Aquamarine Ford F-150 – Tompkin’s Landing, Ab Canada 1Aquamarine Ford F-150 – Tompkin’s Landing, Ab Canada 2Buttertown Buildings – Fort Vermilion, Ab CanadaLa Crete Heritage Museum Buildings 1La Crete Heritage Museum Buildings 2La Crete Heritage Museum Buildings 3La Crete Heritage Museum Buildings 4Old Tompkin’s Landing Ferry 1Old Tompkin’s Landing Ferry 2Stuck in Snow – Buttertown, Fort Vermilion, AB Canada
I got out for an afternoon drive on a Saturday late in February. I gathered my cameras and set off for a look around within Alberta’s MacKenzie Municipal District.
From High Level I traveled south. I would cross the Peace River ice bridge through slushy water at Tompkin’s Landing, traveling no more than 10km/h. Before I got there, on the hill descending toward the ice bridge a blue, aquamarine colour caught my eye. The colour belonged to a seventies Ford F-150. Someone had dragged it a ways into the trees. It, like the 1970 Buick GS next to it, had served a purpose and was left there – a rusting relic. Tromping into knee deep snow I gathered photos.
Driving past Blue Hills, farms held livestock, the occasional horse and derelict farming implements. I detoured along back roads behind Buffalo Head Prairie. There, second and third generation families are operating farms that have grown in size through the years. Many families are moving from original homestead homes built in the forties into new homes. The older homesteads stand holding memory’s residue. Next, I drove behind La Crete to the Heritage museum. The museum site holds old buildings from the La Crete area, old farming implements and machinery. The old Tompkin’s Landing ferry that transferred people and vehicles across the Peace River is there. The museum is one I want to return to for photos. And, people are invited to arrange a tour of the site. It might be something to see in early June.
Later, in moving past Fort Vermilion and into Buttertown, I managed to get my truck stuck in snow. I had seen some Buttertown buildings built with Swedish log cut corners. They were likely more than a hundred years old and I had been meaning to photograph them for a while. In parking my truck on a snowy road shoulder, I got too close to the shoulder’s edge and my truck and I slid sideways into the ditch. I did not have to wait too long for help though. A young Mennonite farmer out for a drive with his date stopped. He took some time (an hour or so) and was able to pull my truck back onto the road. And, he didn’t want anything for his trouble. He was just being neighborly. Good on him!
I stayed in Buttertown for another hour or so before sundown and my return home with pictures, better for being out of the house, better for being away from town, grateful for all that my afternoon had held.
Quote to Consider – “Sometimes I do get to places just when God’s ready to have somebody click the shutter.” – Ansel Adams
Listening to – Martyn Joseph’s ‘Strange Way,’ Bruce Cockburn’s ‘Wondering Where the Lions Are,’ David Gray’s ‘My Oh My’ and James Taylor’s ‘Country Road.’
Watt Mountain Weather – High Level, Ab Canada 1Watt Mountain Weather – High Level, Ab Canada 2Watt Mountain Weather – High Level, Ab Canada 3
After a late winter snow, my truck brought me up the 12 kilometre climb to the top of Watt Mountain and its weather.
Listening to – Agnes Obel’s ‘Fivefold,’ Junip’s ‘Don’t Let It Pass,’ Coldplay’s ‘Another’s Arms’ and U2’s ‘Song for Someone.’
Quote to Consider – “Photography is for me, a spontaneous impulse that comes from an ever-attentive eye, which captures the moment and its eternity.” – Henri Cartier Bresson
Hudson’s Bay Company Crest – Edmonton, Ab Canada 1Hudson’s Bay Company Crest – Edmonton, Ab Canada 2Hudson’s Bay Company Crest – Edmonton, Ab Canada 3Hudson’s Bay Company Crest – Edmonton, Ab Canada 4Hudson’s Bay Company Crest – Edmonton, Ab Canada 5
The crest of the Hudson’s Bay Company is affixed to the southeast corner of the Bay store on Edmonton’s Jasper Avenue. The crest recalls Peter C. Newman’s book, ‘Company of Adventurers,’ a history of the Hudson’s Bay Company in North America.
A decade ago, as a home education coordinator, I travelled within our school division boundaries helping parents provide their children with an education within their homes. The area of our school division encompasses an area equivalent to that of three small European countries. In one day, I might work with four to eight students and have driven as much as four to six-hundred kilometres. Windshield time was a part of the job. In one month, during my travels, I worked my way through an unabridged audiobook of ‘Company of Adventurers’. What was extraordinary was the fact that some of our northwestern Alberta territory featured within the book. What also was intriguing was that many of the stories about Life working for the Hudson’s Bay Company remained true.
