Necessary Prop

Best Practices - Photography, 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, Spring, Still Life, Vehicle, Vehicle Restoration

47 Ford Among Trucks – Sangudo, Alberta

Chevrolet – Sangudo, Alberta

Fargo – Sangudo, Alberta 2

Fargo – Sangudo, Alberta

Waiting – Looking On, Sangudo, Alberta

MacKenzie Highway trucks recall the scheming of Mack and the boys read about in John Steinbeck’s novel, ‘Cannery Row.’ A Ford truck is borrowed from Lee Chong. With some effort one of the boys with a talent for ‘fixin’ gets the truck going and everyone departs to retrieve frogs for Doc, somewhere up the California coast. In the midst of their travels a carburetor gives out …. Within hours one of the boys with the talent for ‘fixin’ and another for theft has thieved a carburetor from another Ford. Once attached the boys continue on in their adventure heading to an ideal frog gathering spot, a pond of a congress woman and her husband, the husband protects the property as guard. Their conversation, shifts from protector and trespasser to pet owner and vet as Mack doctors the man’s dog, a sickly bitch suffering with a tick embedded in its fur. The bond of friendship grows and the man invites all in for a drink … during prohibition … the happy hour becomes a middle-of-the-night, rollicking, drunken, frog gathering party that leaves the pond owner, congress woman’s husband sleeping on his floor as Mack and the boys get back in the Ford truck and return home. A Ford truck is necessary prop within the narrative (revised after yesterday’s writing in haste …) 😉

Listening to Chris Whitley – ‘Living with the Law,’ ‘Big Sky Country,’ ‘Kick the Stones,’ ‘Make the Dirt Stick’ and ‘Poison Girl.’

Quote to Inspire – “A photograph has picked up a fact of life, and that fact will live forever.” Raghu Rai

Sangudo Ford

Backlight, Best Practices - Photography, 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, Spring, Still Life, Vehicle, Vehicle Restoration

1938 Ford Two Ton Cab and Chassis – Sangudo, Alberta

A chain-link fence surrounds Sangudo, Alberta’s MacKenzie Highway Construction Truck Museum, a tribute to people and equipment that built the highway. The museum, its vehicles and equipment sit idle. You can look from the fence in; but, you cannot physically interact with the vehicles within the museum compound. The vehicles that are sixty-years or more old are in good shape; they have been kept well. Last spring I searched for the owner of the museum to see if he’d permit access to the compound and allow me to photograph the vehicles; I will need to do my homework if I am to find his contact information and try again for better images of those trucks. It’s a shame only to see them from the sidelines.

A black and red 1938 two ton cab and chassis sits waiting for further use.

Listening to – The Congregation’s ‘Don’t Pay No Mind,’ Chris Whitley’s ‘Dust Radio’ and the Eagles’ ‘Seven Bridges Road.’ Coldplay’s ‘Yellow’ has been in my hearing this weekend at my daughter’s dance festival; the story behind ‘Yellow’ is a heart-warming, mother-son, story … something to be understood and not to be missed.

Quote to Inspire – “Photography is the only language that can be understood anywhere in the world.” – Bruno Barbey

Sideline Shot

Barn, Best Practices - Photography, Canon 60D, Canon 70-200 mm 2.8 IS L Series Lens, Canon Camera, Canon Lens, Canon Live View, Farm, Home, Homestead, Journaling, Light Intensity, Photoblog Intention, Photography & Conceptualizing Beauty, Project 365 - Photo-a-day, Spring

CN Caboose – Edmonton, Alberta

City of Edmonton Skyline

Cab & Chassis – Sangudo, Alberta

Barn – Fort Saskatchewan, Alberta

Sometimes a fence, sometimes physical distance, sometimes a line to be respected and not crossed – in each case a barrier stands between the subject and your camera. When you cannot interact directly with your photo’s subject, you shoot from the sidelines … and can still get the shot. You see the situation for what it is and work with what ‘is’. Each of these photos were shot from the sidelines – the CN caboose, the Fort Saskatchewan barn, the city of Edmonton Skyline and the windshields of the truck cabs.

Listening to – Ben E. King’s ‘Stand by Me’ and Toby Keith’s ‘Red Solo Cup.’

