More of a scrappy Michelle

Here's more of the photos from the Michelle scrapyard session in early October. There are two different cameras and several different films. The images from this ramble are spread across several blogs over several months because of when I developed the film. I suppose if I were a considerate blogger, I'd have waited till they were all ready to be shared in one big blog, so you wouldn't have to think about the narrative, or work to see the flow. Then again, maybe there will be a book.

I remember going through that scrapyard with a buddy looking for some particular metal for something or other. The details are lost in time. I was not surprised to see the no trespassing signs. I'm pretty sure that with nice light, it would be a great setting for a photo session.

This is one of the lessons that some photographers find hard to learn. Putting something pretty in a picture doesn't necessarily make a good photo. Several of the photos of Michelle are not what most people would call glamorous. The photos from the visit to the scrapyard, for example. There's a vibe to it that I love. I've done some prints of those, and there's one I want to tweak some more.

I'm so fortunate to be friends with Michelle. Either of us can propose a photo idea, play with it a bit, and then make it happen. A good photograph should make the viewer feel something, or engage their attention so that they do more than glance at it. The B&W are more about texture and mood than anything else.

I was having coffee with one buddy who has appeared exactly once in all the photos published on my blogs. I'd love to do a photo session with her, but she doesn't like having her photo taken. I wouldn't do a made up glamour image for her, because that's not particularly her. I've got something else in mind, and I think it would be stunning, but I'm not holding my breath waiting for her to agree.

1.

2. This is what she was so interested in.

3. There are any number of science fiction movies where something emerges from a scrap heap. I waited, but alas.

4. During the ramble after the scrap yard. The location is obvious.

5. A not so obvious location, but along the Bow river. I've got a printing idea in mind for this one.

6. From the same scrapyard tour.

7. I know perfectly well this camera and lens flares when pointed at the sun or a really bright light, but I haven't figured out exactly when or where it will appear. I thought I had the camera in the shade of a telephone pole, and there wouldn't be a flare.

8. We really liked this faded red phone booth. The film captures that red, and her red hair perfectly. I admit to thinking about the Superman changing in a phone booth thing, starting with the jeans and raw sunlight look, and then emerging from the booth in an elegant gown, with some light modifiers to soften the light.

9.

10.

Of the Day

Driftwood (NZ)

Film Kodak Gold 200

From an autumn walk not far from home.

Linda and Newfoundland

Polar bears

Why ever didn't I publish this, and maybe I did

Which reminds me I haven't done anything like this for a while. Maybe in the new year...

90 days, or so ago. October 5.

During a visit to Canmore to meet up with my friend Susi and her husband Mike. I somehow hadn't known there was a river walk through the middle of town.

The dithering is underway

Yesterday was a good dither. It actually produced a result, in that I now know which images made the podium for December. I decided that while I might go out and seek images today, they would be unlikely to hit the podium. It's kind of grey outside, with light snow and crappy light.

And of course, one must consider this time of year is perfect for being a slug. After all, there's all the heavy duty digesting to do.

But image of the year remains elusive. There are more than 100 images that have been rated with 4 or 5 stars throughout the year. I like to review them and see if they still hold up. Lots of times I've reconsidered, and wondered what I was thinking. Trying to be fair, there are nearly 2000 images with 3 stars, meaning I've edited them, and they are not a race or a community association event. I like to review them to see if there are any overlooked gems.

It also gives me a chance to review the memories involved in making the images. For most of them I can remember where and when they were done, and who was with me, if anyone. That brings up the other parts of the event. The major events, of course, were the trips to Newfoundland and to Churchill with Linda, but there were lots of great rambles with Sean, and fun photo sessions with the best model ever, Michelle. Let's just say a large fraction of the photos have Michelle in them.

Some of you are acutely aware of how amazing it is that we can see images on a computer screen in astonishing detail, but many people take it totally for granted now. From getting to the place where the photo was made, capturing the image in the first place, the process to get the image to a state we can see it on screen, and then share it with anyone who cares to click on a link, the whole process is astonishing. 

