Buttertown Snow

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Buttertown New Holland Combine – Fort Vermilion, Alberta – Canada

Buttertown Truck Cab – Fort Vermilion , Alberta – Canada

Buttertown snow melts, revealing different finds among Fort Vermilion’s north settlement trees on a Saturday, one of the last grey few before the intensity of spring light warms and colours the world anew. Here, blurring elements in each image to explore the result.

Quote to Consider – “Photography for me is not looking, it’s feeling. If you can’t feel what you’re looking at, then you’re never going to get others to feel anything when they look at your pictures.” – Don McCullin

Listening to – Agnes Obel’s ‘Fivefold’ and Junip’s ‘Don’t Let It Pass.’

From Under, Looking Up

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High Level Bridge – HDR 1a

High Level Bridge – HDR 2a

High Level Bridge – HDR 2b

High Level Bridge – HDR 2c

Away from home, an early hour when wife and daughter sleep, I am away from our hotel, outside in Edmonton (home of my youth) and under the High Level Bridge looking up at angles of grid iron, iron work – liking this image as edited. The second image (with different versions) shifts northward in view, again from under the bridge, looking across the North Saskatchewan River to our Alberta Legislature, built on the historical site of Fort Edmonton.

Listening to – Dan Mangan and Jesse Zubot’s ‘Cumulonimbus (Newport, 63) and Parov Stelar’s ‘Room Service.’

Quote to Inspire – “I never question what to do, it tells me what to do. The photographs make themselves with my help.” – Ruth Berland

Above the Pave

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La Crete – The Pave

Twin Lakes – Slough

The week has presented opportunity to work with Adobe Photoshop CS6 with High Dynamic Range (HDR) images – side-lit clouds in sunset’s golden hour present colour, light and shadow in interesting ways; I’m re-editing two sets of bracketed images for High Dynamic Range work. ‘The Pave’ is a term used by La Crete Mennonites to refer to a seven mile stretch of narrow-shouldered highway that becomes the last portion of road in my October drive from High Level to La Crete. In this image clouds billow in a rhythm, catching colour above ‘the pave’ moments before the sun descends below the horizon. The work in this photo was that of tearing myself away from the impending meeting to capture this colourful image … I would be late. The second image was part of a return drive from Grande Prairie from this past fall, undulating clouds reflected within slough water. In both, I’ve been working with Adobe Bridge and then with the automated function in Adobe Photoshop CS6 to merge bracketed photos into a single HDR image.

I have also been exploring the messages of authors, Courtney Martin (her book, ‘Do It Anyway’) and Parker J. Palmer (his book, ‘The Courage To Teach’), this week. Courtney’s book looks at core elements of resilience and advocacy … sort of ‘The Freedom Writers’ meets the real world in extraordinary and exemplary ways. Parker’s book considers teaching from many facets, one being the inner teacher within the student that the teacher needs to connect with in order to bring about learning. The book is crammed with teaching truth. I am about half-way through and will be moving through it a second time.

Listening to – Dan Mangan & Jesse Zubot’s ‘Cumulonimbus (Newport, ’63),’ Nick Laird-Clowes’ ‘Golborne Road’ and Arvo Part’s ‘Speigel im Spiegel.’

Quote to Inspire – ‘Beauty can be seen in all things, seeing and composing the beauty is what separates the snapshot from the photograph.’ – Matt Hardy

Photography’s Rules & Rebellion

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Cattails – Watt Mountain 1

Cattails – Watt Mountain 2

Afternoon Sun – Watt Mountain 1

Afternoon Sun – Watt Mountain 2

Watt Mountain Roads 1

Watt Mountain Roads 2

I have been listening to an interview with Parker Palmer and Courtney Martin, this morning. The interview is presented as a podcast by Krista Tippett in her ‘On Being’ podcast/broadcast and is entitled ‘The Inner Life of Rebellion.’ The extrapolation as it relates to photography is to consider how photography is an act of rebellion … likely such a question has been fodder for Susan Sontag in her book, ‘On Photography.’ Susan Sontag’s book and this ‘On Being’ podcast are both worth attention.

