What comes to mind when you see the word vehicles? My initial thought was the obvious: machines that carry people or goods from one place to another. But towards the end of the month (yes, I can be a little slow at times) I remembered that a vehicle is also a “thing” that allows something to be passed along, expressed, achieved or shown (like a 3D model, a book or a photograph). So while most of my photographs for this month’s challenge fit the more familiar definition, I took advantage of the less obvious meaning to round out my set of 5 images.

1. Helicopter over Canmore – Every weekend and most summer days, helicopters lift off from Canmore and head into Kananaskis country. Most passengers are on sightseeing tours that last an hour or less. Some are heli-hiking and will enjoy amazing scenery from ridge tops once they are dropped off. And a very few helicopters (thankfully) are heading out in response to emergency calls.

I experienced the thrill of helicopter flight on the way to White Island off the coast of New Zealand’s North Island and our heli-hiking excursion on the Franz Josef glacier on the South Island. Have you ever flown in a helicopter? Did you like it?

2. Art Car – As a member of the Beakerhead VPT (Volunteer Photography Team) I attended the official 2014 launch party in June and came away with some great photographs of the amazing Ms Oz, giant robot Petronus, some of the people in attendance, and the Beakerhead art car. I case you don’t know, an art car is a vehicle that has had its appearance modified as an act of personal artistic expression. The Beakerhead Official Art Car attends community events throughout the year and will appear with other art cars and art bikes at the second annual Beakerhead in September.

To view more photos from the launch party, head over to flickr.

3. Lego Spaceship – Spaceships are still more theoretical than they are a reality, but doesn’t stop K from building lots of Lego spaceships. He got his start constructing many of the official Lego Star Wars sets, but has long since transitioned to designing and building his own interstellar vehicles. Most of them are on a nano or micro scale (i.e. about the size of a box of matches). This one is a mini-model – maybe the size of a single serving cereal box. I used my recently completed homemade white box to make this photograph. If I knew how to use Photoshop, I would have slipped a star field in behind!

4. LRT – Every time I ride the train into downtown Calgary I am reminded how fortunate I am to live within a 2 km (1.2 mi) walk of two LRT stations. I’ve made the trip in crowded cars and sometimes in a car where I’m the only passenger. But my favourite place to stand is right behind the driver, where I can look out the front window.

5. Impression of a Summer Storm (i.e. Photography as a Vehicle) – Most of the time I make photographs that (fairly) accurately show things in the world around me. But occasionally I get more creative when I make an image. One night in June a thunderstorm blew in from the west. A short time later it was still pouring rain at our house, but the sun was coming out in the distance and all the shades of green on the Tsuu T’ina lands along the Elbow River valley caught my eye. Rather than struggle to try to keep my camera dry, I opted to make this photograph from inside the house. I knew I’d never get a sharp image through a triple pane window with rain running down the outside, so I opted to cooperate with the conditions and try for a photographic watercolour instead. Can you see the one mountain in the distance on the right?

I expect there will be quite a range of photographs from the June participants. Head on over to A ‘lil HooHaa to check out P.J.’s vehicle photographs and for links to the rest of the entries.

The theme for next month will be announced July 1st on A ‘lil HooHaa. New participants are always welcome.