Rainy Day Edit

We are experiencing a massive number of storms back to back right now in good old Alberta, and I have been up and down a multitude of side roads chasing the light in between the clouds. I think I have taken more pictures in the last weekend for my own pleasure than I have all year. Really it’s because the landscape bug caught me again. I forgot how happy it made me, and I used to LOVE how the light and the weather could changed how the world looked, and went though many, many, many rolls of film just trying to catch the moment the way I saw it. Sometimes I got it, most times I didn’t - but that didn’t stop me. In the last few days…..neither did the storms.

And now as an older, wiser (bwahahaha) photographer, I am revisiting the pleasure the changing weather, open road and the big sky can bring. The things you can find and see off the highway would blow anyones’ mind, the beautiful sights that lie just beyond the end of that dirt road are so close. You just need to take that turn off the usual and have a peek at what you could see. Breaking from the usual routine - go to work, get some groceries, drive home, eat, go to sleep and repeat day after day. Do something different, shut off the world for a minute and recharge.

Take the scenic route once in a while. Take a few extra minutes for yourself and explore. Go see what’s over that hill, around that corner, beyond your home. You don’t have to take pictures to enjoy it, or be an artist, writer, poet, or charade master. In the chaos and turmoil of our day to days lives, being assaulted from every angle with this, that and the other, repeating the same routine over and over again, glued to our electronics - you can forget what it’s like to have a quiet moment to recharge. Where your brain stops trying to solve quantum physics in 3 minutes, plan the next bijillion years out so you are not caught by surprise, trying to figure out who ‘A’ is or obsessively dodging every single spoiler of GoT. It’s probably a safe bet the gophers and cows have no idea…

The one thing I tend to do while in the routine of driving home, is look over the rise in the highway at the expansive view of the fields towards the mountains. Which involves some careful driving as that rise is also a downhill curve away from the view on the highway. I would rather not have a semi truck full of livestock knocking down the back end of my car. And each and every time I can get a good look all I can say is ‘Wow’…..and I keep driving. Why? Because I have this ingrained need to ‘get home’ for some reason. So I can make food, sit on the couch and go to sleep. Those 5 minutes it would take to go down the dirt road home instead would just be universe altering!!! Or not. After many evenings looking out the front porch thinking ‘man that sunset is beautiful, I should go take a picture of it. Tomorrow night I will for sure go’ I finally said screw it. I went, PJs and all, and boy was it worth it. To see, feel and hear the peace of a sunset off the beaten path - magical. And with the added convenience of being right in my own back yard, just a short 2 minute drive.

You don’t need to go far, you don’t need to totally flee from your comfort zone, you don’t even need to do it if you don’t want to, but 5 minutes off the usual you may just find the best thing of all - something that give you a breath of life, peace and happiness…..and possibly an epic stare down from a very large bull. I greatly appreciated that fence. And my car. Which was running and unlocked. For a quick getaway. Don’t bother the bulls. And he doesn’t know who ‘A’ is either :)