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

Winter Constant

Backlight, Barn, Canon 60D, Canon 70-200 mm 2.8 IS L Series Lens, Canon Camera, Canon Lens, Canon Live View, Farm, Farmhouse, Home, Homestead, Journaling, Light Intensity, Photoblog Intention, Photography & Conceptualizing Beauty, Project 365 - Photo-a-day, Rail Yard, Sigma Lens - Wide Angle 10-20mm, Spring, Weather

Farm – Rimbey, Alberta 2

Farm – Rimbey, Alberta

Field Entrance – Woking, Alberta

Former Farm – Notikewan, Alberta

Peace River – Dunvegan, Alberta 1

Peace River – Dunvegan, Alberta 2

Peace River – Dunvegan, Alberta 3

Peace River – Dunvegan, Alberta 4

Grain Elevator – Sexsmith, Alberta 1

Grain Elevator – Sexsmith, Alberta 2

In a spring that needs to take hold more firmly, winter drags on, a guest overstaying its welcome. Winter continues as constant in and around Alberta and features in photos – farms dusted with snow, grain elevators and Harvestor Silos providing colour against the snow, the Peace River melting through ice … covered with snow. Each are presented here.

Listening to – Francesca Battistelli’s ‘This is the Stuff’ and JJ Heller’s ‘What Love Really Means.’

Quote to Inspire – “The photograph is completely abstracted from life, yet it looks like life. That is what has always excited me about photography.” – Richard Kalvar

“Treasure, Jim … Treasure”

Best Practices - Photography, Canon 60D, Canon 70-200 mm 2.8 IS L Series Lens, Canon Camera, Canon Lens, Canon Live View, Farm, Farmhouse, Home, Journaling, Photoblog Intention, Photography & Conceptualizing Beauty, Project 365 - Photo-a-day, Spring, Still Life

Rusting Relics – Manning, Alberta

Treasure is a term coined twice this week – in one instance within a John Le Carre novel it is taken to mean the secret that if possessed would turn the tables on your enemy (as in Control’s discussion with Jim Prideaux regarding ‘treasure’ before embarking to Budapest, ‘Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy’); in a second instance within Robert Louis Stevenson’s novel, ‘Treasure Island,’ it refers to the ill-gotten gains that in the getting you seem to have a right to – but irony can play disasterously with you, here. Beyond this, treasure, if possessed, puts you to advantage and gives you power. It is taken to mean something that guarantees a future free from want. A second, perhaps more poignant irony is that treasure once in one’s possession requires care so that no one takes it away … work is involved. Here, within this image, the term treasure can be taken to mean the opportunity of possibility, the rusting relic that has potential in its restoration, in its possession and use. As a photographer, the treasure is perhaps in the image and the narrative that surrounds the image. Point of connection – I learned to drive in a 1969 GMC half-ton pick-up (transmission – three-the-tree-standard), similar to the white GMC cab three vehicles from the right of the image and the GMC on the left.

Listening to – Johnny Cash’s ‘Gods Gonna Cut You Down,’ a song first heard on Steve Stockman’s Rhythm and Soul broadcast, as rendered by the Five Blind Boys of Alabama.

Quote to Inspire – “… the most grandiose result of the photographic enterprise is to give us the sense that we hold the whole world in our heads – as an anthology of images.” – Susan Sontag, ‘On Photography’

Solitary Return

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

Aways Down the Twin Lakes Hill – Twin Lakes, Alberta

Solitary, a Sunday afternoon motorist returns home northward along northern Alberta roads, descending down the five kilometres that comprise the Twin Lakes hill.

Listening to – Sigur Ros’ ‘Glosoli,’ the Lumineers’ ‘Stubborn Love’ and Ed Sheeran’s ‘Firefly.’

Quote to Inspire – “There is only you and your camera. The limitations in your photography are in yourself, for what we see is what we are.”

Edge & Sphere

Backlight, Canon 60D, Canon Camera, Canon Lens, Canon Live View, Journaling, Light Intensity, Photoblog Intention, Photography & Conceptualizing Beauty, Prime Lens, Project 365 - Photo-a-day, Spring, Still Life, Weather

Edge & Sphere – Sexsmith, Alberta 1

Edge & Sphere – Sexsmith, Alberta 2

Edge & Sphere – Sexsmith, Alberta 3

Edge & Sphere – Sexsmith, Alberta 4

Edge & Sphere – Sexsmith, Alberta 5

Early morning image editing tackles water droplets on top of a creosote covered railroad tie. A stone, one among thousands stabilizing railroad rails, surprises in its jade green colour and its irregular edge provides contrast to droplet spheres. Colour, depth, line and shape result.

