Barrier Lake Instameet.
You stuck around! Thanks for hanging out while I was gone. I genuinely appreciate it and even though it technically wasn’t that long since my last post, it feels like a lot has happened. The need to have something to work towards weekly or monthly is a must for me and currently that’s this blog. I’ve been tossing around the idea of starting a YouTube show where I simply go through some of my photos and tell the stories behind them or go through the editing process but who knows if I’ll have time for that. Just to catch you up, my hours at work got cut so now I either have to find another part time job or dive head first into my personal photography career and other creative endeavors! Since Celine isn’t working yet I might have to look for that part time job, but dang it’s tempting, scary, and exhilarating to ponder the possibility of investing 20 hours a week into whatever creative outlet I desire. Speaking of creative outlets, I also started a terrarium business, called Capsule Terrariums (Instagram / Facebook), but I’m not sure how it will do since this first batch didn’t sell immediately like they did last summer. Anyways, Celine is graduated, we’re moved back to Bonnyville, Celine’s getting back from China on Wednesday after two weeks of hiking, Aspen our puppy is growing fast, Herb the fish is still swimming, the “Where’s the Line” podcast with Caleb is still in development, and once again my mind is being infiltrated with fantasies of where my next career move should be since I don’t have the hours I’m used to.
I hope that quick update is sufficient for you all and if you have any insight, advice, or wisdom for where or what I should do for money I’d love to hear it. Something else that’s been on my mind lately is how can I use my photography for a more important cause than mere marketing material. By no means do I think marketing or the industry is bad but it feels helplessly shallow for me. I was thinking it might be cool to start an environmental initiative / organization that partners with Church’s to do something to help the environment since were explicitly called to be responsible in the way we live. I don’t think there’s anything like that right now but who knows and it’s an extremely rough concept right now. I digress…
Now to the part I’m always passionate to talk about; the photographic process and why the first image below is my favorite. If you don’t agree with my personal choice that’s fine but here’s why I chose it. To start, the combination of six 30-second exposures creates movement in the clouds that helps give a dreamy appearance. Also the colours were at their peak while I was taking the succession of photos and lastly the foreground of ice and snow create a path that leads your eye to the mountains. Comment below on which image is your favorite and for those of you who don’t know what an Instameet is, it’s where people on Instagram meet up in real life to take photos and hang out. Maybe that sounds sketchy to some of you but when there are a lot of people who are all getting together with the key purpose to take gnarly photos I think it’s exciting.
I’m going to conclude with admitting that my competitive spirit, that was once alive and well when playing sports, silently comes through when taking photos with other photographers. Something about other people creating images of a similar subject stirs up this drive to make sure I have the best final result. But seeing some of the other photographers working the scene really reminded me that there’s no such thing as being the best photographer and that it’s all subjective... With that in mind I just need to focus on practicing this craft and improving my own skills. I’m hoping to finish up the posts from past shoots and get up to date with my life so that I actually have to go out weekly in order to have new content and not rely on past excursions. As always, thanks so much for reading and checking out my images.
