Does this happen to other photographers?

When I am not busy with my own work, I do like to cruise other photographers WEB sites. It motivates me seeing other nice images. Sort of a Pavlovian response to make me get out and go make some art somewhere.

Admitedly I travel far and wide around my end of North America to find things that interest me and of course hopefully stir my customers in a way that they will purchase an image. There is nothing like sharing something that made me excited with others and then have those others purchase a piece for their homes.

So being reasonably well travelled I have noticed lately that I will be on some photographers WEB site viewing an image when an alarm goes off in my head that says.... "I know this spot". I don't mean your everyone has been there spots like the Oxebow Bend in the Grand Tetons or Lake Louise in Alberta. I mean an out of the way place, sometimes in a forest or along a country road. A spot that is not a giant draw for photographers. It's an odd feeling that I have been experiencing more and more.

Here is an example. I was looking through photographs taken by the famous photographer Tony Sweet. He has a wonderful gallery of images of the Palouse on his site. Well I have been to the Palouse and spent days driving up and down every dirt path and back road in the region. So as I scanned his images, I see one of this lonely tree on the side of a farmers field. DING, the alarms went off and I thought... "I know this spot".

I spent a couple of minutes sifting through my files from the Palouse and sure enough, there was the same lonely tree in one of my images!! Does it mean I have no life that I can identify a lonely tree on the edge of a field from some lost back road 1000 miles from home in a different country even?

Here are the two shots for comparison.
























Tony Sweets shot of the tree.

















Same tree, different composition. Weird isn't it?

Brent

Extraordinary Light Gallery Progress

Well it has been awhile again since my last blog. But I thought I might share some pictures and news about the construction of the "Extraordinary Light" Gallery.

It has been a record year of rain in Saskatchewan. So much rain in places that the Trans Canada Highway was washout and replaced by a twenty foot high waterfall in the Western end of the province. Unbelievable rain followed by yet more rain. I think perhaps I should have the contractor change over to building an ark rather than a gallery.

We have a nice fellow managing our project and hopefully he knows I certainly understand the construction delays. He is doing a fine job for us and we appreciate it. But the rain has delayed us so dramatically that we find ourselves happy that 1 1/2 walls were tipped up in an entire week of work. How crazy is that?

The gallery is going to be 1600 square feet and will have a beautiful cafe serving espressos, cappucinos, steamers and french press coffee. We will also be offering delicious panini and deserts. The atmosphere will be much like any other coffee house with comfy indoor seating as well as a covered deck with more seating outside. The cafe portion of the business was originally going to be called the Northern Lights Cafe. However, a casino in Ontario owns the rights to the name and so we needed something new. We have settled on "The Art of Coffee Cafe" now.

There will be an area that I work and print images that is open to viewing by visitors and then of course hundreds of feet of wall space with my art hanging on it. We want the gallery to be a must stop spot along the Trans Canada. A place where we have a great deal of imagery to highlight the prairies.

In addition, the gallery will have an apartment in the lower level that allows us a place to live when we are on location in Fleming. A sort of second home that is comfortable and convenient to stay during the days of the week that the gallery is open.

It's all a dream in my head right now though as the rain slows the work. Here are a few shots of the construction as it stood last weekend.

This is the view of the gallery from the side of the Trans Canada highway. We have a direct turn from both directions that allows easy access to all our future customers.

The last shot is of the area that will become a parking lot eventually. Much fill is needed and you can see the standing water that has been making the site a mudpit for the last few weeks.

I can't wait to get the building closed in and start the interior work.

Brent