It’s official. The moving company is finally scheduled to deliver our furniture to the house in Forbes on Friday. The canoe and soccer shoes will be delayed as they have yet to be treated, but at least we’ll have our own bed. I can’t wait.
Apologies for the lack of photographs lately but I’m out of space on Flickr. Not to worry. February 1st is coming fast and pictures will abound soon.
It has been 19 days and it’s still difficult for me to conclusively decide which photograph deserves the ‘Best of 2007′ title. As expected, reader opinion has varied and I’m even more perplexed now than when I first started thinking about this topic. Photos that I liked but didn’t love have suddenly become popular with others or have taken on new meaning for me. For instance, ‘Love Hope Hero’ has become a favourite among Flickr viewers and Raine Maida lovers alike while my New Year’s Day moon shots from Penn Lake park have suddenly become very beautiful.
But a decision must be made.
My choice was based on a number of factors. First, the technical strength of the picture. Second, my experience and the story behind capturing the photograph. Third, what other viewers think of the photo. Based on these points, the winner is…
Pale Blue
This lovely photo was captured on May 28, 2007 at a spot locally known as The Lagoon in Marathon Ontario, Canada.
I vividly recall my decision to go to head out on that cool evening and take photographs. Part of my inspiration was the time of year as one of my most popular photographs, ‘Golden Horizon‘ was captured at that same location at roughly to same time a year prior. That experience, being one of my first efforts with the new digital SLR, had been so satisfying and productive that I was anxious to recreate the scene after a long winter of minimal photographic inspiration.
It was a beautiful night when I hopped on my mountain bike and took a ride down the familiar trail to this unique spot right on the shore of Lake Superior. During the days leading up to this photo shoot I had been completely enthralled by the spring colours emerging all around, and held a few other successful shoots which produced the likes of ‘Nature’s Palette‘ and ‘Veil‘; two other candidates in the best-of running.
Not wanting to merely copy previous photographs, I pushed myself to look at things differently that night. The pastel colours of the sky as the sun set were incredibly calming but still I struggled to find the perfect shot. My attention was distracted by reflections and the bright colours of lichen on the rocks. I worked for over an hour without seeing any pleasing results.
And then it came.
This is one of those rare photographs that required minimal effort, and after capturing the scene I felt nothing but perfect satisfaction. I didn’t wish for different lighting conditions, I didn’t struggle for the perfect composition and I didn’t over think the shot. Everything was right there in front of me. After pressing the shutter release a few times, I realized I couldn’t improve the photograph at all and was happy to call it a night.
To me this photograph epitomizes everything I love and cherish about my home. It’s beauty, serenity and ability to bring calm to even the most drastic situations is one of the things I miss most about northwestern Ontario. To have had the pleasure of knowing this location so intimately is very special and I’m incredibly happy to have captured even just a sliver of its power on film.
Today is day three of the Australia Day long weekend. Although we didn’t get a chance to take in any festivities it’s been a busy holiday for us.
First, an update on the furniture.
Surprise, surprise – there have been more delays. The latest drama ensued late on Thursday afternoon when I was informed that our canoe and soccer shoes had been quarantined and we were required to forward another $500 to the Aussie government to have the goods cleaned or pay $200 to have them destroyed. Not willing to have our canoe destroyed for the sake of a couple hundred dollars, I promptly responded to the moving company’s inquiry only to find out that the woman who is handling our file was off sick on Friday. How convenient. We are tentatively scheduled to receive our goods on Friday February 1st, but whether or not that includes the canoe and the soccer shoes, only time will tell.
Since we were stuck in West Wyalong for another weekend we decided to do some traveling. Barrick is lending us some appliances (fridge, washing machine, dryer) for use at the new house in Forbes since we can’t be bothered to buy any. We picked up the fridge in West Wyalong and brought it up to Forbes on Saturday morning. We met up with a few people, had lunch and then headed to Orange, a small city around 150km from Forbes. It was a spectacular drive with lots of hills and interesting scenery. The city itself is lovely and we managed to sneak in a bit of shopping before the stores closed. We also visited a beautiful park before heading back to Forbes to drop off our purchases. On our way back we stopped at some caves and were excited to see towering rock faces and even a few lizards. When we arrived in Forbes we set up the new patio table and chairs we had purchased and enjoyed our first dinner in the new house. Then we headed back to West Wyalong for the night.
On Sunday we took a trip to Junee with Jacki, Belinda and a fellow from work named Steve. It was a great day trip and we had a hoot visiting a haunted house, the licorice/chocolate factory and a lavendar farm.
Today we’re picking up the remainder of our appliances and dropping them off in Forbes. Maybe next weekend we’ll finally be settled in to our new house. Maybe.