In Meander River, for instance, an old Hudson’s Bay trading post was still in use. It had had its title transferred to a Church and a thrift store serving the Dene Tha’ people was being operated within the building. Part of Newman’s book highlighted the fact that the temperature in a Hudson’s Bay post was often kept close to zero as a means to encourage departure of customers after they’d made their purchases. This was the case in this building; heated by a wood stove the family tended to congregate close to the fire through the winter and were always dressed in layers of clothing. The family operating the thrift store chose home education as the means to educate their child.
Quote to Consider – “Unless you photograph what you love, you are not going to make good art.” – Sally Mann
Listening to – The Primitives’ ‘Crash,’ Bruce Springsteen’s ‘Radio Nowhere,’ The Who’s ‘I Can See for Miles,’ Link Wray and the Wraymen’s ‘Rumble’ and Green Day’s ‘East Jesus Nowhere.’
Early morning, two Saturdays ago, one of the High Level hotels burned to the ground; thank you’s go out to the High Level Fire Department for bringing the blaze under control and limiting its scope.
Listening to – Bruce Springsteen’s ‘Radio Nowhere,’The Who’s ‘I Can See For Miles’ and the Primitives’ ‘Crash.’
Quote to Consider – “The camera is an instrument that teaches people how to see without a camera.’ – Dorothea Lange
Edmonton Skyline from Connor’s Hill – Edmonton, Ab Canada 2Edmonton Skyline from Connor’s Hill – Edmonton, Ab Canada 1
My first look with my camera is technical – ‘Will this vantage point work to create an image?’ I try it out. I gather an Edmonton image, one of several in climbing Connor’s hill. The hour is late on a Monday evening in February. Editing provides second look at the image, back home days later. There, I work through High Dynamic Range (HDR) image creation. Rendering holds choices – sharpening, colour, black and white, cropping. I try them out. Almost a month later, my look at this image is more settled and recalls memory – events and people through time. A fight and a chase occurred in this landscape. Among friends, before I was a teen an altercation occurred. We had ridden bikes perhaps five miles further than we should have, without parents knowing. We stumbled onto turf, that of someone older than us. We came out okay. But, that was way back in time. Connor’s hill, the part seen here is just below Edmonton’s Strathearn Drive. It is close to my grandparent’s home. My grandfather, my brothers and I hiked trails in the treed ravine in front of this part of Connor’s hill. Through the sixties, seventies and eighties Connor’s hill was Edmonton’s ski hill. The Edmonton Folk Festival occurs on this site, now. I have seen and listened to Fred Eaglesmith, the Blind Boys of Alabama, Martyn Joseph and Great Big Sea play on this hill. Five or six musical offerings are easily undertaken all at any one time. For me, the festival has been a place to reconnect with friends, a place to enjoy a glass of wine or beer through a warm August weekend. The festival has become a place to catch-up, settle-in and enjoy.
Listening to – Fred Eaglesmith’s ‘Wilder than Her,’ the Blind Boys of Alabama’s ‘Way Down the Hole,’ Martyn Joseph’s version of Springsteen’s ‘The River’ and Great Big Sea’s ‘General Taylor.’ Then, it’s Cat Stevens’ ‘Pop Star,’ Peter Gabriel’s ‘The Family and Fishing Net,’ then Joan Baez & Dirk Powell’s take on ‘House of the Rising Sun’and finally Billy Bragg with Wilco’s ‘Hot Rod Hotel.’ David Gray’s ‘First Chance’ is up, then it’s Cat Steven’s ‘Bitterblue,’ Gillian Welch with ‘Revelator’ and ‘The Way It Goes’ from Gillian Welch and Dave Rawlings Machine.
Quote to Consider – “You don’t take a photograph. You ask quietly to borrow it.” – Unknown
Pencilled – Early Morning Walk, High Level, Ab – Canada 1Pencilled – Early Morning Walk, High Level, Ab – Canada 2Pencilled – Early Morning Walk, High Level, Ab – Canada 3Pencilled – Early Morning Walk, High Level, Ab – Canada 4
I like this look of pencilled shadow and light as one means of rendering photographs. The week has allowed me to replace failing office equipment, to clear things that have been on my desk far too long and to remove former prints from my walls (decluttering toward what’s next, physically and inspirationally). I have had time for reading Dave Brosha’s e-book, ‘Illuminated;’ it contains thought process and the practical considerations along the way in creating each photograph within the book. Yesterday, I got my truck stuck in snow and need to be pulled out – a gift in many ways and humbling. This, after a friend disclosed that he has cancer. In our discussion, yesterday, he concluded with ‘Give our love to my wife and kids,’ and ‘The Lord bless you.’ He’s been one who by his example has helped me navigate through rough times. Now, he’s got treatments once a week in Edmonton, 700km away.
