Waiting for life to return

Gnarly
London, ON, March 2009

About this photo: We're slowly drawing this week's Let Treedom Ring theme to a close. I'll post a new theme tomorrow (Friday)*, but it's still not too late for you to squeeze another tree pic in under the wire. Just click here.

It was a grey afternoon, the kind of day that normally wouldn't make for great photography. But between kidlings and life in general, I don't always have as much time as I'd like to simply walk around with my camera. So I can't pick and choose my photo days: Even if the weather's makes for lousy light, I've got to take what I've been given.

That's what I did on this day in between playdate dropoffs and pickups. I found a stretch of riverside bike path and went from there. No agenda or goal: Just shoot whatever looked worth shooting - and enjoy some rare quiet time in a place slowly awakening from a long winter. As you can see from this picture, life hadn't yet returned to this place, but I'm glad I froze it in time before it did.

Your turn: Who planted this tree? Why?

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* I'll get back to a Thursday-to-Thursday timeline starting next week. My bad.

Welcome to the swamp

Fallen
London, ON, March 2011

I was scheduled to pick our daughter up from a playdate and had about 15 spare minutes before the agreed-upon pickup time. The snow had just melted and I was itching to get out with the camera, even if it meant a rushed shoot in between the usual weekend kidlet dropoffs and pickups.

So I parked beside a still-soggy and very empty soccer field and hiked over to the little bridge over the barely-moving creek. I hadn't been here in a while, and in the interim it was clear that many trees had lost their battle with gravity and were now lying lengthwise across the water. Sad, yet beautiful in its own way.

I didn't have time to linger, so I grabbed whatever compositions I could before I headed back to the car. Deeper ponderings about the circle of life for trees - and what it might mean for the rest of us - would have to wait.

Your turn: Do scenes like this make you sad over what's been lost? Or hopeful for a rejuvenated future? Why?

One more thing. Thematic. Trees. Here. Enjoyable. Seriously.

Thematic Photographic 142 - Let treedom ring

Barked
London, ON, March 2011

Pardon the play on words, but it's been a tough week and I'm looking for humor wherever I can find it. We'll be exploring trees as part of our new Thematic theme. Why? Because spring is a big time of year for these wondrous chunks of life, and I think it's a neat challenge to explore them with a lens.

Of course, Thematic wouldn't be Thematic without a little - okay, a lot of - interpretation. So I'll leave it to your discretion to define what a "tree" actually is. As always, don't be afraid to take the theme wherever you wish. There are no rights and wrongs, after all. What matters is that we share photographic goodness and learn a thing or two in the process.

Your turn: Post a tree-themed photo to your blog (or find something you may have shared a while back) and leave a comment here letting folks know where to find it. Visit other participants to spread the joy around. Feel free to share as many tree-ish pics as you wish over the coming week: We encourage photographic promiscuity around here. If you're new to this weekly Thematic Photographic sharing thing of ours, click here and all will be explained.

Mother Nature strikes again

Resplendent in white
London, ON, March 2011

About this photo: We're continuing our exploration of the March Madness theme with this late-winter blast of snow. You can explore, too, by heading here.

I can accept that everyone complains about the weather. It's the one factor that universally touches everyone's daily life, the one thing that all of us, friend or stranger alike, can quickly discuss no matter where we may be.

But there's a limit to how often any sane person can take the same whining about how cold it is, how uncomfortable it is, how unfair it all is, how it needs to end soon, blah, blah, blah. And I think I surpassed that limit long ago. Some complainers are so emotional that you swear they're about to start crying, as if there's some sort of grand plan behind their meteorological misery.

Not quite. Weather happens. There's no grand plan behind it. We can't control it. We can't change reality.

When snow blankets the region for the umpteenth time in a difficult winter that never seems to want to end, our choice is to either let it bother us, or find the happy. On this day, I chose the latter, and am glad I did.

Your turn: How do you find the happy?

Rorschach test?

