One of the things I have been struggling with lately as I maintain this photo blog is if I am doing it wrong? I mean this in that the blog was started as a gift for my friend Ray when he was unable to get out and take his own fine-art images. I tried to produce some for him to help satisfy his shutter bug, if only by proxy.
I’m not producing as much in the way of fine-art imagery as I expected to this summer and I have been dealing with mixed feelings along with significant guilt on the matter. I know on one hand that there was nothing Ray loved more than heart-stopping fine-art images. On the other, I know that Ray was always concerned about my health and especially about my weight (he occasionally lacked some tact there) and it made him happy when he saw me trying to be active and lose some of my avoir du pois.
A lot of my recent work comes from the surfaces of various lakes and lagoons in the area around me as I have gotten the paddle boarding bug this summer. It is not often that I find a physical activity that I not only enjoy, but am actually decent at doing. I can now paddle 8 km on a calm day without needing a break and that is pretty darn good for someone born with a messed up heart.
Trying to be as physically active as I can be on my paddle board this summer has meant I’m not walking around downtown Calgary on my time off getting interesting details of buildings or candids of people like I felt I should be this year. I have a plethora of lake images instead. Some are pretty good, but a lot are filler if I am being honest. I guess they are a good record of what I have been up to in a day, but that has never been my main reason for pulling out a camera.
I do know that Ray would have been impressed with some of the work I have produced on the water as it can be very technically challenging. Both of the images above were taken about 45 minutes after sunset, hand-held, while floating on the surface of a lake. I was bobbing in the wake of jetski that was roaring back and forth after sunset. It is hella hard to get a sharp image in the dark in those conditions, let me tell you. I had to use AI software to try and correct the one at top right and it still has some oddly blurred patches, but I think it works overall.
How dark was it? I was wearing an LED headlight headband with an LED tail lamp on the back and also an LED vest. Both are amazingly inexpensive these days. A feature of the vest is that it can be set to flash an S.O.S. message in the dark if I am in trouble and it is waterproof as well. The charge on it lasts for a couple of days of use. I discovered how difficult my daughter and I were to see in our first after dark outing and I resolved to fix that problem on future outings. Getting run over by a boat that can’t see you after sunset will wreck what is left of your day.
I do think Ray would have been impressed with my ability to get after dark photos under these circumstances. In fact, I bet he might have been excited enough to try it himself. I am certain he would have loved paddle boarding. Something he could have done at Telford Lake in Leduc, Alberta, where he lived, and also at Elk Island National Park, one of his favourite haunts. I do think of Ray when I’m on a board and regret that this is something I didn’t have a chance to do with him.
I know that Ray would be proud of how much I have improved my physical conditioning since June of this year. I can visibly see the growth in my arm musculature over the past few months. Paddling 5 km is a breeze for me, and my main limitations now are time and light. I am certain that I will be able to circumnavigate the entire lake before the season ends. That is a goal for me and one I know he would approve of.
Anyhow, I’m left with mixed feelings every time I go out on a paddle board. Why am I not doing “serious photography?” What would Ray think of the large number of selfies and filler I’m producing lately? Would this have been something Ray and I could have done together? It’s stupid, but it eats at me.
It especally eats at me every time I take yet another picture of my feet and the tip of my paddle board. I have to remind myself that I won’t be around forever and maybe my kid will want some memories of me doing this, something we liked doing together. I don’t know.
I do know that I’m going paddle boarding again today and there will be pictures. I hope that somewhere and somehow Ray approves. His opinion on my photography is still important to me nearly half a year after losing him.
This evening’s images were produced with my OM System (formerly Olympus) Tough TG-7.
