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Pursuing Never-dones …

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Fairview Horses and Lamas - Fairview, Alberta

Saturday – a day to get out and about with my camera, a day not to sit still in front of my computer editing or writing, a day to use for breaking out of the box in terms of subjects photographed, a day to push my never dones … finding that which I haven’t yet photographed. Most of us in the northern hemisphere are no doubt in kindred spirit, waiting in what seems a long-suffering stance for spring’s thaw, a thaw that the Woodland Cree assert brings with it a thaw in people’s inhibitions. This period of time prior to spring’s full-on melt is notorious for people’s crumbling inhibitions and for people saying what’s really on their minds. In this season, one’s behaviour and how it’s judged tends to count for more than legitimate investigation of the inner life that produces it – it becomes easy to fall prey and victim to other’s perceptions. It’s a season when minor social injuries can occur, when a spade is often inaccurately called a spade, when you can be caught having said a wrong thing, when the day before can look just like the day you’re presented with, a time when it can be difficult to see the forward movement toward and into spring. It is a smart time, however, to focus and pursue a never done, to break out of your mould and to extend yourself into new reaches of growth, learning and practice. Saturday’s endeavor has been about finding new subjects to photograph, subjects I rarely photograph … but ought to. Here, four horses and three lamas are the subject of the photograph presented here.  Three and half hours into my southward drive toward Fairview, Alberta I encountered the animals on the west side of the road in the last ten kilometres traveling into Fairview. The day was warm with wind and temperatures hovering around freezing.  Snow was melting, light was bright and intense and the day’s heating of the world caused dramatic interplay among the clouds being created, shaped and blown around – a windy, tempestuous start to our March, 2012.

Listening to – Eric Clapton’s Unplugged Album; songs drawing attention Before You Accuse Me, Tears in Heaven, Walkin’ Blues and Malted Milk;  also listening to Martyn Joseph’s Far From Silent album – songs standing out include Good Man, The Mayor of Candor Lied and All this Time.

Quote to Inspire – “Photography is an immediate reaction, drawing a meditation.” – Henri Cartier Bresson

Depth Tradecraft

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A Craft and Vision e-book entitled Creating Depth disclosed some of the subtleties of creating depth in an image. One area of tradecraft considered in creating depth was the matter of choosing perspective that allows the viewer to glean visual information in the three chunks of the photograph – the foreground, middleground (where primary subject is located) and background. I am drawn to this image because of the placement of the subject, the house, as well as the image being one that has depth in terms of foreground, middleground and background. Beyond this, the image draws me because of the subject’s shape, the texture of the house’s wood-slat exterior and framing, because it is comprised of several tones of white towards grey, because there is visual information to be had at all points of the image and finally because this house is a first endeavors building, home to a family making their way in the world. I present the image in different renderings because I find each satisfying.

Listening to Over the Rhine’s Ohio from their album of the same name.

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

McNaught Grain Bins

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Grain Bins - McNaught Homestead (near Beaverlodge, Alberta)

Enjoying this photograph of two grain bins at the McNaught Homestead … reminded of Bill Brandley’s conception of texture within a photograph being that of ‘visual touch.’  Liking the colour, glare and overexposure.

Listening to T-Bone Burnett sing River of Love from his Twenty Twenty: The Essential T-Bone Burnett; pointed toward this album in Stocki’s Rhythm and Soul broadcast, an album I purchased in St. Paul, Minnesota.

Quote to Inspire – “It can be a trap of the photographer to think that his or her best pictures were the ones that were hardest to get.” – Timothy Allen (quoted by Digital Photography School)

Wind and Winter on the West Bank of the Alexandra Falls

Canon 50mm, Canon 50mm Lens, Canon 60D, Canon Camera, Canon Lens, Canon Live View, Night, Prime Lens, Project 365 - Photo-a-day, Season, Still Life, Uncategorized, Weather, Winter

I woke this morning having dreamed.  And, I woke with intention to make good use of this day for photography.  My progress to my truck and terrain was slowed … Life got in the way is an expression taken to mean that where and when there’s a task that needs done that helps others it needs to be done, presently. I got the business done. And, before getting underway I enlisted my daughter’s help in pinning a map of our municipal district (all six feet worth of map) to the west wall in our garage above the work bench.  We also pinned a map of High Level above our freezer on the east wall of the garage.  With both, the intention is to locate places and subjects of previous photographs as a means to sort out return visits or new places to explore. By 2:00 p.m., I was on the road having shifted from staying within our municipal district (the size of three smaller European countries) to northward travel to Alexandra Falls and to Hay River – both in the Northwest Territories.  I arrived at the falls by 5:00 p.m. and saw the curious way it had iced over and pushed ice over the falls.  An hour later I was in Hay River investigating what happens to its ship yards in winter;  you’d never think that you would drive north to find the largest inland lake in the world, the Great Slave Lake, a lake making use of trawlers and barges, a lake needing more than a few vessels of the Canadian Coast Guard.

