The mist rolled in from the fields in great silvery waves, swallowing everything in its path. Sea, sky, land – nothing was spared. I sat upstairs, watching from my window as the fog consumed the world, and wondered why, if the curse was broken, everything continued to fade away.
(c) 2016. All rights reserved.
And now, a story in four little sentences:
A ring of gnarled oaks encircled an ancient house on a lonely hillside. Their tangled arms clawed the sky in supplication to the night, begging her to stay, to keep them hidden from the blinding brightness of the day. But when at last Dawn broke over the horizon, their leafy robes burst into flames, and they rained droplets of fire as the morning star watched from on high.
Afterward, when the sun had adjourned its heavenly travels and night fell once more, the trees wept in their lover’s cold embrace and wondered why, when the air turned crisp, she always let them burn.
(c) 2016. All rights reserved.
With Labor Day now but a memory, I feel it’s time to kick my blog back into high gear. And by high gear, I mean posting more than once a month.
Because, you know, I’m a writerly type. And writerly types write.
Right?
Right.
Okay, then. It’s been a while! I’m still trying to make my head stop spinning after the whirlwind that was my summer, which I truly can’t believe is over already. It’s true what they say – the older you get, the faster time passes. And with that in mind, here are some of the ways I spent my time this summer:
There’s an old joke about winter in Iowa and how Iowa is the most beautiful state. It’s written in the form of diary entries by someone who’s just moved here, and as summer turns to winter and finally to spring, the writer’s attitude about my home state grows worse and worse. It’s hilarious because I’ve thought similar things at some point in my life.
That said, Iowa really is a beautiful state. We have it all, from rocky bluffs and high hills to plains where you can see for miles. There’s no other place I’d rather be from. Behold, the glory of the Hawkeye State!
Have a safe and happy Easter weekend, everybody!
(c) 2016. All rights reserved.
There are many things I love about this picture:
I love the colors. I love how otherworldly the whole scene feels. But what I love most is the memories I have from the day I shot this picture. I was out in the yard with my kids, teaching them a few things about photography for their 4-H projects. I happened to see this lonely little violet underneath one of the pine trees in our yard, and I couldn’t help shooting it.
There’s a whole other world out there. You just have to get down in the dirt to find it.
Also? That’s a twig in the picture, not a full-size branch. 🙂
(c) 2016. All rights reserved.
I love photographing flowers almost as much as I love shooting the sky. I love all the textures, the shapes, the way you can create a whole scene with nothing more than a few stamen and a petal.
Here, then, are some pretty, pretty flowers, shot in a variety of lighting conditions and from a variety of angles:
Clearly I have trouble limiting myself to a few pictures. Thank goodness for digital photography, or I’d go broke developing pictures! 🙂
What kinds of things do you enjoy experimenting with in your photography?
(c) 2016. All rights reserved.
I have a thing for dead trees. Not a creepy, weird kind of thing, just an appreciation. I love the way they look. I’m fascinated by the variety of textures they have and by the lines they create.
I stumbled across this one while hiking with my husband a few years ago. I could have photographed it for hours. It was rainy that day; the bark was chocolate brown and the leaves on the surrounding trees were so green they practically glowed. It was an amazing sight.
While I originally took this photo in color, I think I like the black and white version better. For one thing, my original photo makes it look like the leaves on all the surrounding trees are attached to this one. But for another, I just don’t feel like I was able to truly capture the scene as I saw it. Maybe I just need more practice. Or maybe it was just one of those beautiful scenes that refuse to be preserved.
Incidentally, I’m having a similar problem with a short story at the moment. It refuses to cooperate, and finishing it was like pulling teeth. I’ve no doubt that revising it will be the same, so I’m going to work on another one for a little while and see if that helps.
Either way, I really like this picture, and I hope you enjoy it, too. 🙂
(c) 2016. All rights reserved.
I love shooting the sky:
I have more pictures of the sky than you can shake a stick at, and I love them all equally. Well, I love most of them equally. Narrowing it down to eighteen was hard work, especially as I’d intended to narrow it down to ten…
What’s your favorite thing to photograph?
(c) 2016. All rights reserved.
As I said before, I love the wild places. The lonely places. Places where man’s influence is hard to feel. That kind of solitude can leave a person feeling tiny, insignificant even. Or it can leave you feeling huge, too big for the space you’re in.
Waiting for the bus…
Foggy days, though dreary, leave me a little claustrophobic. I often liken it to a curtain or shroud in poetry, and for me, it’s a fitting description. When you’re driving down the road and the fog is so thick you can barely see the front end of your car, it can feel suffocating. Of course, if I’m at home when the fog rolls in and I don’t have to leave the house, then I feel more cozy than trapped.
On the other hand, when you can see for miles, it’s very easy to feel very small. A leaf on the wind. And yet, that can be an amazing feeling, to know that you’re a part of something so big and that, though small, your actions can profoundly impact the world around you.
Take the man – men – who built this bridge. They probably expected it would be used forever, or at least for a very long time. They built it to last, and last it has.
But the trains don’t run through here no more.
It’s a picturesque little spot on the river, though, and I’d love to go back one day with my camera and my sense of adventure. There’s something about the wild, lonely places that draws me in every time…
(c) 2016. All rights reserved.
I do so love a pretty sunset.
This was my view the other night on my way home from work.
(c) 2015. All rights reserved.
Suddenly they all died. The end. 