No Exit

Best Practices - Photography, Canon 60D, Canon Camera, Canon Lens, Canon Live View, Farm, Journaling, Light Intensity, Photoblog Intention, Photography & Conceptualizing Beauty, Project 365 - Photo-a-day, Sigma Lens - Wide Angle 10-20mm, Spring, Sunset

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

That Thought, Complete

Best Practices - Photography, Canon 60D, Canon Camera, Canon Lens, Canon Live View, Farm, High Dynamic Range (HDR), Home, Journaling, Light Intensity, Night, Photoblog Intention, Photography & Conceptualizing Beauty, Project 365 - Photo-a-day, Sigma Lens - Wide Angle 10-20mm, Spring, Still Life, Sunset, The Candid Frame, Vehicle, Vehicle Restoration

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

HDR – Image Subjects, Revisited

Best Practices - Photography, Canon 50mm Lens, Canon 60D, Canon Camera, Canon Live View, High Dynamic Range (HDR), Journaling, Light Intensity, Photoblog Intention, Photography & Conceptualizing Beauty, Prime Lens, Project 365 - Photo-a-day, Sigma Lens - Wide Angle 10-20mm, Spring, Still Life

HDR – 1947 Ford One Tonne Tow Truck, McLure, British Columbia

HDR – North of 60 Bus Shelter Seats, Valleyview, Alberta

I have had a go at creating two High Dynamic Range (HDR) images in the last while. In landscape images my practice is to shoot with Automatic Exposure Bracketing (creating 3 images in succession -1, 0 & +1) and explore how the images will turn out in HDR. The images are of subjects I have shot before; but, they are not the original image shots included in previous posts. They are ‘also-ran’ images of the 1947 Ford One-tonne Tow Truck from McLure, British Columbia and the ‘would-be’ bus shelter seat, North of 60 style. In both the detail, lines and range of light are enhanced (or at least different).

Listening to – today it’s been the conclusion of Ken Follett’s ‘Pillars of the Earth’ on the long drive home from Edmonton to High Level. The narrative provides glimpse of Monarchy, Ecclesiastical ambition and all that was behind building cathedrals and parishes; the story moves from Life at the local/village level all the way to Thomas Beckett and King Henry and those who contested the throne.

Quote to Inspire – “Vision is that original spark that was ignited within you and made you pick up a camera to capture whatever it is you saw, that made you turn to shout “Did you see that!” only to find no one there–so you created an image to do the telling.” ― David duChemin, Vision & Voice: Refining Your Vision in Adobe Photoshop Lightroom

Fine Coffee, Wind Turbines & Rainbow

Canon 60D, Canon 70-200 mm 2.8 IS L Series Lens, Canon Camera, Canon Lens, Canon Live View, Journaling, Light Intensity, Photoblog Intention, Photography & Conceptualizing Beauty, Project 365 - Photo-a-day, Summer, Weather

1 Wind Turbines – North Shore, Oahu 1

2 Wind Turbines – North Shore, Oahu 2

3 Wind Turbines – North Shore, Oahu 3

Fine Ass Coffee Mill – Oahu, HI 1

Fine Ass Coffee Mill – Oahu, HI 2

More than a few times my daughter, my wife and I drove northward exploring Oahu’s North Shore and Haleiwa. We had rented a blue Ford Fusion so that we could explore and see the island. Using our Tom Tom GPS we found that both the GPS as well as traffic signs encouraged the use of U-turns along highway intersections as the best means to handle road to road transitions.

Our first excursion was a scouting endeavor, a drive northward that became our first trek around Oahu. As we moved toward Haleiwa we stopped at a locally grown coffee mill, its name cheekily playing upon Hawaiian dialect, Fine Ass Coffee resembling the words Finest Coffee. We took a tour and were introduced to live, growing coffee beans – usually coffee beans grow in dyads within one shell and occasionally are found on their own (one coffee bean within a shell). Singleton coffee beans (called peaberries) produce a potent coffee as they receive the nutrients that would feed what should have been a dyad.

What was also striking as we moved past Haleiwa was encountering wind turbines juxtaposed against big sky, cloud work, volcanic rock and farms. On our second drive to North Shore, we had done some shopping along the old Haleiwa road and came out of one shop to discover that a farm building one kilometre away was on fire – a brown-white plume of smoke rising into the air. And, just as in our remote communities distance to the blaze from fire departments determines rescue time and determines what physical assets can be saved. We followed our curiosity toward the fire but gave up on the endeavor realizing that the gas was toxic and that we’d likely be clogging the route toward the fire.

