More from Ogden – Abstractions

One of my great pleasures is searching out abstracted images in the ordinary everyday places I happen to be in and around. This was the same day that Doug Williamson and I were out a few weeks back in the Ogden area in Calgary. Just like the last post, I can’t really say much about the images here in the way of explanation other than the balance of colours, textures and patterns appealed to me enough that I felt it necessary to examine them closer and attempt to capture an image that holds together. I hope you enjoy them, and as always I welcome your comments.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Panasonic GX1, Olympus 12mm M.Zuiko, Olympus 45mm M.Zuiko]

Ogden, Calgary, Alberta

Doug Williamson and I spent some time a few weeks back exploring the Ogden district of Calgary searching out some photo ops. We weren’t really looking for anything in particular, just things that caught our eye.. Things we could study to find balance and patterns. Things that may not mean anything to anyone else but things that somehow made sense to us at that time and in that place. It is fun to head out without any agenda and just explore with your eyes and mind to come up with an image that “works”. I can’t really say a whole lot more about these images as they were just things on that day that “worked” for me. If any strike you as something that “works” or maybe they all “fail” for you, I’d love to hear your comments!

Doug is a fabulous artist and I have had the pleasure of spending time with someone who inspires and enriches my life. I always look forward to the time I can spend with him and his very talented wife Shannon! Doug has a big exhibit of his artwork coming up in Calgary at the Wallace Gallery starting on April 26th.

[Panasonic GX1, Olympus M.Zuiko 12mm, Olympus M.Zuiko 45mm, Leica 60mm Macro Elmarit-R]

Red Deer’s Old Train Bridge

I made this image while teaching an excursion course with about 8-10 students along with Dwight Arthur in Red Deer. We talk for about an hour or so about  a photographic technique or method and then head out for a few hours of fun photographing. This night we were doing a B&W course.

[Canon G10]

Red Deer 5

A far more representative view of the “Alpha Plant” in Red Deer.

[Canon G10]

Red Deer 4

Another image of the “Alpha Plant”, this time from the back side. Every effort is made by the Red Deer Downtown Business Association to block all grafitti. It looks like they’ve created some of their own!

[Canon G10]

Red Deer 3

Part of the Alpha Plant, or what used to be the Alpha Plant on the northeast edge of downtown Red Deer. There is a long term plan to redevelop this area and my guess is that eventually this plant will disappear making way for new commercial and condo units. I have a love of colour images which are virtually b&w. Only the tiniest hints of colour give them away.

[Canon G10]

East Coulee Bridge

Another image from East Coulee. This bridge had been recently replaced by a much more modern and boring bridge, you can just see a tiny bit of it on the extreme right edge of the image, that could allow two vehicles to cross in opposing directions at one time. The older much more attractive bridge allowed for a more neighbourly attitude by drivers because you had to pull to the side and yield to oncoming traffic. This bridge also serviced trains as it had an embedded track. The thick wood planks that make up the driving lanes were perfect for doing brake stands as your tires would really howl and squeal and of course the wood would burn creating a lot of smoke. A lot of good memories with the old bridges – my brother and I used to hang out from the support beams and stare down when the river ice would break up in spring. If you stared at the moving ice long enough, without so much as a sideways glance, the sense of the ice standing still and us flying over it was truly great!! I recall one other time we were out quite awhile after dark when we heard a very alien sound coming closer and closer. We were a bit freaked out until we discovered it was just a bunch of Common Goldeneye ducks which make a very distinctive and eerie sound as the winds whistles through their wings. Our hearts eventually went back down to their normal rhythm! I talk like I lived here in East Coulee, when in fact I lived upstream in Rosedale which had an almost exact duplicate of this bridge. At least East Coulee had the smarts enough to preserve the beautiful old structure. Rosedale totally demolished theirs, but they can move traffic soooo much faster. Honestly the traffic jams in Rosedale (pop. 325) were an almost unbearable 15 -20 seconds, can you imagine the frustration!!

[Linhof 617, 90mm lens, Kodak TMax 100)

New York City 35

It’s a Rainy Night in Revelstoke

[Panasonic GF1, 20mm F1.7 ASPH]

Caution – Smoke Break

I have just started to use a small toy camera called a Diana F+. This camera is renowned for the distortion and light falloff of it’s poor quality plastic lens. It has three apertures and one shutter speed. Needless to say it’s a rather simple camera to operate. This image was made a couple of weeks ago using outdated (04/07) Fujichrome Provia 400F which was cross processed and transformed into a B&W image using PS.