Wednesday, August 11, 2010

How things grow, how they get grown over.

I've been working so much, and very little has anything to do with what I think is important to me. So I don't have much to show for my work besides being healthy, well fed, and luxuriously sheltered. I took a vacation that is a crucial escape for me, which I was unable to do last year during my lapse of opulent not-caring. I spent a beautiful week at the familiar Lewis Lake in the Pocono mountain region of Pennsylvania. It relaxes me; gives me a chance to wander the woods with my camera, float on the water, and catch up on my reading. I won't bore you with the details so first here are some pictures from years past at the cabin, and similar photos I shot this year.

Here is a crayfish in 2005.


And here it is in 2010.




Here is a dog house in 2005.

And here it is in 2010.



And here, a rotting birch in 2008.


And again in 2010, only two years later.



I like how things change and grow there, but never feel any different. It's such a place of peace and escape for me, even though it's really not disconnected from anything. I'm able to completely put aside any useless worries and put into perspective what matters and what is good. Also, I can clearly see how my perspective has changed and how my priorities in editing have progressed from the subject to the light and texture.

I'm not the only one to change, either. The company I keep, the people I choose to share this time with, they change too. Even if the same people join me at the cabin, I can see how they grow when I place them in an environment like this that never feels different. I really like this aspect of the cabin trips.

Here is Tammy, in 2008.

And here is Elliot, in 2010.




I understand that nobody enjoys vacation photos more than the person that shot them, but here are the links to 2005 and 2008; the only two years I still have surviving on my computer. Please, if you would, compare them with the way I saw 2010. Or rather, the way I saw these years when I saw myself fit to hold my camera safely.

I'm looking in to making prints soon. That's the kind of thing photographers do, I reckon. I hope to make some of the long exposures from this year into big prints. Maybe make 45 seconds into forever. We'll see.



Cheers.