{"id":9409,"date":"2021-06-11T21:55:17","date_gmt":"2021-06-12T01:55:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/?p=9409"},"modified":"2021-09-09T07:13:28","modified_gmt":"2021-09-09T11:13:28","slug":"episode-358-where-did-you-find-all-tose-pictures-for-te-episodes-alan-it-was-not-easy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/?p=9409","title":{"rendered":"EPISODE 358 “WHERE DID YOU FIND ALL TOSE PICTURES FOR TE EPISODES, ALAN” “IT WAS NOT EASY”"},"content":{"rendered":"
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EPISODE 358    “WHERE DID YOU FIND ALL THOSE PICTURES FOR THE EPISODES, ALAN” “IT WAS NOT EASY”<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
alan skeoch<\/div>\n
June 2051<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n
This is my family:  Mom, dad, Eric and I.  We laughed a lot.  Did not know we were poor.<\/div>\n
Actually we believed we were rich.  And we were correct.  We were rich.<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
WRITING STORIES WITH PICTURES 2021<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
Dan Bowyer wondered why there were no pictures with the rather crude story about the Fireman\u2019s Lift.<\/div>\n
He liked both and has responded to every episode, many of which paralleled his life. Then<\/div>\n
The Mississauga Library System wanted permission to replicate my pictures.  Others were surprised<\/div>\n
I was able to illustrate the 357 stories with pictures.  How was it done?<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
Getting pictures to fit the stories is not easy.  Some stories took me several days to find pictures.  But pictures<\/div>\n
were necessary to establish that the stories are authentic.   <\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
HOW I GOT SO MANY PICTURES<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
1) From elementary school to the present time I have been a camera enthusiast.   Initially using <\/div>\n
cheap little plastic cameras that always seemed to leak light to the more sophisticated pocket cameras<\/div>\n
available today.  My best cameras have been and are the <\/div>\n
Sony 1.8-4.9\/10.4 – 37.1 with Zeiss lens.  They take a lot of abuse and do fit in my pocket even if<\/div>\n
the weight threatens to pull my pants down. I dropped one ..broke it\u2026cost $500.  Uttered a few<\/div>\n
choice expletives and bought another camera.  <\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
2) I saved negatives and pictures in cigar boxes even when a kid.  Then I began making slides\u2026.35 mm.<\/div>\n
Last year , 2020, I looked at the boxes and boxes of slides that no one would ever see.  There must be a way to get<\/div>\n
slides in digital form.   First, I bought a cheap replicator\u2026not good due to dust.   Second, I discovered a<\/div>\n
company that copies slides professionally.  At a cost.   Was it worth spending 50 cents to $1 a slide and same<\/div>\n
for negatives. ?  I decided to spend the money.  Well over $1,500 so far\u2026not cheap.  More to do. Threw away lots.<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
3) All converted pictures and slides come back to me in a stick form and can be injected<\/div>\n
into my computer like the vaccine is to our arms.   Then Spin them like a slot machine … images rolling by.<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
4) Reams and reams of pictures … over 1,500 images. saved.<\/div>\n
Lots of work.   I also have several thousand images put into my computer from my cameras.<\/div>\n
Sometimes I go searching for images to fit the stories.  Sometimes an image triggers a story.<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
5) Then each picture is photo shopped to improve it\u2026lights up dark images\u2026.crop images<\/div>\n
to highlight a particular theme.   Lots of work.   Sometimes it takes a whole day to put things together.<\/div>\n
Sometimes several days.   It is a challenge to do a Story a Day but an enjoyable challenge.<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
6) To me a story has to have both a written script and lots of illustrations.  One without the other just<\/div>\n
does not feel right.<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
7) DOES ANYBODY READ THE STORIES?  AM I JUST WASTNG TIME?<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
Who reads the stories?  No one?<\/div>\n
That question occurs to me.  I know, however, that some people in isolation like<\/div>\n
having a story a day.  My sister in law, Anne Hughes, told me yesterday that she looks<\/div>\n
forward to my story every morning with her coffee.  She and her husband are cloistered<\/div>\n
in a tiny home.  They can no longer drive.  My stories help which pleases me.<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
8) Do the stories go beyond my friends?  It is wonderful to get an email from persons I do not<\/div>\n
know who have found my stories on the internet.  Yesterday I got  note from a young man who spends summers at  Paradise Lodge on<\/div>\n
the Algoma Central Railway… a person I do not know.  He loved those wilderness stories about<\/div>\n
Wart Lake, mining exploration, wolves, lightning and Marjorie arriving with our cat and her sewing<\/div>\n
machine.  We had lots of wolves . We had no electricity.   So many notes like that.<\/div>\n
Victor Poppa\u2019s grandson for instance\u2026writing a play about Victor.  I hoe he will Remind me to send some<\/div>\n
more pics\u2026lost his email.  Then there is Dr. Norm Paterson, my former boss in the mining<\/div>\n
exploration days who sends notes often.   On and On.  Letter from Belgium, Australia, England,<\/div>\n
Ireland\u2026from the far corners of Canada like Mayo Landing , Whitehorse, Anchorage Juneau<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
Then so many notes from people who have had similar experiences but have lost<\/div>\n
the pictures.   Lucky for me that mom had kept some black and white pics of our childhood.<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
Missing pictures?  Lots of them.  I wish we had more pics of dad wasting his money at racetracks<\/div>\n
\u2026wasting his money but sharing the experience by sneaking us in to tracks when we were young or<\/div>\n
setting us up as scam artists selling gamblers day old racing forms.  Did we really do that? Or is it<\/div>\n
imagination.  No pictures to prove or disprove.<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
And nice to get notes from friends\u2026to rekindle friendships in spite of the pandemic. Russ Vanstone and<\/div>\n
his bees; for instance…..too many people to name.  I know some people do not read the stories.  a couple of months ago<\/div>\n
I started to delete names because I felt I was cluttering up the emails of those who do not respond.  There was a<\/div>\n
hue and cry \u2026 so I have not deleted yet,  And will not.  So many of my former students are on the list. We<\/div>\n
speak as peers now.  Jeannette Chau even nominated me for a Mississauga literary award.<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
JUST THE BARE FACTS\u2026LOOK AT THAT GRIN!<\/div>\n

