Atlas the Astronaut

Trying on his dad's old dirtbike helmet and looking so grown up.

Grandpa Ed and Arlo rocking in the sun and laughing at Atlas. The apple doesn't fall far from the tree with those laugh lines.

Arlo is a happy girl at five months old. October 2015.

Pensive about his new career. 

Atlas the Astronaut, all suited up for space thanks to his out-of-this-world mother!

Pensive Conrad at the poker table.

Iain's Aunt DeeDee setting up the quilt to prepare for basting.

Mother and son staple the quilt to the board for basting. October 2015

Olympus SP-35 / Delta 400

Tulabi Falls and beyond

Happy campers!

Enroute to the Falls with my darlin' and the Partycam.

Woosh! Beautiful drive I will not soon forget.

Self timer group shot.

Shitbird and Bambam.

Dingaling 1 2 & 3.

Morning mandolin.

Taking in the sights together.

Whistlin' along with the lake birds.

On top of the Pinawa Dam.

This series depicts an end of Autumn camping trip to Tulabi Falls, Manitoba with Iain, Grant and Rebecca. Good times were had by all. It was a beautiful weekend to get away and explore. We stopped at the Pinawa Dam on the ride home for a picnic. Great company!

Olympus SP / Delta 400 graintown grit

Caps To Ya Dome

Meet Nathan Dueck of Oldhat. He makes beautiful, quality hats for a living in Winnipeg, MB. Here he wears the Cadet hat which looks right at home on his dome.

Will carefully selects the right Cadet hat of his choice before sitting for his Oldhat portrait.

The one and only Will Belford, wearing the Cadet hat. Just right.

Lisa in the Cadet hat. I miss this ding-dong especially now that she has moved to Nelson, BC. So close, so far. 

Nathan sits for his Oldhat portrait shot by Natalie Baird (also wearing the Cadet hat while sitting on the Quality Builders drafting stool made by my Grandpa Frank KK).

Beautiful Natalie soaking up the October rays. Mid-shoot cold one for this gal.

Will cracking up the ladies as per usual.

Nat works at ease while shooting a portrait on her Hasselblad for Oldhat! Makeshift dark throw: my flannel housedress.

Iain dons the Cycle Cap with grace.

A beautiful soul called Chloe wearing the Conductor hat (my kind of hat).

Classic Lisa King right here folks. She wears the Schoolyard hat with sass.

Reason number one million and seventeen why I love this dingaling. 

Margot Pollo for Oldhat: contrast / candid edition

On a warm day in mid October, a few friends gathered on mine and Iain's back deck for a shoot to showcase the latest work of Winnipeg hat maker Nathan Dueck. Regular, wacky folk wearing five different styles of handmade, quality Oldhats: the Schoolyard, the Cadet, the Conductor, the Cycle Cap and the 5-Panel (sadly not pictured on this roll). Natalie Baird and I co-shot the lookbook (taking turns shooting portraits on her delicious Hasselblad) which was a delightful experience. I shot all of the contrast photos in the series above. It was a really interesting experiment to share the Directress of Photography reins with another photographer whom I admire deeply. We took turns at the camera and it turned into a really fun and intuitive dance. I really appreciated Natalie letting me learn to navigate her Hasselblad. What a beautiful camera to operate. The Hasselblad offered such a different composition experience compared to looking through the barrel of my Kiev! The experience slowed me down, made me second guess the decisive moments where I would naturally blast. And let me tell you, that was not a bad thing at all! It is good to slow down composition once in a while.

While taking in the color lookbook for the first time, I could hardly tell whom shot what. I'm taking that as a good sign Nat! Looking forward to seeing those portraits make their way onto the Oldhat site. CLICK to scope Nathan's current shop selection. I have the Conductor and wear it to death. Sturdy and slick all at once. My kind of hat!

Margot Pollo presents: a funny behind-the-scenes look at the 2015 shoot for Oldhat! Thank you to Lisa King, Natalie Baird, Nathan Dueck, Chloe Bishop Dueck, Iain Petkau and Will Belford for graciously modelling.

Kiev 60 / Delta 400

Back in the saddle

Time to step out and debut what has been cookin' on the back burner for many a moon. Textiles! Printmaking has long been a passion of mine and loooooooord does it ever feel good to approach the process once again. While I have yet to slip my printing apron on and pull a lick of ink, I have been spending my evenings between the ironing board readying a fat stack of fabric for the first go and at the light table playing around with old work and new.

My hat is off to all the fine folks out there who do this type of production for a living. The list is long but the process is rich.

I have gone back and forth for ages on whether or not to sell my work and finally I decided to quit winging and just do it. AIN'T NOTHIN' TO IT BUT TO DO IT. Get those wacky, imperfect textiles out there and buy yourself a new computer goddamnit woman! Integrity shall remain so long as honesty and quality are at the helm of it all.

So, on Sunday, December 13th I shall be debuting my take on textiles. I am really into cloth napkins and beautiful throw pillows in my daily life. Pillowcases. Maybe even a shower curtain or two. You can count on those items for purchase. Oh! And a couple of Lady Longbody's too because WHY NOT.

For this particular sale, my approach is to hand print and dye various fabrics; combining my ongoing obsession for stencils with good ol' ink-and-quill illustrations for a fresh take on printing. I have a hunch some papery bits will be flung in at the last moment too because once my print train gets going there ain't no stopping this old gal pal. Full steam ahead!

Back in the saddle with loose reins and eyes trained on the horizon. Feels electric and good; familiar and foreign at the same time. Now back to writing report cards for three and four year olds I go hi-ho. Life is wacky, weird and wonderful. November has been a real treat thus far. Iain dragged home a firepit for his sweetheart over the weekend. Sheer delight 'ditzeid.

Sparks are flyin' over here to say the least.

Adios!

General Store blues

Soft focus general store of wonders. Should have shot more on color film and less with my eyeballs. Tongue wagging historical beauty in Sherbrooke, Nova Scotia. July 2015.

Excited to the bone. Iain tolerated my Christmas-morning-like hysterics with impressive grace as we prepared to enter this heritage village in Sherbrooke, Nova Scotia. I knew I picked the right guy after this day.

Impressive bedroom geraniums in funny Victorian house museum at Sherbrooke Village in Nova Scotia. Who tended those fairweather wonders I wonder? Beautiful chair, soft focus, incorrect exposure. It goes.

I love this ding-dong so terribly. Speaking of terrible, terribly interesting choice of DOF here Madge. Gros Morne National Park, Newfoundland.

Fierce competitors / Content companions. Gros Morne National Park, Newfoundland.

Wet campers play Scrabble and drink rye and many an Oland Export and get drunk at 2 in the afternoon. Gros Morne National Park, Newfoundland.

Beautiful creature enjoying the boardwalk in the oceanside town of Trout River, Newfoundland.

We hiked a many trail. I cursed as he led and I followed with camera. He laughed as I cursed as I led. Gros Morne National Park, Newfoundland.

Cape Breton Island cruisin' taking in the endless grey and sharp rocks from pretty pull-over spots. Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia; July 2015.

My expression is misleading. I am thrilled to sit upon a rock at the mouth of the Bay of Fundy in New Brunswick with my sweetheart, I swear. Olympus Sport self timer edition. July 2015.

Montreal; summer in the city in a nutshell. July 2015

Let's go back to those slow afternoons of endless driving through impressive landscapes and long lunches of cold meats, crackers and icy cool Oland Exports, listening to The Band in the truck and wearing backward caps with tanned feet up on the dash and pulling over and doing it in bushes and other funny places whenever we felt like it. Okay, good idea. Yes, let's.

All shot on my trusty old Olympus SP partycam of choice. Gotta love that self timer option! Crappy unmentionable color film and Delta 400 thrown in just for fun.

Dear Nova Scotia, I love you so much and I will be back. I have a feeling it will be sooner than I think. Suzette is calling my name from her attic darkroom. I have my sights set on Ambrotype. That is all there is to it.

Adios.

Observations of Fall time light

* all photos shot on a Nikon F3 / 50mm

Cut a door

Elegant Grandma Helen, my role model.

What do I want to create? Who am I without photographs? How do I want to represent myself without digital scans of my photographs? I have been asking myself these questions lately as I ease into the cooler season. The seasons are on the verge of change as fall shuts down (although the sun still warms us in the mid-afternoon in Winnipeg these days). I have been soaking up the rays in the company of children. They stare at me as I sprawl out horizontal in whatever sun I can find, cat-like and curious to them. Life is rich with the wonderful questions of four year olds. But why Teacher Megan, why? Oh my days are so strange. I can only imagine what parenting would be like. Teaching other people's children is trippy and exhilarating. Today I taught a girl to use a screwdriver with attitude and poise, two boys how to build a mean fortress out of long red and numbered rods on an extra large mat, another child how to pour corn kernels from one vessel to the next, another the wonders of blending primary water colors to make new colors. Oh the wonder of it all. As previously mentioned, teaching Montessori is wonderful and weird. 

Here is some recent photography work from an incredible family wedding I shot late in August for my cousin Sara and her man Tony. At the time I felt free to capture anything I pleased; so I did--to my heart's content. Enjoy.

I shall share now that the door has been cut open. The circle remains and so does the desire to commit my hands to one hundred percent analogue work from here to kingdom come. Then again, some nights long after the neighborhood has settled in and sleep has escaped me yet again (despite the fact that I will slip into my saddle at 7am tomorrow morn) I am drawn to this open, instant platform where I can type to my heart's content and not give two hoots about what the next guy is working on. I'm just me, girl with a frying pan. 

Some recent projects on the go:

- large and in charge Rollin & Elma stencil for Amelia

- the slow train comin' project of sliding all '14-'15 negatives into sleeves for contact sheets OYE

- makin' pasta

- plannin' various print projects for winter flow

- upcomin' basting lesson from Tammy. Baby's first foray into quilting. I am quite keen on following the wonder that is Folk Fibers. Someday I hope to be dying my own fabric and quilting blankets for my beds. 

This is good enough for now. 

Adios 

New moon in Scorpio; a good time to acknowledge death and embrace rebirth. 

Happy together and finding the balance.

Beautiful friends.

Grandpa is the bomb.

A free spirit.

A strong and resilient girl.

My grandfather Sydney and his last remaining sister, Charlotte.

A natural, on the clock.

Delighting in each other (despite my warm Developer temps. DAMNIT).