Flying
Jan 10th, 2009 by Frank Grisdale
I love watching this. Trying to imagine doing it is another thing.
This is set in Norway – first in the winter, later in the summer. Wind Suits!
A poem based on Sweet Fields series
Jan 7th, 2009 by Frank Grisdale
(After Sweet Fields, a photo series)
SWEET FIELDS, ALBERTA
By Patricia Robertson
Light shimmers inside light, an equation of dazzle,
a far explosion of hope. Shimmers into wheat, into heat-
hazed land, its downy skin. Overhead the blue onrush of sky.
An eye peeled back. Lidless. Black box in the hand,
turning the land upside down,
pinning light to paper where, faster than sound,
it moves still, blurs into being, spindles the world
out of itself. A slow solidifying. Light into thread. And thread into light. Each wheatstalk
blurred, out of focus. We look past the edges
to where they dissolve, to where they collide
into being, releasing them back into wholeness,
into wheatness, into pulsing bands of gold: sweet field,
shimmering carpet. Threadsun. Light.
Patricia Robertson is a fiction writer, poet, editor and creative writing instructor based in Whitehorse, Yukon. She has twot collections of short fiction. City of Orphans, was nominated for the Ethel Wilson Fiction Prize. probertson@northwestel.net
carbon footprint
Jan 3rd, 2009 by Frank Grisdale
Street Trees in Winter
Dec 31st, 2008 by Frank Grisdale
In the spring, summer and fall I am always thinking trees, but rarely in the color-less winter. For some reason I am now seeing the color that’s always been there.
During the holidays you see more neighbors. Or more neighbors see me. Normally I am shooting without interaction from the people on the street, who are usually still asleep. This week I was shooting snow on rooftops. I had earlier nodded to one person while they were standing behind their picture window and I was slowly walking by. On the way back that same person came out on their porch and shouted out “What are you doing?”, while I was focusing on the house across the street from her.
I thought it was obvious – but she really didn’t know. “I’m shooting landscapes – or roofscapes.” This silenced her.
Click.
Scotty’s Sneeze Anticipation
Dec 26th, 2008 by Frank Grisdale
View From The Cottage Window – 30 Below C
Dec 25th, 2008 by Frank Grisdale
Adorning The Man Cave
Dec 24th, 2008 by Frank Grisdale
One of my close friends honored me by purchasing a landscape for his new man cave. The room features the best stereo equipment (Magneplane) and very comfortable listening chairs.
The image, Sweet Field number 15, is printed on Gampi, and floats behind the matt. No glass.
You can see the paper’s texture and wrinkles, and the slight billowing off the back matt board.
30 below Celsius
Dec 24th, 2008 by Frank Grisdale
I spent three nights at a sweet cabin called Moondance, on a lake in Central Alberta, during the recent cold snap. Morning sweet light was happening around 8:30, so I had plenty of time to get ready to shoot. Put the coffee on, check out what’s playing on CKUA, stare out the picture window. Move the tripod around. Move it back.
Something’s ‘wrong’. It’s the lights on in the cabin – reflecting off the window and showing up ghostlike in the image. Admittedly I am an indoor landscape rookie. I consider the effect the indoor lights are having on the image in viewfinder. Discard the idea quickly as out of synch with how I’m seeing things.
Turn out the lights. Grab a sip of java. Finally I’m seeing the horizon. Shoot. Bracket.
Stand around a bit, watching the sky getting lighter.
Realize that CKUA’s music at this precious moment is not in synch with my state of mind.
Put on a Natalie Merchant CD. OK, now we’re talking. Me and Natalie and the camera.
I’m seeing things I hadn’t ten minutes ago – like a cloud all along the horizon.
Shoot again.
Wait. Wait. Wait.
The foggy hazy 30 below Celsius conditions begin revealing a hint of the pink. Watch the progression of light and get the sense that the light has actually already begun peaking while I’m standing around watching it.
Click.
Consider the view.
Is there a better composition? Yes, I want more snow. I reverse the 1/3rd 2/3rd ratio.
Click. Stay at the viewfinder. Freeze the decisive moment – for perfect recall later.
A vast landscape of white but mainly blue snow, with a fog cloud on the horizon, some trees peaking through, and the sky is pink.
The light show is over. Total time of peak conditions – maybe 3 minutes.
95% of the time that goes in to any one photograph is the scouting, settling in, waiting and shooting when the conditions are perfect.
Happy Holidays
Dec 18th, 2008 by Frank Grisdale
Bienale Chapingo – Mexico – Who I missed out meeting
Dec 12th, 2008 by Frank Grisdale
Woe is me, to have not made it down to Mexico for the Bienale Chapingo. My photograph – Creek; study #1 - made it, (see Masthead) but not me. Just look at this great slideshow (photos by Alvaro of some of the artists attending a wonderful looking barbeque hosted by Adrian Lavarello.
Don’t you just WANT to get to know these people?
Arrgh.
