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

A Finer Clarity

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Sangudo Trucks-Edit-2-Edit-Edit

Sangudo Trucks-Edit-3

Sangudo Trucks-Edit-Edit

Adobe Photoshop CS6 has been platform for creating, or perhaps better stated, re-creating High Dynamic Range (HDR) images from RAW files that had been used with NiK Software’s HDR Efex Pro. The process is new with a different sequence of steps – using Adobe Bridge to identify and find photos is one step changing things. And, then, the image result has less halo surrounding subjects within the photograph. The image created this morning is from the Alaska Highway Construction Museum in Sangudo, Alberta from a year or two ago. The clarity and detail is substantially finer using the Adobe Photoshop CS6 process to create the HDR – edges have greater fidelity to what was observed.

Quote to Consider – “In photography there are no shadows that cannot be illuminated.” – August Sander (sounds like an HDR image making kind of quote)

Listening to – Zoe Keating’s Album, ‘Into the Trees;’ ‘Optimist,’ ‘Don’t Worry,’ and ‘Escape Artist.’

P.S. – It has finally happened; that photo-a-day that should have resulted in 365 posts in one year – intended from 2011 to 2012 – has only just been achieved within this photo-blog post … 365 posts with many, many photos … the milestone, intended, has arrived and it’s only taken from 2011 to 2015. Thank you, to all who have been a part of encouraging this endeavor. Good schtuff! 😉

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’

Coloured Desaturation

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Autumn’s Desaturation – Rycroft, Alberta 1

Autumn’s Desaturation – Rycroft, Alberta 2

Desaturation -St. Louis Mission – Buttertown, Alberta 1

Desaturation -St. Louis Mission – Buttertown, Alberta 2

Looking through this past month’s photos the desaturation of the earth’s foliage draws my eye, Life ebbing away or perhaps about to draw into dormancy under the covers with snow’s blanket. Fields have been shorn, leaving behind uniform lines of a seed drill’s patterned press of seeds into the earth. Great expanses of field hold round bales, some already positioned for feeding cattle, deer, elk and bison. These photos present the colour of a month ago and the desaturation witnessed only a week ago. The desire to be on the land as I was as a youth is there.

Quote to Inspire – “But when viewed in their new context, the museum, or gallery, photographs cease to be ‘about’ their subjects in the same direct or primary way; they become studies in the possibilities of photography.” – Susan Sontag, ‘On Photography’

Listening to – Sarah Masen’s rendition of an old Supertramp song – ‘Give a Little Bit.’

Shape Sense – Light & Shadow

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Autumn Gold 2 – Donnely, Alberta 1

Autumn Gold 2 – Donnely, Alberta 2

Autumn Gold 2 – Donnely, Alberta 3

Autumn Gold 2 – Donnely, Alberta 4

Autumn Gold 2 – Donnely, Alberta 5

It’s cold this morning. At -26C, the conundrum is how to deal with my camera (battery-life) and tripod (breakable at colder temperatures). Warmly cloaked, as I trek round my morning’s 6km circuit, I’m resigned to using the walk to scout out pictures. Throughout, I’m listening to conversations – interviews, podcasted on my iPod. But, cold-weather photo-making is not as easy an endeavor as capturing an image within that moment when I find its promise. I turn my initiative to what I can do indoors – editing of previous photos, investigating shots that I haven’t yet worked with and finding new results. This morning is follow-up to other images in the series following the Autumn Gold image from a few days back. Versions of the photo are non-HDR, HDR Black and White and HDR Colour – some fun. The realization is that the HDR images provide better gradation of light and shadow creating better sense of shape as contrasted with non-HDR images. Have a look.

Listening to – Krista Tippett’s interview with Jean Vanier, founder of L’Arche; interesting concepts include the necessity of becoming vulnerable in order to be able to love another and the vulnerability of God in Loving us. Another captivating idea is the path from soul to reality … the curious extrapolation is how this path is distorted, twisted or perhaps even strangled; the last thought has be prodded from a friend’s newly found cynicism – a lot can stand in our way, obscuring our vision and awareness of others.

