#47 – Spider Treasures – 16 August 2017
Which are you most like: someone who can still recall verbatim a lot of poetry from school, by dint of memory and scholarly practice at the time? Or someone who remembers only one snippet of one particular poem, because it struck deep to the heart when you read it, or listened to your teacher recite it, for the first time? The grass spider has one beautiful poem to spin for the morning dew every day of its life.
#48 – End IN SIGHT – 17 August 2017
What if you are a perfectionist trying to cope with your constant imperfection (that would be all perfectionists)? You can’t really unbecome being a perfectionist. Somehow, you must come to embrace. That means finding strategies for dealing with chronic imperfection, be that photographic or in any other domain. A strategy that works well for me is to rebrand imperfect outcomes as prototypes. Prototypes are meant to be imperfect, so their imperfection is not a failure. It is part of a journey towards perfection. It may be a twisted and long journey with repeated and varied prototypical outcomes. I may never achieve the perfect end. But no matter, every prototype is part of the perfect journey towards perfection.
#49 – Into the Woods – 18 August 2017
Panning, swirling, zooming and generally jerking the camera around at low shutter speeds. This is excellent training for all of us who are type-A perfectionist control freaks. No matter how carefully you think it through, plan it out, you are at the mercy of chance. You are forced to take many exposures and hope something has worked out within the very broad parameters you can control. You also get the euphoria of discovering something fantastical when you review your work later on. Panning is the anti-planning.
#50 – Lookin‘ In and Lookin’ Out– 19 August 2017
I deal with fear of failure in a binary fashion: either I won’t even try something, or I will approach it with complete perfectionism. But this posting once a day endeavor forces me to the middle ground. That is a healthy place to rummage around and learn. Famous photographer of colour / people / moods Saul Leiter said something along the lines of “I go out, I take photographs, sometimes it turns out and sometimes it doesn’t”.
#51 – Through the Tunnel – 20 August 2017
In this little graveyard in Bridgetown, Nova Scotia, lie ancestors whose DNA governs what and maybe also who I am. The paternal family lived here for generations. This as close as I ever got to my grandfather, whose remains have lain here since before I was born. I’m not sure about the DNA transmission. He was a serial entrepreneur; I am a civil servant. But to be fair, the other DNA tract in me, from my mother’s side, is all Lutheran clergy people. Perhaps that’s how these mix? And what of free will, self-destiny?
#52 – Embraced – 21 August 2017
Why, in the middle of a maritime tour, am I posting an image made back in Toronto? Here is the issue: I do find it difficult to make photographs and at the same time be a good traveler and good travel companion. Making photos is a bit of a job, and it is solitary for me, and it requires me to focus (apologies, but I won’t remove the pun). Or so I believe, which is the same thing. Given that one goes on holiday ostensibly to get away from jobs, well you see the issue. As I am writing this (summer 2018, after the year of posting daily has ended) we are getting ready for a four week discovery trip to Scotland. I find myself unsettled about taking the camera along.
#53 – Low Tide – 22 August 2017
Arrived in St. Martins. First field lesson: panning techniques. André is the instructor. We just group-walk up the road from the inn at which we stay, and arrive at a marsh-bordered tidal river. André spends a few minutes on panning technique and sets us loose. He circulates and gives one-on-one tips and encouragement. Every day has two themed shoots (after breakfast and after lunch). Then, we get a couple of hours to prepare the images we made. Then its show time, in front of … everyone. And everyone is supportive!
#54 – Heavy – 23 August 2017
Thanks to more modern technology, Atlas finally gets a rest. The weight of the world is still there. But it is not his to bear. Maybe he’s gone to have a beer. Maybe he’s distressed because after eons of wanting to shuck his burden, he finally gets his chance, only to discover that holding up the world is the only thing he has known and all he is. This is the bottom of a boat that looks like its scrapped its way across the Bay of Fundy at low tide.
#55 – Triangles – 24 August 2017
On the second day of the workshop the assignment is to be escorted to a spot (mine was the middle of a gravel parking lot between two buildings) and made to plant one’s tripod, and keep it exactly there. No leaving the location or moving even an inch. Now make images. This really teaches you to look. And to be creative about your approach. And to hunt for beauty. And to let design elements reveal themselves. And to sweat.
#56 – Magical Instructions for Life – 25 August 2017
Can you decipher these ancient glyphs? They look like some form of symbolic or numeric code that can be deciphered into a text language. Give up? Once carefully decoded the text reads “make a little beauty whenever you can.”
#57 – Inferno – 26 August 2017
We did a macro session one morning at the workshop. The set up is simply a series of glass containers with coloured water in them. With this kind of photography, you can’t really predict what you will find until you start peering through the viewfinder. Then, there is a whole big-little world that reveals itself. The slightest adjustment – of position or camera settings – and everything morphs in unexpected ways. Also its funny to watch a bunch of people clutching cameras all huddled up against a set of jugs and vases, jostling for position.
#58 – Grass Fire – 27 August 2017
Lots of people teach this: equipment doesn’t matter. First day at the workshop, everyone is fussing over their cameras and lenses. Except for one participant. Gail seems to have all in hand, and is idly checking her iphone. That’s because she sold her expensive camera gear, and uses that iphone instead. That’s what she brought. Back home she is a dental hygienist and her iphone prints adorn the walls of her office. Patients who might fall in love with an image after 40 minutes of rapt viewing in the chair can buy it on the way out. Equipment doesn’t matter.
#59 – Soft out the Window – 28 August 2017
I loved this the moment I saw it, the moment I squeezed the shutter, after I softened it in the computer, and every time I see it. A very special thing about it is that this is taken at Freeman Patterson’s home, Shamper’s Bluff. There are 250 acres of exquisite nature here. It will be so in forever, because he has deeded title to the Nature Conservancy of Canada. If he be a photo deity, then this be heaven. More about the man and the property here.
#60 – Wood Wine – 29 August 2017
You manage your camera to one of two ends. Either the point is to get as sharp an image as possible. There are lens test results all over the internet rating the inherent sharpness of various lenses, but in the real world sharpness is much more a function of camera stability (amazes me how many people use one handed techniques to take fuzzy photos), focus, and aperture/depth of filed choices than it is lens quality. Alternatively the desire is to capture camera movement through in one of several axes and time spans. When I was little I used to spin while looking up at the clouds until I fell down dizzy in the grass and watched the whole world continue to rotate sideways, slower and slower.
#61 – Across the Bay – 30 August 2017
I think this is a silly picture!
#62 – Siesta – 31 August 2017
The last session of the workshop was a presentation produced by each of the participants; a slideshow on a theme or topic, self-chosen. We had a day to select the theme, make the images and stitch together the show. My favorite was by Anna. She went to the village cemetery, and came back with ta beautiful reflection. For a long while I had a link to it, but its gone in the mists of time moving on. Use your quietest imagination …
