Derelict Farm Buildings – Valleyview, Alberta
Derelict farm buildings and an unused field on the road home, near Valleyview, Alberta.
Listening to – Concrete Blonde and ‘I Don’t Need a Hero.’
Quote to Inspire – “I photograph to find out what something will look like photographed.” – Garry Winogrand
Store Shed – Smoky River, Alberta
At our house, we have needed a shed, or so I think, for a couple of years. We’re needing a place, separate from our home and garage to store and organize things we use seasonally and non-regularly so the squeeze of their possession does not limit action, nor become obstacles to intention. We have space to reclaim because the state of our space is beginning to shape our actions (and quite possibly is limiting possibility).
David Allen, in his book ‘Getting Things Done,’ calls what our awareness has before it our psychic RAM (Random Access Memory drawing from computers as analogy). And, cluttered psychic RAM slows us down because it becomes more and more difficult to take-on new information, ideas and actions – a limitation to imagination and possibility. So, in a sense a shed would allow us a place for long-term storage (like a hard drive) and allow us to direct psychic RAM to its contents on an as needed basis.
Perhaps there is still time for this to happen – build and locate a storage shed on our property to handle those things in our way from snow tires, bicycles, lawn care machines and tools; furniture and unused fitness equipment could be stored until needed. The exercise would be about de-cluttering, about organizing and about determining what needs keeping and what can be given or thrown away. It does seem worth it. But, in three or four weeks snow will be on the ground. We’ll have to get to it.
Another Shed – Along the road home, travelling north, homeward from Edmonton, I looked in on these two sheds just beyond Valleyview on the last bit of farmland crammed atop the Smoky River valley that cuts into the land, the road descending to the Smoky River and the bridge crossing it. Retro-teal, a bright energizing colour from Canada’s fifties and sixties draws the eye to the shed door’s post and lintel, reminding of another post and lintel painted in lamb’s blood as protection from an Egyptian death all those years ago. This shed, now in dis-use, has once been a structure thought-of and to be built, then a building allowing a farmer to store and shelter equipment and supplies, and, it’s been a place people have worked in, a place allowing possibility.
Listening to – a song from last year first heard of the Sirius Coffee House station on a Sunday morning, Shawn Colvin’s ‘All Fall Down,’ a song about many things including humility’s stumbles and tumbles and the grace involved in picking ourselves up, dusting ourselves off and taking next steps.
Quote to Inspire – “The idea of photography seemed to come together with the idea that this is how I could be – someone who could have one step in the world while at the same time being one step removed from it.” – Donovan Wylie
Canadian Shed – Donnelly, Alberta 1
Canadian Shed – Donnelly, Alberta 2
Enjoying the compression of distance in this favourite image of the Canadian grain shed on the northward approach to Donnelly, Alberta.
Listening to – Neil Young’s ‘Harvest Moon.’
Quote to Inspire – “I have the great privilege of being both witness and storyteller. Intimacy, trust and intuition guide my work.” – Jim Goldberg
Mercury 155 Grain Truck – Manning, Alberta
Years on, chrome lines and badging still highlight and brighten detail work on an early fifties Mercury M-155 grain truck at the Manning Pioneer Museum in Manning, Alberta.
Listening to: my daughter skillfully work Adele’s ‘Someone Like You’ on our piano upstairs.
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
Grain Bins – Dixonville, Alberta 1
Grain Bins – Dixonville, Alberta 2
Grain Truck Box – Manning, Alberta 1
Grain Truck Box – Manning, Alberta 2
Grain Truck Box – Manning, Alberta 3
Grain Truck Cab – Manning, Alberta 1
Grain Truck Cab – Manning, Alberta 2
Mercury Grain Truck – Manning, Alberta 1
Mercury Grain Truck – Manning, Alberta 2
Mercury Grain Truck – Manning, Alberta 3
Mercury Grain Truck Badge – Manning, Alberta 1
Mercury Grain Truck Badge – Manning, Alberta 2
Mercury Grain Truck Badge – Manning, Alberta 3
Mercury Grain Truck Badge – Manning, Alberta 4
Images this morning are from a farming community in the region that lies between Manning, Dixonville and Blue Sky, Alberta. Grain bins done in HDR with swirling, heavy clouds above and a set of HDR photos of an early fifties grain truck at the pioneer museum minutes north of Manning.