Listening to – Leem Lubany’s rendering of ‘Wild World,’ ‘Peace Train’ and ‘Trouble;’ Bob Dylan’s ‘Knockin’ On Heaven’s Door.’
Quote to Consider – “Look and think before opening the shutter. The heart and mind are the true lens of the camera.” – Yousef Karsh
Grain Car Tattoo – High Level, Ab – Canada 1Grain Car Tattoo – High Level, Ab – Canada 2Grain Car Tattoo – High Level, Ab – Canada 3Grain Car Tattoo – High Level, Ab – Canada 4Grain Car Tattoo – High Level, Ab – Canada 5Grain Car Tattoo – High Level, Ab – Canada 6Grain Car Tattoo – High Level, Ab – Canada 7Grain Car Tattoo – High Level, Ab – Canada 7aGrain Car Tattoo – High Level, Ab – Canada 8
Tattooed with graffiti, two hopper cars await loading and transport at High Level’s grain terminal, late on a Sunday afternoon, as the sun sets.
Listening to – Neil Young’s ‘The Needle and the Damage Done,’ Steve Miller’s ‘Take the Money and Run,’ Aerosmith’s ‘Living on the Edge,’ The Who’s ‘Magic Bus,’ The Beatles’ ‘Across the Universe,’ Bruce Springsteen’s ‘Brilliant Disguise,’ Alice in Chains’ ‘Heaven Beside You’ and The Black Crowes’ ‘Twice as Hard.’
Quotes to Consider – (1) “When I photograph someone, what it really means is that I’d like to know them. Anyone I know I photograph.” – Annie Liebovitz; (2) “Let death be what takes us, not lack of imagination.” – Dr. B. J. Miller (palliative care physician); (3) “You can look at a picture for a week and never think of it again. You can also look at a picture for a second and think of it all your life.” – Joan Miro
Image – A picnic table lies dormant under a blanket of snow waiting its next use.
The song is ‘Wish You Were Here’ by Pink Floyd. I am helping a student gather its fretting. I work with a Seagull mini jumbo, the student with a Yamaha dreadnought. The student is learning his part for a school band. Music is part of his motivation for coming to school. We enjoy our practice times and the rabbit trails toward the investigation of other songs.
This morning, violinist, Stephane Grappelli, holds my attention. This classical violinist, whom my father admires, features in a recording of ‘Wish You Were Here’ found on iTunes. He and his violin add to the soulful drifting upon waves feel. Musical literacy would connect lyrics with soundscape. Imagery, imagination, memory would merge into experience for the listener. Drifting upon waves is there. Chords and strumming pattern echo a sense of being upon waves. Forward, a wave moves with momentum. It diminishes, receding to trough and moves forward again. The momentum only carries forward into future, yet there’s cadence in this movement, you expect it.
“Wish You Were Here” by Pink Floyd
So, so you think you can tell Heaven from Hell, blue skies from pain.
Can you tell a green field from a cold steel rail?
A smile from a veil?
Do you think you can tell?
Did they get you to trade your heroes for ghosts?
Hot ashes for trees?
Hot air for a cool breeze?
Cold comfort for change?
Did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage?
How I wish, how I wish you were here.
We’re just two lost souls swimming in a fish bowl, year after year,
Running over the same old ground.
What have we found?
The same old fears.
Wish you were here.
The lyrics – as an English teacher, I aim to expose nuance in the word read and the word spoken, in prose and poetry. Trying out words in roles other than those intended often exposes nuance well. The words between Romeo and Juliet become words between a priest and penitent. They become words between Apollo astronaut and ground control. The mismatch of speaker(s) to words spoken confronts students with their intent. What the words are and are not about become clearer. In ‘Wish You Were Here,’ the lyrics intrigue in terms of who can own them.
