I was sitting in my office today, working on some very mundane office things, and feeling just a bit dejected. It seems that despite all my best intentions, I often end up working on stuff that just isn’t that inspiring.<\/p>\n
Why is that? Why, despite a list sitting beside me of things that I consider to be important, do I end up working on stuff that seems so, well, ordinary? For example, I’ve just spent a couple of hours getting my calendar to synch up across all my various computers. I mean really…<\/p>\n
It’s probably just the usual post-holiday doldrums, when things always seem a bit bleak. Fortunately, they won’t last long. <\/p>\n
But while I’m not feeling all that excited about what I’m doing, I am delighted to be able to share with you a charming story about someone who has decided to do something extraordinary.<\/p>\n
“An isolated wait in the mountains for the perfect shot<\/a>” is a delightful story about a Victoria-based photographer who has started a unique project to capture mountain portraits. It’s shared by another Victoria writer, Tom Hawthorn on his blog.<\/p>\n Each summer for the past three years, Mike Andrew McLean trekked up alpine paths with heavy camera equipment in search of spectacular vistas.<\/p>\n Acting as his own sherpa, the Victoria photographer carried with him a 1960s-era Linhof Technika IV field camera. It has a bellows, stands on a tripod, and requires a black cloth to be draped over the shooter.<\/p>\n After setting up near summits, he then waited for a passerby.<\/p>\n Sometimes, hours passed. Winds whipped along ridges. The photographer was exposed, though not always his film.<\/p>\n Mr. McLean, 34, was working on a project he calls \u201cRange: Mountain National Parks Photographs.\u201d He returned to the Rockies he had explored as a youth, seeking to make photographic portraits of strangers against a breathtaking backdrop.<\/p>\n In an age when wafer-thin cellphones take snapshots, a photographer with a large-format camera is an odd sight to stumble across in so isolated a site.<\/p>\n \u201cThis camera is a magnet for conversation,\u201d he said. \u201cYou set it up and people are drawn to it. It is a spectacle, a surreal image.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n The resulting photos are extraordinary. Some of them are posted on Mike’s website<\/a>, where you can see a slideshow of the exhibit, as well as read a commentary about the project.<\/p>\n