Listening to the Candid Frame – an interview of Niel and Susan Silverman, a husband and wife photographer duo who provide photography workshops around the world; also, Sheryl Crow’s ‘Riverwide,’ U2’s ‘Wire’ and ‘Promenade,’ Roxy Music’s ‘India’ and Christine by Siouxsie & the Banshees.
Quote to Inspire – “On the odd days Auto Tone gets it right I assume it’s using some kind of voodoo.” ― David duChemin, Vision & Voice: Refining Your Vision in Adobe Photoshop Lightroom
Hawk – Valleyview, Alberta 1
Hawk – Valleyview, Alberta 2
Hawk – Valleyview, Alberta 3
On the long drive home to High Level from Southern Alberta I chanced upon a hawk, sitting on an aged farm fence post alongside the highway north, the hawk gazing out to the road – resting and surveying. I drove further, doubled back and parked my truck twenty metres from the hawk. Outside my truck, I was able to get several shots. Because the hawk had not moved and was not disturbed by me snapping photos at the truck I took a few steps toward the hawk, aiming for close-up. At five steps in, the hawk lifted from its perch and flew by me and across the road. These images were taken perhaps ten minutes north from Valleyview, Alberta near the old Valleyview road.
Listening to – the Imagine Dragons’ song ‘Radioactive’ with my daughter, driving her to her dance workshop this morning.
Quote to Inspire – “The cliché comes not in what you shoot but in how you shoot it.” ― David duChemin, Within the Frame: The Journey of Photographic Vision
No Exit – 1
No Exit – 2
No Exit – 3
No Exit – 4
The juxtaposition of ‘No Exit’ against a landscape backdrop seems more an entry into the wilds from which one may not return. And, I note that the image does possess a surreal quality that recalls portions of the memory work accomplished by Jonas and ‘the Giver’ within Lois Lowry’s novel, ‘The Giver;’ this image could serve as cautionary waypoint toward the destination of home in the novel. The novel considers the costs of conformity in a future time. The narrative is one filtering out characters, drawing down to one who has the ability to comprehend, receive and appreciate the collective’s memory found in former times and former ways. This ‘No Exit’ image is taken on an early spring day close to the Rochfort Bridge, a kilometre long train trestle equidistant to Sangudo and Mayerthorpe, Alberta.
Listening to: a preview song, Martyn Joseph singing Bruce Springsteen’s ‘Walk Like a Man,’ a tribute to several songs of Bruce Springsteen.
Quote to Inspire – “A representational photograph says, ‘This is what Vienna looked like.’ An interpretational photograph goes one better and says, ‘This is what Vienna was like. This is how I felt about it.” ― David duChemin, Within the Frame: The Journey of Photographic Vision
Alberta Reflection – Grande Prairie 1
Alberta Reflection – Grande Prairie 2
Alberta Reflection – Grande Prairie 3
Alberta’s Big Sky – 1
Alberta’s Big Sky – 2
Along Northern Roads – Grande Cache, Alberta
HDR – Subject Revisited 1
HDR – Subject Revisited 2
Trestle Bridge – Grande Cache, Alberta
Wet Rock – Banff, Alberta
Wooded Reflection – Jasper, Alberta 1
Wooded Reflection – Jasper, Alberta 2
Wooded Reflection – Jasper, Alberta 3
The following text is excerpt, core invitation to a cousin to interact with me through my photo blog and exposes intentions for the blog and posting.
“My photoblog’s URL is http://www.lumensborealis.com , written from the point of pseudonym, also most often written at day’s end … a mind saturated, releasing the day; sometimes this can seem very close to the poignant remark made by an Auschwitz inmate in Schindler’s List … ‘I had a complete thought, today.’ Sometimes my posts are good and flow and cohere. But, I’m also editing what I write to limit consequence along parameters suggested by William Stafford in his book, ‘Crossing Unmarked Snow:’
1. The things you do not have to say make you rich.
2. Saying the things you do not have to say weakens your talk.
3. Hearing the things you do not need to hear dulls your hearing.
4. The things you know before you hear them, those are you and this is the reason you’re in the world.
A compelling set of assertions, for any of us, that aims at honourable and integrated Life … a good thing – it’s how I’m aiming to write the blog. Still, in my reading of it there often is opportunity to add more Art within my writing.
