Photo Journal

Monochrome Vision

The rare moment is not the moment when there is something worth looking at, but the moment when we are capable of seeing.

Joseph Wood Krutch

monochrome

color eludes my eyes

the dormant grass, the bare trees,

the tangle of fallen branches and leaves.

it is all - all one giant mess,

confusing my sight-

and yet there you stand,

nearly hidden

in brown and white;

just like another branch=

before me.

standing tall and (nearly) straight, the bare trees

a rain drop lingers on the surface of a puddle…reflecting

The messy reflection of barren things in the fen waters (Johnsons Shut-Ins State Park, MO)

a nest that fell on the stone path (Johnsons Shut-Ins State Park, MO)

a mass of volcanic rock, slowly etched and worn by a river finding its way through (Johnsons Shut-Ins State Park, MO)

There is a sense of patient waiting in the gray skies, bare trees, and dormant fields.

The days are short,

The sun a spark

Hung thin between

The dark and dark.

John Updike

I have been thinking about beauty in late fall - mainly whether or not there is any. In the U.S., in the Midwest, it can be very gray, cold and wet this time of year. Everything seems to be the same dull brown or gray. I struggle to find something colorful to photograph - a rare blue sky, a bright berry, a bird, a sunset…but then I thought, why struggle? Why not try to see beauty in this season as it is? It is a darker kind of beauty, a melancholy beauty; but still worth the effort of seeing.

Thank you so much for being here. I will see you next week!

The Noble Art of Leaving Things Undone

Besides the noble art of getting things done, there is the noble art of leaving things undone. The wisdom of life consists in the elimination of non-essentials.

LIN YUTANG

a week of minimalist photography and few words …

Red flowers after the rain,

A collection of seashells

arranged.

A bouquet of sunflowers discarded,

then immersed.

Tracks made in sand

as the snow moon set.

Make everything as simple as possible, but not simpler.

Albert Einstein

December’s Bare Beauty

So quiet and subtle is the beauty of December that escapes the notice of many people their whole lives through. Colour gives way to form: every branch distinct, in a delicate tracery against the sky. New vistas, obscured all Summer by leafage, now open up.

Flora Thompson

December 7, 2022 - A Tree in Fog

Missouri Mist

It is morning in Missouri.

Overnight a fog crept into the field

where I slept,

soaking the earth,

dripping from the barbed wire,

clinging like diamonds

to a tuft of grass caught there,

coating the trees - delineating

every darkened limb

against the blue grey sky.

 

I walk into the mist

along a lonely farm road

and these bare beauties

emerge one by one-

disappearing

as I pass

quietly,

cloaked in solitude.

December 7, 2022 - lonely drop from barbed wire

December 7, 2022 - a thousand gems

November 29, 2022 - Three Red Berries

November 29, 2022 - Fennville, Michigan. It has been gray and cold today. I decided to look for small beauties - like these berries and the dried buds and wildflowers that follow.

November 29, 2022 - Dried before blooming

 

December 3, 2022 - Wild flower

December 3, 2022 - Sun setting through a fallen pine limb

December 3, 2022 - Fennville, MI - The golden sun was out again today, after a few days of clouds. When it set, I saw a pretty little fallen limb of pine on the beach and thought I would like to see how it would light up the needles if I could get a picture through them. It was windy, and I had to kneel in the sand, but I really liked the result.

December 8, 2022 - hold the haloed moon

December 8, 2022 - Robber’s Cave State Park - Oklahoma. This is the first night I’ve been able to see the moon at night on this trip. Haloed and hallowed. I love the way the bare limbs seem to be reaching out for it.