Canon Lens

Only Time Will Tell … Transformation

Canon 60D, Canon 75-300 mm, Canon Camera, Canon Lens, Canon Live View, Night, Project 365 - Photo-a-day, Still Life, Vehicle, Winter

On November 9, 2011, I drove from High Level to Vulcan, Alberta to participate in Bill Brandley’s introductory photography workshop for Career and Technology Studies teachers in Alberta. Icey roads between Valleyview and Edmonton brought traffic to a standstill and motel rooms were not to be found. Hundreds of transport trucks lined roadsides, it being safer to stop with a valuable load than to risk loss in an accident. With several accidents (and perhaps fatalities) the department of highways closed the road until it could be sanded. I travelled through the night, a journey that should have taken me eight hours stretching to twelve with many portions of the highway being navigable only at 50 km/h. I made it to Edmonton safely at 6:00 a.m. having started at 5:45 p.m. the night before.  I got a motel room in West Edmonton, slept into the afternoon and carried on.

Along the way to Vulcan, south of Calgary I came upon what looked to be an old service station and while there were no gas pumps in the yard, there was a 1940 Plymouth, four door with ‘4 Sale’ in the front driver’s side window. I stopped in.  Our school is doing a dinner theatre production of ‘Grease’ and this vehicle when restored (by our metal worker, now shop teacher) would, no doubt, recall the film version of Grease with John Travolta and Olivia Newton John and the era it depicts. I introduced myself to Dean, a mechanic and owner of Deanz, a vehicle restorations shop and asked if I might photograph his 1940 Plymouth as a means to interest school staff in this vehicle and dinner theatre prop. In Dean I encountered a ‘master’ of many trades, each skill allowing him great independence in taking on restoration projects. Our discussion led to a tour through his shop, a look at a mid-sixties Mercury Meteor he was in the midst of restoring, his friend’s 62 B-series Plymouth Valiant and a late 60’s Plymouth Roadrunner – his own, brown and white … in remarkable, glossy, mint condition. Our discussion next considered the possibility of a project car.  I told Dean about my father’s 1969 Pontiac Parisienne (a 2-door with a 350ci V8) and that my brother and I might be interested in halving costs of a restoration.

That was two months ago.

Well … within one twenty-four hour period (from Monday to Tuesday this week) I’ve had a call from Dean and an e-mail from Bill Brandley – Dean with photographs of a 1968 Pontiac Parisienne fastback and Bill with an invitation to participate in the follow-up, advanced, CTS Photography course. Since then, I’ve let the news of the Pontiac and the photography course sit in the back of my mind. A couple of days have gone by.  I’m letting the information ferment with regard to a decision about whether or not to dig-in to either project. With this as context, last evening, I went out to photograph a vehicle, here in High Level, that awaits restoration.

It cannot be an easy thing to appreciate the yesteryear beauty of vehicles and to own a ‘rusting relic’ and have to wait until circumstances come together to allow for its restoration. In my walks down one of the main roads of the High Level industrial park I’ve been able to capture images of trains, train engines, the lumber mill and curiosities on either side of the road. One such find has been this truck which I believe to be a 1953 Ford F-100.  It sits on an industrial lot with some of the town’s street light standards and a shed big enough to hold two or three John Deere tractors. This F-100 pickup sports a faded, retro mint green colour; some initial prep work has been completed towards its restoration.  But, the vehicle has been sitting still and minor rust has been forming.

What it will become and what will become of it … only time will tell.  But, this I know – transformations have always been something I have been interested in – often the physical transformation of ‘things’ becoming metaphor for the work of transformation in our subtle lives.

Quote to Inspire – “The more I advance, the more I regret what little I know …” Claude Monet

Listening to Born by Over the Rhine on the Drunkard’s Prayer album (another song with an element of Redemption … thank you Stocki)

Born
(Bergquist/Detweiler)
recording: Drunkard’s Prayer

I was born to laugh
I learned to laugh through my tears
I was born to love
I’m gonna learn to love without fear

Pour me a glass of wine
Talk deep into the night
Who knows what we’ll find

Intuition, deja vu
The Holy Ghost haunting you
Whatever you got
I don’t mind

Put your elbows on the table
I’ll listen long as I am able
There’s nowhere I’d rather be

Secret fears, the supernatural
Thank God for this new laughter
Thank God the joke’s on me

We’ve seen the landfill rainbow
We’ve seen the junkyard of love
Baby it’s no place for you and me

I was born to laugh
I learned to laugh through my tears
I was born to love
I’m gonna learn to love without fear 

Bloggers, Image Viewers and those of you who Stumble here – thank you for stopping by; thank you for your comments and encouragement. Take care …

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

Canon 50mm, Canon 50mm Lens, Canon 60D, Canon Camera, Canon Lens, Canon Live View, Fog, Night, Photography & Conceptualizing Beauty, Prime Lens, Project 365 - Photo-a-day, Season, Weather, Winter

