We’ll let you in on a little secret…in our minds some of our earlier stuff…well…it doesn’t fill us with the warm and fuzzies. Mainly it’s the images we don’t like and not so much in regards to composition, but specifically how we processed them when we started shooting RAW (in about 2014). All to frequently we did it very badly*. (RAW: a direct uninterpreted image that gets processed in “post” with a software package like Lightroom instead of in camera as a JPG).
As with many photographers, a few years ago, we were lead down the “HDR” rabbit hole (even when not shooting true High Dynamic Range). You’ve seen those often overly saturated, frequently dingy looking pics done in an over-the-top way that in the early to mid-2010s were all the rage? That’s probably HDR. You looked at a photo done this way and instantly you thought it’s a painting, right? Another common trait of the technique.
Milk River by Francis Marte: an honour bestowed. With Chris Doering & Connie Biggart & Francis Marte (BIGDoer/Synd)
For a time we saw this style (naively) as a way to elevate or improve our work, but now see the results as cringe-worthy. It was a phase, with numerous photographers sampling the drug, not just us. We’re always learning and improving in skills (even if today, we still think we’ve got far to go) and have taken a more dialed-down approach in post the last few years.
Scroll down for photos and to comment.
All this rambling leads us to the photo seen here, one shot in the Southern Alberta Community of Milk River back in 2014. It’s a street scene showing one of the town’s Grain Elevators, which became fodder for something awesome.
Comes a saviour, an artist. The photo’s redeemed on being chosen by talented Francis Marte, out of Edmonton, as inspiration for something fantastic in watercolours. Our photo that looks like a painting, becomes one! Francis’ actions have changed our outlook and instead a dreading the idea of showing you the original, we display it proudly, in a most reserved way of course. A big thanks to him, and encouragement to continue. Scroll down to look at our work and his.
From the Philippines Arts Council website in regards to the artist: “Francis Marte is a professional watercolourist and charcoal artist, specializing in realistic landscape, cityscape, still life, figurative, and portrait paintings…Albeit still young in the arts scene (he has been doing this professionally for only 2 years now), Francis dreams of being able to devote full time to painting.”
We think he’s got the stuff. The level of realism in his work is something incredible.
And what a great honour it is that this person choose our photo, one that we saw basically as worthless today, and with a bit of reinterpretation, made it into something cool and epic. Bravo!
This is not the only BIGDoer image Francis has used as the basis of a painting. We’ll soon be posting about another he did (here: Old Jack’s Hand by Francis Marte). To look up Francis, search “Francis Marte Watercolours” on Facebook. Tell him we sent you.
Interesting timing, the grain elevator seen in the photo, as we’re typing this, is being demolished. These wooden prairie sentinels don’t have a lot of value in today’s world and on being unneeded and of no use for any other purpose, they get torn down. One more old elevator bites the dust. But it’s economics, plain and simple. We understand.
Artists who wish to use our photos as fodder for other works, much like Francis did, are welcome to contact us. We welcome it.
*While we’re on the fence mostly as to the value of our earlier (RAW era) photographs, with some that we downright hate, we don’t hide them away. Search our site and you’ll see every single article with every single photo, going back to day one, no matter what we think of it. We were pretty bad back then, mostly and much better now, mostly, and we hope it shows how we’ve matured in what we do. Some of our write-up are badly done too, but hey, that’s another story. Hope you enjoyed the piece.
Very cool picture. It’s also my home town. I’ve hauled more bushels of grain to this elevator than I can count lol. It was torn down last year. The last remaining elevator will be torn down soon, and Milk River will be left with no elevators. We used to have quite the row of them. Very sad.
Love that connection. It’s sad the loss of all these old elevators, but we’re happy we got to see them while they were still were around. Francis is an amazing artist!
I recall the HDR rage back then, I edited a few photos like that myself, but have since shelved that process. It doesn’t speak to me anymore, but it was just a fad, though a few still do it online yet to a varying degree….
Yes very much a fad. Like lensballs right now. I quite honestly cringe inside on seeing our photos from then, but they are what they are, and so we proudly display them in all their shitty glory.
We used to do something called the "pointless challenge" 🤪 and miss those days. It was so much silly fun and often frustrating as heck. In these we'd invite people to send in random photos of obscure locations, but not give any information, and then we'd track where it was and shoot something similar.
