Dr. Strangelove

The "Dr. Strangelove Room" at Diefenbunker, Canada's cold War Museum, Carp Ontario, July 2014

Nikon FM-3A / Nikkor 24mm/f2
Fuji Sensia 200 reversal film, pushed +1

A Steam-tastic Invention

While visiting Vancouver, one must stop into Gastown and take a look at the steam-powered clock that has become a major tourist attraction, and rightly so. While boasting a vintage appeal, the clock was actually constructed in 1977 as a means to cover a steam grate and also prevent the homeless from sleeping on it in cold weather. At first the clock was wrought with malfunctions and had to be powered electronically, but once the local businesses saw how much revenue it bought in because of the tourists it brought, they grouped together to have the steam mechanism completely rebuilt.

Once completed, the new steam mechanism worked by a miniature steam engine that drives a chain lift. The chain lift then moves steel balls upwards where they are then transferred to a descending chain. The weight of these steel balls on the chain controls a conventional pendulum clock escapement that is geared to the hands on the four separate faces of the clock. The steam also powers a whistle, instead of chimes, that have become known as the Westminster "chime" to denote the time.

The long exposure of this photo and the black and white aspect give it a very "Sherlock Holmes" feel while the lights on the trees add a fairy tale-esque dimension that draw you in and pull your attention to the clock itself.  Think Scotland Yard meets Peter Pan.

This image was taken in March 2014 using a Hasselblad 500C with a Zeiss Planar 80mm/f 2.8. Exposure time was f/22 at 1 minute on Agfapan APX 25 Film.

Oh, Canada

Near Beardmore, Ontario, Canada, June 2012

Nikon FM-3A Nikkor 50mm/f1.4
Agfa RSX-II 100 film

Construction of Canada's Trans-continental highway began in 1950 and it is one of the world's longest national highways, stretching an amazing 8,030  KM (or 4,990 MI). It was officially open for business in 1962 and completed in 1971. 

The highway is recognized distinctively by the white-on-green maple leaf route markers, such as the one pictured above. 

As you travel across this highway, prepare to be awe-inspired by the scenery. A traveler will experience everything from the majestic peaks in Banff National Park to the prairie areas of Saskatchewan.

Garish - The Next Generation

 Trans-Canada Highway, near Lytton, British Columbia, Canada,

July 2011

I am not, by training nor inclination, a nature photographer. When God was passing out the Ansel Adams and Galen Rowell genes, I was in line for the Walker Evans and Pete Turner DNA.  Still, if nature has been altered, trimmed, and adapted by the hand of man, then I am attuned to this mutation, and it piques my interest and captures my eye.

Case in point: These young growth conifers in the mountains of British Columbia. They fascinate me as to how mankind can harmonize with nature, in a Grandma Moses sort of way

I'll leave the Muir Woods to those who can do it way better than I.

You Can't Go Back Sometimes

Cedarhof Restaurant

Trans-Canada Highway, Wawa Ontario, Canada, August 2011

The first time I traveled the Trans-Canada Highway, in October 2002, I pulled off at this charming restaurant and had an expertly-cooked German meal that still makes my mouth water, just remembering it: Hungarian goulash soup, buttered rye bread, and a Wienerschnitzel, lightly breaded, that just melted in my mouth.  

Every time thenceforth I traveled the Trans-Canada, I would pass through Wawa too late at night for it to be open. So, this time I set out early enough to make it there in time for dinner. 

No matter: I found that the Cedarhof had been closed down eight years ago, which means on my five subsequent journeys -- beginning in 2004 -- it had been out-of-business all along; I just didn't know it yet.

I assumed it was still opened, as it is still listed on Wawa's tourist website promoting its businesses.

You just never know.

Channeling Homage

Highway 17 (Trans-Canada Highway), Ignace, Ontario, May 2010

Last week, I was subconsciously channeling the great color photographer, Keith Laban.  On my recent trip to Canada, Ed Ruscha?  Walker Evans?  Maybe, maybe not.  But I sure miss tableaux such as these.  They're disappearing.

Hopscotch

Hopscotch grid, Highway 17 (Trans-Canada Highway)

Town Square, Ignace, Ontario, May 2010

This sure brings back memories!  Take the video consoles out of your kids' hands and take them out to the playground for a couple rounds of hopscotch!

Things Found While Driving

Corrugated Wood Separating Drums

Highway 11 (Trans-Canada Highway Extension)

Emo, Ontario, May 2010

I didn't find any "emo punks" in Emo, but I did find these amazing specimens of rugged technology.