At that point along the roadway, I got my camera and tripod out and in directing the camera back to the way we had come discovered the wind turbines from a new angle … an extraordinary sight; I was able to catch the wind turbines within a rainbow. There were other shots in the Golden Hour where sun, landscape, cloud work and rainbows did culminate into extraordinary compositions, but being able to stop the car safely for a shot limited the possibility in the endeavor. Still, I saw what I saw – that’s good too.

Listening to – Bill Cutler’s tribute to Jerry Garcia with ‘Starlight Jamboree’ on CKUA Radio (streaming online).

Quote to Inspire – “Unlike any other visual image, a photograph is not a rendering, an imitation or an interpretation of its subject, but actually a trace of it. No painting or drawing, however naturalist, belongs to its subject in the way that a photograph does.” – John Berger

Accommodated – Photos

Canon 60D, Canon 70-200 mm 2.8 IS L Series Lens, Canon Camera, Canon Lens, Canon Live View, High Dynamic Range (HDR), Journaling, Photography & Conceptualizing Beauty, Project 365 - Photo-a-day, Summer, Vehicle Restoration

1 North Shore Surfing 1

2 North Shore Surfing 2

3 Along the Way – North Shore 1

4 Along the Way – North Shore 2

5 North Shore – Highway

6 Strong Current – Haleiwa, Oahu 1

7 Strong Current – Haleiwa, Oahu 2

8 Surfing – Across from Diamond Head

9 52 Ford Panel Van – Haleiwa, Oahu

10 Waves – Sandy Beach, Oahu

11 Surfer – Sandy Beach, Oahu

My wife and daughter are very gracious about accommodating me and the opportunity of a photograph. On my side, what is balanced is seeing a possible photo from the vehicle against the need to proceed onward with the journey with my family. My daughter and wife are avid readers. So, in stopping for a photograph, they usually have had a book going that they are eager to delve into. Over two weeks on Oahu my daughter read ten books (at the beach, in restaurants, in the car and late at night) – something you’d not have caught me doing at her age; I’d be out doing … something. Over the two weeks, we circumnavigated Oahu perhaps three or four times seeing the island fresh and then growing more and more familiar with the landscape and getting out for a few photographs. The following images are from Oahu’s North Shore and from southern Oahu at Sandy Beach and Diamond Head.

Listening to: John O’Donohue’s Greenbelt interview with Martin Rowe (August 2007).

Quote to Inspire – “Photographers deal in things which are continually vanishing and when they have vanished there is no contrivance on earth which can make them come back again.” – Henri Cartier Bresson

Bumped, Never-done

Canon 60D, Canon Camera, Canon Lens, High Dynamic Range (HDR), Journaling, Photoblog Intention, Photography & Conceptualizing Beauty, Project 365 - Photo-a-day, Summer

Catholic Church – Waikiki

Waikiki Beach At Night

Waikiki Strip 2

My wife, my daughter and I chased-down a never-done in July. On the road, with our out-of-town doctor’s visits complete, bags packed – a task from several days before, and no pressing obligations, the challenge set before me by my wife was to get my daughter, my wife and me to Hawaii (any of the five islands), to gather some summer rest, to explore new sites/sights, to try out some new things and to photograph the visual treasure among the islands; the challenge broadly – rejuvenate. Honolulu on Oahu is where we landed after being bumped flights and arriving five hours later than intended (it’s totally interesting that United Airlines found us new flights and provided us tickets for another flight to use within the next year … as we entered our plane we were later than planned, but ahead financially); we stayed at a Waikiki hotel, minutes away from the Waikiki beach, surfing and lazing in the sun. The images, here, are starting point images Waikiki, in the evening.

Listening to: Dave Matthews and Tim Reynolds work through several tunes from their Live at Radio City Music Hall recording (2007) – Daniel Lanois’ ‘The Maker,’ ‘Sister,’ ‘Old Dirt Hill,’ and ‘Crush’.

