Grain Storage

When it gets thick enough, ice fog can eliminate any evidence of a horizon as it did on this day. I drove quite extensively around Red Deer County in the fog, which I find very enjoyable! Everything becomes very isolated and a feeling of loneliness pervades. Sounds become muted and whenever I stopped to have a look around or take a picture, I am sure to turn of the vehicle to enjoy the silence. Usually I’ll here a magpie, raven or maybe a distant farm dog barking. One day while out I heard a rather loud gunshot! I couldn’t see who was responsible and I’m certain whomever it was couldn’t see me, so I hightailed it out of there pretty quick!

 

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“Walking Tree” and “Fallen Branch”

 

 

This past Monday morning I dropped Laura off at her office downtown and headed into Red Deer County through a thick ice fog that had enveloped Red Deer and the surrounding area. I didn’t get far before I started to see the potential for some pictures. I slowed down along one of the range roads heading south as the fog was very thick, but when I get on backroads it’s what I tend to do anyway. As soon as I saw these trees I slammed on the brakes. They reminded me of Ray McSavaney’s pictures of the “Walking Tree” that he made in Yosemite National Park in the 80’s. I set up and waited until the fog drifted off a bit so I could see the front trees a bit better. It took a few minutes but I did’t mind. There was almost no wind and the fog was absorbing most of the sounds from around me. The quietness was very enjoyable!
Ray McSavaney is one of my favourite photographers and his book “Explorations” should not be missed and better yet, be in your library! I believe it was Ray McSavaney that first found the tree he photographed in Yosemite, but John Sexton photographed the “Fallen Branch” beautifully as well. Speaking of books, you should likely round up copies of John Sexton’s “Listen to the Trees” and “Recollections”!

 

12″ x 10.3″ print, signed, numbered, and shipped (open edition) http://www.paypal.me/collinorthner/175

24″ x 20.6″ print, signed, numbered, and shipped (prints 1-5 available at this price) http://www.paypal.me/collinorthner/500

40″ x 34.3″ print, signed, numbered, and shipped (prints 1-5 available at this price) http://www.paypal.me/collinorthner/1000

 

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Still Here, Alternatively – I’m Back!

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“It’s dead, Spalpeen,” Brian’s father said gently.

“Why?”

“It happens to things,” his father said.

“Why does it happen to things?” He turned up his face to his father, cheeks stained with drying tears.

“That’s the way they end up.”

W.O Mitchell – Who Has Seen the Wind (Toronto and Boston, 1947) Macmillan of Canada

 

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I have sorrowfully neglected my blog for far too long. No excuses really, just lazy! I have made many many pictures since I last posted and will start with some of the latest and slowly work backwards amongst new pictures as I go. For anyone who follows me on Instagram (collinjorthner) you will have seen most of the pictures I present here, but even today’s post has something different. One of these pictures on Instagram was shown in B&W, and here you get to see it in colour. 🙂

Autumn colours this year were quite beautiful, even though I didn’t capture a tonne (ton for those that still follow the imperial method of weighing things) of pictures. This one was made just as the woods made a last ditch attempt to impress those fortunate enough to walk the trails through them. It was a fairly windy afternoon and it was necessary to wait patiently for a spell of calm. I didn’t mind in the least, as it was still quite warm and looking around me wasn’t a bad way of spending some time. I spent a few hours slowly wandering around searching out the last few areas that were showing off.

 

 

We have had more than our share of windstorms this year in central Alberta and as such thousands of trees have been lost. Maybe lost is the wrong term? They are now becoming part of the forest’s nutrition plan for the future! I have tried to find a way of showing the damage, but in a way that is still aesthetically pleasing. It can be hard to walk through Bower Woods and still appreciate them for all their beauty with so many toppled trees.

 

 

Pertains to each of the three images in this post:

12″ x 9″ print, signed, numbered, and shipped (open edition) http://www.paypal.me/collinorthner/175

24″ x 18″ print, signed, numbered, and shipped (prints 1-5 available at this price) http://www.paypal.me/collinorthner/500

40″ x 30″ print, signed, numbered, and shipped (prints 1-5 available at this price) http://www.paypal.me/collinorthner/1000

 

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Ready For Winter

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To dwellers in a wood, almost every species of tree has its voice as well as its feature.