Quote to Consider – “Nobody ever discovered ugliness through photographs. But many, through photographs, have discovered beauty. Except for those situations in which the camera is used to document, or to mark social rites, what moves people to take photographs is finding something beautiful.” – Susan Sontag, On Photography

Autumn Gold

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Autumn Gold – Donnelly, Alberta

An autumn memory, a gift to view as we move into snow and extreme sub-zero temperature – nature’s architecture providing visual articulation of golds on black at harvest.

Quote to Inspire – “Photographs are a way of imprisoning reality …. One can’t possess reality, one can possess images – one can’t possess the present but one can possess the past.” – Susan Sontag, ‘On Photography’

Listening to – U2’s ‘In a Little While,’ Linkin Park’s ‘Roads Untraveled,’ Jessica Sanchez’ ‘Lead Me Home’ and Bob Dylan’s ‘Shelter from the Storm.’

Homestead Music

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Buttertown Homestead – Fort Vermilion, Alberta

My wife points us to music tonight. At day’s end she’s responding to both of us, each a vortex of thoughts, moving, tumbling, clustering, dot-to-dot, aiming toward productive, tangible result – saturated with the day, not here, not in the now, needing to release the grip of endeavor, to withdraw and to settle. Time away from the pursued pace is needed, time that interrupts the cycle of ‘home-work-and-back-again,’ that kind of quality time that permits fresh aspect and new grasp on perspective, a good thing. Music is our choice tonight for plying away our adhesion, breaking contact with the day that’s been. The music we turn to is longstanding legacy from BBC Radio Ulster’s Sunday show at 8:00 p.m., ‘Rhythm and Soul’ hosted by Steve Stockman; it’s music that’s been on my wife’s iPod this week in and around her classroom. David Gray’s Hammersmith concert, ‘Live, In Slow Motion,’ is the concert video my wife chooses and with our daughter away at dance class we sit down to supper, downstairs, in front of our television and engage this concert, slowing ourselves, listening to a cellist, two guitarists, a bass player, a drummer and David Gray bring music to Life. Allowing ourselves to become vulnerable to lyric, melody, rhythm, sound and silence, we are drawn to familiar songs, songs I’ve fretted in former days – ‘Sail Away,’ ‘Shine,’ ‘My Oh My,’ ‘Silver Lining.’ These songs draw us out to that part of our Lives beyond endeavor. They open-out memory and memories. We move into and travel along new melodies. Engaging with these songs orients us in terms of presence and our present – where we are needing and aiming to be, a reset of sorts.

Homestead – this October exposure is one of a handful of images taken within the golden hour near Fort Vermilion in a pre-winter sunset, winter-ready clouds billowing in regular, heavy patterns across the sky. The linear clarity of homestead lines mingles with the subtle bend in its roof and the regular, yet unique line of each board. It’s old, yet it’s solid and well-preserved. Coloration and luminance chosen in editing work best with the available light and draw me to this photo, again and again.

I am definitely wanting to be out and about with my camera, perhaps with others seeing other ways of viewing the world. My Canon 60D has developed a hiccough, though – three years wear and tear has made the spring ejection of the SD card difficult; it’s also become difficult to set the card back in. Sending the camera for repair is likely to cost one-third to one-half the cost of replacing the camera with another 60D body or its next generation body the 70D. And, then I wonder if I should move to a pro-sumer camera the Canon 7D, 6D or 5D.

T h a n k y o u ‘ s

– My gratitude goes out to all who are a part of this blog, those of you who add your comments and engage in the dialogue about photos, photography and music.

Listening to – Tyler Bates’ ‘Ventura,’ one of those captivating songs from Emilio Estevez’ film, ‘The Way.’ The post reminds me of several Martyn Joseph songs – ‘The Good in Me is Dead’ from the ‘Don’t Talk About Love’ album and talking with Martyn at the Alexandra Community Hall in Edmonton, Alberta on the eve of the Iraq invasion. Other songs come to mind – ‘Wake Me Up,’ ‘Strange Kind of Friend,’ ‘Walk Down the Mountain’ and ‘Just Like the Man Said.’

