Shooting the in-laws’ farm and other rural locations with my friend Ray was always a treat. He would come at things from a different direction than I tend to, and there was also his biting sense of humour. Every image he added to his portfolio was a lesson for me.
There are a lot of shots I look at and start to walk past, and then something tickles part of my brain and I ask myself what would Ray do? Is this something he would have photographed? How would have have done it? Is there a repeating element here I’m not seeing at first? Is there light or texture I’m not exploring?
Kirriemuir, AB, 2024-10-10
Kirriemuir, AB, 2024-10-10
Ray and I would often remind each other that it’s okay to find that one moment when the light is hitting right and there is sudden and fleeting beauty, and to save it for someone else to see. That there is intrigue in mundane details.
Kirriemuir, AB, 2024-10-10
AB, 2024-10-10
Sometimes both Ray and I would look at something and think of a title for an image and be forced to come up with an image to go with that title (Toothsome). We often found the details in a scene to be more interesting than the scene itself. Now that Ray is gone I try to look at a possible subject first as myself and then as him. Often, when I look at things as I think he would it is when I come back with my favourite image from an outing.
He’s gone and I miss him, but I miss him less when I’m holding a camera because that is when he is still with me the most. Especially when I am using his camera, as I was today.
Images from Ray’s Canon EOS 7D with his Canon 70-300 EF IS USM 4-5.6 lens.