Who speaks these words and who receives such words? Are these words found strictly among Pink Floyd bandmates? The language at play is almost jibe or dig or taunt, yet they are intimate. They are the words of long-standing relationship. In their speaking, they hold concern and interest for the other. Contrast is there. That world that was once understood, known and mastered is no longer one’s playground. No longer is the world of youth’s heyday accessible. Sluffed-off, that former time is no more. A different, colder, more bland and more stark reality confronts the speaker. The lyrics seek commiseration – to confirm that one’s disbelief and disillusionment are valid. “Did this happen to you, too?” The lyrics do own a seasoned perspective on loss.
Longed-for is the good understanding of shared values and principles. Longed-for is reconnection to that other who knows you. That other re-orients you to who you know yourself to be. That other recalls you to Life. On the other hand, though, it is possible that that other from one’s heyday has moved on in his or her Life; perhaps that other no longer sees, recognizes or understands you. Perhaps that other has adapted through change(s). Perhaps that other is in a quite different state – stronger, weaker, hardened, older, frail. This relationship has encountered interruption and a shared Life trajectory is no longer possible. Life in the interim is at play.
Would this be one’s mind scrabbling back to a poignant, long-ago idea? Would that activity recall to Life the idea and the friend who breathed Life into it? The absence of friend is poignant in ‘Wish You Were Here.’ The possibility of reconnecting with that friend is absent. Alone, there is drifting, listing between what was and what is pending. There had been an approach to Life and its difficult next steps. Some of one’s confidence had been founded in the assurance of handling such next steps together. Now, one gauges Life’s next steps alone. It has become impossible to reconnect with the other. The song’s rhythm, melody and lyrics convey such listing emotion. The looking back to look forward is there when a pending, next, unfamiliar step must be taken.
The breadth of who can own these words grows. While the intimate questioning in the absence of the other has its origin in song among bandmates, they become those questions one would hope to ask of absent friend or soulmate. They are likely questions the band would love to wrestle with and consider with its audience. Yet the structure of concert, performance, band and listener makes such poignant sharing beyond performance untenable.
Who next can own these words? Is this the wrestling between conscience and ego? In the first person, these intimate questions express warning. They are the prickling words of conscience. They surface one’s selling-out of values, moral grasp and integrity. The intimate questioning is that from conscience to ego. Conscience asks, ‘Where are you in all this that’s going on?’ Conscience seeks to awaken courage, asking ego to man-up, not sell out and act with integrity.
In metallurgy, a crucible is a container used to heat metal to a molten state. The container allows skimming of impurities (the slag) from the molten surface. The metal’s quality improves with the removal of the slag. As well, a crucible refers to the ordeal one encounters that yields strength to the person and the group by having gone through it. A crucible is a means to apply heat to metal and refine it. A crucible is also a group process that exerts influence upon a person. Parents send students to school. Parents send children for music lessons. Learning and practice with skills build skills needed by the developing adult. A crucible can force compliance in disciplinary situations for children and adults. Adults can limit a child’s access to privileges in response to inappropriate behaviour. In party politics, censure ensures party compliance in voting. On the world stage, sanctions against a country seek compliance from that country. That compliance may be about social issues or what happens in war.
In ‘Wish You Were Here’ the speaker and the other endured a crucible experience. They may have created it. Its boundaries may only include the two of them. They may not have been able to see where it would lead. They may have differed on what was best for them. Both may have sought the other’s compliance. Both may have applied censure. The mess of moving through that crucible experience halted relationship with the other. Time has passed. There’s that intimate knowing of the other. There’s that interest and concern for how the other dealt with it. That’s the arena of the song’s narrative.
