In a couple of days we're heading out on vacation, a road trip that will take us to Yellowstone National Park and then south to a whole wadge of scenic stops in southern Utah and northern Arizona. When we return, I'll be busy as snot no doubt – not to mention a year older (can I get a woohoo for birthdays on the road) – so hold tight and I'll be back on here and posting in about a month's time.In the meantime here's a deer for you, another one of my May Day drawing assignments – based from this photo taken on a thick-fog morning in the Whiteshell, the last time we had an October vacation. Hopefully more moments are to come. Stay warm.
Kerry was away last week, leaving me with a dozen cobs of corn and a wadge of bachelor time. It was largely uneventful, but on a pair of occasions I took the car out for some evening and late-night photography with the little-used remote control I had bought for my camera. I gathered some CDs and some Muskol and traveled east, to the ruins of the old Pinawa Dam and Tulabi Falls in Nopiming Provincial Park.
On my first trip out, I headed straight for Tulabi Falls (above). With all the rain this summer, they were thundering. This is the first set of gentle rapids before the water really gets going. I love how the falls drain directly from the calm of Tulabi Lake.
The falls connect Tulabi Lake and the larger Bird Lake (above). I watched the sun set here as mosquitoes searched for any cracks in my Muskol coverage. They were absolutely brutal.
With the remote, I took long-exposures of the stars. In the Nopiming there is zero light pollution, and with no moon out I needed my camping headlamp to punch settings into the camera and find a focus. I pointed it straight up for this 100-second shot of the Milky Way. Later I took this portrait of the night-time forest with Jupiter, lighting the ground with the headlamp.
Before I left, I headed to the boat launch at Tulabi Lake thinking I could view some nice reflections off the water. The northern lights were out, but they were weak and fading quickly – this 120-second exposure caught them before they disappeared for keeps. The full image can be viewed, here.
On a second day out I visited the old Pinawa Dam, one of the province's most photogenic spots. There's plenty of exposed shield rock, rapids and the eerieness of the decommissioned dam's ruins, slowly being reclaimed by nature. This shot (above) is a composite; one photo was taken of the water and lower landforms, and a second one was taken to capture tones of the evening sky. They were then merged in Photoshop.
I dig food. Breads and cereals? I'm there. I love the whole wheat multi-grain loaves at the hippie bakery down the street as much as a jumbo box of Corn Pops™. Dairy? Yes. God yes. You can't mellow a mouth-shredding bowl of Corn Pops™ without milk, and I can't comprehend where I'd be in this world without the cheeses. Meats? Nuts? Eggs? Yes, yes and yes. This wonderful, magical group is responsible for the luscious vendor-cart smokie in my hand, pulled pork that graces my poutine at a recent ballgame (above), the walnuts in my brownie – and the impenetrable density of said quality brownie.
But as much as I do love the fat and the junk, I am equally drawn to the undenying appeal of the home-grown veggie – except beets, because beets suck – so when I witness the array of colour at the farmers' market or a parked pickup truck with cobs of corn spilling off its tailgate, I'm drawn. Our meagre backyard garden had its ups and downs this season. Basil and lettuce produced early and often. A redeeming September, following a cool and wet summer, is giving hope to our eggplants, surging chard and stunted pepper plants. But our normally foolproof prize tomato patch took a big hit this year, suffering from unending rain, eavestrough overflows and mystery ailments that attacked their foliage. We're making hay with what small fruit developed (above) – but our biggies are likely not gonna make it.So, if you will, a moment – for our dear departed tomatian backyard homies. The Lord of Food took ye too soon.
This past week, I enlisted in another doodle swap, an insider circuit of mostly-American graphic designers partaking in the ever-popular hobby of creating artist trading cards (ATCs, for hipsters in the know) – 2.5"-by-3.5" non-digital artworks mailed back and forth between game participants. My first-ever swap was documented earlier in the year.This time, I ditched the randomness and stuck to a theme – that of, well, birds with glasses. Six of the even dozen I created are here; the full set can be viewed on my Flickr photostream. These pieces were all sketched lightly in pencil on pre-cut Strathmore watercolour cards, overlaid with light, one-tone washes, then inked up nice with both fine-nib and calligraphic-nib pens. Shadows were then quickly accented with a light grey marker. All told, each entry took between 15-25 minutes to complete.
One of the handful of projects that has kept me occupied over the latter half of summer has been a logo design for my good friend's local start-up venture. This assignment simmered slowly and comfortably over much of the summer, and followed a fairly uneventful and standard process for logo development until one fateful night, when it was turned on its ear by a dream. More on that later.
The company – currently being crafted by recent PrairieView School of Photography grad Sarah Hodges-Kolisnyk – is Hodgepodge Creative (site under work, but be sure to check the blog), a one-woman wrecking crew of skills ranging from professional photography to creative and journalistic writing to audio/video production.
The trick then for her logo-designer-in-arms, as per her wishes, was to express this wide-ranging skills set within a single, strong – and simple – all-encompassing visual. And following an initial coffee-house meetup to discuss and peruse her then brand-new portfolio, I sent her on an expedition to gather together visuals that shared common traits with what she had in mind for her own business (not a standard procedure, but between friends one can do this).
Sarah came through in spades; she is a great client (Sarah, if you're reading this, you are a great client). She had a strong built-in sense of what she wanted in terms of look/feel, colour schemes and general aesthetics. And I'm a huge fan of not having to mind-read. Who is?
From her Big List of Inspiring Visuals, I was able to confidently go about building a few options, then submit them for further discussion and refinement. Two concepts (above) played largely on her zeal for the outdoors and knack for nature photography, and utilized compatible tones as such. A third (below) took on a more abstract/typographic form. All were received well and good, and constructive feedback was lent.
“The word ‘hodgepodge’ makes me think of a pig,” Kerry said to me around this point (I’m paraphrasing). “You should do one with a pig.”
And that night, I dreamed of a logo concept – with a pig. The next day, I set to work.
After time, the concept – that of a creative beast of many talents – eventually came to fruition (above). Much tweaking and haranguing was involved, particularly in how the three equal elements would join and/or overlap. It was important that no one element overshadow the other two, and yet a single, blended shape was not achieving the desired outcome. I finally came about with offshoots of red, green and blue – representative of the colour model used in displaying images electronically.
I felt it imperative Sarah remain integral in the development of the final result (below). Throughout the process I included her input on style, colour and typographic decision-making, which eventually resulted in a last handful of tweaks; dropping the bold – yet perhaps overly-industrial – typeface for an earthier, friendlier one, and an automnal colour palette more in tune with her company's character and focus of her work.
I thought I'd take a break from the grid format to tell the tale of our Saturday just past. It was a glorious day out, so we took off to the Whiteshell for a hike.
The summer's been wet; a near write-off – but apparently excellent for mushrooms. First I saw this high school fire alarm bell jobbie. I wanted to pull it to get out of gym class.
I got a little closer, to view these fan-fugu-tastic spiky Viva Puffs.
And then I shelved my discomfort of fungi altogether for this giant, super gills-flipped-inside-out number.
Our lunch spot we shared with this chipmunk. In rapid succession it shunned my offerings of carrot, a grape, and then a smaller, more chipmunk-suitable grape.
On our return, we took turns on this made-for-dozing tree. It was much more suited to the contours of my back, despite how at peace Kerry seems here.
Over a fire that evening, I grilled some corn cobs and smoked-gouda-topped portobellos. These were inserted into buns – with tomatoes, basil and lettuce from our garden – and chased with s'mores.
