One good thing about living in a rural area is access to cheap 75 ml syringues (vetrinary use only). Only problem is that it’s a bit awkward when you have a massive honking needle loaded with red ultrachrome pigment and you’re filling a printer cartridge as a customer walks into your store…
“Uh, are you injecting BLOOD into your printer?!?”
“Of course. Just don’t ask what I use for the yellow ink.”
This probably won’t help out with print sales.
I’m please to announce my new photoblog: Neutral Hills Stills. Please stop by and visit.
Nearly two weeks on vacation and all I have to show for it are twenty mostly mediocre images, a goodly number of which came from a half day, hot as hell, photo outing. The oppressive heat took any fun out of the afternoon as it was all I could do not to cook myself or my cameras.
In other news, my camper, which I had hoped to have ready for a camping trip tomorrow, is not ready.
I’m considering taking next week off to deal with the stress of the past week off.
- Watering The Garden At Dusk
- Purple & Yellow Flowers, Cypress Hills Provincial Park
- Tree Stump At Battle Creek, Cypress Hills Provincial Park
- Case Tractor Logo, Cypress Hills Provincial Park
- Trees & Deadfall, Cypress Hills Provincial Park
- Characteristic Trees, Cypress Hills Provincial Park
- Medicine Hat Clams? *
- Ovens, Medalta Potteries, Medicine Hat
- By The Railroad Tracks, Medalta Potteries, Medicine Hat
- Seen From The Back, Medalta Potteries, Medicine Hat
- Red Cliff, Echo Dale Park, Medicine Hat
- Rock Face, Echo Dale Park, Medicine Hat (1 of 2)
- Rock Face, Echo Dale Park, Medicine Hat (2 of 2)
- River Hills Reflected, South Sask River By Hwy 41
- South Sask River Bridge, Hwy 41 South of Empress
- Booty Shakin’ Butterfly **
- Butterfly Drinking Nectar
- Rough Road Ahead (1 of 2)
- Rough Road Ahead (2 of 2)
- Prairie Storm Rolling In, Summer 2007
That’s it for photographs for my vacation. I think I’m going to dig out the multimeter and waste the rest of the day tracking down a wiring problem in the camper.
* These were all over the banks of the South Saskatchewan River and it looks like they’re native to the area. I had no idea you could find something like this in Alberta. Does anyone have more info?
** The damned thing was wagging its ass at me while I made this image.
Edu-ma-cation update:
[from the comments]
“They are flowing fresh-water clams of the genus Unio. although I think that the N.American species may have been re-classified into other genera they are all Unionidae.”
Smack-my-camper-up update:
The belly bar has been assembled and cinched in place. The wiring is usable so long as I don’t drive at night, but I have a short somewhere as it occasionally blows the fuse for the turn signals. I’ll buy a handful of 15 Amp fuses tomorrow and that will be enough to get me to the campout. The rest can be dealt with next week.
I was sorting through some old images that I hadn’t processed yet. Decided that I liked a few of them after all:
We celebrated Canada Day by exploring a bit of our country. We headed south to the village of Acadia Valley where we visited a well maintained grain elevator museum. Then we had a picnic and drove farther south to Empress, Alberta, which is basically turning into a small artists/artisans colony. A couple of the stores were open and I scored a much needed Iced Chai Latte (uttering those words in Consort can get you branded as a homosexual, or, even worse, someone who votes NDP).
After Empress we bombed out to Forks Prairie Orchard where Jen picked a huge bucket of strawberries for $7.00 and we found the fallen tree with all of the deer skulls and antlers nailed to it. We ended the trip by taking a drive out to Estuary in Saskatchewan to have a look at the ferry. That’s where I found the evil tree and a complimentary rattlesnake to go with it (no pics of the snake, sorry). It turned out that the snake had been hiding in the grass very near where I had been taking photos in bare feet and sandals. We discovered it after we were backing the car out and the little bugger scooted across the road in front of us. I was a bit freaked out.
We drove home and stopped at the in-laws (outlaws?) to visit, let Ashlyn terrorize the kittens, and share some fresh picked strawberries. Then it was back to our place to throw the kid in bed. All in all, a good day.
Here are some images from the outing:
If you’re interested in some pictures of the Village of Empress itself and the nearby Sagebrush Studios, here are some I made during our visit on May 18th of last year:
- Wildflower Building, Empress, Alberta, (1 of 2)
- Wildflower Building, Empress, Alberta, (2 of 2)
- Evensong Chapel, Empress, Alberta, (1 of 6)
- Evensong Chapel, Empress, Alberta, (2 of 6)
- Evensong Chapel, Empress, Alberta, (3 of 6)
- Evensong Chapel, Empress, Alberta, (4 of 6)
- Evensong Chapel, Empress, Alberta, (5 of 6)
- Evensong Chapel, Empress, Alberta, (6 of 6)
- McNeill Church, Empress (1 of 4)
- McNeill Church, Empress (2 of 4)
- McNeill Church, Empress (3 of 4)
- McNeill Church, Empress (4 of 4)
- Village Of Empress Public Works
- Brick House, Empress, Alberta
- Abandoned Farmstead East of Empress (1 of 3)
- Abandoned Farmstead East of Empress (2 of 3)
- Abandoned Farmstead East of Empress (3 of 3)
- Mantario Church, Sagebrush Studios (1 of 4)
- Mantario Church, Sagebrush Studios (2 of 4)
- Mantario Church, Sagebrush Studios (3 of 4)
- Mantario Church, Sagebrush Studios (4 of 4)
I was wagging chins with the owner of the UFA Petroleum outlet in Consort while filling up the Snarge Barge yesterday morning:
“So I was taking pictures of your gas station last night.”
[pause]
“Uh, why? Were we doing something wrong?”
“Hell no. I was just driving past and saw the orange of the building with the deep blue sky and bright yellow lights and I just had to stop and grab my camera.”
“You liked the colours of a gas station?”
“Yeh. I’m funny that way.”
I spent the first couple of years behind the camera seeking out a connection with my subject matter. Now that I’ve found it, I’ve learned to pay attention to it when I feel it start to stir.
