Project 365 – Photo-a-day

Photos that are part of the photo-a-day project.

Grain Elevators – St. Albert, Alberta

Canon 60D, Canon Camera, Canon Live View, Christmas, Farm, Home, Photoblog Intention, Project 365 - Photo-a-day, Rail Yard, Sigma Lens - Wide Angle 10-20mm, Winter

Grain Elevators - St. Albert, Alberta 1

Grain Elevators - St. Albert, Alberta 2

New Year’s Day – in Edmonton and its surrounding region the daylight hours of 2013 are sun-filled against a backdrop of blue sky. I’m out, looking around at the world with my camera, making my way from Edmonton’s west end, through its University area and Whyte Avenue. My wife, daughter and son are at my brother’s home reading … and there’s some baking going on.

I have some of the day with my camera.

The Edmonton Clinic at the University of Alberta reveals itself to be something eye-catching when complete – a longish curve of glass that will stretch for a city block in length and upwards about eight stories; the building will be about reflection as much as the glass permits a looking in on all that’s going on. But, the photo is not for today; the construction is still in progress and from the best angle impedes what is likely the best shot.

The day does hold its share of shots as I move to the Molson Brewery site that’s being dismantled. Then, it’s out to St. Albert to Edmonton’s northwest. My wife has recalled our seeing grain elevators as we drove into St. Albert last summer for a huge farmer’s market and she recommends searching for them. I have a look and discover that the grain elevators are part of a heritage museum in St. Albert. The elevators are behind chain-link fence, yet I can still photograph them.

I move from St. Albert west towards Spruce Grove. I use an elasticized, nylon tow rope to pull out someone in a silver, Dodge Dakota whose slid into a country ditch with the snow. On this road are many old farms and farm structures to photograph. But, at this time of day with an upcoming get family together this part of the day is about scouting visually for possible shots … for next time.

Listening to – Paul Gross and the Due South soundtrack.

Quote to Inspire – “My life is shaped by the urgent need to wander and observe, and my camera is my passport.” – Steve McCurry

Edmonton Structures

Best Practices - Photography, Canon 60D, Canon Camera, Canon Live View, Christmas, Photography & Conceptualizing Beauty, Project 365 - Photo-a-day, Winter
Muttart Conservatory - Edmonton, Alberta

Muttart Conservatory – Edmonton, Alberta

Metallic Spheres Sculpture - Edmonton, Alberta 4

Metallic Spheres Sculpture – Edmonton, Alberta 4

Metallic Spheres Sculpture - Edmonton, Alberta 3

Metallic Spheres Sculpture – Edmonton, Alberta 3

Metallic Spheres Sculpture - Edmonton, Alberta 2

Metallic Spheres Sculpture – Edmonton, Alberta 2

Metallic Spheres Sculpture - Edmonton, Alberta 1

Metallic Spheres Sculpture – Edmonton, Alberta 1

Glowing green against the copper-lit reflection of city lights upon clouds, an image of Edmonton’s Muttart Conservatory moments after the world has shifted from 2012 into 2013. Other images are from the metallic, spheres structure/sculpture from the Southeast end of Edmonton’s Quesnel Bridge.

Listening to – Cheng Yu’s ‘Purple Bamboo’ and ‘Pipa 2’, Dust Devil’s ‘Liquid Lounge,’ and Alexander Kogan’s ‘Two Guitars’.

Quote to Inspire – “For me, photography has become a way of attempting to make sense of the strange world that I see around me. I don’t ever expect to achieve that understanding, but the fact that I am trying comforts me.” – Mikhael Subotzky

Last, Day-lit Images

Backlight, Best Practices - Photography, Canon 60D, Canon 70-200 mm 2.8 IS L Series Lens, Canon Lens, Christmas, Light Intensity, Night, Photoblog Intention, Photography & Conceptualizing Beauty, Project 365 - Photo-a-day, Sunset, Weather, Winter
Scotford Refinery - Fort Saskatchewan, Alberta

Scotford Refinery – Fort Saskatchewan, Alberta

An image of the Scotford Refinery near Fort Saskatchewan, one of the last day-lit images shot at dusk looking east towards Edmonton after a good day of looking for and finding images.

Listening to – Simple Minds’ ‘Alive and Kicking.’

Quote to Inspire – “The marvels of daily life are exciting; no movie director can arrange the unexpected that you find in the street.” – Robert Doisneau

Blake’s Bison

Best Practices - Photography, Canon 60D, Canon 70-200 mm 2.8 IS L Series Lens, Canon Camera, Canon Lens, Christmas, Fauna, Light Intensity, Photoblog Intention, Photography & Conceptualizing Beauty, Project 365 - Photo-a-day, Season, Shuttertime with Sid and Mac, Sunset, Weather, Winter
Bison - Elk Island 1

Bison – Elk Island 1

Bison - Elk Island 4

Bison – Elk Island 4

Bison - Elk Island 3

Bison – Elk Island 3

Bison - Elk Island 2

Bison – Elk Island 2

In a day that’s been bright, yet overcast, the sun shines through broken cloud as it moves towards the horizon in late afternoon, shining directly on two Bison grazing at Astotin Lake in Elk Island National Park, images inspired by Sidney Blake’s discussion of animal/nature photography and by her extraordinary black and white images of Bison in winter.