The Photoblog – Photography is what the photoblog is about – a photo-a-day kind of thing as intention and as means to grapple with photography and enhance skills; but, at almost two years in I’m only on post 271 and not beyond a year’s 365 posts. The blog is also about responding to each photo or set of photos as starting point to engage the rabbit trail of memory associating to family and times.” And, it often leads my thought to a set of Rimbey farms and my cousins, there.
Listening to – the Candid Frame with Ibarionex Perello in an interview with Will Jax about his Juke Joint photography in the French Quarter of New Orleans; part of the discussion that intrigued was the matter of consent, of giving back, contributing – all parts of what grants access within the exchange that is photography.
Quote to Inspire – “You yourself are unique–you have ways of seeing your world that are unlike those of anyone else–so find ways to more faithfully express that, and your style will emerge.” ― David duChemin, Vision & Voice: Refining Your Vision in Adobe Photoshop Lightroom
Cattails – Near Fort Vermilion Turnoff
Homestead – Fort Vermilion, Alberta 1
Homestead – Fort Vermilion, Alberta 2
Homestead – Fort Vermilion, Alberta 3
Peace River – Fort Vermilion, Alberta
Peace River Beaver – Fort Vermilion, Alberta 1
Peace River Beaver – Fort Vermilion, Alberta 2
Peace River Beaver – Fort Vermilion, Alberta 3
Peace River Sunrise – Fort Vermilion, Alberta
Up, earlier than sunrise, traveling, from High Level to Fort Vermilion … early, early morning to witness all that comprises sunrise – the Peace River looking east from Fort Vermilion at the newly risen sun, a beaver marking territory, a Buttertown homestead and cattails coloured in spring splendor.
Listening to – Robbie Robertson’s ‘Sweet Fire of Love,’ Lucinda William’s ‘Concrete and Barbed Wire,’ Melissa McClelland’s ‘Brake,’ Bryan Ferry’s ‘Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues’ and Ryan Adams’ ‘Hotel Chelsea Nights.’
Quote to Inspire – “Taking an image, freezing a moment, reveals how rich reality truly is.” – Anonymous
Buttertown Homestead – Fort Vermilion, Alberta
Sunset Above the Peace River – Fort Vermilion, Alberta
Store Shed – St. Louis Catholic Church – Fort Vermilion, Alberta
Derelict Vehicle – A Former Time – Buttertown, Fort Vermilion, Alberta
A weeklong endeavor involving our junior high students saw Alberta’s Trickster Theater group work with them to create and perform a handful of short dramas dealing with human rights around the world. Students engaged in this learning by doing, many came out from shells they’d been cloistered into through our long, long winter; all enjoyed the fun of team performance. My role was to collect images for presentation within an Animoto slideshow. In pre-screening the slideshow the phrase photo manipulation was used favourably to refer to presenting an image in new and interesting ways to draw the viewer to the action or happening within the image or to draw the viewer into the image’s feeling, mood or atmosphere. Saturation and desaturation, focus, detail and blur, tinting, vignette and cropping – all are manipulations of the photograph allowing amplification of image narrative or feeling, mood and atmosphere. The images presented here have each received photo manipulation, the editing that follows image capture and moves them to rendering.
Listening to – Tyler Bates’ ‘Pamplona’ and ‘Ventura,’ Tyrone Wells’ ‘Time of Our Lives,’ and Rascal Flatts’ ‘My Wish.’
Quote to Inspire – “A photo is a small voice, at best, but sometimes – just sometimes – one photograph or a group of them can lure our senses into awareness. Much depends upon the viewer; in some, photographs can summon enough emotion to be a catalyst to thought.” – W. Eugene Smith
In My Back Pocket - Photography 
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