Images – A Sunday afternoon’s photos in January, toward Watt Mountain.

Listening to: Hang Massive’s ‘Once Again;’ the week has also brought some time travel in terms of music – ‘At the River’ by Groove Armada, ‘Friday I’m in Love’ by The Cure and ‘Push the Button’ by the Sugababes. I’ve also had a go at Zoe Keating’s ‘Into the Trees’ album – ‘Seven League Boots’ often adds transition in ‘On Being’ podcasts.

Quote to Consider – “Skill in photography is acquired by practice and not by purchase.” – Percy W. Harris; “I am not interested in rules or conventions. Photography is not a sport.” – Bill Brandt

Realizing Their Dream

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Trapper’s Cabin – Near Indian Cabins, Ab 2

Slough Reflection – Near Indian Cabins, Ab

‘Come along, let’s do this’ – these words feature in the immensity that has been 2014. That there is room to help, here, or room to contribute there – the reality has been that others have had dreams to fulfill and realize, and, it would be wrong to not help others with skills, abilities and time if doing so could be managed. Francis Chan’s book ‘Crazy Love’ is about this dynamic. So, likewise, is Rick Warren’s ‘What On Earth Am I Here For?’ Both books have been the subject of small group study. The work of such work has often been about taking something a next step and to be consistent in offering others help with a next step. And, the real thing pulling forward has been seeing the value or function of a dream realized in another’s Life – what it means for them, what it allows them to do. Marko, down in El Tizate, Guatemala, captured the idea … ‘Be a blessing to these people.’ He wasn’t only talking about the people who live as squatters in the village of El Tizate; he was talking about blessing those who are around me daily. Much of the year has held a sense of being ‘time-starved’ … meaning that balance between endeavor and rest is absent – sacrifice is part of being a blessing to others.

In September, in early autumn, during moments away from endeavor, I took the following photos on a good long drive toward the Northwest Territories – a trapper’s shack along a trap line and a slough’s reflection.

Listening to – Chopin, 24 Preludes, Op 28 – 2 in A minor played by Rafal Blechacz.

Quote to Consider – “Instead of just recording reality, photographs have become the norm for the way things appear to us, thereby changing the very idea of reality, and of realism.” – Susan Sontag, ‘On Photography’

Time Out (in the Brubeck sense)

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The Blue Hills – Buffalo Head Prairie, Alberta

Taking time-out in the Brubeck sense, there being too much to do, having completed one huge step along a bigger task, clearing my head with photography before tackling the next huge step. This image is taken on a stretch of road behind the highway connecting Blue Hills to Buffalo Head Prairie, Alberta. The intention had been to use three F-10 images of the same scene with focus-stacking software to produce a merged, focused image utilizing the lens’ strongest point of focus with various focal points in the scene. I didn’t get that far. I didn’t purchase focus-stacking software. Instead, I used HDR Efex Pro to merge the three shots. I’m liking the result, an image that would suit a Thanksgiving theme, the harvest complete, the field prepared for spring and a move toward quieter, less hectic work. Good.

Listening to – A Mash-up of Radiohead vs Dave Brubeck – Five Step; have a listen and watch … http://www.kewego.co.uk/video/iLyROoafJd5s.html ; also, listening to Bruce Cockburn’s ‘My Beat’ and ‘Wondering Where the Lions Are.’

Quote to Consider – “It is not altogether wrong to say that there is no such thing as a bad photograph – only less interesting, less relevant, less mysterious one.” – Susan Sontag, ‘On Photography’

Road as Frontier

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1The Road – Arizona

2 The Road – Arches Nat’l Park

3 The Road – Arches Nat’l Park

4 The Road – Arizona

The road – some value the swift movement of traveling from point of origin to established destination; here, travel is not about what you encounter along your distance – travel is about getting ‘there.’ Robert Frost and Scott Peck, on the other hand, each refer to the road less traveled for what the road can reveal of the world and for how that road can grow us as we encounter new frontiers. Jack Kerouac, in his novel, ‘On the Road,’ refers to a life orientation of meeting, new, upcoming road – what we discover moving over it and how we grow as the road challenges us. That road and what we do along it becomes our narrative, our less traveled road.

