scott-451

I can't seem to get away from the oil industry this year. I am in the middle of the  fire season again, but my crew got sent to the extreme north east part of British Columbia where we are fighting fires in oil and gas fields. Timber values and population are low here so the only fires that are fought are ones that threaten oil wells or pipelines.



I grew up in the boreal forest of northern Ontario, so this is a return to a similar and familiar landscape, although a bit drier. This is the largest forest on the planet. It circles the globe and covers 60% of Canada but is seldom visited. If you like mosses and lichen then this is the place for you.

In case anyone is mystified by my recent shift from rural British Columbian "forestry guy" to urban Albertan "oil guy" it is because of an acute lack of fundage last winter which forced me to travel away from home and family to work in northern Alberta. It's a new adventure for me. I have often travelled away from home to work, but never moved away to work. We will see haw it works out. My photography eye is working again, and thats a good thing.



Western and Northern north America was built, first by the first peoples, then by waves of refugees from every part of the world, who came to exploit one natural resource after the other. They are not done yet. I (and evryone else to one degree or another) have always been a part of this, but it seems more acute now that I am more or less permanently "camped out" in Edmonton purely to take part in the oil boom here.

Well it's been six weeks since I submitted basically the same image to two different, but arguably appropriate galleries. The image I submitted to "Photography > Miscellaneous" has got a whopping 12 views, but the same image submitted to "Photography > Abstract & Surreal > Surreal" has got 238 views at the time of editing this journal. So it seems that the category you select does influence deviation views, although it is not entirely certain (what is?) because I think most of the 238 views that the "surreal" submission happened fairly recently (to bad you can't view deviation views by date ) so maybe there is something else going on, such as the deviation being featured or something.


I have often wondered if the same image would get different amounts of attention depending on which category it was submitted to. Often there is no choice and there is only one appropriate category but sometimes it is not clear. For instance should a photo of tree bark be in "Plants and Animals" or "Textures|Flat"? I can guarantee you that the same image in "Textures|Flat" would get way more attention, because people go nuts over textures for some reason - straight "nature" photos do not get much attention.

So what I decided to do is submit essentially the same image to two different galleries and see what the difference is.



We will see how it works out.

The crew of Apollo 8 became the first humans to see an earthrise, and made photographs that captured imaginations worldwide and created an icon.



Apollo 8 was the first manned voyage to achieve a velocity sufficient to allow escape from the gravitational field of planet Earth; the first to enter the gravitational field of another celestial body; the first to escape from the gravitational field of another celestial body; and the first manned voyage to return to planet Earth from another celestial body.

The three-man crew of Mission Commander Frank Borman, Command Module Pilot James Lovell, and Lunar Module Pilot William Anders became the first humans to see the far side of the Moon with their own eyes, as well as the first humans to see planet Earth from orbit about another celestial body. The mission also involved the first manned launch of a Saturn V rocket, and was the second manned mission of the Apollo Program.

There are a few slots left so get in there soon.

How it works:

The seventeen first people to comment this journal will get three of their deviations featured here, and will have to feature three of mine in their journal. After you've commented and I've featured you, please make a journal entry like this of your own, and feature me there. When you make your journal entry feature me, plus 17 others who comment on your journal entry. Have fun!

Where I have been featured...