I am the Burgerfan!

At the end of July, Brad was wanting for more ‘enjoyable acts of photography’ in his life. He decided to make the most of his camera during the month, photograph anything, and end up with a satisfying collection of photos representing August 2011. (For the record, this is my favourite).

While I am no match for Brad’s photographic quantity or quality, it did get me thinking – I haven’t been taking advantage of this hobby as a way of breaking routine and letting my mind wander. Nor have I had any drive to work on a side project since about January of this year. So I decided it was time to get back on the ‘side project’ bandwagon.

I’ve seen people successfully complete photo-365 (a photo a day) and photo-52 (a photo a week) projects, and I admire their discipline in following through (as well as the ability to remember to keep taking photos). The reward at the end of these types of projects is a formidable visual time-capsule of the given window in time. As a side project, I went for a lighter approach. I decided that I would try to use my camera every couple of days.

If I saw something of interest, or came up with an interesting concept to try, I’d spend 5-15 minutes taking photos, and another 5-15 minutes in Lightroom, pick two, and post. It can seem a little hasty, but it turns the hobby into a more bite-size execution rather than waiting for larger blocks of free time to intersect with good weather and/or a visually interesting event. Even better, I either learned something or came to remember things I had learned on past photo outings. Most days, my inner critic would not like the end result of the session’s choice photos, but those were the days I usually came out of it with a set of ideas for how I’d come closer to the intended vision. So that counts as time well spent in my books.

The cool thing was that this project got me to take my camera out with me more often. Even to work. And it made me pull over on the side of the road, get out, and take photos, instead of driving past things thinking ‘someday I’ll go back and take a photo of that’. I also learned that ‘someday’ may never happen. At least until the snow flies, I plan to keep my camera in tow more often, and it will enable me to go capture those compositions that strike at random.

I don’t tend to stick with rigid time frames (like year-long resolutions), and did not intend to use August 31 as a distinct end for this project. Something else has caught my interest, and I have already gained momentum on it, so its time to wrap up this project as I know it. I still plan to publish more photos to my site, it just won’t be with the same frequency. Having ‘a’ side project is better than not having any.

More on that next side project later. Maybe.

They’ll be back on the road tomorrow though

Lola got some glowsticks this evening, which she is waving around in bed. She was an airplane controller among other things, and was putting on a good show!

The alligator was Lola’s creation from another time. What will she say when she wakes up and comes downstairs?

What was that thing about moderation?

Alternate photo:

The Outlook Motel has been a fixture on the side of the Yellowhead for 35 years. I don’t know who would have stayed there but its easy to let the imagination loose, concocting stories of a seedier, darker nature. What drew my attention was the vintage style sign. For as long as I can remember, it has always looked like that.

Here is am image from Google Maps Street View of the sign:

For as long as the link works, here is a link to the street view.

For a couple of years I had intended to stop and get a photo capturing the sign’s retro styling, and if I was daring enough, maybe look to see if the rooms were some kind of time capsule containing other vintage elements. To my dismay, the sign was recently displaced and stripped of its markings, and just over a week ago demolition begun on the building. The land has been reclaimed for a widening of the highway, and a revamping of the interchange. As of this upcoming Tuesday, there will be nothing left.

The back half of the motel and an RV park will remain, and the sign will be resurrected as something new, but it won’t be what I planned to capture. The moral of the story is don’t assume things will remain the same. Especially if you plan to photograph them.

I stopped for a few minutes on my way to work yesterday to try a train + perspective photo I had been thinking about for a few weeks. I ended up stepping in swamp water, prompting me to drive to work as fast as possible to wash off, but still took enough time around the idle cars to snap some photos.

It turns out that for the preconceived image I wanted to take, I will require a much longer train, like the ones I have seen parked in Saskatchewan. Also, I will have to stand further away from the train. Given the positioning of the rails, highway, and swampwater, and considering I didn’t know how this would turn out to start with, I think I learned a few things for the next opportunity.

Additional photo:

… too slow for lightning, and too slow to escape mosquitoes. Last night a great lightning storm was passing over to the north. The lightning was tall and storm was far away, so from where I was it was dry, and there were no clouds above. This made for a great chance to get out into the field and get some wide angle shots without fear of getting wet. Despite spraying, I was mobbed by mosquitoes, and had nothing to show for it save for some bites. Once I got set up, the storm had progressed too far eastward.

Rewind a few days to the storm that woke everyone up on Saturday at 4am. That was a great storm with fantastic lightning! After twenty minutes realizing that I am not getting back to sleep, and that the storm isn’t passing, I decided to try to get some photos while only half awake. I found out which side of the house they were at, and the moment I set up my tripod… the storm jumped 15 km to the east.

I did get one photo though. Its not the greatest, but it is my first lightning pic of the summer (and probably one of the earliest photos in a day I’ve ever voluntarily taken). If we get a storm during convenient primetime hours, I’ll probably be trying again.

Recent US Politics, and a large scale market sell-off have reduced my investments to this: