#52weeksofWE - Theme 13 of 52, Labour

I hate to be a killjoy, but most of us engage in work or will have to participate in some sort of work in our lives. Unfair? Demanding? I know, but still worthy of a snapshot. I want to be clear that work does not necessarily have a paycheque attached, but is labour nonetheless. Capture something to do with you and your work, or maybe some other poor folk who are working hard while you are snapping shots of them.
Submit your photos on Flickr or Facebook, and send the picture files to me if you want them to be featured on my weekly reflections: essex.masqueATgmailDOTcom

The Great Wide Open, Reflections on week 11 of #52weeksofWE

Here is the description for this week’s theme:

Before you press down on that button I want you to take a deep breath and let your eyes relax. There is no a building springing up in your way to interrupt the great expanse of sky, trees, fields, water, etc that unfold before you and your camera. Get the shot, but maybe get another, and another, before you are forced to confine yourself between four walls, a ceiling and a floor. It is time to celebrate the great wide open with your wide angled lens in this week’s theme. You may not even have to leave the city for this one, but chances are you will have to do some looking.

I took a breath before every shot that was submitted this week. “Of course you did,” you may be thinking. These weren’t any normal, sitting at my desk, mundane breaths though. These were, expansive, heady breaths in anticipation of the sublime vistas of Windsor – Essex – the splintering, retreating ice of the Detroit River and Lake Erie; the jagged lines of a lightning storm; the vibrant colours of a sunset on the Detroit horizon; and the arcing lines of telephone wires with an open backdrop of sky beyond. 

 by Lupita

 by Frank Shepley

After picking up cat litter and other staples from the local grocery store, I was able to sneak out after a long week of basement renovations to grab my Great Wide Open shot of the week. I returned to the site of the old, abandoned refueling station at the mouth of Lake Erie (the photo featured for the Hidden Gems week) in order use the lake’s expanse and the descending sun as the subject of my shot. Though I got some interesting shots of the receding ice, and some ice bathing seagulls, upon looking at the shots when I uploaded them on my computer I was not as happy with the results. Fortunately I snuck a little more time and took the scenic route home, stumbling across a river full of swans and seagulls near Knapp Island. I am still editing the shots of the swans, but was able to get capture the glow of the river at day’s end broken by the silhouette of swans, and a solitary seagull’s flight in the fading light of dusk. These are the shots that I ended up selecting for this week’s theme.

River Swans by Patrick Firth

Sunset and Poles by Patrick Firth

Things are looking up for next week. You will see what I mean if you do some looking at the Flickr site, where you can see the rest of the Great Wide Open shots, as well as the Facebook site where you can get updates on the #52weeksofWE photography challenge and other arts related news.

The Writing on the Wall, Reflection on week 10 of #52weeksofWE

 

Here is the description for this week's theme:

Instead of recruiting a person to yell, “Hey, you can’t park here!” or, “Hey! Come on in and enjoy a coffee,” we have this wonderful thing called writing and signs to communicate things we do or do not want people to do. So the question this week is, what does Windsor – Essex want us to do? What are the words up on the walls – of bricks and mortar, of billboards, of digital walls – saying? Are they welcoming or threatening? Did the message work? Do you have a favourite font? Let us know with your camera this week.

Okay, so there weren't any musings on who preferred what font, and why (my personal favourite is Garamond, and Wing-dings), but we did get a couple shots of what Windsor - Essex is trying to tell us. We were told not to have a wake, or idle; we were pointed in the direction of the Tunnel (this would have been a good one for Week 1), and given a picture history of Amherstburg. We were warned that we were under surveillance, and suggested we get some take out pizza from Arcata. One challenger encouraged us to see the history of Ford City through one of its murals, capturing the unwritten story of Windsor's (ongoing) automotive history.

My shot for this week was captured downtown, a riff on Gil Scott Heron's song, The Revolution Will not be Televized. A little sparse this week for other featured photographs from fellow challengers, but you can still see them all by clicking on the Flickr link below.

Revolutionary Writing by Patrick Firth

We go from the minutia of the written word to the sublime, word transcending open vistas of Windsor - Essex next week, the Great Wide Open. Thank you again for all the wonderful submissions, and here is a reminder to check out the rest on Flickr and Facebook.

Maternal Blinders on Adventure Worlds Blog

Check out my story, Maternal Blinders, over on the Adventure Worlds Blog (based in Windsor). The relationship between a girl and her mother is both put to the test and given hope by piles of pesky goblins. Access it, and other fantastic stories from Windsor - Essex authors, on the following link:

http://adventureworldsblog.com/2015/03/23/maternal-blinders/

#52weeksofWE - Theme 12 of 52, Things are Looking Up

 Other than a slight sense of vertigo, 'looking up' can be a positive experience. This week we can choose something tall, or at least medium height, aim our lenses up, and snap a shot. Does it make you feel good to see how truly majestic those things are that reach to the heavens above, or does it make you feel small and insignificant? Either way, I'm looking forward to some beautiful and uplifting shots this week.

