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

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! 😉

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

Its Next Turn

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Sunset Cloudburst – Valleyview, Alberta – Canada

Vermillion Lakes – Banff, Alberta – Canada

2015 is here. It has arrived. Christmas has come and been, presents have been shared and received, family has been enjoyed, rest has been had. An emphasis on creating images has been more absent during this time.

The time has offered the chance to explore/research the photography of others and Google Circles has been a key venue for doing so. It has been an excellent venue for sharing images. What I am impressed by is the speed and rapidity by which new images are added to one’s home stream. And, it is entirely too easy to reach out and access the camaraderie of other photographers and genres of photography that you or I define. Google Circles is a marvelous means of gathering inspiration for photography by way of witnessing what others manage to create – ideas for what I or anyone might try are right there, in front of you. With Google Circles it has been necessary to pare down distracting and unintended kinds of images; but, it can be done in an easy way that can serve your photographic interests. What I did not anticipate was that it would surface significant interests for next steps in photography.

What this exploration has also surfaced is that good photographers are always in touch with their world; they are familiar with current affairs; they have a good sense of what’s going on in terms of the Arts; they are current with literature and the intentions behind such narrative. They are in step and in sync with their world. And, they create images with intention.

So, this blog, takes its next turn. What will I photograph next? What skills will I aim to grow? What influences will I find in this next year? These are likely your questions too. Good! Let’s see what images we can bring into being.

Gratitude – thank you, to all who have been a part of these three years of ‘In My Back Pocket – Photography;’ thank you for your interest and encouragement; thank you for those times when you’ve steered me to a next idea or skill; thank you for the camaraderie (or, perhaps better stated, solidarity) associated with a common pursuit. It ‘all’ counts and I am grateful.

The images presented here are some fun with black and white and selective colorization, images from this summer’s travels.

Listening to – Chopin’s Nocturne No. 14 in F Sharp minor, Opus 9, No. 1; a recording by Amir Katz.

Quote to Consider – “The best images are the ones that retain their strength and impact over the years, regardless of the number of times they are viewed.” – Anne Geddes

Watt Mountain Story Holder

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Watt Mountain, Hutch Lake, Alberta

On a spring day eighteen years ago, good friends had taken my son, my wife and I out exploring north from High Level; it was the spring of our first year in High Level and they had taken us to Hutch Lake for a Sunday afternoon picnic. We had done some hiking. Then, being at the base of Watt Mountain we decided to see if we could ascend the mountain’s mucky, dirt road through the twelve kilometre climb in our four-door, red Nissan Sentra. Higher and higher we climbed, the nimble, front wheel drive Nissan never losing traction.

First, we got to a lookout vista partway up Watt Mountain; we stopped, there, to view the world we had just travelled through. At that point, we opted to make the rest of climb to the crest of Watt Mountain where the local Alberta Fire Service fire tower is located. There, we met the wildfire lookout observer. We asked and received permission to climb the tower and to survey the world from there – my wife, my friend’s wife and my son stayed below.

What an experience making the climb! And what a view, something giving us a sense for the terrain comprising the Mackenzie Municipal District. The climb is one that I’ve made only that once – a never-done experience, one in which the opportunity of the moment was seized and paid dividends. That day, a photo was taken of my son, my wife and I along one of the Hutch Lake hiking trails. It has remained on our piano since that time. Besides the reminiscence of family and friends, that photo is a story holder of all that comprised that day.

Here, within this image, the same Watt Mountain fire tower is dormant, residing in winter’s weather.

Listening to – Haydn Symphony #76 in E Flat, H 1/76 – 2 Adagio, Ma Non Troppo.

Quote to Consider – “Strictly speaking, one never understands anything from a photograph … [only] that which narrates can make us understand.” – Susan Sontag, ‘On Photography’

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’

Inside the Watchtower

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Medicine Wheel – Grand Canyon Watchtower 1

Medicine Wheel – Grand Canyon Watchtower 2

A park ranger greeted us as we entered Grand Canyon National Park. He asked where we were from and knew some of our home terrain from personal experience – as a younger man he and a fellow ranger cycled through British Columbia (B.C.) on a two week break; he’d been from Prince Rupert and through Quesnel and into southern B.C.. They’d also been chased by a bear in that adventure.

Our Grand Canyon ranger advised us to stop in at the Watchtower, the first lookout we would encounter in the park. As a structure, the Watchtower was built by Mary Colter in 1932, the same year in which my father was born (eighty-two years ago). Inside, the walls are painted with Navajo art in earthy, vibrant tones. One image, here, is a high dynamic range (HDR) photograph in natural light of a Navajo Medicine Wheel. Another, also an HDR photograph shows the interior structure of the Watchtower looking up through its center. The door to the roof was locked shut, but there were windows to look through, out and over the Canyon. I met a fellow Canon Camera shooter and showed him he could use his 60D’s optical zoom to create tack-sharp images … some camaraderie, there. Good, good. 😉

Listening to – Matthew Perryman Jones’ ‘Unknown.’

Quote to Consider – “[Photographs] … still want, first of all, to show something ‘out there.’” – 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.”