The lay of the land

Texture
Near Waterloo, ON, March 2011
[Click photo to enlarge]

About this photo: We're drawing the Thematic aerial theme to a close with this one last look at the earth from on high. If you'd like to share one last view of your own, please click here. Otherwise, tune in tonight at 7 p.m. Eastern for the new theme.

Sometimes, you need to get above it all to understand what it all means. Normally, when I'm cruising the countryside on my bike, I'm busy enough trying to stay upright as cars blast past me at triple-digit speeds, and I just can't afford to take the time to focus on the subtle variations in the adjacent land. It's survival or enjoyment. Not both.

But when someone else is doing the driving - or flying - you have a little more time to take in the view. And on this flight, I saw something I'd never seen before. And for the first time in ages I had no words. There was something delightfully humbling about seeing the gentle rolls in the farmland that were completely invisible from the ground.

I imagined giant sheets of ice receding countless years ago. I imagined forces of creation far more powerful than anything I could ever conjure up. I imagined a planet we're only beginning to understand, a planet that's trying to tell us her stories, one at a time.

If only we'd take the time to listen.

Your turn: What three words come to mind as you first see this shot?

Urban sprawl

A city reaches for the sky
Toronto, ON, March 2011
Please click here for more aerial Thematic goodness

I don't often shoot panoramas, largely because they're the kind of scenes that lie toward the extreme end of the photographic subject bell curve.

That and I have memories of those old, throwaway panorama film cameras that were all the rage when I was, oh, 11 years-old. The pictures that resulted were little more than badly cropped, horridly blown up, optically ridiculous compositions that really could have been shot with a conventional camera. But because they were "panoramas", I was forced to sit politely while my hosts insisted I ooh and ahh over how wonderful the wide-view of Aunt Martha's garden was.

Truth of the matter, Aunt Martha wasn't a great gardener. And anything with "Aunt Martha" and "wide-view" in the same thought-space was really best left to the imagination. Or nothing at all. Because not everything should be recorded on film. Or memory card.

I'm kinda thinking Toronto by air is the exception. It's the biggest city we've got in this country, and it sprawls not-quite-randomly back and out from its lakeside downtown core, just the kind of progression best seen from the sky. As a continuation of this scene, I think it tells another chapter of the story I got to read from above on that late afternoon.

Your turn: Do you do the panorama thing? Why/why not?

I am the eye in the sky

Wide angle city
Toronto, ON, March 2011

About this photo: Thematic. Aerial. Still taking submissions. Here.

One of the biggest mistakes people make when they take pictures is trying to get too much of the scene into one composition. They compose so widely that they end up including everything and the kitchen sink. The camera never gets close enough to anything to make out any detail. In my mind's eye, I think of pictures of my mother, a speck in the middle of a giant expanse of beach. Or public square. Or park. At least I think that's my mother. Or a speck on the lens.

So as I reviewed the pictures from my recent as-luck-would-have-it flight into Toronto's main airport (Pearson International aka YYZ) and tried to decide which one to share here, the easy thing to do would have been to pick the more tightly composed views of the downtown core. There's nothing like a golden-hour shot of the iconic CN Tower, after all.

But the thing is if you've seen one iconic view, you've seen 'em all. And I hate being derivative. Instead, the first picture I took as we curved eastward, tracing the Lake Ontario coast, is the one I ultimately chose. It was the placeholder, the one that made my heart flutter just a bit as I realized this wasn't just another boring approach, the one that set the stage for whatever came next. Sure, it's wide. But it's got a spirit to it that the more standard compositions lack. Sometimes, you have to look wide to get a feel for a place.

Maybe I should break these old rules more often.

Your turn: Who's down there?

Suspended humanation

George Washington never looked like this
New York, NY, March 2011

About this photo: I keep finding vehicular scenes to share, so I keep posting 'em. Hope that's OK with you. New Thematic goes live tomorrow (Sunday) night. Until then, click here to get your last-minute submissions in. Deadlines don't really apply here.

Shooting* from a car is a sketchy proposition on a good day. But add some cloud, some spitting rain, some smudgy windows, lots of stop-and-go traffic and a pocket camera (temporarily stole it from my wife - please don't tell her) that doesn't much tolerate on-the-move action photography and you've got a recipe for a memory card full of nothingness.

But I tried, anyway, because I had never been on this particular structure, the George Washington Bridge, and I had read about the work of its chief engineer, Othmar Ammann for so long that I wanted to have some kind of memory of the moment. I'm odd that way, but you know that by now. Or soon will.