― Thomas Hardy, Under the Greenwood Tree

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Gull Lake, Alberta

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10″ x 8″ – Open Edition Printed on Ilford Galerie Prestige 310gsm, signed, numbered, and shipped  http://www.paypal.me/collinorthner/45

30″ x 24″ – Edition of 9 + 1 AP  Printed on Ilford Galerie Prestige 310gsm, signed, numbered, and shipped  http://www.paypal.me/collinorthner/350

40″ x 32″ – Edition of 4 +1 AP  Printed on Ilford Galerie Prestige 310gsm, signed, numbered, and shipped  http://www.paypal.me/collinorthner/750

They Still Stand

A few months back when the snow was just starting to fall I came across many many tree, big poplars, likely close to 80 years old, that had been cut and piled. Hundreds of them, to make more room for grain. The benefits of a windbreak gone. The benefits to all the birds and other wildlife that called it home, gone. the aesthetic beauty of these trees, gone. It felt like a disaster to me! What would make someone destroy such beauty for so small a gain?

Then, in spring as I was driving around Red Deer County during one of the last few flurries to spread it’s white powder coating on the land, I came across this beautiful windrow quite near to where the others had been cut. There was a thick fog all morning allowing only small glimpses of what was around me. A cold wind blew in and started to clear off the fog as the sun was rising. I noticed it shining through the fog only momentarily numerous times and managed to line it up with these majestic trees only to have it disappear just as quickly. I raced into this field in the hopes of seeing it again. Battling the strong cold wind, I managed to get the camera all set and ready with my gloves off and could feel my fingers stinging painfully. Putting my gloves on helped for sure, but being out in the wind was very unpleasant! Thankfully the sun poked out from behind the fog long enough to capture the view on film and after getting back to my car and warming up my fingers over the heating vents, I couldn’t help wonder if this windrow might be seeing it’s last season before falling to the bulldozers that seem intent on stripping our land of the few bits of remaining beauty.

 

 

 

[ Plaubel Makina 67, Kodak Portra 160 ]

 

 

Crazy ’bout a Mercury

Of course David Lindley is singing about a car – oh well! This old Mercury truck was found on an old farm south of Brooks, Alberta, near Rolling Hills. It was a creepy place too! My travelling partner Michael Chesworth went exploring the old farmhouse and discovered old bank deposit slips from the early fifties,  and an old shot up television that had only the original dial that let you choose one of thirteen channels. I remember being a kid watching our old B&W TV that had this same sort of dial, unfortunately, we couldn’t even make use of the dial as we had the luxury of getting only one channel! So, if we didn’t like what was on we were back outside riding our bikes or playing hockey on the local rink, depending on the season of course. Anyways, back to this farm, there was no sign anywhere at the start of the dirt laneway indicating “No Trespassing” so we felt OK checking it out. This truck was one of three in the yard and the one I liked making images of the best. I made a lot of close-ups of the patina of the metal with my digital camera, but really felt a pinhole image would add a sense of being in a dream and also would give some indication of how I was feeling in this farmyard. It really makes you think about who it was that lived there and why it was left in the state it was. Someone had a full life here and we only got to see a few remnants of it. I would have to think it wasn’t a creepy existent either, but just the way things have gone since whomever it was departed, left us feeling a bit unsettled. This image was made with a ten minute exposure with my camera mounted to my tripod and awkwardly arranged just inside the cab of the truck. I thought my meter was out to lunch indicating such a long exposure, but here you are, and it was rather dark in the shadows of the cab. An hour or so later we hit the highway to a new destination still heading further south.

 

 

[ Zero Image 6×9, Kodak Portra 160 ]

 

 

Kneehill County, Alberta

Farming, and of course the ever present oil and gas, are the main industries that Kneehill County can boast about. Farming to me is a romantic occupation where you operate by the light of the day and the changing of the seasons. You get your hands dirty and you work hard, but there would be a huge sense of accomplishment for the work done. I’m sure it’s not an easy way to make a living, but there are worse jobs out there! I grew up surrounded by grain fields and to this day love harvest season. The lights of combines and grain trucks late into the night peering through the grain dust that hovers near the ground as the humidity gets thicker. The many meals that are eaten on the tailgates of pick-ups and in general the excitement and nervousness of getting the crops safely into granaries. The smells that go along with harvest are amazing just the same as the turning of the fields in spring. The smell of fresh turned soil is amazing and then that of a field of bright yellow canola. I recall, too, the many fields of flax looking like mirages of lakes with the beautiful blue flowers. I don’t see much flax anymore, at least not around central Alberta. I can recall some years back in southern Manitoba there was a lot of flax.

