Remember Your Roots

Posted on November 24, 2011

About 3-4 years ago I began to use a digital camera.  I knew nothing about the technical side of photography, but always owned a camera and loved being behind the lens.  I remember that I didn’t have much work at the time that first year I got my Nikon D40, so I decided to make use of all my spare time and teach myself to take pictures the way I envisioned them.

Everyday, early in the morning, I took the dogs out with me to feed the horses.  I brought my camera, too.  It was at that magical hour or two after sunrise that I learned all about light and how it gave meaning and depth to anything I photographed.  I could take the same exact picture three hours later, but it wasn’t the same picture.  At all.  There was no life, no energy, no feeling.

I finally understood why it was said that photographers were always on the lookout for that “perfect light.”  It was necessary to convey emotion.  It was the thread that wove itself around subject and its’ soul.

I have been photographing people primarily for the past three years, but this morning I yearned to go out with my camera.  To be in the golden light as morning was waking up.  Pies were in the oven, my daughter asleep, the animals were enjoying the freshly fallen snow.

I wanted to go back to where I started this journey.  To remember my roots.  To discover how far I have gone and how much more of this amazing life I have yet to discover.

 

Friends for Life

Posted on April 15, 2011

There has been a youtube video going around of a cat “playing” with a school of dolphins.  It’s adorable, to say the least.  There is also one of an elephant and a dog, who have become companions for life.  What inspires me most whenever I see animals of different species interacting this way, is it insists that unconditional love and acceptance be present.

My cat, who weighs a mere eleven pounds, could easily be crushed by my miniature horse, Muffin, weighing about 300 pounds.  But instinct is strong in animals and when they have never felt threatened by anything in their life before, they seem to carry no prejudices.  Love and nurturing is a powerful thing.  Animals prove it to me day after day after day.

The picture above is Boo telling Muffin to stop grabbing his tail!  I love the look on Muffin’s face – “who me, I would never grab your tail!”

Quite often Boo will be walking through the pasture with Muffin in tow, and then he’ll just suddenly stop and lay down.  He’ll even roll over onto his back and then Muffin will groom his belly!  At some point I will capture that moment.

“Where you lead

I will follow

anywhere that you tell me to.

If you need

you need me to be with you

I will follow

where you lead.”

~Carol King

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