This month’s theme is so broad that it’s the first time that I didn’t spend a bit of time at the start of the month planning my photographs. After all, it’s summer and we spend so much time hiking, biking and otherwise exploring the world around us that I figured I’d just naturally end up photographing colourful people, places and things.

One rainy afternoon about a week ago I opened Lightroom, selected all of my August photographs and started scrolling through the grid view. I intended to red flag all the photos I might include in this post and then narrow that group down to five. I was absolutely stunned when I ended up with just two photographs from which to choose!!

That’s not to say I didn’t take a lot of photographs that included brilliant blue skies, the distinctive shade of turquoise that’s typical of alpine lakes in the Canadian Rockies and even a few late season wildflowers. But as I scrolled through my images, I was looking for something more: more colours of the rainbow, more vibrance, more radiance…more je ne sais quoi!

Over the intervening week I made enough new images to complete my set of five, but it was a good reminder that a little up front planning is almost always a good idea.

1. Graffiti – In early August we hiked the C-Level Cirque trail in Banff National Park. Thirty minutes along the trail we came upon an old building that was constructed about a century ago, when coal was actively mined in the area. Long since abandoned, the exterior walls still stand tall and straight – a perfectly canvas for graffiti.

2. Broken plate – Another rainy afternoon I finally got around to unpacking one of several boxes I opted not to unpack when we moved three years ago. When I unwrapped this plate, I discovered it broken. It’s the sole casualty of our move. I’ve saved all the pieces to use in a project for our yard.

3. Beakerhead – I mentioned Calgary’s annual street festival showcasing the amazing things that happen when art, science and engineering come together in the June monthly photo challenge and maybe a couple of other posts earlier this year. As a member of the Beakerhead Photography Team I will have pretty much unlimited access to all of the events and activities taking place Sept 10-14. In the final countdown to this year’s event, the photography team was challenged to create a bit of a social media buzz around a temporary Beakerhead installation at the City Hall LRT platform. One Sunday afternoon I spent a creative 45 minutes at the station. I was impressed by just how 3D the 2D installation looked after I tweaked contrast a bit. Anyhow, here’s one of my favourites from that afternoon.

4. Abstract – Over the years I’ve amassed a small collection of coloured glass pieces – some from my mom, one piece from my grandmother, some received as gifts and even some inexpensive pieces from IKEA. I took advantage of our glass-topped coffee table and the natural light through our living room window to create this radiant abstract.

5. Utility box – We’ve all seen them over the years: ugly light-military-green utility boxes tagged in dripping white or black spray paint. Starting three or four years ago in Calgary and this month in Canmore, I’ve noticed original art covering up the standard dull green. Apparently it’s pretty effective at discouraging graffiti. Under Calgary’s program, artists spend hours or days painting each utility box. In Canmore, some sort of wrapping material was printed up with art from seven different artists. One set of wraps was applied to utility boxes in the main town site while another set went up on the periphery, including this one created by Joe Martin, a Canmore artist. I happened to notice it one night when I was out on my bike doing geocache maintenance and ended up chasing the sunset instead!

Head on over to A ‘lil HooHaa to browse P.J.’s take on this month’s theme and for links to the rest of the entries.

The theme for next month will be announced by September 1st on A ‘lil HooHaa. New participants are always welcome, so if you’re interested, feel free to join the Photo Blogging Challenge Facebook group. It’s a sure way to get a few more visitors to your site and the comments are always positive and encouraging!