The photographs show Alexandra falls and its ice.  Dimensions to grasp – the far wall that river drops down is a 60 foot drop; so, that clump of ice that has fallen over the falls this winter is huge – in height and volume equal to a small two story house.  The next photographs are of boats that have been pulled ashore and are not presently used.  The first shot is of three derelict boats pulled far into the woods, left to rot. The ships are those at the Hay River shipyard close to the southern tip of the Great Slave Lake; at -22C, with wind from the lake, it was a cold time capturing these images – my camera will lock up when it  and its battery is cold.

While I would have preferred to see all of this in daylight it was good gathering these photographs.  For these and others I was using exposure bracketing because I want to investigate High Dynamic Range photography (probably with Photomatix – thank you’s to Shuttertime’s Mac and Sid for encouraging this).  Perhaps the most enjoyable part of the day/evening was being alone with the wind and the sounds of northern winter on the west bank above Alexandra falls.  Good schtuff!

Listening to – a lot of CBC tonight – DNTO and a theme of walking in another’s shoes; also am intrigued to see that John Le Carre’s Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy has had a remake and should be out next Friday – Le Carre’s novels were the light reading during university and my son and I have enjoyed Alec Guiness as George Smiley.  Music – David Gray’s Silver Lining from his White Ladder album.

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.” ~ Elliott Erwitt

Dormant – More than a Winter Season

Bicycle, Canon 50mm, Canon 50mm Lens, Canon 60D, Canon Camera, Canon Live View, Journaling, Night, Prime Lens, Project 365 - Photo-a-day, Still Life, Uncategorized, Winter

As a journaling exercise I might look to today’s events or surroundings to see what, if any, forgotten life themes are lurking deep within. I’d open my attention to that thing in my day that draws attention and focus, and, I’d work backward through steppingstones to those places and times in which this thing has been a part of me. I’d work to open-out its meaning for me then and now. Life’s bad and good needs its work as part of one’s psychological hygiene – decluttering what no longer works and what no longer has meaning and working to open-out perception, thinking and those possibilities which surround me. There’s work there.  And, there’s possibility to surface, investigate and realize.

My bike.

My bike has been dormant for more than this winter. Working to capacity (and then some), a busy year has seen me reach my fiftieth year milestone.  The life tasks now seem to be about serving others and limiting the possibility of mistakes; perhaps knowing how to limit mistakes and seeing this as a goal is one attribute of being in my prime. But, still Life doesn’t seem entirely configured to suit or fit all that I’d like each of my days to contain. I’m attending to an aging parent with mid-stage Alzheimer’s Disease at the same time that my wife and I are aiming to establish my son in his year one of university. And, then, I’ve chosen to investigate and develop my photographic competencies – these practices hold their share of sitting and time.

My bike tonight has been the subject of a photograph, a work of art in still-life, a much different perspective than that of an active cyclist who is inseparable from that bike upon which he investigates the world. My bike and my desire to ride are dormant tonight.

Listening to Stolen Car by Patty Griffin from 1000 Kisses; Long Ride Home, from the Elizabethtown soundtrack is where Patty Griffin caught my ear. Later, Acoustic Guitar magazine featured an interview and tabs to one of her songs – good schtuff!

Quote to Inspire – “… to stop rushing around, to sit quietly on the grass, to switch off the world and come back to Earth, to allow the eye to see a willow, a bush, a cloud, a leaf, is an ‘unforgettable experience.’” ~ Frederick Franck, The Zen of Seeing  (p.s. – the battle of any photographer is to discard Life’s presses and to calm one’s spirit enough to be able to see that which is in front of us; right? I’m there, too)

Thank you all for stopping by, the likes and comments.

Take good care of your good selves!

Santa Day Fireworks

Canon 60D, Canon Camera, Canon Lens, Photoblog Intention, Project 365 - Photo-a-day, Season, Uncategorized, Winter

Midway through this December, Saturday afternoon, my daughter and I were in the Cab of my white 2000 GMC Sierra half-ton working our way through town and our list of errands. Not having read this week’s newspaper, The Echo, and without the town of High Level having a Twitter-feed we chanced upon the Santa Parade moving through mainstreet. Later, at supper, I learned about fireworks being among today’s events – at 6:00 p.m. the High Level Fire Department would begin a fireworks display. With all the night photography I’ve done, I hadn’t yet captured fireworks.  I found my blue folder of Night Photography notes from Darlene Hildebrand (Her View Photography http://www.herviewphotography.com/ ), skimmed them, briefly, put my Canon 60 D on top of my Manfrotto tripod, changed lenses to my Canon 15-80mm zoom and set the shutter release for a 2-second countdown.  The camera settings for the photographs I took are ISO 100, f-8 with an exposure of 13 seconds. I got to the fireworks site, aimed my camera into the sky toward an anticipated fireworks target area and made rough calculations for focusing to subject; using live view I adjusted composition area against where fireworks were bursting open and fell from; each of the 79 pictures taken are at a range of approximately 200-300 metres from the camera. Above, you’ll find some of the better exposures I snapped.