There are people alive now who remember when digital computers were not a thing. I was ending high school about the time personal digital computers became available. The earliest incarnation of the iPhone was still a dream. To say they have progressed in leaps and bounds is the understatement of all time. 

And yet, it could all go away in a digital catastrophe or a forgotten password or outdated operating system. Even with multiple backups, it's possible for all the images on my hard drive to become unavailable. It wasn't so long ago I discovered an old zip drive buried at the bottom of a box of stuff. I've no idea what actual format that data is stored in, and I no longer have a computer that can physically connect to it, let alone read the data. I seriously doubt there was anything important on it. 

Or, think about what happens if I become unavailable for some reason. A few days ago a thief fleeing police crashed into several cars. A little girl was killed, and several are in the hospital with life threatening injuries. With all the self-entitled idiots out on the road, I'm acutely aware it could happen to me. Travelling in a car is one of the most dangerous things a Canadian can do. What then happens to my images?

All those backups in the cloud? On the cloud? Cloud-based? Whatever. I don't really believe in them. All cloud means is someone else's computer. Someone you don't know. Someone who says their computer is some number of 9's reliable. Someone who can be bought by some evil billionaire who wants to plunder the data. A computer that is connected to your computer via a system that is incomprehensible to most users.

Can you describe in detail what happens behind the scenes when you click on a link, and a fraction of a second later an image or page of text appears? I can think of two of my readers who could probably give it a good college try, and not be laughed at by those who really know. I spent much of my so-called career on the fringes of the IT industry, and I wouldn't want to have to try to provide such an explanation.

As I get older I am more and more liking the concept of "old-school". Film cameras rather than digital. Cars without an infotainment screen, although I'll admit to liking some of the other advances that came along, such as airbags, fuel injection, radial tires, and anti-lock brake systems. Books rather than movies. Prints rather than digital images, though I do take advantage of the digital world.

Books. If I look at the shelf over my desk, I can see several books of my images. Two of them are out on loan to someone who wants to pore over them and appreciate the images. Two of them are waiting for a lunch in a few weeks to go to a good home. A few copies are out in the world, available to anyone who cares to pick them up and turn pages. Which is something that nearly anyone can do. They don't even need to read English. As long as they're kept dry, those books will last decades, hopefully providing enjoyment to someone long after I'm gone. (As a hint, mom, the books are yours to do with as you please, but I'd be delighted to find you put them in the library of the place you live, once you don't need them any more.) We have books in our basement more than 100 years old, still perfectly readable, if somewhat fragile.

I've talked about film images. During the great film digitization project a couple years ago I found film negatives of Linda's family, taken before either of us were born. They got a new life in the digital world, and I could put them in the enlarger to get prints. I have a binder in the basement with over 100 sleeves of negatives. Those could live in that binder, in a box in the basement for decades, without any further care. If that box should somehow be put into an archival storage facility, the negative images would probably still be visible and available to whatever technologies exist several hundred years from now.

So where was a going with all this? Oh yes, thinking about image of the year. Still thinking. Still enjoying the memories. 

I sort of thought about trying to capture all the 3 star images into one giant image shrunk down to fit in the blog, but even doing the 100 or so 4 star images is beyond me.

This is one of the images that nearly made the podium for December.

This is the oddest image in the last little while. I no longer remember why I did this. Yes mom, that dish set from nearly 40 years ago is still in daily use.

Of the Day

Driftwood (NZ)

Film

Elk Lakes. I saw this view. I got the camera out, loaded the film, and was fine tuning the composition and settings when the fisherman walked into the lake. He looked like he wasn't going anywhere soon, so I waited for the ripples to settle down a bit, hoping he wouldn't move.

 

Linda

Newfoundland

Polar bears

Why ever didn't I publish this, and maybe I did

In fact, I'm almost certain I did. But nobody will complain about seeing a photo of Curtis. This was Christmas 2016.

90 days, or so ago

Being the photo at the top of my 'not blogged in 90 days' smart folder. This one happens to be October 3. Balloons in Calgary used to be a common thing. I'm not sure why it's really rare now, but I expect insurance is the main reason. This one landed in the school yard just off the green space across the road from us.

Where did 2024 go?