So, much to the amusement of my colleagues, I randomly shot through the fixed minivan windows as we approached the bridge, and kept shooting as we crept along. I'm sure adjacent motorists were thinking "terrorist", but that didn't stop me, either.

In the end, the results weren't half-bad. They're stark, unintentionally monochrome slices of an iconic piece of American engineering. More importantly, they take me back to a rather light-hearted moment with a great bunch of people, and they give me a slice of reality that I'm able to share with my family - and with you. They remind me why even grey days demand little injections of color wherever we can manage them.

Your turn: How do you turn a grey day into a colorful one?

One more thing: Bonus points for anyone who knows what the heck I'm talking about with the title to this entry.

--
* Shooting, as in photography. Not, you know, shooting. I've done both. I prefer the lens kind, but I admit feeling an immense sense of power and responsibility when I first pulled the trigger and felt the gun - a Galil assault rifle - recoil. Story for another day, I suppose.

Powered flight

Prepare for landing
Somewhere near Toronto, ON, March 2011
Click photo to embiggen

About this photo: All good things, including Thematic's vehicular theme, must eventually come to an end. I thought I'd wrap things up with this golden-hour-lit view out the window of a Dash-8 on a recent business trip. I took it with my wife's camera. Shhhh. New Thematic theme goes live this weekend on account of the big Blogger outage. Click here to share one last vehicular vision.

I'm easily bored, especially when I'm in the middle of the atmosphere and I have no one to talk to. Having a camera in my hand somehow makes the time tick by a bit faster, somehow gets me to my destination sooner, somehow shrinks the distance between me and home as I count down the hours until I once again return through the front door.

En route photography also reminds me why I got into this picture taking thing in the first place. The SLR stays at home because it's just too big and bulky for a work thing. Instead, my wife's little Fuji gets tucked into my laptop bag. It's small, simple, and more flexible than you can imagine. I'm reminded of how much fun it can be to coax memorable images out of a camera most folks would typically use for basic snaps. I compose, I think, I see my journey in ways I'd miss if I chose to instead bury my nose in the in-flight magazine.

The results won't change the world, of course. But as I watch the late afternoon light play on the well-worn metal that encases the Pratt & Whitney PW100 turboprop engine, I decide it doesn't have to be earth-changing to be worthwhile. I like what I see, and I like how I'm feeling as I stare out the window. So I line up and shoot. Good enough for now.

Your turn: How do you pass the time on a long journey?

Airport shooting

Please don't turn around
Minneapolis, MN, February 2011
Click here for more seat-themed goodness

There comes a point in every photographer's life when lines are crossed, and I'm pretty sure I hit that point in the Minneapolis airport. I don't know what possessed me to shoot these two information kiosk attendants from behind. I was sure one of them was going to spin around on one of those fully movable office chairs and give me a talking to.

I realize Minnesotans are very friendly people, and I may have gotten an invitation to a canasta game, instead. But I nevertheless felt more than a little hooligan-ish as I took this.

They never had any clue. Unless they surreptitiously read Written Inc. In which case I believe they may very well have begun plotting their revenge for the next time I come to town.

I've really got to find a new hobby.

Your turn: A lifetime ago, my mother taught me to people-watch in public places. These days, I clearly - and not-too-advisedly - do it with a lens. Do you? What's your most interesting people-watching experience?

Thematic Photographic 141 - Windows

Mirrors, mirrors, on the walls
Minneapolis, MN, February 2011

Whether we're on the outside looking in or the inside looking out, it's a safe bet that windows play a significant role in the way we see the world and how we feel while we're doing it. Their very optical properties have always amazed and challenged me as as photographer. Think about it: on a bright day, I can't see inside these tinted and glazed surfaces, yet someone standing inside can easily see me. Turn day to night and it's an entirely different story.

Which is my way of challenging you to spend the next week sharing your own diverse views of life through glass. You can hit up the same window at different times, or walk the 'hood and see what you find. As always, how you choose to interpret a theme is entirely up to you.

Your turn: New to Thematic? In a nutshell, Thematic Photographic is our weekly photo-sharing adventure. I post a new theme - in this case, windows - and my lovely visitors (you!) post pictures that reflect the theme on your blog. Then, return here and leave a comment letting folks know where to find it. Visit other participants and share, share, share. For more background, click here. Know the ropes? Don't let me stop you. I can't wait to see what y'all come up with!

