Canon 50mm Lens

Alone – A Life Resigned, Complete

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Vale Island - Boat in Woods, Hay River, NWT

The photograph presented, here, is one of the five boats on Vale Island at Hay River, NWT. While several wordpress blogger photographs this week explore the theme of ‘simple’ in a weekly photo challenge, this photograph more accurately conveys the sentiment of ‘being at rest or at peace.’ This photograph is quirky, though, a boat dragged among the trees, a boat left to rot away … and still the lighting, the subject and boat’s shape suggest simplicity, perhaps a simplicity in resignation. As a concept, simple can be construed to mean the basics involved in the minimum equation for living; it can refer to what one finds easy to do and tangentially it can refer to limited cognitive capacity, perhaps a capacity less than what is required in order to live. Again, the photograph really presents the simplicity of resignation – a life resigned, something complete, something simple.

Listening to The Good in Me is Dead sung by Martyn Joseph in his album Don’t Talk About Love, Volume 1

Quote to Inspire – “There is no such thing as ‘correct’ composition, just bad composition, good composition and inspired composition.” ~ Andrew S. Gibson, Beyond Thirds – A Photographer’s Introduction to Creative Composition

Vale Island – At the Corner of 100th St. and 102nd Ave. NW

Canon 50mm, Canon 50mm Lens, Canon 60D, Canon Camera, Canon Live View, High Dynamic Range (HDR), Journaling, Night, Prime Lens, Project 365 - Photo-a-day, Still Life, Weather, Winter

Vale Island Boats - Hay River, NWT

On Vale Island, part of the old Hay River town site, at the wooded corner of 100th Street and 102nd Avenue, if you look into the trees of the northwest corner the sight you’ll see is that of four or five derelict wooden boats of various sizes, some small enough to have navigated the east channel alone, others with size enough to have been considered, in their day, seaworthy on the Great Slave Lake. Three of these boats are the subject of my second high dynamic range (HDR) photograph, boats well-past their prime, dragged to higher ground to rot away among the aspen willows. They will no longer be a nuisance there and they’ll need little upkeep.  In actual fact, what I’ve come across is the cemetery plot for these old boats.  While life has gone out from them, these vessels, without doubt, saw service in my life time; but, would they have been built in my life time?

The picture and this present consideration of boat-life reminds of a reader colleague and friend who pointed me toward Alice Munroe’s 2001 novel about the different ‘ships’ we sail within throughout our lives; it’s entitled Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage, and has now been republished with the title ‘Away From Her.’ Within each state we act and move with different intents and purposes.  But, a ship graveyard such as this found on Vale Island reminds that our journey within these collective or collected states has beginning, duration and an end, as well.  The book was a tough go reading-wise, more something exposing malaise and truth than … hope?

The boats of Vale Island while having had lives that preceded this photograph, have certainly ferried human lives living within the various ‘ships’ that Alice Munroe has proposed in and around Hay River, NWT. These boats still hold their line and shape.  Now, beyond their service, they are in demise.  And, the winds blow from the Great Slave Lake through Vale Island, among these boats and into Hay River.

Listening to Ride Forever, sung by Paul Gross as part of the Due South soundtrack, a single song referencing the Great Slave Lake, living in Alberta … and matters of growing old.

Quote to Inspire – “Where I come from the challenges are quite different.  There are no drug dealers or pimps, few thieves to bother with.  There was only the environment and surviving in the face of it is the challenge of the Inuit. A mother gives birth somewhere out on a glacier field, hundreds of miles from the nearest outpost and she knows that the odds are stacked against her son even living to see the spring with disease, lack of food or the elements.  And, even if they should survive and if he should grow to be a boy, she knows very well that all he has to do is lose his footing on the smooth surface of a glacier and that’ll be that.  In other words, she should know that if her son cannot live … why should she try?  Well I know this woman. I helped deliver her son. She was weak and undernourished. The next morning she stood up and she picked her child up into her arms and she set out again into the blinding snow.  And, I think that was one of the most courageous acts that I’ve ever seen.” ~ Paul Gross, Fraser/Inuit Soliloquy – Due South

Thank you, kindly.

