The Encumbrances of Youth

....all I need is my dog and my beer and my cigarettes and my journal and my poetry book and my moccasins and my opener and my......

Gordon, I really like this shot. There is such a great balance of forms here -- it strikes me as almost having a far-eastern aesthetic to the very two-dimensional and totally harmonious composition.

 

How did you get such a top down view? And you got your dog to stay put for the shot!

 

I bet this a treasured memento; but, this is also a stunning image.

 

Are you scanning a print or a negative? What are you doing this with? It is a very nice clean copy as posted and there are a lot of old slides, negatives and prints around my house from my mother and extended family that could be digitized.

This photo was taken from up in the overhead support structure of a wooden bridge spanning Duffin's creek in the Claremont conservation area, just north of Ajax. The shot was unstaged, the arrangement of objects being purely fortuitous. I was clambering about in the upper supports with my camera to shoot the creek itself and I looked down to the bridge surface and took a few frames. The shots of the creek I never bothered to print but this photo of my dog, is as you suspected, a cherished memento .

 

This is a scan of a 4" X 6" in. print. I used my fairly old Canon flat bed scanner. It will do a passable job on prints. I have a large number of B&W negs. and slides from my youth which I should look into scanning. In particular I have a lot of medium format negs of landscape shots from a summer trip through central Turkey which I never did get around to fully working through in my old darkroom. A decent film scanner is on my, ever expanding, wish list.

 

I have a framed version of this image in which I very subtly hand oiled the objects on the bridge with Marshal oils. This version above was one of the dozens of test shots.

 

 

A scan of a 4" X 6" b&w print shot, developed and printed back in 1980.

Thanks for any comments, critiques.

Great detail, light and composition! 7/7a.

Wonderful image, Gord. The various items, scattered around is interesting. My first thought, before I read your commentary, was that the dog was a puppy, and had dragged all those things there (one of my dogs accumulates little piles around herself, and she is almost 10). Still, I know a good dog when I see one, and this one is beautifully honored.

Gordon, I love this image! The shape of the dog against the lines and textures of the wood planks is wonderful. The placement of the other objects is perfect. This makes me think of a cold but peaceful night by the fire in a Northern cabin, perhaps a trapper's.

 

 

Very nice with a real human touch to it. It is as if the canine is guarding the utensils of his absent master in a relaxed but still guarded posture. Waiting for the return of the owner of such useless material possessions. He knows what's important. And it is not the tools of man.

It is a warm touching composition, the camera point is special, it has a home feeling even though it was not photographed there, but all the items around are creating the feeling ( especially the one shoe....). The timing and diagonal placement of the dog( with his leg pose...) is again well observed and executed. The wooden planks are having a nice textures as contrasted to the dog and elements on it. You have a special way with dogs ;-))

 

I wonder Gord, Darwin and Maggie are looking like having a white fur, is it another dog? of the past?

The composition is almost lyrical. The way the husky / malamute is laying is like a dream wave. The items are placed / arranged beautifully and the shot is spot on with deep blacks and pure whites.

 

love this print.

 

Gordon, this is a wonderful capture. Such an unusual vantage point. This is probably my favorite shot I've seen this week.

Hussein;

 

Thanks for the comment.

 

Liz;

 

She was 5 years old when this was taken and yes she was a very good girl. More than 25 years later there is still a spot in my heart where she resides.

 

Linda;

 

Thanks for commenting. This was in reality taken just outside of Toronto. However coincidentally when Phaedrus was a puppy, we did live in a little cabin back in the woods on an old lumber road .... wood stove,....no electricity...... 30 km. to the nearest neighbors.

 

David;

 

I would trust a dog's priorities over a human's any day. We chronically over complicate life, and they are around to remind us of our folly.

 

Pnina;

 

You are correct, this is another dog. The photo is a scan of an old print from the 80's.

Phaedrus was a Siberian Husky. Darwin and Maggie are Great Pyrenees Mountain dogs.

 

Malinda;

 

Thanks for the comment. The curves of the dogs posture are my favourite aspect of this photo. The original print has a bit more shadow detail than what came through in this scan, but I was fairly pleased with what an inexpensive flatbed scanner managed to salvage.

 

Ryan;

 

Nice to hear from you and thanks for the comment.

Gordon, when I try to describe why I like this, my words seem hollow because it is hard to describe beauty.

Forgive the lack of verse, here is my comment:

 

This is beautiful.

 

Kirk

Because this was taken so long ago and the subject is close to my heart it is very hard for me to extricate myself emotional from the photo. I receive it myself on a level somewhere outside the realm of language. I am glad it seems to strike you in a similar place.

GREAT GREAT SHOT !!!

As I write, Deb and I are in New Mexico. Packed in our luggage are the remains of our dear canine friend Jake who died suddenly within a week of finalizing our daughter's adoption and bringing her home. Deb found Jake while doing a medical rotation on the Zuni reservation. For a decade, he was her shadow and her angel. A big, big dog who never quite believed he had grown up and then grown old. Tomorrow, we lay him to rest.

 

 

This is a touching photo. These dogs. Yeesh. What joy they bring and what sadness they leave when the move on.

 

 

A favorite for many reasons.

I sometimes like to take pictures of my desk from directly above, a kind of indirect self portrait one can assemble from the clues scattered across the surface. (in my case, "scattered" is entirely the right word). This has the same feeling, a kind of flattened, 2-D perspective but which through the assosciation of dog and personal objects builds a kind of 3-D image in our mind

...and a bottle of beer...

 

This is a fascinating POV, the scene is just perfect, telling everything

 

-Els

Bob;

 

Thanks

 

Jeff;

 

I hope your buddy is at home now and you are all at peace. I have procrastinated scattering the ashes for my last three dogs all of whom passed within a short period of time. My refrigerator top is getting crowded with urns. Vida and I talk about rectifying the situation but I have trouble wanting to feel that solemn again. They all loved to roam the woods behind our house so it would be the perfect location. Reading your words gives me new resolve to hike out with the recent crew ( Maggie and Darwin ) and bid a final farewell to the old crew ( Tonya, Jefferson and Bartok ) .

 

Jack;

 

I saw this scene in much the same way as your describe your desk. A kind of random assemblage which adds up to who I was back then.

 

Els;

 

The cigarettes were abandoned many decades ago but the beer lingers on.

 

 

This is nothing less than masterful.

Jim;

 

Coming from a master such as yourself, that is one helluva compliment.

A semblance of yin and yang, great work.

Sahwan;

 

Thanks, I saw the same semblance in her body contours.

It must be rare for a photo to tell this much this elegantly. I will be looking at it again and again...

Beautiful!