“To me, photography is an art of observation. It’s about finding something interesting in an ordinary place… I’ve found it has little to do with the things you see and everything to do with the way you see them.” — Elliott Erwitt

HDR – Details, Paint & Upholstery

Best Practices - Photography, Canon 60D, Canon Camera, Canon Live View, High Dynamic Range (HDR), Light Intensity, Photography & Conceptualizing Beauty, Podcast, Project 365 - Photo-a-day, Shuttertime with Sid and Mac, Still Life, Summer, Vehicle, Vehicle Restoration, Weather

Chevrolet Grain Truck – Edmonton, Alberta

The late forties-early fifties Chevrolet half-tonne grain truck is subject for this image and with Automatic Exposure Bracketing moving toward a final image becomes an exercise in creating a high dynamic range (HDR) shot. For me, unless shooting people within an event, my practice in creating most photos is to work with a tripod in manual (M) mode and to set the camera for the three settings of Automatic Exposure Bracketing (AEB) – the regular or average exposure, an exposure a stop down (a darker, low key exposure) and an exposure a stop above average (a lighter, high key exposure).

Focus counts – the manual focus on my Canon EOS 60D allows me to focus upon that part of the image needing clarity, but it does so allowing me to focus upon that portion of the subject in three magnifications using the display on the back of the camera: first, what I would see through the viewfinder – normal magnification, next at 10 x optical zoom and then at 15 x optical zoom. Each level of displayed magnification allows me to adjust focus with greater and greater and greater precision. Stability also counts in focusing on the subject; the camera fixed to a tripod ensures that the camera does not move and that resulting images are tack sharp, free from blur.

Creating the exposure, creates not one, but, the three AEB exposures in succession ( – , 0 , + ) when the shutter button is pressed. After the exposures are brought into Adobe Lightroom, I am able to use HDR Efex to combine the three exposures into one image that allows the combined exposure to become an image accommodating greater range of light – more similar to what the human eye can see. I like the way Photomatix does HDR; but, NiK Software’s HDR Efex is a more stable and flexible program.

So, today’s image is an HDR shot. In the next few days my intention will be to try an HDR image that combines a larger number of exposures and to see what happens along the way. I’m reminded that the Shutter Time with Sid and Mac podcast has a couple of excellent pointers for HDR shots (somewhere between episodes 15 and 23). Mac and his wife Kasia would most likely have me using HDR for shots combining landscape, cloud-work and sunsets/sunrises. As well, Trey Ratcliff is the photographer who seems to have done most with HDR or at least has written most substantially (perhaps most helpfully) about HDR; two weeks ago he was in Vancouver and aiming to take on someone as protégé for an evening photographing the city, the water, the landscape and the sky from the top of a well-situated, tall skyscraper. It would definitely have been fun to hang out together for an evening creating HDR images – watch out for him on Twitter at @TreyRatcliff .

Listening to – Peter Himmelmann’s ‘Mission of My Soul.’

Quotes to Inspire – (1) “[…] That’s what HDR does. It adds details, paint, and upholstery to the Photograph. It’s still a photograph, but now enhanced [….] — GusDoeMatik (2) “To me, it is better to “guess” at how something works, experiment, fail, guess again, fail, and keep repeating that process over and over again until you either figure it out or you discover a multiplicity of other cool tricks along the way.” ― Trey Ratcliff

Waikiki – Dawn

Backlight, Best Practices - Photography, Canon 60D, Canon Camera, Canon Live View, Flora, Light Intensity, Photoblog Intention, Photography & Conceptualizing Beauty, Project 365 - Photo-a-day, Sigma Lens - Wide Angle 10-20mm, Still Life, Summer, Sunrise

Morning’s Walk – Honolulu, Oahu, HI 1

Morning’s Walk – Honolulu, Oahu, HI 2

Morning’s Walk – Honolulu, Oahu, HI 3

Summer, summer break – vacation … settling into a new time zone five hours different from that of my year’s norm finds me out of our hotel with camera and tripod early in the morning, walking, gathering photos of Honolulu’s Waikiki – the day of the surfer and vacationer (from all parts of the world) prior to that day beginning. Surprisingly, even before 6:00 a.m., surfing instructors are out on the beach, with early morning animation, drumming up the day’s business, ready to take out the novice surfer. Looking from the beach to the ocean, before 6:00 a.m., finds surfers already surfing on moving and curling waves and along trails of the Waikiki strip joggers are already jogging. People conclude their sleep in city parks where they’ve been sleeping through a tropically warm summer night on the grass. Looking towards the buildings, Waikiki hotels are being restocked in daily essentials prior to the day’s formal start, Coca Cola products included. All this occurs before the sun crosses the horizon bringing us into day – fodder for photos.

