I Took A Hike One Day

Coming soon I will once again visit possibly my favorite place; Oklahoma's Tallgrass Prairie Preserve. I plan on spending the better part of 5 full days there and weather permitting, I will also re-photograph this wonderful landscape. The following is a reprint from 2011 of a previous encounter in the prairie. Please enjoy again; I Took A Hike One Day

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Another story-like end of the day drifted toward its conclusion as I watched from the top of Coneflower Hill...one more episode counted among the countless end-of-the-day episodes one can discover on the prairie.  Why I was there finds its roots going back a good number of years, but simply stated, I was there because I took a hike one day.

Cone Flower Hill is not an official name...it's simply what I call this rounded knoll with a rocky outcropping on top that sits a quarter mile or more off the gravel road that meanders through the Tallgrass Prairie Preserve near Pawhuska, Oklahoma.  I found it a few years ago almost by accident while looking for a location to observe and photograph those amazing prairie sundowns.  It's not much of a hill really, but rises maybe something less than a hundred feet higher than the surrounding landscape.  Long flanks covered with thick prairie grass, cut by drainage and scarred by bison travel, characterize the climb to the top...a climb more difficult than it might seem at first.

Just north of the summit lies a large pond tucked into the recess of the rolling terrain.  Around it's perimeter grow acres of wildflowers including the Pale Purple Cone Flower...where the hill gets its name.  On the summit of the hill a rocky outcrop exposed to who knows how many years of weathering, provides a break on the smooth lines of the rolling hills.  It's a good place to just sit and feel the prairie wind in your face.

 It is one of the quietest places one can find, quiet in the sense there are few if any man-made noises that influence the atmosphere...just the dancing of the tall grasses and choreographed ballet of the cone flowers as they move in time with the whimsical undulations of the prairie wind. It is a natural musical of natures best assortment of players.

To the west the landscape changes as it breaks its rhythm from the slow rolls to rise abruptly toward mesa like outcroppings.  In all directions one is afforded an unobstructed view of this marvelous landscape broken only by distant indications of man's presence.

Why am I here...why do I return time and again?  I took a hike one day, and discovered a place for the heart that was mine alone...a place where ones inner strength is restored by the reflections of what once was...reflections of times past that remain unchanged.  I took a hike one day and rediscovered who I was.

Keith

Creating Photographs From the Heart

Still on my break from blogging but here is a re-post from 2013. It is about the connection a great photograph has with a great musical score. Please enjoy again, Creating Photographs From the Heart.

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A number of years had passed since I last watched that movie, but recently I sat through another viewing and remembered it being as entertaining and revealing as the first time. Some of you may have seen it...Mr. Holland's Opus...a story about a musician who temporarily falls back on his teaching degree until he can start composing his great American Symphony full time. He ends up teaching for 30 years and during that time is transformed and changes the lives of hundreds of students. One of those students was a young lady who struggled with learning how to play the clarinet...hard as she tried...she just could not grasp what it took to master that instrument. Then one day Mr. Holland asked her what she liked best about herself when she looked into a mirror...her answer was her bright red hair as it reminded her dad of the sunset. Mr. Holland then told her to play the sunset...and removed the sheet music that had become the crutch that held her back. Within moments, her playing was transformed into something that can only come from the heart.

Too often I fail to capture the photographs I feel in my heart...probably because I too rely too much on crutches that actually hold me back more than help. Oddly enough, I discovered almost by accident what makes a great photo...and it's probably not what you might think. The crutches we use result from too much worrying about the mechanics of the camera and not thinking enough about why we are there...what are we looking for...what is it inside of us we know is there...but struggle to give it meaning...to give it a voice.

You see, photography is so much like music, yet we too often fail to recognize it. Photograph the music in your heart...might be somewhat of an unorthodox way of approaching the craft...but thinking in those terms just might be the catalyst that propels your photography to a new level. Light is the mood generating notes of photography...but music becomes the melody of that light...and all photographic moments carry with it a silent musical score photographers can feel from within.

Each photographic moment carries with it a different melody...unique in strength and power. You know it when you see it...because you don't really see it visually...you experience it internally. A photographic moment that sings or fills the air with symphonic crescendo's...will in due course generate a photograph that carries a sense of orchestration...a place where the mood and atmosphere comes from.

Photography, if you stop and think about it, does closely parallel the mood generating effects of a great musical score. Tapping into that power and searching for light that is filled with a great performance...well...you'll know it when it happens...you just have to give the silent music from within a visual voice.

Keith

Camera's Do...Photographers Dream

Taking a break for the next several weeks from blogging, but I will repost older blogs to fill in the gap. Here's one from January 2014. It's a short article about the difference between simply taking pictures of things and using your imagination and vision to create amazing photographs.

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The sophistication built into cameras today is quite phenomenal when compared to what was available even just a few years ago. But cameras by themselves do not take photographs they simply do as they are told. It is the visual dreams of the photographer that creates the magic of a great photograph.

I’ve been asked a few times more often than not, questions focused around learning the technical aspects of how to use the camera. Understanding the technical elements is important, but it is not all important. As in most things, you can teach technique, but you cannot teach someone how to dream.

When I speak of visual dreams I am referencing how the photographer imagines the world. It is more emotional than technical. When photographer’s tap into what stirs their imagination and then applies that emotional connection to the world around them, their photographic artistry is magically influenced by those visions.

Seeing the world from an emotional point of view can alter your visual perspective about photography. If all you ever achieve is capturing images of things, then you tend to rely on the intrinsic values of the thing to create your photograph. But when you rely on visualizing the world based on what stirs your emotions, your photography elevates to a higher plane of understanding.

Mechanics can only take you so far, but creative dreams are endless. It is the photographer who taps into that creative desire, who allows himself to focus emotional energy, that will capture amazing images of ordinary things. If all we do is look at objects and photograph objects, we limit ourselves to settle for what that object represents. But when we look beyond the object and see it within the context of our desires to create something beautiful, then something beautiful happens.