Someone’s project, this mauve and mint green 1953 Ford F-100 resides in the industrial area lot across from the Viterra grain elevator, a vehicle waiting for its next drive, more utility upon pavement. The mood of this photograph attracts. Its subject waits upon an earthly creator with abundant resources to transform ‘what was’ into ‘what will be,’ a creator who will set new purpose for this vehicle – breathing life into it, again. What this vehicle will become depends upon the creative imagination of those who will bring restoration.
Listening to U2 sing about INXS lead singer Michael Hutchence in Gone, from Best of 1990-2000 [B-Sides]; then it’s Gillian Welch singing Revelator from her Time – The Revelator album; finally it is Dar Williams singing Mercy of the Fallen from her album The Beauty of the Rain.
Quote to Inspire – “Photography can only represent the present. Once photographed, the subject becomes part of the past.” – Bernice Abbott
One technical aspect of William Faulkner’s novel, The Sound and The Fury, is that one narrative is investigated through active eyes of four different people associated with the story. The story receives telling from the perspective of and with the perceptive capability of each character grappling with what occurs as the narrative unfolds. Something similar occurs with perception when editing one photograph and altering minor elements of brightness, saturation and hue – what is seen and what one experiences in response to each configuration is different.
This evening, I’m looking back to a Friday in June, 2011. It’s after school and a Show and Shine is being held in High Level, Alberta in the Norpine Auto Industrial Supply Retailer parking lot. I’ve got my Canon 30D with me as I depart from school and drive past these pristine vehicles – vintage and current – that someone has enhanced with different rims and tires, that someone has restored and painted, that someone has taken the time to find and connect with memories of a former time. I pull ahead, past Norpine, turning in at the High Level Home Hardware store and park my 2000 GMC Sierra, there. The next three-quarters of an hour is spent photographing cars and trucks from different angles to find good and best shots.
I dialogue with vehicle owners, unleashing narratives associated with each vehicle we look to. Former students, in their first jobs following high school, show me their acquisitions – a Chrysler 300M and a GMC Sierra half-ton, both decked out with rims, fat tires and glossy shine. There’s room in our dialogue to sort through how I used to present cars in my post-high school days at Waterloo Mercury in Edmonton and what could be achieved with different McGuiar’s waxes for paint and a bottle of brake fluid for tires. I share with them that Autoglym Waxes are what I use these days and that Queen Elizabeth II has given royal warrant to the company because the waxes are used on Royal vehicles; while Hondas and Toyotas use the wax, so to does Aston Martin.
Mounted on my Canon 30D is a Sigma 10-20 mm wide angle lens … with it there’s the opportunity to distort vehicle form in terms of lines and curves … to add the wow factor. One vehicle I come across is this late fifties Ford half-ton painted bittersweet orange and waxed to full gleam to reflect June’s late afternoon sun, clouds and sky. Editing reveals this image in different ways … see which you enjoy best.
Listening to Over the Rhine and Within Without from their Discount Fireworks album; then it’s on to Mindy Smith singing One More Moment from her album with the same name. Later, it’s on to Babylon II by David Gray from the White Ladder album.
Quote to Inspire – “Photography is an immediate reaction, drawing a meditation.” – Henri Cartier Bresson
Wisconsin Locomotive – High Level Canadian National Rail Yards 1
Wisconsin Locomotive – High Level Canadian National Rail Yards 2
Wisconsin Locomotive – High Level Canadian National Rail Yards 3
Wisconsin Locomotive – High Level Canadian National Rail Yards 4
I am including four other photographs of the Wisconsin locomotive engine within the High Level Canadian National rail yard.
My interest in locomotive engines probably began with the matter of watching them pass by at railroad crossings, as a youngster, sitting among family in our 1969, silver-green Pontiac Parisienne; the big thing was to wave to the engineer and pull our arms down as if we were tugging on a rope above us – to our gesture we were sometimes rewarded with the engineer blowing the train’s air horn in our presence, something that would thrill us, creating big smiles on the faces of everyone. Later, during summers while in university, I served as spotter and brakeman moving hopper cars around rail yards in southern Edmonton. And, now, I still have an interest in trains and locomotives. I wonder how much of my current interest has been shaped by time enjoyably shared with my son reading Thomas the Tank Engine stories each night or watching the animated VHS video stories or in building different wooden track configurations and moving different engines around my son’s Thomas the Tank Engine track – Thomas, Percy, Rusty et al. Here, in Reverend Wilbert Awdry’s stories, it’s the everyday advice on the practicalities of living and the allegorical component of his stories that continues to hold my attention … there’s value and values there. My son is now eighteen and in university – many good facets of what life is about have been embedded in his character through these stories; these stories have been an enjoyable investment in my son’s future. And, still trains and what they accomplish capture my interest.
Listening to Billy Bragg and Wilco perform Stetson Kennedy from the Mermaid Avenue, Vol. 2 album; then it’s been Black Rebel Motorcycle Club … who would have thought four seminary graduates would minister through music … like this in Ha Ha High Babe.