Tracked changes

Go via rail
Toronto, ON, March 2009

About this photo: Thematic Photographic is exploring "far from home" this week. Please click here to share your own far from home experience.

One of the reasons why I chose this week's theme is that I've spent much of my adult life trying to figure out how to use technology to make far seem a little less so. For example, we live about a two-hour drive outside Toronto, and I periodically end up in Canada's largest city to visit clients and do the reconnecting things a writer/media/geek/wonk needs to do. You can only be virtual and remote for so long, after all.

Sometimes I take the car, but on this trip I decided to take the train. And since Via Rail was kind enough to get me there a couple of hours early, I dawdled a little after I got off the train. In a pattern that's now become pretty standard whenever I go to Toronto for the day for work, I took pictures and sent a few home to my wife and kids via my BlackBerry. Later, I used IM to chat with Debbie as I walked from one meeting to another. (Sorry to the really tall dude in a suit who almost wore my nose print on his shoulder. I'll watch where I'm going next time.)

None of this was particularly earth-shattering. The pictures could have waited till I got home that evening and my wife could have lived without a blow-by-blow account of the directionally challenged taxi driver who blocked a good chunk of the intersection with an ill-advised and badly executed three-point turn.

But the neat thing was that I had the ability to bridge the distance, to make the experience a little more real for her and our kids. I doubt they looked up from their homework or video games to notice the freaky pic I sent of the CN Tower. But that wasn't the point. I was far away, but somehow I wasn't.

After growing up in an era where long distance phone calls were an expensive and rare luxury, and travel typically meant little to no contact for extended periods of time, being able to easily reach across distance and connect in this way is something of a revelation to me. It'll never get old.

Your turn: How do you stay connected when you're away?

Thematic Photographic 130 - Far from home

Horse play
New York, NY
November 2009

This photo launches our new Thematic Photographic theme, far from home. For the next week, we'll be exploring photos that may have been taken, ah, far from your home. I know, such creativity!

As ever, how you interpret it is entirely up to you. For example, I offer you the picture to the left. It was taken in New York City, which by my odometer is about 880km from my front door, which would easily qualify it as far from home. But beyond the literal interpretation, there's the rather incongruous sight of a horse in the middle of a large city. I'd venture he's pretty far from home, too.

So as you choose your own contributions to the theme, please feel free to come up with any excuse you wish to justify the "far from home" connection. And have fun with it. Because that's why we do this, no?

Your turn: If you're a Thematic Photographic veteran, I believe you already know what to do. If you're new to our weekly photo-sharing activity, please click here for full details.

Thematic Photographic 124 - Candid

Real or not?
Laval, QC, November 2010
[Click photo to embiggen]

Welcome to the new Thematic Photographic theme, candid. If you're new to our weekly photo sharing activity, the deal is actually pretty simple: Post a pic to your blog or web site, then leave a comment here letting people know where to find it. Feel free to visit other participants to share the joy. Repeat often. It's not a competition...just an informal way to stretch our photographic bounds a bit. Click here for more background, otherwise, buckle up for the ride...

About this pic: I'm in a shopping mall - Carrefour Laval - with my mom. I've been shopping for shoes, of all things, because my beloved old Sperry Top-Siders decided to wear out somewhere between London and Montreal. We're wandering through the top floor of The Bay - think old-style retail that's been around, I kid you not, for 340 years. As I pass a window display, I notice the silhouetted mannequins and make a mental note to return, because the aesthetic speaks to me.

Before long, we're done here, so we turn to leave. I remember the scene and ask my mom to follow me while we make a slight detour. I reach into my camera bag and pull out...my wife's camera. I sweep into the general area only to be confronted by a well-coiffed saleslady who masks the cigarette wrinkles on her face with too much makeup and burned-red dyed hair. She asks if she can help me. I flash a shopping bag from the Bay, identify myself as a journalist, and in rapid-fire Quebecois-joual French, tell her I'm taking a picture.

It's more a statement than anything else. I don't ask for permission and I don't wait for a response. I just sprawl down on my stomach - I figure a low angle works best - and quickly compose. People stop and stare. One less observant soul, the man on the left of this shot, wanders into the shot, apparently unaware that I'm shooting (and probably about to get my sorry tail kicked out of the store.)

But I don't want to be here very long in case the mall-rent-a-cops have been summoned. So I trip the shutter anyway. He wanders away before I shoot the second and third shots, but a quick check of the screen to ensure I've got something to justify this insane stunt confirms that the first shot is the keeper. I bubble about it with my mom as I get into the car, and indeed for the entire drive home. It's my favorite picture from the trip, and I hope you enjoy it, too.

