Category: Short Subjects

We really know nothing about our subject, this seemingly abandoned boat but we thought the photos were so nice we just had to share them. You mean we’re not going to blab on endlessly? Just photos? How unlike you! Nowhere close to water and going by the name of Pricess...

We’ve passed by Irricana United Church a gazillions time on the road to adventure but never stopped to take a closer look. Silly us. Then one day, after coming back from a gig at a local museum (the Team loves to volunteer) and with the sky soft pastel hues, comes...

Whether we’re travelling in town on local business, on extended road-trips for fun or even on assignment (rare these days thanks to the pandemic), we’re on the lookout for vintage metal. Be it an old school day to day driver or restored classic, we play no favourites. Be it never...

At the time of its removal a year or so ago it was the oldest such structure in Calgary and without a doubt the most challenging to navigate. With steep stairs and a narrow walkway, it was not for the timid. We’re speaking of the 14th St Pedestrian Bridge, now...

Here’s something not uncommon out in rural areas back in the day, a hand pump from which you got water. That’s how it was done for many folks and short of dipping a pail in a nearby river or pond, was about as simple as it got. Need some good...

King Edward VII reigned over the British Empire for only a brief period, from 1902, on the passing of his mother Queen Victoria, till his own untimely death in 1910. Brief as his tenure was he left his mark on Canada, a fledging country still finding its own way at...

Deep inside an industrial park, in Calgary’s Bonnybrook neighbourhood, it’s something strange and unexpected. Here among all the trucking firms, metal working shops and compounds full of cannibalized vehicles; here between busy Ogden Road and the sewer plant, it’s a couple small houses side by side. Tucked away behind a...

How amazing, an airplane over seventy five years old that’s still in service. We’re looking at a legendary Douglas DC3, the backbone of many fledgling airlines back in the day. And they were heavily used by the military circa World War Two, as a C-47 Skytrain (or Dakota in Commonwealth...

Here’s a silly post that required but a few minutes of time. Where as usually we work hard for the subjects we present, here we get to coast. All we had to do is head out to the side of our palatial mansion, look up and snap a photo. Then...

It’s proof positive miracles happen! For your consideration, it’s a forty some year old Pontiac Acadian still on the road. Come on…really? These little econo-boxes were never meant to last this long. Offered in two or four door hatchback body styles, this “T-Platform” car (Chevrolet had a version too) was...

Here’s a photo that got misfiled somehow and so lost for a few years. It’s the first we remember seeing it…and we shot it…and even gave the Lightroom treatment! Damn this getting older sucks. Anyway, we liked it and thought you would as well. If it looks like a scene...

Here’s a sign of the times, a shopping centre that’s seen better days. The term “dead mall” is often heard when discussing retail, with many such places (even before the Corona shutdown) becoming literal ghost towns due to a lack of shops. Losing a tenant is bad, but if an...

Here’s an old Calgary Transit “Fishbowl” bus in retirement. For decades it roamed the streets of Cowtown, but today languishes away in the back lot of a small town fire department. We’re looking at CTS #898, built in 1977 and one in an order of thirty five. Transit systems all...

There’s something about an old abandoned car that get us to thinking (ouch, it hurts). Who owned it, where did they travel…what’s the story here? Answers never come, but still we ask. Once someone’s pride and joy, it’s now nothing more than a forgotten hunk of rusted metal dumped in...

Driving down some random Alberta backroad, as we’re apt to do when there’s time to burn, we know there’s a good probability we’ll discover something interesting. Mostly we use they type of trips as scouting missions, making notes and then following up with a return visit at some later date....

Here’s something right out of an old west movie, an ancient log cabin we had the honour to take in one fine winter’s day. We came to know it via a friend and this visit was to scope it out, gather some intel and plan a return for a more...

There’s a cool old building in South Calgary we’ve passed a gazillion times but paid little mind, even if we did think it interesting. Then one day, after seeing some century-old homes just a block over getting demolished, comes a cold hard reminder that nothing’s forever. Procrastinating is a slippery...

Here’s an exciting new concept that if well received we plan to do again and again. We’ll pick totally at random subjects from our extensive photo collection that have never seen the light of day publicly, be they good or bad, and post them here. And of course, we’ll drone...

Before anything, a huge thanks goes out the person who helped us with this here post. It’s to thee Coinoath Sarsfeld, low light photographer extraordinaire and super humble fellow, that we raise a toast. After dark of course under a magical night sky and alone at some abandoned farm on...

Stumbling across an abandoned railway line in Saskatchewan is not hard to do. There used to be a literal spaghetti bowl of tracks going every which way in the province, with nearly every town regardless of size, having train service. There was a branch to anywhere and everywhere! Almost all...

Here’s a cute little train station marking the location of a former railway junction, a spot where three separate lines once met. Only one of these stretches of track is still in use and is the route taken by Alberta Prairie Railway’s Tour Trains operating between Stettler Alberta and Big...

Hated the place but it was popular with some school mates. Here it’s a pizza joint going back to your author’s formative teen years, when dinosaurs ruled the earth*. And in outward appearance at least it hasn’t changed one bit…until recently that is when it went out of business. It’s...

Here’s a really quick look at The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary Ukrainian Catholic Church (a mouthful) perched atop an escarpment in the neighbourhood of Renfrew. There’s great views from the property overlooking Bridgeland below and in back, there’s the spectacular skyline of Downtown Calgary. Built in the latter...

Time was you could drive down any back road in this part of the world and come to a railway level crossing. Until fairly recently the tracks went everywhere, be it main line or branch, and these rural intersections of steel and pavement or gravel commonplace. Some crossings were protected...

Driving down some dead end road in the Alberta Badlands a discovery, the crushed remains of a car. But its not just any old automobile but one with quite the “reputation”. And it’s not because it was so awesome, or stylish or had some other virtuous features. No. Plain and...

We’re always looking for curious things while out on road trips, some fresh meat for our minds and camera. Be it some old building, something train related, a subject with with a weird or quirky slant, a Boler or two (yeah!) there’s any number of things that pique our interest....

Smithbilt Hats has been doing it since the late 1910s. Most of what they make are cowboy hats, fitting given this is cattle, farming and ranching country. If you’ve seen a “white hatter” during stampede and or at the airport greeting new arrivals to the city, that topper came from...

Not like we need another obsession here at BIGDoer.com, but it’s happened. Great…just great. And it’s well known history buff Johnnie Bachusky we blame. If not for him bringing up the subject of water towers recently while chatting, the seed would have never been planted. Sure, we noticed these structures...

As we often do when we’re on the road we’ll stop and explore small towns along the way. One never knows what they’ll find, some disused building to photograph perhaps, a cool old car sitting out on some empty lot, or maybe something else worthy of attention. Heck, we’re easily...

Time has run out for these homes. Forgotten and empty the land on which they sit is slated for redevelopment and soon they’ll be reduced to a pile of splinters. The “gentrification monster” (thanks Micheal), insatiable in appetite, rears its head here in the Calgary community of Bowness. Nothing stands...