In early March, I saw Lyle Lovett play in Nanaimo, and he closed with one of my favourite songs: If I Had a Boat.

And that triggered a series of topics for this Blog, and I thought that I’d be pushing them out on a weekly basis. But writing is hard work! I’ve been told to break the posts down into short segments, and not worry too much about the structure. That will come….. or so I’m told!

I’m relatively new to digital editing, and much of my library of images hasn’t been edited or printed, so when I get off on these tangents, I discover some gems buried in the folders. Lovett’s If I Had a Boat started me thinking about photographs taken while on a boat, or looking for boats.

In 2007, I drove across Canada with my youngest daughter. She was off to school in Halifax, where her older sister was living, also in school. That was the last film shoot using my F3, and I had a small Canon point and shoot that I used to post photos of the trip along the way. While in Halifax, I dropped off my film to be processed and noticed that Nikon’s D60 was on sale. I should have known that was because the D90 was being released! So, for the next while, I’d use the D60 and back up the shoot with a roll of film, and I’d use iPhoto to catalogue the digital images, occasionally a quick edit before sending it off via email. That was the extent of my digital editing, so there are many unfinished projects in the can!

In 2011, we took a trip to Ireland, Wales and The Netherlands. Boats were involved both for travel, but more so for subjects. My daughter Kyla had moved back to Ireland and was constantly posting small dories or skiffs anchored in some quaint Irish harbour, or there were images of beached fishing boats looking like whale skeletons bleaching on isolated beaches. That became a project for me, to capture similar images while we were travelling.

How hard could it be, all of the places were on the water, two were islands, all connected by boats.

But first I have to link the Lovett’s song to photography, and the third verse does just that, I wouldn’t scare ‘em, but I’d sure quietly capture those images!

And if I were like lightning
I wouldn't need no sneakers
I'd come and go wherever I would please
And I'd scare 'em by the shade tree
And I'd scare 'em by the light pole
But I would not scare my pony on my boat out on the sea

So that’s it for this Post, and it's not a dory, but just like home, the journey starts with a ferry ride!

Irish FerryNot a dory, but just like BC, the trip starts with a ferry ride!