No Particular Theme

Today’s post will be a little different. I have no particular theme for today’s collection of photographs; it’s a grouping of pictures I’ve taken in the last month or so that I quite like, but haven’t used for anything. So, don’t look for any continuity, take each picture one at a time.

I had the good fortune to find a family of great horned owls with three owlets about to fledge. I was not alone. Many bird photographers had also found this nest and were present in numbers to capture the event. There wasn’t a lot happening. The three owlets sat in the nest while mother owl stood watch from another cactus nearby. On my second visit, I was able to get this shot of one of the young owls who’d left the nest to sit in the shade. He didn’t travel far, perhaps a yard (~1 metre) but he’d taken a step toward his first flight.

A little earlier this spring, I took this picture of a mesquite tree in front of our house. It hadn’t yet begun to leaf and I think it made an interesting subject. I did it in colour. Then, I thought it might look good in black and white and finally I evolved it to this “old fashioned” style. (It did leaf soon afterward and now looks quite different.)

A few weeks ago I traveled to the Town of Jerome, AZ about 1-1/2 hours north of home. For the first time, I ventured beyond the town limits into the surrounding mountains. This picture was taken facing north in the direction of nearby Sedona (note the red rocks in the background). I captured the picture as a rain squall moved in from the west.

The Town of Jerome was once a booming mining town that ultimately fell upon hard times. It has made an amazing resurgence in the past 10-15 years, now a tourist mecca featuring many remnants of its past life. We stopped for lunch at an old fashioned style eatery, now called Bobby D’s. I got this photograph of the row of stools at the lunch bar. Black and white seems appropriate to capture the sense of those bygone times.

In the vein of old buildings and times long past, I recently captured this picture of an old, railroad station in Field, B.C. The Canadian Pacific Railway formally established the village of Field in 1883 as a work camp. Field was part of the history of building Canada’s national railroad in the late 1800’s. Today, it’s a small hamlet, home to only 170 people, but still an important marshalling yard for freight trains transiting the spiral tunnels to cross the Kicking Horse Pass. This old building no longer hosts rail passengers but remains as a reminder of Field’s storied past.

About 30 km east of Field is Morant’s Curve, near Lake Louise. It is so named in honour of Nicholas Morant, who served as Special Photographer to the CPR from 1929 to 1935 and again from 1944 to 1981. He photographed the railroad to promote its passenger train travel and many “railroad” hotels. His pictures of this scene are among his most renowned. This picture is mine, taken recently.