Backyard moments.

When you’re young, you’re not allowed to use the garden hose. But having been turned off recently there remained some lingering pressure to get excited about.

But it didn’t last long.

Time to fall down and feel depressed on the concrete.

Then again, there’s other things to get done.

Moody shots from upstairs inside the red barn.

It is necessary sometimes to employ a flash to capture the decisive moment.

One day we went to the Bloedel Conservatory. I wrote about that trip in a previous blog entry but I never developed this film until now.

Our Town. This little series reads like a dialog.

Yep.

Something about these tourists was not quite right.

Back for another visit.

The sun had just set. The Where’s Waldo of lovers in the landscape.

The desire to finish off that roll coincided with a nice afternoon view from my apartment.

This fella had a funky dance as he glued his posters up. I made this frame and then waited a long time for another, hoping he’d look my way but I left frustrated.

Dad’s giving my sister some make-up tips there.

My sister was enjoying a nice coffee.

Dom left.

Bye, Dom.

That’s Loscil performing at Red Cat Records.

I enjoyed that.

The Main for some brunch by the window.

She’s saying something.

Another day, and brunch at Habit.

You won’t hear it often, but that would be better in colour.

This is that photo that I wouldn’t normally make, but when you already have the camera at your face you sometimes decide ‘why not?’ and then it’s your favourite shot on the roll.

For anyone who doesn’t understand graduated licensing in BC, it’s required to display that L when one has a Learner’s Licence. I think this photo is special because it isn’t just a Porsche Cayenne, it isn’t even just a Porsche Cayenne S, or a Porsche Cayenne Turbo. It’s a Porsche Cayenne Turbo S. It’s never a bad idea to learn to drive on a six figure 550 horsepower eurominivan, at least that’s what I’ve always said.

John didn’t have much to say about that.

But Randy was quite impressed.

Enjoying the rest of the evening sunlight.

And checking out what the neighbors are up to.

We were at the park another evening to throw a disc around.

I had lunch with Gil Grissom.

Just something that I saw.

Hmm, I wonder what’s next.

You know what, Internet? You’ve never looked at your watch, or crumpled your forehead, or quoted me the time, or inquired ‘Morning… ?’ and I love you for that. Your reward is this blog. We commit your mortal remains to the bosom of the MAE-West. That was a really funny joke I just made, it’s just unfortunate that you don’t get it.

I preferred this lot vacant but it is full of used cars again today. This first roll of b&w was shot during August through October in one of my infrequently used SLRs, the trusty Nikon FG.

Things happening on street corners.

This might be the masterpiece of the entry. I know I am getting started a little slow. We’ll see where this goes.

A subtle PBR cache.

This is a government of Canada building. Somehow in this country you don’t get guns pointed at you by private security contractors when you point a camera towards architecture.

Seeing a lot of these lately now that the new subway emerges right down the block from the office.

I was on a trip to buy some film that day. It was when I realized that the price of Tri-X has risen dramatically in the last few years. It was quite a while since I’ve bought any since I had a modest stash.

As an experiment I recently picked up some Arista Premium from Freestyle photo (google will tell you that many people consider this repackaged Tri-X or at least almost identical to Tri-X). I will talk about it in a future update when I get around to shooting some since some of the photographers reading might be interested (it is priced almost 1/3 the cost compared to a roll of Tri-X).

Since I’m down the path of wankery already, here is the Zeiss ZF 50/1.4 at 1.4 on Kodak TMAX 100 (the old version). This is the flower garden outside my old apartment on 14th. I often read when commuting and so when arriving at home I’d like to sit there for a while and finish off the current chapter. I guess that POV is a nice memory now.

Same thing, 1.4.

And finally, 2.8, probably my favourite aperture on that lens.

Seems this guy was wearing a hat.

I’m not quite sure why I did that. It was one of those things that seemed like a good idea at the time. Maybe I thought 1/4th made me a videographer too.

I was talking about how much character the shutter on the Nikon FG has. Naturally I had to demonstrate.

There was a rainbow. I promise.

In October I got my Leica back from service and put some trix in there. I guess I did not write about it here but in the summer my Summicron fell apart. Not many people know this, but on the third day, God’s Summicron fell apart also, and from his tears the oceans of the Earth were formed.

I said stand still I need to test the focus. I don’t know what’s more amazing, that my collimation is now corrected or that he didn’t make a face.

Let’s not.

His name is Rich Hope and he’s gonna whip it on ya.

But really I was there to see Grady.

And I had the pleasure of proximity permitting me to photograph the Gordie Johnson signature truss rod cover. It’s nice to look for the details like this when shooting live music. The stuff the other photographers will never get.

Then again it also helps being close enough to get knocked out by the headstock.

Rocking the epic double-neck.

And the Explorer, no less.

So that was the first roll through the reborn M6. This has been an intermediary update. More soon, kiddies.

Hi, this is my first picture of this entry.

In the bay, there is a person in the water of the lake among the trees between the mountains.

It is a beautiful day, but this refreshment is fed by glaciers and is cold.

And she’s coming to visit me where I cower upon the edge of a dock I photographed 4 years ago. But let us rewind a little.

