Abstract thoughts

Photo Randy Vanderveen, Seattle, Washington, A Spring Street scene is changed into an abstract sight as it is reflected in the windows of Seattle Public Library's Central Library in the city's downtown.

While photography is often the art form with the most realism, the photographer can make things a little more abstract forcing his or her audience to slow down and think about what is pictured.

This can be done in camera without resorting to filters in Photoshop .

One of the simplest ways is to shoot tight using reflections. Here are some examples taken during a recent holiday with my wife, Cheryl, while in Seattle, WA.

Photo Randy Vanderveen, Seattle, WA Reflections of other office towers in the windows of a downtown building in Seattle.

Photo Randy Vanderveen Seattle, WA A tight crop of windows without any sense of their surroundings provides a different view.

Photo Randy Vanderveen, near Kelowna, B.C. A tight shot of the trestles on a bridge on the former Kettle Valley Railroad KVR through Myra Canyon part of the Trans Canada Trail that runs through the Okanagan in B.C.'s southern interior.

For everything...there is a season

Photo Randy Vanderveen, Saskatoon Island Provincial Park Despite its early appearance, these coloured leaves serve as a reminder for area residents that autumn arrives in less than a month.

This is the time of year when things begin to change more rapidly than any other time.

It seems that once late summer hits the Peace Country, autumn unsheaths its claws and takes hold of the area.

Fields begin to turn ripe ready for harvest, leaves turn colours and fall and birds begin gathering in preparation for their southern migration.

While some of that is beginning to happen, this summer's wet cool stretch has also resulted in delays.

For example some berries and wild flowers are still out in abundance this year, despite usually being gone by early August.

Many area farmers are still working on taking down their hay crops and may be forced to move from haying to harvesting within a short time period if the warm weather holds and the usual September rains hold off.

Photo Randy Vanderveen, Saskatoon Island Provinicial Park Saskatoon berries wait to be harvested by birds, bears, berry pickers or coyotes as they hang heavy on the shrubs in the provincial park named for the berry bushes.It is always a time that can make for dramatic photos, although in the plains of the Peace Country the burst of colour from trees is usually short-lived.

It is also a time for people in the area to get back to the busy hustle and bustle of life whether that is school, harvest, yard work or readying the house and RV for the return to cooler days.

Take the time to enjoy the view and the fruits of the season.

Photo Randy Vanderveen, north of Debolt A barley field is getting close to being harvest ready. This year many farmers who are raising barley will have their work cut out for them as the crops in many areas of the Peace are extremely lodged. Photo Randy Vanderveen Saskatoon Island Provincial Park A snowshoe hare appears unhurried as he grazes by the road side in Saskatoon Island Provincial Park. •••

You will probably notice updates coming a little sporadic in the next few weeks as we undergo some changes.

Various aspects of life seem to run neck and neck and often one takes precedence by a nose.

Please be patient, I will try and get back to a routine of posting regularly in a month or two. Thanks for dropping by.

Photo Randy Vanderveen, Grande Prairie, Alberta Sometimes priorities in life seem to run neck and neck with one having to take precedence by a close margin.

Back to the Dark(room) Ages

An interesting read. (Warning language is a colourful). This is how I started my career. I'm trying to recapture some of that by trying my hand at shooting some film again. Not doing the darkroom deal as looking for equipment and dealing with chemicals which in the past were dealt with in a cavalier attitude would be a major pain in the butt.

How soon we forget? How about you? If you worked in the paper business do you remember the hot wax machine, editing with a blade and line gauge, double rolling film onto spools and printing half tones direct from the enlarger? What about the smell of fix?

http://journoterrorist.com/2011/08/02/paperball2/

A pair of photos

Here are a couple of photos from this week. Photo Randy Vanderveen near Lake Saskatoon, Alberta A rig works in a field surrounded by blooming canola north of Lake Saskatoon Tuesday, July 26. As conventional oil begins to diminish energy companies are beginning to look for renewable energy sources like fuel produced from biomass or grains and oilseeds.Photo Randy Vanderveen near Peace River, Alberta Bill Cowan, a Peace River area farmer, takes advantage of a sunny July morning to swath his hay crop in a field in the Peace River Valley near the Shaftesbury Ferry. Cowan said the crop is very heavy and thick thanks to all the moisture in the Peace Country the past two months.

My favourite things (to photograph in the Peace)

1. The Dunvegan Bridge. Many different angles and seasons to capture what has to be the iconic view of the Peace River in many people’s minds.

2. The Northern Lights. While we don’t get the shows that High Level and Fort McMurray do, the South Peace still has several large displays of the Northern Lights each year. It takes effort as a photographer has to be willing to be out shooting around midnight when the displays are at their best and has to have a foreground figured out before he even heads out to shoot.

3. Fall Colours. We have a very short season in the South Peace to capture fall colours — usually the first half of September — maybe longer if it is an exceptionally calm year. The river and creek valleys are some of the best areas to capture the change of season,

4. Swans- The lakes in the LaGlace and Valhalla area usually have swans and are often times the areas surrounding them have numerous swans during the fall and spring. The avian symbol of this area and the birds look good whether they are swimming, flying and even grazing. For those limited by how far they can travel Crystal Lake is also a good bet for swans.

5. Wild Mammals- Elk, deer, foxes, coyotes, bears all provide a certain satisfaction when photographing. Don’t always fill the frame with the animals show their interaction in the environment as well.

6. Sunsets and sunrises. We are blessed in the Peace with big skies. Any where the sky is visible and there is an interesting foreground is a great place to shoot the start and end of a day. The colours usually are better when there are a few clouds scattered about. I

7. Pastoral scenes. Farm scenes are always one of my favourite things to photograph whether it is harvest, seeding or livestock grazing, Agriculture is a huge part of the Peace Country’s history and current economy and deserves to be recorded.

8. Weather. Electrical storms, snow, fog etc, are all part of the Peace Country and how the environment affects it. Makes great photographs with plenty of mood.

9. Sports or people at play. I also enjoy shooting sports that are less well known and are a little more unusual as it stretches me photographically.

10. My favourite thing to photograph is people. Not portraits but stories of real people doing real things. It can be a single photo of someone  working or a multi-photo piece on people creating a craft. It is the story of people in the Peace and their interaction with each other, the environment and their livelihood that tells the story of the Peace.

What are your favourite things to photograph? Are you busy this summer trying to make some photos of your favourites? Are you stretching yourself in what and how you shoot?