High Dynamic Range (HDR) Photograph – Alexandra Falls

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Alexandra Falls HDR 2

At the Alexandra Falls I used the AEB (Automatic Exposure Bracketing) in anticipation of working with HDR software soon. The Automatic Exposure Bracketing on a Canon camera takes three (3) shots of the same subject in sequence – a darker image, the average exposed image and a lighter image. I downloaded the Photomatix Pro HDR software (thank you for the recommendation Maciek Sukolski – MiKS Media) with Lightroom plug-in and have been experimenting, tonight. The HDR software combines the images to create better (or perhaps more accurate) definition of the subject and an exposure that more accurately sees all that the eye sees – we see a broader range of dark and light than our cameras; HDR overcomes this limitation. Taking these photographs also requires a tripod so that the camera accurately records the same image three times … without movement. In looking at the image of the falls have a look for the level of detail produced throughout the image. I find myself wishing I would have taken more time at the Hay River shipyard taking photographs in Automatic Exposure Bracketing.  Alas, it was cold and I needed to return home 300 km south.

Listening to Cardiff Bay by Martyn Joseph from his Evolved album (first heard on Stocki’s Rhythms of Redemption and seen more than few times in Edmonton with friends).

Quote to Inspire – “Photography is like making cheese. It takes a hell of a lot of milk to make a small amount of cheese just like it takes a hell of a lot of photos to get a good one.” – Robert Gillis

The Art that Food ‘Is’ …

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My daughter misses her brother who’s away at University.  As the baker in our family and as someone who’s grown up with stories of and experiences with a grandmother who’s practiced and creative flare showed through her tasty dishes upon her dining room table, my daughter understands that care is expressed for others through the art of food.  My son, who’s seven years older than my daughter, values and respects his sister’s abilities, creations and talent.  Tonight, my daughter has baked muffins for her brother to send his way in a ‘care package.’

For my part, stories surrounding manna in the ancient wisdom text have me wondering about the longevity (or shelf-life) of this food parcel being sent 800km south; manna was to be collected once a day, a portion (an omer) for each member of the family; collecting more than was needed would see the uneaten portion rot, becoming filled with worms and maggots – all this to teach a people absolute reliance upon the creator.  Still, for us, we are at that cold, polar, northern part of our year that sees temperatures drop to -40 where Celsius and Fahrenheit scales intersect.  The cold will, no doubt, easily prolong the shelf-life of my daughter’s care package muffins, certainly long enough for my son and his dorm-mate to enjoy.

The muffins my daughter has baked are subject for tonight’s photographs. Later, with her, we added photographs of various teas from our cupboard and placed two ounce-bottles of the grandparent’s favourite spirits on the table to work with glass and shape. We experimented with depth of field and focusing with the Canon 60D’s live view display. Our photography session came about partially because my daughter was intrigued this morning when I showed her a PhotoPlus article on Food photography; it’s part of a monthly feature in which a pro photographer mentors an interested and willing amateur. Now that I’ve had a go at it, the article deserves a re-read.

Quote to Inspire – “Inspiration is always a surprising visitor.” ― John O’Donohue, Anam Cara: A Book of Celtic Wisdom

Listening to Mozart’s Andantino con variazioni from Flute and Harp Concerto K. 299

Wind and Winter on the West Bank of the Alexandra Falls

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I woke this morning having dreamed.  And, I woke with intention to make good use of this day for photography.  My progress to my truck and terrain was slowed … Life got in the way is an expression taken to mean that where and when there’s a task that needs done that helps others it needs to be done, presently. I got the business done. And, before getting underway I enlisted my daughter’s help in pinning a map of our municipal district (all six feet worth of map) to the west wall in our garage above the work bench.  We also pinned a map of High Level above our freezer on the east wall of the garage.  With both, the intention is to locate places and subjects of previous photographs as a means to sort out return visits or new places to explore. By 2:00 p.m., I was on the road having shifted from staying within our municipal district (the size of three smaller European countries) to northward travel to Alexandra Falls and to Hay River – both in the Northwest Territories.  I arrived at the falls by 5:00 p.m. and saw the curious way it had iced over and pushed ice over the falls.  An hour later I was in Hay River investigating what happens to its ship yards in winter;  you’d never think that you would drive north to find the largest inland lake in the world, the Great Slave Lake, a lake making use of trawlers and barges, a lake needing more than a few vessels of the Canadian Coast Guard.

The photographs show Alexandra falls and its ice.  Dimensions to grasp – the far wall that river drops down is a 60 foot drop; so, that clump of ice that has fallen over the falls this winter is huge – in height and volume equal to a small two story house.  The next photographs are of boats that have been pulled ashore and are not presently used.  The first shot is of three derelict boats pulled far into the woods, left to rot. The ships are those at the Hay River shipyard close to the southern tip of the Great Slave Lake; at -22C, with wind from the lake, it was a cold time capturing these images – my camera will lock up when it  and its battery is cold.

While I would have preferred to see all of this in daylight it was good gathering these photographs.  For these and others I was using exposure bracketing because I want to investigate High Dynamic Range photography (probably with Photomatix – thank you’s to Shuttertime’s Mac and Sid for encouraging this).  Perhaps the most enjoyable part of the day/evening was being alone with the wind and the sounds of northern winter on the west bank above Alexandra falls.  Good schtuff!

