This scene reminded me of a sign I saw as a child at a restaurant beside a gas station. It read: Eat and Get Gas. I found the double meaning quite amusing and never forgot seeing it. Some fifty years later I saw an opportunity to illustrate that sign.
I plan on spending more time on my blog and will be posting a photo every day–recent photos like this one, taken yesterday, and also older images from my archives. And if you haven’t done do already, please subscribe to the Image Journey. Cheers!
The road goes on forever.
Here are my top ten photos of 2021. I didn’t stray far from home this past year, so most of the photos have a more rural feel. I looked for the usual suspects–good light, juxtapositions, unusual scenes. Most were taken with my iphone, and some with my DSLR. I often revisit locations throughout the year as the light and season can really affect the mood of the photo. Cheers! And all the best for 2022!
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These roads near my home are so familiar to me. I know them like a friend, having traveled them literally thousands of times. Every corner, every dip and hill, every bump remains in my memory. Most of my childhood dreams were set on these roads, so at many places I could recall a dream. It’s a pleasure to photograph them in all seasons, under different lighting conditions, and at all times of day. I usually do this when I’m alone as it can annoy family members–“you’re getting out of the car again?”
These road photos are usually taken when there are few cars on the road and taken at spots where it is safe and convenient to pull over. And I have my favourite spots that I photograph again and again. My wife sometimes remarks that I have taken that same shot a hundred times. She’s right, in a sense. But there are subtle things like light and colour that can make the same scene look unique in a photo.
Roads are powerful metaphors. We each travel our own road in life and no one else can live it for us. These images are like little poems from Hants County, Nova Scotia, stops along the road.
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It’s winter in Canada–a good time to post a selection of snow photos. It a wonderful sight to see the landscape transformed by a blanket of fresh fallen snow. In the following poem Emily Dickinson makes mention of the snow sifting down, making an even face of mountain and plain.
Taking snow photos is a good way to connect with the season, and enjoy the absolutely unique qualities of winter. On windy days, photographing snow is a good way to photograph the elusive wind. There are amazing shadows cast on sunny days, and an abundance of soft textures. I like to go out around twilight time when the snow is coming down. It’s a good opportunity to use a flash to freeze the snowflakes.
Snow by Emily Dickinson
It sifts from leaden sieves,
It powders all the wood,
It fills with alabaster wool
The wrinkles of the road.
It makes an even face
Of mountain and of plain, —
Unbroken forehead from the east
Unto the east again.
It reaches to the fence,
It wraps it, rail by rail,
Till it is lost in fleeces;
It flings a crystal veil
On stump and stack and stem, —
The summer’s empty room,
Acres of seams where harvests were,
Recordless, but for them.
It ruffles wrists of posts,
As ankles of a queen, —
Then stills its artisans like ghosts,
Denying they have been.
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