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<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
8)  Should I worry if the story and the pictures do not reflect well upon me?  No,  I am too old to <\/div>\n
worry about my appearance, my language, my.mistakes,  I try to be self effacing.  Who the hell<\/div>\n
wants to read about personal heroic exploits.  Better if the stories have a more earthy touch.  Like<\/div>\n
when Floyd Faulkner nick named me Fucking Al on that Groundhog River job in Northern Ontario.<\/div>\n
It was a compliment.    Voltaire\u2019s novel Candide has been a big influence\u2026i.e. the naive innocent<\/div>\n
facing the best of all possible worlds. Remember Voltaire\u2019s conclusion?  \u201cIf this is the best of all possible<\/div>\n
worlds, what then of the others?.”<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
THIS STORY BELOW SHOWS HOW IMPORTANT PICTURES ARE \u2026 WHO WOULD BELIEVE IT OTHERWISE?<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
9) Here is a mini story.   A story made in gentler times.  Today our behaviour<\/div>\n
on an Air Canada flight to Iceland and then Toronto might lead to big time trouble.<\/div>\n
But  in 1965 we were just entertainment \u2026 young and foolish.  If I told the story without<\/div>\n
the pictures you might think it was a fabrication.<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
PHOTO 1:  Marjorie, my brother Eric and I had been drinking a pint of Guinness<\/div>\n
in the Dublin lounge waiting for our flight back to Canada.  We were joined<\/div>\n
by a Catholic priest and his father.  Nice men. Might have shared a second pint.  Innocent enough<\/div>\n
Lots of people drink Guinness.  We boarded OK.  But once in the air the Guinness<\/div>\n
did funny things.  We started to giggle.  Marjorie wiped my brow with whipping cream<\/div>\n
or was it mashed potatoes?<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
PHOTO 2:  I maintained I was sober until I found this picture in my camera.<\/div>\n
Apparently the pilot came back to check us out.  He borrowed my camera to get<\/div>\n
this magnificent shot.   Pictures might remind you of Jack Lemmon and Shriley McLean<\/div>\n
in Days of Wine and Roses.<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
PHOTO 3    Our Air Canada pilot was called by the stewardess to check us out.<\/div>\n
He realized we were just young and silly.  Then he borrowed my derby hat for <\/div>\n
this picture which I managed to take.  My brother and I had bought derby hats<\/div>\n
at an antique market.  The seller insisted that mine had belonged to Sir Ernest<\/div>\n
MacMillan whose initialS were inside.   The derby hat looked good on the <\/div>\n
pilot who was a laid back kind guy.  What a great pilot we had on that flight.<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
ABSENT PHOTO 4:  Eric was busy proposing to the stewardess much to her amusement.<\/div>\n
I have a picture to prove it but wanted to keep this story brief.<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
PCTURES TELL A STORY<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
Each of the pictures below could be a story\u2026should be a story\u2026will be a story.<\/div>\n

<\/div>\n
<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

EPISODE 358    “WHERE DID YOU FIND ALL THOSE PICTURES FOR THE EPISODES, ALAN” “IT WAS NOT EASY” alan skeoch June 2051 This is my family:  Mom, dad, Eric and I.  We laughed a lot.  Did not know we were poor. Actually we believed we were rich.  And we were correct.  We were rich. WRITING […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9409","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9409","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9409"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9409\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9409"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9409"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alanskeoch.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9409"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}