Presbyterian Log Built Church – Near Bezanson, Alberta
Mailboxes – Rural Alberta 1
Mailboxes – Rural Alberta 2
Mailboxes – Rural Alberta 3
Mailboxes – Rural Alberta 4
Mailboxes – Rural Alberta 5
The log built structure in the first black and white photograph is a Presbyterian Church on the back roads between Bezanson and Grande Prairie, Alberta. The other photographs are of a set of mailboxes that you’d find on back roads in rural Alberta, an economical means for both farmers and Canada Post to distribute the mail. Setting the Church and mailboxes in juxtaposition brings out core ideas of message and being in receipt of message; both seem to suggest that you have to get the message … work is involved, others are involved. Interesting ….
Listening to Honey and the Moon, from Joseph Arthur’s Redemption’s Son; the song reminds of Stocki’s Rhythm and Soul BBC Radio Ulster broadcast (Sundays at 1:00 p.m. – Alberta MST) in which I first heard Johnny Cash singing a Depeche Mode song – Personal Jesus, hill-billy-fied, on the American IV: The Man Comes Around album (the honky-tonk piano … caught my ear – totally good) … the other tune from this album receiving air-play is Johnny Cash singing Sting’s I Hung My Head.
Quote to Inspire – “We don’t take pictures with our cameras. We take them with our hearts and we take them with our minds, and the camera is nothing more than a tool.” – Arnold Newman
The as-the-crow flies, back way, return home from Grande Prairie to High Level, Alberta has a driver/photographer deviate from the GPS (Global Positioning Satellite) recommended route at Fairview and move north and east through the back country behind towns like Spirit River, Blue Sky, Berwyn, Grimshaw and Peace River. The route deposits you back on the GPS recommended route, north of Peace River and Dixonville at the corner upon which you’ll find the Weberville Community Hall, twenty minutes from Manning; you’ll chew-off some of the drive time and see land and animals that many will never see – my last trip had three moose standing on the side of the road as I drove by.
Beginning this deviated trek, ten kilometres north from Fairview you’ll find the homestead featured in this photograph on the east side of the road, a former home that is accorded reverence as a starting home for and reminder of the family that broke this land. Visual inspection of the homestead through my camera lens reveals that it was a home in stages. It had a basic first shape and it received alteration and addition, no doubt to welcome the blessing of a family’s increase in population. Grain grows around the home to with a metre of the building and tree perimeter – care is taken to preserve memory and to utilize the land. The home had been a starting point and reminds of starting points.
Listening through most songs on Joseph Arthur’s Redemption’s Son album – songs standing out are In the Night, Evidence and Nation of Slaves; my listen through reminds of Joseph Arthur’s tune of blessing sung by Michael Stipe and Joseph Arthur – In the Sun.
Curious Quotes to ponder – “You should never think without an image.” – Aristotle; “The soul can not think without a picture.” – Aristotle.
Thursday was a photographer’s morning. A warm change in weather brought colourful, early morning, sustained, sky drama of first light reflected earthward among clouds. Entering school, I set-up my camera, deposited my camera bag and moved out our east doors to click and capture the following images.
Today, being considered is a newer used vehicle. With one household vehicle being all-wheel drive, a fuel-efficient car might be smart (perhaps a VW Golf or Passat). Another consideration would involve spending a minimum of money on a vehicle that is 4×4 and wouldn’t be too much of a loss if it were to break down; here, I’ve owned three early 90s Nissan Pathfinders and they worked for me along the corduroy roads in and out of Wood Buffalo National Park through six years. And, in the back of my mind is the surety I encountered driving a Chevrolet, 2500 series, manual transmission with 4×4 in a snow storm travelling down Alberta Highway 63 from Fort McMurray to Edmonton early-on in the 90s. The overall sensible choice may be a 1999 Toyota 4 Runner with 309000 km that should run for a few more 100000km and can be purchased in a private sale in Peace River. This vehicle should provide safe travel in and out of 4×4 throughout all seasons, no matter who was driving it. It would hold the road well.
Listening to Canadian Melissa McClelland sing Victoria Day (April Showers and May Flowers) from her album of the same name. Other songs standing out this morning have been Snow Patrol’s Lifeboats, Ray Lamontagne’s I Still Care for You and For the Summer. Jack White has featured among the Raconteurs in Steady as She Goes.
Quote to Inspire – “Light glorifies everything. It transforms and ennobles the most commonplace and ordinary subjects. The object is nothing, light is everything.” — Leonard Missone
Yesterday contained opportunity for a photowalk with photographers and a chance to witness the world with growing intensity of light and warmth late on a Thursday, winter afternoon in High Level, Alberta – all were giddy with being outside and anticipating spring’s arrival … still a month away.