Water, metal and cold
Bowling Green, OH, December 2008

It's been a while since we did a first-three-words-that-come-to-mind exercise. Since it's Friday, I thought it would be nice to reintroduce it.

So...what three words first come to mind when you see this pic?

P.S. New Thematic theme is coming. Tonight. 7:00 Eastern. What would you like it to be?

Thematic Photographic 136 - Doubles

Twin towers?
Delray Beach, FL, December 2010

Remember when Thematic Photographic covered "singles" a few weeks back (here)? Well, y'all had such a good time with the number thing that I thought I'd give twosies a shot.

So for the next week, if your picture has two of anything in it, then it's fair game for inclusion in Thematic. Because it's always more fun when you share.

Your turn: If you've got a two-themed pic, please share it on your blog, then leave a comment here letting folks know where to find it. Repeat as often as you wish, and bonus points go to anyone who brings a friend along. The rules, such as they are, may be found here. But the only real rule that matters is this: Enjoy it. Just because.

Forgotten web

Temporary address
London, ON, October 2010

About this photo: Thematic is sharing letter-themed scenes all week long, and we'd love for you to share your own, too. Just go here to get the lettered party started.

You can't talk - or argue - about the fate of London's downtown core without including at least some mention of Dundas Street. This east-west artery is the backbone of the central retail district, and it runs from there clear through - and beyond - the east end of town.

Time has not been kind to this road, and a walk down its worn-down sidewalks can be more than a little depressing if you let it. But I've never much felt comfortable allowing a street to dictate my mood. And I'm a big fan of perspective.

I think that's because I grew up in a much bigger city, with a much bigger downtown, whose problems to this day seem to dwarf those of my adopted hometown. Indeed, when I went to school in Montreal, some of the crumbling streets there made London's Dundas Street on its worst day seem positively quaint in comparison.

Which is my way of saying even after a late-night stroll down a particularly sad stretch of Dundas, I remain convinced that this burg has nowhere to go but up. That it's only a matter of time before the planets align and folks with money and dreams return to this neighborhood and turn it back into the magnet it once was. I guess that makes me a dreamer. So be it.

For now, however, this now-abandoned URL stands as evidence of a future that once was.

Your turn: What does it take to return a neglected area back to what it once was?

Stonehenge on a tree

Ancient bark
Laval, QC, August 2009
[Click photo to enlarge]

I like to repeatedly walk the same paths I've walked since I was a child, returning to places that have become so familiar that I could probably traverse them with my eyes closed.

For obvious reasons, I keep my eyes wide open. Aside from avoiding unplanned dunks in less-than-clean rivers and streams, it helps me see things that I probably missed beforehand. I guess I never learned to cross a place off my list simply because I had already "been there".

After all, you don't exhaust the potential of something - place, book, song, person, whatever - simply because you've only experienced it once. If that were the case, we'd never get past the first date.

And so it was on this walk along a path I'd been on countless times since I was a kid, I saw some bark that reminded me of this. Not sure how I missed seeing it before. No matter, as I'm sure I'll find something else on my next visit, too.

Your turn: Finding something new in the tried and true. Please discuss.

Like Saturn's rings...

Abstract light
London, ON, February 2010
[Please click here to share your own curved vision]

This is another one of those abstract-in-the-everyday moments that literally appeared to me when I looked up. I was at an indoor playground, of all places, watching the kids frolic with their friends, so it wasn't exactly a prime photographic environment. If we're being brutally honest, it was hellish, with hastily painted surfaces assaulting my eyes, screaming children assaulting my ears and a growing migraine working its way through my brain stem.

But even the most barren deserts have their charms, and such was the case on this day. For a brief moment, I found solace in a neat example of optics in a place where no one else seemed to care.

Your turn: What's the most desert-like place where you've taken compelling photos? Can you share one?

One more thing: Possible song reference in the title. Guesses?

