Some recent Red Counter images

Noodle floating

My grandmother turns 90 today! When I talked to her this morning she said that other than getting a bit slower she doesn't feel any older than she did 50 years ago. She is quite something.

A summer picnic in the park.

Diagonals at my parent's place.

Playing with bread ties on the red counter.

Pigeonz around the house.

Voltron in the summer.

Great Casse Croute: Chez Claudette on highway 370 in Ste-Marguerite.

Everyday still life scenes from the cottage. Cottage Life Magazine give me a job!

Beanbag Headache

Back to our regular programming: Chris on the beanbag at the cottage.

After finding that the naturalist counter images weren't working out I decided to go out into the world and photograph what was actually happening in the woods. I have always loved the old beaver marsh near our cottage and so I visited this spot many times this summer and photographed whatever residents I could find. Mind you I am not a nature photographer so once again this was a new way or working and once again the results were less stellar than I had hoped. Above are some of my favourites from those visits. So now it is back to the drawing board, I don't see anything that is quite working yet, no glimmer of hope to draw me in one direction or another. So I may try another approach to this subject. Not sure yet.

1. Beaver skull
2. Rodent jaws (Beaver and unknown)
3. Tiger Swallowtail Butterfly
4. Beaver bones
5. Raccoon and Mink tails
6. Bluejay feathers
7. Snake skin

An attempt at a new project. I have a Biology degree and I have always wanted to incorporate this interest in my work. Ever since I was a kid I collected bones and any other animal artifacts that I found in the woods. So this summer I decided to photograph some of this collection. Partly functioning as a new counter series, this time I used the wooden counter at the cottage as my base. I also tried the white plastic picnic table as a more austere and incongruous surface. I tried different angles, different types of light, and different arrangements of the objects. The most successful ones are those posted here.
Trying something new is so hard, and inevitably it fails at first. Hopefully you learn from this first failure and it sends you in a new and more successful direction. This is how work progresses for me. I had originally pictured this as a little naturalist book, where the images would be paired with stories from how I found these objects. Now I don't know what will happen to these images, more than likely they are just one step in the journey to the final project.

Our friends in their paddling pool.

Cottage counter (after coffee)

The last Ferrero Rocher

A metaphor for the last few days of summer. For most people the coming of fall is depressing, but I find it uplifting. It is when I wake up from the haze that warm weather inflicted upon me. I am ready to go! And good thing too since I am teaching 2 classes at Champlain (in Creative Arts) and 2 classes at Dawson (in AEC photography). And I am not the only one waking up from the slumber. Galleries all over the city are opening exciting shows this coming week. Here are my picks:

SAS: "Declic 70"
Group show including the work of Michel Campeau, Clara Gutsche, and Gabor Szilasi
Aug 25th to Oct 15, opening tonight at 5:30
372 St Catherine West #416

Galerie Trois Points: "In The Time of Sakura" by Olga Chagaoutdinova
Aug 25th to Oct 1st, opening tonight 6-9 pm
372 St Catherine West #520

Galerie B-312: Les 20 Ans De La Galerie B-312
Group show including the work of: Manon de Pauw and Valerie Blass
Aug 27th to Oct 2nd, opening Saturday at 1pm
at Maison de la Culture NDG, 3755 rue Botrel

Les Territoires: "Fordlandia" by Scott Chandler
Sept 1st to Sept 20th, opening Apet 1st at 6 pm
372 St Catherine West #527

Get out and see some art!

Chris just before and during sneezing.

Chris with his morning banana.

Sorry for my absence recently. I am enjoying another busy summer at f/start. Teenagers are awesome but they can sure tire you out! But working with Aislinn and Peter makes every day fun and full of laughs. I may post only sporadically till mid-August. I hope you are enjoying your summer.

Morning shot of Chris.

My image for "The Chain", a fun project that I was very happy to be part of!

This photo will be in Foam Magazine's first foray into book publishing. A Book of Beds!
The image is from the Hospitalis figmentum series.