July 23, 2019

Dominique Island



---

One and a half rolls depicting a lovely weekend getaway with good friends in a beautiful spot on Shoal Lake. Did you notice the pick axe and hammers being wielded by Effie, Noam and Leo in the photo of the boys on the rock? The kids ran wild and spent the better part of the weekend "mining for precious metals" in rock by the water, chasing each other with pointed spears, exploring the island barefoot and staying up later than the adults. Lord of the Flies a la Dominique Island. Ahhh to be a child of summer. The big kids doted upon young Benny in their down time. He was so fascinated and energized by their funny antics.

Great getaway! These are some images I felt free to capture at the time.

Kiev 60 / FP4 100
Shoal Lake, Ontario; June 2019


July 22, 2019

Red Rock Lake



---

A partial roll of photos captured over the course of a weekend spent at a cottage with my with family. Kroeker Lake Shaker 4.0! Last year while visiting this cottage, Elliot was three months old and I was six months along with Bernard. The dynamic was a little different this year with two busy boys but fun all the same. O and Bea helped out so much with the babies I felt like I was on a holiday! While the little ones napped, us ladies worked on a Cyanotype project. First a nature walk to collect specimens, then laying out the design in subdued lighting on treated fabric swatches, then exposing our designs under the sun, then rinsing and hanging to dry! Fun experiment on a sunny weekend away. The adults were sure to carve out time each evening to enjoy cocktails and card games in good company once the kids were in bed. Always my favourite part!

Kiev 60 / Portra 400
Red Rock Lake, Manitoba; July 2019

July 10, 2019

Something is already here

Nearly eight months old and growing into his highchair. Kid loves to eat! June 2019

Kroeker cousin pool party at Granny KK's double exposure / trouble! June 2019

Boppers 'n Smelliot.

Benny's first pool dip with Granny Kim. June 2019

Benny and his dad go for a swim at Uncle Jim's. June 2019

Petkau cousin picnic at La Barrier Park. I think Evey might be saying "Dis" along with her little pointer! June 2019

Evey, a natural joker. June 2019

Eating snacks on the picnic table at La Barrier Park. June 2019

Observing Benny in a sea of balls and babies in a recent Lullababies sensory class. Theme that day was Baby Chefs for which he went buck wild! June 2019

In his happy place! Babies and balls! June 2019

Summer bather. June 2019

Benny and Elliot having a dip in the kiddie pool I found in the trash! That bottom lip tuck of Benny's kills me! June 2019

Uncle Milkman and Benny boy. June 2019

Ni having a good chuckle at Mike. June 2019
---

All photos shot on Iain's trusty Canon AE-1 / FP4 100 film pushed to 400. Definitely feeling that film lately. I have been having good luck processing FP4 in Rodinal with a 1+25 ratio. 20 minutes / 20 degrees; bingo bango! SUMMER FILM FOREVER.

---

I didn't know, I never have known, what spirit it is that descends into my lungs and flaps near my heart like an eagle rising. I named it full-of-wonder, highest good, voices. I shut my eyes and saw a tree stump hurled by wind, an enormous tree stump sailing sideways across my vision, with a wide circular brim of roots and soil like a tossed top hat.
[...]

A kind of northing is what I wish to accomplish, a single-minded trek toward that place where any shutter left open to the zenith at night will record the wheeling of all the sky's stars as a pattern of perfect, concentric circles. I seek a reduction, a shedding, a sloughing off.

I long for the North where unimpeded winds would hone me to such a pure slip of bone. But I'll not go northing this year. I'll stalk that floating pole and frigid air by waiting here. I wait on bridges; I wait, struck, on forest paths and meadow's fringes, hilltops and backsides, day in and day out, and I receive a southing as a gift. The North washes down the mountains like a waterfall, like a tidal wave, and pours across the valley; it comes to me. It sweetens the persimmons and numbs the last of the crickets and hornets; it fans the flames of the forest maples, bows the meadow's seeded grasses, and pokes its chilling fingers under the leaf litter, thrusting the springtails and earthworms, the sowbugs and beetle grubs deeper into the earth. The sun heaves to the south by day, and at night wild Orion emerges looming like the Specter of the Brocken over Dead Man Mountain. Something is already here, and more is coming.

- excerpt from Annie Dillard's 'Pilgrim at Tinker Creek' pg. 243

Something is already here, and more is coming. 

Ohhh Dolly that line fans my flame of hope. When I close my eyes and rest for a second in the silence of the house while the baby sleeps, I can see a lazy brown creek of our own, a crumbling house, a tired barn and two outbuildings that are crying out to be painted white and filled with the sound of laughter. While our future is unknown, I have great hope for the coming chapter of country life. Annie Dillard gets it. I read her meandering thoughts to fan the flame of my own :)

July 5, 2019

Desktop Diving 2.0

There is a folder on my digital desktop that reads Meg's Photographs.

Inside that folder reads another--Colour Work--the collection below depicts its contents. A soft and random array that spans the ripples of time :) 2008-2019

Looking back for a moment as the album 'Remembering Mountains, unheard songs by Karen Dalton' spins in the parlour. My son plays with a xylophone and a sippy cup lid in the sun.

---

Working with dough gave Lula a great thought! This little girl is so special to me. Love you forever ponygirl! February 2019

Photograph of me capturing the Prairies by Andrea McLaren. January 2012

Ding and Dong go to Beaconia Beach! July 2012

Lisa and Meg in a nutshell. July 2012

My mother Kim in orange with her cousin Sharon in the yard where I grew up. Rosenort MB; August 2009? 2012?

I shot this in February 2012 on Selkirk Avenue at Charles Street in Winnipeg, MB.

Rebecca by lamplight. September 2012

Grant in his easy chair. Winnipeg, MB September 2012

Iain pouring his friend a rye. September 2012

Jack and his dad Anthony at his Uncle Bill's wedding in Canmore, BC; July 2012
---

Then there is a folder titled Contrast Work (my own and others I admire):

Olive on the case at Rhymes With Orange (my sister's clothing shop in the Exchange at the time); July 2012

One of my old bedrooms. A winter white room tucked away near the rails of North Point Douglas, Winnipeg, MB; July 2012

Negative scan from PJB's collection.

Old Stencil work on found photograph. Summer 2012

'Sassy Swimmers' an illustration from 2014.

Young bucks at an Uptown party. We weren't yet lovers but the spark was there!

Baby Birdie; August 2012.


Young Leo on Ruby Street. Summer 2012

An old favourite drawing of mine. Inspired by some time spent on Canada's Atlantic coast  the year prior; Summer 2012.

Hooligans at Natural Cycle. January 2012.

My boy and I. May 2019

Winter Leo. Winnipeg, MB; January 2013

Leo rides my Magnum at a standstill. 2013

Benny and his Grandpa Cal. 6 weeks old. January 2019

---