Capturing Ugly

Tags

Alberta, beauty, black & white, Calgary, children, daughters, Diana Schwenk, Elbow River, Hump Day Chronicles, living in the moment, Stephen Avenue Mall, Tourist in my own city, ugly, walk

THIS PAST WEEKEND, I WENT OUT ON TWO LONG WALKS.

On Saturday, I headed north toward the downtown core. The phrase ‘Concrete Jungle’  entered my mind and I was inspired to take pictures of the things that aren’t so pretty. I chose to shoot in black & white as it seems more stark and cold when capturing ugly.

This artistic structure is meant to cut down wind gusts on Stephen Avenue

Bikes and a piece of garbage on Stephen Avenue

Greenery atop the 4th Street overpass

Broken glass and garbage can at a bus stop shelter

Toppled construction sign

Barricade in front of a dirty window on 4th Street.

Attend services and get towed?

Fast food garbage on 13th Avenue

Step on a crack and…

A pylon lays down on 5th Street.

Garbage secured to fence on 5th Street.

A woman’s reflection caught in the mirror

See? Pretty on 17th Avenue

Broken sign leans on building on 7th Street

Alley between 17th and 18th Avenue

Tagged dumpster in alley

Parking lot behind my building.

On Monday, I headed south toward the Elbow River. I haven’t been that way in a long time. One of my favourite thinking spots is at the Elbow River Park.

Once, when Michaela was little I brought her to the park. I was watching her from above as she threw little, smooth, white stones into the river down below. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw geese walking toward her, circling in on her. When they stretched out their necks, they were taller than Michaela!

“Stop throwing stones Michaela, the geese think it’s bread!”

Panic registered on her face when she noticed the birds approaching. I laughed nervously and raced down to scoop her up in my arms. To this day, Michaela is petrified of birds.

Life pokes through bricks and wood on 30th Avenue

Dandelions flourish in grass gone wild on 30th Avenue.

A one year memorial marks the spot where some grads were killed in a car crash on Elbow Drive.

A stone bench at Elbow Park

Cobblestone leads down to Elbow River

Fencing to keep away dam building beavers

The root exposed by last year’s floods, yet the tree struggles to live

My thinking bench where the geese once circled in on Michaela

Sad thing is, I know people who eat mostly this.

A discarded mitten symbolizes the end of winter.

Ok, this one is plain ugly! In Canada Cigarette packs have gross, graphic images like this. Maybe they should do that with junk food and pop too?

This weekend, I set out to find ugly. What struck me almost immediately, was how hard it is for me to see ugly. I naturally look for beauty and couldn’t help shooting it.  Even when I managed to shoot ugly, I saw beauty. And when there was no beauty, I saw potential for it.

~ HUMP DAY CHRONICLES ~

What do you see when you look?

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