I like to photograph the beauty of nature and human achievements. Everyone who has read this blog for some time will acknowledge that. I am also a person who does not like to trespass. UrbEx or Urban Exploration of derelict buildings is not really my thing. Photographing decay inside a building that has been abandoned, looted and whatnot has never been one of my activities.
As a kid, yes, we went into old buildings and a friend of us got stuck in a rotting floorboard. Once he was out and treated with tetanus shots I never went back to the building. A few months later it was torn down and replaced with a new building.
So now that we have warmed up a little by bringing up old warm memories of summer and colour, it’s time to go back to the reality of the Manitoba Winter. We hear (and love to tell) a lot of horror stories about the Manitoba Winter. That would be Winter with a capital W, oh yeah…
Winter is only as bad as one wants it to be. Apart from medical conditions, one should always enjoy the environment one lives in. If you can’t enjoy the place you live in, it’s time to move. In case you don’t move, stop complaining. Short and strong, eh?
Around this time of the year, Social Media is being flooded with pictures of summertime, spring or even fall, even indoor pictures of water drops or basement spiders. As long as there is no snow, ice or cold to be seen. A bit like the “end of century” malaise, except that it’s repeated each year. This post is to accommodate those that suffer from the “end of winter” syndrome.
Let’s just add a twist to it and let me present some memories of a different day and age, namely when I was living in Ukraine.
Sometimes people ask me what gear I use for night shots. Well, apart from my cellphone that decidedly sucks at night shots, I’d say “anything goes”. 13 years ago I had the opportunity to get my first digital camera. It was a big deal for me. After a hiatus of nearly 15 years, I finally had a camera again. The first thing to try was of course family portraits and landscapes.
Then came the more challenging shots. Macro shots and night photography. You wouldn’t expect night photography to go well with a small point and shoot. Even worse, those things are nowadays declared obsolete and are hardly for sale anymore.
By this time in winter we all start to think about summer. I think that is human nature, always trying to get what is not available. I wonder who put that in our genetic code… Anyway, in a photographer’s fashion, I have my own way to get what we all crave at some point in winter.
Photographical memories. While they are easy to see, they are not always easy to take or make.