A picture is worth a thousand words.  Every picture tells a story.  Words.  Clichés. 

We’ve all heard these phrases and – for the most part – they are true.  For me a picture is a portal, not just to another place and time but to the photographer.  Whether we know it or not, every picture includes a little bit of the photographer.  Look at my photos and you’ll learn a little something about me. 

Was I there to document a building knowing one day it might be gone?  When I took the picture was I simply trying to record something for future generations?  Or, was I there for a different purpose?  Perhaps I was feeling artistic, or even a little playful.  Am I mimicking the style of another photo I may have seen at one time?  Why did I choose to include a certain element?

And then there are nights like tonight where the photo contains a little bit of me – literally.

Red Deer Lake School

Yep, there I am on the right side.  That long shadow stretching across the snow-marked grass?  That’s me.  It was cold and I was in a hurry so I wasn’t paying very close attention to my composition and I wasn’t aware that the streetlights from the schoolyard across the road were casting my shadow into the frame.

I went out to capture star trails over the old school but it was too cloudy.  Instead I captured myself.  I think that’s sort of cool.  Timing may be everything but sometimes sheer luck is handy too.