Images from the road ….

Listening to – Chuck Berry’s ‘Route 66.’

Quote to Consider – “If photographs are messages, the message is both transparent and mysterious.”

Morning Flux

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Sunrise – Arches Nat’l Park, Moab, Utah 1

Sunrise – Arches Nat’l Park, Moab, Utah 2

Sunrise – Arches Nat’l Park, Moab, Utah 3

Sunrise – Arches Nat’l Park, Moab, Utah 4

Sunrise – Arches Nat’l Park, Moab, Utah 5

Sunrise – Arches Nat’l Park, Moab, Utah 6

Summer Memory – early, early morning, warming, moving, cycling Edmonton bike trails, alone, witnessing with dawn the lighting of the earth and the articulation and colouration of shapes, the earth shrouded in mist, becoming seen, more and more vividly, with each pedal stroke. It’s the transition or flux from night to day happening each day regardless of weather – the time is special, perhaps sacred. The photos, here, capture the lighting of the earth, the articulation of shape and colouration of the world at dawn – Arches National Park, near Moab, Utah.

Listening to – Mary J. Blige and U2 sing ‘One,’ Luciano Pavarotti and U2 sing ‘Miss Sarajevo’ and B.B. King and U2 sing ‘When Love Comes to Town.’

Quote to Consider – “Insofar as photography does peel away the dry wrappers of habitual seeing, it creates another habit of seeing – both intense and cool, solicitous and detached; charmed by the insignificant detail, addicted to incongruity.” – Susan Sontag, ‘On Photography’

Swathed, Corduroy Rows

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International Combine – Whitecourt, Alberta 3

International Combine – Whitecourt, Alberta 4

On fields, rolling in their contour, somewhere between Sangudo and Whitecourt, Alberta, an International combine sits, no longer harvesting grain from broad swathed, corduroy rows; the combine is placed within a farmer’s field close to the highway to attract its sale – another farmer could use this International 914 for parts. For me, though, driving past through each season the International’s structure, angles and colour presents contrast to its surrounding landscape attracting my attention. I’ve been meaning to photograph it for some time. Last June, a solitary drive home provided opportunity; and, over the last few nights I’ve been able to edit the image.

Listening to – Peter Gabriel’s ‘San Jacinto,’ ‘In Your Eyes,’ ‘Solsbury Hill,’ ‘Shaking the Tree’ and ‘Blood of Eden.’

Quote to Consider – “… there is a difference between photography conceived as ‘true expression’ and photography conceived (as it is more commonly is) as faithful recording ….” – Susan Sontag, ‘On Photography’

Russet Rain

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Russet Rain – Valleyview, Alberta 1

Russet Rain – Valleyview, Alberta 2

Labour Day weekend, that point in the year when parents of college- and university-aged children make the drive taking students to cities far away, returning them to another year of campus Life. Travel toward school held anticipation for my son. For me, there was the chance meeting of a teaching friend while refueling our vehicles in Valleyview; both of us were taking our kids to University. We chatted, exchanged e-mails and committed to staying in touch via e-mail. In Edmonton, my son and I shopped and got him squared away in terms of his belongings and his first set of groceries. We said our good-byes and I left him to connect with his friends and settle into his University term. Five hours away on my return journey, a rain shower, off in the distance near Valleyview became a focal point to explore with my camera – an immense set of clouds beginning to release rain at sunset. I’m liking the endpoint of this expressive, moody edit.

Listening to – U2’s ‘Raised by Wolves’ intrigues with different possible trajectories – the feral child (raised by wolves), trial-by-fire and being taken advantage of steering towards better, wiser paths and the duality of wolf and lamb that needs to be discerned in terms of people you encounter and deal with.

Quote to Consider – “Nothing is more acceptable today than the photographic recycling of reality, acceptable as an everyday activity and as a branch of high art.” – Susan Sontag, ‘On Photography’