Listening to – (and watching the video of) Snow Patrol’s ‘This Isn’t Everything You Are,’ U2’s ‘Vertigo’ and The Killers’ ‘When You Were Young.’

Quote to Inspire – “Photography does not create eternity, as art does; it embalms time, rescuing it simply from its proper corruption.” – Andre Bazin (1918-1958), French Film critic.

Impermeable Equation

Backlight, Canon Camera, Canon Lens, Canon Live View, Light Intensity, Photography & Conceptualizing Beauty, Prime Lens, Rail Yard, Spring, Still Life, Weather

Water & Railroad Tie – Sexsmith, Alberta 1

Water & Railroad Tie – Sexsmith, Alberta 2

Water & Railroad Tie – Sexsmith, Alberta 3

Kasia Sokulska, part of the husband and wife duo that comprises MIKSMedia Photography, presents inspired macro images on her Google + profile page, outstanding and beautiful work to view. Her work inspired me to take advantage of railroad ties, made impermeable to water yesterday in Sexsmith, Alberta. With my EOS 60D, a quarter of an inch from the railroad tie, hung upside down from my Manfrotto tripod (also a never-done) I explored water droplets.

On the weekend, Dave Brosha e-mailed to highlight upcoming workshops likely in Calgary and Grande Prairie, Alberta; these would be accessed through his facebook page.

Listening to – Shawn Colvin’s ‘Change Is On The Way.’

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

Shop Studio

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, Spring, Vehicle, Vehicle Restoration

Chevrolet Pickup – Reynolds-Alberta Museum – Wetaskiwin, Alberta

One never-done project I hope to undertake is to photograph a vehicle indoors and to control context and lighting and to create a cluster of images from various perspectives. The vehicle could be a sports car, a restored relic or a project vehicle about to undergo rehabilitation – each will reveal character in its grillwork, lights, repetition of shape, door handles, badge-work and interior. The task will be to explore pattern, shape, design and colour. This 1940 Chevrolet pick-up truck has me thinking about the project because museum lighting is a fixed entity, something not within my control; multiple lights reflect at several points on the pick-up’s glossy sheen – the hood, cab, windscreen, fenders, grill and bumper. In a controlled, albeit impromptu shop as studio, limiting light in terms of source versus sources, controlling light intensity and in terms of directing light to the vehicle – all will allow freedom to photograph the indoor vehicle with intent. Key, here, would be having light that can be intense enough to allow work at lower ISO. Some of the work will be about context – borrowing shop space, ensuring that it’s tidy and setting/planning how to light the vehicle. It will also be about coordinating invitations and times to shoot. And, once each vehicle arrives the matter becomes that of seeing the shot, discovering the vehicle through the lens and then keeping the vehicle clean – lint-free, dust-free and smudge free.

Other News – Dave Brosha is offering a workshop in Fort Vermilion, Alberta, an event sponsored by the Fort Vermilion Community Library – +1 (780) 927-4279; a friend called and encouraged me to lock-in my spot with a deposit; check out Dave Brosha’s photography and website – http://www.davebrosha.com/ .

Listening to – Sigur Ros’ ‘Glosoli’ and ‘Hoppipolla.’

Quote to Inspire – “There is nothing as mysterious as a fact clearly described. I photograph to see what something will look like photographed.” – Garry Winogrand

Other Sunsets

Backlight, Best Practices - Photography, Canon 60D, Canon 70-200 mm 2.8 IS L Series Lens, Canon Camera, Canon Live View, Journaling, Light Intensity, Night, Photoblog Intention, Photography & Conceptualizing Beauty, Project 365 - Photo-a-day, Spring, Sunset

Sunset – Whitecourt to Valleyview, Alberta

Poet and fellow photo blogger, Jim from ‘notyethere’ blog highlights the truism that there will be other sunsets – found, seen, discovered and relished. In this instance, I chose to pull the car off the road between Whitecourt and Valleyview, Alberta and capture the sunset. Check out http://notyethere.wordpress.com/ .

Listening to – ‘Across the River’ by Peter Gabriel.

Quote to Inspire – “I guess I’ve shot about 40,000 negatives and of these I have about 800 pictures I like.” – Harry Callahan