Category: Then And Now

The grain elevators of Carbon Alberta were in a scenic setting at the edge of town, and the emphasis is on once. They’re all gone now and vanished decades ago. That’s even if our memory insists it doesn’t seem like that much time has passed. Where they stood is present...

The photographs used in this Then & Now post, showing an overall view of the the small community of Rosebud Alberta, date from 1982 and 2015 respectively. The location is a hill overlooking the village, which affords a good view of pretty much the entire place. No urban sprawl here....

Just over eighty years separates the images used in this BIGDoer Then & Now, and while the mountains seen remain timeless, the foreground view shows much change. You’d never even know it was the same place if one were to only focus there. We’re along Main in little Slocan BC...

Why in the world did they do that? It’s great the old building was given a new lease on life, but wasn’t consideration given to saving the sign? An iconic part of Edmonton’s Jasper Avenue since forever it’s now partially obscured by new construction. That new addition…well…the aesthetics are not...

This installment we’re looking at two scenes down by the tracks in Okotoks Alberta and captured fifty years apart. There’s been change, the passage of time guarantees it, and the only constants are two steel rails extending off in the distance. The trains still run, but the grain elevator is...

We’re in Claresholm Alberta at the Bluebird Motel and comparing how the business looks today to an old postcard from about fifty years ago. Spoiler alert: it hasn’t changed! In this crazy fast paced world of constant flux, it represents a timeless scene. Our home one fall weekend it functioned...

We’re standing on 95th, a tattered paper in one hand and camera long past its prime in the other. This can only mean one thing – that’s it time for another BIGDoer.com Then & Now, this one touching on a theme we really like, an ordinary street scene. Printed on...

Come join in and imagine yourself a curious time traveller. Today, it’s two for the price of one and in this Then & Now we’ll show you some scenes of Tofield Alberta captured about forty years apart. It thrills us knowing we’re standing close to the spot where the original...

Channel your inner HG Wells and join us in Foremost Alberta for a little time travelling adventure. Armed with an old photo of the town showing Main Street we’re here to shoot another of similar composition from the same position. It’s a silly little obsession and we find it thrilling...

In the old photo it’s labelled Main Street, but today it’s 50th. No matter the naming convention, we’re in downtown Elk Point Alberta, early one Sunday morning and with not a soul about, shooting a Then & Now. We’ll do our best to duplicate the old image in composition even...

What time is it? Time for another Then & Now, that’s what! In this one we’re looking at a location in Three Hills Alberta taken some seventy years apart and our only connecting element is the town’s water tower. Then, it functioned as the backdrop for some kind of community...

It’s estimated close to forty years separates the two photos seen in this comparison post. It’s a strange subject we’ve picked, an obscure little corner of our city, but we like out of the way places. Anyway, it looked like it had the potential for some silly fun, so for...

Before you venture in too deep, this is a nonsensical time wasting post and the amount of work to that went into it will make you chuckle. Our subject scene comes from the epic film Superman 1978 and it’s such brief one, you’ll be questioning our motivations. You wasted that...

We’re not sure where it was hiding all this time. Unknowingly misplaced years ago and recently rediscovered, it’s a Then & Now looking down 2nd Street West in Brooks Alberta. The Hotel Newell (or Newell Hotel, depending) is most prominent and sits at a (once) important spot right down by...

Serenaded by a church service playing out in the building directly behind, our shot is lined up. A little to the left, angle up slightly, review the original image and then check it in the eyepiece. Comes a bit more fiddling, a grid check and if zoned in, and only...

Tom Campbell Hill (alt: Tom Campbell’s Hill) is located a little northeast of downtown Calgary of which it overlooks. At one time it was pasture and got its name from a billboard erected here by a fellow with that name who was owner of a hat firm in town (chapeaus...

While randomly browsing a favourite website something catches our eye, a photo showing a group of apartment blocks in Medicine Hat Alberta about sixty years ago. It’s an otherwise unremarkable image of rather utilitarian buildings that strikes us as curious and asking: “I wonder what they look like today?” We’re...

When we get busy Then & Nows are sadly the first to be put on the back burner. Of all things we do they’re often the most joy (sometimes frustration too), but eat up a lot of precious time and resources. Still, we’ve continued to shoot them with the hope...

It’s freakin’ huge! We’re standing on the lip of a valley overlooking this towering structure, just a block or two distant, and its highest point is eye level with us. Wow! Imagine all the concrete and steel that went into it, back when, and one can’t help be impressed. What...

This post takes us back to last summer with the Team visiting Wolseley Saskatchewan. Always on the search for fun and adventure we soak up all this picturesque town has to offer. There’s old buildings by the score, many of stone(!), lots open to us (! again), charming tree lined...

The deeper we dig, the more we find. We’re talking about some “lost” Then & Nows shot years ago, promptly forgotten about for some odd reason*, and only recently rediscovered. There’s been a few of these published so far with more to come. In this example, we take a different...

File this under silly and fun. Here it’s another “lost” Then & Now shot long ago, somehow forgotten about and only recently rediscovered. When you’ve got diseased brains like us, it’s bound to happen! In this one we duplicate a scene from a 1980s sci-fi B-movie shlock-fest called Firebird 2015AD....

Here’s a pair of Then & Nows that somehow got lost for a time and while produced back in 2017, they’ve not seen the light of day until now. Presenting not one, but two of these wonderful comparison studies and the subject is Loverna Saskatchewan, a near ghost town. The...

In concept it’s pretty straightforward, and rather clever, but in execution demanding with failures all too common. We’re speaking on how a BIGDoer.com “Then & Now” is made . It’s where we take an old photograph showing some town scene from long ago and do our best to duplicate it...

The setting for this “then & now” is a quiet residential street in small town Alberta seen a century ago, and again present day. Admittedly it’s not the the most glamorous or spectacular subject we’ve ever picked for one of these posts. It’s just two rows of humble dwellings, in...

Those who follow our adventures know how much we love staying at old school motels/hotels when on the road. It’s not just due to budgetary reasons we do this (well, yes it is), but that we simply love the vibe. Heck, if we won the lotto tomorrow – and we’re...

For years now we’ve been going into local (to us) locations seen in the earlier Superman movies and showing what they look like today. We’ve long since visited most of the easily accessible sites and have been slowly chipping away at those which are harder to get to or appear...

We have a conflicting love/hate relationship with these then and now articles. Sure, they’re an absolute delight to do, when all the pieces fall together that is, but at times they’re a bringer of great frustration. For every one that works, there’s many that don’t. We strive not to just...

Among the mighty peaks in the West Kootenays of British Columbia, there was for a time a most unusual railway operation. On account of challenging topography, the Canadian Pacific Railway (under the Nakusp and Slocan Charter) built a line isolated from the rest of its network with trains coming and...

One of our favourite ghost towns is a storied place called Sandon British Columbia. There, nestled in the craggy mountains of the West Kootenays and shoe-horned into a narrow valley, it’s many reminders of what was. Mining was the catalyst, all that silver, lead and zinc (other metals too) that...