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
Up, earlier than sunrise, traveling, from High Level to Fort Vermilion … early, early morning to witness all that comprises sunrise – the Peace River looking east from Fort Vermilion at the newly risen sun, a beaver marking territory, a Buttertown homestead and cattails coloured in spring splendor.
Listening to – Robbie Robertson’s ‘Sweet Fire of Love,’ Lucinda William’s ‘Concrete and Barbed Wire,’ Melissa McClelland’s ‘Brake,’ Bryan Ferry’s ‘Just Like Tom Thumb’s Blues’ and Ryan Adams’ ‘Hotel Chelsea Nights.’
Quote to Inspire – “Taking an image, freezing a moment, reveals how rich reality truly is.” – Anonymous
Edmonton – a cold sunrise, winter lingering on into spring, colours buildings and fog haze in muted and rich tones reminding of Russian narratives.
Bartholomew Scott Blair misses a trade show for book publishers. Boozy Barley Blair, life on a tangent, haphazardly and unwittingly finds himself in possession of serious, sobering prose; the film of this narrative takes you from Lisbon to London to Moscow and to Boris Pasternak’s grave and Dacha in which Dr. Zhivago was written. That world is presented in much the same colours as this Edmonton image. The narrative explores the rambling of Barley’s unanchored heart navigating forward recklessly in hope and unchallenged belief at a time of life when legacy is what should concern him. Barley’s life becomes entangled – verifying story source and author, working within prescribed tradecraft and pursuing relationship. That relationship and possibility change the course of this narrative – hope and promise are honoured.
This Edmonton image looking out to Saskatchewan Drive high above the North Saskatchewan River surprises me in perspective, time of year and colour. These are the familiar tones and colours and climate of my childhood and youth cycling Edmonton city streets or walking and talking with friends. Likewise Moscow’s tones, colour and climate as featured in the film of John Le Carre’s ‘Russia House’ also surprise me because they are so strikingly familiar.
Listening to – Ernest Hemingway’s ‘A Moveable Feast.’
Quote to Inspire – “The camera is an instrument that teaches people how to see without a camera.” ― Dorothea Lange
We’re there. We have more than our quota of snow … and there’s still two months to go. Within the town of High Level every place you look is contending with a snow blanket that is three to four feet thick. Driveways are framed on two sides with snow mountains five, six and seven feet in height, snow that’s been cleared away to allow vehicles to park and access to garages. Great clumps of snow hang from the eaves of houses in unusual, windblown shapes. And, our weather hasn’t broken its pattern of a once in three-to-four day solid snowfall since November. The images presented here look south from our back deck where snow is beyond four feet in depth, having drifted in.
Listening to – Mike Plume’s ‘Stay Where Yer To’
Quote to Inspire – “I don’t care so much anymore about ‘good photography’; I am gathering evidence for history.” – Gilles Peress
Visually, Seattle clusters in broad strokes among three dimensions. There’s the up and down of tall, tall buildings. There’s the Seattle you find more of to your right and to your left, more buildings, more streets, more sidewalks. Seattle extends in front of you, behind you and way over in every direction – bridges curve with the landscape and cross huge expanses of land and water. Seattle is a walker’s city. Distances around the city core are manageable walking distances. Navigating the downtown core is straightforward. The terrain offers up and down, a good walker’s workout. And, fresh air blows up from the ocean through the city. Movie-wise I recognized the city watching an eighty’s movie only last weekend; Seattle is the setting within the movie, An Officer and A Gentleman. And, during our time in Seattle, we were able to see the Lake Union lake cottage set of the house used by Tom Hanks’ character in the movie Sleepless in Seattle; we’d taken the Ducks’ tour and saw many of Seattle’s highlights. The Seattle night photos remind much of U2’s music video presentation of their album No Line on the Horizon and specifically to City of Blinding Lights, a reference more directly referring to Paris, France; the appellation could just as easily refer to the Seattle that I’ve seen at night.
Listening to a preview of Jack White’s Blunderbuss album; it’s holding true to Jack White sound; it’s good and it’s fresh Jack White.
Quote to Inspire – “There will be times when you will be in the field without a camera. And, you will see the most glorious sunset or the most beautiful scene that you have ever witnessed. Don’t be bitter because you can’t record it. Sit down, drink it in, and enjoy it for what it is!” – Degriff
Coming to Seattle from just south of the 60th parallel, I had expected the earth’s sunrise and sunset to be more in tandem with what happens for us in our north. I was surprised to find the sun rising much earlier than it was back home. On Saturday, our travel day home from Seattle, Washington to Edmonton, Alberta I was able to gather photo gear quietly without disturbing my wife and daughter and head out quite early to snap photos. While I captured images from Seattle’s downtown, two of the shots I’m liking deal with the moonrise at sunrise across Elliot bay. And, while there are five images presented there are only two images dealt with. One image plays with different lighting presets and composition while the other, the final one is pretty much straight out of the camera. Our waitress at the Andaluca restaurant caught the sight on her early morning jaunt to work. The sight was rare, something to see.
Quote to Inspire – “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.” – Elliot Erwitt
Listening to Pink Floyd’s Wish You Were Here album following a documentary on Pink Floyd that explored their reunion for the global Live 8 Concert; they’d been apart for some twenty odd years … two of those members have passed on. In the song Wish You Were Here that I’m listening to, Stephane Grappelli accompanies Pink Floyd. Interesting!
