Category: Short Subjects

Progress is a steam roller with anything in its sights standing zero chance. Here, a farm, one that was vacated only a short time ago and now sitting empty (but kept up), an ever-growing bedroom community expanding around it with the land under petition of redevelopment (according to Cochrane Alberta...

Another in the Roam at Night series were we head out into town, picking some random area, no rhyme or reasons to it all and search out interesting subjects to photograph after dark. Here, it’s two vintage rides we found, one as old as your author and part of an...

Deep in South Kananaskis Alberta, in a most scenic setting amidst wooded hills and rolling ridges there’s this tiny cabin. A most compact and sturdy dwelling, it was once the base camp for a Stoney Nakoda First Nation’s hunter by the name of Lefthand…John Lefthand we believe. Details are sketchy...

Here’s a little hole in the wall diner with seating for perhaps a dozen or two, old school, unpretentious, plain and simple with a blue collar working person’s vibe. It’s truck drivers, cement workers, those that swing a hammer or wield a wrench that frequent the place. No suits and...

It’s a giant pinball (ball). Big and steel and glistening in the sun, it takes this here author back to the days when the game was the only thing on my mind. If I had a quarter, I was at the arcade. Skipped school a lot to partake in my...

Today we’ll be looking at an old building in the Calgary Neighbourhood of Capitol Hill. It appears to be a house and is in a residential area, and there was a reason behind that, but actually it was a school. Dating back to 1912, it’s what’s known as a Cottage...

Here’s one of Calgary’s more unique dwellings. Located in the old and prestigious community of Mount Royal, just south of downtown, it’s known as the Castle House. It’s this strange over the top design, very kitschy and stand out-ish, and for those with eclectic tastes, it something quite drool-worthy. My...

At a crossroads just outside the community of Drumheller, the scenic Red Deer River Valley Badlands a backdrop, stands the “Little Church”. Not much bigger than a children’s playhouse, or some shed you might find in your backyard for storage of gardening tools, there’s room inside for six. Six people...

This is becoming a tradition it seems. Simply, we wander a part of town after dark and practise our low light photography skills. It’s not so much about the subject at this point but the technical aspects, including getting a good and shape image which was the one big problem...

As is often the case when out on the road heading to an assignment, we see something interesting and have to stop. And that’s what happened this day, even if it was only brief. So here, in the “sprawling metropolis” of Unity Saskatchewan, a couple large industries, one a grain...

Another instalment in the “Roam at Night” Series. Here, it’s not about the subject and composition so much, but rather practicing the technical aspects of night photography. You know, getting the exposure right and the challenges of focusing in those conditions, and keeping noise to a minimum. Later we can...

Another instalment where Chris & Connie train to be better night photographers and share the results with you. Low light shooting is an area we have much interest in, but struggle with. The big problem, which we’re not the least bit ashamed to admit (outside the fact that meds don’t...

The small town watering hole, often housed in an old hotel (and not always providing accommodations), a place for locals and passers-through alike to partake in libations and socialize. Near every community across the country, no matter the size, had one. Or so it seemed. But we’re losing them, fast,...

Screaming down some back road, we come over a rise, and there off in the distance, we see an abandoned farm house. Looks pretty darn interesting. Looking over to Connie…”yeah?” “Oh yeah!” Stopping in a cloud of dust, we fire up the Internet (a vehicle hot spot is such a...

Sometimes it takes us a while to get to things. Too much to do, not enough time, not nearly enough us. Anyway, here’s one from waaaaay back in late 2016. Yikes! We’re on the road and find ourselves passing through Sylvan Lake Alberta, a modest sized community west of the...

There used to be a vast network of railway owned telegraph lines spanning the country. Where the tracks went, so went the poles and the wires. This early incarnation of the information superhighway stood alongside the rights-of-way and were a familiar scene to people back when. Look at any old...

Low light photography is a skill we struggle with. Oh, we understand the principals and all, but still have a hard time of it. To combat this we’ve been getting out, in town, and practising. We’re not worried about the composition so much, nor the subject matter, but getting the...

It’s old and weather beaten, locked up and unused. This sorry looking building with faded paint is home only to pigeons, their occasional cooing breaking the silence. Sure, there’s the memories of Sunday Service, the weddings the funerals. Happy occasions some, sad and tearful others. All behind it now. Today...

Trailer parks have a bad reputation. If we believe the stereotypes they’re home to hardened criminals with extensive rap sheets, drugged out slackers with bizarre haircuts, boozers and other undesirables. lumped together with the working poor and old folks on limited incomes. It’s one ugly, unfriendly place best given a...

At the extreme western edge of Inglewood, backing on the Elbow River, beside the tracks, and in the shadow of downtown, stands the old Penguin Car Wash. The building has been empty for a good half dozen years, give or take, a shell of a place open to the elements...

Some unremarkable photos here, nothing special technically or artistically, just a big fat blah in every way. If not for the subject that is. There’s the magic. Look at this place, look close, a cute little house in a small Saskatchewan town, sealed up for many years. Peer inside, the...

If one were to drive around Calgary back in the 1970s and 1980s there was a good chance you’d pass by a Bob’s Burgers outlet. There used to be a dozen or more of them across the city (we used old phone directories to come to that number), making them...

It looks like any other pasture or field, something you might expect to see cows or horses living in. Nothing seems out of the ordinary. Yet, mostly hidden from view by tall grass, there’s danger underfoot. Scattered here and there, randomly and numbering in the dozens if not more, are...

It’s been photographed…an awful lot. Not that it should come as a surprise, the little grain elevator in Dorothy Alberta, a near ghost town in the Red Deer River badlands, is one photogenic building. Standing there, right beside the highway, in this lovely valley setting, below the sprawling plains, one...

Here we are, travelling down some back road we’ve never been before (and you thought we’ve seen every one), Crowsnest Pass area of Alberta, and we see this, an ancient boxcar in retirement. Once belonging to Canadian Pacific Railway it’s at the edge of a field sitting in a corral...

It’s in our blood. It’s what we do. We take the “back way” when returning from adventures and we do it every darn chance we get. We have this insatiable hunger, us, this pair of restless souls with a never ending desire, a burning drive taking us to the point...

One from the archives, somehow overlooked for a time, our subject visited way back when – wow – close to a year and a half ago. This, an old farm house, a rather modest-sized one, with a gambrel (or barn style) roof, weather beaten, open the elements and long forgotten....

This long skinny shed looking building was once a railway bunkhouse. Simply, it was a crash-pad for train crews overnighting away from home base. There would be a couple beds inside, a simple kitchen, a biffy and that’s about it. No five star resort, it was about as basic as...

A rare look inside our lives…for a short time, when I was about seven or so, my “family” and I lived in Nelson BC just across from a Dairy Queen. Our home for a couple months was some flea-bag dive motel, that tiny little shack looking thing in back, over...

At one time, long ago, Frank Alberta was home to a zinc smelter. Built in the early 1900s, those behind it had great aspirations, but it never really got off the ground. All they could manage was couple test runs before shutting down. The place was doomed for a number...