A Quiet Place: Finding Time to Truly Rest

As I have grown older I've slowed down a great deal. I am not as inclined to get out as much as I did even just a few years ago. Even so, I still enjoy moments of solitude. I suppose one of the best attributes of reaching retirement age is learning to appreciate how to slow down and absorb the benefits of just simply being quiet.

Oh, I still manage to get out and I still long for those times afield whether it be drifting in a canoe on still waters during a Kentucky summer morning, or maybe standing alone on the edge of a trout stream to cast a line in anticipation of a sudden strike. I especially enjoy the anticipation of waiting for that photographic moment as nature presents itself in all of her glory. It is important to make time for such moments to prevent growing too stale or complacent in your life.

I have succumb to the temptation of just staying in far too many times, but somewhere down deep inside of me that young boy who romped and stomped, hiked and fished, camped and floated, still lingers. Eventually, like the morning mist, he rises from his doldrums and steps out to rediscover the pleasures of such things...certainly at a slower pace now...but he does manage to rekindle that adventurous spirit back to life from time to time.

Sometimes I simply make the short hike out to the pond located on the east end of one of the many cornfields that surrounds us. Been there dozens of times, but I always enjoy the sights, sounds, and aroma that hovers around that place. A good quiet location is not devoid of noise, it's just filled with high quality natural sound. Birds certainly add their song to the symphony orchestrated across the landscape, as does the wind as it searches for the tops of trees. There is probably no finer melody than a breeze stroking the leaves and branches like natural musical chimes. On a summer day, to lie down under a shade and simply listen to the song of a breeze chases away a good many distractions, at least for the moment.

One of my favorite places to visit is the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve in Northern Oklahoma. It's far enough away from where I now live I am only rarely able to make the trip over there. When I do, I seek out a few of the special places I have grown to love for the natural quiet they possess. I will hike across the prairie to rediscover those locations, then wait for a photograph to develop, but sometimes I just sit. These are special moments reserved for those who take the time and make the effort to discover them.

Morning just before a summer sunrise is my favorite time on the prairie. It is when this sea of grass awakens from its slumber and the air is still cool. The morning sounds of the prairie are filled with the best quality of gentle quiet you can discover. The birds are the first to awaken and they quickly fill the air with their songs. Sometimes a Bobwhite Quail will hop onto a rocky outcropping backlit by the rising sun, then shout out his famous baawb-white greeting. There is almost always some kind of morning dew clinging the tall grasses and wildflowers. As the morning sun elevates above the horizon, the low angle of light will reflect off of and through the dew drops turning them into a million sparkling diamonds. Then the wind rises, slowly at first as a gentle breeze but enough to synchronize the tall grass movement with its pulse of the morning. The moisture laden dew drops fall like a mini rain dance when the grasses dance in the wind. As the grasses move, they generate a hushed whisper, like a subtle message...you can hear its words as it calls the morning to order.

As the early hours progress, a hawk might arch overhead and add his defiant screech to the morning. In the distance a herd of bison begins to stir and regroup for their migration across the prairie to another feeding ground. Their low guttural mumble blends with the morning quiet and the new seasons calves prance in playful joy to the awakening morning.

By mid-morning the sun is full up filling the sky with a brilliant blue and bathing the prairie in a summer warmth. Sometimes a thin mist will linger across a distant ravine adding another layer of intrigue to the scene. I will often take this time to just sit under the shade of an isolated eastern cedar tree that somehow clings to life anchored to the edge of a rocky arroyo. With some luck a family of coyotes might climb out of their den and bring their pups into the day.

A real treat is to see the beautiful Sissortail-Flycatcher...Oklahoma's state bird. They are colored with a delicate gray underneath and darker across the back, then accented with a pale splash of orange on their sides. They flitter here and there resting on a tall stem or perching on a remnant piece of fence. They are rare east of the Mississippi, but common across the heartland of the country.

Time finds a way to drift quickly across the prairie, and far too soon your day afield comes to an end, but not before you witness one of the legendary prairie sunsets where the sky turns golden and the summer breeze begins to calm down. I have often sat breathless atop a shallow rocky knoll to watch the day roll toward another slumber. Often I will simply allow the time to drift away like the sun as it settles behind a distant hill...and just watch. The prairie offers the finest of quiet.

To find a quiet place is a gift we owe ourselves. To enjoy a quiet place is a special gift from God. I'm sure he meant for us to experience moments such as these in such places. I'll be heading back that way soon to not only rediscover some quiet time, but to capture the essence of what it means in a video. The prairie possesses a song, a Prairie Song...one composed to offer and then provide a quiet place to rest.

Timing The Shot

In photography, to create compelling images, timing is everything. All the other photographic elements certainly come into play; light, composition, depth of field...and so on, but in certain photographs, timing is the one critical element that will make or break the image.