This field had just finished being combined as the sun skimmed over the remaining stubble near Carbon. These tall granaries are nothing like the tiny wooden structures I remember, about the size of the small shed next to these, and they dwarf the tractor parked between them.

 

 

 

[ Plaubel Makina 67, Kodak Ektar 100 ]

 

 

Winter in Bower Woods (Trees, Trees, Trees)

Today I am posting few more images from yesterdays snow squall. I showed them to my wife, Laura Lee, last evening and she was quite honest when she said “You’ve shot these before.” in a bored sort of tone. It’s not that she doesn’t think they are competent images, it’s just that it’s more tree images. t certainly have made many images of Bower Woods and also just of trees as a subject. I thoroughly enjoy searching out character trees or dramatic lighting in the woods to make images, but then I do have a lot of them!

 

 

It’s pretty difficult for me to not do it, as I have always had a strong love of nature and here in Red Deer, I don’t find much else worthy of photographing. We don’t have much interesting architecture and our river is frozen solid for almost 6 months of the year. If I only have a few hours to make images, I can’t drive out to the mountains(2.5-3 hours one way) or the badlands(one hour – one way), so I am often either walking through Bower Woods looking at trees or I am wandering around the backroads of Red Deer County, which is mostly a lot of farming. I can’t say I don’t have quite a few interesting and nice images from around the county, but I find the area photographically lacking.

 

 

I know many an established pro will say there are pictures to be made wherever you are, and they aren’t lying. I’ve been known to say the same thing. It’s just that you can only do the same thing for so long before you start to become extremely bored with the idea. Trees, so far at least, are still working for me as a subject, but having been making images in Bower Woods for 17 years, I sincerely hope they have something left for me!

 

 

Even my oldest son, Thomas, said “You should do more abstract series. I like your nature stuff, but you have lots.”  I do love looking for abstracts and maybe that’s what I’ll go after for awhile for a change. Sorry for sounding negative! I can’t imagine what it must be like to live in a large city, out at the coast, or in the state of Oregon. The variety of subjects at your, virtually, instant access, must be very freeing and enjoyable!

 

 

Hopefully this hasn’t been too much of a downer for a post. I’m just voicing my thoughts on my own photography and it is my blog after all. If anyone wants to add their thoughts, good or bad, I’m open to hear them. Just leave me a comment.

 

[ Pentax 645Z, Pentax-D FA 55mm AL SDM, Pentax-FA 120mm Macro ]

 

 

 

 

Snow Squall

Here in Red Deer today we have had some very strong winds and along with the wind came some very heavy snow squalls. They wouldn’t last more than five minutes each, but did it ever come down! I was out again today with my borrowed Pentax 645Z as I only get it until Wednesday morning, so it didn’t matter to me if it was cold and snowy out, I wanted to play with this machine. The camera is completely weatherproof, so there was no worries about it getting wet either, which makes working in these conditions so much easier. Just so long as no moisture gets on the front element you are good to go. Clicking on the image will make it a bit larger.

 

 

[ Pentax 645Z, Pentax-D FA 55mm f/2.8 AL SDM ]

 

 

601st

No, it isn’t 601 Street, but it is my 601st post on this blog! I had to do inventory at work today from 8 – 4:30 and my Pentax rep dropped by to lend me his demo 645Z medium format camera. Needless to say, even though I was rather tired from the work all day, I had to go for a bit of a drive before the sun went down. So, off I went to some of my favourite areas south of Red Deer. This small stand of trees will likely be torn down shortly as it is one of the last stands in the area that hasn’t been ripped out and burned. So sad, as they look beautiful and I’m pretty sure the birds enjoy them as much as I do! Cross lighting from the beautiful late day sun was really showing off all the texture of the field. The wind was howling across this open field, so I used my extra large, heavy duty tripod to keep things still. The image really doesn’t make you feel as cold as I was!!

 

 

[ Pentax 645Z, Pentax-FA 120mm f/4 Macro]