Your turn: This week's theme, candid, is all about capturing people when they may not be aware you're doing so. It's about telling stories of people as they are, not as they're trying to be. It can take any form - remember, photography has nothing to do with right and wrong - and I know you'll have fun with it. As we've done in previous weeks, I'd like add a slight twist this week by encouraging each of you to bring along a friend for the photographic ride. This thing becomes even more fun the bigger it gets, no?

One more thing: I think I may have inadvertently teased this week's theme as sepia. Apologies for the confusion. I'll queue sepia up for next week.

Clickety clack

Freeze the countryside
Somewhere between Toronto and London, March 2009

Please note: This photo supports the Thematic Photographic electric week. What's a Thematic and how can you get involved? Glad you asked. Click here and all will be explained.

There are a few laws of photography and optics that dictate the futility of shooting out the window of a speeding train. I've never been one for laws or rules, anyway, so perhaps it's just as well that I ignored the scowls of the dude sitting across the aisle as I pointed my camera toward the speeding terrain. Maybe he wanted me to take pictures of him, instead.

Ew.

Weirdo passengers aside, it was a late Southern Ontario afternoon as I cruised home from a day in the big city. It had been a good day all around, and I was looking forward to reconnecting with my family, growing closer by the second.

As you read this, I'm on another road trip. Waaaaay before dawn today, I set out in my car for Montreal. I'm heading back alone because, well, no one lives forever, and sometimes you just need to be among friends. This entry will auto-post in the afternoon, and if the BlackBerry fairies allow it, I'll try to share some thoughts - and maybe a lousy smarthphone pic or two - from my journey.

I'm sure at some point I'm going to wish I'd been on the train instead.

Your turn: The appeal - or not - of solo travel. Please discuss.

Thematic Photographic 117 - Parallel

Two-tracked solution
Toronto, ON, March 2009

I've chosen parallel as this week's Thematic Photographic theme because I realize we often have more than one thing going on at the same time. And given the speed with which we blast through a day, a week, a lifetime, it's entirely reasonable for the average person to have any number of things - thoughts, projects, goals, whatever - in flight at any given moment.

As I took this picture, I was sitting on a Via Rail train on my way home to London after a productively eventful day in the big city. I like to day-trip to Toronto on occasion because most folks I work with are located there. I don't do this nearly often enough; something I'll work on in the coming months. Because a day in the big city is always a learning experience filled with folks who never fail to teach me a thing or two about advancing my own state-of-the-art.

Sitting with my forehead leaning against the window, I realized how lucky I was to be able to consciously drive opportunity in a world where so many never even have the chance. As the tracks slipped by below, I whispered a quiet thank you for being privileged to expand my - and my family's - horizons.

Your turn: Please post a parallel-themed picture to your blog, then drop a comment here letting us know where to find it. If you've already got something posted - perhaps in your archives - feel free to share that, too. Want to share more than one? The more the merrier. For more background on how Thematic Photographic, our weekly photo sharing and learning extravaganza, works, just click here.

Staring out a hotel window

The road below
New York, NY, November 2009
[Click photo to embiggen]

About this photo: We're sharing shadow-themed pictures this week. You can, too, by clicking your mouse here.

I took this picture at 7:22 a.m. from the window of my hotel room. I had been up for hours, staring out at the darkened street corner, wondering why my eyes refused to close despite my overwhelming fatigue from the minivan-full-of-people drive in from Ontario. As the shafts of near-horizontal light began to paint the dull grey streets a brilliantly textured shade of brighter grey, I got my camera out and wondered if asphalt was worth shooting.*

The kids were still asleep - I wish I knew their secret - so there wasn't a whole lot I could do except watch my little slice of the big city slowly return to life. As the light continued to transform the streetscape, I wondered how long it would take before the traffic returned. As it turned out, I didn't have too long to wait, and a few minutes after I shot this, our youngest munchkin rubbed his eyes, got out of a strange bed in a strange bed and wandered over to the window for a hug.

We watched the traffic build for a bit and made plans for the day that would be. Before long, some of those shadows below would probably be our own as we began to explore this place for the first time.

Your turn: Every street has a story. Care to share one for this stretch?

* I'm thinking it was.

Fallout boy

Comforting thought
New York, NY, November 2009

It's been a quiet few days here at Written Inc. thanks to a crazy little bug that flattened me midweek and kept me there until the weekend. I'm not back to my usual self, but at least I'm somewhat vertical again. So it's back to the keyboard I go.

