Inspired Singles: Specks

Issue 22: Specks by Matt Pond PA

Some songs take you on a ride, and Specks is definitely one of them.  It's easy to picture the landscape rolling by my window as a drive down the highway with this track.  It's light and folksy, played with rootsy abandon, and gives your mind space to wander.  At the moment, I can't ask for much more.

Prairie Snapshots

This random collection of prairie snapshots comes from a lot of driving between Alberta and Saskatchewan during my time in film school.  It wasn't uncommon for me to make the trek back and forth for long weekends or holidays, and in that case a lot of these images really are snapshots as they were captured from the window of my Buick on the highway. 

What I love about the prairies is the sense of space.  In a lot of these images it's clear that the focal point has to be the sky because there's almost nothing else to look at.  On those late summer and early fall drives the landscape was often at its best.  Golden fields, high contrasting light on the horizon, and expressive clouds really brought the countryside to life.  Even in its repetitiveness, I feel like I'm always finding new things that really make the Canadian prairies unique.

Snapshots Book Series

After publishing my first photo book with Blurb (for my 2009 road trip) I became hooked on the idea of sharing my photos in an original way.  What I opted for was creating smaller soft cover books of three previous trips.  

By creating a Polaroid template, I took a variety of my digital photos and created a uniform border for each image and page of my books.  I really just wanted to highlight some of the memorable spots that made up each trip.  I've since made several more in depth photo books for my 2010 trips to Singapore and California.  

I just thought it was worth bringing attention to these projects again as now you can view the books with them embedded on my blog.  The process and expense of creating some of these photo books is long and expensive, but the reactions and permanence of having a hard cover copy of your images is totally worth it.

Click the links to view the books - LA 2004, Rushmore 2007, Vegas 2008