Here is a post begun some time ago.  The skills required to follow through and complete my initial intent took some time to acquire.  I’m grateful I can now share with you this experience of beauty in contrast.

 

A winter storm recently stimulates me to pursue a goal of combining images with these words.  It gives me an opportunity to be out in the lightly falling snow, admiring the contrast of small red (hawthorn?) berries and green leaves mantled with the heavy flakes of snow forming near the freezing point.  It sets up combinations of light, beauty, and grace that inspire me to make images that can be shared with others.

 

  

Lance is the one who points out the snow-covered berry tree to me.  As I stand with my camera and find the quiet place that connects me with the beauty of the scene, he disappears.  My attention is on the extremes of color displayed here.  I look through the view-finder intently, capturing close-ups and vignettes of the entire yard where the berries reside.

 

The morning quiet, the silver-gray sky, and the peace of the setting is soothing and fills me with contentment.  I recall a time when standing and breathing in the peace of a beautiful setting comprised the totality of my image-making experience.

 

I recognize the foundation to this previous approach as both the absence of a camera and an intuitive, internal, and conscious choice to leave nature’s images to nature.  And I’m filled with gratitude now to hold the means of capturing nature’s beauty as digital images that can move from camera, to computer, to website with the same ease, grace, and dignity that nature uses in forming the images.

 

As I make images along the way through a variety of options the camera provides, I notice that Lance is returned.  He sets up a small step-ladder near the berry-laden tree, and in that companionable way that old friends have with one another, I pass him the camera. 

 

It’s always a joy to see what captures his eye, trained early on by classes in the graphic arts.  This time he notices the heart-shaped form of a paper-wasp nest, covered in snow, high in the berry tree.  It blends readily with the monochromatic tones of the morning and requires a keen, and taller, perspective to add it to the library of images that is coalescing.

 

The wind picks up for a moment, gently tossing the branches of the tree and dislodging the snow.   I notice my fingers complaining about the cold temperatures.  We stand for one or two last moments in silent appreciation of the snowy morning and the gift of nature’s beauty in our neighbor’s yard. 

 

Then Lance picks up the ladder and we walk back down the street where the warmth of the house awaits us.  I notice that I’m holding the camera under the front flap of my coat with gentle care.  I am grateful for the images that it holds, appreciative of the experience of image-making, and happy to celebrate nature’s great beauty through image-making. 

 

 

This entry was posted on Monday, February 16th, 2009 at 9:50 pm and is filed under Natural Beauty. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.