Listening to – Glenn Miller’s band perform ‘Tuxedo Junction’ and Satchmo sing Happy Birthday to ‘Poppa’ Bing Crosby.

Quote to Inspire – “Photography, as a powerful medium of expression and communications, offers an infinite variety of perception, interpretation and execution.” – Ansel Adams

Fenced Barbed-wire – This Side

Best Practices - Photography, Canon 60D, Canon Camera, Canon Lens, Canon Live View, High Dynamic Range (HDR), Journaling, Light Intensity, Photoblog Intention, Photography & Conceptualizing Beauty, Project 365 - Photo-a-day, Season, Still Life, Summer, Vehicle, Vehicle Restoration, Weather

In the week following school year-end and the beginning of summer school break, my wife, my daughter and I find ourselves in Edmonton. A Sunday afternoon becomes opportunity for me to look around Edmonton with fresh eyes, this city I knew as child and youth, this city I grew up in. In my travels, parts of the city receive spitting of rain from moisture-laden skies, stacking cumulus clouds pushed across Edmonton by substantial summer winds. Less windy and wet moments provide opportunity to use clouded skies as backdrop to architecture and landscape. I’m needing to fall into sync with the opportunity of/for photos and the cadence of parking and getting out of the vehicle for possible photos.

Alongside the Anthony Henday roadway near Callingwood Avenue in Edmonton’s west-end, in a farmer’s field, on the other side of fenced, barbed-wire an older truck is parked, a truck that is likely to be a 1949 Chevrolet half-tonne with grain box, a vehicle that if rehabilitated could become vintage and a classic. The intention, as I’ve watched through these ten years, had been to use the retro look of this vintage truck with the side panels of the grain box to advertise location of a knick-knacks store in this west-end community. That store no longer exists and no one has set about moving the truck or dismantling the grain box and advertising. Erosion – rain, sun, snow and wind – has brought the grain box down and rusting to the truck’s body and cab has added deep, rough, orange peel texture to this truck’s exterior … all becoming fodder for photos.

Listening to – Jack White’s version of a U2 tune, ‘Love is Blindness,’ and the Tijuana Brass – ‘Lonely Bull,’ ‘Spanish Flea,’ ‘Taste of Honey,’ and ‘Tijuana Taxi.’

Quote to Inspire – “We try to grab pieces of our lives as they speed past us. Photographs freeze those pieces and help us remember how we were. We don’t know these lost people but if you look around, you’ll find someone just like them.” – Gene McSweeney

Boyer Bridge & Buscaglia

Best Practices - Photography, Canon 60D, Canon Camera, Canon Live View, Journaling, Light Intensity, Photoblog Intention, Photography & Conceptualizing Beauty, Project 365 - Photo-a-day, Sigma Lens - Wide Angle 10-20mm, Still Life, Summer

Boyer River Bridge – Fort Vermilion, Alberta 2

This edit of the Boyer River bridge connecting La Crete and Fort Vermilion to High Level and points North is one celebrating colour, structure, detail and lines creating perspective. The colourful rendering of the bridge recalls for me many lectures and presentations offered by Leo Buscaglia on Life, Living and Love and perhaps more potently on good teaching which embraces each. In one lecture, the idea of teacher as bridge, comes across fully as he quotes Nikos Kazantzakis, writer of ‘Zorba the Greek,’ on teaching – “Ideal teachers are those who use themselves as bridges over which they invite their students to cross, then having facilitated their crossing, joyfully collapse, encouraging them to create bridges of their own.” The metaphor embedded as anchor, for me years ago, in terms of what teaching is about and teaching’s end state being something that always brings about change; engagement that bridges from the unknown to what is now known and understood is always an entity found in good teaching. Within this metaphor … perhaps extending it … it’s interesting to note that successful bridging often relies on the kind of stance taken in relation to the student – it’s always based on good current understanding of the student in the classroom context and beyond it in their world.

Listening to – David Gray’s ‘Shine’ and ‘My Oh My,’ Jack Johnson’s ‘Rodeo Clowns,’ Angus & Julia Stone’s ‘Big Jet Plane’ and Ray LaMontagne and the Pariah Dogs’ ‘Beg, Steal or Borrow.’

Quote to Inspire – “It is one thing to photograph people. It is another to make others care about them by revealing the core of their humanness.” – Paul Strand