Becky At Childhood School. Thunder Bay Ontario.
I recently drove to BC and back with my girlfriend, stopping along the way to hangout and kick it with friends and family. Early in the trip, Tamara and I came to the conclusion that I was going to photograph her friends and family. Obviously I was super stoked as I am always wanting to shoot new faces and meet really great new people.
This shot of Becky(her sister inlaw) took place at her childhood school inwhich she was very fond of. It could be described as a "modern version" of a one roomed school house. It has since closed and stands vacant of any educational purposes other then a faint reminder where one once grew up.
Motel Room Door and "Art". Brandon, Manitoba.
We also decided that we would save money by not staying at big name hotels, not that there were any in some places we went. One thing that I learned was that where you save money, you make up in a combination of awesomeness and sketchyness. This particular motel room in Brandon Manitoba, there was a feeling of "some bad shit went down here". It could be attributed to the the cracked/kicked in door latch, freshly painted over everything and the Christian Artwork on the walls. To Sin and Repent.
Tamara. Brandon, Manitoba.
We obviously survived the night in Brandon, Manitoba and awoke in the morning with a new admiration for the independently owned highway motel. The price was right and the abode was an experience.
Motel Room. Bassano, Alberta.
There was always something unique about these motels. Maybe it was the insitution-isk decor that made up the rooms, a cheap pitiful attempt to create some place that resembled home. This motel in Bassano, Alberta was a prime example of this. Highschool-gym-wall- style brink walls, shitty horse painting(genius in its self), Military tight bedding and suspect(potientially 2 way) mirror.
Awesomeness; somewhere to sleep after driving all day. Sketchyness; motel Operator asking us if we were "a happy couple"as he hands us the keys. Seemingly these motels cannot live without one of the two things, there will always be both. There will always be that equation of "Awesomeness and Sketchyness" Its what make these places so unique.
Tamara with camera/The view through the viewfinder.
I have never been to BC before in my life and let me tell you, if I didn't have my digital camera with me I would have gone through a 100 rolls of film, the mountains were new to me I wanted to document them as much as possible. Not one peak was left unphotographed. I did try and save the truely spectacular views for my film camera. I would get the feeling of "this is so gorgous I must take time and photograph it properly" and that would be when the Mamiya would come out. By the end of the trip I had shot the shit out of all those touristy beautiful landscapes that only moms and old camera club men could enjoy, I was a veteran of capturing "natures beauty" . The above shot is just 1 of 100's that I took, there are many many many more. It was fun to dabble in landscapes but I think I will stick to stealing souls, people and portraiture.