Raise your glass

L'chaim, to life
London, ON, October 2010

About this photo: We're sharing our fave photos of 2010 as part of an extraordinarily long-running Thematic Photographic theme. To make sure no one misses out, we'll be doing this until January 6th. If you're into it - and I hope you are - then feel free to go forth and photographically multiply.

I'm still working my way through my favorite photos from the last year. I could probably do this for the rest of this year, but I suspect the novelty is wearing a little thin by now. I'll launch a new Thematic theme on Thursday, but for now, I hope you'll take a seat and think about why all these glasses are here, and who's going to be drinking from them in the very near future.

Your turn: So? What's the story of these glasses? Have fun with it. I'll share the real story if you wish.

Dognap

A sleeping dog lies
London, ON, September 2010

About this photo: This is one of my favorite photos of the year. Coincidentally, that's what Thematic is celebrating, too. Go here to share a fave of your own.

I don't write about our dog, Frasier, as often as I perhaps should. I don't mean to ignore him on the blog. Indeed, he's anything but ignored in the day-to-day life of our house. He's the centre of the kids' world, the object of their constant attention, and their absolute favorite reason for getting up, for coming home or just being themselves on the living room floor.

He's our fixture, our loyal buddy, the sweet-looking being who follows us around the house and never lets us forget how much we need him. I don't have a whole lot to add to this picture because this is him: Rested and content. I wish I could grab a little bit of his spirit for myself.

Your turn: The appeal of a pet dog. Please discuss.

Thematic Photographic 128 - Favorite Photos of the Year

Time passed it by
London, ON, October 2010

Quick note: Thematic Photographic is our regularly scheduled non-competitive photographic sharing and learning activity. For more background on how it works, please click here, or read on and all will be explained.

We're going to have some fun with this theme. First of all, it's going to run for THREE weeks instead of the usual one. Second of all, the theme, Favorite photos of the year, is a lot more wide-open than it typically is.

Basically, if it's your favorite photo, we want you to share it. Even if you just like it a lot, we want to see it. And we want you to keep sharing as many faves as you've got. We'll be doing this until Thursday, January 6th, inclusive, so you've got lots of time to reach into the archives and come up with pics that really touched you and everyone around you. And we want you to encourage new folks to join in. Because we're that needy.

Why this theme and why now? Because following specific themes week after week means some pictures inevitably get left out. We can interpret 'em six ways from Sunday, but sometimes a picture just doesn't fit. So it sits. And sits. And gathers dust. And is eventually forgotten.

This prospect makes us sad, and we don't like sadness here at Written Inc. So we want you to go through all the pictures you've taken this year and pull out all of the ones you love the most. Post 'em to your blog, then leave a comment here letting us know where to find them. If you posted them already, share the link, anyway, because going back in time is a good thing. Repeat as often as you want, because this'll be going on for three weeks. So you'll need a lot of pictures - and maybe a bigger boat.

Are you game?

Your turn: Thematic Photographic is our weekly photo sharing activity here at Written Inc. If you're familiar with how it works, feel free to dive right in. For background, please click here. Oh, and have fun, because in the end that's the only thing that matters!

One more thing: This scene first appeared here. I just love when you get to look at the same slice of the planet from different perspectives. Don't you?

Out of business

Down to the concrete slab
London, ON, February 2009

About this photo: It's Thematic Photographic's night-themed week. If you've got a pic that was taken at night, or simply reminds you of it, please click here to share it.

Ongoing economic uncertainty means scenes like this remain common across the urban and suburban landscape. There's a poignancy to gigantic spaces that used to be such vibrant centres of commercial activity. They were once micro-communities unto themselves, islands of connectedness that never seemed to stop moving.

This place, for one, had most definitely stopped moving by the time I found myself on the outside peering in. It was a bitterly cold night, and the forlorn light filtering out onto the snow-covered parking lot was almost an invitation to take it all in. Since it isn't my nature to be rude, I accepted the invitation and trained my lens on the remnants until the cutting winds not-so-subtly whispered it was time to head home.

Your turn: Why do some nighttime scenes seem so sad?