Listening to several songs this evening. First, my daughter asked me to find and download four Glee tunes (Animal, Dog Days are Over, Bad and Smooth Criminal). Next, we loaded Adele’s 21 album/CD (a Christmas gift) onto our iTunes account; my daughter likes Set Fire to the Rain. Twice this week, I’ve returned home at day’s end to huge decibels of Adele preceding the dinner hour. Beyond this, we’ve downloaded Schubert’s Ave Maria, the music accompaniment to her current ballet performance, music for her to practice with. Of the songs that have played through, tonight, while editing photographs the ones that stand out are those from my father’s time If I didn’t Care, by the Inkspots, I’m Looking Over a Four Leaf Clover, by Bix Beiderbecke. I’ve been listening to the Get Low soundtrack which has eight songs involving Jerry Douglas and his dobro in a Bluegrass sound, one of the primary sound elements undergirding the music of Alison Krauss with Union Station. And, then the iTunes music shifted to Foster the People and Pumped Up Kicks … a catchy tune that stood out for me at West Edmonton Mall’s ice rink as Edmonton youth waited to personally meet Selena Gomez back in October prior to her concert.
Quote to Inspire – “Look and think before opening the shutter. The heart and mind are the true lens of the camera.” — Yousuf Karsh. If you are a photographer in need of inspiration I would point you to a podcast called The Naked Photo offered by Rianne de Beer, a Canadian photographer on Canada’s west coast (between Vancouver and Salt Spring Island); in episode 5 he looks at Yousuf Karsh’s approach to creating a portrait of Winston Churchill, a photograph commissioned by the Canadian government. There is a ton of insight to be gleaned on forethought and the process to capture essence … of the subject. http://thenakedphotopodcast.com/
Car photography especially of early fifties vehicles, for me, derives from my learning to steer a car and then to drive one sitting next to a favourite, older cousin in his copper brown and white 1951 Mercury four-door. Strong-arm steering meant that effort was needed to guide the Mercury down dusty gravel roads. These drives usually followed Sunday get-togethers of my family from Edmonton with his in Rimbey, Alberta. The event, recalled to memory is that of a late spring or early summer drive, following an evening meal and Walt Disney. I might have been nine or ten years old when I first took the wheel for some good, adventure-filled times before saying our goodbyes, parting company and returning home in an hour-long drive to Edmonton. Always, my aunt, uncle and three cousins would wave to us from their porch as we left. Our families might see each other again in a month or two. Those were good times.
My starting point for this photograph is curious. I am unable to determine the make of this early fifties two-door sedan. Given that this Blue Hills’ farm and its woods have seemingly been left as if in the middle of things, its abandonment indicates something unfinished in not just one life but in the lives of a few. Here, what is sacred is often about the conception of ‘what-has-happened-here.’ It associates to memory that will not fade and cannot be left. With this image, just as in no-trace camping the art is to pass through an area without disturbing it, this photograph presents the necessity of capturing something seemingly sacred without disturbance – reverence and respect are needed.
Listening to the Dave Matthews Band from the album Stand Up and the childhood/teen reminiscences of Old Dirt Hill, a song that recalls my go-cart, our garage and back alley … and friends at Easter break in Edmonton in grade 5 – 1972 … what a week (and to be grounded part-way through).
Quote to Inspire – “A photograph is a secret about a secret. The more it tells you the less you know.” —Diane Arbus
Mid-sixties Ford 3-Tonne Grain Truck – Fort Vermilion, Alberta
Cattails 1
Cattails 2
Cattails 3
Older White Grain Truck – La Crete, Alberta 1
Older White Grain Truck – La Crete, Alberta 2
Derelict House / Farm – Blue Hills, Alberta
Mid to Late 50s Sedan – Blue Hills, Alberta
Wife at school, prepping; daughter at dance, dancing – this Saturday seems to be mine, a day before me to use at my discretion, and, certainly not a day to pass in front of a computer screen. A breakfast out takes me to the Flamingo Restaurant where my Photo Plus magazine becomes object of discussion between fellow Canon photographer (my cashier) and me; I point him to the Zinio iPad app as the best means to download the Photo Plus, easily, here in High Level.
Onward – my outerwear consists of several items purchased over the years from Mountain Equipment Co-op – ski pants (10 years old), Salomon winter trainers (new, this year) and a down-filled jacket with hood. Set for warmth at -22C, today, I point my GMC Sierra (without grill or driver’s side headlamp) toward Fort Vermilion and La Crete. Music is part of what this Saturday afternoon is about – Sirius Satellite Radio allows for tuning into folk music on Coffee House, news at the top of the hour from CBC and BBC, jazz music and an interview with the bass player working with Miles Davis. Comedy does not attract my attention, today. I had had thoughts of listening to Sid and Mac’s Shuttertime Podcast; but, their podcast is good to digest while out on a walk around High Level … I let the podcast wait.
In Fort Vermilion, Shirley’s Snack Shack allows for purchase of coffee and something unseen before, a Reese’s Peanut Butter chocolate bar. The truck rolls south on the Red Earth road. The first photographs are of a red, mid-sixties, FORD, three-tonne grain truck; the vehicle remains active – it has current plates and tires are full. The next photographs are of cattails, at the northeast corner of a massive field – land, newly broken and newly farmed; the wind stirs the cattails enough that Automatic Exposure Bracketing, while tried, will not allow for HDR results.
