My online journal sharing interests in photography, nature, coffee life, journaling, fountain pens, bicycling, spirituality and asking deep questions.
Yesterday was a wonderful day so headed off to Inniswood Gardens for a walk. People were out and about. Flowers are “springing” up, birds are singing their happy songs and the squirrels were busy looking for food. I got in some decent exercise then defeated it by eating my half of a pizza with my room mate. Darn good pizza, too! Hope you’re having a good weekend.
It’s effecting hundreds of people. Football season is over, we’ve had at least two full days of sunshine and temperatures are finally rising above freezing. With these kinds of conditions I found people aimlessly wandering in Inniswood Gardens yesterday afternoon, all of them infected with “Spring Fever.” Parents had the youngest toddler in the stroller while the older siblings were burning up energy running along the trails. Couples were walking hand-in-hand as they soaked up the warm sunshine. Any park bench which had been covered in snow and ice last week was now welcoming people to sit and listen to the birds sing. The melting snow was now revealing a carpet of green grass. Tulip sprouts were breaking through the dark soil as they stretched upwards for the suns rays. I even drove by the Dairy Queen and noticed a few people medicating themselves with ice cream. Yup, Spring Fever was everywhere. I think I may have it!!! And, just to be sure I medicated myself with one of those Blizzards, the Midnight Truffle.
A simple project I did a few years ago was to take and post an image of a bench each day for a complete month. Every since that exercise my eye has been drawn to benches so I keep adding images to the subject (keyword). With the snowfall and cold we’ve had it is more difficult to get out but some days I just have to get out there. This bench is not as inviting as it is in the warmer seasons but it is one of my favorite subjects.
Chris Orwig mentions in his book Visual Poetry that if we tap into what makes us different, we can begin to find photographs that are uniquely our own. I agree! But, that suggests what makes us different must be important. I feel the deeper I come to understanding myself the more interesting my photography becomes and the clearer my vision.
When I take those walks with my camera I admit I am searching for a photograph. Yet my real purpose is to listen to what’s inside me. What I see and photograph is uniquely mine. Even if I had someone walking with their camera beside me, we each would come back with our own images. Case in point would be the Paul and Tom experience as they walked side-by-side on the streets of New York. What they saw and photographed was uniquely their own.
I am the photographer I am because life’s journey has helped to mold me to be the ‘self’ I am. The images I create are uniquely mine.
In case you may not know, leaves don’t just fall from trees they get booted off. Here is an interesting article on why a tree cuts them loose. The leaves supply food for the tree and once that has ended they will provide a source of food with their decomposition, returning nutrients to the soil. These nutrients can then be taken up by the roots of living plants enabling them to grow and develop.
This leaf did not make it to the forest floor, it landed on one of the boardwalks at Inniswood Gardens. There it will be picked by the winds of nature and dance with other leaves finding it’s place in the vital ecosystem it belongs in. It’s all part of the system.
I parked my rump on a bench along the foot path in Inniswood Gardens to watch the half dozen squirrels in front of me as they scampered along the forest floor in search of food. This time of year you will find them busy searching for and storing nuts and acorns near their dens for the coming winter months. The carpet of leaves has hidden some of their much needed food so their search for food has the feeling of a game. You can hear the rustling of leaves as they stick their noses under the carpet of leaves in search of their treasure then quickly lift their heads and move to the next location as if to say, “Nope, nothing there. Maybe it’s over here.”
Every so often they seem to be playing a game of tag with one another but I soon realize they are being territorial as they chase one another around. Their work at this time of the year is a necessity and feels hurried, yet they seemed to also be having fun and no one gets hurt. I enjoyed watching.
I know this image is not very good but I decided to post it anyway. It is heavily cropped, grainy and not very sharp. So, why post a dud? Because it also reminds me of why I get out to shoot just as much as one of my better images. Paul Lester mentions why he presses the shutter in one of his blogs. He states, “Sometimes I don’t know why I click the shutter, but I just have to. And when that feeling hits, nothing but the click will do.” Man can I relate. I shoot and post images because of the change that occurs in me when I press the shutter. Words like therapy, healing, rejuvenation, quiet time, beauty, getting in touch with nature, getting away from the hustle of city life and pollination. Pollination? Yes, pollination.
Wikipedia defines biotic pollination as the process by which pollen is transferred in plants, thereby enabling fertilization and sexual reproduction. This process of pollination requires pollinators: organisms that carry or move the pollen grains from the anther to the receptive part of the carpel or pistil. Okay, so what does that mean to me?
The birth and growth of my photography is similar to biotic pollination. The pollinators are the scenes found in my viewfinder. When each one of those scenes touches me, I grow as a person, as a photographer. Each time I venture out a scene enticing me to press the shutter will present itself. So, I’m being fertilized by scenes around me.