Now, turning to the perspective of crucible, who might own these lyrics? Thomas Beckett comes to mind. Richard Burton played this English, medieval figure in the 1964 film, ‘Beckett.’ Well-educated, Beckett was a close friend of Henry II. Beckett served as chancellor to Henry. Later, by Henry’s appointment, Beckett served as the Archbishop of Canterbury. As Beckett grew into that role and understanding of that position Beckett stood-up for the Church. Doing so, placed him at odds with Henry. This issue was more than mere ‘truth to power.’ Beckett was opposing his King’s authority over the Church. T.S. Eliot wrote about this crucible experience Beckett faced in a verse drama, ‘Murder in the Cathedral.’ The play considers Beckett’s reasoning for not complying with King Henry II. Henry gives Beckett an ultimatum and timeline for compliance. Beckett understands that non-compliance not only undermines the King, but doing so becomes an act of treason. Through one long night, Beckett works within a crucible of seeking to resolve how he can comply with the king and still speak and stand for the issues of the Church. Beckett considers each possible action he might take. Each consideration is framed as temptation. And, the first three temptations are modeled after the temptations Christ encounters. There is a fourth and final temptation. Beckett masters temptation, the time of temptation through to not acting upon the temptation. Still, Beckett does not yield. Here, in relation to King Henry II, Thomas Beckett and Eliot’s ‘Murder in the Cathedral,’ one encounters political context and leadership within aphorism, ‘The strong rule by force, the weak by caprice.’ Ambition, politics and Christendom caress and collide throughout this play. They become the crucible Beckett works through. Beckett cannot comply with King Henry. In 1170 A.D., four knights find their way to Beckett into Canterbury Cathedral and assassinate him. Not only are the lyrics within ‘Wish You Were Here,’ those of any of us that might wish to investigate the integrity of Thomas Beckett within his crucible, they may also be those of his friend, King Henry II. The lyrics of ‘Wish You Were Here’ are words found on the other side of crucible. Where those lyrics might express our wish to know more about what was at play, they are the words encountered on the other side of conflict in which no resolution was possible.
A fellow blogger, Rajiv, has comments that follow. I would urge you to look at his blog, especially with an eye for the ‘down-and-out’ for whom Life itself is crucible. Lyrics in ‘Wish You Were Here,’ take on another perhaps more poignant shade of meaning, perhaps with the question of our role within their plight. Thank you, Rajiv.
Listening to – Pink Floyd’s ‘Wish You Were Here’ featuring Stephane Grappelli (and I’m curious about his involvement in the concert and how he comes to the song).
Quote to Consider – “There is one thing the photograph must contain, the humanity of the moment.”
Perpendicularity – High Level, Ab – Canada 1Perpendicularity – High Level, Ab – Canada 2Perpendicularity – High Level, Ab – Canada 3Perpendicularity – High Level, Ab – Canada 4Perpendicularity – High Level, Ab – Canada 7Perpendicularity – High Level, Ab – Canada 8Perpendicularity – High Level, Ab – Canada 9Perpendicularity – High Level, Ab – Canada 10
A quieter hour, long before winter’s sunrise in a landscape usually populated by students in daylight hours, in spring, summer and fall. Liking the interplay of shadow and light, perpendicularity and depth within these images.
Listening to – Edie Brickell’s ‘What I am,’ Concrete Blonde’s ‘Joey,’ Alanis Morissette ‘You Learn,’ Depeche Mode’s ‘Policy of Truth’ and The Dream Academy’s ‘Life in a Northern Town.’
Quote to Consider – “It is more important to click with people than to click with the shutter.” – Alfred Eisenstadt
The day held a meeting and rather than a team of colleagues going, I would attend the meeting alone. I took camera gear with me. I hoped that the day would yield photographs, that I would find myself within the situation of a photograph. Having left early enough, I could scout out possible images; there was no need for haste through the morning’s seventy-eight kilometre drive.
The day held different gifts.
A year ago, a friend related an experience. He’d needed to take a call and had parked his service truck in a farmer’s farm entrance to be off the highway. He’d needed to turn his vehicle around, backing it onto the highway. Before he moved too far, he looked up, forward to find an old truck, perhaps a Ford, from the fifties or sixties. He captured the image with his smartphone. On this day, traveling to a meeting, I was in his neck of the woods, perhaps no more than three or four kilometres from Fort Vermilion and I saw the vehicle he was referring to from the highway. At day’s end, I would return and see if a photograph was possible. With less than an hour of daylight left I was able stop and take a series of shots.
The image above was the image photographed.
Shed – Buttertown, Ab – Canada 1Shed – Buttertown, Ab – Canada 2Shed – Buttertown, Ab – Canada 3Windrow – Buttertown, Ab – CanadaCombine – Buttertown, Ab – Canada
I intended to travel from Fort Vermilion to the north settlement after the meeting. At the meeting I asked a friend and colleague about the north settlement. “Would I be able to access or walk in to the St. Louis Catholic Mission church?” She didn’t know. But, the revelation was to find that she lived in the north settlement. Her and her husband’s families had lived in the north settlement through generations. She is someone who knows the stories of the north settlement, of Buttertown. That’s something.
These images are Buttertown, north settlement images.
Listening to – Kate Bush’s ‘Running Up That Hill,’ Peter Gabriel’s ‘Mercy Street’ and Roxy Music’s ‘More Than This.’
Quote to Consider – “The picture that you took with your camera is the imagination you want to create with reality.” Scott Lorenzo
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