Here it is, Christmas day. A quiet day. Our house is flooded with brilliant sunshine. Celina is sound asleep after being dosed with catnip. The humans have had a treat for breakfast with the usual coffee. We are stirring about in a languid way, knowing there are a few things to be done, but not immediately. The most pressing of which is to be elsewhere for dinner with friends this evening.

We were musing about where the year has gone, and the why and how it happened. The best we could do was that time goes quick when you're having fun. Retirement is awesome. Have I said that before? Looking back, I've been a bit of a slug since getting back from Newfoundland. I might have to work on that.

The most recent finished thing is the last of the 6 rolls of colour film. I told some of that story here and there's a few more as you scroll down. As I was tucking the sleeves of negatives into the binder where they live I realized that I'm nearly out of sleeves for the big negatives. In fact, I'm nearly out of binder space. The first sleeve of negatives is dated 20220210. If I've counted right there are 720 6x9 negatives, and about 1200 35mm negatives. I suppose I should start a new binder. Maybe better organized. Hmmm. 

I suppose the next printing project will be to do a review of all the B&W negatives to see which might make good prints. What I've been working on so far have been the most obvious recent ones that I think would mostly be easy prints as I figured out how to do it. I'm pretty sure that some of the next ones are going to be creative, rather than a straight representation of what was there. I did one experiment with printing a colour negative as B&W, and that might be something I try again.

Which has sort of got me thinking about my photography goals for next year, and life goals in general. It's a big topic at my age. I'm starting to realize that I need to do things fairly nowish. There is some, put things off till later time, but nobody knows how much. 

There's been no real medical excitement, which is fabulous, but there's been a few indications that the glue factory wagon is beginning to stalk me a little more attentively. 

There will be some races, and lots of community events that I'll be at with my camera, but I'm thinking my main goal will be to carry around the film cameras, and try to capture or create photos that would make interesting prints. That might mean fewer photos overall, but with any luck they'll be better photos. 

Let's see, this is normally what people think of as a Christmas scene. 

Or, the actual outside scene as of a few minutes ago.

And inside.

Here's some more of the recent colour photos, self developed.

1. Fish Creek, Mallard Point.

2. Not far from Mallard Point, wondering how the vegetation would show up.

3. Fish Creek, Bankside.

4. These flowers were the star of the back yard patio. Even now, they still show some yellow, although they are drooped down.

5. Fish Creek near bridge 3.

6. Those same flowers, at the end of October. If they get nice light I'll try to get a current photo of them.

Of the Day

Driftwood (NZ)

Film

The very most recent colour photo I developed, mainly to finish off a roll. I liked the yellow gold leaves against the blue sky.

Linda in our tiny little cabin in Burlington.

Newfoundland

Polar bears

90 days (or so) ago

A couple of sketch artists working on the distillery towers. In the background is the scrapyard where Michelle and I did a bit of a photo session.

Why ever didn't I publish this, and maybe I did. Curtis liked to sprawl out.

The end is in sight

The end of 2024. What were you thinking? Maybe I don't want to know.

On a macro level, this has been a shitty year. There's a Churchill quote, “democracy is the worst form of government – except for all the others that have been tried.” I'm pretty sure a fairly small group of people have decided they need to test this for themselves, and have convinced enough others to vote that way by flooding the zone with shit. And it isn't even smart shit that one could be forgiven for falling for. It's all so stupid that you'd think a smart kid could see through it. The rest of us are horrified.

It doesn't help that elected governments are doing shitty jobs at running things. I almost don't know where to start.

Calgary city Council. During the longest public hearing ever, council demonstrated it's skill at not listening to more than 700 speakers and not reading many more written submissions. I blogged about it here. More recently, the City ended municipal grant funding to community associations on essentially no notice. They say they'll make up new rules, to be announced next April, and they think we can apply in the summer, and it will take 8 to 10 weeks for anyone to learn if their grant application is accepted. In the mean time the contractor quote is out of date, and it's winter, so outdoor work will be put off till spring. If there was any urgency to the repairs, like a failing furnace, the community association would have to eat the cost, and cannot apply retroactively. I'm pretty sure some manager looked at their budget and panicked. I'm also pretty sure some community associations got screwed over because they were preparing a grant submission and were cut off.

