Monday, March 30, 2020

Grungy - March 30, 2020


With the car battery dead to the point where the key fob wouldn't unlock the door I'm unable to pop the hood to get a charger on the battery. For some reason the key itself won't work on the door handle. I've researched a bit online and some options to get out of this predicament are: raise the car on jacks and attach a power source to the starter motor input, which comes directly off the battery, then use the fob to unlock the door. Take apart the drivers side wheel well and yank on the cable that's latching the hood down or break in through the window by poking a long stick at the lock. None of these options seemed feasible to me with my current skill set so I guess it's time for a new car. Anyone want a well used Honda CR-V?

Oh wait, we have AMA. A quick look at their website and they offer break-into-your-car services. Yay. I just saved $40k for not having to replace the car. We called and soon the fellow showed up and was trying the 'poke a long stick' method. It was tricky because he need to push the lock latch forward but the latch is smooth and there's no real edge to leverage off of. He had a rough time getting his stick to stick. After quite a number of attempts he was finally able to open the car door. We then jumped the battery. I left the car running for a while so as to build up a charge.

Later I headed to the grocery store to get a few things for dinner, hoping that the battery had charged enough to start the car after I was done shopping. (spoiler: it was, but I did have a scare when I pushed the fob button and the door didn't unlock. I turned out that I had both my regular keys and the spare keys in my pocket. The spare key's battery is dead - so many dead batteries - and I had pulled that fob out of my pocket with out realizing it.) As I left the parking lot I decided to drive around a bit. The weather was cold and it was foggy which can make for interesting photos.

truck trailers



I drove around somewhat aimlessly and ended up on 84th st which is really just a gravel road on the east side of Stoney trail. There is a school bus depot and with the fog I thought I could find interesting shots but once I got closer I discovered that the driveway was locked off and it would be a long walk to where all the buses were parked. I just had a light jacket and croc's on and felt like I'd be exposed if I walked over there.. I lost interest in the buses.

The truck trailers in the photo above were nearby and I thought to take a photo. In my instagram feed I recently started following some photographers that take photos of urban scenes that aren't overcrowded with lots of elements but still have an interesting composition (see here for an example) and I want to be able to capture a similar kind of vibe in my own photography. I find breaking down composition is a tricky thing and it's not quite as easy as you might expect when you're standing in front of a scene it's challenging to break it down into small elements that work together to frame a story or a mood.

Once I had the photo it felt pretty simple and I wanted to edited it to look more grungy and to match my mood at the time. East of the city here we're on the edge of the prairie and often times you'll come across piles of garbage just dumped in ditches (tv's, couches, bunch of other crap that should have been taken to the dump) and I find it pretty offensive and I don't really understand the mindset of the folks that do this, like, just go to the dump, it's not far from here. F*ckers!

Not long after I came across this tractor sitting in a field just beside the road. I got out and took a standard photo (standing, looking straight on) but then had the presence of mind to walk around the vehicle and contemplate other angles.. crouching low I leaned in and took the photo below.

Tractor tipping anyone?

With that I drove around a bit more but ended up heading home to unload the groceries.

To view the posted images larger, feel free to click here..

Thanks for looking.

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