Dear Reader,
Yesterday evening, I checked the weather and said to myself, “self tomorrow will be a good morning, and you should get your ass out of bed bright and early, drive just west of Drumheller, and explore an area on your list.”
4:30 this morning arrived. I turned over, saying to myself it’s too early. 65 minutes later I awoke again and 15 minutes later I was out the door.
I was thinking of cultural landscapes, as I drove. At its simplest cultural landscapes are vistas that recognize the human touch to the land. Later in the day, I was also thinking the photographic explorations I share with you are often all over the map. As a result, the photos appear disconnected. To be honest not only are the photos disconnected, but my thoughts are not always coherent. Today though, I have 4 photos exploring cultural landscapes. As well I wanted to let you know visually that these were roadside attractions.
By the time I reached my intended destination, I had become so distracted by the previous hours’ light, the best light of the morning was gone. These are some of the distractions.
Cheers, Sean
My goodness! That first one is amazing! I love that you left your shadow in it. And the sense of depth with the clouds is a winner. The other three are nice, and my preference is for the middle one of them. There seems to be a little more to look at, and fewer barriers between me and the image. I found the last one in particular to be difficult to get past the road, even though there is a lovely landscape there. But that’s part of the cultural-ness of the landscape, the impact we’ve had.
We have discussed the idea that photos that are placed together automatically have a connection, whether the photographer intended it or not. I have several times found that my incoherent thoughts of what I was doing, have led to unsatisfactory photos. It’s a fine balance for me, to go out with the intention to look for x, while being open to discovering y and z along the way.
I have no problem with the getting up early part, but for some reason have not done the actual driving part. There may be some impetus for that arriving today. Maybe.