I remember seeing this sign (see here for our latest Thematic theme - surprise, it's signs) and thinking how outdated it all seemed. Didn't we end the Cold War decades ago? Would our kids even understand what this meant if they came across it?

Then I remembered where I was; in a place where the dust from the fallen towers had not long ago blanketed these very streets, and where a war of sorts had presented itself right in the heart of this city. The source and type of threat had changed over the generations, but I guess we'll always want to know that shelter is never really that far away.

Your turn: What's it like in one of those shelters? Let's imagine, shall we?

Same corner, at night

Crossroads
New York, NY, November 2009

About this photo: We continue to explore the "night light" theme. If you'd like to do the same, click here for more Thematic Photographic goodness.

There's something to be said for returning to scenes you've shot before and reshooting them under different circumstances. Night-vs-day contrasts are among the simplest, and given my general inability to sleep well when I'm away from home, seemed to work out pretty well on this particular trip to the Big Apple.

While this photo doesn't quite mimic the composition of the day shot (click here for that one), it overlaps just enough that between the two of them, I'm taken back to the same place high above a New York street corner to a time when perspective was precisely what I was looking for.

Your turn: This picture was taken 19 minutes after midnight. Where were all these people going?

The lights blaze for no one

After everyone goes home
Toronto, ON, December 2009

Quick note: This photo supports our latest Thematic Photographic theme, "Night light". If you'd like to take part - and everyone's welcome to do just that - please follow your mouse here.

Walk through any downtown area in any city at night and you'll be greeted by office buildings ablaze with light despite the fact that no one's home. The eco-geek in me finds this kind of ignorance a little hard to swallow.

The power to keep those lights on has to come from somewhere - usually long-dead dinosaurs - and it bothers me that we're so nonchalant about sucking non-renewable resources out of the planet and then burning them so that we can light up empty spaces. To fritter away such potential for essentially no purpose is, frankly, more than a little galling.

This doesn't stop me from shooting the results, of course. Just because a topic is somewhat disturbing or upsetting doesn't mean it isn't worth recording.

Your turn: The one thing we can do to become a little greener is...?

Painted community

Expressive wall
Toronto, ON, December 2009

About this photo: Thematic Photographic explores the "night light" theme all week long. If it pierces the dark, please click here and share your own photo.

As I first laid eyes on this delightful example of urban art, all I could think of was how neat it would be if more building owners turned over at least one exterior wall to a bunch of local artists. I know that pretty pictures on brick walls don't amount to much in the overall scheme of things. But sometimes it's the small things that make more of a difference in our lives than we may ever know.

Your turn: How does something like this improve our collective quality of life?

Thematic Photographic 101 - Night Light

A fascinating read
Toronto, ON, December 2009

Light takes on a whole new set of qualities at night. While most folks simply turn on their electronic flashes and go to town, I prefer the natural look. I like to lurk in the shadows and shoot quietly. I realize that makes me sound like a bit of a stalker. So be it.

There's a neat quality to artificial light that spills oasis-like into the night. It reminds me of the Boulevard of Broken Dreams, and keeps me heading out after dark time and again. Over the coming week, I hope it inspires you, too. Our new Thematic Photographic theme is a simple one: Shoot lit-up scenes at night. That's it...the rest is up to you.

Your turn: Please share a night light-themed photo on your blog, then paste the link to the entry in a comment here. Then, as the shampoo bottle says, repeat. Thematic Photographic instructions, such as they are, may be found here.

Off the grid? Or on?

Power to the people
Toronto, ON, December 2009

Every waking moment of every day presents us with two possible paths. Either we choose to follow the herd and accept the endlessly routine sameness of the world around us. Or we choose to look for the wonder within all that sameness. I like to think of it as forming our own herd. I also like to focus on the concept of choice. All of us have it, but sadly not all of us exercise it with any degree of frequency. Pity that.

As my wife has so painfully learned over the years, I'm a choose-the-wonder kind of guy. This likely explains how, when I arrived for a video shoot a bit earlier than expected, I found myself in a downtown Toronto back alley staring at a questionably connected set of wires. Not that I'm an expert in any of this, of course, but I still felt more than a little chilled at the haphazard look of it all.

My fears aside, I thought it made for a pretty neat composition as the late-winter's-afternoon light cast long shadows that threw the moment into stark relief. Not everything needs an answer, after all. Sometimes, I think it's worth shooting simply because it looks neat.

Your turn: What's behind the building that you're currently in?