Vanity fair

Did you wash?
Montreal, QC, August 2010

It's hard to believe in the age of pervasive digital everything that photography was once a rarely used, rather expensive pursuit. Cameras came out only on special occasions, and the only pictures that resulted were rather conventional and repetitive. We're all familiar with the result - namely posed shots of groups of people standing next to each other and smiling uncomfortably into the lens - and aside from the folks actually in the shot, no one ever wants to see any of these pictures again.

Digital has turned the act of pressing the shutter into something less noteworthy. We no longer question whether or not it's worth it before we give our fingertip that final push. We shoot first and worry later, if at all. This has a bit of a dark side, of course, as we risk not thinking through a given scene because "we can always play with it later." Once upon a time there was no going back once we took the shot. Now, of course, everything's editable. Still, this is a minor quibble, for anything that encourages more creativity can't necessarily be a bad thing.

In my own case, I find myself taking far more everyday-mundane pictures than I ever did in the era of film. I use the process not as a final canvas - which film was - but as a place to begin exploring. I'm less afraid to experiment - and fail - because I figure I'll learn something new along the way.

On this day, we were visiting friends, and the still-life-timelessness of the washroom that faced the family room was too good to pass up. In the end, the scene isn't spectacular, it isn't huge, it isn't iconic in any way. But it's as real as it gets to the folks who live here. And after years of being passed over in favor of two-dimensional head shots, it was this washroom's turn to pose.

Your turn: As sepia winds down, I hope you'll pull out an ordinary-themed pic of your own. Just go here to get started. New Thematic theme launches tomorrow (Thursday) at 7 p.m. Eastern. I'll announce precisely what that theme will be in the morning...still mulling it over, and still open to suggestions.

Light me up

Diffused light
Toronto, ON, August 2010
[Click here for more sepia]

The Festival of Light, better known as Chanukah, gets underway today. Why does this matter? Because it isn't only grey outside my window; it's grey everywhere else. It isn't always something we see, either. It's a feeling, a sense that we can be better to each other, that we can try harder to look out for the other guy instead of for ourselves, that we can be less quick to judge and more quick to let our gentle side come out.

It's not that difficult. It starts with a little light.

Your turn: Fixing the world. In your world, where does it start?

Don't tread on me

Step to it
Montreal, QC, August 2010
[Click here for more Thematic sepia]

Sure, they're just stairs. But they're delightfully old and worn, and if they could talk they'd probably have such stories to tell of their countless summers and winters by the water at the far end of the island of Montreal.

After I took this picture, I closed my eyes and wondered what stories those might be.

Your turn: Care to share one?

Yesterday's database

Historical drawers
London, ON, February 2010

About this photo: Thematic Photographic, our weekly photo sharing activity, is exploring sepia-toned images through Thursday. If you've got one (or two, or...) that you'd like to share, click here and have at it.

I date myself when I say I remember going to the library and starting every research effort with a trip through the card catalog. You never quite knew where these endless drawers of time-worn, dog-eared cards would send you, and that, I think, was half the fun. The other half was simply drinking in the experience. I can still smell the wood and feel the drawers open and close. You took your time moving from one to the other as you tried to build up the best possible shortlist of finds.

It was never as ruthlessly efficient as a Google search, of course, and when you were back home well after midnight, you were pretty much up a creek if your original research was somewhat lacking (yes, I speak from hard-earned experience.) But no search engine could ever deliver the kind of visceral experience of rooting through the card catalog. It was deliberate, and it required you to show up ready to invest a little of yourself in the process. So whenever I come across an old library, I try to explore the drawers a bit to remind myself of what it once felt like.

I admit I miss it a little.

Your turn: What do we lose as we move from real to virtual?

Life, the Universe and Everything

Safe haven
Montreal, QC, August 2010

About this photo: We're sharing sepia-toned pictures as part of this week's Thematic. Go here to share yours, or here to learn how the whole thing works. Or just read on if you're in the mood to be amused.