Alberta Provincial Government. Danielle Smith was a failed and disgraced politician running a talk radio show. I'm convinced she ran for Premier to increase her audience and is secretly surprised she won. The number one rule for a radio show host is to do anything to avoid dead air time. And that's what she is doing, spouting all sorts of shit to stir up controversy and to make her tiny base happy. The Green Line fiasco is a recent example. They sort of cancelled their funding a month after saying they were supporting it. Today their pet engineering company tasked with finding a different line than the one they had approved, released their report to the media, but not to Council. Another recent example is a border security force that allows sheriffs to arrest people on their own property without a warrant, within 2 miles of the US border, just to appease a cognitively deficient felon who isn't even in office yet.

Which leads me to our federal government. National borders are a federal responsibility. Smith gets snarky about the feds stepping into areas of provincial responsibility. What's that line about sauce for the goose? 

Here in Alberta one needs to consider which way the wind is blowing if you want to say "Trudeau" in anything but pejorative terms, because lots of people reflexively spit on hearing that name. Then there is a volley of abuse citing real and imagined offences dating back 45 years. If the Trudeau's, senior and junior, could have done all that they must have super villain powers. Again, the most recent example of stupidity is the temporary change to the GST. Or not ending the postal strike. I could easily believe there are more recent examples. 

The one that personally gets my goat is reneging on the promise to bring in a form of proportional representation. Not that the version he wanted was much better than first past the post, but starting the discussion could have led to better results. I blogged about that, and other political stuff, here. 

Don't get me started on America. I had to stop reading their news, it's bad for my blood pressure and peace of mind. I've been saying for a while that it's a failing empire, and I believe that when historians analyze when it went over the edge for good, they'll draw the line for about now.

For me personally, it's been a good year. Retirement in general is great. We had a couple lovely trips, and have a couple more teed up for 2025, with one more in the planning stages. Not that airline travel is any fun, and has been getting worse for years. It's almost like the airlines are actively thinking of ways to piss off their customers. They charge extortionate rates for checked bags, and are then surprised that people try to bring everything as carry on? Are they stupid? Now we go through the rigamarole of sizing bags at the gate, which slows things down, and makes everybody unhappy. Well, except that one Air Canada gate agent. I think she was enjoying telling that one idiot that his oversize bag was not going in the cabin. His choice was to check the bag, or not go.

The trip to Churchill was an exception, but that was a charter. 

Those who are following along on the blog, awaiting with bated breath for every new posting, are probably pretty disappointed in me. This year has continued the downward trend since the high point of 2019. It looks like 2025 is going to have the fewest blog posts ever. I suspect it will end up being less than 2x a week. That's well down from more than once a day at peak, and down lots from the overall average of a blog every 1.5 days or so. I am unrepentant. It is what it is, and if I'm silent, it means I have nothing to say.

Oh, and I closed my Vero account. As far as I know nobody was looking at it, and they've opened it up to content pirates. Of course, they say it's in the guise of allowing creators to monetize their work to followers. Not what I'm interested in. Goodbye. Social media is pissing me off more and more. I'm trying not to scroll Facebook, and go directly to the groups I'm part of. No advertising there. Yet. The messenger thingie is telling me the browser I use isn't supported, so I'm not seeing all their "features". Which probably means missing emojis. Which is fine. 

Yes, I've begun to think about Image of the Year. I anticipate a good dither.

You'll hear more about this, but 31 people from the SAIT darkroom classes are signed up to exhibit a print at the YYC Exposure Festival at cSpace in February. Yes, me included. I've got a couple on the short list to display, and might well print something I like even better between now and then.

Since this post has been reflective, in some ways, I think it amusing to put some reflection photos in it. These are from the trip to Elk Lakes with Sean.

Of the Day

Driftwood (NZ)

Film I found this couple sketching the Alberta Distillery towers behind me. Behind them is the Michelle scrapyard photo session.

Linda

Newfoundland One of the many, many sets of trail stairs we climbed.

Polar bears

Why ever didn't I publish this, and maybe I did