Tag: photography

Days, delays, and haze

It’s been a couple of weeks since my last post, which shouldn’t be surprising if you read it. For me, the last of winter and the first of spring is one of the busier times of the year, and this year has been no exception. Plans are being planned, and to-dos are being done.

I did get a chance to go fishing, though. Or, rather, I made an attempt to go fishing. The lake had other ideas.

Photograph of a lake covered with ice, taken from the shore.

That’s ice you’re looking at. Not nearly enough to walk on, but more than enough to keep my line from hitting the water. Given the temperatures around here over the last week, I was kind of surprised the water wasn’t open, but whatever. I’ll try again next week.

Besides, the scenery more than made up for the lack of fishing.

Black and white photograph of a frozen lake, framed by trees, taken from shore.

It was also nice to just get out of the house and embrace the cool, fog-blanketed world beyond the electronic screens, concrete, and manicured lawns that make up the world I spend most of my time in. And, to be perfectly honest, that’s one of the reasons it’s been two weeks since my last post: I haven’t wanted to sit down in front of a screen and type.

In fact, if we’re still being perfectly honest, I haven’t been exactly sure of what I have wanted to do.

That’s magic for you.

Or, at least, that’s magic for me.

Black and white photograph of an ice-covered lake and thick fog.

Whenever a gaggle of long-term enchantments start landing, or I’m otherwise getting a lot of definite, eerie, results, I tend to get this feeling of…”drifting while under the influence.”

Yeah, that’s a good way to describe it. When the synchronicities start piling up, or the spirits get unusually clear and chatty, there’s often an accompanying sense of my conscious mind and goal-seeking self taking its hands off the wheel and allowing the ship to swept off by the wind and waves. It feels like one part “trust” or “faith” mixed with three parts “getting out of my own way.”

And the magic has definitely been hitting extra hard these last few weeks. Things I set in motion nearly a year ago suddenly started coming off, and then my world just got weirder from there. I realize that vague-posting has basically become a cliché around these parts, but there isn’t a lot I can share just yet.

Except for pretty pictures.

Posted on by Jeff

Splashes of color within the gray

Sometimes I fancy myself a photographer.

Recently, when my old laptop died and I had to move all of my files to this new one, I found myself going through my old photos. This image, in particular, caught my eye.

A photograph of pink, flowering trees and red and white tulips against a building.

I had been walking through the campus of our local college a few years ago, and most every flower bed and tree was in bloom.

I took this photo, and as you can probably tell, I did a bit of post-production on it.

What drew me to this shot was the pink of the trees, and the red and white of the tulips, set against the backdrop of a now empty (dead?) building. So that’s what I brought out in this photograph.

Vibrant color, thriving in so much gray.

I’m not a “love and light and positivity” person. I don’t think of myself as especially gloomy or negative, but I also don’t put on rose-colored glasses and live my life in pink when things are clearly horrible.

I do think it’s both good and necessary to recognize and acknowledge when pleasant things happen in unpleasant times, though.

In fact, I think that it can be life-saving.

During these last many months, I’ve picked up a few new skills, read tons of books I’ve always meant to read, and deepened and strengthened my relationships with the people closest to me. And taking a few minutes every day to remember that has been very good for my mental health.

I highly recommend you give it a try yourself.

The world is kind of hideous right now, and it might get uglier before it gets better, but there’s also beauty hidden here and there—and you’re allowed to appreciate it when you see it.

Posted on by Jeff