Winter pathways, Clinton River Park, Michigan Image # WI-9553
An interesting thought popped into my head during this day walking in the woods and approaching this area. The woods around my home are pretty much a jumbled mess. Vines, scrubby bushes and snags, thorny plants everywhere. Long time readers may recall me mentioning this a few times in the past. I think most would agree that the simpler a photograph can be, the stronger it becomes. Eliminate distracting elements that will confuse the eye and our brains is a fundamental of composition. So doing landscape type work in my woods can be quite difficult. (more…)
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Deer in messy woods
The woods behind my house are quite chaotic. There are all sorts of vines, twigs, fallen limbs, and probably the center of the world’s collection on thorny plants. I have often wondered why I don’t see the deer with a thousand scratches on their sides. They obviously have mastered navigation through this mess.
Now as a photographer, striving to create simplicity in my work, I look at this and think – what a mess! What am I going to do with this? I find myself quite challenged to make some type of simple, harmonious image of this place. Just walking through it can be quite an effort, let alone composing some type of organized photograph from it.
It is interesting to think about the reaction of the human mind to clutter versus harmony. We are naturally attracted to visual stimuli that seems to be in balance. Conversely, clutter tends to lead to visual tension and stress. Then again, many people see simplicity and harmony in a Jackson Pollock painting! With that, it chaos really in the eye of the beholder? These woods actually resemble many of Pollock’s works.
All sorts of questions, not many answers, but they are fun to think about. I thought this image communicated the environment pretty well. While not an image that I would hang on my wall, it still reminds me of this day when I was just sitting after a fresh rain watching a herd of about 8 deer navigate effortlessly through these woods. Sometimes maybe that is enough.
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American beech tree photo, Dodge Park, Sterling Heights, Michigan
There are a lot of very large beech trees in the woods behind my home that I have photographed quite often. I have always been drawn into the characteristic white branches of the older trees. Like gray hair, I see it as a sign of wisdom, life experience, and survival. I like how they retain many of their leaves well into winter, often standing out in a snow covered forest.
Beech trees have quite a bit of folklore about them. Sometimes their smooth grey bark in the lower portions of the tree carries some human history. Unfortunately so many people see it as the prime spot to proclaim their undying love. The wisdom of the upper branches of the tree looking downward seems to be lost on such people.
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Neighborhood Egret Roost
This shot is from this evening where I finally had some time to sit by a pond that is about a 5 minute walk from my backyard. Normally this pond has an assortment of very skittish wood ducks, Canada geese, and mallards. I have never been able to do much wildlife photography here despite it being so close. In the 11 years or so we have lived here, I have never seen many egrets in this pond, let alone a large group.
Over the past month or so on my morning walks with our dog, I have been noticing Great Egrets flying overhead. First it started with just one or two, then the numbers began increasing. When I started counting 9, 10, 12 egrets flying overhead, I really became intrigued at where the heck they were going. Flying off towards the east in the morning, and flying back Northwest in the afternoons almost like clockwork. Little did I know how close their overnight roosting spot really was.
Well, I finally noticed them driving by this pond one day – one of those “Ah ha!” moments. Tonight was the first chance I had to just go out there, sit, and wait for them to arrive. Just as the sun fell below the treeline, one by one they began to fly in.
I packed up and left shortly after getting this image – it was essentially what I was after. The light was getting really low. This image was shot at ISO6400 on my D700, 500 mm f4 with a 1.7X converter, and my shutter speed was still only 1/100 sec.
I am hoping this becomes a regular roosting spot for them year after year. If not, I was happy for the opportunity to spend this short time with them.
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Path to Ra
I was exploring some new areas near my house this past weekend where they have created a new hiking / mountain bike trail through my woods. I don’t know where my mind was, but I was seeing shapes that were everything but what the real object was. And yet, I wasn’t under the influence of any mind altering substances! So in these images, I couldn’t let my imagination get away from the idea that these abstract macro’s resembled ancient Egypt depictions of a sun god.
ancient Sun god
http://t.co/1xjuh7fT - posted on 23 hours ago
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