Quote to Inspire – “I began to realize that the camera sees the world differently than the human eye and that sometimes those differences can make a photograph more powerful than what you actually observed.” – Galen Rowell
At most points in the geography of Alberta the Peace River is at least one kilometre across. At various points it will broaden out allowing for islands and sand dunes. The first time I saw what the Peace River was about what I noticed was something this photograph conveys, the river has cut a fissure into the land through time and while the river is most times one kilometre across, the distance from level land on top of the river valley to level land on the top of the other side of the river valley is greater, spanning as much as four and five kilometres. The other thing noticed is that it takes about two kilometres of gradual descent in a vehicle to reach the river from the valley’s crest. This photograph is taken at the start of the descent toward Dunvegan and the Dunvegan suspension bridge looking north. It’s late on a September Sunday and shadows creep from the west extending eastwards.
Listening to Bill Mallonee & the Vigilantes of Love sing Resplendent from their Audible Sigh album, a message about the nature of resilience borrowing from the narrative of the dustbowl.
Quote to Inspire – “I hate cameras. They are so much more sure than I am about everything.” – John Steinbeck
Presbyterian Log Built Church – Near Bezanson, Alberta
Mailboxes – Rural Alberta 1
Mailboxes – Rural Alberta 2
Mailboxes – Rural Alberta 3
Mailboxes – Rural Alberta 4
Mailboxes – Rural Alberta 5
The log built structure in the first black and white photograph is a Presbyterian Church on the back roads between Bezanson and Grande Prairie, Alberta. The other photographs are of a set of mailboxes that you’d find on back roads in rural Alberta, an economical means for both farmers and Canada Post to distribute the mail. Setting the Church and mailboxes in juxtaposition brings out core ideas of message and being in receipt of message; both seem to suggest that you have to get the message … work is involved, others are involved. Interesting ….
Listening to Honey and the Moon, from Joseph Arthur’s Redemption’s Son; the song reminds of Stocki’s Rhythm and Soul BBC Radio Ulster broadcast (Sundays at 1:00 p.m. – Alberta MST) in which I first heard Johnny Cash singing a Depeche Mode song – Personal Jesus, hill-billy-fied, on the American IV: The Man Comes Around album (the honky-tonk piano … caught my ear – totally good) … the other tune from this album receiving air-play is Johnny Cash singing Sting’s I Hung My Head.
Quote to Inspire – “We don’t take pictures with our cameras. We take them with our hearts and we take them with our minds, and the camera is nothing more than a tool.” – Arnold Newman
The as-the-crow flies, back way, return home from Grande Prairie to High Level, Alberta has a driver/photographer deviate from the GPS (Global Positioning Satellite) recommended route at Fairview and move north and east through the back country behind towns like Spirit River, Blue Sky, Berwyn, Grimshaw and Peace River. The route deposits you back on the GPS recommended route, north of Peace River and Dixonville at the corner upon which you’ll find the Weberville Community Hall, twenty minutes from Manning; you’ll chew-off some of the drive time and see land and animals that many will never see – my last trip had three moose standing on the side of the road as I drove by.
Beginning this deviated trek, ten kilometres north from Fairview you’ll find the homestead featured in this photograph on the east side of the road, a former home that is accorded reverence as a starting home for and reminder of the family that broke this land. Visual inspection of the homestead through my camera lens reveals that it was a home in stages. It had a basic first shape and it received alteration and addition, no doubt to welcome the blessing of a family’s increase in population. Grain grows around the home to with a metre of the building and tree perimeter – care is taken to preserve memory and to utilize the land. The home had been a starting point and reminds of starting points.
Listening through most songs on Joseph Arthur’s Redemption’s Son album – songs standing out are In the Night, Evidence and Nation of Slaves; my listen through reminds of Joseph Arthur’s tune of blessing sung by Michael Stipe and Joseph Arthur – In the Sun.
Curious Quotes to ponder – “You should never think without an image.” – Aristotle; “The soul can not think without a picture.” – Aristotle.
Wisconsin Locomotive - High Level's Canadian National Railyards
High Level’s industrial area intrigues. Within the two kilometres that comprise its service road are perhaps fifty businesses, ones that mediate between our hinterland frontier and the world at large. The location is active. Rarely on this section of road would ten minutes go by without some activity, a vehicle driving by, logging trucks being unloaded, rail cars being loaded, grain trucks pulling in to the Viterra elevator or larger transport trucks pulling in to Neufeld Petroleum (Petro Canada) for fuel. The area contains the Emergency Medical Services, an auto-body collision repair shop, loading bays of a trucking company and much more. And, then, something novel occurs. A Wisconsin locomotive with Wisconsin map painted on its side arrives and idles overnight in High Level’s Canadian National (C.N.) rail yard. The engine is regal with its cab being painted maroon and yellow and sporting a Wisconsin Rail badge on either side of its cab. Later, I learn that C.N. bought out and operates Wisconsin Rail in the United States.
