Land at Rest - Sky Alive

In one way, I’m the same as everyone—I have good days and bad days.  Last week I had one of the good ones.

I’ve had two of my prints on exhibit in Edmonton since the last week of January this year.  They are in the InFocus 2025 Exhibition, with one at the Wild Skies Gallery in the Renaissance Hotel at the Edmonton Airport, and the other at the Red Brick Common Gallery in Stony Plain.  Last week I had a chance to get up to Edmonton to see the exhibits, so off I went.

I always plan my travel to Edmonton to include a stop at one of my favourite cafés, the City Roast Coffee in Red Deer.  That started my day off well.  The normal clientele is a mix of young and old, so I feel right at home.

I arrived at the Renaissance Hotel in good time and went to the gallery.  The Wild Skies Gallery is well placed, beside a walkway that people take when walking from the hotel to the airport, so there’s lots of traffic.  My print, The Prairies at Peace, was displayed along with many excellent prints by other photographers.

Prairies at Peace

I was only there for about 15 minutes.  When I went to leave I couldn’t find the machines where I was to pay my $6 parking fee, so I went to a service counter in the hotel and I was met by a helpful young lady.  She looked at my parking pass and noted that I’d only been there for 15 minutes.  “You’ve only been here for a short time,” she commented.  “Come with me and I’ll give you a parking exit pass.”  She was one of several people, all young women, who helped to make my day memorable.  I thanked her, took my pass and drove away, six dollars ahead.

I had planned to go to the UofA Bookstore to buy a replacement hooded fleece jacket with ‘University of Alberta Alumni’ embroidered on the front.  The one I’ve had since 2016 was showing its age.

After searching every clothing rack in the bookstore and not finding the fleece jacket I was looking for, I went to the service counter and asked for help.

“Oh, I’m sorry, but we don’t bring those in any longer.  They really were good—made by Roots.  I’ll show you what we now have that is similar, but we don’t have anything that has ‘Alumni’ embroidered on it.”

As we stood at the rack with the UofA zipped fleeces, she looked at the price tag and said, “I work in the stock room as well and these are supposed to be on sale.  They haven’t been tagged properly.”

I picked my size and brought it with me to the service counter.  She took it and disappeared, then reappeared with a manager.  He then did something at the cash register and I ended up with a significant discount.  I thanked them both and made my way back to the car thinking, again, what a nice experience that was, not just because of the discount, but also because the clerk was extremely pleasant and helpful.

My final stop for the day was at the gallery in Stony Plain where my print Forest Skeletons is exhibited.

Forest Skeletons

The Red Brick Commons Gallery is well designed with good lighting; however, there isn’t as good traffic flow through the gallery as there was in the  Wild Skies Gallery.  I took my time looking at all the excellent prints in the exhibit.

Red Brick Common

After looking at all the images in the exhibit, I asked the lady at the office where to go for lunch, preferably at a locally owned cafe.  With her directions and recommendations, I found the perfect place for me.  It is called 'Fresh Grill'.  That’s where I met the next pleasant and helpful young lady for the day.  The service and food was excellent.

I left Stony Plain in good spirits with a full stomach.  At that moment, I didn’t know what a wonderful trip home lay ahead of me.

As I looked at my iPhone to determine how long it would take me to get home via Highway 2, I thought, I’ve got time, why not travel south on the highway through Rocky Mountain House.  The Apple Map showed a route to the west and I assumed that was what I was looking for, so I selected that and headed out.

What I didn’t realise was that my iPhone had selected the straightest route home which took a variety of highways that ran down a line to the east of Rocky Mountain House and through Rimbey.  I was well along my trip before I realised where the route selection was taking me.  What kept me on that route was not only the wonderful countryside I was driving through, but it also placed me just east of a series of picturesque cloud formations.

I set up my camera with a telephoto lens and drove along looking for scenes that included the clouds and some of the land.  That combination looked the most balanced to me.  I was so excited and inspired that I found myself stopping every 5 to 10 km to photograph a scene.  Below are a couple of my favourites.

I want to drive this route again in the Spring and then in the Fall with my camera, to see what I can capture that will be indicative of those two seasons.  I’m looking forward to that project.