Listening to – a lot of CBC tonight – DNTO and a theme of walking in another’s shoes; also am intrigued to see that John Le Carre’s Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy has had a remake and should be out next Friday – Le Carre’s novels were the light reading during university and my son and I have enjoyed Alec Guiness as George Smiley.  Music – David Gray’s Silver Lining from his White Ladder album.

Quote to Inspire – “To me, photography is an art of observation. It’s about finding something interesting in an ordinary place… I’ve found it has little to do with the things you see and everything to do with the way you see them.” ~ Elliott Erwitt

Dormant – More than a Winter Season

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As a journaling exercise I might look to today’s events or surroundings to see what, if any, forgotten life themes are lurking deep within. I’d open my attention to that thing in my day that draws attention and focus, and, I’d work backward through steppingstones to those places and times in which this thing has been a part of me. I’d work to open-out its meaning for me then and now. Life’s bad and good needs its work as part of one’s psychological hygiene – decluttering what no longer works and what no longer has meaning and working to open-out perception, thinking and those possibilities which surround me. There’s work there.  And, there’s possibility to surface, investigate and realize.

My bike.

My bike has been dormant for more than this winter. Working to capacity (and then some), a busy year has seen me reach my fiftieth year milestone.  The life tasks now seem to be about serving others and limiting the possibility of mistakes; perhaps knowing how to limit mistakes and seeing this as a goal is one attribute of being in my prime. But, still Life doesn’t seem entirely configured to suit or fit all that I’d like each of my days to contain. I’m attending to an aging parent with mid-stage Alzheimer’s Disease at the same time that my wife and I are aiming to establish my son in his year one of university. And, then, I’ve chosen to investigate and develop my photographic competencies – these practices hold their share of sitting and time.

My bike tonight has been the subject of a photograph, a work of art in still-life, a much different perspective than that of an active cyclist who is inseparable from that bike upon which he investigates the world. My bike and my desire to ride are dormant tonight.

Listening to Stolen Car by Patty Griffin from 1000 Kisses; Long Ride Home, from the Elizabethtown soundtrack is where Patty Griffin caught my ear. Later, Acoustic Guitar magazine featured an interview and tabs to one of her songs – good schtuff!

Quote to Inspire – “… to stop rushing around, to sit quietly on the grass, to switch off the world and come back to Earth, to allow the eye to see a willow, a bush, a cloud, a leaf, is an ‘unforgettable experience.’” ~ Frederick Franck, The Zen of Seeing  (p.s. – the battle of any photographer is to discard Life’s presses and to calm one’s spirit enough to be able to see that which is in front of us; right? I’m there, too)

Thank you all for stopping by, the likes and comments.

Take good care of your good selves!

Recalled to Life – Reflection and Reminiscence

Canon 50mm, Canon 50mm Lens, Canon 60D, Canon Camera, Canon Lens, Canon Live View, Night, Prime Lens, Project 365 - Photo-a-day, Still Life

With one key element of impressionism being that of concentrating upon a general impression produced by a scene or object, my mother was attracted to the beauty of this style of painting most certainly because with flowers and humans the style strove to capture a resonant moment in its use of primal colour and miniscule strokes, all in a painting style that worked to simulate reflected light.

In the prints of impressionist painters, my mother was attracted primarily to Claude Monet and some works of Auguste Renoir; subtlely as she collected and displayed these works she pointed to the core message of still life – that beauty has duration; living beauty resonates for a time, then diminishes and is no more. And, this theme carries over to her love of flowers – my mother was happy and most at home among her flowers, nurturing and pruning flowers and entertaining others among her gardens’ flowers.

Most, if not all prints she adorned her home with had flowers as their subject; and, I wonder, on the one hand, if these were winter purchases (in remembrance of the beauty of flowers) or as years went on if she used such prints to express life’s stages as parallel to where she and Dad were in the older ages of their life development. Among all her prints, one is a still life of a flower that still retains beauty but is beginning to wilt; the flower, a cut stem, resides in a glass vase filled with water. It is not a picture that one would readily display upon a wall because there’s an awkwardness of the beauty diminishing that disturbs. The flower requires grace to see it through its disturbing diminishment.  Mom was teaching about Life with these prints, quite subtlely.

What is ingenious in this print is the play of light reflected within the glass vase. The connection to the photographs I present here is somewhat adjacent; the light reflected in the glass vase got me started on the play of light reflected on and moving within glass and I have photographed candlelight among glass.