Listening to Run on for a Long Time by The Five Blind Boys of Alabama (Spirit of the Century) and Wisdom by David Gray (E.P.’s 92-94).
Quote to Inspire – “If your pictures aren’t good enough, you’re not close enough.” – Robert Capa
One year ago, late on a Sunday afternoon in February I travelled east from High Level on range roads that service farms in this region. While graders had cleared these roads snow had begun to drift into them from the north. The sun’s light was direct and bright, intense as it was reflected back from the snow. And, the wind blew. From a distance, the shapes of the snow’s drifts were a repetitive pattern blown into the roads – evidence of the wind’s work; more irregular shapes were found as result of the particular way the wind swept through an area. On my return home I photographed Gibson’s farm, 10km east of High Level – a landmark that has served to orient me to how close I was to High Level in my trips in from Garden River, Fox Lake, Fort Vermilion and beyond. After many seasons in many years, my camera allowed me finally to see more of what the Gibson’s farm was about.
Reminded of W.O. Mitchell and his novel, Who Has Seen the Wind – a novel about growing up, a story with teachers and students …. Here’s its poem starting point.
Who Has Seen the Wind? – Christina Georgina Rosetti (1834-1894)
Who has seen the wind?
Neither I nor you.
But when the leaves hang trembling,
The wind is passing through.
Who has seen the wind?
Neither you nor I.
But when the trees bow down their heads,
The wind is passing by.
Listening to Dar Williams’ album The Beauty of the Rain, an album I was drawn to after learning the tablature for her song of the same name. The circumstances of a friend have recalled a song from the album – Fishing in the Morning.
Quote to Inspire – “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.
During evening meals as I and my brothers grew up my father would look back to his boyhood days and share stories and facts about the world surrounding him. Talk would often revolve about different outings and that his mum, my grandmother loved a Sunday drive in the landscape surrounding Moncton, New Brunswick where he grew up. It did her good to be with her family and to see the world beyond her home. A blue 1938 Pontiac transported them – a few years ago my aunt showed me a picture of the car with my Dad and his younger brother eating picnic sandwiches sitting in shade on the car’s running boards. Cars do double as portable homes or perhaps rooms and during transport they group a family together. Everyone has common vision, all staring down the road with the driver. Cars become a place to catch-up on things, a place to talk things through, places to share news – in transport, you’d not be the same person getting out of the car as you were getting in to it.
While cars did seem to be a family thing, a fact that I continue to be amazed at is that my father only learned to drive after completing his Ph.D. at the age of twenty-five or twenty-six; perhaps he anticipated family as his next step. And, maybe there’s some truth in that because during his university years at Mount Allison (Sackville, Nova Scotia) and at St. Mary’s College (London, U.K.), he hadn’t needed a car but had been able to make his way around Europe on train, by bus, on bicycle or hiking. And, it seemed that such travel was much more of a social thing with much more grace being there as fellow-travellers or friends in the act of travel. Perhaps there was that common purpose of travel in that former time – to ‘see’ the world (which also meant to experience it).
Dad had ideas about cars, about how long they should be driven before a new one should be bought. He had ideas and biases about good and better cars. He enjoyed a car that had what he would term ‘pep.’ It’s tempting to look at the cars Dad has owned and driven as associating to different points of development among our family – a 57 Ford Consul (marriage), a 64 Pontiac Beaumont (the family populates), a 69 Pontiac Parisienne (the family’s middle years), a 76 Chevrolet Caprice Classic with 74 Ford Gran Torino (the family’s later middle years), an 81 Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme (kids almost ready to move out), an Oldsmobile Delta 88 with Dodge Aries K Car (first years of empty-nest), two Nissan Maximas (later empty nest and retirement) and a Nissan Altima (later years of retirement). You could almost use the technology available at each stage to chronicle the evolution of cultural norms within society … possible Masters thesis for someone.
On occasion, cars – what they were about, their history and their potential for each aspiring driver in our family – would be the center of discussion at evening meals. One vehicle Dad commented on with regard to its history was a car alluded in terms of character name in the Disney/Pixar movie, Cars. Paul Newman provided voice-over for that car, now animated, Doc Hudson. Last summer I got to see a Hudson Terraplane, not one from the fifties or forties, but a Hudson Terraplane from the thirties, a pet project for an autobody repairman and tow-truck driver from Nanaimo. These photographs are taken at the end of July, 2011.
Quote to Inspire – “The question is not what you look at but what you see!” – Henry David Thoreau
Listening to John Mayer sing Route 66 from the Cars Soundtrack; the same soundtrack has Rascal Flatts singing Life is a Highway. After that it has been listening to Tom Cochrane and Red Rider in the Edmonton Symphony Sessions recorded at Edmonton’s Jubilee Auditorium – Avenue A, Bird on a Wire, Big League and Boy Inside the Man … all, good, good tunes.
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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