The Urban Refugee

July 25th, 2006:

• Purple Drumstic Allium
• Shingles
• Racing The Storm
• Gotta Make Hay While The Sun Shines
• Lightning Over The Alfalfa
• Fast Moving Storm Clouds

July 26th, 2006:

• Shed and Barn
• John Deere No. 55 (1 of 6)
• John Deere No. 55 (2 of 6)
• John Deere No. 55 (3 of 6)
• John Deere No. 55 (4 of 6)
• John Deere No. 55 (5 of 6)
• John Deere No. 55 (6 of 6)
• Solitary Duck (1 of 2)
• Solitary Duck (2 of 2)
• Robert’s Red Ford
• Versatile (1 of 2)
• Versatile (2 of 2)
• Tire Leaning Against Shed
• The Three Amigos
• That Seventies Rowing Machine
• Ringer Washer and Shopping Cart
• Prairie Pit Stop
• All Dressed Up And Nowhere To Go
• Some Slough Grass
• Slough Cruft
• Little Outhouse On The Prairie (1 of 2)
• Little Outhouse On The Prairie (2 of 2)
• Not Quite The Same As The Beach (1 of 2)
• Not Quite The Same As The Beach (2 of 2)
• Skylife Reflection Near Kirriemuir (1 of 3)
• Skylife Reflection Near Kirriemuir (2 of 3)
• Skylife Reflection Near Kirriemuir (3 of 3)
• Slough Post Reflected
• A Skylife With Some Foreground Texture Thrown In
• Fenceline and Skylife Reflected (1 of 2)
• Fenceline and Skylife Reflected (2 of 2)
• A Little Piece of Heaven (1 of 2)
• A Little Piece of Heaven (2 of 2)

July 28th, 2006:

• Trees In The Sweet Light (1 of 3)
• Trees In The Sweet Light (2 of 3)
• Trees In The Sweet Light (3 of 3)
• The Eye of God
• Old Barn At Dusk
• Sunbeams Over The Neutrals
• Delapidated

July 30th, 2006:

• Bales Shimmering Under the Sun
• Dead Man’s Curve
• Do Not Spray Between Signs
• Making Tracks
• Hay On The Fenceline
• Standing Out From The Crowd (1 of 2)
• Standing Out From The Crowd (2 of 2)
• MacArthur’s Pasture (1 of 2)
• MacArthur’s Pasture (2 of 2)
• A Road Less Travelled
• Three Posts (1 of 2)
• Three Posts (2 of 2)
• Crop and Fenceline (1 of 2)
• Crop and Fenceline (2 of 2)
• Sometimes Simple Is Best
• Blue and Gold (1 of 3)
• Blue and Gold (2 of 3)
• Blue and Gold (3 of 3)
• Here Comes The Rain
• Old Canadian Pacific Railbed

One thing I simply do not understand about other artists is the ubitquitous ‘Artist’s Statement’ that adorns so many of their Web sites. I realize I’m one of those vulgar, self-trained, artistic wretches who has never quaffed expensive champagne and nibbled caviar off dainty crackers while rubbing shoulders with the hoighty toities in the right settings, but it seems to me…

…it seems to me that the artist’s work is his statement.

I mean, really, once you’ve produced your art, it should be a case of ’nuff said. Either you get it or you don’t. If you don’t, thanks for looking and please move on to the next artist. I’m not going to explain my work to you because, well, if you have to ask…

So, like, when is the price of gasoline going to go down? I’ve had to cut back on my photography outings, and that sucks. Will the cost of gas go down if we nuke someone? Because I could get behind that if it shaves a quarter off each litre at the pumps.

One of the most impressive storms I’ve ever seen rolled in last night. Incredible lightning, high winds, horizontal rain, we had it all. Including a leaking skylight in our kitchen and a leaking bathroom window. Bleh. I’m going to crawl up onto the roof of the trailer with the caulking gun in a bit and see what I can do to fix the leak problems.

I did try to capture some storm pictures last night, but once again, fled for the safety of the buildings when the wind and flying crud became a problem. Watching the clouds swirl clockwise over our heads didn’t help our nerves out any, either. (My mother-in-law spotted funnel clouds to the south of us, over the Dry Lakes.) The movie above is comprised of thirteen five second exposures stacked on top of each other. This should give you an idea of how quickly the clouds were moving. The movie is just over 2 MB so please be patient while it loads.

The mice have been evicted. The mouse crud has been vacuumed up. The interior is being steam-cleaned. The battery is being recharged.

The S.A.W. lives again!

This morning’s weight loss was officially 5 lbs since I began the diet a couple of weeks ago. I’ve done a fairly good job of tracking and keeping on top of my calories, but I’ve been falling behind on my daily walking.