Most of these came from old family collections, as was the case here. Anyone up to resurrecting the series?
In hindsight, why didn't we pose someone in our shot?
Pointless: “Devoid of meaning (or) senseless” Merriam-Webster.
If you like what we do and want to support this ongoing project (12 years now), go here: https://www.BIGDoer.com/help-the-society/ Thanks to Connie for making this post possible.
Exploring history with Off the Beaten Path with Chris & Connie. Photo: ca1970 and 2014. Posted by Connie.
Captured on a cold, cold day many years ago. We've been passing this old house for decades and it's little changed in that time. At some point we expect to drive by and it'll be gone.
Exploring history with Off the Beaten Path with Chris & Connie. Photo: 2017. Posted by Connie.
When retired old railway cars usually get cut up for scrap. Sometimes, however, they find their way into the hands of the general public or whomever. Flat cars make good bridges, and boxcars can be transformed into storage buildings and the like. Case in point here. We see them used like this often enough and in this case, it's part of a corral.
Incidentally, this boxcar dates from 1950 and this was found by tracing the old road number, which is still visible.
Exploring history with Off the Beaten Path with Chris & Connie. Photo: 2017. Posted by Connie.
This central Alberta racetrack was never a commercial operation but instead just a fun place for car enthusiasts in the area to get together. Early '70s or thereabouts and it only lasted a few years. Even thought it's been abandoned for that long, there is no doubt what was here.
You know we like the the obscure stuff and this one fits the bill perfectly. Found by accident while backroad cruising and the history comes thanks to local car guy Mike.
Exploring history with Off the Beaten Path with Chris & Connie. Photo: 2022. Posted by Connie.
On top of little Myrtle Mountain in the Kimberley (BC) Nature Park.
There's some good wilderness fun to be had here and nice views as you can see, but the real reason we came is mining history. The whole area near the ski hill was extensively worked over a century ago and we were looking for evidence of this. We didn't find much in the area searched, but it's a big chunk of property and we hope to return to cover more ground again soon. Of all the subjects we cover, mining related is a favourite.
Still, it was a good hike and that can't be bad. Look to the comments for more info 👇.
Exploring nature and history with Off the Beaten Path with Chris & Connie. Photo: 2022. Posted by Connie.
It's a strange curiosity in south Kananaskis, there on a hillside and we have no idea who created it. We asked around and no one's completely sure about its history. In the past it showed the Canada 100 logo from 1967 but in 2017 someone changed it to reflect the country's 150th.
That's our friend Emily from DanOCan.com having a look.
Exploring history with Off the Beaten Path with Chris & Connie. Photo: 2017. Posted by Connie.
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Very cool picture. It’s also my home town. I’ve hauled more bushels of grain to this elevator than I can count lol. It was torn down last year. The last remaining elevator will be torn down soon, and Milk River will be left with no elevators. We used to have quite the row of them. Very sad.
Love that connection. It’s sad the loss of all these old elevators, but we’re happy we got to see them while they were still were around. Francis is an amazing artist!
A beautiful watercolour! Very neat!
I recall the HDR rage back then, I edited a few photos like that myself, but have since shelved that process. It doesn’t speak to me anymore, but it was just a fad, though a few still do it online yet to a varying degree….
Yes very much a fad. Like lensballs right now. I quite honestly cringe inside on seeing our photos from then, but they are what they are, and so we proudly display them in all their shitty glory.
Oh yes, the glass spheres for the photos… Another $$ fad.
I feel the same for my earlier photos as well, but it was a learning curve. We’ve improved considerably since then!
The journey to getting better is part of the fun!
Wonderful!
Short and sweet! And we love it.
This is great!
Thank you, we try!
Drove by this on the way to Montana.
One more landmark soon to be gone (or maybe gone already).
This particular elevator is gone now. The one beside it is still standing at the moment, the last one in the row.
And I suspect soon it’ll be gone too. Another small town loses another part of its very being.
A great collaboration
Thank you!
Please save our history.
A fine sentiment but it’s hard to when there’s no money there to do it. Sadly.
Francis has some major talent. And your photo is not so bad.
Yes! And thanks…we’re always so hard on ourselves.
Amazing work both of you!
Thank you. We’re sure big fans of Francis’ work.
That pictures not so bad. Stop being so hard on yourself.
I know. It seems the person who’s created something is always the biggest critic of their own work.