Off the Beaten Path with Chris & Connie

Saint Nicholas, a devout religious figure from the early days of Christianity, and to many today, the face of everyone’s most favourite holiday ever, Christmas. Said to be a miracle worker, benevolent, a helper of the poor, advocate of the hopeless, the destitute, the damned, his life’s work was in...

The community of Beachwood Estates, High River Alberta, is doomed. It has been for a while. Once vibrant and full of life, the place is now empty, every last soul forced to move away. The boulevards are quiet, the dwellings quiet, nothing but total silence and come nightfall, total darkness....

The old farm we’ll be touring with you here was last occupied in the 1990s but is little changed from the early days. Electricity? What’s that? Warmth came from an impressive wood stove and a dirty old oil heater. Cooking took place on that same wood stove. There wasn’t even...

Once a subject is photographed and the images processed, we enter the research phase. This can take no time at all or it can be a long, painful, drawn out process. For most gigs it falls somewhere between the two. Regardless, budget constraints means we often can’t commit to more...

We’re in Pincher Station Alberta, passing through, heading west for a couple days of rest and relaxation. Timing is everything, and as it happens, we’re here and so is a train. Pull over, brakes on hard, jump out and run around like someone who’s mistakenly kicked a hornet’s nest. Catch...

Once a year C&C and a group of close and very dear friends get together for a “ghost town tour”. We pick an area and explore. It’s hectic and is more about the fun and comradery than anything else, even if the cameras still get a good work out. Often...

This location is about as remote as it gets. We’re in Western Saskatchewan, here specifically part of “Census Division #8” (imaginative name), a broad expanse of prairie, a place that never was home to that many people. Picture gently rolling fields of grain that go on forever, a dusty road...

Tiny little middle-of-nowhere Hoosier is hanging on for dear life. A handful of people still live here, give or take, with more on farms in the immediate area. And while the CO-OP and Post Office slash Coffee Shop are open, it’s hardly thriving. There are just as many empty or...

Churches have always been a favourite here and we search them out like bloodhounds. Be they active and in use or closed up and forgotten, grand in form or humble, city or rural, no matter the religious denomination, they’re on our radar. Today’s target is Holy Trinity Catholic Church and...

This is about as remote a place one will ever visit. The land is level and almost featureless, fields of grain stretching off in every direction to the horizon, all connected together by an orderly grid of township and rural roads. And there’s the sky, the big, big sky. It...

It’s not a true ghost town, but in many ways looks the part. A handful of people live here, but the near-empty main street has all the traits of a forgotten place. There’s a number of former commercial buildings flanking the wide boulevard, all closed and boarded up, most prominent...

Seen here, a lonely county church, Brush Hill Reformed, standing vigil on a remote Alberta crossroads. It’s a century old and not unexpectedly, is showing its age. No one comes here anymore, there are no services. It’s been a while since that happened. The place is boarded up, unused, it’s...

Stand in front of this old farm house and spin about slowly. Look around, look all around and know what it’s like to be alone. Totally and utterly alone. There are scant signs of human habitation for miles and miles around (repeat ad-nauseam), the vast nothingness stretching all the way...