The lack of walking has less to do with laziness and more to do with the fact that I smashed the hell out of the big toe on my right foot just over a week back. I’m not going to lose the toenail, and my toe is finally changing back to a healthy pink, but it still aches if I’m on my feet for too long. Brisk walks are out of the question for another week.

Still, I’m off to a good start and this has done wonders for my self-esteem.

July 15, 2006:

We were camping at Goosberry Lake Provincial Park this past weekend and we practically had to shoehorn all of our camping gear into our poor little Hyundai (The S.A.W. is out of commission at the moment). Every time we turned a corner Jen had to reach into the back seat and grab onto some of the camping gear to keep the pile from collapsing onto Ashlyn. This left us with precious little space for photography gear, so the only camera I took was my 8 megapixel Nikon Coolpix 8800.

The 8800 produces excellent quality images, but it’s not exactly the most pleasant camera to use. It’s slow. It’s cranky. The controls are awkward. Nikon basically went out of its way to cripple this camera to the point where it wouldn’t eat into their D70/D100 dSLR sales, and it shows. It’s for this reason that I tend to eschew using the Coolpix in favour of my Canons wherever possible. This weekend, however, the compactness of the Nikon overcame the logistics issues caused by bringing along 2 dSLRs with a full compliment of lenses.

Here’s what fell out of the camera on Saturday morning:

• Sunrise, July 15, 2006 (1 of 3)
• Sunrise, July 15, 2006 (2 of 3)
• Sunrise, July 15, 2006 (3 of 3)
• Gooseberry Lake at Sunrise (1 of 3)
• Gooseberry Lake at Sunrise (2 of 3)
• Gooseberry Lake at Sunrise (3 of 3)
• Hidden on the Hillside
• Reflections, Gooseberry Lake (1 of 3)
• Reflections, Gooseberry Lake (2 of 3)
• Reflections, Gooseberry Lake (3 of 3)
• Skylife, July 15, 2006 (1 of 2)
• Skylife, July 15, 2006 (2 of 2)
• Overgrown Boat Launch, Gooseberry Lake (1 of 2)
• Overgrown Boat Launch, Gooseberry Lake (2 of 2)
• Foxtails by the Shore of Gooseberry Lake (1 of 2)
• Foxtails by the Shore of Gooseberry Lake (2 of 2)
• Growth by Gooseberry Lake (1 of 2)
• Growth by Gooseberry Lake (2 of 2)
• Foxtails in Black and White
• Dew in the Foxtails

July 20, 2006:

Kate mentioned on the phone that she wouldn’t mind if I could procure a few new dead rodent pics for her blog, so I tried to oblige her. The problem is that most of the gophers I’ve shot are too gory for use as part of a blog design. I did manage to capture one dead gopher photo with minimal “yuck factor” this past week, however:

• Small Dead Animal

Upon seeing the picture, Ray pointedly reminded me that prairie dogs were hunted to near-extinction by people like me. I pointedly reminded Ray that I live in a trailer for a reason. Hyuk.

July 23, 2006:

Sunday saw the arrival of the Hughes, who had purchased some prints from me, and who decided to take a tour through the area. Since they drove all the way out here I figured it was only fair that I should take their portrait while they were here. While I’ve already posted their picture once, I’ve linked to a slightly larger version of it below.

The Hughes have a baby on the way and even after just an hour of visiting with them you can tell that they’re going to make awesome parents. It was a pleasure to meet them.

Later that evening my father-in-law phoned to say that Environment Canada had issued storm warnings for our region. They weren’t kidding. The lightning storm that moved through was one of the more spectacular I have seen since moving out here. I would have tried for pictures of it, but the wind was insane and I didn’t want to expose my expensive camera and lenses to flying debris and a potential downpour. I risked a few pictures as the storm was coming in, but I scuttled back to the safety of our buildings when the wind got too strong and the lightning strikes too close. The air was so charged electrically that I had hair standing up all over.

We didn’t get much rain, unfortunately. Before yesterday evening our last rainfall was on June 20th. Since then it’s been hot and dry and you can see the crops dying out in the fields now. I can’t tell you how depressing this is as it’s going to make this area that much more dependent on the oil patch.

• The Hughes
• A Storm Warning Has Been Issued (1 of 3)
• A Storm Warning Has Been Issued (2 of 3)
• A Storm Warning Has Been Issued (3 of 3)

And that’s it. Aside from some wedding formals from the 22nd, July continues to be a slow month photographically.

One of the coolest things about blogging is getting to
meet other bloggers.

chromatic aberration
n.

A highly technical way of saying that you get what you pay for.

Do you think that unique and noteworthy accomplishments should be recognized? Yeah, me too.