Listening to – The Von Bondies with ‘C’mon C’mon’.

Quote to Inspire – “When people ask me what equipment I use – I tell them my eyes.” – Anonymous

Fence Post – What Was, Is What We Now See

Canon 60D, Canon Camera, Canon Lens, Farm, Flora, Journaling, Light Intensity, Lookback Photos - One Year Ago, Photoblog Intention, Photography & Conceptualizing Beauty, Project 365 - Photo-a-day, Season, Spring
Fence Post 1

Fence Post 1

Fence Post 2

Fence Post 2

Fence Post 3

Fence Post 3

Fence Post 4

Fence Post 4

Fence Post 5

Fence Post 5

Fence Post 6

Fence Post 6

2012 – we will soon close-out 2012 and all that has been our photography through this year. Many of you have made your way to wordpress along a similar path, catalyzed by the prospect of a photo-a-day improving how we approach photography and taking that daily step of opening and closing a camera shutter, editing a photo and then loading the image (most times with comment) into your wordpress blog. I am in awe of the immensity of this endeavor and grateful to be in receipt of that recursive back and forth of dialogue, something that has created synergy and momentum in each of us returning to our wordpress blog with new images each day. Very good schtuff!

Each of you has been example to me. Each of you has captured images of Life being lived – medias res. Your photos contain mood, capture moment, find humour. I am indebted to each of you for those images of yours that stay with me, that I think about through the day and week. With likes, comments and encouragement, you’ve nudged me forward, further and further with photography this year and I have pushed the envelope in big ways. For all this, I am grateful … thank you for your part in what my 2012 has been.

Take good care of your good, good selves … and enjoy the season as best you can – Merry Christmas.

Former Field Anchor – the photo presented here is another fence post found around Sangudo, Alberta. Again, the play has been in find ways to represent this image.

Listening to – Bruce Springsteen’s Santa Claus Is Coming To Town, John Lennon and Yoko Ono’s Happy Christmas (War is Over), Brenda Lee’s Rockin’ Around the Christmas Tree, Chubby Checker & Bobby Rydell’s Jingle Bell Rock and Perry Como’s Home for the Holidays.

Quote to Inspire – “All the technique in the world doesn’t compensate for the inability to notice.” – Elliott Erwitt

Ethereal, Restless – Dreaming

Best Practices - Photography, Canon 60D, Canon 70-200 mm 2.8 IS L Series Lens, Canon Camera, Canon Live View, Fall, Farm, Farmhouse, Flora, Home, Homestead, Journaling, Light Intensity, Lookback Photos - One Year Ago, Photoblog Intention, Photography & Conceptualizing Beauty, Project 365 - Photo-a-day, Season, Spring, Still Life, Weather
House of Dreams 1

House of Dreams 1

House of Dreams 2

House of Dreams 2

House of Dreams 3

House of Dreams 3

House of Dreams 4

House of Dreams 4

House of Dreams 5

House of Dreams 5

This farmhouse image is one that I connect to moments we’ve all had – that ethereal, restless dream state when dreaming’s hallucination can draw forth what seems other-worldly connection. For me, I recall Mr. Lockwood who upon renting Thrushcross Grange ventured out on a winter walk to meet and greet his landlord, a man by the name of Heathcliff. The story, set in the late 1700s – early 1800s, sees the newly installed Mr. Lockwood walking to the property of his new landlord, a home with a name – Wuthering Heights. A snow storm brews up and makes it necessary for Mr. Lockwood to stay the night in his landlord’s home.

A place is made for him in what seems is a book cupboard or closet.

He reads a pen and ink commentary set forth in the margins of books within this sleeping closet; print books, the only source of paper available to another character, Catherine Earnshaw, are the place where Catherine journals about and considers her life – a journal that in tone and availability serves as confidante for the teen who as estate owner’s daughter is without ready access to peers her age at the Wuthering Heights farm estate. Mr. Lockwood can’t sleep – he reads and reads and reads about Catherine and Heathcliff … until in that ethereal, restless dream state he enters into dream hallucination, a state in which he encounters a young Catherine who within the snow storm outside knocks at ‘his’ window asking to be let in. The farmhouse in this image meets well many of the essential elements of what my mind imagines that Wuthering Heights could be. This house seems ready for all that Emily Bronte’s novel, Wuthering Heights, might hold. And, there’s more to that story ….

Listening to – Maria Dunn’s God Bless Us Everyone, Michael Hoppe’s Land of Serenity, Bill Douglas’ Irish Lullaby, Grant McAskill’s Bitter Season, Catherine Anne McFee’s I See Winter and Paul Brady’s Help Me Believe.