Listening to The Valley by Sarah Masen, a reference to Psalm 23 (a psalm of David and place of solace for my grandfather).

Quote to Inspire – “Technique is to me merely a language and as I see life more and more clearly, growing older, I have but one intention, to make my language as clear and simple and sincere as humanly possible.” ~ Robert Henri, The Art Spirit

A Moody Change in Winter Weather

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On Thursday evening, the temperature in High Level, Alberta dropped from -10C to -20C+. The moisture in the air transitioned to noticeable fog and then crystallized on physical objects producing a beautiful array of hoarfrost on trees, buildings and fences throughout the town. I went for my evening walk, walking a counter clockwise, reverse 6 km circuit through High Level, returning home to collect my Canon 60D and Manfrotto Tripod. The variation in subjects is limited – bus lane light standards between High Level Public School and Florence MacDougall Community School (showing the play of light against fog), a hoarfrosted tree in parking lot to the west, three entrance images to High Level Public School and the school’s playground equipment.  In all images, a change in the weather has altered the landscape, creating new possibilities for photographs.

Composition for photographs has been on my mind and while there are many rules or principles to guide angle of view, subject and lighting, the thing I’ve been reminded of is that composition is about ‘finding’ the strongest way of seeing the subject.  Here, Angela Patterson of the Ditch Divas would remind me that while there are technical considerations, it is also important to get to the point of taking the picture … not to over-think the opportunity in front of you … likely because it’s impermanent.

Listening to Impermanent Things by Peter Himmelman from his Stage Diving album; (thank you to Stocki for this Rhythms of Redemption recommendation … all those years ago).

Quote to Inspire – “Photographs really are experience captured, and the camera is the ideal arm of consciousness in its acquisitive mood.” ~ Susan Sontag, On Photography

Bloggers and image viewers – Thank you for stopping by and recommending this site to friends and colleagues.  Cheers!

Images from the Journey Home

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On Monday, January 2, 2012, my daughter and I drove from Edmonton and returned to High Level, concluding our Christmas visit with family. Opportunities for photographs were available throughout the drive; and, as with any travel that combines photography with moving towards a destination the choice to stop and investigate possible shots always presents the trade-off of time lost moving toward your destination. You can move directly there and be assured of an arrival time. Or, you can look around laterally at, toward or within the places you are traveling through and investigate them through the lens of your camera. A friend who paints from Cornerbrook, Newfoundland has recommended taking as many as three days to make this 800 km journey and to stop frequently and as needed to take-in all that the landscape offers. For me, while on the south side of Valleyview, I chose to note the possibilities and to this end I’m grateful for my daughter who was able to write down possible subjects, their location and information about quality and direction of light. On the north side of Valleyview, I began to feel more at ease with stopping and taking my Canon 60D out. The images gathered are of an old homestead near Donnelly, two older trucks on a farm near Nampa and then images captured on the south hill leading into Peace River – the road’s S-curve winding along the hill and a western exposure of the Peace River.

Quotes to Inspire (I’ve been working my way through a few of John O’Donohue’s Greenbelt lectures and have looked round the web for quotes):

  • “Inspiration is always a surprising visitor.” ― John O’Donohue, Anam Cara: A Book of Celtic Wisdom
  • “I would love to live like a river flows, carried by the surprise of its own unfolding.” ― John O’Donohue
  • “One of the deepest longings of the human soul is to be seen.” ― John O’Donohue
  • “Beauty is the illumination of your soul.” ― John O’Donohue, Anam Cara: A Book of Celtic Wisdom
  • “The duty of privilege is absolute integrity” ― John O’Donohue

Listening to Lay My Burden Down by Alison Krauss from the movie Get Low; Jerry Douglas adds Dobro to much of the soundtrack (I enjoy this movie – there’s much of ‘life’ in it).

Homestead – Donnelly, Alberta

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Homestead

Here is a black and white photograph of a homestead between Donnelly and Peace River, Alberta – an image receiving attention from bloggers; structure, design and texture attract.

My intention for this photograph initially has been the exterior; but, with photographs of homes and recollection that families inhabit homes the photograph becomes something relating to that business that William Shakespeare points to … ‘all the world [being] a stage [even those floors and rooms of home] … and all the men and women merely players:  they have their exits and their entrances; and one man in his time plays many parts ….

Home is where we start our lives and move through our first parts … right?

Listening to Moses from Coldplay’s Live 2003 CD/DVD.

Quote to Inspire: “Photography records the gamut of feelings written on the human face, the beauty of the earth and skies that man has inherited, and the wealth and confusion man has created. It is a major force in explaining man to man.” — Edward Steichen