Quote to Inspire: “Still images can be moving and moving images can be still. Both meet within soundscapes.” Chien-Chi Chang

Blessing – For the Traveler

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Along the Meikle River – Manning, Alberta 1

Along the Meikle River – Manning, Alberta 2

Along the Meikle River – Manning, Alberta 3

Every time you leave home,
Another road takes you
Into a world you were never in.

New strangers on other paths await.
New places that have never seen you
Will startle a little a your entry.
Old places that know you well
Will pretend nothing
Changed since your last visit.

When you travel, you find yourself
Alone in a different way,
More attentive now
To the self you bring along.
Your more subtle eye watching
You abroad; and how what meets you
Touches that part of your heart
That lies low at home:

How you unexpectedly attune
To the timbre in some voice,
Opening a conversation
You want to take in
To where your longing
Has pressed hard enough
Inward, on some unsaid dark,
To create a crystal of insight
You could not have known
You needed
To illuminate
Your way.

When you travel,
A new silence
Goes with you,
And if you listen,
You will hear
What your heart would
Love to say

A journey can become a sacred thing:
Make sure, before you go,
To take the time
To bless your going forth,
To free your heart of ballast
So that the compass of your soul
Might direct you toward
The territories of spirit
Where you will discover
More of your hidden life,
And the urgencies
That deserve to claim you.

May you travel in an awakened way,
Gathered wisely into your inner ground;
That you may not waste the invitations
Which wait along the way to transform you.

May you travel safely, arrive refreshed,
And live your time away to its fullest;
Return home more enriched, and free
To balance the gift of days which call you.

A Threshold Blessing, ‘To Bless the Space Between,’ John O’Donohue

Today, this blessing/prayer for a friend and friends who begin extraordinary travel – that they remain safe throughout the journey and that they are open to what will enrich them.

Images – along the Meikle river, just north of Manning, Alberta.

Listening to: Wayne Watson’s ‘Everything Can Change So Fast’ and Bob Bennett’s ‘Hand of Kindness.’

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

Walking Within

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Kananaskis Country – Kananaskis, Alberta 1

Kananaskis Country – Kananaskis, Alberta 2

Kananaskis Country – Kananaskis, Alberta 3

Kananaskis Country – Kananaskis, Alberta 4

Kananaskis Country – Kananaskis, Alberta 5

Kananaskis Country – Kananaskis, Alberta 6

Kananaskis Country – Kananaskis, Alberta 7

Kananaskis Country – Kananaskis, Alberta 8

Gardner Hamilton was interviewed by Edmonton photographers Carey Nash and Kelly Redinger, who have created the ‘Lonely Photographers’ podcast. While talking essentially about street photography, Gardner provided distillation about what photography is and about the key attribute making one a photographer – a [photographer] is someone who does not necessarily go out with a mission, but someone who is [or becomes] mentally aware of when they have walked into a photograph. Gardner goes on to articulate the process of framing the shot, composition, about the need to be stealthy, about timing and moment – all skills needed for taking and making the shot. You make yourself vulnerable to a shot. You stop yourself and with your camera move into the shot and work the shot. The photograph becomes a gift of ‘seeing something’ for the first time.

In a drive to Kananaskis two weeks ago, there were many points of ‘recognizing a shot,’ those shots that could be taken, those points of becoming mentally aware of photographs that were available – frost covered, harvested farm fields at sunrise south from Peace River as shadows stretched across land, something not usually accessed by me in my usual travel times; bright yellows of hay bales and patterned swaths on farm fields west of Calgary; cattle ranches along rolling foothills in autumn colour moving into the Rocky mountains; shadows cutting into forested Kananaskis mountains along snowy ski trails high above in the last hour before sunset. These images were available in that drive – the choice really became about whether or not to pursue photography along the way versus waiting for the photography that could occur at destination. The images that follow are Kananaskis images, photography at destination – the three final ones are shot at night during full moon.

Listening to – ‘Crash’ and ‘Way Behind Me’ by the Primitives; then it’s on to the Kingsmen’s ‘Louie Louie’ and Bruce Springsteen’s ‘Pink Cadillac’ and ‘Radio Nowhere.’

Quote to Inspire – “The Pictures are there, and you just take them” – Robert Capa