it's (almost always) about the water…
weekly thoughts on photography for those who prefer to view life through a lens
take a walk in nature.
Sometimes you stumble across a few chords that put you in a reflective place.
David Bowie
I’m reminded on a continual basis that “time” is not a given and that every moment is precious.
I’m reminded that “home” will never look the same for me as it once did.
I’m reminded that the memories of my “past” will be forever changed.
I’m reminded that all of that is okay.
And all this from a river view of geese in the early morning.
Cheap therapy.
everything changes.
Now Autumn’s fire burns slowly along the woods and day by day the dead leaves fall and melt.
William Allingham
Don’t wish for the season to change.
Don’t stay where you’re not happy.
Don’t wait for a better time.
Don’t forget to say I love you.
but a memory.
Photography, as a powerful medium of expression and communications, offers an infinite variety of perception, interpretation, and execution.
Ansel Adams
Winter landscapes are for me some of the most beautiful to capture.
Like a blueprint of time they contain a wealth of information; information that remains until the next wind blows and covers the tracks, or snow continues to fall burying that day’s history.
I knew immediately when I saw this image that I would render it in black and white.
Ansel Adams used a red filter to darken the sky in one of his photographs of the monolith in Yosemite. He already had in his mind the final image, not as he saw it but how he visualized it being.
Photography is a medium that allows for an immense amount of growth and how we choose to interpret that which lies on the other side of our lens is an intensely personal process.
Knowing this, accepting this, and staying true to this is the difference between a snapshot and a photograph.
A photograph is not only the image that it portrays but the memory that it holds.
When I look at this I am reminded of a very gentle man, a farmer, who several years ago during a challenging time showed me the true depth of his spirit and I hope that when he sees this he will recognize himself in the description and know that he made a difference.
of scenting ability.
Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
Years ago while involved in Search and Rescue I was introduced to tracking by a man named Jim Marshall. He cultivated in me an appreciation for awareness and personal space and the second nature to be always looking for indicators.
Today, one of my greatest joys is to find signs of animals passing through the wilderness and letting my imagination run wild with the back stories.
The discovery pictured above, along with a huge pile of hair laden scat, was heart rate elevating!
I searched for the perfect track to photograph and my mind raced with thoughts.
As a former bloodhound handler and instructor of scent theory, I’m well versed in the abilities of certain animals because of physiological makeup to be scenting machines.
Here I was in close proximity to one of the animals at the apex of this description…the grizzly bear. An animal purported to be able to scent 300 times more than a bloodhound.
This is the beauty of photography. Each time I look at this photograph I will remember the cold, the heightened awareness, the silence, and the joy that we felt when we saw it.
I had hoped to see elusive bear number TEN of the year but I’m okay with it not being this particular bear.
Was he watching? Very likely.
Was I? Always.
in frozen rain.
Study nature, love nature, stay close to nature. It will never fail you.
Frank Lloyd Wright
This image just reinforces for me why I love winter so much.
I was awakened by the sound of wet snow sliding off of my metal roof; the snow having turned to rain sometime during the night.
I treat almost every surface as a canvas and on this morning my eyes were drawn to the image of a forest, etched in frozen rain, on the plastic side window of my Wrangler.
It was reminiscent of the trees that my father would carve with a palette knife into his acrylic paintings. Many years after his passing I still use that palette knife to carve into my encaustic paintings of photographic images.
Stay close to nature, it will never fail you.
that make all the difference.
The stronger a man is, the more gentle he can afford to be.
Elbert Hubbard
We look at images for many different reasons but what compels you to go back to a single image over and over again?
On this day with temperatures in the single digits, I wasn’t outside alone photographing my tiny, intimate landscapes. A first for me, I had a willing participant and the captured image that I loved the most from that morning wasn’t one of the tiny frost covered bubbles, a single snowflake, or an elegant forest of hoar-frost.
I keep going back to this one because it speaks to me of quiet strength and confidence. This is a man who is far more comfortable dead-lifting in a gym, teaching self-defense moves, or performing choreographed fight movements; a kung fu style of moving meditation.
Yet he was a willing participant in my morning single digit temperature photo shoot. That willingness showed me a strength that I had to turn my camera towards. It was one of those moments in photography where you think you’ll be shooting one thing but something else happens.
I think photographers tend to be solitary by nature but having someone to share the beauty of the frozen landscape with, in the moment and not just by a later shared image, was a new experience for me.
First tip of the new year…stay fluid and look for moments. Your image of the day isn’t always going to be the one that you planned!
I have a feeling that this year is going to be very interesting.
you know how I feel.
It’s a new dawn
It’s a new day
It’s a new life
For me
And I’m feeling good
Anthony Newley and Leslie Bricusse
That’s the thing about life.
No matter what the day or the week has brought, if you’re waking up to a new dawn, you’re one of the lucky ones.
A friend of mine said that it’s about reframing how you react to the things that happen to you.
As a photographer, it’s the perfect metaphor. The same image can be framed so many different ways and my inner voice always says “there” when I’ve got it just right.
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