This happened one evening in our town while I was finishing off ‘Platform’ by Houellebecq in August. I enjoyed all of it happening. But what I wanted to happen for most of the summer was forest fires to stop burning, roads to open and a vehicle to take me with special people to the family cabin. Well, eventually it happened.

And we were on our way.

We pulled down the soft driveway over pine needles and into silence early in the morning. It must have been nearly 3 am if it hadn’t already passed.

And in the following day I watched my nephew, Weston, crawl around the same grounds, picking up the same sticks and tripping over the same veins of the earth that I once had during the same age.

Because it’s an isolated environment many things never leave and seem to last forever, like toys, and so he set to fill the same trucks with the same dirt I used to haul in my childhood.

I think it was actually one of the strongest emotions I’ve ever felt.

And here I am at this dock again…

So I thought I’d wander around and raise the elbows at various objects. The condition of this tree actually makes me a little nervous. This point of view betrays the scary angle its hanging at today. The Gun Lake Noise-Makers is us, my family, or at least it used to be back in the 70s. Most of the noise seems to have come before my time.

The trucks used to roll across here for sure, among the alien moss and fungus formations.

He’s new.

He is not.

Think I edited these when my eyes were crossed.

The dump truck has a lever with that ball attached on the end and it manipulates the angle of the truck bed. The truck on the right has foam paddles attached to the front axle and when it rolls it scoops things up from the ground back in to the bed of the truck from underneath. In my opinion these are both good ideas for toy trucks.

My sister was hunting through the past too.

Although we don’t see much of a sunset from our position on the lake, later in the day a tranquil ambiance descends as the light reflects gently off the water.

While our first evening set in we brought out some beer. Somebody was a little anxious cracking theirs.

Lacking the thought of something to play I motioned that we take a simple chord progression from a Nightwish song and turn it into a wilderness folk-jam.

No, I didn’t sing it.

We made fajitas for dinner.

Although this is now ‘the kitchen’ now, there used to be 4 dirt bikes lined up in this corner all my life. They made good towel racks, said my sister.

The art did not evade me for long.

This place is looking a lot different than it did four years ago.

But I guess being there in the fall helped to bare the trees for the light. Also I had bigger balls, shooting wide open.

Maybe that one would make more sense during a different season or at a better time of day.

All of this has happened before, and all of this will happen again.

If it was the light before noon that gave me trouble it, it gave me other things as well.

Something quite anonymous.

Another structure, less anonymous.

Having wandered a while I wanted next to be stationary and shoot at some cans.

The look of failure.

More super-productive jamming happened throughout our stay.

And on the last afternoon there we realized something.

Weston will feed a horse all day long.

It doesn’t really matter if the horse is not real, or if all he’s got to feed the horse with is branches and dirt.

We went for a walk and I managed to convince my sister it would be a good idea to wear the horse for a while.

If ever a photo needed to be printed, framed and hung on the wall…

Hmm, nice moment to reflect upon.

He was completely uninterested in becoming the horse, unfortunately. Not that I blame him, it’s a rather isolating and claustrophobic environment to be in.

Putting things in your mouth though, you usually can’t beat that for a good time.

We stayed at the cabin for 4 nights. Just enough time to finally unwind and be comfortable, then it’s time to pack up and leave. And we had planned to leave at 11 am! Well in the morning I asked Randall to give some assistance making some artistic portraits. Especially because inside I had found in a stack of children’s books this book titled ‘Horses’. I thought it’d kind of be just like a dude sitting on the porch reading ‘People’ magazine.

I knew the light at that angle wasn’t going to work so I gave my position a turn and got a bit sophisticated.

On the road back home, just outside the town of Lillooet it was necessary to make a brief stop.

The horse child had an accident keeping his breakfast stored in his stomach. He got cleaned up and the remains were buried in the gravel.

Spirits were raised.

It almost seemed like he was emulating me there.

Nearly 7 hours later we were back to civilization.

A gesture which speaks volumes.

I think that’s it for now. Thanks for having this party with me. Bye.

Somebody I know got their long lusted iPhone this summer. My bookmark’s on the table. It is recognizable to the scholars among us.

I decided one morning that making photographs of the bees might be a good idea. You can’t really make them out here but I promise they are there.

Okay, that’s a personal favourite. Fuck the haters. You’re jealous and you want to be me.

Something is always missing from the standard flower photographs.

“Human beings must have had a lot of courage to colonize cold regions.” You can’t read it but if I printed it large enough you would. Or if you read that book. (which you should)

I guess I was someones passenger. QQ the SLR times. We do what we gotta do when the Leica quits us like a lady.

Such as, take photos of the ground. It’s the shoegaze of photography.

In August I met the father and the lady for lunch. Pretty without any attempt.

While we sat there, music was playing on the street not 20 yards away. Of course I was tempted hither with glass and acetate.

This band is called DRMHLLR. They left an impression, or I guess I would not have left the patio table to steal their souls.

Those digital adjustments were inspired by deviantart. Wee!!!!

There’s a special secret objective to this, you’re not allowed to know.

Hey, check out that ice cream truck. They wanted me to buy an ice cream REALLY bad. I said that’s way too much sugar. They said today is a great day for ice cream and sugar. I said fuck that shit, nigga!

She almost hit me in the head with the street hockey ball.

Maybe I lied, I think we’ll introduce the horse next time.