Gartch

The Proprietor of Gartch's International Pub

Fort Frances, Ontario, May 2010

If you happen to be passing through the border city of Fort Frances, Ontario, in Canada, a great place to go for libations and a pretty good place for food is Gartch's International Pub, which is on Highway 11, running through the center of town.

There, I found some interesting inebriates and even more interesting conversation.  A patron kept good-naturedly referring to me as "Russian," (I am Welsh/Irish/English/Scots) and another warned me against the food, which I actually found quite palatable.

Pictured above is the pub's proprietor and host, Gartch himself, a lad of obviously Scottish descent and a true gentleman.

P.S.:  Myung told me she thought this photo was a still from a Hitchcock movie.  Made my month!   R.

Garish: The Cutting Room Floor

Post office, Rainy River, Ontario, June 2009

Is there anything more charming than an old post office?  To me, more than any other edifice, the postal office represents the highest convenience of civilized life.  Our correspondence, financial statements, magazine and newspaper subscriptions, and phonograph records come through here to our homes.  When we write letters, pay bills, and mail picture postcards, a short trip to the post office connects us with the world outside.

Including this post office:  This very photograph which you are viewing began life as a Polaroid snapshot, was addressed, and had postage affixed -- and arrived at my home in Minnesota just five days after me.  All for just 89 cents, Canadian.

Crackerbox Palace

Brandon, Manitoba, June 2009

Although this Polacolor image was never intended for inclusion in Garish, I snapped up this photograph on one of my last trips during the assembly phase of the book. 

Have you ever had an image inside your head of your dream house, but one you've never seen in reality, just in your imagination?  When I was a boy of eleven, upon hearing George Harrison's single, "Crackerbox Palace," the thoughts that my mind conjured to the music and lyrics were not far different from this charming little house.  Too bad it's not for sale.  

Maybe one day, I'll hire the equally lovely Sandra Rinomato to be my realtor.  She's only one province away from Manitoba, in Toronto.

Garish: The Cutting Room Floor

Provincial Highway 8, between Moosomin and 

Rocanville, Saskatchewan, June 2009

"The first cut is the deepest.  Baby, I know."  

-- Rod Stewart.

This image is one of my dearest favorites, but it didn't even make it beyond the first round of edits.  That's how it goes sometimes.  The beautiful halo of powder blue, turning to a deep-blue sky framing this red farmhouse I found in Saskatchewan off the Trans-Canada Highway was too reminiscent of an image that did get included, of an even more brilliant crimson farm storage tank -- coincidentally, just up the road, near Esterhazy.

Road Trip: Madawaska Valley, Ontario

Near Greater Madawaska, Madawaska Valley, Ontario, 

June 2004

I always carry many different cameras and types of film when I head out on a road trip.  This photograph, taken on Agfapan APX-25, was captured during one of my trips documenting the Trans-Canada Highway on Polacolor 669 film.  Fortunately, I brought my Rolleiflex SL-66 along, because this image of unpainted barns in the Madawaska Valley was clearly meant to be monochrome.

Garish: The Cutting Room Floor

Provincial Highway 22, near Gerald, Saskatchewan 
June 2009

Form meets function meets form. Nature and agricultural architecture meet on this slope in rural Saskatchewan.  I enjoy photographing in Canada.  When walking onto property owned by total strangers up North, I have yet to meet paranoid landowners, asking the ubiquitous annoying question, "What are you doing?"

Which is very nice, because while I usually have some sarcastic comeback while in the United States ("You see this thing here I'm holding?  It's called a camera.  See, what you do is you point it at the subject you want to photograph.  A hole in the camera opens, and an image of the subject is captured on film."  Part of my shtick is pronouncing the key words very slowly, as though I were speaking to (in the words of Rahm Emanuel) "f***ing retards."  How I've lucked out by not being brutalized by local and state cops (particularly in Texas) is a testament to either the Due Process clause of the U.S. Constitution, or just plain dumb luck (I suspect the latter).

However, in foreign countries, I am always on my best behavior.  I've only had one incident remotely approaching a run-in with police in Canada (Mexico is another story), and good manners have always pulled me out of a potentially awkward situation.  

On the breezy June day I took this photograph, a gracious Russian immigrant farmer greeted me graciously, and she and her husband gave me a tour of the family farm -- from the back seat of their four wheeler!