Submit your photos on Flickr or Facebook, and send the picture files to me if you want them to be featured on my weekly reflections: essex.masqueATgmailDOTcom

Silhouette, Reflections on week 9 of #52weeksofWE

Here is the description for this week’s theme:

Have you ever looked at a two dimensional space and thought, that is really for me? Things would be so much simpler… Well we can pretend in this week’s theme, where you can turn aspects of Windsor – Essex that have all the annoying complexity of the third dimension – bulges, curvatures, etc – and reduce them to pleasing, simplistic silhouettes.

 Ice and snow on the course by Frank Shepley

What is it about reducing something, in all its complexity, to a dark simplification that is so beautiful? I was looking forward to seeing the silhouettes of Windsor – Essex since starting the #52weeksofWE photography challenge. You should be impressed that I held back until week 9. One of my favourites this week was Paul Thibodeau’s “Silhouette of Trees” where we see the staggered white and blue of a landscape (different world) through the solid black forms of the tree trunks. Very well composed, and very creative in my opinion. Though trees figured prominently this week, we also were treated to church steeples, cityscapes, and another favourite of mine this week – the nun “StatueSilhouette” that you can see at various spots throughout Windsor. 

 Silhouette of trees, Lasalle, ON by Paul Thibodeau

For me this week I strolled down to the Detroit River waterfront in Amherstburg. When I walked out I thought that my efforts were going to be a “bust.” The horizon was dominated by cloud cover, and I thought the sun was going to stay behind it until it disappeared for another day. However, as the very cold minutes ticked by – gloveless minutes I might add – the clouds separated, creating bands of clouds from above the line of trees of Boblo Island to below. You can see the effect it had in my shots, where the deep red of the sun was split in half, almost resembling a reflection. I really liked the shot I am featuring below, and hardly needed to do any digital darkroom editing whatsoever. 

 Banded sunset by Patrick Firth

Sunset with tree silhouettes by Patrick Firth

The next week we are seeing what Windsor – Essex is telling us through the Writing on the Wall. Again, I love all the descriptions that are accompanying the photographs. Keep them coming, and I will continue to feature them on the blog.

 Detroit Skyline by Zee1977

Hidden Gems, Reflections on weeks 8 #52weeksofWE

Better late than never? It has been a busy couple of weeks, and promises to be so for the next couple of weeks as well. But aren’t they all….

I still hope to get out some blog posts, though they may be shorter in some cases, because I really do want to celebrate some of the shots coming in from my fellow challengers.

This week’s description was:

Gems come in all shapes and sizes. In fact some gems are not even gems. They could be that little square foot of wonderfulness that only you and a select few of your most trusted advisors know about. From businesses to sculptures, to a place where snow collects in the most fetching of ways, these are the little points of beauty that make up Windsor – Essex and may only be known by the people who live with them. This is your opportunity to take us on a little walking tour that the tourists don’t necessarily get to see. Translation: I don’t expect to see any pictures of the Ambassador Bridge this week. Thank you for the participant who suggested this theme.

Train station, Essex, ON

I haven’t been in Windsor – Essex for that long, relatively speaking, but have found more so than any other place that I have lived in (not including when I taught for a year overseas in South Korea), that I have really put in an effort to get to know the big city and the smaller communities, and the County spaces. And in the case of this week’s theme, I feel as though I have been able to do that even more, even if it is vicariously through the lenses of the cameras of other photographers. We were able to see old fences in Point Pelee, the church in River Canard, and the train station in Essex, to name a few. It was also refreshing to see a hidden gem of culture, a look into the activities of ECCCA’s Chinese new year gala.

Hidden Gem - ECCC 2015 New Year Gala by Christian Kuong

I essentially got the shot that I wanted of a pond in Amherstburg. My original intention, however, was to aim in the opposite direction – toward the city centre – as the sun was going down. I wanted to capture the lights both of the businesses along this stretch, as well as the vibrancy of the sunset or the subtle dark of twilight. However, I wasn’t able to get out until after twilight disappeared and was replace with full-fledged dark. I wasn’t really dressed appropriately either, expecting I would be taking shots from the window of my car. To get the angle I wanted would have required blazing a trail through the snow. Instead, I decided to test out my night shooting and get the little island of light over the park bench. 

Illuminated bench by a frozen pond, Amherstburg by Patrick Firth

Next week’s theme, Silhouette, is already done and I will type up a blog for that soon as well. Hopefully before I get too far behind again. Check out the rest of the submissions on the Flickr site, and follow other announcements over Facebook.

Bridge over Frozen Water. Lakeside Park, Kingsville by Frank Shepley