Yesterday I was driving home from a friend's house and decided to explore down what looked to be a small country road. It turned out to be about a 2 mile stretch of lightly forested, luxuriously spaced, residential area. The first image that really grabbed me was a curious piece of crooked rail fence. I slowly continued down the lane, inhaling an intoxicating scent of grass, trees, and (I could swear) sunlight. It did not take long before I reached the end of the lane and slowly turned my car around to head back out of this impromptu arboreal labyrinth. Midway through my K-turn, I froze, not believing what I saw. A red bellied woodpecker landed on a branch directly in front of the car. Suddenly I remembered that I had my camera with me. I sat for a moment, weighing the option of snapping a shot through the windsheild or trying to step out without scaring off my subject. Sadly, merely opening the car door was enough to send Woody flying, but at least I did get a fairly good look at him.
It took me about an hour to make my way up the road, because I kept stopping to take shots of the bits of beauty that scattered the side of the road.
Tiny blue and yellow flowers gathered in every opening between the trees.
At least one tree reminded me of one of my favorite landscape paintings,
Gustav Klimt's The Park. This tree brings to mind the two trees/figures in the painting's foreground.
Even spider webs stretched between branches were enchanting.
What a wonderful stolen hour for a wandering, a wondering, a brief pause from any other demands of the day. I think I will remember to keep my camera closer more often.
What impromptu inspirations grab you during the day? Do you have any habits or practices to help you to take notice more readily?
Tiny blue and yellow flowers gathered in every opening between the trees.
Through most of my life, the vision of a tree almost (in peripheral vision) wisping its way towards the life of a figure has opened up fantastic resonance in my imagination. (unfolding caverns and pleats!) Thank you for posting words and images of your vision- for being a funnel for a renewed perspective on this sort of thing!
ReplyDeleteThere used to be an apple tree, not two miles from where I think your photograph was taken, whose posture echoed with pointed accuracy the mannerisms of my grandmother (who used to do everything in her power to get her family to slow down and think about the fleeting facets of the world around them). It fell within a year of her passing, but I have carried part of its trunk with me over the years, and it now lives in my studio.
Have a Joyful day!
For a time, I was convinced that one of the trees in Klimt's foreground (of The Park) was actually a reference to Gerti Schiele, Egon Schiele's sister. I based my guess on
ReplyDeletethis portrait by Schiele of Gerti.
I still like to imagine it as a possibility, their work inspiring and informing each other playfully.
I can (and have) stood in front of each of these images for hours at a time.
I am honored to have met your apple trunk.
Joy right back at you!
Are you becoming a full "card carrying" camera person! Good for you. I seem to go in and out of carrying my camera and using it. I am ever impressed with those that can be present in the moment and capture it with a camera with out feeling...that a distancing takes place when behind the lens. I seem to be able to be in a place or documenting..something, but rarely both.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the post.
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