In My Back Pocket – Photography

Tag: Alberta 2

Grist & Blue

March 8th, 2015

Dormant Rusting Relics – Manning, Alberta 1

Dormant Rusting Relics – Manning, Alberta 2

It’s March. Two weeks ago we were at -28C, here in High Level, Alberta. Yesterday and today Spring’s warmth melts snow. Returning to High Level from Edmonton on a Saturday afternoon, two weeks ago, a Tamron telephoto lens allowed for this high dynamic range (HDR) image capture of these three dormant, rusting relics – trucks not quite ready for salvage, more grist for custom renovation, nostalgic celebration or for parts. The clarity of the Tamron lens is excellent and at 400 metres distance from the vehicles distortion is limited. I’m liking the image yielded, its blues and textures – they remind of childhood play amongst cars next to the shop at my cousins’ farm.

Quote to Inspire – “To photograph: it is to put on the same line of sight the head, the eye and the heart.” – Henri Cartier-Bresson

Quote to Inspire – A story first heard in an interview with Rosanne Cash, last June … interesting. “I had a dream once about confronting art, personified, as a human being, and him telling me that he didn’t respect dilettantes. This dream was about eight years ago and it changed my life. I knew that I had to strengthen my concentration and really focus on what I was doing and commit to this work in a really deep way or else give it up. There’s no in-between. That presence is still with me. I want to please him. It’s off the wall, but it was really powerful.” – ‘Rosanne Cash by David Byrne,’ ‘BOMB – Artists in Conversation.’

Listening to – Bruce Springsteen’s ‘Walk like a Man,’ ‘Tunnel of Love’ and ‘Two Faces;’ then it’s ‘Radio Nowhere.’ The Verve’s ‘Bittersweet Symphony’ has shown in different playlists a couple of times in the past week.
Russet Rain

September 30th, 2014

Russet Rain – Valleyview, Alberta 1

Russet Rain – Valleyview, Alberta 2

Labour Day weekend, that point in the year when parents of college- and university-aged children make the drive taking students to cities far away, returning them to another year of campus Life. Travel toward school held anticipation for my son. For me, there was the chance meeting of a teaching friend while refueling our vehicles in Valleyview; both of us were taking our kids to University. We chatted, exchanged e-mails and committed to staying in touch via e-mail. In Edmonton, my son and I shopped and got him squared away in terms of his belongings and his first set of groceries. We said our good-byes and I left him to connect with his friends and settle into his University term. Five hours away on my return journey, a rain shower, off in the distance near Valleyview became a focal point to explore with my camera – an immense set of clouds beginning to release rain at sunset. I’m liking the endpoint of this expressive, moody edit.

Listening to – U2’s ‘Raised by Wolves’ intrigues with different possible trajectories – the feral child (raised by wolves), trial-by-fire and being taken advantage of steering towards better, wiser paths and the duality of wolf and lamb that needs to be discerned in terms of people you encounter and deal with.

Quote to Consider – “Nothing is more acceptable today than the photographic recycling of reality, acceptable as an everyday activity and as a branch of high art.” – Susan Sontag, ‘On Photography’
Psalm-like, Dylan

September 27th, 2014

Church – Buttertown, Ft Vermilion, Alberta 1

Church – Buttertown, Ft Vermilion, Alberta 2

I have just had a listen to Bob Dylan’s ‘Last Thoughts on Woody Guthrie (Live)’ and am struck by a quality in the monologue that is almost psalm-like, the average woman and man’s take on the business of living, almost the concerns they’d express in prayer, concerns that would consider the gap between what Life ought to hold and Life that needs to be fought for, a Life requiring help. Likely that’s the point – Woody Guthrie articulated such concerns for the average man and woman in song that is psalm, song that’s poetic, song that infuses hope by way a compassionate ear. Woody Guthrie’s words are psalms for Lives in a country emerging from the depression and war and surfacing into the fifties.

The images above are two more edits of the clapper-board church at the St. Louis Roman Catholic mission in Fort Vermilion’s north settlement – Buttertown.

Listening to – Bob Dylan’s ‘Dignity’ and John Mayer’s ‘Queen of California.’

Quote to Consider – “Some photographers set up as scientists, others as moralists. The scientists make an inventory of the world; the moralists concentrate on hard cases.” – Susan Sontag – ‘On Photography’

Tag: Alberta 2

Grist & Blue

Russet Rain

Psalm-like, Dylan