So fellow travelers, bit of a postscript to the Yaddo post….

When I am out and about shooting with my dslr camera, images capture my attention for various reasons. This shot of the mansion at Yaddo gave me a feeling of seeing into the past, as if catching a glimpse of it’s amazing history and hinting at the mystery of the creative processes which have unfolded here.

Then there are journal shots,  images intended to record a place or moment.

I was taking a wide shot of the formal gardens when this moment happened. An Anderson Family sighting at the Gardens of Yaddo, young Jay in the lead.

I am working on making these “been here” shots into more than flat postcard images.

This clock in Stillwater,  NY is a landmark on my drives to Cambridge.

 

My interpretation of the Stillwater clock. If only there was an angle without those phone wires.  It will take some careful editing in photo shop to finalize this one. 

 

There are lucky shots of birds and other wildlife, shots I miss more than I get.

Gallinules….oh, you don’t see them?  Yeah, me neither. They dashed into the clump of reeds just as I clicked the shutter.

Rarely am I close enough, even with my telephoto lens to capture what my eye has seen but now and then I get lucky.

Mr. and Mrs. Trumpeter Swan were more willing to have their photo taken that day.

 

and sometimes it helps to have a “captive” subject

My pond’s resident bullfrog, offering me a maple blossom for Mother’s Day.

 
There are creative images, the shots I work at getting just right, pushing to apply what I am learning from photo workshops. Here are my favorites from the Yaddo expedition.

 

Wild Iris

For reference, this is how small the wild iris actually is.

 

 

More favorite shots

 

 

And when I am with my creative “farmie’ friends, there are always photos of each other taking photos.

Jennifer Bowman on a chicken photo op at a Bedlam Farm Open House.

 

this is a theme not limited to my Bedlam friends

My daughter on the Oregon coast getting a shot of the Pacific Ocean.

Which brings me to the memory shots.

I am not one to waste the present by living only in the past, but images of moments which have an emotional connection are important to me.  The photos  may not seem like much to another observer because the significance of the message embedded in them is coded in personal experience. What appears on the surface to be a photo of my younger daughter is actually linked to the moment just after this was taken when she turned and opened her arms as wide as she could while declaring “I’m so happy!  I had no idea I could feel so happy!  I love it here!”  after which she  threw her arms around me in a long sweet hug.  It’s a memory which has gotten me through many tough challenges in this year of letting go as she graduates from high school.

Moms raise their little ones to grow strong and independent, not stay behind, safe in the nest. There comes that moment when we hold our breath and pray their wings will hold them steady as they fledge for the first time.  When they go, part of our heart flies with them.

So there are images, the ones which speak to that connection which I caught on my recent weekend trips

 

Unless you too know and love the films of Japanese animator Hayao Miyazaki these might not mean much. My daughters and I spent many hours watching his films.  Even decades later I can point out something which reminds me of a scene in a film and both girls immediately understand the reference. To find and capture these images is a gift; they remind me distance means nothing to the timeless love we hold in our hearts.

Walk gently on the path my friends and may adventure find you ready.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Plane and scarecrow shots