“Brittany you look beautiful” Brittany’s mom Sue spoke in almost a whisper.

“…and you were mine first…”

Brittany’s eyes lock with Sue’s in the hustle of wedding preparations, and they both smile that same closed mouth, lips turned up, quiet smile, that because of genetics or possibly a lifetime together mirrors the other. I can only wonder what Sue is thinking; if she is remembering tying Britt’s shoes before her first day of kindergarden, or if she thinks back to when she waited up on the couch sipping tea as Brittany broke curfew at sixteen. Maybe my imagination is limited by where I believe my own mother’s thoughts might go on her daughter’s wedding day.

The day rolled on and together the girls headed up the mountain where Brittany would meet Mike, and above the city of Collingwood they would start life together. Sue stood in front of the couple at the start of the ceremony, and like any mother would spoke from the heart.

Happy Mother’s Day.

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We anticipate it for months and once it comes, it consumes us. It’s presence never leaves our minds and we rest with it, inhale it, inflate our hearts with it. This conscious appreciation fades with time and we become accustomed. We forget about the dead of winter. The dreariness, the chilled stillness, the dark and depression.  The shiver melts out of our bones and pours from our bodies as we accept this newfound sunlight. We drink the humidity and dance in warm rains. Then the buds come, and we embrace them. We love them like we love our favorite melodies, but once they’ve bloomed into flowers, we neglect to notice. We walk by, spoiled and ignorant, and viewing the world with summer soaked eyes. An over saturation of goodness turns into an immunity to the acknowledgement of beauty.

Spring is only sincerely appreciated after an honest winter.

Just as peace can only be fully understood after war, or joy can only be truly experienced after great sadness, we must shake hands with the worst in order to grasp the best. Despite the desire to flush our minds of past pain, we must allow remnants of the cold, violence, and anguish to remain, simply as a reminder. It is only then that we are able to value the flowers and entirely experience the season they represent.

Spring is here. The sun is shining today, and will again tomorrow. Birds are chirping happily and the warm wind is all embracing. Allow your porous soul to sponge up this season, and refuse to wring it dry.

-Author Unknown.

[Portland Oregon, Mt Tabor April 2013]

Mary and Joel are good friends of mine and photographers from Portland Oregon, they showed me their city, their spring, and let me loiter in their life last weekend as we attended Collaborations for a Cause, a conference for photographers and NGOs. I owe them the biggest thank you, and am waiting to return the favour on the east coast. The weekend was the end of a two week trip west, and now back in Guelph, Ontario I’m buying memory cards that I should have bought tax free in Oregon, and getting ready for weddings to start. Many photos to come this summer, many to make, many to share.

adelante caminante

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On the Road – Jack Kerouac

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Anyways I can get almost all my errands done downtown so other than a constant flow of caffeine, the bank, post office, kwik copy and now my favourite framing people Pond’s Photo are all in the vicinity. This winter I’ve made my first real attempt at printing, framing and soon hanging my travel work – I have a few projects on the go here and I decided to start, like with everything else in my life, documenting it.

[24mm, Canon 5D - Picture Size 12'x18']

Things I’ve Learned.

1. Aspect Ratios

I’ve always been aware that 8x10s were cropped and that 4×6 or 2×3 was the ratio crop the camera shot, but my final products are normally albums where I design from a blank slate and I’ve always cropped how the photo to look best in a spread. Printing was a different story, and the size options overwhelmed me. So of course, I made multiple trips downtown with sizes scribbled in my notebook, matte sizes, frame sizes trying to figure out what size I needed and then the crop of the individual photo.

To clear things up.

Camera Shoots:

a 2×3 ratio photograph.

Regular Print Sizes

The numbers beside the rations are “length multiplication factor” what that means after my-learning-by-doing-crop-failure of the first round of printing is that 4×6 print includes the entire photograph a camera takes, or to think in another way the long side is 1.5 times longer than the shorter side.

Prints will be cropped if that ratio is different and in generally enlarged to fit that ratio. In my travel documentary work where I often shoot wider angle lenses, the last thing I wanted was to lose part of the frame to a crop so after some 5×7 test prints I now know I need only.

4×6

6×9

8×12
10×15
12×18
14×21
16×24
18×27
20×30

2. Clean hands, clean mattes.

3. Matte vs. Double Matte

I haven’t got into the custom colour mattes, but I have had been able to test out double vs single matte and black/white. To lift the glass further away from the photo I think reduces glare and adds a sense of depth, and just like this website I do like the clean white background.

4. Monitor Calibration – I read an in-depth article on why you shouldn’t worry too much and this may shock some but I did a little more research on monitor calibration, made sure my files were formatted properly and didn’t calibrate at all. On later comparison my prints at three different print shops all matched up pretty spot on. All the pro print labs I dealt with printed all the details in the blacks and darker areas of the photo which I was worried might be lost and the tones were right for the type of paper I was experimenting with.

5. Paper;

So many options. Weight; For all my framed prints I used 192gsm thick but not a board by any means.

With a white fine art matte paper. I saw and touched textured prints, but I like the simple smooth look. I found the textures distracting in the light framed but that is just my own opinion.

and for everyone that has asked: Framed Prints are for sale by custom order, please email me taylorroades@gmail.com for details. 

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[Guelph, April 2013]

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For the last year or two Jack Kerouac’s writings, philosophy, now the On The Road movie, and have been intertwined into my wikipedia late night surfing addiction. After a road trip across the country I read On the Road, and then The Dharma Bums - [good reads]. I watched his biography, and then after a little more research I found the work his friends at the same time, photos, writings etc that all depicts the same 1950s intrepid american history.

One thing lead to the next and through a little history of photography self-study this winter I came across Robert Frank’s work, which I first found online, and then amazon’s single click checkout later his book ended up in my mailbox.

Jack Kerouac opens the introduction to The Americans which is a collection of photos by Robert Frank

.

“After seeing these pictures you end up finally not knowing any more whether a jukebox is sadder than a coffin. That’s because he’s always taking pictures of jukeboxes and coffins – and intermediary mysteries.”

The photographs are haunting, and honest, and the lack of colour and the romanticism of time itself make them all that more appealing.

The combination essay, and anthology of photos is what I liked most of this book. A set context and interpretation by someone else – closer in time and place to the photos themselves, to echo or question your own interpretation of them.

These are a collection of my favourite photographs:

I also enjoy really like the sequencing of the next five shots. In putting all of my own travel work together into something cohesive I’ve been picking up on these subtleties I might have missed before.

 I like The Americans because it covers though not all Americans by any means but a sampling enough to get a feel. It is an ethnography in a sense – a comment on culture, of a time period. The captions give enough context without ruining the air of silent mystery from the photos, and of course I enjoyed nomadic nature of the photos themselves.

“To Robert Frank I give this message: You’ve got eyes.” – Jack Kerouac

[ The Americans On Amazon]

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[March 2012 routine eye test of my own eyes getting ready for the summer, paid an extra $5 for the eye doctor to email me these]

To be followed by:

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