The daily practice along the way is what I recall. Each Toronto Royal Conservatory music book contained pieces – composed entities of music with beginning, middle and end, music with variation, music having specific direction, everything from phrasing, to control of loud and soft volume, intention for pace and emotion … all to be interpreted in presentation. Each music book also contained exercises or studies meant to develop skills for use within pieces, a matter of reading intention from the page and translating that intention accurately into sound. The exercise of returning to images and editing again and again is similar to these music studies and is something closer to the creative portion of writing music. The exercise of editing allows you to explore what the image contains and what can be brought out in an image; regular exercise builds the skill. Moving toward a pleasing outcome – what does and does not work – in editing is where much of photography’s creative act lies.
The photos presented are exercises in editing, seeing what they can become – Homesteads and Sedan.
Listening to – My Bloody Valentine’s ‘Sometimes,’ Phoenix’s ‘Too Young,’ Kevin Shields’ ‘Are You Awake’ and ‘City Girl,’ Brian Reitzell & Roger J. Manning Jr.’s ‘On the Subway,’ and The Jesus and Mary Chain’s ‘Just Like Honey.’
Quote to Inspire – “Once you learn to care, you can record images with your mind or on film. There is no difference between the two.” – Anonymous
In My Back Pocket - Photography 
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