RIDING THE RIVER OF CHANGE

Ever so slowly the cold grey of the Winter season gives way to light. In small bits at first, then more noticeable, the Sun begins to warm the Earth. I visited family in New Hampshire this Easter weekend. Signs of change are easy to see. The first cracks of soil, bits of green poke through ever so tentative. Buds on branches that just recently looked dead to the human eye are everywhere. In the Greenhouses of Heron Pond Farm, trays of young plants are warmed by the Sun. It is an optimistic season full of the promise of light, warmth, and that marvelous green color I love so much.

I never get tired of the colors of Spring. After a long Winter mostly dominated by Grey skies, I am eager for the explosion of color that is just around the corner. My eye is especially attracted to all the different shades of Green. Warmer Temperatures, dark Blue skies, and the fresh healthy vegetation that will color our world soon, make a person glad to be alive. Melting snow, and Spring rain fill the streams with runoff, and provide wonderfull photographic potential. Just a short drive of a few hours brings the streams and hills of Pennsylvania, New York, and Connecticut to the lens of my camera. I am especially attracted to how the new green colors of Spring contrast against the textures of stone and wood. Add a little of just the right light, the sound of a rushing waterfall, and my mind is absorbed into the moment that Nature has provided me.

The rush of change this time of year in the Northeast corner of America is impossible to ignore. At this writting it is a quiet transformation. Soon, more color will fill nature's pallet in the form of Forsythia. I love it because it strikes the first blow to the grey of Winter, and because it belongs to the Olive family. Change is everywhere, especially inside of me. I see things more now than ever. Returning to a favorite photographic location with new vision, I see it differently. How long has the Moss covered boulder been there? Looking at a grassy field, there are textures, colors, and movement that is poetry. The sound of the wind in my ear is music. It is challenging to try to pack that emotion into my camera lens.

I've embraced a point of view, and worked it into my photographs. Absorbed and concentrating on the technique of producing a photograph can make you miss a few things. This becomes obvious when I return to a former shoot, and see it in a fresh way. My subject has not changed, I have. There is power in really listening and seeing. Seeing is different than looking. Seeing involves using your eyes, mind, and concentration to feel the essense of what your looking at. When you observe an emotion attached to what it is that you are seeing, the next thing is to feel all of it, and then try to get that into a photograph. This process sounds cumbersome and lengthy, but the more I use it the quicker it all happens. This is not however, how the people around me function. Like a busy beehive, everyone has their own stuff to do.

Artists, and I use this term broadly to discribe all creative endevours, put a frame around their subject. Stop and look at this! Beauty, suprise, irony, political point of view, and a host of other things are communicated through their work. The Artist comments on and gives meaning to the World around us. These words by Georgia O'Keeffe sum it all up very well. "I found I could say things with color and shapes that I couldn't say any other way - things I had no words for."