bewitched bothered bewildered (a.k.a. the human condition)

May 23, 2013 by Mike Ambach Photography

Time, apparently, does not exist.  So begins this fascinating podcast the other day – the latest ramblings of deep thinkers and quantum physicists, thought-provoking challenges to shiver the timbers of our safe, orderly world view.  Or something. i.e., What a load of useless crap. I shouldn’t say that.  Don’t get me wrong.  I’m happy for the deep thinkers.  They’re mostly harmless and they seem largely content – delighted, even – to shovel clouds with one another, deny the ticking of […]

Categories: Creative Writing, Description, Photography, Uncategorized • Tags: humanity, humor, macro, philosophy, random, time

the middle of the universe

May 15, 2013 by Mike Ambach Photography

A few shots from the cafe across the street.  You know the one.  The one that knows you. They know what size cup you want but ask anyway because that’s the way it’s done. The one that lets you pay whenever if you forget your wallet. There may be restaurant at the end of the universe, but it’s the cafe at the middle of the week that gets you through.    

Categories: Creative Writing, Description, Photography • Tags: café, details, familiarity

where you want to be

May 11, 2013 by Mike Ambach Photography

I smoke like a Chimney. So says the guy that picks us up, drives up the 16 back to Exchamsiks.  Well, plenty of fresh air these last two days, plus we want to get back home.  So fine.  There’s a wind picking up, a half dozen kite boarders are eyeing this shiver of light rippling upstream.  Afternoon wind, it builds and then blasts, blows full on upriver, makes a mess of that Skeena that wants out.  Out past Khyex, past […]

Categories: Creative Writing, Description, Environmental, Photography, Travel, Uncategorized • Tags: British Columbia, description, kayaking, nature, skeena

vociferous

April 29, 2013 by Mike Ambach Photography

I am killdeer.  I lie.  With cause.  I do this for the greater good.  My wing is just fine. I am willing to take risks, and accept sacrifice. Can you say as much?

Categories: Environmental, Photography • Tags: bird, close-up, killdeer, nature

non sequitur

April 28, 2013 by Mike Ambach Photography

At the sushi bar you don’t understand a thing, which is okay really because it’s the taste buds that figure things out here.  The myriad instructions, complex delivery system for the dishes, the whole intense microcosm of lunch hour.  Such an ornate midday ritual, this gobbling of calories.  I think I need an ibuprofen. But that was then.  All shot on a Sony NEX-7 camera in Nara, Japan.  All true.

Categories: Art & Literature, Creative Writing, Description, Environmental, Food, Photography, Travel • Tags: café, food, headache, memory, sushi

Mexicali Rose

April 21, 2013 by Mike Ambach Photography

To say that Japan is a place of contrasts – this means nothing, nothing more a cliché.  Shallow commentary, even for a one-time visitor like me.  But applied to travel, “a place of contrasts” should serve as polite euphemism for a grandiose WTF?!!  You see, men in blue jumpsuits are rappelling down Osaka Castle wall, meticulously tending to the creeping vines.  And Pachinko parlours are screaming, screaming and sucking the life and yen out from the fatigued and lonely-looking mums […]

Categories: Creative Writing, Description, Photography, Travel, Video • Tags: arcade, contrasts, japan, nostalgia, video

digging radishes in winter

April 15, 2013 by Mike Ambach Photography

Fingerless gloves in communion with a gas heater.  Water boils, steeps in dry plants, quiet talk. Light is warming sacks of grain, from a harvest a summer past, and bamboo stalks rise like organ pipes I don’t know what for.  And through the panes of glass are thick grains of ice snow-piled high. The decision is made to dig for radishes. Snowshoes are declined, surplus shovels, and the snow is deep.  There should be a map, with an X and […]

Categories: Creative Writing, Description, Photography, Travel • Tags: agriculture, japan, poetry, radishes, simplicity, winter

merchants

April 9, 2013 by Mike Ambach Photography

You get into the City at night and you’ve got this distinct impression of being transported into a kind of cinematic film noir.  You take the bus along an elevated highway, wind from the Outskirts into the City.  Apartments and sleeping industrial blocks, toppling by like dominoes with sleepy-eyed pips, everything muted and rich and inviting, and echoes of neon and fluorescent lights ricocheting down there among the alleys still. That’s where I’ll be – tells himself. A photographer should […]

Categories: Creative Writing, Description, Photography, Street, Travel • Tags: japan, light, night, osaka, travel

occupation:

April 5, 2013 by Mike Ambach Photography

The heightened awareness that comes with travel.  You know, that alert and curious headspace, where everyday objects and sites cease to represent everyday things and instead they come alive.  Colours, textures, sounds and odors weave among one another in perfect senseless beauty.  Music.  Cacophonous music. It’s small details, that’s what I remember most.  God is in the details, it’s been said.  Others contend that’s where you’ll find the Devil.  Both are right.  That expressions of grace and guilt should together […]

Categories: Creative Writing, Description, Photography, Travel • Tags: details, japan, Photography, travel

pedalometer

March 30, 2013 by Mike Ambach Photography

S T E A D Y G E T T O W O R K G O R O L L R O L L R O L L . . . Rain. Bicycles. Those transparent umbrellas. Mix ingredients together early in the morning.  Collect light, swing about and scoop it in.  Try not to cause an accident.  I suppose this kind of thing you take for granted if you live with it everyday, or if you’re the one pedaling […]

Categories: Creative Writing, Description, Photography, Street, Travel, Uncategorized • Tags: bicycle, city, japan, long exposure, movement, rain, umbrella, urban