Princess Elysia

Elysia, on her third birthday. Wearing a princess dress she received from a friend from the garderie.

Gabriel

Just to close things off for today, here's a shot of Gabriel. He and I were touring about Pang on this particular day. In this shot he has just found the Youth Centre locked...and he's wondering where to go next...

The Fiord: Spring in Pang

This is a view down the fiord. Note the dirty brown broken ice near the shore. The fiord was still ice covered and guys were still snowmobiling - though there was water on top of the ice, giving it a very blue/green colour. Quite beautiful.

Farther down the fiord is the entrance to Auyuittuq National Park, at Overlord.

Old Church, Pangnurtung

Another version of the abandoned church in Pangnurtung, Nunavut.

Church Steeple, Pang

In keeping with the theme of old buildings, here is the steeple on a very abandoned and boarded up church. Given the historic relationship between the church and the Inuit, including the residential school experience, one is tempted to see this abandoned, decayed structure as something of a metaphor for this rather frayed and neglected relationship. However, there is a newer church nearby...

Old Blubber Station #2: Pangnurtung

Another view of the Old Blubber Station/Whaling Station, with a view down the fiord. Note the decayed boat in front.

Old Blubber Station: Pangnurtung

In terms of outside impacts, the major interaction with the Inuit of Pangnurtung was, first through Scottish whalers, then later through the RCMP and Christian missionaries - primarily the Anglican church. The Hamlet of Pangnurtung has a lovely little museum/heritage building which details the story of the the Inuit people. It also has an old Hudson Bay Company Blubber Station - where the Scottish whalers worked with the Inuit to cut up the whales and prepare the blubber to be shipped overseas. Some was boiled down in huge vats, and others were simply cut into strips and packed in brine barrels. The two boats in the picture are actual whaling boats in which the Inuit would go out, with harpoon mounted on the front, to shoot whales.

Abandoned Yellow House #3

The last of the yellow house, for now. I wish I had worked the scene a little more, I think there were tons more interesting shots here. Nonetheless, an interesting subject, which seems to have so many stories wrapped up inside it's dilapidated shell...

Abandoned Yellow House #2

A more detailed shot of this weathered old 'shack' and the tank for heating oil. It has seen a lot of winters.

Abandoned Yellow House #1

A housing crisis grips small northern communities. Pangnurtung is no exception. Families crowd into small units at levels of density we would never accept or imagine in the 'south'. Further aggravating the already critical shortage of housing, more than a few units are incredibly old and condemned - often due to mold.

My eye was caught by this particularly weatherbeaten old yellow house.

Nunavut: Road to Nowhere?

I was up in Nunavut last week on business. Though the business didn't turn out quite as planned, I was able to do a bit of shooting. I hope to post various images over the next few days and weeks, including some panoramas I took of Iqaluit. However, I'll start with a shot that just had to be taken: a genuine street sign: the Road to Nowhere. A colorful name for a road that does indeed, just dead end on the edge of what is already a small town.

Look Who's Turning 1!!!???

This is a landmark day. A year ago I wrote: "The purpose of this blog is simple: to challenge myself to post one new picture per week, for one year. The reason: to force myself, through a type of artificial project, to be creative. Or, more specifically, to use discipline - external or intrinsic - to foster and nurture my creativity behind the lens."....

Indeed,..Objectif Image..the Blog..has turned ONE!! I am, if I say so myself, a wee bit chuffed. With myself that is. For having stuck with it. For having tried. Not given up. Come back to it, even when there was so much else going on. It gave me a focus, a discipline, a reason, much as I intended. It made me practice. Think. Try. It did exactly what I wanted it to do. 59 posts in 52 weeks. I did it.

I feel I have improved. I've grown. I've learned. That's what I wanted. I'm on a journey. Mastering photography is in fact a lifelong journey. I've got a ways to go. But I'm not a quitter.

And so, with no further ado, I post the last of the first year photos. In the spirit of comleting the circle, I post a photo of Mattias - the subject of my first photo post. He's a year older now. It's a nice photo of my almost 5 year old son, having a story read to him by his grandpa. Reminds me of the quote: "You may have tangible wealth untold, caskets of jewels and coffers of gold, richer than I you can never be, I had a grandfather (sic) who read to me!"

To celebrate I will be publishing a book: Objectif Image - Year One. More on that later. For now...thanks for joining me.

glenn

Humam and Mitzi

For a wedding present for Humam and Mitzi, I made a canvas using the photo I blogged last fall. The canvas has a quote from Sheik Shakespeare: I love thee; I love thee with a love that shall not die. Till the sun grows cold and the stars grow old. I love thee."

Joshua: I Dwell in Possibility

Here is a canvas that I made for a friend's son Joshua - taken at his birthday party in a gym. The canvas is designed by Jessica Ditmer. The text reads: "Hope is a thing with feathers that perches in the soul. And sings the tune without words and never sleeps at all. I dwell in possibility." Seemed very fitting for this image - and so warm in colours too.

Elysia revisited

Thinking about projects I've worked on over the past year but not blogged, I thought I'd post a few. Here is a montage originally made for a 20x20 print - obviously a big wall print. I captures Elysia when she was quite a bit younger than she is now.

It's Fun Being a Kid!

Well there you go! I've got so many cute photos of this little 'imp', that I thought I'd share a few. It's fun to put them into little montages, so here's another one.

Eli's 3rd Birthday

Well Elysia's 3rd birthday is coming up, so we need to get some invites done. That's my job I said. So this is what I came up with. Used a photo taken at another little girl's birthday party just a couple weeks ago - she got cool 'elton john' glasses in her loot bag. It's absolutely amazing how she loves the camera and will ham it up and glam it up for me! What a sweetie! And this week she brought home the most heartwarming little song from daycare...sung to the tune of 'are you sleeping,..brother john?"

ma belle mama
ma belle mama
que je t'aime
que je t'aime
vien que je t'embrasse
vien que je t'embrasse
tres, tres fort
tres, tres fort

Oh my...how's that for a total heartbreaker/heartsqueeze coming from your little three year old? Of course we get versions for every member of the family, so I lucked in too! Wow! That stuff is like gold! We really need to get this on video or recorded somehow..her little voice is so strong when she belts it out. It's a cross between absolutely hilarious and absolutely heartwarming. Better than icecream. Waaay better.