Early morning towards Pike Market Place – Seattle, Washington
Pike Place Public Market – Seattle, Washington
Pike Place Market Bus Stop – Seattle, Washington
The Pike Place Market – Seattle, Washington
Corner of Pike Place & Pine Street – Seattle, Washington
Corner Market (opposite Pike Place Market) 1 – Seattle, Washington
Corner Market (opposite Pike Place Market) 2 – Seattle, Washington
Corner Market (opposite Pike Place Market) 3 – Seattle, Washington
The Original Starbucks (est. 1971), Pike Place Market – Seattle, Washington
Looking southward to Pike Place Market 1 – Seattle, Washington
Pike Place Market signage 3 – Seattle, Washington
Looking southward to Pike Place Market 2 – Seattle, Washington
Looking southward to Pike Place Market 3 – Seattle, Washington
Meet the Producer, Pike Place Market – Seattle, Washington
Entrance, Pike Place Market – Seattle, Washington
Worker, looking out, Pike Place Market – Seattle, Washington
Tulips, Pike Place Market – Seattle, Washington
Place Pigalle, Restaurant & Bar, Pike Place Market – Seattle, Washington
Loback Meat Company signage, Pike Place Market – Seattle, Washington
Entrance Lower Floor, Pike Place Market – Seattle, Washington
One feature of our Seattle trip was we were active throughout each day walking, travelling and walking some more. Being active helped us maintain body rhythms and daily routine. We were usually up at seven and on our way somewhere by eight. Breakfast, most mornings, was at the Andaluca Restaurant, a restaurant attached to Seattle’s Mayflower Park Hotel. These morning meals were sumptuous – Brioche French Toast, Hazelnut Waffles, Steel Cut Scottish Oats and Banana Pancakes; a side of pepper bacon was added twice. Coffee was made as coffee should be and our orange juice was fresh. From this restaurant we’d head out to Seattle, its sights and attractions.
And, we always seemed to return to the Pike Place Market at day’s end, from up above, street side or from down below from the harbor. We seemed to arrive each day within the market’s last hour of hustle and bustle as vendors went about closing up shop – a flurry of activity, enthusiasm, good-natured banter with customers and the mingling and flow of people in movement into their evening. The photos presented here capture the Pike Place Market at day’s beginning and at its day’s end.
Notable among the attractions in the Corner Market (across from the Pike Place Market) is the original Starbuck’s (established in 1971) named after Starbuck in Herman Melville’s Moby Dick. In terms of the novel’s whaling adventures, this setting for a coffeehouse Starbuck would frequent is appropriate. The coffeehouse is a short twenty-minute climb up from the harbor piers of Elliot Bay to its location above the harbor, looking out onto the bay. This original Starbucks is the point from which the Starbucks’ empire has grown and it’s a company that has grown equally by way of its service provided as well as by the quality of its coffee. In It’s Not About the Coffee, Howard Behar (former Starbucks vice president) writes about the act of growing Starbucks by way of good leadership that emphasizes the relationship sustained between coffee consumer and service provider (Starbucks’ worker) – the human side of business.
Not only has good leadership and good business grown from this location, but, right across the street the Pike Place Fish Market has become a model for ‘cultural transformation and self-generative learning for organizations of all kinds.’ Their model for transforming an organization from within focuses on empowerment, transforming vision into reality and the conception that any organization has as one of its primary purposes that of making a difference in the world.
And, the business of the day continues, each day … in this very rich starting point … for many good things.
10 Principles of Personal Leadership (from Howard Behar in It’s Not About the Coffee – Leadership Principles from Life at Starbucks)
Know Who You Are: Wear One Hat
Know Why You’re Here: Do It Because It’s Right, Not Because It’s Right for Your Resume
Think Independently: The Person Who Sweeps the Floor Should Choose the Broom
Build Trust: Care, like You Really Mean It
Listen for the Truth: The Walls Talk
Be Accountable: Only the Truth Sounds like the Truth
Take Action: Think Like a Person of Action, and Act like a Person of Thought
Face Challenge: We Are Human Beings First
Practice Leadership: The Big Noise and the Still, Small Voice
Dare to Dream: Say “Yes,” the Most Powerful Word in the World
Quotes to Inspire – (1) “To photograph is to confer importance.” – Susan Sontag (2) “To photograph truthfully and effectively is to see beneath the surfaces and record the qualities of nature and humanity which live or are latent in all things.” – Ansel Adams
Listening to – Counting Crows Omaha and Ghost Train; also listening to David Gray’sShine.
Thursday was a photographer’s morning. A warm change in weather brought colourful, early morning, sustained, sky drama of first light reflected earthward among clouds. Entering school, I set-up my camera, deposited my camera bag and moved out our east doors to click and capture the following images.
Today, being considered is a newer used vehicle. With one household vehicle being all-wheel drive, a fuel-efficient car might be smart (perhaps a VW Golf or Passat). Another consideration would involve spending a minimum of money on a vehicle that is 4×4 and wouldn’t be too much of a loss if it were to break down; here, I’ve owned three early 90s Nissan Pathfinders and they worked for me along the corduroy roads in and out of Wood Buffalo National Park through six years. And, in the back of my mind is the surety I encountered driving a Chevrolet, 2500 series, manual transmission with 4×4 in a snow storm travelling down Alberta Highway 63 from Fort McMurray to Edmonton early-on in the 90s. The overall sensible choice may be a 1999 Toyota 4 Runner with 309000 km that should run for a few more 100000km and can be purchased in a private sale in Peace River. This vehicle should provide safe travel in and out of 4×4 throughout all seasons, no matter who was driving it. It would hold the road well.
Listening to Canadian Melissa McClelland sing Victoria Day (April Showers and May Flowers) from her album of the same name. Other songs standing out this morning have been Snow Patrol’s Lifeboats, Ray Lamontagne’s I Still Care for You and For the Summer. Jack White has featured among the Raconteurs in Steady as She Goes.
Quote to Inspire – “Light glorifies everything. It transforms and ennobles the most commonplace and ordinary subjects. The object is nothing, light is everything.” — Leonard Missone
In My Back Pocket - Photography 
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