Quote to Inspire – “I want the viewers to be moved into the lives of the people that they are looking at, the visual experience is incredibly emotional.” Paul Fusco

Barbed and Anchored

Best Practices - Photography, Canon 60D, Canon 70-200 mm 2.8 IS L Series Lens, Canon Camera, Canon Lens, Canon Live View, Farmhouse, Home, Homestead, Journaling, Light Intensity, Lookback Photos - One Year Ago, Photoblog Intention, Photography & Conceptualizing Beauty, Project 365 - Photo-a-day, Season, Still Life, Winter
Fence Post and Homestead

Fence Post and Homestead

December winter scene – homestead and trees, land that once was broken, now fenced in – protected, reminding and reminiscent of lives and the work of living. Snow blankets dormant land and caps a fence post, one among many anchoring three strands of barbed wire used to hold animals to this area of land while they graze. Horizon, sky, former home, snow and wood’s texture, softer muted colours – all hold my eye and attention.

Listening to – Madeleine Peyroux’s J’ai Deux Amours, Kenny Gamble’s Me and Mrs. Jones, Toni Sola’s Night Sounds Blues, and Burt Bacharach’s (They Long to Be) Close to You, recognizable songs among others that form the From Paris With Love Soundtrack.

Quote to Inspire – “Emotion or feeling is really the only thing about pictures I find interesting. Beyond that is just a trick.” – Christopher Anderson

December’s Shift – Past Tense

Best Practices - Photography, Canon 60D, Canon 70-200 mm 2.8 IS L Series Lens, Canon Camera, Canon Lens, Canon Live View, Farmhouse, Homestead, Lookback Photos - One Year Ago, Photoblog Intention, Photography & Conceptualizing Beauty, Project 365 - Photo-a-day, Season, Still Life, Weather, Winter
Peace River - Homestead Starting Point

Peace River – Homestead Starting Point

A December day – my brother forwards an e-mail from a family friend, someone from the old neighborhood in Edmonton’s Ottewell community, a friend we shared the neighborhood with as kids. At eighty years, his father, a good friend of my father’s, has passed – succumbing to cancer’s disease. The e-mail conveys global or summary view of his father, a statement written by a man in middle-age, a message made more striking because of its first shift to the past tense of Life – Life has been lived well; Life lived on … beyond the passing of his wife thirty years prior; and, anticipation of how the loss will be felt and recognized. Life’s patterns will change for his family without him.

My memory is of him, his wife, his three boys and his daughter in their Edmonton home on 94b Avenue during the seventies. An accountant, he drove a chocolate brown BMW sedan way back then. My Dad and he shared wit and story. Both were sharp, intelligent people – achievers with achievements; they and their wives had travelled – our families vacationed together. Dad and he were close and knew how to share time together well. Our families may even have met at Church – Ottewell United Church. As I think him through I think of starting points, places any of us began. For him, he’d been adopted in the thirties and loved and raised well – something carried on in each of his children.

Listening to – Roky Erickson’s You’re Gonna Miss Me, Bow Wow Wow’s I Want Candy, Elton John’s Crocodile Rock, Joan Jett and the Blackhearts’ Crimson and Clover, Katrina and the Waves Walking on Sunshine and Bruce Springsteen’s The River.

Quote to Inspire – “I photograph to find out what something will look like photographed.” – Garry Winogrand

Shandy & Molson Signage

Best Practices - Photography, Canon 60D, Canon 70-200 mm 2.8 IS L Series Lens, Canon Camera, Canon Lens, Canon Live View, Home, Lookback Photos - One Year Ago, Photography & Conceptualizing Beauty, Project 365 - Photo-a-day, Season, Still Life, Winter

Molson signage, atop the former, now derelict Edmonton Molson brewing plant anchors Edmonton to a nostalgic, retro-feel of former days. Next door is the former Crosstown Motors’ Dodge Chrysler dealership site. Blocks away from Edmonton’s Waterloo Mercury dealership on 107th Avenue and 114th Street, the Molson Brewery site is perhaps most appropriately considered part of Edmonton’s Oliver community. Beer was made here, and through each year brewer after brewer was bought out by the larger Molson corporation, each good beer being subsumed into Molson’s menu of beer. The Molson building and brewery site is now in the process of being dismantled. It’s in the way of what now could be. There’s a great gash in the earth in front of the brewery building – what had been basement to a portion of the brewing site is being removed. The older, more aesthetically pleasing portion of the building still remains, behind chain-link fence. Architecturally, this regal, ornate building dates back to the 1920’s or thirties … perhaps the forties. Design, texture and colour all comprise what the building is about … but you do have to look around to see what is there.

I’m reminded of a summer, two years back and of combining a quality ginger beer with a dark lager, making something Dad called a Shandy for Dad and I – a couple of good, summer sips.

Listening to – You Can’t Buy Shoes in a Painting, by Jill Osier (read by Eliza Foss from poetryfoundation.org) on CKUA.

Quote to Inspire – “A tear contains an ocean. A photographer is aware of the tiny moments in a person’s life that reveal greater truths.” – Anonymous