jeromemartin.ca

The Summer of 2011

This is the Labour Day weekend, the time that we celebrate the passage of summer into fall. Mornings and evenings are cool, skies are big and blue, and afternoons warm and dry, just right for harvesting if you are a farmer.

This is also the time of the summer lament, the period in which no matter how warm and wonderful the summer has been some people say it should be longer and should have been warmer and what is the world coming to. But most of us love the four seasons, whether we realize it or not. Planes fly in and out of our city daily so if we need a warm interlude during the winter we can have it.

The summer of 2008 has been a remarkable time for me and my wife, Merle. Our son Paul, daughter-in-law Mona and grandchildren Emily and Aidan have moved from Vermont to Edmonton where he has taken a position with Grant MacEwan University. They now live minutes from us, and we are delighted to have them back.

The move gave me an opportunity to fly to Ottawa and drive back to Edmonton with my son who wanted to see northern Ontario rather than ship his vehicle. Driving across this grand country is a great experience at any time, but travelling with my son through Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta was a once in a lifetime experience. We kept our friends in touch with our trip by using Twitter and Facebook, ate in fine restaurants and fast food emporiums, drank Tim Hortons coffee in Ontario, and had our first meal on the road in a Don Cherry's Sports Bar. Only prairie folk think that driving 1100 km in a day in northern Ontario constitutes a normal day on the road.

Merle and I spent the first two weeks in August travelling in Ireland with our daughter Heidi and son-in-law Dale. The photographer Frederic Sommer said 'We never go to strange places'. Indeed, Ireland seemed like home to me, although I have no family connection to it. I loved the landscape and history, the art and the literature, but mostly I loved the people. I'll continue to experience Ireland with the photographs and the stories we brought back with us.

The Fields of Saskatchewan

I spent the last several days in and near Regina, playing music with and for good friends.

Most of Saskatchewan has had a lot of rain this year, so much that some fields have not been seeded. However, the crops that were seeded on time are looking great: and the big skies always are impressive.

Saskatchewan

Today's Photographs

For the last several weeks I've been working with photographs and contact sheets which I've made over the last several decades, organizing them, scanning them, and ensuring that they're stored archivally and are accessible when I want to work with them.

I love working at a desk or in a darkroom, but I often have to remind myself that there are new photographs ready to be made. This afternoon I walked into the woods which are only half a block and across the street from my house.

And there were photographs. I hope you enjoy them.

  

Edmonton

Images of Winter

We've had the first winter storm of the season: lots of snow and cold, with some difficult roads, mostly highways, residential areas and commercial parking lots.

Winter,love it or leave it. Most of us do a bit of both. There's a beauty to the windswept snow, but most people are so busy shovelling or driving that they do not see it.

My neighbor Jane's roof could be a winter sculpture if it were in or adjacent to an art gallery. One could also say the same about the rental car in my driveway and the street itself.

These images were made from my office window. I'm fortunate to be able to look up from my computer and see Jane's house and several others, trees of various types, and lots of prairie sky. I can watch the four seasons, open my windows to get fresh air, and be outside and into a wooded area in minutes if I wish to get even more fresh air (and more images).

Art is always around us and within us. Enjoy whatever your environment is providing you today.

Winter

The Colours of Saskatchewan VI

  

Saskatchewan

Spring on the Prairies

We enjoyed the beginning of spring last week in Chicago having left the last gasp of a long winter here in Edmonton. After being away only six days we found that most of the snow in Alberta had melted and we were finally finished with icy streets and cold temperatures.

Today, April 10, is warm (12 degrees C/54 degrees F for my American friends) and families are walking and playing with their children in the park area at the end of our street. Blue sky and a warm sun after a long, long winter.

  

Finding Beauty Where You Are

It's a cold January day in Edmonton, but even the relatively low resolution of this iPhone photograph is enough to show that winter landscapes can be just as beautiful as those of the other seasons.

I made this photograph in the Faculty Club at the University of Alberta.

Winter

Ice On The North Saskatchewan River

I took the Edmonton Light Rapid Transit (LRT) from downtown to the University of Alberta this afternoon. The LRT stopped briefly on the bridge over the North Saskatchewan River. I watched the river flow around the large pieces of ice, while small ice pans whirled and danced as they were swept downstream.

These photographs were made with my iPhone.

Autumn in Alberta

It's the last day of November, 2008. Usually at this time of year we have several inches of snow, but this year we've enjoyed above average temperatures, with almost every day being significantly above freezing.

I live on the edge of what my sister referred to, when she was very young, as the bewilderness. It's a great area for walking, photographing, and viewing wildlife.

The temperature today is five degrees C and the sun is warm.

The Colours of Saskatchewan IV