You don't see public lockers too often these days. Security concerns - thanks, Osama - have prompted places like airports and shopping malls to pull them out. Which means we're rapidly running out of places to store the burgeoning piles of stuff we inevitably accumulate when we're out and about.

Bowling alleys are, somewhat interestingly, exempt from this trend. I'm thinking the average cave-dwelling terrorist doesn't curse the Brunswick name at least once every waking moment, and hasn't identified these temples of childhood and post-retiree recreation as worthwhile targets of misplaced, hatred-driven opportunity.

Which is just as well, because places like this are interesting throwbacks to a simpler time*, and I'd hate to think of a world without strikes, spares, gutter balls and really cheesy-looking shirts. It strangely brings me comfort to know bowling alleys continue to survive and thrive.

Your turn: It's easy to dismiss bowling as a ridiculously stupid pastime. Throw a ball down a lane; knock down some pins; repeat. But I suspect there's more to it than that. What's its appeal, then?

One more thing: Why 42? I didn't even realize its significance until I composed the shot. Once I did, I had a good laugh. Which made total strangers look up and furrow their brows in my general direction. I hope fans of the late Douglas Adams enjoy the numeric reference.

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* Disclosure: My mother dragged my very young self to her bowling league at a place in Chomedey known, then as now, as the Recreatheque. To this day, walking into any bowling alley ignites memories of sitting on the creaky, two-toned plastic seats while the ladies clucked around me in between frames. I took this picture, as an adult, as my wife and kids watched my now-retired mother bowl with her league. It was a good day, and definitely a circle of life-type moment.

The towers that connect us

Telecommunication
Palm Beach, FL
December 2008
[Click here for more sepia]

I often write about mobile devices and the wireless networks that make them come alive. So when I'm wandering the hinterlands of this crazy continent of ours, I seem to notice every last iota of technological infrastructure.

Some would call these cell towers ugly. I'm no authority on what defines beauty (except for anything that applies to my wife, of course) but I'll admit I wouldn't want one of these things in my back yard. Or my neighborhood. Or anywhere remotely near any place where I spend any appreciable amount of time.

But like most nimby-esque cell phone tower haters, I willingly consume the bandwidth they pump out. I use my BlackBerry to make work happen, to connect with my family and to keep a window open on the world around me. I realize that the magical wizardry of any technology often comes with a bit of a dark side, and the answer (i.e. towers bad, not here) is never as simple as we wish it could be.

So I like to linger a little whenever I find myself near one of these towers. They're the perfect example of built-to-a-purpose engineering. Nothing is wasted, especially the effort to make any of it look good. Aesthetics? Not so much.

But then I circle back to that whole I'm-no-authority-on-beauty thing. Who says this isn't beautiful in its own way? Who says anything - or anyone - is or is not lovely in its own way? Who elected us final arbiters, anyway?

Your turn: How do you define beauty?

Thematic Photographic 125 - Sepia

Linear
Montreal, QC, August 2010

Sepia: A brown pigment obtained from the inklike secretion of various cuttlefish and used with brush or pen in drawing. Photography: A print or photograph made in this color. Source: Dictionary.com

Sepia: The theme for this week's Thematic Photographic. To participate, please post a similarly themed pic on your blog, then leave a comment here. Click here for the details on how TP works. Or just dive in and see what develops. Source: Me.

I'm fascinated by sepia for the same reasons that I'm fascinated by monochrome photography in general, because it strips away the patina of color and leaves you with composition and light to tell the story. It's a little simpler, a little more spare. Sepia adds an additional dimension to basic monochrome that seems to pull the entire scene back in time. Just a little. Just enough to let the viewer wonder what it must have been like before...

Before what is up to you. The point is that we take the time to imagine. Which is why we shoot, why we look at and appreciate the results, and why we never stop looking forward to our next stint behind the lens.

Your turn: I've got a hunch that you've got lots of sepia-toned scenes to share over the next week. So I'll step back and get out of your way. If you're still wondering how this all works, just click here.