In My Back Pocket – Photography

Tag: fairview alberta

Thelwell Ponies

February 9th, 2013

Fairview Horses, Fairview, Alberta 1

Fairview Horses, Fairview, Alberta 2

Fairview Horses, Fairview, Alberta 3

Fairview Horses, Fairview, Alberta 4

I am able to recall my first year of school and one of those Life-changing events, that of taking my father to the Edmonton International Airport – Mom, Grandma and me. Something new for me and my brothers, this same event was rejoinder for my father – he was getting back to the globetrotting that was so much of his career prior to the arrival of my two brothers and me. Business trips took Dad often to the United Kingdom to stay current with practices/methods in plastics development/technologies. Beyond the United Kingdom, Dad moved around the globe in a chemist’s technician’s capacity dealing with the technical side of plastics use; the customer was always right – if the plastic produced didn’t work for the customer, the company Dad worked for always solved the problem and worked to create the plastic needed by each customer-manufacturer. Dad’s globetrotting in the sixties, seventies, eighties and nineties had the ceremony of preparation and departure; and, homecoming also became ceremony – gifts for the family let us know that we were thought of even when he was away from us.

Horses – the images of horses, here, were photographed just north of Fairview, Alberta. Their shapes remind of a British cartoonist who drew so many cartoons of the British countryside – Norman Thelwell often drew images of ponies … cartoons that these photographs recall. Check out Norman Thelwell at http://www.thelwell.org.uk/ . One of the gifts my father brought back for me when I was twelve was a small paperback of Thelwell’s pony cartoons – something I can remember reading in my room on a rainy day in June in Edmonton.

Listening to – Los Lobos and ‘Two Janes.’

Quote to Inspire – “Ultimately photography is about who you are. It’s the truth in relation to yourself. And seeking truth becomes a habit.” – Leonard Freed
Last Inhabitants – No Longer Tended To

December 11th, 2012

Grain Stocks – Fairview, Alberta

Under grey, foreboding winter skies, grain stocks remain – last inhabitants of this farmer’s field. Missed by the threshing blade, iced with snow and blown by every breeze they remain, still standing, no longer tended to.

Listening to – Martyn Joseph’s Cardiff Bay, Strange Way and The Great American Novel.

Quote to Inspire – “Not everybody trusts paintings; but, people believe photographs.” – Ansel Adams
Pursuing Never-dones …

March 4th, 2012

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

Tag: fairview alberta

Thelwell Ponies

Last Inhabitants – No Longer Tended To

Pursuing Never-dones …