Road Trip America

Recently, I was backing up some hard drives and looking through some old DVD’s I’d copied files to — y’see kids, back in the old timey days we used drink coasters to store data on…it was a more innocent time.
Anyway, looking through digital files isn’t NEARLY as illuminating or serendipitous as actual prints or contact sheets, but there were some thought provoking surprises. Namely, some images from an old Canon point-and-shoot camera (remember kids, this was before we put those into our phones) of a month-long motorcycle trip looping through Montana and Wyoming, among other places.

The pictures that stood out for me were almost-casual, accidental photos, the photographic equivalent to doodling on a notepad while waiting on hold. With the passage of over 15 years (!) these images, which seemed throwaway at the time, take on a lot more resonance now.
Our view of the USA certainly has changed, and I wonder how many of the people I’d met back then would espouse some drastically different quirks, these days.

Apart from sharing some images I found interesting, what I hope to get across is to not take the here-and-now for granted — that the things you’d think someone weird for photographing (or, worse yet, attack them on social media) today mean something…and will only mean more once we’re removed from the distraction of the moment.
So, take a ton of photos. Print them ALL. And don’t lose them. Not on a phone, not on a hard drive or even a drink coaster.

Highway rest stop, Montana.

Bar and Grill; Cody, Wyoming.

Custom motorcycle; Devil’s Tower.

Saloon, Wyoming.

Window display, Montana.

Firetower Coffee House, 2005.

Frosty Reception

There’s a lot about winter to dislike - the bitter winds and cold, the lack of green and plants, the long dark nights. Which is why it’s more inspiring when a city finds a way to not just endure winter but enjoy it.
Over the years, Winnipeg has - piece by piece - found ways to really make our famous winters come alive and bring people together. It’s a lot easier to get outside and actually see what the season offers visually when there’s so much going on.

This week, unusually mild temperatures brought fog and mist, and the next morning the whole city was coated in beautiful hoarfrost. Seeing a frosted city was just too good to resist, and judging by local social media that day my choice was a popular one. Hopefully I found a few scenes not already documented on the #Winnipeg hashtag.
The warmth, and the hunger to get outside and active after a very stifled pandemic year, have made our rivers and parks much busier places.

The Saint Boniface Cathedral is seen across the Red River nestled in a forest of hoarfrost.

Skaters take to the ice on the Assiniboine River at The Forks in Winnipeg.

The gates of Saint Boniface Cemetery, gilded with frost, frame the historic Cathedral.

Skaters catch the sun at Assiniboine Park, with the Pavilion seen in the background left and a tobogganing run at right.

There’s a lot of competition for the title of “Winter Wonderland” this year, but one family in Wolseley has carved out a real front-runner on the Assiniboine River. It joins a grassroots-created network of skating and skiing trails and rinks in the area.

The ‘Roaring Game’ of curling has found a home on the Assiniboine between the neighbourhoods of Wolseley and River Heights.

A sundial sculpture, entitled “The Passage of Time” by artist Marcel Gosselin, is seen at The Forks in Winnipeg.