How to become a time traveler.

In an effort to live in the past, present, and future, I take photos.

Photography is done best when you’re present in the moment.

You can become a time traveler, a story teller, an artist, a historian, an educator, a student… all with just a camera.

Photos taken in a moment are an effort to document what just became the past, so that you might enjoy them & remember the story of your life in the future.

Pretty cool, huh?

A potential reading place.

Hidden behind trees, enough light to read without eye strain, the river babbling, but not distractingly so. Butterflies, everywhere! The geographical representation of inspiration.

Momentary life.

To think that fall & winter will claim their beauty soon.

Cardinal Flowers

These bright red flowers love the damp & shaded banks of the river. Once used for native medicines, it’s easy to see why one might believe or understand that they have powers.

Vertical.

The symmetry and asymmetry of nature never lacks humor. Couldn’t help but giggle at the one, lonely stalk in the sea of sameness.

A jolt of life amongst the shades of green.

Riverbank flowers bring so much joy because they are always precisely where you don’t expect them to be.

Green reminds me

of basically every memory I have.

Green must be every persons first favorite color. It’s the color of life, of rebirth, of new, of hope & triumph.

We splinter off from green to the more rarified colors that we happen upon, desperate to distinguish ourselves from the masses.

Our insecurity is no bother to the swath of green though. That makes me happy.

Riverside chaotic beauty & berries

Yet another sign that fall is creeping in… Nature is in sync with the needs of its inhabitants, preparing them for scarcity. Not preventing it, but preparing.

Do you see what I see?

This little guy quite literally followed me along my whole journey. His partner in crime was a lone dove.

Doves are typically pairs. They mate for life. I’m not sure why, or what it brings them. I wonder if my lonely dove companion will have a second chance, or if he’s relegated to playing the hand that he’s been dealt.

A quiet river, with so much to say.

If you’re trying to learn to stop thinking like I am, the river is a wise teacher.

Whether you possess little to no meditation experience, or a lifetime of diligent mental gymnastics training, she will humble you to tears every time.

My favorite corner.

This place never fails to stir up something colossal.

Cardinal Flower, hiding comfortably.

Instead of reaching in and freeing her from the comfort of her green defenders, I let her be. She seemed content there.

Cardinal Flower up close

A sister of the hider, out proudly for the world to admire.

Color theory.

What an artist the riverbank is. She even knows how to paint! I wonder if she’s met the sky…

A study of the circle of life, beauty, & decay.

From the roots, this stem grew, bloomed, and now descends into death once again. I wonder how many insects collected her precious product? Does she know that her time is almost up? Is she joyful in spite of her fate?

The real farm hands.

Unbothered by my camera, the creatures of the farm are ideal subjects in their ambivalence. How I wish I could know their thoughts like the much harder to understand “human” farm hands, or conversely, how the humans might find the bravery to be ambivalent under observation.

The deep woods near the river

The place on the farm that gives me the deepest feelings of, sorrow perhaps? Something about this corridor feels large and inescapable.

Ominous grass.

Right in the place that I fear crossing through, the grass on the path is dead. What does it know that I can’t understand? Why does it matter so much to me that this corner feels like it could swallow me whole if I gave it the chance?

There is no life without death, nor beauty without suffering. Today, i’ll choose to respect that which I can’t understand.

Paradox.

With no effort, I can twist my gaze from the depths of something sinister and plainly see the beauty that stands only feet away.

I imagine this is what depression must feel like. Knowing that life is happening right beyond your fingertips. Knowing that you could simply walk out into the sun if your need to understand the darkness wasn’t so powerful.

Another point for the lost place… it reminds me that nothing that lives is immune to sorrow. Even when we’re so close to the light.

Our newly "fallen tree"

A strange feeling washed over me when I snuck through this tree to get back to my desk today. Much like walking under a ladder or opening an umbrella indoors.

Nature wins, again.

She always takes back what’s hers. I wonder if there’s a lesson in that.. This tree is also blocking my path back to the farm, and it’s on the same side as the cove that i mildly fear… Was she warning me, or tempting me?

A graveyard of sorts.

I stood under this tree for longer than I should have. The aforementioned temptation overtook me and I was curious to see if Nature felt the same way about the tree that I did.

It is not filled with birds & their nests, no snakes, rabbits or other beings to be seen.

The only animal that I saw in the confusing thicket was the dove. Maybe we are bonded now. That might be nice.