La Crete has Quality Motors to check out, a used car lot and a new Subway restaurant. Moving southward from La Crete, Buffalo Head Prairie is next. A chain of hills loom in the distance, a blue backdrop to this settlement and extends to another thirty kilometres away called Blue Hills. Along the way, different untried back roads are taken and they return to the Blue Hills highway. A derelict farm house is discovered. Doubling back, a place to park the truck off the highway is found; there, two relics from the fifties are found among old disused farming machinery (Massey Harris is the emblem on a seed drill, not Massey Ferguson). With so much left scattered around, the farm seems to be left medias res (in the middle of things); has there been a family death? There’s a story of a car that drove onto the Tompkin’s Landing ferry many years ago; its brakes failed and one or all occupants of the car drowned.
The final part of the journey involves crossing the Peace River over an ice bridge at Tompkin’s landing; signs are there to direct vehicles and to advise of a maximum speed of 10 km/h for crossing the kilometre-wide river. Another forty minutes in night’s darkness with only a passenger headlight to alert oncoming highway traffic of my presence sees me home before 7:00 p.m.. Supper is grilled cheese sandwiches.
Listening to Miles Davis from his Kind of Blue album and So What; reminds that I first seriously listened to Miles Davis within the Finding Forrester soundtrack … Bill Frisell is also there with Over the Rainbow and Under a Golden Sky.
Quote to Inspire – “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
Again, today – out and about on a photowalk … others’ fresh perspective has me looking up and looking at things. Green needles of a conifer remind and point towards spring … loving the colour and background, here.
Listening to U2’s Mysterious Ways … the subject and content of the lyrics are something good to unravel, in their unraveling. Coldplay’s In My Place, is up next, reminding of U2, Paul McCartney, Coldplay and the Verve’s Richard Ashcroft (Bittersweet Symphony) and the world-wide Live 8 concert and the Gleneagles decisions made by G8 leaders … some good, that day! Brian Adams kicked things off in Toronto followed in the day by The Tragically Hip and Great Big Sea.
Curious Quote to Inspire – “In photography there is a reality so subtle that it becomes more real than reality.” – Alfred Stieglitz
Today – out with fellow photographers, a first cluster together. Some creatives among the group, ones willing to experiment with perspective and their subject. Totally cool to be a part of things today and to capture this photographer’s photo in the making. Good schtuff!
Listening to How Soon Is Now by the Smiths, as found on The Wedding Singer Soundtrack.
Quote to Inspire – “Which of my photographs is my favorite? The one I’m going to take tomorrow.” – Imogen Cunningham
Deer – three does chased by a stag crossed Alberta highway 88 as I traveled eastward from High Level to Fort Vermilion at 8:00 a.m. on January 23, 2012; the three does made it across safely between myself and oncoming vehicles. I slowed my truck down on the icy road but not enough to miss hitting the stag. I stopped further ahead and turned around to see about animal remains that might need to be hauled from the road. Nothing was found. There was a swale in the snow where the deer had drifted into the ditch on the north side of the highway. But, the stag and does had taken off. My truck, on the other hand, received damage – the grill and light housing mainly and the radiator and transmission cooler were pushed back toward the engine. I checked it out and watched the gauges – it held together for another 160 km and still is driveable today. Despite being in immaculate shape, at 286 000 km, this 2000 GMC Sierra is considered a write-off as the cost to repair the truck exceeds the value of the truck.
The antlered stag, imagistically recalls U2’s Electrical Storm video, its being written about Ireland’s Easter Day Accord, and the ghosted image of the stag in the Electrical Storm video – a subject I’ve commented on on the old U2 Zoo Station (Zooropa) website.
Listening to – Impermanent Things by Peter Himmelman from his Stage Diving album.
Quote to Inspire – “There are always two people in every picture: the photographer and the viewer.” -Ansel Adams
Englishman River Falls, Vancouver Island, British Columbia
In the heart of coldest January, summer photographs aid reminiscence of warmer, pleasant times. I’ve been to Englishman River Falls on Vancouver Island three times – dangling feet in the water with my wife and cousin, hiking the area with my Mom and Dad and finally as photographic opportunity. This photo shows the interplay of the river’s movement among fading light, mist, shadow and greenery.
Listening – I’ve been listening to Dave Matthews and Tim Reynolds Live at Radio City Music Hall – poignant, well-sung lyrics among resonant rhythms.
Curious quotes for the pondering:
“God becomes and unbecomes,” from Meister Eckhart highlighting the idea that God is only our word for it, that it’s so much more.
“God is not perhaps so much a region beyond knowledge, as something prior to the sentences we speak.” ~ Foucault, The Order of Things (cited in Marion 1994:570)
In My Back Pocket - Photography 
You must be logged in to post a comment.