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

Canon 50mm, Canon 50mm Lens, Canon 60D, Canon Camera, Canon Lens, Canon Live View, Photoblog Intention, Photography & Conceptualizing Beauty, Project 365 - Photo-a-day, Season, Winter

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

Canon 50mm, Canon 50mm Lens, Canon 60D, Canon Camera, Canon Lens, Canon Live View, Christmas, Photography & Conceptualizing Beauty, Prime Lens, Project 365 - Photo-a-day, Winter
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

Edmonton – A Brief Photowalk in a Place I Want to Photograph

Canon 50mm, Canon 60D, Canon Camera, Canon Lens, Canon Live View, Christmas, Project 365 - Photo-a-day, Season, Winter

31 December 2011 – My daughter and I took my son back to Edmonton to return him to his University of Alberta dorm at Lister Hall on December 30, 2011. The trip allowed for vehicle maintenance at West Edmonton Hyundai, two festive meals with my father, brothers and our families; it allowed my daughter four days with her favourite cousin and for me, time with my son, father and our extended family. At different times on December 31st, I was able to break away from the day’s agenda and photograph Edmonton architecture – not quite a full and satisfying photowalk, but something to whet my appetite for photographing downtown Edmonton.

Edmonton’s High Level bridge is the subject of the first set of shots.  At the bridge, while waiting for my son, before a morning family meal out, I was able to photograph the railway deck leading onto the bridge from the south.  I was intrigued by the leading lines of the road and walkway leading from the bridge on its south side. The bridge’s rail deck is secure from people who would like to walk along it – good!  And, I am interested in the photograph of the rail deck taken by the Edmonton Photowalk group led by Darlene Hildebrandt on October 1, 2011. In returning from the bridge to my vehicle, to go and retrieve my son, I was also able to photograph Edmonton’s Saskatchewan drive as it leads past the University of Alberta’s Arts building and Hub Mall – a memorable place from my past at the University of Alberta.  I met W.O. Mitchell between these buildings late on a Saturday afternoon in the fall of 1981 after a 12-string guitar lesson at Hub Mall’s Guitar Classique and guided him to the South entrance of the University’s Arts building for a talk he would provide to Canadian literature students.

Later, in the late afternoon of December 31st, I was able to briefly photograph some of Edmonton’s architecture – new and old, buildings close to the Boardwalk and EPSB’s Centre High school.  I was caught up in the older architecture and advertising painted onto exterior walls as well as the reflective dynamic of newer building’s mirrored exteriors. The Edmonton I grew up in has become something more incredible and futuristic, something only dreamt of by former Mayors. The final shot (the first shot in the series) is at the east end of the Edmonton downtown core, a older building dating back to perhaps the forties or thirties, a pie-shaped building of four stories, reminiscent of a former age, something my mother and her brothers would have grown up in.  I like the brickwork and lighting of this picture and hope to return to photograph this building in a variety of ways.

Quote to Inspire:  “I am not interested in color for color’s sake and light for light’s sake.  I am interested in them as a means of expression (Robert Henri ~ ‘The Art Spirit’).”

Listening to Unraveling, by Liz Longley on Hot Loose Wire; a song with shared connection and reminiscence – a family member beset with Alzheimer’s ( for Liz this was her grandmother; for me this is my father, the originating photographer in the family I grew up in).

Christmas Eve – A Kitchen in Readiness for Celebrating Christmas

Canon 50mm, Canon 50mm Lens, Canon 60D, Canon Camera, Canon Lens, Canon Live View, Christmas, Christmas Meal, Photoblog Intention, Prime Lens, Project 365 - Photo-a-day, Season, Winter

24 December 2011 – On the afternoon preceding Christmas eve, in scrubbing our kitchen floor, my wife and I moved several wine bottles from the floor to our kitchen counter. Later, a ham cooked in an old, well-used roasting pot (in my wife’s family through generations), became the mainstay of our Christmas eve meal (part of the tradition coming through her family). After singing hymns at a Church service and coming home from time with friends in fellowship, I found myself with an abundance of time and the opportunity to photograph our kitchen in readiness for Christmas. I worked with reflection, light reflected in glass, shallow depth of field and adding accuracy to focal points through the use of the Canon 60D’s live-view mode (I put my glasses on for this). The wine bottles remained in a cluster on the kitchen counter top where the ham roaster was set out in readiness for cooking the Christmas turkey.  Both became subjects in tonight’s photographs and a variety of colours and moods were explored.

On my mind this Christmas, the words – “Be still, and know that I am God … (Psalm 46:10);” these words confront you at the High Level Christian Fellowship Church from the wall surrounding the pulpit.  For me, so long away from Church, practice and walk, it surfaces the idea that it’s alright to rest, to ease up on the reigns of one’s life that can be held so tightly and remove my focus from the doing and busy-ness of Life; amazingly, so much has been provided for in the lives of my family and me … and I am thankful.

My hope for each of you is that you are able to find the rest that this Christmas time affords.

Merry Christmas, all!

