Frames Abstract
Reviewing my archives one cold winter day, I scrolled past an overlooked, out-of-focus photograph a few times, an image from a couple of years ago that might have been an accidental shutter release, and on maybe the third pass, I paused to take a closer look. It was a rather dull, random shot through a large vintage wall mirror in our living room with reflections of the layers of framed things ... windows and photographic prints, other framed mirrors on other walls with their own reflections of layered, colourful, framed things from different angles. I began to play. I shoved the contrast faders a bit north and boosted saturation levels until colours started popping and my eyes were going wonky. This is actually a “real” photograph, albeit with a bit of creative but minor processing, and it reminds me that photography needn’t always be intentional. A seventy-seven year old grandpa with a camera and some imagination can have just as much fun as a six year old with a box of crayons if he wants to. This one should be expensive.
Bathtime
A pretty little Yellow Warbler was innocently splashing in a puddle after a recent rain, and my presence didn’t seem to pose any threat, so I snapped a few photographs while I had the brief opportunity. We prairie dwellers are blessed with an abundance of migratory birds throughout the seasons, and although the larger ones … the eagles and hawks, the pelicans and the geese … attract our attention so easily, it’s the small songbirds that I particularly love and enjoy. They’re so quick and so shy that’s it’s difficult to get close enough for a decent shot, so the aspiring nature photographer needs to develop a lot of quiet patience and be able to sit still for a very long time to be successful. I like to refer to my own process as “getting quiet” … becoming part of the landscape, letting my thoughts drift away and simply waiting, watching and listening.
I recall the words of one career photographer, an editor for a major photography publication, complaining that he was so weary of looking at “bird on a stick” pictures, and although that’s a common and inevitable pose much of the time, I am grateful when I’m able to capture what I like to call “the spirit of the bird” in a different setting.
Elbow’s Grain Elevator: With The Original Roof
I have photographed this iconic prairie structure innumerable times over the years, in all four seasons and in a wide variety of weather conditions, and usually that’s fairly easy to do since this vantage point is only a few steps from my house. Of all those countless photographic images, this early one has managed to remain at the top of the best-seller list in our Front Porch Gallery. Many people have told us that although the new, red steel roof is more eye-catching and practical, for them it's because the old, original roof lends more of a sense of history.
I’m one of the few people in recent times who’s had the unique opportunity to ascend to the elevator’s interior top floor via the hand-pulled rope lift, and a friend and I once purchased the heavy 12” x 12” x 20’ Douglas fir timbers from the adjacent annex when it was demolished years ago. Those timbers have since been sold.
I went back to the original files and processed this image from scratch, giving it a brighter, fresher appearance, and I look forward to having it printed again, large on aluminum or, perhaps as a large framed canvas print.