With people the eyes are the most important for they are what connects the viewer to the person in the photograph. A simple shift of the eyes combined with a frisky expression says it all. It's not always a matter of luck to catch these kinds of moments, but luck certainly helps. Anticipation and being observant are the two ingredients most necessary to consistently capture these great opportunities.

Action shots are another category of photography that requires an element of timing. Whether it be sports related or moments with a great deal of movement, timing is the critical element in capturing the story of the moment. The trick is to incorporate not only the movement, but all the supporting elements as well. Wildlife action shots are perhaps the most difficult to capture simply because you must wait for the wildlife to perform in front of you, and they seldom ever cooperate in such a way as to accommodate what you want to capture.

Your presence alone will often alter their behavior and in many cases simply spoil the opportunity. It takes a great deal of patience and an understanding of the habits of the wildlife you are photographing. Cold fingers and numb toes will become a common predicament when photographing wildlife in the winter. But, to get the close in, compelling shots, you must be willing to alter your situational comfort to meet the wildlife on their terms.

Timing also includes not only those precise momentary captures, it also includes a broader more seasonable elements and this includes time of day. Finding an interesting subject is only the beginning of timing a great photograph. You must learn to think beyond what you are looking at and project how the scene will appear at different times of the day or even in different seasons. A snapshot of a windmill in the middle of the day is not necessarily a very compelling shot regardless of how interesting the subject. Move time forward a few hours and catch it at sunset and this rather ordinary subject now becomes engulfed in a magical moment of light.

Swap out the windmill and insert a tree and once again the timing of the shot generates a eye stopping image. This tree if taken in the middle of the day would simply be a photo of a tree, but add in a bold summer setting sun, it becomes an iconic symbol of what the art of photography is all about.

Timing the shot as a photographer becomes a process requiring a great deal of practice and observation. Knowing and understanding how your camera reacts to light and having a command of your camera is also critical because you do not what to be guessing about your exposure when those often fleeting moments present themselves. Great timing combined with a commanding grasp of how your camera does what it does will lead you toward capturing amazing images that stir the imagination.

Exploring The Possibilities - Taking That First Step

Photography often becomes a connected series of events that ultimately results in a finished photograph exhibiting a unique look. To arrive at the end of those events requires us to travel down a path of exploration, and those travels always begin with a first step. Therefore, we must be willing to take the first step, if for no other reason, but to discover the possibilities that await us.

The winter of 2018 and 2019 in Kentucky was a rather dreary and wet affair. Not much snow, but a great deal of cold rain along with many days of overcast skies. Not often for several months did the sun manage to burn through the overcast. But, on one occasion, I managed to be at the right place at the right time to capture an amazing sky when the sun decided to appear.

It began with a first step when the skies began to break apart late one afternoon. No plans were made for any kind of outing, but I realized an opportunity was developing that just might lead to an interesting lighting situation. An instinctive warmth swelled up inside as I gathered my camera and gear and headed out. I just drove at first not knowing for sure where to go, then I remembered a location from a previous outing I thought might work out. Well, it proved to be rather ordinary, but I was not far from another place and decided to head over that way. It proved to be a good decision.

Originally I hoped to capture some long lens images of an old brick house that sat off in the distance along a country road  that split two harvested cornfields. As the afternoon wound toward its climax, the light began to improve and I captured several long angle lighting shots of the old house, but I noticed how the clouds and the sun were going to interact as the sun dipped below the cloud line along the horizon. It became obvious that a spectacular light show was building and I shifted my focus away from the house toward the setting sun.

As I thought it would do, the sunset proved a welcome respite from all the dreary days we had endured all winter and I snapped away. It is amazing just how quickly the light changes at the transitions of the day. Between each shutter release the clouds shifted and the light swung in great arches of red and orange mixed and blended themselves between the muted gray of textured clouds.

I moved here and then there, changing my camera angle as the clouds moved ever so slowly carrying with them the full color spectrum of a setting sun. As I moved along a gravel access road that lead down to one corner of one of the cornfields, I noticed a single tree standing broadside to the sky. I raised my camera, framed a couple of quick images then paused for a moment.

Something unique began to develop across my field of view. The clouds moved to either side of the tree and grew dark red as the last moments of the afternoon display transformed into its final act.

I moved back a few yards...then a few more...and there it was, the final possibility...a flaming tree silhouetted against a sky engulfed with a magnificent arch of fire and smoke. I made a few final shots and then, almost without hesitation, the light dropped, grew dim, and the curtain of darkness implied an end to the afternoon performance.

That image alone was worth the taking of that first tentative step of anticipation. Yet, several weeks weeks passed and I kept looking at the images from that shoot. I realized the possibilities were not yet finished and started playing around with what was there.

Photography is a series of events that ultimately leads to a finished photograph. The trick is to recognize the possibilities, then wade deeper, taking what you capture to another level of exploration.