Christmas Lights – Grande Prairie, Alberta

Canon 50mm, Canon 50mm Lens, Canon 60D, Canon Camera, Canon Lens, Canon Live View, Christmas, Christmas Lights, Photoblog Intention, Photography & Conceptualizing Beauty, Prime Lens, Project 365 - Photo-a-day, Season, Winter

It has been a whirlwind  weekend traveling to Grande Prairie and back, all in pursuit of Christmas.

Of the landscape travelled through, weather’s interaction at the Dunvegan Bridge over the Mighty Peace was shifting mist and cloud against a backdrop of conifers laced with snow – beautiful picture taking weather, mountain weather. I stopped for a few shots, then was presented with excellent colours of the Dunvegan bridge in the two kilometre descent before crossing the Peace River – a snowy, wet world from which the yellows and browns of the suspension bridge stand above the metal grey of the river. With my SUV I trekked down and up a couple of times searching for a safe and easy place to park; no safe place suggested itself.  With an abundance of time (one of these times) I will park at the Dunvegan landing and hike back up the North embankment for about a kilometre with camera bag and tripod and get a few good shots  … one day.

At Christmas, Grande Prairie adorns itself well with seasonal lighting as does Grande Prairie Regional College and the Automobile Dealerships – I like the shallow depth of field in working with the Christmas lights on the Dodge truck image and the bokeh that was found.  The final shot is taken of a farm, well lit, within a dark, dark landscape last night – colourful schtuff.

Canon Lock-up Issue – I did have  lock-up issues with my Canon 60D on Saturday night … it probably had to do with using live view and inexact button pushing with gloved fingers;  I was sorting things through yesterday morning and by supper time the camera seemed to have good integrity with the shots I took of the farm house.  If the problem persists I will most likely re-install the firmware as a means to conquer the issue.  If any of you have experienced a similar issue I would appreciate hearing from you.

Against a Reflective Surface – Christmas Lights

Canon 50mm, Canon 50mm Lens, Canon 60D, Canon Camera, Canon Lens, Canon Live View, Christmas, Christmas Lights, Photoblog Intention, Photography & Conceptualizing Beauty, Prime Lens, Project 365 - Photo-a-day, Season, Winter

Leaving school, against the blackness of night, I encountered beautiful hoarfrost on an Aspen Willow tree – a reverse silhouette (white against black). I started my pickup truck and used the engine’s warm-up time to explore the silhouetted Willow. Again, the camera is atop the tripod and again I’m using the 60D’s live view to ensure that I find crisp detail in manual focus. I took three shots of the tree – one I include here; the composition needs work but I’m happy to have captured this image. Consideration – my shots are better and more well-composed when I’m warm and taking time to look seriously around the frame to see what’s there and to capture the image; in winter photography I’ll have winter outwear on … something I didn’t have leaving school tonight.

Later, at home, in front of our Christmas tree the recommendation of photographing Christmas lights against a reflective surface came to mind. Our Christmas tree, like most others, stands in front of our window as Christmas beacon to others in our neighbourhood; this evening, I just needed to recognize its beauty and its potential. I put my Canon 50mm prime f-1.4 lens on my Canon 60D and attached the 60D to my tripod; I worked with live view to find focus detail and to establish bokeh (blurring of lights). I turned out lights in our living room and kitchen making all dark except for our Christmas tree and its lights. I began exploring bokeh, using a small depth of field (lens aperture f-1.4) and blurred Christmas lights against the reflective surface of the window. The images I include appeal to me in terms of shape, colour, texture and mood.

Tonight (15 December 2011) – listening to Martyn Joseph’s ‘Have an Angel Walk with Her,’ from his ‘Evolved’ album http://www.martynjoseph.net/ .

Santa Day Fireworks

Canon 60D, Canon Camera, Canon Lens, Photoblog Intention, Project 365 - Photo-a-day, Season, Uncategorized, Winter

Midway through this December, Saturday afternoon, my daughter and I were in the Cab of my white 2000 GMC Sierra half-ton working our way through town and our list of errands. Not having read this week’s newspaper, The Echo, and without the town of High Level having a Twitter-feed we chanced upon the Santa Parade moving through mainstreet. Later, at supper, I learned about fireworks being among today’s events – at 6:00 p.m. the High Level Fire Department would begin a fireworks display. With all the night photography I’ve done, I hadn’t yet captured fireworks.  I found my blue folder of Night Photography notes from Darlene Hildebrand (Her View Photography http://www.herviewphotography.com/ ), skimmed them, briefly, put my Canon 60 D on top of my Manfrotto tripod, changed lenses to my Canon 15-80mm zoom and set the shutter release for a 2-second countdown.  The camera settings for the photographs I took are ISO 100, f-8 with an exposure of 13 seconds. I got to the fireworks site, aimed my camera into the sky toward an anticipated fireworks target area and made rough calculations for focusing to subject; using live view I adjusted composition area against where fireworks were bursting open and fell from; each of the 79 pictures taken are at a range of approximately 200-300 metres from the camera. Above, you’ll find some of the better exposures I snapped.